Joseph -- What a Story! (The Genesis Series, Part 45)

The skeptics are looking for answers…but not really. 

Years ago, I was discussing the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with a believer who had yet to be baptized in the Holy Ghost.  I asked him: would you like to receive this marvelous gift, even as the New Testament believers did on the day of Pentecost? His mouth said YES, but his head was gesturing NO—and I mean LITERALLY. Try that: Say YES, but shake your head NO.  Or say NO, but gesture YES. 

That is the state of God’s critics, those claiming to be searching for answers: Their mouths say GIVE ME PROOF, but their heads say NO WAY.

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN as Jesus states in John 3:3?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.      

In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you follow from your heart, you will literally  be born a second time, this time of the Spirit of God.  You MUST be BORN AGAIN. Today, all your sin and shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood.  Isaiah 1:18 reads:

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  

Today, ALL of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken—every single one, the bigger the better.  TODAY, say YES and gesture the same way.  Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 41:53-54:

53 And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.

54 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.

GOD SAID, Genesis 47:13-20:

13 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.

14 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.

15 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 faileth.

16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.

17 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.

18 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:

19 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.

20 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.

GOD SAID, Psalm 105:16-23:

16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.

17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:

18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:

19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.

20 The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.

21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:

22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.

23 Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

MAN SAID: The Bible is simply NOT credible.  Just forget about it!

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1265 that will once again victoriously contend for the beautiful Book, God’s Holy Bible. All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as a platform from which to fish for the lost souls of the sons and daughters of Adam.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.

THANK YOU for visiting.  May God’s face shine upon you with Light and Truth.

You have arrived at the GodSaidManSaid “Genesis Series;” this is Part 45.  Each of these features begins with the following information from the first feature:

According to a 2006 issue of Discover magazine concerning the deceased Carl Sagan: “Sagan approaches religion like any phenomenon.  He isn’t on a quest for life’s meaning, for a comforting philosophy, or even a guide to how we should treat the neighbors.  Sagan seeks truth of a demonstrable kind.  As a puckish example, he wonders why the book of Genesis didn’t include God-inspired truths…” [End of quote]

I recently reviewed an advertisement from a magazine called Free Inquiry that also has a problem with the God of Creation and the first book of the Bible, called Genesis.  Under the heading “Is God Big Enough for the Universe,” Free Inquiry writes:

The authors of Genesis proclaim that God made the heavens and earth in less than a week.  This feat must have amazed these Bronze Age authors, even though they thought the heavens extended only so far as the sky above them.  Of course, they did not know what stars, planets, or galaxies were.  We now know that the universe is so much bigger and so much more complex. [End of quote]

The BORN AGAIN scratch their heads in bewilderment.  Did these folks actually read the book of Genesis? I suppose they did, but God’s revelation is only revealed to the humbled hearts of the children of faith.  This GodSaidManSaid series will be called “The Genesis Series.”  It is our intention to travel through the entire book of Genesis and publish one major God-inspired truth after another.  We will be pulling from previous GodSaidManSaid features and adding the latest information as we go.

When God’s Word says YES, thousands of Satan’s champions will leap to their feet and shout NO!!  The question is whose Word will be proven true? 

In the Book of Genesis, the first Book of the Bible, thirteen entire chapters tell the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel.  And it is such a marvelous story, demonstrating the intricate, secret ordering of events by He who knows the end from the beginning.  Did God get it wrong?  Are the world’s academics correct?  Is 26% of the Book of Genesis—which declares the story of Joseph—simply an old fairytale?

The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Joseph and Pharah—History and Archaeology Give a Big Thumbs Up!”

In Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, there is a record of great antiquity, an account given of a young man whose name was Joseph, the son of Israel (Israel’s birth name was Jacob).  Joseph’s mother’s name was Rachel.  Joseph was Rachel’s first-born son.  This was the Joseph who was given the coat of many colors, and was sold into slavery by his jealous half-brothers (excluding Benjamin) who would later become the heads of the tribes of Israel.  Joseph was sold to an Ishmaelite caravan of merchants.  These Ishmaelite merchants were distant kin to Joseph because their progenitor, Ishmael, was the half-brother to Isaac, the grandfather of Joseph.  The Ishmaelites purchased the 17-year-old Joseph from his jealous brothers and sold him to a rich Egyptian by the name of Potiphar.  After a period of time, Joseph was placed in charge of all of Potiphar’s affairs.  Potiphar had an evil wife who attempted to seduce the young Joseph, but Joseph refused to commit this evil with his master’s wife.  After her repeated attempts at seduction, Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of attempting to rape her and he was thrown into an Egyptian prison.  Because the favor of God shined upon Joseph, he was quickly elevated to the head of affairs of the prison and resided there until the age of 30. 

During his confinement in prison,  Joseph (now about 28 years old) interpreted the dreams of two of Pharaoh’s former officers, whom Pharaoh also had imprisoned.  Both interpretations came true.  According to Joseph’s interpretation, one officer was put to death, and the other, Pharaoh’s butler, was restored to his position.  A short period of time passed and the Pharaoh of Egypt also had two troubling dreams.  No one in his kingdom could interpret their meaning.  But Pharaoh’s butler remembered a young man named Joseph who had the supernatural ability to interpret the deep secrets of dreams, for this butler had once had a dream while in prison and it was Joseph who declared its meaning. 

Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s two dreams: Joseph said that Pharaoh''s dreams meant that Egypt would have seven years of great abundance, followed by seven years of great famine—a famine so great that the seven years of abundance would be consumed by its dearth and fully forgotten.  Because of Pharaoh’s dreams and Joseph’s interpretations of them, Joseph counseled Pharaoh to build grain centers in Egypt and store one-fifth of all crops during the years of plenty to preserve life during the great famine.  The Pharaoh followed Joseph’s counsel. 

This Joseph became the most powerful man in the world.  It was he who, by God’s hand, made Pharaoh the ultimate Egyptian power that he became.  Joseph was truly a king-maker.  Thus he became a father to Pharaoh.

The story continues with Jacob sending his sons into Egypt to purchase food, for there was none in Canaan.  While in Egypt, the brothers reunited with their brother Joseph, whom they had sold into slavery about 22 years earlier, and their conversation is recorded in Genesis.  Jacob, who had grieved all those years believing his son was dead, was overwhelmed to discover that Joseph was not only, in fact, alive, but also second only to Pharaoh in the ruling of all the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh heard of all of Joseph’s story, he instructed Joseph to bring Jacob and all his offspring into Egypt to dwell in the best of the land.  The children of Israel came and settled in a place called Goshen. 

Could such a magnificent account disappear without a trace from history?  Was it just a fairy tale?  Is there a record in secular history? 

According to author David Rohl, who wrote the research book Pharaohs and Kings, during the time of Joseph:

Three regional departments were set up to oversee the agricultural labor, conscript labor and storage of grain supplies for redistribution to the Egyptian population during periods of famine.  Avaris [in Goshen] is the site of one of the three regional departments. 

Now, Goshen was where the children of Israel resided.  There is also archaeological evidence that a famine was preceded by a bumper harvest during the time of Joseph. 

During the seven years of famine, things were so bad that the people of Egypt were forced to sell their animals, lands, and their own selves to Pharaoh in exchange for food.  Rohl continues:

The local chieftains found their own grain silos exhausted and were forced to sell their land holdings to the Pharaoh.  The power of the governors of Egypt was broken and Pharaoh became the sole authority in Egypt—the evidence for this is that the grand tombs of the governors of Egypt ceased to be built.  This signals the diminution of the authority of a semi-independent nobility and the return of political control to the kingship. 

According to the great Jewish historian Josephus in his account of The Antiquities of the Jews, Joseph was honored by Pharaoh with the title “’Psothom Phanech’ out of regard for his prodigious degree of wisdom, for that name denotes the revealer of secrets.” 

Halley’s Bible Handbook records that in 1912, archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie reports the discovery of palace ruins he believes was the palace of Joseph, the father of Pharaoh. 

The following papyrus uncovered by archaeologists establishes the famine in the times of Joseph and also the fact that the other nations of the region were coming to Egypt to find food.  It reads:

A frontier official writes to his superior: “I have another matter to bring to the attention of my lord and it is this: We have permitted the transit of the Bedouin tribes from Edom via the Menephta fort in Zeku, to the fen-lands of the city of Per-Atum…so that they may preserve their own lives and the lives of their flocks on the estate of the king, the good Sun of every land…”

The next excerpt is taken from Werner Keller’s widely-read and recognized book, The Bible as History:

The town of Medinet-el-Faiyum, lying 80 miles south of Cairo in the middle of the fertile Faiyum, is extolled as the “Venice of Egypt.”  In the lush gardens of this huge flourishing oasis grow oranges, mandarins, peaches, olives, pomegranates, and grapes.  Faiyum owes these delicious fruits to the artificial canal, over 200 miles long, which conveys the water of the Nile and turns this district, which would otherwise be desert, into a paradise.  The ancient waterway is not only to this day called “Bahr Yusuf”—“Joseph’s Canal”—by the local people, but is known by this name throughout Egypt.  People say that it was the Joseph of the Bible, Pharaoh’s “Grand Vizier,” as Arab legends would describe him, who planned it.  [End of quotes]

Researcher and author Grant Jeffrey, in his 336-page book The Signature of God, writes the following under the section heading, “Joseph and the Seven Years of Famine:”

An intriguing inscription confirms the Bible’s account of the “seven years of great plenty” followed by the “seven years of famine” when Joseph served Pharaoh in Egypt (see Genesis 41:29-30).  This inscription was discovered during the nineteenth century in southern Saudi Arabia. The inscription was found on a marble tablet in a ruined fortress on the seashore of Hadhramaut in present-day Yemen.  An examination of the writing suggests that it was written approximately eighteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, a time that corresponds with the Biblical narrative about Jacob and his twelve sons.  This inscription was first rendered in Arabic by Professor Hendrik Albert Schultens and was later translated into English by Rev. Charles Forster:

We dwelt at ease in this castle a long tract of time; nor had we a desire but for the region-lord of the vineyard.

Hundreds of camels returned to us each day at evening, their eye pleasant to behold in their resting-places.

And twice the number of our camels were our sheep, in comeliness like white does, and also the slow moving kine. 

We dwelt in this castle seven years of good life—how difficult for memory its description!

Then came years barren and burnt up: when one evil year had passed away, then came another to succeed it.

And we became as though we had never seen a glimpse of good.

They died and neither foot nor hoof remained.

Thus fares it with him who renders not thanks to God:

His footsteps fail not to be blotted out from his dwelling. 

However, the greatest treasure of all was an engraved stone tablet bearing the woman’s final inscription, which appears to confirm the Biblical account of Joseph’s careful management of food reserves during the seven years of famine in Egypt.  The original engraving was photographed and appeared in Professor Carsten Niebuhr’s Voyage en Arabie (plate 59).  The Yemenite inscription reads as follows:

In thy name O God, the God of Hamyar, I Tajah, the daughter of Dzu Shefar, sent my steward to Joseph,

And he delaying to return to me, I sent my hand maid

With a measure of silver, to bring me back a measure of flour:

And not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of gold:

And not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of pearls:

And not being able to procure it, I commanded them to be ground:

And finding no profit in them, I am shut up here.

Whosoever may hear of it, let him commiserate me;

And should any woman adorn herself with an ornament

From my ornaments, may she die with no other than my death.

This inscription reveals a Yemenite Arab noblewoman’s complaint that she could not purchase Egypt’s grain with her gold.  The tragic history of famines often recorded the bartering of the most valuable jewels and precious metals in trade for the smallest amount of food available. [End of quotes]

Then again, under the heading “Ancient Egyptian Coins Bearing the Image of Joseph,” Jeffrey writes:

Recent research conducted on previously overlooked Egyptian coins confirms the Biblical story of Joseph and his role in government service in ancient Egypt.  In 2009, archaeological authorities from the Egyptian National Museum announced that a cache of ancient coins had been “rediscovered.”  Initially discovered almost a century earlier, the coins had been in storage.  They were uncovered in the vast storage vaults of the national museum and the Antiquities Authority.  Cairo’s Al Ahram newspaper reported that the coins bear the name and image of the Biblical Joseph. 

The cache of more than five hundred coins had been set aside decades earlier in the belief that they were miscellaneous objects of worship and likely of no significance.  However, scientists re-examined the coins using recently-developed technology and discovered that a number of them dated to the time of ancient Egypt.  Most of the coins were engraved with the year they were minted and their monetary value and the effigies or images of the pharaohs ruling Egypt when the coins were minted.  Researchers concluded that the “Joseph coins” originated in the period when Joseph served as Pharaoh’s treasurer—during the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine (see Genesis 41:17-45).  Biblical history suggests a date for Joseph’s high position in the Egyptian government that coincides with the date of the minting of the coins in the cache (approximately 2000 BC).  Amazingly, some of the coins bear both Joseph’s name and image.

On its website, Israel National News reported that the Egyptian archaeologists “discovered many charms from various eras before and after the period of Joseph, including one that bore his effigy as the minister of the treasury in the Egyptian pharaoh’s court.” 

Archaeologists had previously believed that the Egyptians of Joseph’s day did not use coins but rather used barter to trade.  However, Dr. Sa’id Muhammad Thabet, head of the research team, found several Koranic verses that speak of coins being used in ancient Egypt.  He concluded that the coins were genuine and that their stated date of minting was accurate. He confirmed that the dates agreed with both Biblical and historical chronology. 

Thabet’s team described the “Joseph coins” as having:

two faces: one with an inscription, called the inscribed face, and one with an image, called the engraved face—just like the coins we use today… Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in Egypt… [T]here was one coin that had an inscription on it, and an image of a cow symbolizing Pharaoh’s dream about the seven fat cows and seven lean cows, and the seven green stalks of grain and seven dry stalks of grain.

Joseph’s name appears twice on this coin, written in hieroglyphs: once the original name Joseph, and once his Egyptian name, Saba Sabani, which was given to him by Pharaoh when he became treasurer.  There is also an image of Joseph, who was part of the Egyptian administration at the time. [End of quotes]

From the GodSaidManSaid feature, “The World’s Oldest Alphabet and Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors:”

From the very first three words of God’s Word—“In the beginning”—the challenge begins.  Skeptics challenge the manuscripts, the translators, the writers, the chronology, the historicity.  They challenge its accuracy, mock its miracles, and above all, carnal man’s champions challenge its supernatural and inerrant authorship.  Be of good cheer, saints, the hordes of challengers have failed every time.  Did the Jewish people migrate into Egypt’s land of Goshen as a result of famine, there to dwell and multiply from the original 70 into millions before the Exodus?

The headline of ScienceNews.org on November 19, 2016 reads, “Oldest Alphabet Identified as Hebrew.”  A few paragraphs follow:

The world’s earliest alphabet, inscribed on stone slabs at several Egyptian sites, was an early form of Hebrew, a controversial new analysis concludes. 

Israelites living in Egypt transformed that civilization’s hieroglyphics into Hebrew 1.0 more than 3,800 years ago, at a time when the Old Testament describes Jews living in Egypt, says archaeologist and epigrapher Douglas Petrovich of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada.  Hebrew speakers seeking a way to communicate in writing with other Egyptian Jews simplified the pharaoh’s complex hieroglyphic writing system into 22 alphabetic letters, Petrovich proposed on November 17 at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 

That’s a highly controversial contention among scholars of the Bible and ancient civilizations.  Many argue, despite what’s recounted in the Old Testament, that Israelites did not live in Egypt as long ago as proposed by Petrovich.  Biblical dates for the Israelites’ stay in Egypt are unreliable, they say. 

Petrovich says his big break came in January 2012.  While conducting research at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, he came across the word “Hebrews” in a text from 1874 BC that includes the earliest known alphabetic letter.  According to the Old Testament, Israelites spent 434 years in Egypt, from 1876 BC to 1442 BC. 

Petrovich then combined previous identifications of some letters in the ancient alphabet with his own identifications of disputed letters to peg the script as Hebrew.  Armed with the entire fledgling alphabet, he translated 18 Hebrew inscriptions from three Egyptian sites. 

Several Biblical figures turn up in the translated inscriptions, including Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his half-brothers and then became a powerful political figure in Egypt, Joseph’s wife Asenath and Joseph’s son Manasseh, a leading figure in a turquoise-mining business that involved yearly trips to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.  Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt, is also mentioned, Petrovich says. 

One inscription, dated to 1834 BC, translates as “Wine is more abundant than the daylight, than the baker, than a nobleman.”  This statement probably meant that, at that time or shortly before, drink was plentiful, but food was scarce.  [End of quotes]

The headline on DailyWire.com reads, “Earliest Alphabet Ever Identified as Hebrew: Substantiates Biblical Narrative.”  Excerpts follow:

A new report states that the oldest alphabet in the world is Hebrew, and substantiates Biblical claims that the Hebrews indeed lived in Egypt at the time of the Exodus.

Archaeologist and epigrapher Douglas Petrovich of Wilfrid Lauier University in Waterloo, Canada, studied stone slabs at several Egyptian sites, and found that the Israelites translated hieroglyphics into Hebrew 1.0 over 3,800 years ago. 

Petrovich was anticipated by a German scholar in the 1920s who identified the ancient Egyptian writing as Hebrew, but could not identify many letters in the alphabet.  But in January 2012, Petrovich found the word “Hebrews” in a text from 1874 BC that includes the earliest-known alphabetic letter at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.  Traditional Jewish texts attribute the Israelites’ sojourn in Egypt from 1876 BC to 1442 BC. 

Petrovich mixed previous identifications of some letters in the ancient alphabet with his own identifications of disputed letters so he could identify the script as Hebrew.  He then translated 18 Hebrew inscriptions from three Egyptian sites, finding references to the Biblical figures of Moses, Joseph, his wife Asenath, and Joseph’s son Manasseh.  [End of quotes]

The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature “Joseph’s Famine (Minimalists Minimalized):”

The marvelous story of Joseph and Pharaoh, and Joseph’s transformation from prisoner to kingmaker in mere minutes, has been regarded as nonsense by the “wisest” amongst us, but wait! Was there such a time of famine that affected “all the face of the earth,” even as the Bible reports? The headline from a January 26, 2022 feature on Nature.com reads, “Did a Mega Drought Topple Empires 4,200 Years Ago?” Several paragraphs follow:

The missing earthworms were a sign.  As archaeologist Harvey Weiss and his colleagues excavated a site in northeast Syria, they found a buried layer of windblown silt so barren there was hardly any evidence of earthworms at work during that ancient era.  Something drastic had happened thousands of years ago—something that choked the land with dust for decades, leaving a blanket of soil too inhospitable even for earthworms.

For Weiss, it was the start of a research endeavor spanning decades.  He has become convinced that the drought of 2200 BC was not confined to Mesopotamia, but rather that it had effects around the globe.  What’s more, the Akkadian Empire was not the only complex society that was disrupted or overthrown as a result. “We’ve got Mesopotamia, the Nile, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean all the way to Spain," says Weiss.  In all these places, he says, there is evidence from around 4,200 years ago for a drying climate, for the collapse of central authorities, and for people moving to escape the newly arid zones. 

Ocean sediments off the coast of South Asia record arid conditions in the region between 4,200 and 3,900 years ago. 

Nevertheless, a consensus is beginning to emerge that some type of drying event happened around 4,200 years ago across an extended area that had an impact on the people living there—even if it was not the global upheaval that Weiss argues for.

“It’s pretty conclusive that the [drying event of 4,200 years ago] exists in the Mediterranean,” says Nick Scroxton, a palaeoclimatologist at Maynooth University in Ireland. The drought affected parts of the Middle East, but he says that the evidence elsewhere is “inconclusive.”

The drought presumably made it harder to raise crops, meaning there would not have been enough food for the city’s population.  And the pattern was not unique to Tell Leilan, an archaeological site.  There were similar abandonments extending from the Mediterranean to the Indus,” says Weiss.  This suggested that the drought spanned much of southwest Asia, leading to societal upheaval.

There is evidence that the flow of the Nile River decreased from 2200 BC.  Weiss says the best explanation is a decrease in the monsoon rains that feed the Nile. [End of quotes]

TheNature feature proposes a date of 3,900 to 4,200 years ago.  Bishop Ussher, a highly acclaimed ancient chronologist, published his book The Annals of The World in the 1600s, and dated the beginning of the famine recorded in Genesis to 3,730 years ago.  Concerning the dating of this archaeological discovery, AnswersInGenesis.org weighs in with their May 20, 2022 feature, “Evidence for the Seven-Year Famine of Joseph’s Time Found?” Excerpts follow:

This evidence from supposedly 4,200 years ago is based on U-Th dating [Uranium-Thorium Dating] on a stalagmite in Mawmluh Cave in the Meghalaya region of India and is also listed in the most recent International Commission on Statigraphy update to the geological timescale as the start of the current age, the Meghalayan.  But the U-Th dating method is built upon layers of uniformitarian assumptions and has been shown to be inaccurate. 

Even the Nature article admits to some problems with accurately dating the timing of this event. 

According to conventional Egyptian dating and using a long sojourn, Joseph holds high office under the reign of Sesostris III (c. 1878-1843 BC). According to Ussher’s dates (based on a short sojourn), this would have been in 1715 BC, with the famine then starting in 1708 BC.  Many city-states probably did collapse or move down to Egypt to buy grain and sell livestock.  Towards the end of that seven-year period of famine, we read more about Egypt and the land of Canaan.  As time went on, people ran out of money and bartered their livestock, lands, and ultimately their freedom to buy food, as mentioned in Genesis 47:13-21.  It is evident that this drought was very harsh in Egypt and Canaan. 

While not deliberately meaning to, this study fits nicely with the Biblical account of the famine of Joseph’s time and closely ties in with paleoclimatic data (when radiocarbon and radiometric dates are adjusted to Biblical timescales), which shows a desertification creeping across India, Saudi Arabia, and northern Africa.  All these countries (and the rest of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern region) almost certainly came to Egypt for grain.  [End of quotes]

When God’s Word reports on a matter, the truly wisest amongst us approach with their ear bowed down. [End of quotes]

This final piece of information comes from Dr. Titus Kennedy’s book, Unearthing The Bible:

The Gold of Valor or Gold of Honor was an ancient Egyptian award, usually in the form of a large gold necklace, given to those who performed exceptional service to the pharaoh and the nation.  The practice goes back to before 1600 BC during the Second Intermediate Period and around the lifetime of Joseph.  The Egyptian pharaohs Kamose and Ahmose I awarded the Gold of Valor necklace to Queen Ahhotep for her support in the war against the Hyksos in the 16^th century BC.  The Gold of Valor was also bestowed twice on the military official Ahmose son of Ebana for his exceptional service in battles for the pharaoh. 

Further, the discovery of a ceremonial offering of severed enemy hands found at Avaris, which according to Egyptian texts was an offering that could result in receiving the Gold of Valor honor, demonstrates that this Egyptian custom had been adopted by the Hyksos and was also used in northern Egypt at the time when Joseph lived and served in the royal court.

High-ranking soldiers and officers of the king, such as Horemheb and Ay during the 18^th Dynasty, also received this award.  In the tomb of Horemheb at Saqqara, a stone relief depicts him receiving the Gold of Valor for his exceptional service as commander of the army. 

After Joseph interpreted for the pharaoh a dream about a future famine, then advised the king that they should gather 20 percent of their produce during the good years and store it under guard for the coming years of famine, the pharaoh awarded Joseph the “gold necklace” or Gold of Valor for wisdom that would save Egypt.  Genesis 41:42:

And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph''s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;

[End of quote]

Can one rely upon the Word of God?  The headline in the Jerusalem Post reads, “Dr. Eilat Mazar: The Bible as Blueprint.”  A paragraph follows:

Mazar, who is both revered and reviled by some of her colleagues for being a “Biblical archaeologist,” says the Bible is unquestionably the most important historical source for her work since it contains a “genuine historical account of the past.” “I work with the Bible in one hand and the tools of excavation in the other,” she says. “The Bible is the most important historical source.”  [End of quote]

A man once said:

“We reject with scorn all those learned and labored myths that Moses was but a legendary figure upon whom the priesthood and the people hung their essential social, moral, and religious ordinances.  We believe that the most scientific view, the most up-to-date and rational conception, will find its fullest satisfaction in taking the Bible story literally.  We may be sure that all these things happened just as they are set out according to Holy Writ.  We may believe that they happened to people not so very different from ourselves, and that the impressions those people received were faithfully recorded, and have been transmitted across centuries with far more accuracy than many of the telegraphed accounts we read of goings on of today.  In the words of a forgotten work of Mr. Gladstone, we rest with assurance upon ‘The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture.’  Let men of science and learning expand their knowledge, and probe with their researches, every detail of the records which have been preserved for us from those dim ages.  All they will do is fortify the grand simplicity and essential accuracy of these recorded truths which have so far lighted the pilgrimage of man.”

That man was Winston Churchill.

God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, a place to build a life that will last forever.

GOD SAID, Genesis 41:53-54:

53 And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended.

54 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.

GOD SAID, Genesis 47:13-20:

13 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.

14 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.

15 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 faileth.

16 And Joseph said, Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fail.

17 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.

18 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:

19 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.

20 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.

GOD SAID, Psalm 105:16-23:

16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.

17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:

18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:

19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.

20 The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.

21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:

22 To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.

23 Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

MAN SAID: The Bible is simply NOT credible.  Just forget about it!

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Blumner, R., Free Inquiry

GodSaidManSaid, “Joseph and Pharaoh—History and Archaeology Gives a Big Thumbs Up!”

GodSaidManSaid, “Joseph’s Famine (Minimalists Minimized)”

GodSaidManSaid, “The World’s Oldest Alphabet and Jospeh and the Coat of Many Colors”

Kennedy, T., Unearthing the Bible, Harvest House Publishers, 2020

 

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