Does the Book of Genesis Name Abram’s “Pharaoh”? Yes, it Does.
Toledoth and chiasmus, the keys to the structure of the Book of Genesis, lead us to a real name for this Pharaoh. 1. Toledoth Since it was common in ancient Egyptian documents for the ruler of Egypt to be referred to therein simply as Pharaoh (Egyptian per-aa. “The Great House”. “Palace”), critics are not correct in their claim that the lack of an Egyptian name (e.g. Khety, Thutmose or Ramesses) for the ruler in the case of the Abram and Joseph narratives of Genesis (cf. 12:15 & 39:1) is a further testimony, as they think, to these texts being unhistorical. Since these texts refer to the ruler of Egypt only as “Pharaoh”, it is argued that we ought not to take them as being serious histories. It appears, however, from a consideration of the structures of the Book of Genesis, that the Holy Spirit may have a trick for us all, at least in the case of Abram’s history. From the now well-known theory of toledôt (or Toledoth, a Hebrew feminine plural), we might be surprised to learn that s...