Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<tladatsi AT charter.net>]

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