Archeological Evidence of the Biblical Joseph’s existence

In 1995, archeologist Manfred Bietak, of the Aaustrian Institute for Egyptology, discovered the ruins of a palace at a place in Egypt called Tell ed-Daba. The palace was owned by a high Semitic official. The palace was located in Avaris, which is the location of the Biblical Goshen. Goshen is the area given to Jacob and his sons by Pharaoh, shortly after arriving in Egypt from Canaan (Gen. 46:28,34). The palace was built in a style native to North Syria and the Levant.

Bietak interpreted this as clear evidence that there were highly placed Canaanite or Levantine officials serving the Egyptian crown. The palace had two rows of 12 pillars at the home’s center. Jacob’s family, with 12 brothers, originated in Harran, in what we now call Syria. All of the pottery and weapons discovered were of Canaanite origin. Archeologists discovered at the palace and villa garden complex a cemetery containing 12 principal tombs. One of the tombs had a distinct small superstructure that some describe as a pyramid. In this tomb, Bietak discovered an approximately 3-meter, larger-than-life statue of a non-Egyptian official. Bietak confirmed that this statue had a mushroom-shaped hairstyle (classic Egyptian marker for people from the Levant) with traces of dark red/flame red paint remaining. (Joseph had red hair). The skin was painted with a pale yellow tone, which was Egyptian standard for rendering Semitic people. The statue’s shoulder bore a “throw-stick”, the Egyptian determinative for a foreigner. Fragments of the garment on the statue showed circles of red, blue, white and black paint, similar to Joseph’s coat of many colors (Gen:46:28, 34).

The primary tomb, with the small pyramid, was found entirely empty of a skeleton or mummy. In the Torah, Joseph said he did not want his bones left in Egypt (Genesis 50:24-25) and wanted them taken to Canaan. Moses took Joseph’s bones from Egypt and brought them to the border with Canaan, where he died (Exodus 13:19). Joseph’s bones were finally buried in Canaan by Joshua (Joshua 24:32). The missing bones could have been taken away in piety, because robbers of graves want valuable items, not worthless bones.

Bietak found the statue had been smashed and the eyes intentionally gouged out.  The attack on the statue could indicate a time after Joseph died, when a pharaoh took power “that knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8) or by angry Egyptians after the Jews left Egypt with great Egyptian wealth and/or the death of the first born of all Egyptians, as said in Exodus. The Goshen palace is said by some to be in the era of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, who reigned in Egypt from about 1680-1633 BCE, which is considered the era when Joseph ruled Egypt as vizier. Also, Bietak’s excavation found a seal cylinder of the owner’s which depicted 12 images that have been interpreted as the 12 tribes of Israel.  All of the above information indicates that this may have been the home and land given by Pharaoh to Joseph and his brothers.

There are also Egyptian papyri and steles discovered in Egypt that indicate that the Biblical Joseph was a real person. The papyrus Brooklyn, 35.1446, housed in the Brooklyn Museum in New York, contains a reference to a Semitic vizier of Egypt named Ankhu. The Egyptian name of this vizier, Zatenaf Pa’ankh, is a strong fit for the Genesis name of Joseph as Zafenath Pa’aneah (Genesis 41:45). Ankhu is referred to as the “Vizier, the Overseer of the City and the Overseer of the Six Great Courts”. These exalted titles echo the exalted position of Joseph as Vizier of Egypt in the Torah.

Papyrus Brooklyn also mentions a list of domestic slaves who worked on an agricultural estate in Thebes. The slaves have Hebrew names, like Asher, Issachar, and Menahem, names also mentioned in Exodus. There is also a Stele of Amenyseneb, a deceased Egyptian priest, who refers to Ankhu as the Vizier of Egypt and mentions a son of Ankhu named Reniseneb, who is a mere scribe at this point. Then there is the Stele of Reniseneb, a tall funerary stele from the 13th Dynasty, Pharaoh Amenemhat III’s time. This stele refers to Ankhu as a Semite and that he had two sons, named Renisieneb and Lymeru, now high court officials, who are also referred to as Semites. This is similar to Biblical Joseph, who had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. The high status of these two sons may account for Joseph’s blessing in Genesis 48:20, where he blesses his sons with words “may Hashem make you like Menassseh and Ephraim”.

Reneiseneb’s Stele, written after Ankhu’s and Reniseneb’s death, refers to Reniseneb only as the son of Asenat, the Egyptian whom Ankhu (Joseph) married. A similarly named woman is referred to in Genesis 41:45,50.  The failure of this stele to mention Ankhu as the father of Reniseneb may indicate that Ankhu’s status may have been diminished after death. Perhaps the Pharaoh who knew Joseph (Ankhu) had died and had been replaced by a Pharaoh “that knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8).

There are several sources that were relied on in this post, including Manfred Bietak’s description of his 1995 excavation in the book “Avaris, the Capital of the Hyksos:Recent Excavations at Tell el-Daba” (1996). Also relied on were the works of Egyptologist and historian David Rohl, and his development of his controversial “New Chronology” of ancient Egypt in “Pharaohs and Kings: A Biblical Quest” (1996). Rohl’s work was heavily featured in the popular documentary “Patterns of Evidence: Exodus”.

Many in the Egyptological community reject Rohl’s “New Chronology”. Also relied on was the 213 page protothesis of Michael S. Bar-Ron, a formerly practicing Rabbi who now is an archeology graduate student Ariel University in Israel, under the supervision of Dr. Pieter Gert van der Veen, the senior lecturer of Levantine Archeology at Johnes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany.  Bar-Ron’s thesis is at https://www.academia.edu/12946567/