Joseph and Moses loom large in Egyptian dynastic history
by
Damien F. Mackey
Joseph
and Moses serve to knit together Egypt’s early dynastic history, and they even
bring into synchronicity the Old Kingdom with the so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom.
Introduction
Sirach
(Ecclesiasticus) renders to Joseph the highest praise (49:15): “… no man
like Joseph has been born, and his bones are cared for”.
Joseph, a
saviour of Egypt during the Famine, may have said this very thing of himself. For,
in what was one of his many Egyptian guises, as I think (see below), he will
say:
“I
am a man without equal …. I am the front of people and the back of people
because
(my) like will not exist; he will not exist.
(My)
like could not have been born; he was not born”.
Moses, on
the other hand, would probably never have said anything like this about
himself. Although it was later written of him that (Acts 7:22): “Moses was
educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and
action”, a contemporary view of him was this (Numbers 12:3): “Now Moses was a
very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth”.
Both holy
men had reason to boast.
The powerful
deeds of Moses in Egypt, and afterwards, are well known and popular.
But Joseph
achieved something that is also totally singular in the history of the world.
He was able, on the basis of his God-given ability to interpret dreams, to
persuade Pharaoh (perhaps young) to give him virtually unlimited power in the
land, in order to make massive preparations for a Famine that would not yet
emerge for some seven years. “… no man like Joseph has been born …”.
Moses had
grown up as a presumed son of a later dynastic Pharaoh, and had eventually
succeeded to the throne. But, as the royal power was not to his liking (cf. Hebrews
11:24-25), he soon abdicated, being content to serve the Egyptians as a high
official and a literary sage.
Joseph had
arrived in Egypt as a foreigner and a slave, but he would be catapulted into
becoming second only to Pharaoh himself (Genesis 41:43).
So competent
was Joseph, however, that he seems to have eclipsed even the Pharaoh.
Thus,
despite some similarities, we have two very different characters,
personalities, following two very different career paths. The meek and humble
Moses, brought up in all the trappings of royalty, would put these behind him.
The super-confident and somewhat boastful Joseph, a foreign slave, so rose up in
Egypt as to become a quasi-Pharaoh.
Joseph and
Moses serve to knit together Egypt’s early dynastic history, and they even
bring into synchronicity the Old Kingdom with the so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom.
Ancient
tradition ascribes to Joseph and to Moses the introduction of some epochal innovations.
Joseph is even said to have introduced hieroglyphics to Egypt. While that
cannot be correct, what we shall find is that he may actually have been the
first to make sentences out of the hieroglyphics. He may also have introduced
the Heb Sed festival, and the cartouche to enclose the royal name (a Third
Dynasty initiative) – this apart from his incredible Famine thwarting
infrastructural projects.
Finally,
Joseph seems to have brought to Old Kingdom Egypt a form of monotheism.
The Jew Artapanus
wrote of Moses (Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 9.27.1-37):
“As a grown
man he taught humanity many useful things. For he invented boats, machines for
laying stones, Egyptian weapons, and engines for drawing water and for war, and
he invented philosophy (philosophia). Furthermore, he divided the
country into thirty-six districts (nomoi)”.
The
singular, remarkable Joseph
“Then
Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh,
but
without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt’.”
Genesis
41:44
To keep it
as simple as possible I shall be referring here only to some few of the many alter
egos under which we may find the biblical Joseph in dynastic Egypt.
Let us start
with the easily explained Den (Udimu), located to Egypt’s First Dynasty.
His names
perfectly sum up Joseph. For Den was:
Usaphais
(Usaph
= Joseph);
Khasti = foreigner;
Den
= Bringer of Water.
That
is: Joseph, the foreigner, who brings [us] water.
And provide
water for a parched, Famine-wracked Egypt is precisely what Joseph had managed
to do with his erection of large temporary dams and his creation of some vital new
waterways.
For even the
important Lake Faiyum appears to have dried up during Egypt’s protracted
Famine.
Two
pharaonic names represent Joseph’s (Den’s) Famine Pharaoh, viz. Djer and
Djet, during whose reign First Dynasty Egypt suffered a severe Famine:
Taking
a Djet to Djoser’s famine
(3) Taking a Djet
to Djoser's Famine
Djer also
stands for the Third Dynasty Famine Pharaoh, Horus Netjerikhet,
whose famous Vizier, Imhotep, saved Egypt from a seven-year Famine.
Many have
rightly recognised Imhotep as the biblical Joseph.
Djet also
stands for the Eleventh Dynasty Famine Pharaoh, Horus Netjerihedjet (Mentuhotep
II), of Egypt’s so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom, again a Famine era for Egypt. Thus,
as I noted at the beginning,
Joseph
and Moses serve to knit together Egypt’s early dynastic history, and they even
bring into synchronicity the Old Kingdom with the so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom.
Contrary to
what is commonly thought, though, the Third Dynasty Famine Pharaoh,
Horus Netjerikhet, was not Djoser.
Djoser
(Zoser) was yet another version of Joseph/Imhotep, viz. Khasekhemwy Hetep-imef
(Hetep-imef = Imhotep), whom Egyptologists have floating awkwardly between
the Second and the Third Egyptian dynasties.
Much of
Joseph’s massive infrastructural Famine project can be found in the huge
temporary granaries built by Khasekhemwy, the Shunet el-Zebib at Abydos,
for instance, and, most probably, the Gisr el-Mudir at Saqqara.
Apart from
Den and Khasekhemwy-Imhotep, for Joseph, I would like to mention just two more
of his many Egyptian alter egos: viz. Seth-Peribsen and Ankhtifi.
Seth-Peribsen
appears to have introduced some form of monotheism to Old Kingdom (Second
Dynasty) Egypt in the form of the foreign god, Set.
The Heb Sed
festival, likely introduced by Den, may perhaps be a celebration of Set.
Certainly
the festival, in its early form, contains biblical (Genesis-like) elements:
Sed
Festival may have been inaugurated by Den-Djoser
(5) Sed Festival
may have been inaugurated by Den-Djoser
The first
full sentence written in mature hieroglyphs so far discovered was found on a
seal impression in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen.
Now I
conclude this singular, remarkable Joseph section with the Famine hero, Ankhtifi,
a name that I have suggested elsewhere may be a hypocoristicon of Joseph’s
given Egyptian name, Zaphenath paneah (Genesis 41:45).
Ankhtifi is the boastful character
whom we met at the beginning of this article, who had boldly proclaimed (at
least through the writings of the Egyptian scribes):
(My)
like could not have been born; he was not born”.
He will also,
most singularly, fail to make mention even of his contemporary Pharaoh:
Egypt’s
high official, Ankhtifi, outboasts even great Senenmut
(5) Egypt’s high official,
Ankhtifi, outboasts even great Senenmut
The reluctant
leader, Moses
“Moreover,
the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt,
in
the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people”.
Exodus
11:3
These same
words could well have been written of Joseph.
As I commented
about Joseph above, so now I say in the case of Moses: To keep it as simple as
possible I shall be referring here only to some few of the many alter egos under
which we may find the biblical [Moses] in dynastic Egypt.
In this
case, let us start with the tradition (Artapanus again) that the Egyptian
princess who drew Moses from the water, and who consequently named him (Exodus
2:10): “… the daughter of Pharaoh … called his name Moses and she said, ‘Because
I drew him out of the water’,” was one “Merris”, who became married to “Chenephres”.
This
information will be like a golden thread running through our historical reconstruction
of Moses.
Basically,
“Merris” is the Egyptian name, Meresankh (“she loves life”), or the inverted
Ankhesenmerire (also rendered as Ankhesenpepi), while “Chenephres” stands for
Khaneferre, or the inverted Nefer-ka-re (“the soul of Ra is perfect”).
We find
Neferkare, for instance, as pharaoh Pepi (I/II) of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty,
with Moses as his predecessor, the so far poorly understood, briefly reigning pharaoh,
Userkare.
Here we
encounter the very same traditional (and biblical) scenario of “Chenephres” - married
to an Ankhesenmerire (“Merris”) - who was jealous of Moses (who had abdicated
the throne), and who eventually had the opportunity to pursue Moses out of
Egypt and into the desert. This is a real historical situation: Userkare - Wikipedia
“The
representations of some high officials of the period have been deliberately
chiselled out in their tombs and their titles altered, for instance the word
"king" being replaced by that of "desert". Egyptologists
thus suspect that Pepi might have tried to erase all memory
of Userkare from
official records, monuments, tombs and artefacts”.
Name, “Moses”
While
Userkare may not be a Moses-like name, the biblical name is discernible (so I
believe) in some of the alter egos that I have suggested for Moses. For
instance, in the name Sinuhe, the famous character in Egyptian
literature whose flight from an enraged pharaoh Sesostris I, again a Neferkare,
is very roughly based upon the flight of Moses from that same Pharaoh.
This is a Twelfth
Dynasty, so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom, incident: Joseph and Moses … even
bringing into synchronicity the Old Kingdom with the so-called ‘Middle’
Kingdom.
Presumably,
the Egyptian scribes would not have been familiar with the secret of “Merris”,
how she came to have the baby, Moses, in the first place and the meaning of the
name that she gave to him.
In names
such as Sinuhe, (Pharaoh) Niuserre, and (General) Nysumontu, the
name Moses, Mu (Water) Sa (Son of) plus (Theophoric or God Name)
= “Water Baby”, can be discerned. Nu, Niu, Ny, equate to Egyptian Mu (mw),
“Water”, whilst the Si element in Sinuhe means “Son” (Sir
Flinders Petrie).
Moses
commonly occurs with the Uni type element as well. See my article:
Ini,
Weni, Iny, Moses
With Weni
of the Sixth Dynasty, in his famous Autobiography, Egyptian
hieroglyphic writing reaches a peak of literary excellence.
Weni was, like his Twelfth
Dynasty alter ego, Mentuhotep, the Vizier and Chief Judge of Egypt (cf. Exodus
2:14): ‘Who made you Ruler and Judge over us?’
In the Fifth
Dynasty pharaoh, Niuserre Ini, who was later deified, the Niu and
Ini elements of the Egyptian names of Moses are found together.
Finally,
Moses as a sage, writer, and teacher of Instructions, can be found in the deified
Ptahhotep (pharaoh Djedefptah), wrongly thought (as I once had) to be Joseph,
because of the association of him with 110 years (cf. Genesis 50:22).
But his Fifth
Dynasty location fits Moses, and not Joseph.
He is also
the teacher of Instructions, once again a Chief Judge and Vizier, Kagemni (that
Ni element again?) of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty.
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