Egypt and the Bible - Part 3: Middle Kingdom Egypt

After the period of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, famous for the building of great pyramids, there was a period of decline known as the First Intermediate Period. After this period of decline, Egypt again became prominent in the period known as the Middle Kingdom. Although there are differences of opinion on the exact dates, the Middle Kingdom in Egypt extends from about 2060 to 1790 BC.

The period of the Middle Kingdom is associated mainly with the time of the Patriarchs in the Bible, namely Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham did go to Egypt during this period and Jacob also went to Egypt toward the end of his life. Perhaps the most well known character during this period was Joseph, the son of Jacob, because of his rise to power in Egypt as described in Genesis 37-50. Even though there is little direct archaeological evidence of Joseph in Egypt, there is more archaeological evidence that illustrate the general period when Joseph was in Egypt.

The Harvest of Wheat

One of the more well known stories of Joseph in the Bible is his interpretation of a dream described in Genesis  41. This dream came to the pharaoh of Egypt and Joseph correctly interpreted the dream as predicting a period of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. The pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph that he made Joseph responsible for storing grain during the period of plenty so that there would be sufficient grain during the time of famine. The process of gathering the grain is described in Genesis 41:48:

“and he [Joseph] gathered up all the food of these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities. He put in every city the food from the fields around it.” [ESV]

This is illustrated by reliefs in the El Kab tombs near Esna, Egypt. The first step was to harvest the wheat as illustrated below:

After the wheat was harvested, it was gathered together, as illustrated below from the same reliefs:

After the wheat was gathered, it was stored in storehouses as described in Genesis 41:49:

“And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.” [ESV]

The same set of reliefs also illustrate the storing of grain in storehouses as shown below. Although parts of this relief are damaged, the upper-right corner of this picture shows a scribe recording the grain as it is brought to the storehouse.

The “living museum” at the Pharaonic Village in modern Cairo, Egypt shows an modern re-creation of storing the grain in a storehouse shown below:

The Famine

We do not have any specific archaeological evidence that describes Joseph’s plan for storing grain followed by a famine, but interestingly, there is a much later hieroglyphic inscription that mentions a seven-year famine. This inscription shown below is located near Aswan, Egypt:

During the famine, all of the people had to come to Joseph to get the grain that was stored during the period of plenty as described in Genesis 41:55:

“So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.” [ESV]

The relief below from the site of Saqqara, Egypt illustrates the severity of the famine, although it is not clear if the relief is showing Egyptians or possibly other peoples near Egypt:

The Visit of the Brothers

Another well-known narrative related to Joseph was the visit of his brothers to buy grain as described in Genesis 42:3:

“So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.” [ESV]

We do not have a clear archaeological record of this visit, but there is a scene from the Middle Kingdom period in the Tomb of Beni Hassan, Egypt that illustrates aspects of this visit:

This tomb painting clearly shows non-Egyptian visitors dressed differently from the Egyptians. These visitors consist of both men and women, most likely from Canaan. There is a donkey in the middle of the group, shown in more detail below:

This donkey appears to be carrying two children as well as bags filled with grain or other produce, which illustrates another detail described in Genesis 42:26:

“Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed.” [ESV]

Burial Practices

Egypt is also famous for its death and burial practices, especially the embalming of bodies. The book of Genesis mentions two specific individuals who were embalmed. The first individual was Jacob, the father of Joseph, who died in Egypt after coming from Canaan. He was embalmed as described in Genesis 50:2

“And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father [Jacob]. So the physicians embalmed Israel.” [ESV]

There are many examples of embalmed people or mummies that have survived to this day in Egypt. The mummy of Ahmose in Luxor, Egypt shown below is one example:

The second individual who was embalmed in the book of Genesis was Joseph himself, as described in Genesis 50:26:

“So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” [ESV]

According to Genesis 50:5, Jacob the father of Joseph was taken back to Canaan after he died and was embalmed. But Joseph was buried in a coffin in Egypt. There are two main styles of coffins used in Egypt. The first style is perhaps more familiar because it fits the shape of the mummy as shown below:

The second style of coffin is more like a box, as shown below:

After the death of Joseph, a new Pharaoh arose that did not know Joseph, so Egypt enslaved the nation of Israel for several hundred years. Following the Middle Kingdom was another period of decline known as the Second Intermediate Period. The following post will continue with the New Kingdom of Egypt which does play a very significant role in the history of Israel.