Genesis Chapters 39-41
Chapter 39 A popular theory in some circles is that Joseph was in Egypt during the time that Semitic Hyksos rulers had control of Egypt. They ruled from about 1710-1570 B.C. Yet from the Bible chronologies we learned that Joseph was in Egypt long before this, that is, around 1898 B.C. Davis notes, “According to 1 Kings 6:1 the exodus from Egypt took place 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon. The fourth year of Solomon is usually regarded as about 966 B.C., meaning that the exodus occurred approximately 1446-45 B.C. The Egyptian sojourn was 430 years long (Exo. 12:40), so it began approximately 1875 B.C. This synchronizes with the dates normally accepted for the reign of Sesotris III: 1878-43 B.C. Evidence is abundant that Middle Kingdom pharaohs had interests in the Delta region. Sesostris’ capital, for example, was It-towy (Lisht), which is near the Delta. James R. Battenfield suggests that the Joseph story explains why Sesostris attempted to abolish feudalism: ‘Sesostris III bought out the landed monarchs not because of some sort of social revolution, but because of an economic disaster, a severe food storage’. Genesis 47:20 suggests that Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. If this marked the cessation of feudalism, as Battenfield suggests, ‘it would seem that Joseph could not have lived 215 years later in the fifteenth dynasty, Hyksos-dominated Egypt, because at that time (1674-1570) feudalism was being reinstituted and not abolished” (p. 267). Hence the following factors seem to indicate that the Hyksos domination of Egypt began at least a century after Joseph arrived and ended prior to Moses’s birth. The Hyksos were driven out in 1580 B.C. and the Exodus did not happen until 1446 B.C., at which time Moses was 80 years old, yet some scholars argue that the Hyksos domination of Egypt occurred much earlier, around 2000 B.C. Other factors seem to indicate that during the time of Joseph, he was dealing with Egyptian officials, who were truly Egyptian in nationality: 1. The strict
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