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The Egypt Connection

EGYPTIANS IN THE AMERICAS

ABYDOS - AHMOSE I - AKHENATON - AMARNA - AMENHOTEP I - AY -  DENDERA - EGYPTIAN GODS -  GIZA  -
HATSHEPSUT -  HERMES - KARNAK - KIYA - LUXOR - MERYTATEN - MOSES-  MYSTERY SCHOOLS - NEFERTITI  -
 P'TAAH - RA-TA - ISIS  - SAQQARA -  SITAMUN - SMENKHKARE -
THEBES - THOTH - TIYE - TUTANKHAMUN - YUYA - ZOSER

 

YUYA

Yuya was Joseph of the Bible who wore the coat of many colors

SEE: MOSES for the relationship between himself and Akhenaten

Yuya

 
Gilded mummy mask of Yuya, father of Great Royal Wife, Tiye
Yuya
in hieroglyphs
i i w i A A1

Yuya (sometimes Iouiya), also known as Yaa, Ya, Yiya, Yayi, Yu, Yuyu, Yaya, Yiay, Yia, and Yuy[1] was a powerful Egyptian courtier of the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt (circa 1390 BC). He was married to Tjuyu, an Egyptian noblewoman associated with the royal family, who held high offices in governmental and religious hierarchies. Their daughter, Tiye, became the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III.[2]

They also may have been the parents of Ay,[3] an Egyptian courtier active during the reign of pharaoh Akhenaten, who eventually became pharaoh, as Kheperkheprure Ay. There is no conclusive evidence, however, regarding the kinship of Yuya and Ay, although certainly, both men came from Akhmim.[4] Yuya and Tjuyu also are known to have had a son named Anen, who carried the titles Chancellor of Lower Egypt, Second Prophet of Amun, sm-priest of Heliopolis, and Divine Father.[5]

 Origins

Yuya came from the Upper Egyptian town of Akhmim, where he probably owned an estate and was a wealthy member of this town's local nobility. His origins remain unclear. As the study of his mummy showed, Yuya had been a man of taller than average stature and the anatomist Grafton Elliot Smith considered that his appearance was not typically Egyptian.

Taking into account his unusual name and features, some Egyptologists believe that Yuya was of foreign origin, although this is far from certain. [6] The name Yuya may be spelled in five different ways as Gaston Maspero noted decades ago in Theodore Davis's 1907 book—The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.[7] These include "iAy", ywiA", yw [reed-leaf with walking feet]A, ywiw" and, in orthography—normally a sign of something foreign--"y[man with hand to mouth]iA".[8] It was not typical for an Egyptian person to have so many different ways to write his name; this may suggest that Yuya's ancestors had a foreign, although not necessarily Mitannian, origin. In "The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt" (ISBN 1-59143-022-4) One solution is that Yuya had some Mitannian ancestry; this argument is based on the fact that the knowledge of horses and chariotry was introduced into Egypt from Asia and Yuya was the king’s "Master of the Horse." It was also suggested Yuya was the brother of queen Mutemwiya, who was the mother of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and may have had Mitannian royal origins.[9] However, this hypothesis can not be substantiated, since nothing is known of Mutemwiya's background. While Yuya lived in Upper Egypt, an area that was predominantly native Egyptian, he could have been an assimiliated descendant of Asiatic immigrants or slaves who rose to become a member of the local nobility at Akhmin. If he was not a foreigner, however, then Yuya would have been the native Egyptian whose daughter was married to Amenhotep III.

 Career

Yuya served as a key adviser for Amenhotep III,[3] and held posts such as "King’s Lieutenant" and "Master of the Horse"; his title "Father-of-the-god" possibly referred specifically to his being Amenhotep's father-in-law. In his native town of Akhmin, Yuya was a prophet of Min, the chief god of the area, and served as this deity's "Superintendent of Cattle".[10]

Tomb

Mummies of Yuya (left) and Tjuyu (right), who were found in the same tomb

Yuya and his wife were buried in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes, where their private KV46 tomb was discovered in 1905 [11] by James Quibell, who was working on behalf of Theodore M. Davis'. Although the tomb had been penetrated, the tomb-robbers were perhaps disturbed, and Quibell found most of the funerary goods and the two mummies virtually intact.[10] As the late Egyptologist Cyril Aldred notes:

"Though the tomb had been rifled in antiquity, the [tomb's] opulent funerary furniture was largely intact, and there was no doubt as to the identity of the pair, who were found resting among their torn linen wrappings, within their nests of coffins."[12]

 Footnotes

  1. ^ (Osman p. 113)
  2. ^ Rice, Michael (1999). Who's Who in Ancient Egypt. Routledge. pp. p.207. 
  3. ^ a b Rice, p.222
  4. ^ Anthony David & Rosalie David, A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, London: Seaby, 1992. p.167
  5. ^ Rice, p.20
  6. ^ David O'Connor & Eric Cline, Amenhotep: Perspectives on his Reign, University of Michigan, 1998, p.5
  7. ^ O'Connor & Cline, p.5
  8. ^ Maspero's analysis of Yuya's complex name is given on page xiii-xiv of The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou" by Theodore M. Davis, Archibald Constable and Co. Ltd, 1907
  9. ^ Anthony David & Rosalie David, A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, London: Seaby, 1992, p.167 ISBN 1-85264-032-4
  10. ^ a b David & David, p.167
  11. ^ Cyril Aldred: Akhenaten, King of Egypt Thames and Hudson, 1989. p.96 ISBN 0-500-27621-8
  12. ^ Aldred, p.96

External links

WHO WAS JOSEPH?

THE MUMMY OF PATRIARCH JOSEPH IN THE CAIRO MUSEUM

Who was the king who appointed Joseph, of the coat of many colors, as his minister and during which period of Egyptian history did he live? Since the start of archaeological digging in Egypt more than a hundred years ago, scholars have been trying to answer this question.

It seemed to me like a flash of inspiration, an unexpected moment of revelation when I felt that I was about to resolve a problem to which many gifted scholars had devoted their minds without success for more than a centuryÑidentifying a major biblical figure as the same person as a major Egyptian historical figure. It was a problem to which I had devoted twenty-five years of my own adult life. As part of the quest I had left my native Egypt and moved to London, lured by the superior facilities the United Kingdom offered for biblical and historical study and research. One cold night fifteen years ago, unable to sleep, I slipped out of bed, made a pot of tea and settled down by the fire to read, as I often did, the stories of the Bible. I opened it at the account in the Book of Genesis of the life of Joseph the Patriarch.

Patriarch Joseph is said in the Bible and the Quran, to have been sold as a slave into Egypt. It was his own brothers who handed him over to a trade caravan, as they became jealous when Jacob their father gave him a coat with many colors. An Egyptian official bought the young Hebrew boy and made him overseer over his house, but when his mistress falsely accused him of trying to seduce her, Joseph was sent to prison. Two years later, Joseph was set free by Pharaoh, who also appointed him as one of his ministers, when he was able to interpret the king's dream.

Father to Pharaoh

As a result of a famine in the land of Canaan, Joseph's brothers went down to Egypt to buy corn there. Joseph recognized Jacob's sons when they arrived, but they did not recognize him in his Egyptian costume; he kept his identity secret. The famine in Canaan persisted, however, and caused Joseph's half-brothers to return to Egypt on a second corn-buying mission. On this occasion Joseph invited them to have a meal in his house and, in an emotional moment, he revealed his identity to his brothers. They were ashamed of what they had done to him when they sold him as a slave, but he asked them not to feel any sense of guilt: "For God did send me before you to preserve life, and He has made me a father to Pharaoh," he said.

"Father to Pharaoh." It was this statement that caused my excitement that night. Egyptian officials were usually given the title "Son of Pharaoh," but "Father to Pharaoh" was a rare title and only few people had it. Immediately the name of Yuya came to my mind. Yuya served as a minister and commander of the military Chariots for Amenhotep III (c. 1405-1367BC) of the 18th dynasty. Among his many titles, Yuya bore one that was unique to him, it ntr n nb tawi, the holy father of the Lord of the Two Lands, Pharaoh's formal title. The reason for Yuya to get this unique title was the fact that the king, Amenhotep III, married Yuya's daughter Tiye and made her his great wife, the Queen of Egypt. For this reason also, Yuya became the maternal grandfather of the monotheistic king, Akhenaten.

Could Joseph the Patriarch and Yuya be one and the same person?

An Israelite In the Valley of the Kings

The tomb of Yuya and his wife Tuya was found in 1905, three years after Theodore M. Davis had obtained a concession to excavate in the Valley of the Kings. The site of the tomb, the only one in Egypt to be found almost intact until the discovery of Tutankhamun's seventeen years later, occasioned some surprise. Davis provided the money, while the actual work was carried out by British archaeologists. There is a narrow side valley in the Valley of the Kings, about half a mile long, leading up to the mountain. Eight days before the Christmas of 1904, James Quibell started the examination of this side valley. A month later, he decided to transfer the men back to the mouth of the side valley, and by February 1 they had exposed the top of a sealed door that blocked the stairwell, and in few days time Davis and his group were able to enter the tomb, in which they found the sarcophagus of Yuya and of his wife, Tuya, including their mummies. Although both Yuya and his wife were known from Egyptian history, neither was considered particularly important. Nor, as far as anyone was aware, did either of them possess royal blood, which one would expect when they enjoyed the privilege of burial in the Valley of the Kings.

The evidence that I was finally able to find convinced me that Joseph, the son of Jacob and Yuya, the Egyptian minister, were one and the same person.

Yuya a Semite

Other than sharing the unique title of "Father to Pharaoh," both Joseph and Yuya were foreigners in Egypt. Many scholars have commented on Yuya's foreign appearance. For instance, Arthur Weigall, one of the archaeologists involved in the discovery of Yuya's tomb, wrote: "He was a person of commanding presence . . . He has the face of an ecclesiastic, and there is something about his mouth that reminds one of the late Pope, Leo III." Henri Naville, the Swiss Egyptologist, took the view that Yuya's "very aquiline face might be Semitic."

The difficulties scribes had with his name also point to Yuya's foreign origin. Eleven different spellings were found on his sarcophagus, three coffins and other funerary furniture. Egyptian names usually indicated the name of the god under whose protection a person was placedÑRa-mos, Ptah-hotep, Tutankh-amun and so on. It therefore seems that Egyptians must have named him after his own God, Yhwh (Jehovah), and that is what the scribes were trying to write, with spellings that included Ya-a, Yi-ja and Yu-i.

The way Yuya was buried also points to his not having been Egyptian. His ears were not piercedÑunlike those of most royal mummies of the 18th Dynasty, the time when Yuya saw service under both Tuthmosis IV and his son, Amenhotep IIIÑand the position of his hands, facing his neck under the chin, is different from the usual Osiris form in which the dead man's hands are crossed over his chest.

Grafton Elliot Smith, the British anatomist who examined Yuya's mummy in 1905, raised the question of his non-Egyptian appearance. Smith wrote in his report; "His (Yuya's) face is relatively short and elliptical, . . . His nose is prominent, aquiline and high-bridged; . . . The lips appear to be somewhat full. The jaw is moderately square . . . When we come to enquire into the racial character of the body of Yuya, there is very little we can definitely seize on as a clear indication of his origin and affinities . . . The form of the face (and especially the nose) is such as we find more commonly in Europe than in Egypt."

The king also gave Joseph an Egyptian wife and an Egyptian name, the first element of which is "sef." Manetho, an Egyptian historian who wrote the history of his country to Ptolemy I during the 3rd century BC, mentions that Amenhotep III had a minister called Sef. It seems that the name "Jo-sef" or "Yo-sef" in Hebrew and "Yu-sef" in Arabic, was composed of two elements: one Hebrew, "Yu," which is short for Yahweh, and the other Egyptian, "sef."

Objects in the Tomb

In the biblical account of Joseph the Patriarch, on his appointment as minister, he received three objects from Pharaoh as insignia of office, a ring, a gold chain, and a chariot. These three objects were also found in Yuya's tomb.

Although the royal ring was not found in Yuya's tomb, written evidence was found to show that Yuya was bearer of the king's ring. This is clear from Yuya's titles, "bearer of the seal of the king of Lower Egypt" as well as "bearer of the ring of the king of Lower Egypt." A significant find in the tomb also was a gold chain that had fallen inside Yuya's coffin, and come to rest beneath his head when the tomb robbers cut the thread that held it in place. A small chariot was also discovered in the tomb.

The Age of Wisdom

Of Joseph's death and burial the Book of Genesis says that he died at the age of a hundred and ten: "They embalmed him and put him in a coffin in Egypt." Since as long ago as 1865, when the British scholar Charles W. Goodwin suggested the age the biblical narrator assigned to Joseph at the time of his death was a reflection of the Egyptian tradition, this idea has become increasingly accepted by Egyptologists.

Sir Grafton Elliott Smith, the anatomist who examined Yuya's mummy after its discovery, said in his medical report that Yuya was not less than sixty at the time of his death. Smith was unable by facial appearance alone to judge the exact age, but Henri Naville, who translated Yuya's copy of The Book of the Dead, wrote in his subsequent commentary on it that ". . . the artist wished to indicate that Iouiya (Yuya) was a very old man when he died: therefore he made him quite a white wig . . ."

Such apparent discrepancies about age are easily resolved. As the average age to which people lived at the time was about thirty-five, ancient Egyptians considered old age to be a sign of wisdom, and those who attained long life were looked upon as holy figures. Both Joseph and Yuya were considered wise by Pharaoh.

Of Joseph he said: "There is nobody as discreet and wise as you." Yuya is described on his funerary papyrus as "the only wise who loves his god." The age Egyptians ascribed to those who lived to be wise was one hundred and ten, irrespective of how old they actually were. Amenhotep son of Habu, an Egyptian magician in Yuya's time, was said to have lived one hundred and ten years although the last information we have about him puts his age at eighty.

The City with Many Gates

It is not solely a comparison of the Old Testament account of the life of Joseph the Patriarch and Egyptian historical records that point to Joseph and Yuya having been one and the same person. According to the Koran, the sacred Muslim book, before their second visit to Egypt, Joseph's half-brothers were given some advice by Jacob, their father:

"O, my sons! enter not
All by one gate: enter ye
By different gates. . ."

This advice indicates that the city they visited on their trade missions, which had many gates, was either Memphis, the seat of the royal residence south of the Giza Pyramids, or Thebes, on the east bank of the Nile.

The same story is found in Jewish traditions: "His brothers, fearing the evil eye, entered the city at ten different gates" (Midrash Bereshith Rabbah 89). As Jacob is said to have voiced his concern before his sons set off on their second mission it is reasonable to assume that he heard about the nature of Thebes on their return from their first visit. Thebes was known throughout the ancient world as "the city with many gates," and the Greek poet Homer mentioned it around the 8th century BC as "the hundred-gated city." These were not references to gates through a profusion of walls, but to entrances belonging to its many temples and palaces.

The Time of Yuya and Joseph

As the name of Pharaoh who appointed Joseph as his minister is not given in the holy books, scholars looked for some other details in the story of Joseph, to help them in fixing his time. They noticed that the "chariots," were mentioned three times in the Book of Genesis:

1 - When he was appointed as a minister, Pharaoh gave Joseph a chariot,

2 - Joseph used a chariot to go out to welcome his father Jacob and the rest of the tribe of Israel when they arrived in Egypt,

3 - When the Israelites went to bury their father Jacob in Canaan, Joseph took with him "both chariots and      horsemen."

The Bible story of Joseph's elevation to high office states that Pharaoh provided him with a second chariot to ride in. This suggests his responsibility for the chariotry, a view supported by the fact that a chariot was found in Yuya's tomb. It was the custom in ancient Egypt to place in a tomb objects that had a special significance in the life of a dead person.

Early Egyptologists, however, were deceived when they attempted to fix Joseph's time in the light of this information. For up to a decade or two ago, it was thought that the Hyksos kings who ruled Egypt for about a century and half before the 18th dynasty kicked them out, were the first to introduce the chariot into Egypt. As the Hyksos were themselves of Canaanite origin, it was easy to place Joseph the Hebrew during the period of their rule in Egypt. However, all Hyksos sites at the eastern Nile Delta have now been excavated, and no remains of chariots have been found in any of them, neither any written nor drawn reference to chariots. It is now generally accepted that the Egyptian kings of the 18th dynasty were the first to introduce the chariot.

It has also been established that it was only in the later 18th Dynasty, the time when Yuya lived, that the chariotry became separated from the infantry as a military arm, and that Yuya, as chief minister to Amenhotep III, is the first person we know of to bear the titles Deputy of His Majesty in the Chariotry as well as Officer of the Horses.

Short statements:

 

* In the Book of Genesis, the last part of the Joseph story states that when Joseph died "they embalmed him, and he    was put in a coffin in Egypt." One need only to look at the mummy of Yuya, now in Cairo Museum, to be    convinced that this is the mummy of Joseph.

* In the century since his tomb was discovered Yuya has become a largely forgotten figure. Today he lies hidden    in a plain box in a corner of the first floor of Cairo Museum. I made a visit there, something of a pilgrimage,    once I was satisfied that I had identified him correctly as the biblical Joseph the Patriarch who was instrumental    in bringing the Israelites down from Canaan to settle in Egypt.

* Establishing Yuya as Joseph the Patriarch, and knowing precisely when he lived, led to the identification of a    host of biblical figures as Egyptian historical figures, including David, from whose house the promised Messiah    would come, Solomon, Moses and the real founding father of the twelve tribes of Israel.

* The Old Testament provides us with two contrasting versions of the length of the Israelite Sojourn in    EgyptÑfour hundred years and four generations. Which of these is correct has been the subject of considerable    debate among scholars. Once the identities of Yuya and those other historical figures had been clarified,    however, it also became clear that the correct length of the Sojourn was four generations, or no more than about    a hundred years.

Ahmed Osman

Historian, lecturer, researcher and author, Ahmed Osman is a British Egyptologist born in Cairo

His four in-depth books clarifying the history of the Bible and Egypt are: Stranger in the Valley of the Kings (1987) - Moses: Pharaoh of Egypt (1990) - The House of the Messiah (1992) - Out of Egypt (1998)

 
The PEDIGREE of
Yuya (Yuia Yaya) of EGYPT

     Master of The Horse (Adjutant of the Chariotry); Priest of Akhmin; chancellor; poss. aka Zaphnath-Paaneah

    External page: Steve Franklin speculates that Yuya was the biblical Joseph.
 
Poss. HM George I's 99-Great Grandfather.       Poss. HRE Ferdinand I's 96-Great Grandfather.       Poss. Agnes Harris's 102-Great Grandfather.
 Wife/Partner:       Thuyu (Tuia Tuya) of EGYPT
 Possible Children:       Tiye-Nefertari (Tiy) of EGYPT   ;   Ay (Eye) (Grand Vizier) of EGYPT
 Alternative Father of Possible Children:       poss. Joseph ben JACOB
________ ________ _______ _______ _______ ____ ____ ___  
  / -- poss.  Yii (Master of The Horse)
  |    | or: prob. not Thutmose (Tuthmosis) III `the Great' (PHARAOH) of EGYPT, q.v.
  /     | or: prob. not Isaac ibn ABRAHAM, q.v.
/ -- Yey
/  
- Yuya (Yuia Yaya) of EGYPT
\  
\ -- Tey [Tiye]
 
 
  His (poss.) Grandchildren:       Akhenaton (10th PHARAOH) of 18th Dynasty EGYPT   ;   Tutankhamen of EGYPT (18th Dynasty)   ;   Sitamun (Sitamum) of EGYPT   ;   Nefertiti (Chief Queen) of EGYPT   ;   Mutnodjme [wife of Husband/Partner:       Horemheb of EGYPT
 Child:       Seti (Setymeramen)
 

Mummy of Yuya at Cairo Museum, Egypt.

Photo by Patrick Landmann/Cairo Museum/Getty Images
The mummy of Yuya thought by some to be Josua (Joseph) who, after Moses, led the Hebrews into the Promised land and logically would be the father-in-law of Amenophis III, at Cairo Museum, Egypt.

 

The canopic box of Yuya is a wooden chest placed on runners. It is varnished in black with yellow strips that contain the hieroglyphic names of Yuya. The figures of the deities in charge of protecting the internal organs of the deceased also decorate the sides.

The lid of the chest imitates the roof of the archaic divine shrines. On the inside, the chest is divided into four compartments into which the alabaster canopic jars were placed. The internal organs were wrapped in linen and topped with miniature cartonnage masks depicting the features of a human being.

         Dimensions - Length 0.8m

 

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuya"

 

Joseph (Hebrew Bible)

Joseph identified by his brothers. Painting by Charles Thévenin.
Joseph

Joseph or Yosef (Hebrew: יוֹסֵף ‎, Standard Yosef Tiberian Yôsēp̄, Arabic: يوسف‎, Yusuf ; "He (The Lord) increases/may add"), was the eleventh son of Jacob and first son of Rachel in the book of Genesis.[1] He is also mentioned in the Qur'an as a prophet.

The story of Joseph is told in Genesis, chapters 37-50 (one of the longest continuous narratives in the Bible). The favorite son of his father Jacob, Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers, but rises to become Pharaoh's viceroy, and brings the Children of Israel (i.e., of Jacob) to Egypt to live in the land of Goshen.

Joseph is one of the best-known figures in the Torah, famous for his coat of many colors (although this is a possible mistranslation of the Hebrew phrase "kethoneth passim כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים" which means a "shirt with sleeves". A Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature. 1903. 680+. Print. ISBN 1-932443-20-7</ref>) and for his ability to interpret dreams. The shrine called Joseph's Tomb in Nablus is traditionally considered to be his tomb.[1]

 Name

The Bible relates the birth of Joseph at Genesis 30:23-24:

And God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And she said, "God has taken away my humiliation," and she called his name Joseph, saying, "May YHWH (God) add another son to me."

The verses contain two explanations of the name: the first, from what is commonly called the Elohist text, bases it on the root /'sp/, meaning "taken away," while the second, from what is called the Jahwist, cites the similar root /ysp/, meaning "add."[2]

 Summary

Joseph Accused by Potiphar's Wife, by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1655.

(The following summary is based on the ESV translation)

Joseph was the eleventh of the twelve sons of Jacob and the first of the two sons of Rachel. Upon him centered the love of his father, Jacob, who arrayed him in a "coat of many colors." But this excited the envy of his older brothers, and Joseph increased their hatred by telling them of dreams which predicted that he would some day rule over them (Gen. 37:2-11).

One day, when Joseph was seventeen, his brothers plotted to kill him. But Reuben, the eldest brother, advised them to throw Joseph into a pit, intending to rescue him later. And so the brothers stripped Joseph of the coat of many colours and threw him into the pit. A caravan of Ishmaelites passed by, and Judah, another of the brothers, suggested that they sell Joseph to the merchants. Some Midianite merchants passed by, and found Joseph and pulled him from the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and took him to Egypt. When Reuben came back to the pit he found Joseph gone. The brothers dipped Joseph's coat in the blood of a goat and showed it to Jacob, who mourned for Joseph, believing him dead. The Midanites took Joseph to Egypt where they sold him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh.[3]

Potiphar bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites and appointed him superintendent of his household. But Potiphar's wife conceived a passion for Joseph, and, when her advances were repulsed, brought a false accusation against him before her husband, and Joseph was thrown into prison. But God was with Joseph, and he found favour in the eyes of the warden of the prison, who committed the other prisoners to his charge.[4]

Soon afterward two of Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker, having offended the king, were thrown into the prison. One morning both officers told Joseph their dreams of the previous night, which they were unable to interpret, and Joseph told them that the chief butler would be reinstated within three days but that the chief baker would be hanged. Joseph requested the butler to mention him to Pharaoh and secure his release from prison, but that officer, reinstalled in office, forgot Joseph.[5]

Joseph remained two years in prison, and Pharaoh dreamt of seven lean cows which rose out of the river and devoured seven fat cows. Pharoah dreamt again, of seven withered ears of grain which devoured seven fat ears of corn. Pharaoh's wise men were unable to interpret these dreams, but the chief butler remembered Joseph and spoke of his skill to Pharaoh. Joseph interpreted the dreams as foretelling that seven years of abundance would be followed by seven years of famine, and advised Pharaoh to store surplus grain during the years of abundance. And so Pharaoh made Joseph viceroy over Egypt, and Egypt became prosperous under his care, and Joseph was married by Pharaoh to Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, by whom he soon had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And when the time of famine came all the Earth came to Egypt to buy grain.[6]

Joseph interprets the dream of the Pharaoh. Painting by Peter von Cornelius.

Among those who came to Egypt were Joseph's brothers, for the famine was also in Canaan, and Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Joseph received them roughly and accused them of being spies, and sent them back to their father, demanding that they return with their brother Benjamin, the youngest, who was with their father in Canaan. And so the brothers returned to Jacob in Canaan, with Reuben lamenting that they had not listened to him and spared the life of their brother Joseph.[7]

Jacob sent his sons again to Egypt for grain. As Joseph had commanded them not to appear before him again without Benjamin, Jacob was compelled to let Benjamin go with them. And they were amazed when this time the viceroy received them kindly, and took them to feast in his own house, inquiring after their father and their youngest brother Benjamin.[8]

Joseph gave orders to his servants to fill their sacks with wheat: illuminated Bible by Raphaël de Mercatelli, Ghent, late 15th century

But while they feasted Joseph gave orders to his servants to fill their sacks with wheat and put his silver goblet in Benjamin's sack. On the following morning the brothers departed, but before they had gone far a messenger overtook them, accusing them of stealing the goblet. And when the messenger searched their sacks he found the goblet in Benjamin's sack, and compelled them to return. In front of Joseph, whom he still did not know, Judah pleaded that Benjamin be allowed to return to his father, and he himself kept in Benjamin's place.[9]

Overcome by Judah's appeal Joseph disclosed himself to his brothers, assuring them that in treating him as they did they had been carrying out the will of God. He then urged them to return home quickly and bring all their families to Egypt, to live in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh, when he heard of this, rejoiced, and gave to Joseph and his brothers the best that Egypt could offer.[10]

So all of Israel came to Egypt, seventy persons, and Joseph met his father in the Land of Goshen.[11] Then he presented five of his brothers to Pharaoh, and also his father Jacob, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and Joseph gave them the land of Ramesses. And as the famine continued in Egypt Joseph bought up all the land, which became Pharaoh's, and the people farmed it for Pharaoh, giving him one-fifth of the produce. And when Jacob was 147 years old he felt his end approaching, and called Joseph to him, and made Joseph swear to bury him not in Egypt but in the land of his fathers.[11]

Jacob, feeling his end approaching, sent for Joseph, who came to him with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and Jacob blessed them and gives them equal inheritance with his own sons, and Jacob asked who they were, and Joseph told him they were his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and Jacob blessed them, blessing Ephraim the younger first above Manasseh.[12]

When Reuben lost his firstborn right ( kingship, priesthood, and the double-portion ), Joseph inherited the double-portion instead, by having two tribes from his sons.

Jacob then gave his blessing upon all his sons. Though he blessed them in order by their age, the blessing he gave Joseph was greater than the others:

'Joseph is a fruitful tree by a spring, whose branches climb over the wall. The archers savagely attacked him, shooting and assailing him fiercely, but Joseph's bow remained unfailing and his arms were tireless by the power of the Strong One of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd of Israel, by the God of your father-so may he help you! By God Almighty-so may he bless you with the blessings of heaven above, and the blessings of the deep that lies below! The blessings of breast and womb and the blessings of your father are stronger than the blessings of the eternal mountains and the bounty of the everlasting hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of him who was prince among his brothers.' [13]

Joseph carried Jacob's remains to the land of Canaan, where he gave them burial. His brothers sent to implore his forgiveness for their past actions, but Joseph allayed their fears and promised that he would continue to provide for their wants. He lived to the age of 110, and saw his great-grandchildren, and made the children of Israel swear that when they left the land of Egypt they would take his bones with them, and on his death his body was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.[14] (At the Exodus his bones accompanied Moses, and were buried at Shechem (Gen. l. 25; Ex. 13:19; Josh. 24:32).

 Later traditions

In one Talmudic story, Joseph was buried in the Nile, as there was some dispute as to which province should be honored by having his tomb within its boundaries. Moses, led there by an ancient holy woman named Serach, was able by a miracle to raise the sarcophagus and to take it with him at the time of the Exodus.

Joseph is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 30. In the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, he is known as "Joseph the all-comely", a reference not only to his physical appearance, but more importantly to the beauty of his spiritual life. They commemorate him on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (two Sundays before Christmas) and on Holy and Great Monday (Monday of Holy Week). In icons, he is sometimes depicted wearing the nemes headdress of an Egyptian vizier. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod commemorates him as a patriarch on March 31.

Joseph ("Yusuf") is regarded by Muslims as a prophet (Qur'an, suras vi. 84, xl. 36), and a whole chapter (sura xii.) is devoted to him. He is believed to have been very beautiful. Prophet Muhammad once said, "One half of all the beauty God apportioned for mankind went to Joseph; the other one half went to the rest of mankind." One significant departure in the Qur'an is the use of an unspecified King in place of the Biblical Pharaoh. The story has the same general outlines as the Biblical narrative, but with a wealth of additional detail and incident.[15] In the Qur'an the brothers ask Jacob to let Joseph go with them.[15] The pit into which Joseph is thrown is a well with water in it,[15] and Joseph was taken as a slave by passing-by travellers (Qur'an 12:19). In one account, Joseph's face possessed such a peculiar brilliancy that his brothers noticed the different light in the sky as soon as he appeared above the edge of the well, and came back to claim him as their slave.[15] This same peculiarity was noticeable when they went to Egypt: although it was evening when they entered the city, his face diffused such a light that the astonished inhabitants came out to see the cause of it.[15]

In the Bible, Joseph discloses himself to his brethren before they return to their father the second time after buying corn.[15] The same in the Islamic story but they are compelled to return to Jacob without Benjamin, and the former weeps himself blind.[15] He remains so until the sons have returned from Egypt, bringing with them Joseph's garment healed the patriarch's eyes as soon as he put it to his face (Qur'an 12:96).[15]

 Hyksos

Several Egyptologists, starting with the Ancient Egyptian priest Manetho, have associated the story of Joseph with the take-over of Lower Egypt by the Hyksos. Indeed, one of the many theories on the origin of the Hyksos is that they were Semites. The Hyksos appear to have originally entered Egypt for trade, much like Joseph's brothers, and they then settled in the Nile Delta, a parallel to Joseph's family settling in the Land of Goshen. Generations later, Egyptians reconquered the North and expulsed the Hyksos to Palestine - an event associated, in this interpretation, to the Exodus.

 Literature and culture

Thomas Mann retells the Genesis stories surrounding Joseph in his four novel omnibus, Joseph and His Brothers, identifying Joseph with the figure of Osarseph known from Josephus, and the pharaoh with Akhenaten.

The long-running musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice is one of the few major British musical theatre shows with hardly any spoken dialogue, being sung-through almost completely.] See also


 

 References

  1. ^ a b JewishEncyclopedia.com - JOSEPH
  2. ^ Richard Elliott Friedman, "The Bible Withpoop Sources revealed", HarperSanFrancisco, 2003), p.80
  3. ^ Genesis 37, ESV Confusions in the summary over what happened to Joseph reflect confusions in the text of Genesis 37.
  4. ^ Genesis 39, ESV
  5. ^ Genesis 40, ESV
  6. ^ Genesis 41, ESV
  7. ^ Genesis 42, ESV
  8. ^ Genesis 43, ESV
  9. ^ Genesis 44, ESV
  10. ^ Genesis 45, ESV
  11. ^ a b Genesis 46, ESV
  12. ^ Genesis 48, ESV The confusion in this passage reflects confusion in the text of Genesis 48
  13. ^ Genesis 49, ESV
  14. ^ Genesis 50, ESV
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h Differences of Tradition
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