Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Dating Joseph

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Dating Joseph
  • Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 06:49:26 +0100


Mr. Washburn has pointed out that perhaps the statement that Joseph was
responsible for setting aside 20% of the harvest for Pharaoh might be a
"historical marker" for dating Genesis, and wondered if any research has
been done on this subject.

The answer is yes. But I am afraid that Conservative scholarship is going to
be dismayed about the results of the investigation. The Egyptologist who did
the research on the Joseph story concluded that it must have been created in
the Post-Exilic period, sometime after 525 BCE, after Egypt had been
captured by Cambyses of Persia.

Briefly quoted are Redford's observations:

"In detail, what does the author know (or think he knows) about these
matters ? To him Pharaoh is the owner of all the land of Egypt, except
temple land, as well as all the livestock; the inhabitants are his slaves,
while the priests were his salaried employees. At planting seed is handed
out to the peasants, and at harvest one-fifth of the produce goes to
Pharaoh...In the sixth century we have the explicit statement that...the
great temples were usually not taxed. With respect to the 20 % that went to
Pharaoh, it is possible to elicit this rate elsewhere in the tax structure
of Late Period Egypt; but Papyrus Rylands IX yields unequivocal evidence.
There it is stated that, in the Saite period the temple income (in edibles)
was alloted as salaries to the four phyles of priests into which the temple
staff was divided, 20 % per phyle (Papyrus Rylands IX, 13, 8). The remaining
20 % was called the "Portion of Pharaoh" (Papyrus Rylands IX, 3, 17-18; 15,
3-4) and could be disposed of at Pharaoh's discretion." (pp.425-6, Professor
Donald B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, Princeton, New
Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-691-00086-7 )

Redford calls attention to details in the Joseph story betraying it is a
Persian Period composition:

"On the other hand, some descriptions have direct application to Egypt. the
term 'overseers' in Genesis 41:34, the officials whom Joseph advises to
appoint, is an Aramaic title ubiquitious in the Egyptian administration
during the Persian period (525-410 BC). The word saris of Genesis 37:36,
rendered variously 'officer' or 'eunuch,' has long been recognized to be a
rendering of sa resi, the common Akkadian title of the Assyrian
administration. Whether in fact it here means 'eunuch' is besides the point.
The title seems only to be found in the Persian administration of Egypt,
where it is applied to high-ranking governors (cf. Papyrus Rylands IX
passim, where the srs is the term given to the Persian provincial
governors)."
(p.425, Redford)

All the best,

Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page