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  • From: <tladatsi AT charter.net>
  • To: <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Joseph: Israel - Hyksos - Egypt
  • Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 14:13:03 -0500

Karl,

Let us accept for the sake of argument that there is some
core element of the Joseph story is rooted in the Israel ?
Egypt ? Hyksos period. There are two versions being
argued.

1) The Israelites arrived in Egypt prior to the arrival
Hyksos. Certainly there is plenty of evidence for the
existence of an *Asiatic* presence in the north-east Nile
delta prior to the arrival of Hyksos. Your hypothesis
would see the the Hyksos conquer Egypt and then fear both
the native Egyptians and immigrant Israelite (Asiatic)
populations. However the Hyksos fear the Israelites more
than the Egyptians and enslave only the Israelites and
attempt to control only the Israelite population.

2) The other version, one I believe most other writers hold
on the issue, the Israelites arrive either with or after
the Hyksos and settle in the north-east Nile, near the
Hyksos capital. They enjoyed a relatively privileged, or
at least non-oppressed, position in society as allies, or
at least non-enemies, of the ruling caste. When the Hyksos
were expelled, the Israelites position was degraded, if
they were not actually enslaved. There are of course many
variations on this.

>From a purely historical perspective, the Israelites and
Hyksos seem natural allies in conquered Egypt before the
New Kingdom, if such a situation actually existed.

However, the real issue for the discussion here is not
history but the Hebrew text of the OT. The MT makes no
mention of the Hyksos or anyone other than Egyptians and
Israelites. The text as written makes clear that the
Egyptian king in the story is an indigenous Egyptian.
There is no indication that the King is afraid of the
Egyptians or that there is any sense of a possible alliance
between the Israelites and the native Egyptians (in Ex 2
the general Egyptian population seems at best neutral or
even hostile to the Israelites). I find it highly doubtful
that any reader / listener in ancient or modern times would
have, with a plain text reading, have taken the Egyptian
king as anything other than an indigenous Egyptian.


Jack Tladatsi




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