Pharaoh During the Time of Joseph in Egypt

Nov 16, 2025 0

The biblical story of Joseph is a literary masterpiece, filled with family drama, strange dreams, plot twists and profound lessons about faith, patience and forgiveness. Many Bible scholars consider the story of Joseph to be the most unified narrative in the Hebrew Bible.

The Bible goes into some detail to tell us exactly when and where this story takes place.

The Exodus Pharaoh EXPLAINED!

According to the Bible, the Exodus occurred 480 years before the construction of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 6:1). With the temple built in the first half of the 10th century b.c.e. (or more specifically, the broadly agreed-upon date of 967 b.c.e.), this puts the Exodus somewhere within the mid-15th century b.c.e. (circa 1446 b.c.e.).

Working back from this date, the calculation of various internal biblical figures reveals the sojourn in Egypt-from the time of the descent of Jacob’s family-to have lasted just over two centuries. This accords with Genesis 15:16, which states that the Exodus would include Israelites of the fourth generation from those who entered.

Without getting entrenched too much into debate about specific dates, this would at least generally put Joseph on the scene in Egypt within the first half of the 17th century b.c.e. Notably, based on parallels in the historical context, this is where many biblical scholars place the time frame of Joseph’s story-within Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period, circa 1700-1550 b.c.e.

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Egyptologists divide ancient Egyptian history into three main periods in which the kingdom was unified under the rule of a powerful pharaoh: the Old Kingdom Period, the Middle Kingdom Period and the New Kingdom Period. These periods are separated by intermediate periods when Egypt was divided between two or more pharaohs. The Second Intermediate Period begins around the start of the 17th century b.c.e., when the last pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom Period moved his capital city from Itjtawy to Thebes-allowing a new dynasty of Semitic rulers to govern the Nile Delta.

Comparing the biblical narrative with the archaeological record, Joseph would have been sold into slavery during the latter part of Egypt’s 13th Dynasty. This dynasty was a direct continuation of the powerful 12th Dynasty, which ruled all of Egypt during the 20th to 19th centuries b.c.e. Yet Egyptologists refer to the 13th Dynasty as separate to highlight the fact that the Egyptian pharaohs were losing control of the Nile Delta to the arrival of Canaanite immigrants from the Levant, sometimes referred to collectively as the Lesser Hyksos. These Canaanites formed what is known as the 14th Dynasty, on the scene concurrently with the native 13th Dynasty.

The Setting of Joseph's Story

In addition to emphasizing the “when” of Joseph’s story, the Bible goes to great lengths to establish the “where.” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all pitched their tents on the Plain of Mamre, near Hebron (Genesis 13:18; 23:2,19; 35:27). It was just north of Shechem, near the town of Dothan, that Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.

Verse 25 notes that after Joseph’s jealous brothers threw him in an empty well, they “lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and ladanum, going to carry it down to Egypt.” This is another important detail relevant to questions on the historicity of the narrative.

During the Egyptian Middle Kingdom Period, most trade with Canaan was carried out via ship. Maritime contact was strong with the city of Byblos, which imported so much papyrus that the Greek word for “book,” biblio, is derived from the city (and is in turn where our English word Bible originates). Yet trade patterns changed with the rise of the Lesser Hyksos in the Nile Delta.

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According to Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor, curator of Egyptian Archaeology at the Israel Museum, maritime trade between Egypt and Byblos ceased around the 17th century b.c.e. This maritime trade was replaced by overland trade caravans between Canaan and the Nile Delta.

So when Genesis 37 recounts that Joseph’s brothers sold him to a caravan of Ishmaelites traveling from Gilead to Egypt, it is not recounting a strange thing. A century earlier, goods such as spices, balm and ladanum might have been dropped off in Byblos for shipment to Egypt. But by the time of Joseph, trade from Canaan to Egypt was largely caravan-based.

The late Egyptologist Prof. Kenneth Kitchen drew attention to the fact that Joseph’s sale price of 20 shekels of silver was the standard slave price in the 18th-17th century b.c.e., as reflected in a number of ancient inscriptions from this period. The Bible’s claim that Joseph’s brothers sold him for 20 shekels silver fits perfectly within this particular historical context.

These Ishmaelites would then likely have proceeded along the Way of Horus until they reached the courts of Potiphar, captain of pharaoh’s guard. Despite the attempts of some to paint Joseph’s sale and servitude to a northern Hyksos ruler, the Bible indicates the opposite-that the pharaoh of Joseph was a native Egyptian!

The Pharaoh as a Native Egyptian

The 13th Dynasty of Egypt is generally accounted as beginning when Queen Sobekneferu, daughter of Amenemhat iii, allowed the Lesser Hyksos to establish themselves in the eastern Nile Delta. Yet the pharaohs of the 13th Dynasty did not abandon the Nile Delta completely. Rather, they ruled from the city of Itjtawy, located in the southern Nile Delta, until the early 17th-century b.c.e. pharaoh Merneferre Ay moved his capital south to Thebes.

A great deal of internal biblical evidence suggests that the pharaoh Joseph served under was a native Egyptian.

An example is the Bible’s emphatic repetition-including three times in just five verses-that Potiphar was an “Egyptian” (Genesis 39:1, 2, 5). Other relevant Bible passages include Genesis 43:32 and 46:34, the latter of which states that “every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians”-yet this was the practice of the Hyksos, whom many ancient authors refer to as the “shepherd kings.” Such passages only make sense if Joseph was serving in the court of a native Egyptian pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty.

The kicker is that Joseph, in seeking to conceal his identity from his brothers, pretended not to understand the Semitic language of the Levant, and instead spoke through an interpreter. “And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for the interpreter was between them” (Genesis 42:23). This ruse only makes perfect sense if Joseph’s brothers were interacting with a vizier reporting to a native Egyptian pharaoh, in the native Egyptian language-not the Semitic language of the Hyksos.

Another piece of evidence indicating Joseph served a 13th Dynasty pharaoh is the fact that the pharaoh arranged Joseph’s marriage to Asenath, daughter of the priest of On (better known as Heliopolis; Genesis 41:45). Egyptologist Prof. Kim Ryholt estimates that the Lesser Hyksos never exerted control further south than the city of Athribis, so only a pharaoh from the 13th Dynasty would have had the authority to arrange a marriage between Joseph and an official in Heliopolis.

Two scarabs bearing the name of the aforementioned Merneferre Ay have been discovered in Heliopolis, so we know that the 13th Dynasty did maintain a presence there into the 17th century.

Introducing Merneferre Ay

The 13th Dynasty endured for roughly 150 years (circa 1800-1650 b.c.e.), but much of that time was marred by turmoil, while the Lesser Hyksos began to carve out for themselves a semi-autonomous state. Within that time frame, there is evidence of more than 54 pharaohs, putting an average regnal length at about only three years. Only four 13th Dynasty pharaohs are known to have reigned longer than 10 years: Neferhotep i, Sobekhotep iv, Wahibre Ibiau and Merneferre Ay. This is important because the biblical account reveals that the pharaoh Joseph served under ruled for longer than 10 years.

The first time Joseph’s pharaoh is explicitly mentioned is in Genesis 40:2. Joseph’s interpretation came true; yet the butler forgot to ask the pharaoh for Joseph’s release (verse 23). When pharaoh had his own strange dream two years later, the butler told him about the man he met in prison. The account gives every indication that this was the same pharaoh who had imprisoned his butler, and the same pharaoh who later promoted Joseph following the interpretation of his own dream.

Pharaoh’s dream, Joseph explained, meant there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Jacob and his family arrived in Egypt during the second year of the famine, and there is no indication the pharaoh had died and was succeeded during this nine-year time period.

Combining the two years that elapsed between the butler’s dream and pharaoh’s dream with the nine years Joseph served as vizier for this pharaoh before Jacob’s arrival, it is evident that the pharaoh of Joseph reigned a minimum of 11 years (and probably longer).

If our criteria for the pharaoh of Joseph are: 1) native Egyptian, 2) early 17th century b.c.e. and 3) reigned at least 11 years, then only Merneferre Ay fits the bill. According to Professor Ryholt’s The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period, Merneferre Ay reigned for exactly “23 years, 8 months and 18 days,” putting him on the scene from 1701-1677 b.c.e.

Merneferre Ay is well attested, with no fewer than 62 scarab seals and one cylinder seal. Fifty-one of these are of unknown provenance, and most of the rest are from Upper Egypt, but one seal from Bubastis and two from Heliopolis show that he continued to exert control in the Nile Delta region, despite the presence of the Lesser Hyksos.

Merneferre Ay is notable as the last Egyptian king of the 13th Dynasty to be attested to by objects from outside Upper Egypt.

Conquering the Delta

Most literary analysis of the Joseph story revolves around the family drama between Joseph and his antagonistic brothers. But there is a fascinating event that puts the family drama into its historical context.

Joseph, interpreting the pharaoh’s dream, informed him that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine. He therefore recommended the pharaoh save 20 percent of Egypt’s grain harvest during the years of plenty in order to have stores during the years of want. As the account describes, the pharaoh, impressed with this counsel, made Joseph his second-in-command, giving him authority to carry out this project.

Genesis 47 relays that Joseph sold this grain back to the Egyptians during the famine. At first the Egyptians paid with money, until their money ran out. “So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was sore upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s. And as for the people, he removed them city by city, from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end thereof. Only the land of the priests bought he not, for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them …” (Genesis 47:20-22).

This passage tells us that every landowner in Egypt, except the priests, sold their land to pharaoh. The Bible further tells us pharaoh put his own personal herds of cattle in the Nile Delta, setting Joseph’s family and workmen over them as “rulers over my cattle” (Genesis 47; again, in light of the native Egyptians despising herding).

This incident may solve an age-old mystery in the field of Egyptology. The testimony of ancient Egyptian historians, like the third-century b.c.e. Manetho, record that the Lesser Hyksos were conquered by another Semitic-speaking dynasty called Greater Hyksos, but archaeologists have never discovered any evidence of a violent conquest. Genesis 47, for its part, relates that Jacob’s family gained control over the Nile Delta territory peacefully.

In aligning events with the biblical account, it can be inferred that the famine forced the Lesser Hyksos rulers to sell their land back to Merneferre Ay, who in turn established the Israelites as rulers over his cattle and land in the normally fertile Delta region.

Genesis 42:6 further tells us that pharaoh made Joseph “governor over the land.” The Hebrew word translated “governor” is salit-an unusual biblical term.

The transition in the biblical text from referring to pharaohs by the title "Pharaoh" (Hebrew: פַּרְעֹה) without their individual names, may follow the Egyptian convention of referring to pharaohs only by their titles. This was only broken by the middle of the 21st Dynasty by Pharaoh Siamun, becoming standard at the time of Shoshenq I, who is incidentally the first pharaoh to be mentioned by name in the biblical text.

When you think of ancient pharaohs, do you imagine them with the same skin tones and facial features as the men in the picture below? Did you know some ancient pharaohs were from Southern Africa, the land of Cush-the nation now called, Sudan? Other Pharaohs came from Canaan, rulers who sat on Lower Egypt’s throne during a time when the nation was divided.

Overall, archaeological evidence implies that Egypt’s Canaanite kings were more interested in boosting trade than recording details.

The ages in Exodus 6:16-20 from Kohath being born in Padan Aram to Moses at age 80 when he led the Exodus can total only 350 years maximum.

What if it could be understood to mean that Israel and his children were without a homeland and they sojourned 430 years in foreign lands (lands that could have been included as part of Egypt at various times) then ending in the Exodus from Egypt?

Joseph was born when Jacob was 91 years old (Genesis 47:9, Genesis 41:46, Genesis 41:53 and Genesis 45:6 (130 - 30 - 7 - 2 = 91). Therefore, Joseph was born in 1831 BC (1792 + 130 - 91).

In Potiphar’s Wife, Joseph arrives in Egypt as a slave as Pharaoh Khyan is newly crowned king. Khyan appoints his best friend, Potiphar, as captain of his royal bodyguard, bestowing on the crusty soldier an extravagant villa that’s attached to the palace.

The Bible records Abraham/Isaac’s land conflicts with the Philistine king(s), Abimelech, because their flocks and herds became so numerous (Genesis 21, 26).

Though Scripture never refers to Potiphar’s wife by name, both the Quran and Jewish historical literature give her a name. The Quran spells it Zulaikha, and Legends of the Jews spells it, Zuleika.

Numerous Pharaohs have been proposed as contemporary with the Exodus:

Khufu (26th century BC): Some connect Haman with Hemiunu, thereby placing the Exodus during the reign of Khufu.
Pepi I (24th-23rd century BC): Emmanuel Anati has argued that the Exodus should be placed between the 24th and the 21st century BC and that Pepi I should be identified as the pharaoh of the Exodus.
Merenre (23rd century BC): Gerald Aardsma proposed that the Exodus occurred in 2450 BC by extending the 480 years mentioned in 1 Kings 6:1 to 1,480 years, arguing that the figure of 480 years was a scribal corruption. He used his own chronology, which places 6th dynasty in the 25th century BC, and identified the pharaoh of the Exodus as Merenre Nemtyemsaf II.
Dedumose II (died c. 1690 BC): Though Rohl's hypothesis that Exodus occurred during the Middle Kingdom follows the Samaritans' chronology, according to which the Israelites settled in Canaan in the 17th century BC, Rohl shortened the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt by almost 300 years with his New Chronology.
Thutmose II (1493-1479 BC): Alfred Edersheim proposes in Old Testament Bible History that Thutmose II is best qualified to be the pharaoh of Exodus because he had a brief, prosperous reign that suddenly collapsed without a legitimate heir. His widow Hatshepsut then became first regent (for Thutmose III, his son by his concubine Iset, before becoming Pharaoh herself.
Amenhotep II (1427-1401 BC): Amenhotep II claimed to have brought tens of thousands of slaves from the Levant to Egypt. Associates for Biblical Research asserts that these slaves were taken to compensate for the loss of Jewish slaves as a result of the Exodus.
Thutmose IV (1401-1391 BC): Wayne A. Mitchell and David F.
Akhenaten (1353-1349 BC): In his book Moses and Monotheism, Sigmund Freud argued that Moses had been an Atenist priest of Akhenaten who was forced to leave Egypt, along with his followers, following the pharaoh's death.
Ramesses II (c.
Merneptah (c. 1213-1203 BC): Isaac Asimov in Guide to the Bible makes a case for Merneptah to be the pharaoh of the Exodus. Recently, Semiticist Richard C.
Setnakhte (c. 1189-1186 BC): Igor P.
Ramesses III (c. 1186-1155 BC): Gary A.
Bakenranef (c.
Ramses (?-?): Manetho and Chaeremon of Alexandria, both quoted by Josephus in Against Apion, state that the Jews were expelled from Egypt by a pharaoh named "Ramses", son of another pharaoh named "Amenophis".

In 1 Kings 3:1, it is narrated that to seal an alliance, the pharaoh of Egypt gave a daughter in marriage to Solomon. The same ruler later captured the city of Gezer and gave it to Solomon as well (1 Kings 9:16).

King Hoshea sent a letter to an Egyptian King So (Hebrew סוֹא מֶלֶךְ־מִצְרַיִם), mentioned in 2 Kings 17:4. At this time (about 730 BC), Egypt had three dynasties ruling contemporaneously: 22nd at Tanis, 23rd at Leontopolis, and 24th at Sais. This figure is universally identified as Taharqa (690-664 BC). The events in the biblical account are believed to have taken place in 701 BC, whereas Taharqa came to the throne some ten years later.

Be sure to check back next month to discover if what you THINK you know about these famous (and infamous) characters is true!

Pharaoh	Reign (BC)	Proposed as Pharaoh of Exodus
Khufu	26th century	Yes
Pepi I	24th-23rd century	Yes
Merenre Nemtyemsaf II	23rd century	Yes
Dedumose II	Died c. 1690	Yes
Thutmose II	1493-1479	Yes
Amenhotep II	1427-1401	Yes
Akhenaten	1353-1349	Yes
Merneptah	1213-1203	Yes