Joseph and Potiphar
Immanuel Velikovsky
http://www.varchive.org/ce/joseph.htm
...to find out whether the personality of Joseph or the patron of the early stage of his career, Potiphar, is referred to in the historical documents, we have to look into those of the Middle Kingdom. The task appears simple. According to the Book of Genesis Potiphar was “an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard.” In the register of the private names to the Ancient Records of Egypt by James Breasted, we find the name Ptahwer.
Ptahwer was at the service of the Pharaoh Amenemhet III of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. According to an inscription of Ptahwer at Sarbut el-Khadem in Sinai dated in the forty-fifth year of Amenemhet III, his office was that of “master of the double cabinet, chief of the treasury.” ...
Since there is only one Ptahwer in the historical documents, and since he lived in the time when we expect to find him, we are probably not wrong in identifying the biblical Potiphar with the historical Ptahwer...
Since a great famine took place in the days of Joseph, it is, of course, important to trace such a famine in the age of which we speak. In the days of Amenemhet III there occurred in Egypt a famine enduring nine long years...
...the Pharaoh in whose days was the seven years’ famine was the successor of the Pharaoh in whose days began the rise of Joseph’s career (if Yatu is Joseph). Potiphar, who lived under Amenemhet III, probably lived also under his successor.
The inscription which deals with Ptahwer mentions a man whose name is transliterated by Breasted as Y-t-w. Among the monuments of Amenemhet III’s reign is one of the Storekeeper who was honored together with two other persons... If we remember that according to the Scriptural narrative Joseph was appointed storekeeper of the State (Gen. 41:40-41) in anticipation of the seven lean years, with the powers of a chief Minister of State or Vice-King, we may suspect in Yatu the Biblical Joseph. In the Scriptures it is said that his name was changed by Pharaoh to Zaphnath-paaneah [possibly “he who is called Paaneah”], but still his original name may have been in use until he became next to the Pharaoh in importance.
The inscription that mentions Ptahwer refers to his activity in the mines of the Sinai peninsula. In this respect it is of interest to find that the Jewish traditions connect Joseph with the area of the Sinai Peninsula saying that he kept a large quantity of treasuries near Baal Zaphon, the scene of the Passage of the Sea.
Twelfth Dynasty exhibits the characteristics of a regime that would have enslaved the Hebrews. The country had been disunited and they came up from the south and established a strong central government. They then sent their troops to the east to conquer territory. The Hebrews were living on the northern border area and were considered a security threat. The Hebrews had to be brought to heel. They also launched huge building projects including the famed labyrinth so they needed lots of workers. Under them was a great flowering of literature, later considered the golden age, so when Moses came along at the end of the Thirteenth Dynasty, he would have gotten an excellent eduction in writing preparing him to record the Torah in another language.
It was not as if they did not know Joseph. They did not Zaphnathpaneah. That was his Egyptian name, “Neith says he will live.” The Hebrews were regarded as worshippers of Neith and settled in Neith country because his wife Osnath was a priestess of the goddess Neith. The southerners did not know Neith, who was based in the north. She was the mother of Isis and Athena and made a comeback later so that the Greeks knew her very well.
Coming out in the Exodus, I agree with Velikovsky that the Hebrews met the Hyksos, a Semitic people coming in. The land to which the Hebrews were going was normally under Egyptian control. Had the Egyptians not been knocked out of the game, so to speak, for a few hundred years, the Hebrews could not have conquered that land because they would have had to face Egyptian regulars who could come up quickly via a coastal road. As a matter of fact when the Babylonians under Cushan saw there were a power vacuum they moved in to take over the country. The Hebrews would have been lost except two great leaders arose, Othniel and his wife Achsah. She was the daughter of the great Caleb the Hero and he was his nephew. They drove out the Babylonians and established security for 40 years.