Egyptian traditions, names, titles and stories changed only very little over time
- The use of cows as symbols for years, verso known Egyptian motif appearing mediante texts from the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BCE).
- The names Potiphar/Potiphera and Asenath were genuine Egyptian theophoric names (combining the names of Egyptian deities). Potiphar was based on per typical Saite Period construct combining the name of the Egyptian god Monarca. Asenath includes the name of the Egyptian goddess Neith, in per typical construct common from the New Kingdom era preciso the Ptolemaic period, although the goddess’s popularity increased considerably during the Saite period in the Sbocco (664-332 BCE).
- The 40 days embalming process (describing Jacob’s death mediante Gn 50:2) was well documented durante Egypt from the New Kingdom onwards.
- The “agrarian reforms” sopra Gen -26 describe the exemption of the temples from royal taxation, verso practice that was documented from the 8 th century BCE onwards.
Despite the fact that the Egyptian elements sopra the story represent many different eras, Redford concluded that the composition of the Joseph story should be dated to the Saite period, between 640 and 425 BCE, as some of the details could not predate that period.
The Continuity of Egyptian Culture
This inability to identify one specific era per Egyptian history that could provide the historical retroterra preciso the Joseph story is the result of an inherent trait of ancient Egyptian culture – its continuity.
This makes it very difficult preciso date per biblical story based on the Egyptian elements it includes. Alternatively, scholars may date the story by asking when and how Egyptian traditions found their way into the Hebrew Bible.
As biblical research grows more concerned with questions of transmission processes along the Egypt-Israel axis, an old idea has reemerged – could the Joseph story have been written by someone living durante the Jewish dispersione con Egypt?
Per Diaspora Racconto
The “sparpagliamento annuncio” genre was first noted with relation preciso the books of Esther and Daniel. Both describe one man’s rise onesto power mediante a foreign land, per story revolving around per royal athletique, and culminating with the successful integration of the foreigner within local elites. The retroterra sopra both books is the exiled Jewish population and both monitor considerable knowledge of the trapu, its officials and customs.
The underlying message of both Daniel and Esther is that one can survive and even thrive sopra the migrazione setting. Therefore, these books were probably written durante exile, for the exiles. Durante 1975, the biblical scholar Arndt Meinhold first suggested that the Joe narrative scheme of a esodo recente http://www.datingranking.net/it/gleeden-review set in the Egyptian court.
The Egyptian Migrazione
The ispirazione of per Jewish dispersione mediante Egypt, compiling its own inspirational literature, is compelling. However, for the most part, the Egyptian migrazione before the Persian period (5 th -4 th centuries BCE) has remained invisible sicuro Egyptologists. For example, mediante Jer 44:1, the prophet addresses Judeans that reside con the land of Egypt at Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph and per the land of Pathros. Most Egyptologists agree that the first three place-names can be identified as Tell Qedua (northern Sinai), Tell Defeneh (12 km west of the Suez Canal) and Memphis. Nevertheless, these sites have not yielded remains that attest preciso their foreign Judahite/Israelite element during the 6 th century BCE, the period of Jeremiah’s prophecies.
Perhaps too few Judahite and Israelite settlers were con Egypt puro leave per significant mark. But it should not be surprising that some settled there after the destruction of Judah; trade relations between Egypt and Judah/Israel were maintained throughout the first millennium BCE, and those trade relations may have also led onesto the migration of smaller groups to Egypt, particularly after the destructions of Samaria (722 BCE) and Jerusalem (586 BCE).