Imhotep is a famous and somewhat mysterious figure from Egyptian history, often credited with major advances in architecture and medicine.
Legend associates Imhotep with saving Egypt from a seven-year famine. Looking at these and other details, casual observers might wonder if the Imhotep of Egyptian history is the same person as Joseph from the book of Genesis.
A statue of Imhotep, chancellor to the pharaoh, priest of Ra and architect. Bronze, Ptolemaic Egypt (332-30 BC). At the Louvre, Paris. Credit: HuTotya, Wikimedia Commons
The Historical Imhotep
According to Egyptologists, the Pharaoh Djoser employed an adviser named Imhotep, who designed his pyramid. Prior to that time, Pharaohs were buried in low, rectangular structures called mastaba. Imhotep’s design used a creative combination of stone and architecture to create a “step pyramid.” This building was significantly larger, more durable, and more beautiful than the tombs that preceded it.
The stepped Djoser pyramid built, according to Egyptian records, by Imhotep, a high official under the Pharaoh Djoser Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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Secondary evidence also suggests that Imhotep was an accomplished physician. There are reasons to believe he wrote the original text of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, an ancient text on diagnosing and treating different medical conditions.
Inscriptions, carved many centuries later during the reign of Ptolemy, credit Imhotep with ending a long drought connected to the lack of flooding of the Nile River. Legend also connects Imhotep to Egypt’s rescue from a seven-year famine.
The Biblical Joseph
Reading the Bible, one can see many parallels to Imhotep in Joseph, described in Genesis chapters 37 through 41. Joseph comes to Egypt as a common man-actually a slave-and rises to become the right-hand man of the Pharaoh. His counsel, which partly involves interpreting dreams, saves Egypt from a seven-year-long famine.
The devastating seven year famine which caused Jacob's entire family to relocate to Egypt (Genesis 41--47) finds ready support geophysically, archaeologically, and historically.
The Egyptian Pyramids: Did Joseph Use them to Store Grain?
Similarities and Differences
All in all, the figures of Imhotep and Joseph bear some interesting similarities. Both Imhotep and Joseph were commoners who were raised up based on their innovative thinking. Both are said to have become advisers to the Pharaoh and both to have saved the people from starvation by constructing massive grain silos during a time of plenty, which were used when the famine struck.
Read also: Historical Famine in Egypt
However, beyond the superficial similarities, Imhotep and Joseph are extremely difficult to reconcile as the same person. First and foremost, Imhotep and Djoser lived somewhere around the 27th century BC. Scholars differ about exactly when the Exodus might have occurred, but most of the estimates fall somewhere between the 20th and 13th centuries BC.
While history describes Imhotep as a deeply religious man, his devotion was not to the God of Israel, but to Ptah, one of many Egyptian deities.
Even more critically, the earliest mention of Imhotep in this regard is a stone carving from the reign of Ptolemy, made somewhere after the 4th century BC. The connection between Imhotep and Joseph, in terms of the seven-year famine, might be stronger. However, according to the Bible, Joseph interprets the Pharaoh’s dream, not his own. In other words, while Imhotep (presumably) lived several hundred years before Joseph and nearly a millennia before Moses, he is not credited with ending a famine until nearly a millennia after Moses.
In short, it’s likely that folklorists adapted Joseph’s story in order to credit Imhotep with shepherding Egypt through a famine.
Chronological and Cultural Discrepancies
There are several angles from which such investigations might be launched. Tracing the secular history of taxation in Egypt might, therefore, be a fruitful line of investigation. And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt valid to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth.
Read also: "Joseph: King of Dreams" and "Spirit"
One should expect to find a twenty percent tax in force in the later part of the Old Kingdom, at least. If the pharaoh or vizier could be identified under whom this taxation was instituted, one would presumably be able to identify Joseph in Egypt very quickly.
While there may well be parallel features in the careers and life-stories of the two men, it would be very risky to identify them. Dr. David Noel Freedman has also expressed the need for caution in identifying Imhotep with Joseph. There is no hint anywhere that Imhotep was anything but a real Egyptian, which is exactly what Joseph was not. Analogies are one thing, equations are another.
And Joseph's Egyptian name [Zaphenath-paneah (Genesis 41:45)] is totally different [from Imhotep], in fact a name that doesn't find any similarities in Egyptian onomastica before the Saite period [ca. But this is not to say the matter is closed, by any means.
What is needed at this stage are in-depth, deliberate investigations of the question using available Biblical data and Egyptian source documents in light of the new synthesis of Biblical and Egyptian history discussed last issue.
Scholarly Opinions and Evidence
The principal limitation which emerges from the two letters is that the Egyptian historical sources which tell us about Imhotep and his parentage date very much later than when Imhotep actually lived. The monument on which the claim that Imhotep's father was an architect is found was built nearly two and a half thousand years after the time of Imhotep, for example.
Although Fakhry (1961: 4) does state as a fact that the father of Imhotep was an architect, the only basis for this claim seems to be the monument erected by Khnum-ib-re in the Wadi Hammamat (Hurry, 1928: 193; Fakhry, 1961: 24--26) and mentioned by Mrs. Neises. This single testimony might merit our full confidence if erected during or near the time of Imhotep by a witness in a position to know the truth. As it is, however, we have ample justification for skepticism about its accuracy.
Since practically every ancestor of Khnum-ib-re listed on the monument is said to be an architect, Khnum-ib-re was evidently intent on advertising his credentials and heritage. Yet the difference between the date of about 500 B.C. attributed to the monument and the date of the birth of Imhotep (Hurry, 1928: 4) indicates that the average gap between the twenty-five men listed was slightly more than 100 years, so we must conclude the list was at least incomplete if not largely legendary or fictitious.
Can we even be certain that the names listed represent only father-son relationships? It is probable, of course, that Khnum-ib-re and his contemporaries did have access to genealogical records or traditions that have since been lost.
If it had been common knowledge in their day [i.e., in about 500 B.C.] that Israel was the real father of Imhotep, rather than establishing the reputation of its builder [i.e., Khnum-ib-re] as a great architect, the monument would have proved only that he was a great liar, so I think we can eliminate such a possibility.
We are left with only two other alternatives, assuming the list was intended as a single, patrilineal lineage:
- Khnum-ib-re might have been mistaken about Imhotep, innocently relying on faulty records or traditions, or
- he might have been right, actually having access to accurate, 2500-year-old information proving that Kanofer was the father of Imhotep.
We may never be sure in this life which alternative is correct. What we really need is such a record dated to about the time of Imhotep. This same conclusion applies to the suggestion in Hurry (1928: 196-97) that the name of Imhotep's mother (Khreduonkh) is recorded in a fragmentary document dated to the fourteenth century B.C.
The Question of Joseph's Egyptian Identity
If Imhotep is Joseph, we should probably not expect to find public monuments or other Egyptian documents revealing the true story of his ethnicity, parentage, or rise to power. There was probably a deliberate attempt to suppress this information.
Genesis 43:32 informs us that "Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians" and Genesis 46:34 adds "all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians". We know from Genesis that the pharaoh who promoted Joseph took immediate steps to make him appear more Egyptian. Besides the ring, robes, gold chain, and fine chariot provided as necessary signs of his new office, the pharaoh gave him an Egyptian name and wife (Genesis 41:42--45), apparently desiring to conceal as much as possible Joseph's past life as a Hebrew shepherd, slave, and convict.
Now what about the objection that Joseph would not have built pyramids and other structures dedicated to pagan gods? If the pharaoh had asked him to construct a building, would Joseph have declined on religious grounds, if he knew that the edifice would be dedicated to a pagan god?
The Bible does not answer this question directly, but we do have some reason to suppose that he would have served the king in this way regardless. Perhaps his attitude was similar to that of Naaman, who asked permission to bow down with his master in the temple of Rimmon, in spite of his personal allegiance to the one true God (2 Kings 5:17--18). We do know that Joseph accepted the Egyptian wife, though she was the daughter of a priest and probably a pagan herself (Genesis 41:50).
Egypt, it should be noted, went through many famines. Most likely, only one of the two men actually existed. The story of Imhotep may have been appropriated by biblical writers who were influenced by the Judahites residing in Egypt, and reappeared eventually in the form of Joseph.
Making order of the mess, Prof. Orly Goldwasser of Head of Egyptology at Hebrew University notes that there is no mention of Joseph whatsoever in any ancient Egyptian annals. "Identifying Joseph with Imhotep is pure fantasy," she sums up. "There is no connection between the 'sons of Israel' and the pyramids. The Bible says that the Israelites built two cities on the Nile Delta, Pitom and Ramses. Both are easily identifiable today. If the Israelites were in ancient Egypt at all, it was in the 13th century BCE."
The Famine Stela is a hieroglyph inscription found on Sehel Island in the Nile, which describes a seven-year period of drought and famine during the reign of Djoser. Credit: Markh, Wikimedia Commons
Key Differences Summarized
Here is a summary of the key differences between Imhotep and Joseph, as well as the timelines in which they lived:
| Feature | Imhotep | Joseph |
|---|---|---|
| Time Period | 27th Century BC | Estimated between 20th and 13th Centuries BC |
| Religious Devotion | Egyptian deities (Ptah) | God of Israel |
| Famine Association | Credited in Ptolemaic era (after 4th century BC) | Interpreted Pharaoh's dream to prepare for famine |
| Historical Records | Egyptian historical sources exist | No direct mention in Egyptian annals |
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