Adam When?

    We have look briefly at the secular records which relate to the earliest historical events following the flood. We have seen that the pages of the archaeologist and historian do give considerable information that relates to the formation of the first great civilization, on the plains of Shinar. This information has been shown to be in close agreement with the Biblical record of the dispersal of that civilization by God’s intervention with the confusion of tongues. But there are other points of contact between the Scriptures and the secular pages.

    The next great event in the Bible is the call of Abram from Ur of the Chaldees, which is followed by the detailed record of the patriarchal experience of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Is there contact between the events of the lives of these men and the secular record? We know from the Biblical chronology that Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities in the area of what is now the Dead Sea were destroyed when Abraham was 99 years old (Genesis 17, 18), in the year 2068 B.C. The secular record indicates that about 2000-3000 B.C. there was an abrupt end of civilization in this area. Albright writes:

The great site of Bab-ed-Dra on the Dead Sea probably belongs to the age of Sodom and Gomorrah; its remains date from about the last third of the third millennium, when occupation came to an abrupt close.1

    The archaeologist Nelson Glueck, who made a thorough survey of the Southern Transjordan east and south of the Dead Sea, discovered that in about the 20th or 19th centuries B.C., these villages were abandoned for some mysterious reason. These finds agree with the Biblical record that prior to 2068 B.C., the whole area was a flourishing valley like the garden of the Lord in Scripture (Genesis 19:24-28). Therefore, we see chronological synchronization in this event.

    Is there more precise correlation between the secular and sacred records? When we turn to the history of Joseph, we discover a point of contact between the two records that is far more definitive. Joseph lived in Egypt in the first year of one of the greatest of the pharaohs of the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty, which is also known as the Middle Kingdom. The year of the accession of this Pharaoh, Sesostris III, can be calculated from astronomical data. When we compare his accession year with the Biblical record, we discover identical concordance with the Biblical chronology.


The Secular Records Date

    Let us first discover the accession year of Sesostris III by means of the astronomical and archaeological evidence.

    A tablet has been discovered from the reign of Sesostris III that indicates that in the seventh year of his reign there was a Sothis festival on the sixteenth day of the eighth month. The festival celebrated a heliacal rising (simultaneous with the sun) of the star Sothis (Sirius).² This gives us a time clue, for a heliacal rising of Sirius occurs on any particular day of the year once every 1460 years. Dr. Jack Finegan records that in A.D. 139, a celebration occurred on the first day of the first month (the month Troth) commemorating such a rising.³ Since it took 1460 years for the festival to pass through the Egyptian calendar to come again to the same day and month, the previous time when the Sothic Festival was celebrated on the first day of the first month would have been 1322 B.C. on July 20. Jack Finegan arrives at a date of 1321 B.C. as does Breasted. The conclusion of 1321 appears to be in error by one year, apparently due to a lack of consideration of the fact that there is a loss of one year in going from B.C. to A.D. G. H. Wheeler,⁴ however, arrives at a date of 1322 B.C., as we have calculated.

    Since Sesostris III commemorated a Sothic rising on the 16th day of the eighth month, we can work backward from July 20, 1322 B.C., to discover the year when this celebration occurred. There are 140 days between Thoth 1 (July 20) and the sixteenth day of the eighth month. Since the Sothic rising shifts one day each four years, we can multiply this 140 days by four to give 560 as the number of years earlier than 1322 when the festival was held during the seventh year of the reign of Sesostris III. Consequently it was the year (1322 + 560) or 1882 B.C. when the recorded festival was held. Since this was the seventh year of Sesostris III, his first year was 1888 B.C.

The Biblical Records Date

    Let us see if we can find information in the Bible that could possibly relate to the first or accession year of Sesostris III. When we study the experiences of Joseph we do find the desired facts. The clue that supplies the answer is found in Genesis 41:13 which reads as follows:

And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.

    The background to this verse is as follows: Joseph was cast into prison because of his refusal to sin with Potiphar’s wife. There he correctly interpreted the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker.

    The dream revealed that in three days the butler was to be restored to the butlership and the baker was to be taken from prison and hanged. These events actually took place on the third day when pharaoh gave a birthday feast. Joseph’s request to the butler was that he would remember him to the pharaoh (Genesis 40:14). Chapter 40 closes with the information that the chief butler forgot about Joseph. Then two whole years passed (Genesis 41:1), after which pharaoh had his dream of the seven fat and skinny cows and the seven plump and thin ears of corn. Finally, because pharaoh was seeking for an explanation to his dream, the butler remembered poor Joseph in the dungeon. His speech to pharaoh is very significant. Genesis 41:9-13:

Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day: Pharaoh was wroth with his servant, and put me in ward in the captain of the guard’s house, both me and the chief baker: And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream. And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret. And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.

    In Genesis 41, verse 9, we read that the chief butler, who had been freed from prison two years earlier, was talking to pharaoh and said that pharaoh (verse 10), had put both the butler and the baker into

prison when pharaoh was angry. To speak directly to pharaoh as he does in verse 10, using the proper name or title “pharaoh” rather than a personal pronoun “you” was very common. For example Moses used this type of address in Exodus 8:29, where we read:

And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat the LORD that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to morrow: but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.

    Verse 13 of Genesis 41, however, presents a very difficult problem. When Moses was speaking to pharaoh about pharaoh, he either used his formal title “pharaoh” or he used the personal pronoun “you” (Exodus 8:9, 8:29). But never did Moses use the third person pronoun “he,” as did the butler did when he was talking to pharaoh in verse 13. In fact, it makes no sense at all for the butler to talk to pharaoh about what he, the pharaoh, had done years before and then use the pronoun “he” as it is used in this passage, that is, unless the pharaoh who put the baker and butler in jail was a different pharaoh and not the one the butler was addressing in Genesis 41:9-13. If the pharaoh of Chapter 40 was the father of the pharaoh of Chapter 41, then the speech of the butler in Genesis 41:9-13 would make sense. Pharaoh (your father) put us in prison. He restored me and hanged the baker. This could happen only if there was a change in pharaohs between the time the butler was released from prison and the pharaoh’s dream two years later. This must have been the true state of affairs.

    Since the Biblical account indicates this change in rulers, let us determine the Biblical timetable for this event. When we look at the Biblical chronology we discover that Jacob and his family entered Egypt 1877 B.C.⁵ This is in the second year of the famine (Genesis 45:6) which followed seven years of plenty as prophesied by Joseph. Since the seven years of plenty began virtually immediately following the interpretation of the dream (Genesis 41:32), the butler was speaking to the pharaoh nine years earlier than 1877 B.C. or 1886 B.C. Since the butler was let out of prison two whole years earlier than this, he must have been restored to office in the year 1888 B.C. Therefore, either in 1888, shortly after the pharaoh’s birthday feast, or in 1887 or early in 1886, the pharaoh who put the butler in prison died and his son ascended the throne.

    We have discovered from the Biblical data that a pharaoh began to reign probably in the year 1888 B.C.⁶ He is the pharaoh who two years later made Joseph prime minister over Egypt. We also have discovered that the archaeological record indicates that a great pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty of Egypt named Sesostris III came to power in 1888 B.C. Thus, we can know that the pharaoh who elevated Joseph to power could only have been Sesostris III. How marvelous that, because of the Bible’s precise and accurate use of the pronoun “he” in Genesis 41:13, we are able to discover this synchronization between the sacred and secular records.


Was the Father of Sesostris III Murdered?

    There is further evidence to indicate that there was a change of Egyptian kings soon before Joseph was freed from prison. The archaeological record indicates Sesostris II, the father of Sesostris III, in all probability reigned 19 years.⁷ His father, Amenemhet II, reigned 35 years and his grandfather, Sesostris I, reigned 45 years. His great grandfather, Amenemhet I, reigned 30 years. His son, Sesostris III, the pharaoh who made Joseph prime minister, reigned 38 years and his grandson, Amenemhet III, reigned 48 years.

    In the light of the long reigns of the pharaohs before and after Sesostris II, his 19-year reign seems to be quite short. Could it be that Sesostris II came to an untimely end either through illness or what is more likely, murder? Could it be that Sesostris II feared for his life, perhaps afraid of death by poisoning, and therefore, he put the two men most capable of poisoning him, the chief butler and the chief baker, into prison? Or was he ill at the time and feared his end was near? Could it be that shortly after his last birthday feast, Genesis 40:20, during which the baker was hanged and the butler restored, those who wanted him murdered succeeded? Certainly, his early demise, together with all of the events surrounding the installation of the new pharaoh, could have caused the butler to forget his promise to remember Joseph.

    Also, it could be that Sesostris III began to reign, upon the early death of his father, as a comparatively young man and would have welcomed the possibility of help from the young Hebrew who was close to his age and who had already shown great wisdom. Furthermore, in Genesis 45:8, Joseph tells his brothers that he is as a father to the pharaoh, which further strengthens the point that Sesostris III began his reign as a young king.

    Let us return briefly to the timing of the reign of Sesostris III. With the evidence presently available, it appears that if we use only the secular information, it would be impossible to date the first year of Sesostris III’s reign to one and only one year, although 1888 B.C. appears to be the most likely one. If the archaeological evidence is reliable that a Sothic Festival celebrating the heliacal rising of Sirius occurred on Thoth I, A.D. 139 (and the Biblical synchronization of Sesostris III attests to its reliability), then. as we saw earlier, such a festival also would have occurred on Thoth I, 1322 B.C., and on the 16th day of the 8th month in 1882 B.C. This date of the 16th day of the 8th month is in the archaeological record. However, such a festival could have been held on the 16th day of the 8th month of the three succeeding years, 1881, 1880, and 1879, because the heliacal rising of Sirius moves through the calendar one day each four years. The recorded festival occurred in the seventh year of the king, so his first mar could have been 1888 or 1887 or 1886 or 1885. As we have seen, either 1888, 1887, or 1886 satisfy the Biblical record. Since a known festival celebrating a Sothic rising occurred in A.D. 139 and this brings us back to 1888 B.C. as the first year of Sesostris III, we suspect that the most weighty secular evidence points to it as being the correct year.

    Moreover, the phrase “at the end of two full years,” in Genesis 41:1, also places the emphasis on 1888, that is, if this phrase has any reference to the reign of pharaoh. The context surely suggests this for the verse is talking about pharaoh. Let us see why this is so. We know Jacob and his family arrived in Egypt about March/April of 1877. This is known because the Israelites left Egypt 430 years later to the very day (Exodus 12:41). They left on Nisan 15 which was about March/April, 1447 B.C. The Bible testifies that the famine had been in the land two years and five years remained. Genesis 45:6 reads:

For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.

    The implication is that at the end of two years, just before the beginning of the remaining five years of famine, was when Jacob entered Egypt. Since we know he entered Egypt in March/April of 1877, the seven good years must have begun about nine full years earlier in March/April, 1886, which would be the date of Joseph’s release from prison. The release of the baker and butler two full years earlier would be March/April 1888 probably just before the death of

Sesostris II. His son, Sesostris III, would have reigned two full years when he had his dreams of the cows and corn. This sequence of time satisfies all of the Biblical possibilities.

    The timetable would look like this. Sesostris III’s first year ended Thoth I (August/September) 1888.⁸ He began to reign either as a co- regent with his father on Thoth I, 1889⁹ or he began to reign immediately upon his father’s death. There is reason to believe his father died on the 14th day of the 8th month (March/April).¹⁰ The birthday feast of Genesis 40 occurred shortly before March/April of 1888. Two full years later (Genesis 41:1), Sesostris III who was now in the third year of his reign, had his dreams and released Joseph about March/April 1886 B.C. In the seventh year of Sesostris III, on the 16th day of the 8th month (March/April), 1882, Sesostris III celebrated the Sothic Festival. This coincided with the beginning of the 5th year of harvest plenty under Joseph’s rule as prime minister. In March/ April of 1879 B.C. the seven years of plenty came to an end and two years later in March/April, 1877, Jacob arrived in Egypt.


A Slave Becomes Prime Minister

    Does it make any sense to believe that young Sesostris III would appoint a slave, Joseph, to the high office of prime minister or “grand vizier”? The answer comes from the archaeological record that indicates that, especially beginning with the 12th Dynasty during which Sesostris III reigned, large changes occurred in the method of government and in the appointment of those governed.

    The practice of appointing those who were not of royal blood to high office was apparently common during the 12th Dynasty. Archaeologists have shown that men who were called “viziers” and who also often held the title of monarch ruled over the various provinces of Egypt. The office of monarch was often an hereditary office. During the 12th Dynasty, however, there were many changes. Simpson wrote:

The viziers of the Twelfth Dynasty evidently belonged neither to the ruling family . . . nor to the class of hereditary monarchs.11

    The Biblical picture of the increased power of the central government during Joseph’s era is also verified by secular sources. Hayes declares:

It appears to have been in the reign of King Senworsret III of the Twelfth Dynasty that the administration of the provinces of Upper

and Lower Egypt was taken out of the hands of the hereditary monarch and reorganized into units called “wrwt” which functioned as departments of the central government.12

    Simpson also writes:

Students of the Twelfth Dynasty have frequently noted the loss of power suffered by them, onarchs in this reign. This situation certainly requires further study and perhaps reappraisal, but it cannot be seriously questioned.13

    The archaeological evidence appears to indicate that about the time of Sesostris III the power of administration was transferred more clearly to the central government and out of the hands of the monarchs. This could have been because of the palace intrigue and ferment that resulted in his father’s death or it could have been a result of the total power which was given to Joseph, or both. In any case, the archaeological information that a central government ruled over all of Egypt beginning with the 12th Dynasty agrees precisely with the Biblical information that Joseph ruled over all of Egypt as prime minister.


Joseph’s Long Rule Accords with the Secular Data

    When we examine the reigns of Sesostris III and his son Amenemhet III, we notice that both had long reigns (38 years and 48 years, respectively). Since Joseph died 80 years after he became prime minister, he died in 1806 B.C. He out-lived Sesostris III and died four years before Amenemhet III. Amenemhet III died in 1802 B.C.

    The long period of Joseph’s life together with the long reigns of the pharaohs under whom he was prime minister would have contributed to a very stable government. Was this in fact the situation? The answer seems to be yes; during these two reigns the land was prosperous and tranquil. Breasted writes of this period:

It was thus over a nation in the fullness of its powers, rich and productive in every avenue of life, that Amenemhet III ruled; and his reign crowned the classic age which had dawned with the advent of his family.14

    Amenemhet III was especially concerned about the water resources of Egypt. During his reign, a large dam and lake were constructed which is called Fayum Lake (Lake Moeris).¹⁵ It is interesting that the canal which supplied water to this lake was named

“Bahr Yusuf” for “Joseph’s Canal.”¹⁶ The archeological evidence and the Scriptural record dovetail very neatly and provide an exact chronological reference point for this period of history.

    In this chapter, we have discovered the exquisite reliability of the Bible all the way to a small pronoun, “he.” We should be encouraged by this to believe anew in the infallible, God-breathed nature of God’s Word. We should see afresh that the Bible is not only trustworthy when it speaks in the area of salvation, but also when it speaks on historical questions.

    We saw how the Biblical account with its perfect chronology gives us an exact timetable for the secular account, which accords altogether with the sacred, once the date from both accounts have been synchronized. The practice of appointing grand viziers form other than the ruling class, the short reign of Sesostris II, the long and tranquil reigns of Sesostris III and Amenemhet III, all match the Biblical record. Even the construction of Joseph’s canal pointedly calls our attention to the beautiful relationship that exists between the sacred and secular records.

    Let us continue our search to see if additional meshing of these two records is possible.



NOTES:

    ¹William F. Albright, Recent Discoveries in Bible Land, in Analytical Concordance of the Bible (New York, Funk & Wagnalls, 21st ed., 1930), p. 27.

    ²W. F. Edgerton, “Chronology of the Twelfth Dynasty,” in Journal of Near Eastern Studies (Chicago, University or Chicago Press, 1942), pp. 308-309.

    ³Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1964), p. 120.

    ⁴G. H. Wheeler, “The Chronology of the Twelfth Dynasty” in Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, pp. 198-199.

    ⁵See Chapter 4 of this volume.

    ⁶See Appendix VI for further discussion on this date.

    ⁷James H. Breasted, A History of Egypt, Charles Scribner & Sons, Second Edition (1937), pp. 598-599.

    ⁸In early Egyptian history, the pharaoh’s reigns coincided with the calendar year which began on Thoth 1. See Finegan, Jack, op. cit., p. 25.

    ⁹A. H. Gardiner. “Regnal Years and Civil Calendar in Pharaonic Egypt,” in Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 31 (1945), p. 27.

    ¹⁰Ibid., p. 27.

    ¹¹W.V. Simpson, “Sobhemhet, A Vizier of Sesotris III,” J.E.A., Vol. 43 (1957). P. 27.

    ¹²William C. Hayes, “Notes on the Government of Egypt in the Late Middle Kingdom,” J.N.E.S., Vol. 12 (1953), p. 31.

    ¹³Simpson, “Vizier of Sesostris III,” p. 27.

    ¹⁴James H. Breasted, A History of Egypt, Charles Scribner & Sons, second ed. (1937), p. 208.

    ¹⁵Ibid., p. 198.

    ¹⁶Arthur Weigall, A History of the Pharaohs (New York, E.P. Dutton & Co., 1927), pp. 114-115.