Facts, customs, and widespread beliefs:
- Islam and Joseph
- Title of Potiphar
- Expository Times article (April 1938)
- Egyptian Tourist site - Ra was the patron god of the Pharoah (whom Potiphar served)
- Genesis 39:1, "Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there."
- Historicity of Egyptian dream interpretation/interpreters
- Egyptian Tourist site - "Dreams were considered to be divine predictions of the future . . . foretelling of impending disasters or, conversely, of good fortune.", dream books, and dream interpreters/specialists
- Article on Ramesside dream book - illustrates how seriously the Egyptians took dreams
- Genesis 40:2-8, "Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, in the jail, the same place where Joseph was imprisoned . . . When Joseph came to them in the morning and observed them, behold, they were dejected. He asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in confinement in his master’s house, 'Why are your faces so sad today?' Then they said to him, 'We have had a dream and there is no one to interpret it.'"
- Genesis 41:1-8, "Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream, and behold, he was standing by the Nile. And lo, from the Nile there came up seven cows, sleek and fat; and they grazed in the marsh grass. Then behold, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly and gaunt, and they stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. The ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows. Then Pharaoh awoke. He fell asleep and dreamed a second time; and behold, seven ears of grain came up on a single stalk, plump and good. Then behold, seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up after them. The thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears. Then Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Now in the morning his spirit was troubled, so he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh."
- Egpytian animals
- Ancient Egypt website
- Domestic Cattle - very important in Egyptian agriculture, and associated with gods Ptah, the creator god, and Osiris, god of agriculture/fertility.
- Osirisnet.net - research by an "amateur", yet extensive.
- Compare to Genesis 41:1-8 under dream interpretation.
- Donkeys - took part in processions, possibly drew early chariots, were beasts of burdan, and used for long distance travel
- New York Times - important status of donkeys/asses
- Norfolk Museum - donkeys preceded horses, and large donkey trains used to translocate large loads
- Egyptian Tourist site - donkey/asses used for early chariots, as horses were expensive
- Genesis 45:17-23, "Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Say to your brothers, "Do this: load your beasts and go to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land."' . . . and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey . . . To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and sustenance for his father on the journey."
- Pharoah's vizier
- Brittanica on viziers - Egyptian viziers rose in power during reign of Sesostris III (c. 1900-1800 BC, not 1836-18 BC--found a typo!)
- Brittanica on Sesostris III - strengthened rule as Pharoah and lessened that of feudal nobles; built forts along Nile within signaling distance of each other which also recorded Nile flood heights
- Genesis 41:39-41, "So Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you.' Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.'"
- Joseph's wife & priest of On/Heliopolis
- Expository Times article (April 1938) - Title of Potiphera and name of Asenath
- City of On - also known as House of Ra, Aven, Ana, Unu, and Heliopolis
- General source on Heliopolis/On
- Encyclopedia Britannica on Heliopolis - Dated back to c. 1908–1875 BC with the obelisk of Sesostris I
- Genesis 41:45, "Then Pharaoh named Joseph Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt."
- Egypt's recognition as a regional breadbasket
- Another "amateur" Egyptologist - early Egypt's major two trade/bartering items were sacks of grain and the copper/silver deban
- Canadian Museum of History - grain export to adjacent countries following good harvests
- Encyclopedia Brittanica - noted by Greek historian Herodotus
- Metropolitan Museum - Egyptian grain supplied Rome
- Genesis 41:56-42:2, "When the famine was spread over all the face of the earth, then Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians; and the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. The people of all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the earth. Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, 'Why are you staring at one another?' He said, 'Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy some for us from that place, so that we may live and not die.'"
- Bahr Yusef (Joseph) Canal
- Tourist site (scroll three-fifths of the way down the page)
- BBC (2nd to last paragraph)
- New York Times (1988 letter to the editor)
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| Bahr Yusef Canal (Waterway of Joseph) |
- Loathsomeness of shepherds to Egyptians
- Life in Ancient Egypt by Adolf Erman - see pages 439-441
- Egyptian Social Structure
- Another pyramid of Egyptian social hierarchy - again farmers/herdsmen/shepherds are at the bottom
- Genesis 46:31-34, "Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, 'I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and will say to him, "My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me; and the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock; and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have." When Pharaoh calls you and says, "What is your occupation?" you shall say, "Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers," that you may live in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians.'"
- Embalming of Jacob and Joseph
- Smithsonian - required a thorough knowledge of anatomy (work of a physician)
- Encyclopedia Britannica - a highly skilled practice credited to originate in Egypt
- Genesis 49:33-50:3, "When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people. Then Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him and kissed him. Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Now forty days were required for it, for such is the period required for embalming."
- Genesis 50:25-26, "Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, 'God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.' So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt."
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