Exploring Evidence for the Bible - The Story of Joseph

The biblical account of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt begins with the story of Joseph. In the story, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. He is then sold to a wealthy Egyptian named Potiphar. After being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, Joseph is imprisoned. While there, he prophetically interprets the dreams of two of Pharaoh's servants correctly telling that one of them would be restored to his position, while the other would be put to death. Years later, after Pharaoh has a dream that his magicians cannot interpret, the servant Paraoah restored remembers the prisoner who correctly interpreted his dream. Pharaoh summons Joseph from prison, and Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream telling him there will be seven years where food will be plentiful in the country followed by seven years of famine. For this, Pharaoh elevates Joseph to second in the kingdom, the vizier of Egypt, so that Joseph may prepare the country for the coming famine. Seven years later, the famine comes exactly as Joseph predicted. The famine is so severe and widespread that it reaches Joseph’s family living in Canaan. Their father, Jacob, sends his brothers to Egypt to buy food, and after a bit of drama, the family is reunited. Pharaoh invites Joseph’s father, Jacob, and his family to come and settle in Egypt.

It’s quite a remarkable story and over the years, many Christians and Jews have recounted it as an example of God’s faithfulness to those who love and trust Him. The big question that stands though is did it really happen? Or is the story part of a fictional origin myth developed at a much later time by a people trying to create a cohesive national culture? According to Egyptologist Bob Brier, all the internal details in the biblical account of the Joseph story sound plausible and are consistent with our knowledge of ancient Egypt. However, there simply isn’t any evidence of the biblical account…or is there?

The Famine and the Floods

In ancient Egypt, the abundance or scarcity of food was tied to the flood season of the Nile River. A good flood deposited silt rich in nutrients that, with irrigation canals, was great for growing crops. During much of the Middle Kingdom, Egypt experienced some of its best floods, and thus, food was plentiful. However, in the later Middle Kingdom, the floods became so large that they became detrimental. Evidence for this can be found at the fort at Semna at the Second Cataract of the Nile where there are inscriptions marking the peak water level there during various years. The markings are inscribed with the name and regnal year of the reigning pharaoh. When looking at this, the period from Year 20 to Year 32 of Amenemhat III’s reign reveal an average flood level that is about 11ft higher at Semna than in the years prior.

Floods of this magnitude would have presented water levels far beyond those beneficial for an abundant harvest and would have created issues planting crops. The fact that they persisted year after year for a prolonged period would have undoubtedly caused a famine, and that the change in the water level happened so quickly means the country would have gone from a situation of abundance to one of poverty quite fast. If, as Egyptologist David Rohl has suggested, we place Joseph’s elevation to Pharaoh’s chief administrator in Year 13 of Amenemhat III, the quick increase in the inundation levels of the annual flood waters would bring the famine right on schedule seven years later in Year 20 of the Pharaoh’s reign. This alignment between Egyptian history and the story of Joseph as related in Genesis is quite remarkable. However, Genesis also says that the famine lasted only seven years. The water level inscriptions at Semna show disastrous floods lasting far longer than seven years. Is the Bible mistaken about the length of the famine, or did the Egyptians find a way to deal with the increased flood waters?

Water Operations in the Fayum Basin

As stated earlier, the ancient inscriptions marking the flood levels were recorded at Semna at the Second Cataract of the Nile. At the time, this was the border between Egypt and Nubia, its southern neighbor. Egypt was downstream from Semna. If the flow of water could be diverted from the Nile before it reached the fields, the damage from the excess water could at least be mitigated if not eliminated altogether. As it turns out, that is exactly what they did.

The Fayum Oasis is a natural basin about 60 miles southwest of modern-day Cairo that is fed by a channel branching off the Nile. During the reign of Amenemhat III, the ancient Egyptians undertook a huge effort to both widen and deepen the channel allowing more water to pass into the basin enlarging the lake. They also installed floodgates where the channel branches off the Nile. This created a system that would allow the Egyptians to control the flow of the river when necessary. Once it was discovered that the floods would be the cause of the famine that had been predicted by Joseph, it would still take time to devise and execute a plan to alleviate the flooding. With ancient technology, this would have likely taken a few years to complete. Therefore, it is entirely plausible that the famine lasted the 7 years described in the Bible, but had ended long before the detrimental floods stopped being recorded upriver at Semna.

As for the channel that branches off the Nile, it’s still being used today to bring water to agricultural fields in modern Egypt. Its name, in Arabic, is Bahr Yussef…the waterway of Joseph. It has borne that name since ancient times and local legend says that he ordered the canal dug. Is it possible that there is a great deal of truth to this legend?

The Nomarchs Lose Power

Ancient Egypt was divided into provinces called nomes, each under the authority of a local official called a nomarch. The power of these officials waxed and waned throughout Egypt’s history. Sometimes they were appointed officials of the pharaoh, and at others they even developed their own hereditary succession. Egypt was united under the first pharaohs because a few of these nomarchs acquired a substantial amount of wealth and power over the others. With the collapse of the Old Kingdom, the nomarchs regained their power and influence during the First Intermediate Period. When the country is once again reunited during the Middle Kingdom, the nomarchs retained a lot of this power, but at some point, in the 12th Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom, there is a vast transfer of power and wealth from the nomarchs back to pharaoh. No records or artifacts that we possess to date offers us any explanation for this great shift in power and wealth.

However, if our proposition is correct and Joseph was indeed the vizier to Amenemhat III and the famine brought on by the extreme floods is the famine described in the Bible, this transfer of wealth and power is explained completely in Genesis 47:13-26. In this passage, we are told of Joseph selling food to the people on behalf of Pharaoh. First, he sells the people food for money, then livestock, then land, and finally, servitude. The famine allows Joseph the opportunity to acquire for Pharaoh everything in the land of Egypt.

Conclusion

As we can see, the events of Amenemhat III’s reign align quite remarkably with the biblical account of the story of Joseph. In the evidence presented, we can explain the famine in the story, along with its cause and, based on the data we have, make a reasonable estimate that its duration as described in Genesis is accurate. We even find that the Egyptian solution to the detrimental flooding bears Joseph’s name and has since ancient times. We can also account for the massive transfer of wealth from the local nomarchs to pharaoh at this time with Joseph’s food distribution policy, but can we find evidence for what comes next in Israel’s history, their great prosperity in Egypt followed by their descent into slavery? We will explore that in the next article of this series.