Joseph and Imhotep

Joseph and Imhotep have been suggested to be the same person. This article looks at the person of Joseph, son of Jacob, in the Bible, and whether or not there is any non-Biblical Egyptian historical or acheological evidence of his existence.
There are many similarities between Joseph and Imhotep. Joseph is responsible for saving Egypt from a seven year famine and may have built the massive silos that can be found in many cities of Egypt. In particular, the ones associated with the Djoser Pyramid complex that surrounds the Step Pyramid, the first pyramid built in Egypt. Given that Joseph was one of the Patriarchs of Israel, and figures very early in the Biblical record, less than 1000 years after the flood of Noah, it is quite possible that he may have figured in the early parts of Egyptian history, as well.
The most compelling argument against Joseph and Imhotep being the same person, however, is the discrepancy between the estimated times during which they lived.
Biblical references to Joseph
References to Joseph can be found in the Book of Genesis in the Holy Bible, The Torah, and The Koran. These are the holy scriptures of the Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, respectively. The story of Joseph is told in Genesis, chapters 37-50. Genesis is the first book of the Bible and no biblical scholars would dispute the historical nature of this part of the book. Any suggestion that Joseph was a symbolic, mythical, or fictional character would be deeply offensive to these religions.
Biblical genealogy
After the flood and the dispersion of Babel, people spread out over all the earth. Terah set out from Ur of the Chaldeans with his son, Abraham, to go to Canaan, but they stopped at Haran. This is where Abraham was called by God. God promised to make him into a great nation and to bless all nations through him. God made a covenant with Abraham and promised him the land of Canaan, pf which his descendants would take possession after serving as slaves in a foreign land (Egypt) for 400 years (4 generations).
Abraham was to become the father of many nations centered around the middle east as we know it today. He had Ishmael (Ishmaelites) to Hagar, his wife's maid servant. Ishmael became the Patriach of the Islamic religion. Then, at the age of 100, Abraham had Issac to his wife Sarai. It was to be through Issac that God would fulfill his promise to Abraham and so Ishmael was sent away.
Issac married Rebeka, who bore Esau (the Edomites) and Jacob (the Israelites). Abraham had a third wife, Keturah, who bore many children who were sent to the middle east and became fathers of nations there too. Jacob eventually bore 12 sons and a daughter. The eleventh son was Joseph. Joseph was the first son of Rachael (Jacob's second wife). Jacob had an encounter with God one night and was renamed Israel. His descendants (the Jews) became the Nation of Israel (from which comes Judaism) out of which came Christ (Christianity), with whom God would fulfill his promise to Abraham.
Jacob (Israel) favoured Joseph over his other children. Joseph had a dream that one day he would rule over his brothers. His brothers became jealous of him and so sold him to slave traders who took him to Egypt.
Biblical history
In the Biblical account,
*During the seven years of abundance, Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain in each city from the fields surrounding them.
*He had two sons to Asenath, Mannaseh & Ephraim.
*Joseph saved Egypt and Caanan by selling the people grain during the 7 year famine. When the people had run out of money, Joseph brought their livestock. When they had run out of livestock he brought the land titles.
*Joseph brought up all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The priests did not have to sell their land as Pharaoh gave them a supply of food.
*Joseph's family were saved. Jacob (Israel) and his eleven other sons along with their wives and servants were invited by Pharaoh to come and live in Egypt. They settled in Rameses and became numerous in number. After 400 years passed, they numbered over 2 million. They were eventually lead out of Egypt by Moses through the Red Sea (the exodus).
Joseph in Egyptian history
The Holy Scriptures, also known as the Bible, are considered to be amongst the oldest, most accurate, reliable and well preserved historical documents (covering from almost 4000 years BC to well after the death and resurrection of Christ in 33AD).
Chapters 37-50 of Genesis recount the story of Joseph (about 1720BC), the Son of Jacob (also known as Israel) and Rachel. Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery and ended up in Egypt where by a strange twist of fate ends up becoming the highest official in the Kingdom other than Pharaoh himself. He was able to store enough grain to feed the nation for seven years and designed a system to distribute it during the seven year famine.
Given the magnitude of Joseph's accomplishments in Egypt (albeit God inspired), some evidence that Joseph existed should be able to be found in Egyptian history and archaeology.
Massive Silos have been found in Saqqara vey close to where the Step Pyramid designed by Imhotep is located. They appear to form part of a complex designed for grain storage and distribution which includes a building that could have been used for trading grain with visitors from all over the nation. Even though Imhotep is said to have lived and served Pharaoh Djoser in the 26th centurey BC, Imhotep is considered by many biblical scholars to be the best candidate for Joseph in Egyptian records.
Imhotep
Imhotep was born a commoner during the Third Dynasty of Egypt which was considered the Old Kingdom. He was very skilled architect and was the first to build with stone. He was a vizier to the King Netjerikhet (Djoser) and the High Priest of Ptah. Imhotep was a poet and physician-priest. He wrote many medical and didactic texts. He saved his people from a famine that lasted 7 years.
He is best known, however, as the chief architect of the step pyramid at Saqqara which is also known as the first pyramid or the Djoser Pyramid. The Djoser pyramid complex also contains buildings that were used for trade and elaborate massive interconnected underground grain silos. It remains today as one of the most brilliant architecture wonders of the ancient world.
After his death, during the New Kingdom, Imhotep was deified and became the "Son of Ptah". It is estmated that he lived around 2635-2595 B.C. Imhotep existed as a mythological figure in the minds of most scholars until the end of the nineteenth century when he was established as a real historical personage. They can be seen on Google earth (5+2 massive holes in the ground just 0.12 km east of the step pyramid) It is estimated that Joseph lived between 1720BC and 1550BC based on the genealogic records of the Bible. Imhotep is thought to have served Djoser in 2600BC based on Egyptian historical documents and archaeological artifacts which are quite sketchy and far from complete. Various assumptions that have been made to arrive at these dates may be quite erroneous in both cases.
If the flood of Noah took place arround 2400BC, it is unlikely that there would have been enough people around to build the pyramids until at least a few hundred years later.
The Bible states in Genesis 50 that Joseph lived for 110 years. It can not be determined from Egyptian records how long Imhotep lived.
Joseph served and represented the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Egyptian records tend to indicated Imhotep was a priest of the Sun God.
Imhotep was deified by the Egyptians and Greeks up to 1400 years after his death. This is not surprising if he saved his people through divine inspiration and was the Architect of the first pyramid and the massive grain silos associated with the Djoser pyramid complex and was responsible for acquiring much of the Egyptian land titles for Pharaoh by selling grain in times of famine. He would not be the first mortal that this has happened to.
After the Exodus of the Israelites some 400 years after Jacob and his household first went to Egypt, there was nobody and no reason to record what happened to the Israelites in Egypt. Egyptians would not have wanted to record their humiliating defeat when attempting to chase the Israelites (lead by Moses) across the Red Sea at the time of the Exodus.
The pillars that King Solomon of Israel placed at the site of the Red Sea Crossing to comemmorate it were defaced by the Egyptians on one side and completely removed by the Arabs on the other side.
Much of the Egyptian records have be lost or destroyed over the ages making it very difficult to trace the path of the Israelites through Egypt and correlate Egyptian historical figures with Biblical ones.

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