THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
natural conditions, and the Amarna Tablets record that Canaan imported corn from Egypt (cf . H. Brugsch, Die biblischen sieben Jahre der Hungersnot, Leipsic, 1891; Sayce, ut sup., pp. 217-218). Since Egypt was the great producer of wheat, the Semitic tribes in times of scarcity naturally migrated thither, where they were not seldom received with justifiable suspicion (xlii. 9). The settlement of the Hebrews in the land of Goshen (q.v.) is in accord with the conditions, since this territory had for a long time been the resort of invading Semites and was adapted to the nomadic manner of life. Finally, the embalming of Joseph and the seventy days mourning for him (1. 1 sqq.) are thoroughly Egyptian. Taking all these facts together, it is impossible to escape the conviction which Ebers expresses : ' ' The whole of Joseph's history, even in its smallest details, must be regarded as in accord with the actual conditions in Egypt." To be sure, this general agreement with Egyptian conditions and manners does not of itself positively establish the historic character of the recital; but the assertion that the author or compiler was not familiar with Egyptian conditions is equally pure assumption. It is true that several things, especially the mention of the " Land of Rameses " (Gen. xlvii. 11), a name which could scarcely have been used before the nineteenth dynasty, make it unlikely that Joseph's story is from a nearly contemporaneous source. It seems probable that the account was written about the time of the Exodus (A. H. Sayce, ut sup., pp. 212-213).
The determination of the period of Egyptian history to which the Hebrew immigration belongs depends upon the relations of the He- The brews with the Hyksos. Josephus' Date of supposition (Apion, i. 14) that this Joseph, nomadic people of Semitic race was identical with the Hebrews does not agree with the modest position the Hebrews occupied in the land according to the Biblical narrative. But Joseph's activity must have fallen in the Hyksos period. The 430 (or 400) years of the Egyptian bondage (Ex. xii. 40; Gen. xv. 13), even if the Exodus took place under Merneptah and certainly if it took place earlier, point to that period. Georgius Syncellus gives Aphophis as the name of the Pharaoh of the Exodus, that is, the Apepi of the monuments, who, according to Brugsch, reigned shortly before the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty. To this time belongs also, in the opinion of Brugsch, the famine of many years mentioned in his Geschichte Aegyptens, pp. 243 sqq. The Hyksos kings may have been as anxious to attract Semitic settlers as the first rulers of the New Empire (eighteenth dynasty) were to hold them aloof or to oppress them. The darkness, however, which enshrouds the period of the Hyksos, especially the ruthless destruction of their monuments by a later dynasty, may have obliterated all definite information of Joseph and his family. In general, in the memory of the Egyptians, this tribe was confused with the other Semitic inhabitants of the Delta, and consequently separate features of the history of Joseph and Moses appear confusedly interwoven with other events in Egyptian tradition. Among
Jews and Mohammedans the tale of Joseph's fate was especially fancied, and it has been embellished with much legendary matter, especially by the Mohammedans (cf. Koran, surah xii.).
C. von Orelli. Bibliography: The sources are: Gen. xxx. 22-24, xxxvii., xxxix. 1. The best condensed treatment of the subject is either the article by Driver in DB, ii. 767-775, or the article in EB, ii. 2583-2594. There is a monograph by H. G. Tomkins, Life and Times of Joseph in the Light of Egyptian Lore, London, 1891. Consult further, besides the literature mentioned in the text: E. W. Hengstenberg, Die Biicher Moses und die Aegypter, Berlin, 1841; C. von Lengerke, Kanaan, pp. 331 sqq., Konigsberg, 1844; G. Ebers, Die Aegypter und die Bucher Moses, vol. i., Leipsic 1868; A. H. Sayce, Patriarchal Palestine, pp. 200 sqq., London, 1895; W Staerk, Studien zur Religions- und Sprachgeschichte, ii. 21 sqq., Berlin, 1899. For the bearing of research in Egypt on the Joseph story see the literature cited under Egypt. Some parallels to the story and to that of the " Two Brothers " are given in A. Lang, Myth, Ritual and Religion, ii. 303-308, London, 1887. On the general relations of archeology cf. the article by Driver in D. G. Hogarth, Authority and Archaeology, London, 1899.