Mikkets (Genesis 41:1-44:17)
LA JOLLA, California — The parasha covers: Pharaoh’s puzzling dreams followed by Joseph’s interpretations of seven good harvests, followed by seven lean years; Pharaoh’s appointment of Joseph as vizier to supervise the collection/storage of grain, followed by its disbursement/sale during the famine; Joseph’s arranged marriage and production of two sons; famine became worldwide, leading to Joseph’s brothers’ arrival in Egypt to buy rations; Joseph’s accusation of them as spies, to which they revealed the outlines of their family; Joseph keeps Simeon as hostage and sends them back with grain plus their (secretly returned) money in their sacks, and a demand they return with their youngest brother Benjamin; later, with reluctance and end of the rations, Jacob re-sends the sons, including Benjamin, plus new and the returned money to Egypt along with gifts; they dined; they left, with their purchased grain, and unknowingly, also Joseph’s divining goblet in Benjamin’s sack; Joseph had them captured and brought back, with the accusation they had stolen the goblet, and threat that Benjamin would become Joseph’s slave.
This essay covers: dream interpretations in ancient societies; search of ancient stories of seven good, then bad years; ancient evidence of an outsider rising to ‘vizier’ in Egypt; extensive famines. I have chosen three passage groups, for comparison, via the Internet, with writings attributed to ancient Israel’s neighbors.
I. Genesis 41:1-32 “…Pharaoh dreamed…seven cows, handsome and sturdy…But…seven other cows…gaunt…ate up the seven sturdy…the chief cupbearer…spoke…’a Hebrew youth (in prison)…interpreted…for us’…Pharaoh sent for Joseph…(who) said…God has told Pharaoh…ahead are seven years of…abundance…after them will come seven years of famine…”
The internet yielded much on dream interpretations of ancient peoples, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, including divine inspiration content. Almost no important work of ancient literature lacks reference to dreams and their interpretation. There were variable ideas on what are dreams, e.g. the soul left the body during sleep into a supernatural world. In every primal society investigated by anthropologists, people treated dreams as a way to receive messages from the spirit world. Shamans gave especially valued advice, as they were believed able to enter the world of dreams through ecstatic trances.
Ancient Egypt produced many dream guides, on papyrus. [1]
The Aztecs also relied on priests for dream interpretation and divination. [2]
As in all such matters, there were skeptics. Rationalized theories survive from ancient times. The Greek Herodotus wrote of ‘complications,’ indicating that only barbarians and tyrants allow their practical decisions to be determined by dreams. However, in the Roman tradition, dreams were widely believed to be significant. General Scipio Africanus (c. 236–183 BCE) at Carthage, stirred his troops in 209 BCE, via recount of a divine dream-epiphany. [3]
I inquired also of the internet regarding ‘seven good and seven bad years.’
The internet yielded no ancient records describing such a sequence. To my inquiry: ‘Ancient stories of 7 good and 7 bad years?” The answer was: None, representing a screen of about 179,000,000 results.
However, I came across an essay, “Is the Biblical Story of Joseph in Egypt verified?” I sought to place such a rising outsider to status in the recorded history of Egypt.
In the Nile Delta, the remains of a cemetery from the 12th Dynasty (1991–1778 BC) yielded an impressive tomb with remains of a statue that has facial bone and coloration features, plus the mushroom hair style, of an Asiatic. This is taken to indicate that an outsider, i.e. a Canaanite could indeed have risen to prominence (not to vizier) in Egypt. [4]
There is also a “Famine Stele,” written in hieroglyphics, near Aswan in southern Egypt, which tells of a seven-year drought and famine, in the Third Dynasty (c. 2686 to 2613 BCE). It was recently learned, however, that the theme of a seven year famine was a common motif in nearly all cultures of the Near East. [5]
II. Genesis \41: 39-43 “…Since God has made all this known to you…I put you in charge of all the land of Egypt…had him (Joseph) ride in the chariot of…second-in-command…”
The Internet yielded no ancient Egyptian records describing elevation of an outsider to the position of vizier. To my inquiry: “Any Egypt placement of a non-Egyptian as vizier?” The answer was: None, results containing all your search terms.”
To a second inquiry: “Historical placement of outsider into vizier position-Egypt?” The answer was: None, representing a screen of about 1,200,000 results.
I did, tangentially, learn of Horemheb, a non-royal commoner who rose to become Pharaoh (c. 1319-1292 BCE). [6]
III. Genesis 41:56-57 “…when all the land of Egypt felt the hunger,..people cried…for bread…Joseph laid open all…and rationed…grain to the Egyptians…famine…spread over the whole world…all came to Joseph…to procure rations…the famine had become severe throughout the world.”
The Meghalayan age runs from 4,200 years ago to the present. It began with a destructive drought, whose effects lasted two centuries, and severely disrupted civilizations in Egypt, Greece, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Yangtze River Valley. Drought started c. 2200 BCE and lasted the entire 22nd century BCE, and likely caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, and the Liangzhu culture in the lower Yangtze River. The drought may also have initiated the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization. Though deemed by some a ‘global’ drought, this is not agreed upon by scholars. It involved large areas of flooding, large areas of drought and dust storms, and population migrations. [7]
Actually the ‘Great Chinese Famine’ (c. 1958-1962 CE) is widely regarded as the deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history. It caused a human death toll from starvation estimated between 15-55 million. It was due to policies of the Great Leap Forward in Communist China. [8]
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NOTES
[1] A History of Dream Interpretation in Western Civilization from the Earliest Times Through the Middle Ages, J. Donald Hughes, University of Denver, Oct. 15, 2020
[2] Dream Dictionary, Tony Crisp, 1990
[3] Dreams, Electronic Encyclopedia of the Ancient World
[4] https://christiananswers.net/q-abr-a016.html
[5] Famine Stele, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[6] Horemheb, an outsider arose to the throne at end of 18th Dynasty, 191, Ancient Egyptian Kingship, edited by David Bourke O’Connor, David P. Silverman, 1994, Leiden, New York
[7] 4.2 kiloyear event, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, July 18, 2018
[8] The Great Chinese Famine, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.