Dr. Ben Carson received a lot of unfavorable publicity early in his campaign to become President of the United States because of his stated belief that the Biblical story of Joseph son of Jacob was true, that there was indeed a 7-year famine in Egypt in the days of Joseph, and that one or several pyramids was connected in some way with the storage of grain supervised by Joseph.

Joseph in Ancient Egyptian History

Frby: Mary Nell Wyatt

(Originally published in Newsletter No. 7, April 1994)

is not, of course, the only credible explanation of how the Biblical story of

Joseph, son of Jacob-Israel

came to be included in our Bible -- nor is IMHOTEP the only possible historical person who might have been chosen by Bible authors or editors to describe, and RENAME and characterize as one of the 12 sons of JACOB, and therefore the ancestor of the later TRIBES that came to be called "Ephriam" and "Manassah" -- two major groups of Canaanite Israelis of the Age of King David.   King David appears to be a real historical person.  "Ephriam" and "Manassah" appear to have been real tribes.  Beyond these "facts" there exists a great amount of uncertainty that exists in the opinions of researchers.

Another Possible "Joseph"

Yuya, Grand Visier of

Amenhotep IV

this is the theory presented by Ahmed Osman, a Muslim reasearcher, in his books, which include "Moses, Pharaoh of Egypt"

    When I first put up my first web page, HEALTHARK.COM, in 1999, I had read Ahmed Osman's book "Moses, Pharaoh of Egypt", in which Osman, an Egyptian lawyer, and a Muslim by religious faith, shows quite a bit of evidence from Egyptian tombs and inscriptions that Yuya, the prime minister under Pharaoh Amenhotep III had a pretty daughter who became the secondary wife of the pharaoh while he was waiting for his sister to become old enough to become his Royal Wife.  They had a son who was only 50% Egyptian and 50% Hebrew.  (Yuya's mummy is available and is not Egyptian.)

      Queen Tiye (whose mummy is also available) had a son with her husband Amenhotep III, who eventually became pharaoh as Amenhotep IV because the Royal Wife, the sister of the pharaoh was barren, unable to become pregnant and produce an heir.  Tiye hid her son as a baby in a little ark-boat hidden among reeds in an ornamental pond in a border-town not far from the present Suez Canal whenever her husband came to visit until the son was old enough to be trained as a pharaoh should be trained.  By which time Pharaoh Amenhotep III realized this son was the only one who might be born to him and become his heir.

     Meanwhile, Queen Tiye's father, Yuya, maintained his position as "Grand Visier", or Prime Minister -- and was honored at his death as being the only non-Egyptian buried in the "Valley of the Kings".   I, Robert Holt, MD, have seen Yuya's mummy, which was preserved on the second floor of the Cairo museum when I visited it in 1990 or 1991.  At that time a tourist, such as myself must resort to bribing a guard to be able to photograph any part of the Tutankhamen exhibit on this second floor.

     If Osman is correct, which he may be, then "Moses" is really Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, whose other, better-known name was AKHENATEN, the "Heretic Pharaoh" who declared there was "Only ONE GOD", not many -- and was forced into exile in the Sinai later in his reign.   He escaped death at the hands of the Egyptian priesthood only because his uncle, an Egyptian general, took over the leadership of the country in "Moses"' absence, while his son Tutankhamen ruled as a puppet king. 

      All these things were so embarrassing to the Egyptians, and politically and religiously "incorrect" that an almost successful later campaign was launched to ERASE Akhenaten's reign from historical records.  However, Yuya and his daughter, Queen Tiye, escaped  this "erasure" , and her son, Tutankamen ("King TUT") became one of the most famous boy kings of history!

      MY PRESENT OPINION IS THAT HEBREW SCRIBES HAVE ADOPTED PARTS OF BOTH THESE HISTORIES, AND MERGED THEM TOGETHER TO MAKE A SOMEWHAT "BETTER" THAN HISTORICALLY TRUE STORY OF BOTH JOSEPH AND MOSES, WHO MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN A GRANDSON OF PHARAOH AMENHOTEP III.

      As for the preponderance of details, Joseph's story more nearly fits the real life story of IMHOTEP.

For a more detailed discussion of Bible authorship,

 Click this Line!