Joseph and Moses loom large in Egyptian dynastic history

 

by

 Damien F. Mackey

 

Joseph and Moses serve to knit together Egypt’s early dynastic history, and they even bring into synchronicity the Old Kingdom with the so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom.

  

Introduction

 

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) renders to Joseph the highest praise (49:15): “… no man like Joseph has been born, and his bones are cared for”.

Joseph, a saviour of Egypt during the Famine, may have said this very thing of himself. For, in what was one of his many Egyptian guises, as I think (see below), he will say:

 

“I am a man without equal …. I am the front of people and the back of people

because (my) like will not exist; he will not exist.

(My) like could not have been born; he was not born”.

 

Moses, on the other hand, would probably never have said anything like this about himself. Although it was later written of him that (Acts 7:22): “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action”, a contemporary view of him was this (Numbers 12:3): “Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth”.

 

Both holy men had reason to boast.

 

The powerful deeds of Moses in Egypt, and afterwards, are well known and popular.

 

But Joseph achieved something that is also totally singular in the history of the world. He was able, on the basis of his God-given ability to interpret dreams, to persuade Pharaoh (perhaps young) to give him virtually unlimited power in the land, in order to make massive preparations for a Famine that would not yet emerge for some seven years. “… no man like Joseph has been born …”.

 

Moses had grown up as a presumed son of a later dynastic Pharaoh, and had eventually succeeded to the throne. But, as the royal power was not to his liking (cf. Hebrews 11:24-25), he soon abdicated, being content to serve the Egyptians as a high official and a literary sage. 

Joseph had arrived in Egypt as a foreigner and a slave, but he would be catapulted into becoming second only to Pharaoh himself (Genesis 41:43).

So competent was Joseph, however, that he seems to have eclipsed even the Pharaoh.

 

Thus, despite some similarities, we have two very different characters, personalities, following two very different career paths. The meek and humble Moses, brought up in all the trappings of royalty, would put these behind him. The super-confident and somewhat boastful Joseph, a foreign slave, so rose up in Egypt as to become a quasi-Pharaoh.  

 

Joseph and Moses serve to knit together Egypt’s early dynastic history, and they even bring into synchronicity the Old Kingdom with the so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom.

 

Ancient tradition ascribes to Joseph and to Moses the introduction of some epochal innovations. Joseph is even said to have introduced hieroglyphics to Egypt. While that cannot be correct, what we shall find is that he may actually have been the first to make sentences out of the hieroglyphics. He may also have introduced the Heb Sed festival, and the cartouche to enclose the royal name (a Third Dynasty initiative) – this apart from his incredible Famine thwarting infrastructural projects.

Finally, Joseph seems to have brought to Old Kingdom Egypt a form of monotheism. 

 

The Jew Artapanus wrote of Moses (Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 9.27.1-37): 

“As a grown man he taught humanity many useful things. For he invented boats, machines for laying stones, Egyptian weapons, and engines for drawing water and for war, and he invented philosophy (philosophia). Furthermore, he divided the country into thirty-six districts (nomoi)”. 

 

The singular, remarkable Joseph

 

“Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh,

but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt’.”

 

Genesis 41:44

 

To keep it as simple as possible I shall be referring here only to some few of the many alter egos under which we may find the biblical Joseph in dynastic Egypt.

 

Let us start with the easily explained Den (Udimu), located to Egypt’s First Dynasty.

 

His names perfectly sum up Joseph. For Den was:

 

Usaphais (Usaph = Joseph);

Khasti = foreigner;

Den = Bringer of Water.

 

That is: Joseph, the foreigner, who brings [us] water.

 

And provide water for a parched, Famine-wracked Egypt is precisely what Joseph had managed to do with his erection of large temporary dams and his creation of some vital new waterways.

 

For even the important Lake Faiyum appears to have dried up during Egypt’s protracted Famine.

 

Two pharaonic names represent Joseph’s (Den’s) Famine Pharaoh, viz. Djer and Djet, during whose reign First Dynasty Egypt suffered a severe Famine:

 

Taking a Djet to Djoser’s famine

 

(3) Taking a Djet to Djoser's Famine

 

Djer also stands for the Third Dynasty Famine Pharaoh, Horus Netjerikhet, whose famous Vizier, Imhotep, saved Egypt from a seven-year Famine.

Many have rightly recognised Imhotep as the biblical Joseph.

 

Djet also stands for the Eleventh Dynasty Famine Pharaoh, Horus Netjerihedjet (Mentuhotep II), of Egypt’s so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom, again a Famine era for Egypt. Thus, as I noted at the beginning,

 

Joseph and Moses serve to knit together Egypt’s early dynastic history, and they even bring into synchronicity the Old Kingdom with the so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom.

 

Contrary to what is commonly thought, though, the Third Dynasty Famine Pharaoh, Horus Netjerikhet, was not Djoser.

 

Djoser (Zoser) was yet another version of Joseph/Imhotep, viz. Khasekhemwy Hetep-imef (Hetep-imef = Imhotep), whom Egyptologists have floating awkwardly between the Second and the Third Egyptian dynasties.

Much of Joseph’s massive infrastructural Famine project can be found in the huge temporary granaries built by Khasekhemwy, the Shunet el-Zebib at Abydos, for instance, and, most probably, the Gisr el-Mudir at Saqqara.

 

Apart from Den and Khasekhemwy-Imhotep, for Joseph, I would like to mention just two more of his many Egyptian alter egos: viz. Seth-Peribsen and Ankhtifi.

 

Seth-Peribsen appears to have introduced some form of monotheism to Old Kingdom (Second Dynasty) Egypt in the form of the foreign god, Set.

 

The Heb Sed festival, likely introduced by Den, may perhaps be a celebration of Set.

 

Certainly the festival, in its early form, contains biblical (Genesis-like) elements:

 

Sed Festival may have been inaugurated by Den-Djoser

 

(5) Sed Festival may have been inaugurated by Den-Djoser

 

The first full sentence written in mature hieroglyphs so far discovered was found on a seal impression in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen.

 

Now I conclude this singular, remarkable Joseph section with the Famine hero, Ankhtifi, a name that I have suggested elsewhere may be a hypocoristicon of Joseph’s given Egyptian name, Zaphenath paneah (Genesis 41:45).

 

Ankhtifi is the boastful character whom we met at the beginning of this article, who had boldly proclaimed (at least through the writings of the Egyptian scribes):

 

(My) like could not have been born; he was not born”.

 

He will also, most singularly, fail to make mention even of his contemporary Pharaoh:

 

Egypt’s high official, Ankhtifi, outboasts even great Senenmut

 

(5) Egypt’s high official, Ankhtifi, outboasts even great Senenmut

 

The reluctant leader, Moses

 

“Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt,

in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people”.

 

Exodus 11:3

 

These same words could well have been written of Joseph.

 

As I commented about Joseph above, so now I say in the case of Moses: To keep it as simple as possible I shall be referring here only to some few of the many alter egos under which we may find the biblical [Moses] in dynastic Egypt.

 

In this case, let us start with the tradition (Artapanus again) that the Egyptian princess who drew Moses from the water, and who consequently named him (Exodus 2:10): “… the daughter of Pharaoh … called his name Moses and she said, ‘Because I drew him out of the water’,” was one “Merris”,  who became married to “Chenephres”.

 

This information will be like a golden thread running through our historical reconstruction of Moses.

 

Basically, “Merris” is the Egyptian name, Meresankh (“she loves life”), or the inverted Ankhesenmerire (also rendered as Ankhesenpepi), while “Chenephres” stands for Khaneferre, or the inverted Nefer-ka-re (“the soul of Ra is perfect”).

 

We find Neferkare, for instance, as pharaoh Pepi (I/II) of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty, with Moses as his predecessor, the so far poorly understood, briefly reigning pharaoh, Userkare.

 

Here we encounter the very same traditional (and biblical) scenario of “Chenephres” - married to an Ankhesenmerire (“Merris”) - who was jealous of Moses (who had abdicated the throne), and who eventually had the opportunity to pursue Moses out of Egypt and into the desert. This is a real historical situation: Userkare - Wikipedia

“The representations of some high officials of the period have been deliberately chiselled out in their tombs and their titles altered, for instance the word "king" being replaced by that of "desert". Egyptologists thus suspect that Pepi might have tried to erase all memory of Userkare from official records, monuments, tombs and artefacts”.

 

            Name, “Moses”

 

While Userkare may not be a Moses-like name, the biblical name is discernible (so I believe) in some of the alter egos that I have suggested for Moses. For instance, in the name Sinuhe, the famous character in Egyptian literature whose flight from an enraged pharaoh Sesostris I, again a Neferkare, is very roughly based upon the flight of Moses from that same Pharaoh.

 

This is a Twelfth Dynasty, so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom, incident: Joseph and Moses … even bringing into synchronicity the Old Kingdom with the so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom.

 

Presumably, the Egyptian scribes would not have been familiar with the secret of “Merris”, how she came to have the baby, Moses, in the first place and the meaning of the name that she gave to him.

In names such as Sinuhe, (Pharaoh) Niuserre, and (General) Nysumontu, the name Moses, Mu (Water) Sa (Son of) plus (Theophoric or God Name) = “Water Baby”, can be discerned. Nu, Niu, Ny, equate to Egyptian Mu (mw), “Water”, whilst the Si element in Sinuhe means “Son” (Sir Flinders Petrie).

 

Moses commonly occurs with the Uni type element as well. See my article:

 

Ini, Weni, Iny, Moses

 

(3) Ini, Weni, Iny, Moses

 

With Weni of the Sixth Dynasty, in his famous Autobiography, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing reaches a peak of literary excellence.

Weni was, like his Twelfth Dynasty alter ego, Mentuhotep, the Vizier and Chief Judge of Egypt (cf. Exodus 2:14): ‘Who made you Ruler and Judge over us?’

 

In the Fifth Dynasty pharaoh, Niuserre Ini, who was later deified, the Niu and Ini elements of the Egyptian names of Moses are found together.

 

Finally, Moses as a sage, writer, and teacher of Instructions, can be found in the deified Ptahhotep (pharaoh Djedefptah), wrongly thought (as I once had) to be Joseph, because of the association of him with 110 years (cf. Genesis 50:22).

But his Fifth Dynasty location fits Moses, and not Joseph.

He is also the teacher of Instructions, once again a Chief Judge and Vizier, Kagemni (that Ni element again?) of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty.

 

 

 

Peribsen’s innovations for Old Kingdom Egypt

 

by

 Damien F. Mackey

  

 

“Peribsen’s royal name is a subject of curiosity for Egyptologists 

because it is connected to the deity Seth rather than Horus,

as was traditional for the name of a pharaoh”.

 

Wikipedia

 

 

 

The enigmatic Seth-Peribsen was a cultural innovator.

 

            The cartouche

 

Apart from his non-traditional favouring of the deity Seth, rather than Horus, Peribsen inaugurated the use of enclosing one’s name in a cartouche – supposedly long before any other ruler would do this:

 

 

Seth Per ib sen

 

stḥ-pr-ꞽb-sn

 

            Egyptian Grammar

 

Peribsen also developed Egyptian grammar:

Seth-Peribsen - Wikipedia

“Other contemporary inscriptions indicate that Egyptian grammar was perfected during his time: In particular, the earliest seal impressions with complete sentences date back to Peribsen’s reign. Thus, Peribsen’s reign was in fact a time of cultural and religious advancement.”

 

And, again:

https://www.francescoraffaele.com/egypt/hesyra/pribsn.htm

“Before writing began to be adopted as a mirror of the spoken word there's a period of circa half a millennium during which it was used on little tags (those from the Abydos cemetery B and exp. U, recording goods' quantities and provenances) on ivory and wooden labels, stone vessels, seals and monuments, with an increasing degree of complexity.

In the reigns after Peribsen brief sentences are known on objects of Khasekhemwy (Nimaathapi seals) and Djoser (especially the Heliopolis temple reliefs); less than a century later, wider texts make their earliest appearances in the form of 'biographies' (Metjen, Pehernefer under Huni and Snofru); the Unas' Pyramid Texts date almost 400 years [sic] after Peribsen”. ….

 

Administrative reforms

 

Seth-Peribsen - Wikipedia

“During his time on the throne, Peribsen founded an administrative center called "The white house of treasury" as well as a new royal residence, called the "protection of Nubt", located near Ombos ("Nubt" being the Ancient Egyptian name of Naqada). …. The administrative titles of scribes, seal-bearers and overseers were adjusted to correspond to the divided bureaucratic state administration. For example, titles like "sealer of the king" were changed into "sealer of the king of Upper Egypt". This bureaucratic reform may indicate an attempt by Peribsen to limit the power of these officials, further evidence for a bloated and unwieldy state administration under Nynetjer.

….

The administration system under Peribsen and Sekhemib had a clear and well-defined hierarchy; as an example, from highest to the lowest rank: Treasury house (royal and therefore highest in ranking) → pension office → property → vineyards → private vineyard (property of citizens and therefore lowest in ranking). King Khasekhemwy, the last ruler of the Second dynasty, was able to re-unify the state administration of Egypt and therefore unite the whole of Ancient Egypt. He brought the two treasury houses of Egypt under the control of the "House of the King", bringing them into a new, single administration centre. ….

Peribsen also founded royal edifices such as Per-nubt ("house of Ombos") and Per-Medjed ("house of meetings") and created several cities of economic importance. Their names, Afnut ("city of the headdress-makers"), Nebj ("protector's city"), Abet-desheret ("city of the red granite jars") and Huj-setjet ("city of the Asians'), are mentioned on numerous clay seals alongside Peribsen's serekh, often preceded by the phrase "visit of the king at ...". Inscriptions on stone vessels also mention an "ini-setjet" ("tribute of the people of Sethroë"), which might indicate that Peribsen founded a cult centre for the deity Seth in the Nile Delta. This may suggest Peribsen ruled over the whole of Egypt, or, at least, that he was accepted as king across all of Egypt. …”.

 

Religious monotheism

 

Seth-Peribsen: Pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Egypt - World History Edu

“The most striking feature of Peribsen’s royal name is the replacement of the Horus falcon atop the serekh with the Seth-animal. While other rulers, such as the 13th Dynasty’s Seth Meribre and the 19th Dynasty’s Seti I, associated with Seth, Peribsen stands out as the only pharaoh to exclusively honor Seth in his serekh.

 

Scholars have debated Peribsen’s choice of Seth as his patron deity. Older theories posited that Egypt was divided during his reign, with Peribsen ruling Upper Egypt.

Alternatively, some hypothesized that he attempted to establish a monotheistic cult centered on Seth, akin to Akhenaten’s later Atenism. 

 

…. Theories from the mid-20th century painted Peribsen as a heretic who sought to overthrow Horus worship in favor of Seth. They cited the defacement of Seth imagery on Peribsen’s stelae and his exclusion from king lists as evidence of religious conflict. According to these interpretations, Egypt was divided into two factions, with Peribsen leading a Sethian Upper Egypt”. ….

 

What to make of all of this?

 

These innovations, administrative, cultural and religious - and the approximate location of Seth-Peribsen in Egyptian dynastic history - lead me to conclude that he was yet another identity for the biblical Joseph of Egypt, son of Jacob, who was, according to traditions, a great innovator.

Not least of the innovations traditionally attributed to Joseph was his supposed invention of hieroglyphics. While these would actually well pre-date Joseph in Egypt, he may have brought them to grammatical maturity, as was the case with Peribsen.

 

Like the biblical Joseph, Peribsen united all of Egypt and limited the power of the Egyptian officials, centring power on the throne (cf. Genesis 47:13-21).

 

I began by referring to Peribsen as “enigmatic”, due essentially to the fact that he comes across to Egyptologists as somewhat different, but also because they have found him quite difficult to pin down precisely within Egypt’s Old Kingdom dynasties. I had used the same term to describe Imhotep (favoured by many - and by me - as Joseph):

 

Imhotep Enigma, his pharaoh was not Djoser, and proof for Egypt’s Third Dynasty Famine

 

(3) Imhotep Enigma, his pharaoh was not Djoser, and proof for Egypt’s Third Dynasty Famine

 

The Second Dynasty placement of Seth-Peribsen between Nynetjer and Khasekhemwy may serve me just fine.

 

Predecessor	uncertain; Wadjenes, Senedj, Sekhemib or Nynetjer
Successor	uncertain; Senedj, Sekhemib or Khasekhemwy

 

For Nynetjer I have tentatively identified as Joseph’s Famine Pharaoh, Djer. See my:

 

Sed Festival may have been inaugurated by Den-Djoser

 

(3) Sed Festival may have been inaugurated by Den-Djoser

 

And Khasekhemwy-Imhotep was, again, Imhotep (Joseph).

 

Joseph, whose coat was of many colours, was a man of many names

 

(3) Joseph, whose coat was of many colours, was a man of many names

 

Such revised identifications enable us to un-complicate ancient Egyptian history.

For example, the following segment gives three names, Peribsen,  Khasekhemwy and Djoser, that I would melt down into just the one (the biblical Joseph): Seth-Peribsen - Wikipedia

“The "heretic Peribsen" theory was based on three observations: that the name "Peribsen" was excluded from later king lists (or perhaps substituted with the Ramesside name "Senedj"), that the king's tomb had been destroyed and plundered during antiquity and, finally, that the tomb stelae of Peribsen, that once displayed the Set animal, were badly scratched with the clear intention of effacing the Seth image. Egyptologists hypothesized these were the actions of religious opponents to the Sethian priest-caste. …. Lauer and Firth relied on the "heretic Peribsen" theory to explain the enormous quantity of stone vessels inscribed with the name of First and Second Dynasty kings found beneath Djoser's pyramid in bags bearing seals of Khasekhemwy and Djoser. They proposed that Peribsen had plundered the tombs of his predecessors, followers of Horus, and scattered their funerary equipment. These vessels were gathered in the royal treasury during Khasekhemwy's reign following his reunification of Egypt, and finally put beneath the Step Pyramid by Djoser, in an act of pious devotion [sic]. ….

 

The C9th BC Syrian king, Hazael (Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky’s Aziru, my Na’aman), would emerge in Egypt as the powerful Syrian usurper, Arsa (Irsu, Yarsu), and would proceed there, as pharaoh Akhnaton, to upend the traditional Egyptian religion and to enforce his newly-found Yahwistic monotheism:

 

Akhnaton’s Theophany

 

(6) Akhnaton's Theophany

 

According to the Great papyrus Harris (Payrus Harris I):

 

The land of Egypt was overthrown from without, and every man was (thrown out) of his right; they had no chief mouth for many years formerly until other times. …. Other times having come after it, with empty years, Yarsu, a certain Syrian was with them as chief. He set the whole land tributary before him together; he united his companions and plundered their possessions. They made the gods like men, and no offerings were presented in the temples. ….

 

This was an immense undertaking that could be introduced only in stages.

Vestiges of the old religion could not be fully erased.

 

Joseph, a loyal servant of the One God, must inevitably have attempted something similar, though without the same degree of force.

He, known in Egypt as “the [desert] foreigner”, Khasti, did not introduce the Aten, which was Akhnaton’s best attempt to name the hidden God, but, perhaps, chose to promote his Deity in the form of the hitherto unfavoured desert (foreign) deity, Seth. 

 

Was this also the essential significance of the Sed (Seth?) Festival, that, as we have found. Joseph the cultural genius had introduced into Egypt?:

 

Sed Festival may have been inaugurated by Den-Djoser

 

(5) Sed Festival may have been inaugurated by Den-Djoser