Saturday, March 26, 2016

The Dreamer Pharaoh

The story contained in genesis 37-50 has a very rich depiction of how important and powerful the Egyptian civilization was. Furthermore, their importance in commerce with the Levant region. in this period of  the history a seventeen years old kid son of Jacob and Rachel, was thrown into an empty cistern by his 11 brothers and later sold to Egyptian merchants. this moment in history developed a great story that it is believed for many people as one of the greatest moments of the Old Testament. Joseph was the name of the one who faced the betrayal of his brothers and the uncertain future that he will face in Egypt.
we all are familiar with Joseph story and how he develop his career from being a servant to  become something like a prime minister for the Egyptian civilization. In the other hand,  we know so little about who the Pharaoh was, his name is not mentioned in Genesis, and he is always mentioned as Pharaoh. For that reason I turned to different researches and findings of archaeology scholars. Many modern-day scholars believe the historicity of the events in the Joseph narrative cannot be demonstrated. however, the event of the 7 years drought its something concrete that we can track back in time. David Rohl an English Archaeologist and Egyptologist has found evidence of a 7 years drought in a piece of rock named "the Famine Stela" this rock located on an island in the Nile shows that Egypt was affected by a severe drought that lasted for seven years. However, It is thought that the stela was inscribed during the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled 332–31 BC, which is long time after the events of the drought that affected Egypt and Canaan. Furthermore, recent researches have shown that the term 7 years famine is more a myth that a reality due to many civilizations around the Levant region also used the term 7 years famine. Such as the Mesopotamians, the Hebrews and the Egyptians.
Another theory who tries to link the biblical events with Egyptian history is the one by the French scientist Joseph Davidovits who says that Joseph might be Amenhotep-Huy, Vizier of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. this information even though is not conclusive can give us some insight of how Egypt was so important economically for Canaanites to went there and buy food from them.


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