Sometimes I answer questions no one asked. Today's is column is such. I doubt that most of you were sitting around wondering how you could tell if the story of Joseph in Egypt was really true or not. However, it will be a faith building exercise to take a second look at what we can learn from the internal evidence of the story as told in the Bible. Remember, there is external and internal evidence. External evidence would be statues of Joseph, records of his deeds or a mention of him in official Egyptian government records. To date, we have found no record of Joseph or for that matter, no report of the ancient Hebrews ever living in Egypt prior to the Exodus. Actually this is not surprising as Egyptian pharaohs were careful not to mention negative things such as defeats in battle etc. Some pharaohs even went so far as to attempt to erase the records of prior kings. Need I mention Moses and the exodus from Egypt and the negative impact that had on the Pharaoh?

Concerning Joseph, while we have no external evidence yet, we have some very interesting internal evidence found within the Bible narrative that makes the story ring true. You'll recall in Genesis 37-50 the Bible tells of Joseph's eventual rise to the high office of governor of Egypt. It makes a great hero story but how can we know it is true?
To begin, God gave Joseph dreams which turned out to be predictions for his future and his people. "There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf." And his brothers said to him, "Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me." So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?" And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind" (Genesis 37:7-11, NKJ).
Out of envy his brothers sold Joseph and he came into the hands of a slave trader. Eventually, Joseph ended up as a household servant in Egypt. "Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there (Genesis 39:1, NKJ). Our first important piece of internal evidence is that Potiphar is a good Egyptian name Pa-di-Ra which means (that given by the god Ra). But this passage has the puzzling phrase in it where it calls Potiphar "an Egyptian." Scholars suggest that Joseph may have entered Egypt during the unusual time when the nation was being ruled (1730 to 1580 B.C.) by the foreigners called the Hyksos. These people mostly had Semite names which would indicate they were from the same people group as Joseph. (Semites include Hebrews, Arabs, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Babylonians etc.; not specifically only Jews.) The Hyksos were intensely hated by the Egyptians, who, upon their return to power, destroyed all Hyksos monuments and records. We know little of the Hyksos today. The names of their kings, a few sarcastic remarks about them, and a few brief episodes from the war of liberation are all that remain.
If Joseph came to power under the reign of the Hyksos it would explain many lingering questions. The following suggestions support the Joseph-Hyksos connection.
(1) The horse and chariot were unknown in Egypt prior to their being introduced by the Hyksos. Joseph's story mentions them on three different occasions (Genesis 41:43; 46:29; 47:17), thus indicating that the story could not have taken place before the rule of the Hyksos. "So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year" (Genesis 47:17, NKJ).
(2) The statement that Potiphar, the captain of the king's guard, was "an Egyptian" (Genesis 39:1) would have been worthy of note only if non-Egyptians were ruling the nation.
(3) It seems much more likely that a Hebrew could rise to the high office of prime minister if the kings were not native Egyptians.
(4) The capital of the Hyksos kings was only about 25 miles from Goshen, a fact which may add special meaning to the following text: "You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you and your children, your children's children, your flocks and your herds, and all that you have" (Genesis 45:10, NKJ).
(5) There is a puzzling passage about the fall of Joseph from power which states, "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph" (Exodus 1:8, NKJ). This could be what happened to Joseph after the Hyksos were defeated and expelled from Egypt.
(6) The silence of all Egyptian records about Joseph would make sense if he had lived during the time of the Hyksos reign.
While these points do not add up to concrete evidence that Joseph served during the Hyksos rule, they certainly deserve serious consideration. But, there is more. Next week we'll look into some fascinating things about the Egyptian use of dreams and why they help the story of Joseph ring true.

Blessings in your study of God's Word!

Marvin Hunt

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