of Ham, the son of Noë; he is called also Naracho." Josephus says that "all the kings of the Egyptians, from Menes, the founder of Memphis, who lived many years before Abraham our ancestor, to the time of Solomon, extending through an interval of more than 1300 years, bore the title of Pharaoh." He adds, that when those princes ascended the throne they assumed this title, and laid aside their former names ;-that Herodotus notices none of the kings after Menes, because they were all called Pharaoh, but he names a queen, Nicaule or Nitocris, who succeeded in order;-and that from the ancient records of the Jewish nation no king of Egypt was styled Pharaoh after the reign of Solomon. But Josephus here evidently mistakes Herodotus, for the latter expressly says, that in the books exhibited to him by the priests were the names of three hundred and thirty kings, of whom eighteen were Ethiopian; and we find in the fragments of Manetho, that each king of Egypt has his proper name assigned to him, Pharaoh being the Scripture designation of those princes. Josephus is also mistaken in asserting that after the time of Solomon the kings of Egypt had no longer the title of Pharaoh, for we read of Egyptian monarchs so styled in the reigns of Hezekiah, Josiah, and Jehoiakim, and in the Prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, which makes it probable that the title of Pharaoh was known among the Egyptians as long as their language was in common use; and that after the conquest of Egypt, first by the Persians and afterwards by Alexander the Great, the title ceased when the Greek language was first introduced with its government. The first Pharaoh prominently mentioned in Scripture is the Shepherd King named Pachnan or Ruchma by Manetho, who reigned when Abraham went down into Egypt, about the year B.C. 1920, according to the Bible chronology. The second Pharaoh noticed in the Scriptures is the prince who reigned in the time of Joseph; and the third is he who persecuted the Israelites. The fourth was probably This the Pharaoh before whom Moses appeared, and on account of whose obstinacy and hardness of heart the celebrated plagues were inflicted on Egypt. king was drowned in the Red Sea. The fifth Pharaoh mentioned by the sacred writers is the prince who gave protection to Hadad, the young monarch of Edom, when he fled from the revenge of David, and who afterwards married the sister of the Egyptian queen. The sixth is the Pharaoh who gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon. The seventh Pharaoh of the Scriptures is the king called Shishak, who protected Jeroboam, and afforded him a refuge in his dominions against his sovereign, King Solomon. The eighth is that Pharaoh with whom Hezekiah formed an alliance against Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The ninth is Pharaoh Necho who conquered Josiah ; and the tenth is Pharaoh Ophrah, who formed a league with Zedekiah, king of Judah, and attempted to assist him against Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel pronounced several prophecies against this Pharaoh, who is called Apries by Herodotus; he is also mentioned by the Prophets Habakkuk and Jeremiah. The title Pharaoh was in common use when Moses wrote, and we may therefore presume it had been the ordinary designation of the Egyptian monarchs many years previous. The name of the king who reigned in Egypt when Joseph was carried into the country has been disputed, some alleging that the young Hebrew was brought into Egypt in the eighth year of the reign of Amenoph I., and others, that it was in the reign of Thummosis, the son of Alisphragmuthosis, who expelled the Shepherd Tyrants. The Bible chronology dates it about the year B.C. 1729, and Joseph's advancement to be governor of Egypt about B.C. 1715, when Joseph was in his thirtieth year. It is with this event, therefore, that the actual connection between the Sacred and the Egyptian history commences. With the beautiful history of Joseph few are unacquainted, and even as a mere human composition, having a suitable moral, and abounding with the most salutary instruction, it is without a rival in any language. But when we take into account the mighty results which followed, we must admit that it exhibits some of the most remarkable and striking illustrations of Divine Providence of great events brought about by apparently human and ordinary agency, recorded for the instruction of man. Into that history it is not our purpose to enter; the fraternal hatred towards the young and unoffending Joseph, whose only crime in the eyes of his brothers consisted in his being the special favourite of their father Jacob, is finely recorded by the inspired historian, while the sudden appearance of a company of merchants travelling together in a caravan, changed the resolution of his irritated brothers, whose reluctance to leave Joseph to perish in the pit induced them to sell him for twenty pieces of silver. Those merchants, called Ishmaelites and Midianites, Gen. xxxvii. 25, 28, 36, for those people were near neighbours to each other, carried the young Hebrew to Memphis, the then metropolis of Egypt, about eighty miles from Grand Cairo, the present capital, and sold him as a slave to one of Pharaoh's officers named Potiphar, who was also captain of the guard. In the marginal reading in our version, we are told that the situation of Potiphar means an eunuch in the original, but that the word officer in this instance means a chamberlain or a courtier, and that Potiphar was chief marshal, or chief of the slaughtermen or executioners. The young Hebrew's integrity brought him under the notice of his master. "The Lord," says the inspired historian, "was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian." The office to which Joseph was promoted was one of considerable trust; and he who had been recently sold as a slave by his brethren, was advanced to be the steward of an influential nobleman and the director of his household. fortune in a quarter which he little anticipated. The wife of Potiphar attempted to seduce him into a criminal intercourse with her, which his sense of duty enabled him to resist, and his virtue triumphed over the temptation. The passion of the fair Egyptian was now turned into hatred; she accused him of a criminal assault, which, considering the proof she produced, and the plausible story she concocted, Potiphar readily and naturally believed, and Joseph was immediately consigned to the cell of an Egyptian prison. Here again was the integrity of the Hebrew rewarded. "The Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy (in the margin, extended kindness unto him), and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison." Shortly afterwards two of the chief officers of Pharaoh were committed by their royal master to the prison in which Joseph was confined. They are designated the chief butler and the chief baker; in other words, the cupbearer and the master of the household to the king, two distinguished officers of the crown. Those noblemen were given in charge to Joseph by Potiphar himself, who seems by this time to have been convinced of the young Hebrew's innocence; and while to conceal most probably the honour of his wife, and aware that he could not with propriety reinstate Joseph as his steward, he thought it expedient still to confine him, yet, having now a greater opinion of his virtue and prudence, he committed to him the management of the whole prison. A singular dream which each of those Egyptian noblemen had on the same night, connected with their respective offices, brought the Hebrew in immediate contact with them. Anxious for an interpretation of their dreams, they made them known to Joseph, who, in that of the "chief butler," or cup-bearer, informed him that within three days he would be restored to his situation, and that, as it respected the "chief baker," or master of the household, his dream intimated that within three days he would be put to death. But Joseph was to suffer a reverse of The dream was fulfilled precisely as Joseph had predicted. On the third day, two celebrated dreams-the one of the which happened to be Pharaoh's birth- seven "well-favoured" and of the seven day, he invited his nobles and his house- "lean-fleshed” kine, and the other of the hold to a feast, "and he restored the seven good and the seven thin ears of chief butler to his butlership again, and corn, which none of the magicians or the he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand; wise men of Egypt could interpret-inbut he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph duced him to exclaim, "I do remember had interpreted to them." my faults this day." He informed the troubled and disquieted king, that when he was in the prison along with the chief baker, "there was there with them a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard," to whom they told their two dreams, "and it came to pass; as he interpreted, so it was." The Egyptian monarch immediately sent for Joseph from the prison, who shaved himself, in compliance with the usage of the country, -a remarkable custom among the Egyptians, in which they were distinguished from other Oriental nations, who carefully cherished the beard, and regarded the loss of it as a deep disgrace and changed his dress, it being a general custom in those countries in ancient times, when persons were in a state of adversity or affliction, to neglect their personal appearance, as denoting the sense they had of their misfortunes. Joseph was then conducted into the presence of Pharaoh, and after humbly ascribing all knowledge and foresight of future events to God alone, he assured the king that an answer of peace would be given to him-such an answer as would be to his satisfaction and the welfare of his kingdom. He told Pharaoh that the dream of the "seven kine, fatfleshed and well-favoured,” which “fed in a meadow" after they "came up out of the river"-the Nile being always eminently styled the river,—and the "seven other kine which came up after them, poor, and very ill-favoured, and leanfleshed, such as he (Pharaoh) had never seen in all the Land of Egypt for badness; and which ate up the well-favoured kine," yet "when they had eaten them (or as it is in the margin, come to the inward parts of them), it could not be known that they had eaten them, but they were still illfavoured as at the beginning ;"-and the In the address which Joseph made to Pharaoh's cup-bearer when interpreting his dream in the prison, we have some hints relative to the Egyptians at the time. He took the opportunity to request that nobleman to think of him when he was restored to his situation, to mention him to the king, and endeavour to procure his release; "for indeed," he says, "I was stolen away out of the Land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon." Joseph, as Dr Graves remarks, might very appropriately designate that particular part of Canaan near Hebron, where Isaac and Jacob had resided many years, the Land of the Hebrews. It is true those patriarchs were not originally natives of the country, but they possessed so much wealth, and such numerous families, flocks, and herds, that they were viewed as "mighty princes," which is evident from the language of the Children of Heth to Abraham, Gen. xxiii. 6. We find them joining the neighbouring kings in making war, entering into compacts or treaties with them, even conquering cities, living according to their own customs, and exercising freely their own religious rites, Gen. xiv. xxi. xxvi. xxxiv. It was therefore most appropriate that the place of their residence should have been termed "the Land of the Hebrews," as they had been there a length of time, independent, and in alliance with the natives. It appears also that the Egyptians understood the locality well, for in the subsequent proceedings it was not necessary to inform Pharaoh who the Hebrews were, and what particular district was called after their name. "Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him," until Pharaoh's dream about the seven good and the seven thin ears of corn blasted with the east wind, denoted the same;-that seven years of great plenty were about to commence throughout all the Land of Egypt, and that these were to be succeeded by seven years of such severe famine that the previous abundance would be forgotten, as if it had not been at all; and as the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice, "it is because the thing is established by (or prepared of) God, and God will shortly bring it to pass." He advised the Egyptian monarch, therefore, if he wished to consult and provide for the subsistence, the peace, and the comfort of his people, " to look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the Land of Egypt: let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the (produce of the) Land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years, and let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities; and that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine which shall be in the Land of Egypt, that the land perish not through the famine." The prudence of this advice was at once seen by Pharaoh, who, struck with Joseph's appearance, immediately elevated him to be governor of Egypt. "Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled; only in the throne will I be greater than thou. See, I have set thee over all the Land of Egypt." The king, as was usual on such occasions, "took off his ring from his finger, and put it upon Joseph's hand," in token of the dignity to which he was preferred, and that he might seal letters or patents by the royal authority, "and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen," not silk, as it is in the margin, nor common linen, but that which the ancients called byssus, a sort of pure, very soft, and costly linen, in garments of which kings and distinguished men only were clothed; and he put a gold chain about his neck, making him ruler over all the Land of Egypt, and saying to him, "I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the Land of Egypt;" in other words, that no man would have power to do any thing without Joseph's permission, or at least in opposition to his commands. Joseph's name was also changed to ZaphnathPaaneah (Josephus writes it Psothom Phanech), which signified a revealer of secrets, or more probably a prime minister, or prince of lords. It was common among Eastern princes, when they promoted favourites, to give them new names; and we find Nebuchadnezzar bestowing the same compliment on Daniel and his companions at Babylon. Pharaoh also gave Joseph in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, or Heliopolis, On among the Egyptians signifying the sun. In the margin the word priest is written prince of On, and the original word signifies both priest and prince of the City of the Sun. Josephus writes Potipherah's name Petephres, and says he was one of the priests of Heliopolis." It is curious that Josephus, the Septuagint, and various learned Jews of ancient times, consider Petephres or Potipherah, now a priest of On, or Heliopolis-a city about twenty miles from Memphis-to be the same with Potiphar, the captain of the guard, to whom Joseph was sold. In a singular document called the Testament of Joseph, they are also affirmed to be one and the same person, and Joseph is there said to have married the daughter of his former master and mistress. It is unnecessary to inquire whether this story is true or whether it is a fable, which is more than probable; we may observe, however, that many writers have advanced various theories to explain the apparent impropriety of a person so highly favoured by God as Joseph, who never forgot the religion or the God of his fathers, marrying the daughter of an idolatrous priest. Mr Sharon Turner, in his "Sacred History of the World," has suggested the most probable hypothesis, which is to the following effect :-" In ancient days," he observes, "we learn from Juba, the African prince and historian, that the Arabs peopled part of Egypt from Meroë to Syene, and built the City of the Sun. Pliny has preserved this remarkable but little noticed fact. Juba says that the City of the Sun, which was not far from Memphis in Egypt, has had the Arabs for its founders, and that the inhabitants of the Nile from Syene up to Meroë, are not Ethiopian people but Arabs. Pliny says of this Juba, as noting his good authority, In this part it pleases us to follow the Roman arms and King Juba in his volumes written to Caius Cæsar of the same Arabian expedition.' This important passage of Juba bears, I think, upon the history of Joseph, and explains why he married the daughter of a priest of Heliopolis or On. Being an Arabian colony, it would not have then in it the base superstitions of Egypt, but would have at that period retained enough of the Abrahamic or Patriarchal religion to make a female there nearer to his own faith and feelings than in any other part of Egypt." To this it might be objected, that though the Arabs may have colonized the Nile very early, there is no proof that they did so before Joseph's time; and that if they had done so, they were more likely to have been Cushite Arabs than the lineal descendants of Ishmael, who could not have been then sufficiently numerous to establish colonies of importance. The fierce herdsmen who invaded and tyrannized over Egypt, the Shepherd Kings, are often styled an Arabian race; but whatever probability there may be in Mr Sharon Turner's theory, it is perhaps also right to conclude that the priest of On, whatever may have been his religious opinions, was a member of that great sacerdotal caste, whose authority and influence, during various periods of the Egyptian history, rendered the government of the country as much ecclesiastical as it was monarchical. It is well known that when a king succeeded to the throne of Egypt who was not of the sacerdotal caste, he was immediately adopted into it, and instructed in its science and mysteries; and hence we may infer the desire of the priesthood, who wished all influence to be concentrated in their body, to have a man of such power and importance as Joseph connected with them; or the marriage may have originated with Pharaoh himself, who might wish that a person in whom he had reposed so much confidence should have the support and countenance of a body which had an extraordinary control over the people, and reconcile them to the elevation of his new favourite. This part of the history of Joseph throws considerable light on the habits and customs of the Egyptians at an early period. When we read that Joseph's master" took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound," Gen. xxxix. 20, we have a direct intimation of the manner in which slaves were treated in Egypt by their masters. Reynier doubts whether slavery existed at all in Egypt before the time when its ancient institutions were changed to a great extent, arguing on the difficulty of reconciling the existence of slaves with the peculiar theocracy of the Egyptians. He alleges, that as the king and those belonging to the priestly caste were the only persons whose circumstances could permit them to possess slaves, and that as the Egyptians considered themselves polluted by the proximity of foreigners, the idea of procuring slaves from other countries is excluded, while they were not required to cultivate the ground, that being done by those who held the ground in subordinate possession; and he meets the fact of Joseph's slavery by asserting that the Shepherd Kings may have had some influence, during their domination, in modifying the peculiar usages of the Egyptians. Diodorus Siculus, in citing some of the Egyptian laws, mentions one which inflicted the punishment of death on any person who killed his slave, and another decreed a severe punishment also against the person who violated a free woman; but on those two instances |