Journal: Bible and Spade (Second Run)
Volume: BSPADE 16:1 (Winter 2003)
Article: Joseph in Egypt
Author: Charles F. Aling

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BSpade 15:3 (Winter 2003) p. 10

Joseph in Egypt

Fourth of Six Parts

Charles F. Aling

In Genesis 41, Joseph meets the king of Egypt. As we saw in our last article, he had been prepared for this encounter by being cleaned up and shaved, in true Egyptian fashion. He was now ready to meet the most powerful and important man on earth.

Before we consider this meeting however, a word on the title Pharaoh is necessary. This term means literally “Great House,” and refers to the palace establishment of Egypt. As the years passed, the title “Pharaoh” began to be used when speaking of the king, the main inhabitant of the palace and the head of Egypt’s government.

If we date Joseph to the Middle Kingdom period of Egyptian history, as I believe it is correct to do, an apparent problem arises. At this early stage of Egyptian history, the title Pharaoh was not used to refer to the king in direct address; such use begins only in Egypt’s powerful 18th Dynasty in about 1400 BC, some 300 years after the time of Joseph.

We must remember, however, that Joseph did not write the account we have in Genesis; Moses did. Moses of course lived much later than Joseph, in about 1400 BC. During his time, the title Pharaoh was beginning to be used as a form of direct address for the king of Egypt. It is important to note that Moses does not use Pharaoh followed by a proper name. This practice was only instituted in the late period of Egyptian history, as is correctly reflected in Jeremiah 44:30, where “Pharaoh Hophra” is mentioned.

But let us turn to the events surrounding the actual meeting between Joseph and the king, most probably Sesostris II of Dynasty 12. As all of us will recall from our own study of the Scriptures, Pharaoh had had a dream. His magicians (the Hebrew in Genesis 41 is an accurate translation of the Egyptian word for a magician) could not tell the meaning of his dream.

In his dream, Pharaoh saw seven fat cows followed by seven lean cows. Joseph interpreted the cows as representing seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Painting from the tomb of Nefeteri, wife of Ramesses II, ca. 1250 BC, Thebes.

BSpade 15:3 (Winter 2003) p. 11

Pharaoh gave Joseph “Asenath daughter of Potiphera, prient of On, to be his wife” (Gn 41:45). Little remains at On (called Heliopolis b...

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