Historical Tales

Possible connections between the Biblical Patriarchs and Egypt's 18th Dynasty.

(Was Yuya Really Joseph? Part 2)

Some details point to a broad connection between the Old Testament Patriarchs and Egypt’s 18th Dynasty. For example when Amenhotep III published scarabs engraved with political pronouncements not only did he mention Tiye and her parents Yuya and Tuya but the scarabs also define the boundaries of the empire as stretching from central Sudan to northern Mesopotamia. In Genesis 15:18-21 the Promised Land to be given to Abraham’s descendents is said to stretch from “the river of Egypt (the Nile) to the Euphrates which describes the same territory as the scarab.

So What is Going On Here?

Other Biblical clues may provide an avenue for unraveling the greater mystery of how a tribal people from Canaan became relations of Egypt’s Royal House. There are two accounts in Genesis that relate a strange tale of how Abraham had his wife Sarah, whose name means princess, pose as his sister in order to protect him from first the Pharaoh of Egypt and then Abimelech the King of Gerar who both desired her. Yet another account relates similar events with Isaac and Rebekah. This strongly suggests that the story is symbolic of something else and it should not be taken literally. Both the Pharaoh and Abimelech take Sarah from Abraham, and in the case of Pharaoh Abraham is greatly rewarded. In both cases the Pharaoh and the King find out that they have cursed themselves by taking the wife of another.

Sarah is then returned to Abraham and immediately following the account with Abimelech Sarah is pronounced to be pregnant with Isaac. A great deal is made of the fact that Sarah had been unable to previously give her husband a son so the coincidence of her pregnancy following her association with another man must at least cause a second look.

It was based on this suspicion that Osman proposed that Tuthmoses III, Egypt’s great conqueror, came to be the father of a son born into another royal household. It was then the joining of these two families that gave rise to the rulers whom legend has handed down to use as the Patriarchs of Genesis.

Adventurism in the Levant

The idea that the legend of Abraham may be based on the career of a political adventurer who made an alliance with Egypt’s royal family flies in the face of thousands of years of Judeo-Christian belief but it does ring true historically. In fact the region of the Near East known as the Levant which is the primary stage for the Biblical narrative has a rich tradition of adventurism.

During the 15th century BCE in Aleppo a deposed king’s son named Idrimi fled into exile and with little more than his chariot became a leader amongst the Hapiru in Canaan. He then turned north where he established the Kingdom of Mukish on the Syrian Coast. Idrimi then quickly set up an alliance with Parrattarna the Hurrian King of Mittani who was overlord in the region.

In another account from 150 years later Shattiwaza, a Hurrian prince fleeing the collapse of the Mittani Dynasty made his way to Hittite territory and swore allegiance to the Hittite king Suppililiuma. The Hittite king then provided troops for Shattiwaza to retake his father’s kingdom.

Indeed the exploits of the Biblical King Saul also have all the aspects of a warlord set upon carving his own Kingdom but yet forced to acknowledge the sovereignty of an overlord. In the Bible the overlord was the God of Israel. There is even an historical figure which mirrors many of the aspects of King Saul. Known in ancient texts as Labaya, the lion of [God] this man rose to power in Canaan during Egypt’s 18th Dynasty. He was an avowed vassal of the Egyptian King as well as a kingdom builder in Canaan.

And so the debate continues, has history begun to uncover the secret identity of the Patriarchs? At this point there are only questions and a seemingly unending thread of coincidence but it can be hoped that the future eyes of scholarship will be bent to these mysteries.

To be clear the Judeo-Christian Bible is one of history’s great treasures and the modern tradition of critical analysis only serves to increase its cultural value. In the case of the origins of the Patriarchs of Genesis there is the added benefit of a narrative rich with romance and intrigue that truly provides a glimpse into events of the ancient past. If at times it seems that those Biblical events are humbled by connecting them to the material world then that can be discounted against the rich rewards of our modern society being fully versed in its ancient past.

Sources

Ahmed Osman: No Stranger to Revisionist PaleoBabble >

The Merneptah Stele <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfzslZ8tFNw>

Osman, Ahmed, (The Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt. Bear and Company, Rochester, 2003)-originally published as Stranger in the Valley of the Kings.

Redford, Donald, (Akhenaten The Heretic King, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1984)

The Story of Joseph (The Bible, Genesis 37-50)

Strong’s Concordance <http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.htm>

For further sources see these related articles.

Who Were Yuya and Tuya?

The Origins of the Aten Religion

The Fall of the Mitanni Kingdom

The God's Father, Ay

The Tomb Of King Ay At Amarna

Labaya, The Lion King Of Canaan

The Rise And Fall of the Amarna Age