Daniel’s Mentor Joseph: The Imhotep Connection -- Chapter 11b

 Wikipedia notes that the following:

The Upper Egyptian Famine Stela, dating from the Ptolemaic period, bears an inscription containing a legend about a famine of seven years during the reign of Djoser. Imhotep is credited with having been instrumental in ending it.

However, Wikipedia makes the following comment:

At the time of first translating the stela, it was thought that the story of a seven-year-famine was connected to the biblical story in Genesis 41, where also a famine of seven years occurs. But more recent investigations have showed that a seven-year famine was a myth common to nearly all cultures of the Near East.[13]

If the seven-year famine was in fact a historical event, we would expect to find similar records of it throughout the Near East, especially if it was as severe as the Bible denotes. Modern historians and scientists often reject off-hand any scientific or historical evidence which confirms what the Bible records. That's why we see the words "legend" and "myth" in the above Wikipedia comment.

Since the time of Scottish geologist James Hutton in 1788 and Charles Lyell in 1830, whose published works aimed at removing Moses from science, scientists have increasingly had a naturalistic interpretation of the scientific data. They start with the precept that all of science and history can only be explained by natural causes without the need to suppose the hand of a Divine Creator. As one evolutionist Professor of Genetics from Harvard University, Richard Lewontin (photo below) has said, 

We take the side of evolutionary science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just so stories, because we have a prior commitment to materialism, and that materialism is absolute for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door.[14] 

Earlier scientist, like Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, among many others, considered they were thinking God’s thoughts after Him. They did not see the need for science to have an atheistic or purely naturalistic framework; in fact, they believed that true scientific study only certified the existence of a Divine Creator. At the time of the first translating of the Famine Stela, scientists were people of faith; therefore, they saw the obvious similarities of the stela to the Biblical narrative. As scientists became more atheistic and skeptical, their world view or belief system caused them to reinterpret the data through the lens of atheism or naturalism. Because of the naturalistic lenses, scientists and historians needed to find another answer which would not confirm the Biblical record and give it credence. 

Bill Cooper has written an interesting study of old English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Danish documents. In his book, After the Flood: The Early Post-Flood History of Europe, he shows that early European man recorded his ancestry from Noah’s son Japeth, the father of European peoples according to the Bible. Cooper notes,

I spent more than 25 years digging into the Table of Nations (found in Genesis 10-11 and showing the descendants of the sons of Noah after the flood) looking for fault, an error, a false statement, or a historical inaccuracy. I found none.[15]

Let's return to the comparison of Imhotep with Joseph. The statutes of Imhotep present him as a young man with a scroll on his knees. Joseph was also a young man, just thirty years old, when he became Chancellor of Egypt according to the Old Testament. From Egyptian history we know that Imhotep was responsible for the recording of government documents. He may have also initiated the improved changes in the hieroglyphic writings to include the phonetic system similar to the writings of the early Sumerians. Since Joseph’s ancestors had come from Sumer, again this fits in nicely.

It is interesting to note that the word papyrus actually means “belonging to the house,” or government. Under Joseph, the Pharaoh became the sole property owner in Egypt outside of the priesthood. So we would expect papyrus documents to be either government or religious documents. Since Egyptian history says that Imhotep was also High Priest, there would be no conflict. The question we need to ask is, could Joseph have become High Priest on the death of his father-in-law? To me, it seems there is too much coincidence and similarity to the Biblical record to deny its viability off-hand.

Joseph’s Sumerian name could have been a mispronunciation of his name by the Egyptians resulting in the name Imhotep. Joseph told Pharaoh that God had given him a message of peace. Since Imhotep means, “comes in peace,” maybe it was the name the Pharaoh gave him referring to his prophetic message of “peace.”[16]

Joseph’s quick rise to power is similar to Imhotep's own rapid rise. Again from Egyptian history, nothing is really known about Imhotep before his rise to power. If Imhotep was Joseph, it would be expected that his past would be a mystery. In the Bible, we see Joseph acting alone as a single Chancellor. In later Middle and New Kingdoms, Egypt would not be managed by a single Chancellor, but the Pharaoh would need a whole team of men.[17] Here is an inscription found on a stone which once comprised the base for a statue of Djoser referring to Imhotep. Is it describing our very own Joseph?

The Chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt, the first after the King of Upper Egypt, administrator of the great palace, hereditary Lord, the High Priest of Heliopolis, Imhotep the Builder, the Sculptor, the maker of stone vases.[18]

Back in the Biblical account, we see that Pharaoh’s dream was a warning about the famine which would come upon the land in seven years time. With knowledge of the future, Joseph begins to store corn for those times.

And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.[19]

And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended. And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he says to you, do. And the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.[20]

Joseph’s brothers also must go down to Egypt to buy bread. And after testing them to see if they had repented of their crime against him, he reveals himself to them. But you need to read it from the Bible to get the full impact. And Joseph says to them,

Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing (plowing) nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.[21]

The famine in Egypt continues. Because Joseph knows the future he is able to invest in future markets. He buys up all the extra grain during the years of plenty, probably at a cheap price as there was great abundance. Later, as the famine continues, he is able to sell the grain at a higher price and literally buys up all the property in the land of Egypt and may have initiated the first income tax. Let’s read from the Bible.

And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to their families. And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. 

And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money fails. And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail. And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year. 

When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands: Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.

And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands. Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's.[22]

Let’s compare once again the Biblical account of Joseph and the Famine Stela account of Imhotep. In the Bible, Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream and saves Egypt from a seven-year famine. In the Famine Stela, Imhotep saves Egypt from a seven year famine by advising the Pharaoh. From the Famine Stela, we read that after the Pharaoh is informed by Imhotep, the Pharaoh has a dream about a solution and imposes a 10% tax. The Bible doesn’t record anything of a dream by Pharaoh related to a tax, but Joseph implements a 20% tax. One historical fact that we know for sure is that it was in the reign of Djoser when the Pharaohs first become financially capable to begin to build pyramids.[23]

Joseph’s brethren and father and their wives go down into Egypt and Pharaoh gives them the best land to live on, the land of Goshen. Israel, Joseph’s father, even gets to meet Pharaoh and prays a blessing over him. The Bible tells us,

And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.[24]

We will look more at the Imhotep Connection in the next part of the chapter.

Notes:

[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_Stela (03/2016)
[14] Richard Lewontin. “Billions and Billions of Demons,” New York Review, January 9, 1997, p. 31. http://creation.com/amazing-admission-lewontin-quote
[15] Bill Cooper, After the Flood, New Wine Press, UK, 1995, p.75. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/433064.After_The_Flood
[16] http://www.dstoner.net/Genesis_Context/Context.html (03/16)
[17] Ibid
[18] Ibid
[19] Genesis 41:47-49
[20] Genesis 41:53-57
[21] Genesis 45:5-8
[22] Genesis 47:11-26
[23] http://www.dstoner.net/Genesis_Context/Context.html (03/2016)
[24] Genesis 47:27-28

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