No, Egyptian history does not mention Joseph. Why would it? Quite frankly, if Joseph had been a real person and an official living in Egypt would there have been a reason for the Egyptians to record that fact? While he was certainly an important individual in the Biblical narrative, maybe not so much in the Egyptian one….

So, while there is no direct evidence of Joseph in Egyptian records, it is useful to keep in the mind the old archaeological truism: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” And remember, there is no evidence that he was not there, either (of course, you can never prove a negative through archeology….).

However, there are circumstantial evidences of a person like Joseph. I will not cover all of those here, but an interesting one is a discovery made by a Professor Bietak in archaeological digs near Avaris, the Hyksos capital in the Delta, between 1984 and 1987. He uncovered a palace from the period of the 12th Dynasty. It was not a royal palace and it was NOT the palace of Joseph, but it was the palace of a governmental official of apparently some importance.

In the garden in front of this palace, a cemetery was discovered with a number of tombs in it. One tomb in particular was of special interest: it consisted of a single brick burial chamber with a small chapel in front of it. The tomb had robbed long ago, of course, but in a robbers’ tunnel between the tomb and the chapel, a statue was found that had been apparently dragged there by the robbers for some reason. Given its size, which was one-and-a-half times life size, it was almost certainly a statue of the palace official. It had been deliberately smashed into pieces and only a few recognizable pieces remained, one of which was the badly-damaged head, the features of which were deliberately destroyed (so somebody didn’t like him….). The statue exhibits no royal characteristics, but the most interesting thing is that this official was clearly an Asiatic. This is shown by the yellow coloration of the skin, which was, as Bietak observed, typical for the depiction of male Asiatics, and by another Asiatic feature, the so-called Mushroom hairstyle which the statue had.

Also, enough of the body survived (as seen in the reconstructed image above) that on the back can still be seen evidence that this individual was wearing a striped garment, made up of at least three colors: black, red, and white—typical colors for an Asiatic—and of a pattern (striped) by which Egyptians typically depicted Asiatics.

The significance of this find for a 12th Dynasty setting of the Joseph Story is obvious. While there is clearly not enough evidence to claim that this was the tomb of Joseph or that a statue of the famed Biblical character has been found, it is clear that this man was from the area of Canaan and that he had become an important official in the Egyptian government. This demonstrates that an Asiatic could indeed rise to a position of prominence, and allows for the possibility—however remote—that a Joseph could have served a king of Egypt.

Replies

Except the Hyksos were a different group of people all together. The narrative in Exodus starts after the Egyptians defeated the Hyksos. The Egyptians had full control over Egypt, but due to the population size of the Israelites, the Egyptians saw them as a threat to their security is war were to break out and the Israelites were to side with someone else. So they turned them into slaves, none of which happened until the Hyksos were gone.

Moses was born shortly after and was adopted by one of Pharoahs daughters, probably Ahmenhotep I, since Moses birth was most likely around 1525, which would make him adopted brother of Thutmose I. That line would have a lot of children with the name Mose in it, and Moses would fit in with them.

Ancient Egyptians and the surrounding nations have been known to expunge embarrassing details from their history.

So it is premature to say there is no external evidence for Joseph.

I feel a sense of deja vu here.

Remember Belshazzar, the coregent of Babylon? This is how enemies of the bible railed against his historicity. But then what happened?

His existence is now fully corroborated by archeologists.

There are 17 individuals mentioned in the bible that have been fully corroborated by archeologists. And unavoidably, more will follow.

Already, evidence for a settlement in Goshen involving a large central structure surrounded by thousands of smaller structures has been found.

The internal harmony of the biblical narrative about Joseph gives proof that the writer is familiar with Egyptian culture and customs.

Of course it’s embarrassing that a lowly foreigner, who was also a prisoner, would be the one that saves Egypt during a time of national crisis. So it’s not surprising if details about Joseph were expunged. Nationalism is not a new problem.

This situation is not unlike the hidden contributions in Science and other spheres, of African-Americans to the national development of the USA. Nationalists feel embarrassed to acknowledge such contributions. Only recently has some of the truth of that history surfaced.

The fact that archeology has not yet confirmed the existence of Joseph is not adequate grounds to make far-reaching claims that he was not a real person, as the learned professor, expressing his personal bias, has done.

We’ve been here before in the case of Belshazzar, coregent of Babylon, Pontius Pilate, Governor of the Roman province of Judea, and other individuals mentioned in the Bible. Let’s wait and see.

“There are 17 individuals mentioned in the bible that have been fully corroborated by archeologists. And unavoidably, more will follow.”

Would it be possible for you to pass on to us just who those 17 people are, how their existence was corroborated, and maybe how you learned about this? As far as I know the earliest biblical figure for which any evidence exits is David. 53 People in the Bible Confirmed Archaeologically Are you possibly stating any earlier figures have been confirmed? BTW, the evidence of David is skimpy.

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