1.     Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh (Gen 41:46)

1.     I cannot find any references to Akhenaten’s age at his coronation. So, technically I cannot say whether there is a correlation here, or not.

2.     Year 30, in the reign of Amenhotep III, marks the start of the seven years of celebrating especially good harvests. Could this line in the bible be mis-translated? Could all of the ‘ages’ and ‘time spans’ in the biblical sojourn story fit the archeological evidence better if they are read as ‘calendar dates’. Could this line have originally meant that it was "Year 30" when Joseph’s prophecy began to come true? [See Above] [See Below]

3.     Could this line have originally been part of the prophesy, foretelling that Joseph’s plan for Pharaoh would begin in Year 30? Joseph was probably well aware that Pharaoh was approaching a significant milestone in his life, his Jubilee. Could Joseph have recognized a connection between Pharaoh’s dream and an archaic form of the sed-festival, apparently unknown even to the most sophisticated Egyptians, which celebrated especially good harvests? Could this explain why Amenhotep had the ancient archives searched for this form of the festival? [See Above: The Prophecy]

2.     Joseph leaves Pharaoh and travels throughout all the land of Egypt. (Gen 41:46)

1.     Akhenaten’s first act as ruler was the building of "Houses of Aten" throughout the land:

1.     The Cambridge Ancient History says that "the first great event" of Akhenaten’s reign was "a decree marshaling all the resources of the land for building temples to his god". (51)

2.     Aldred says that the monument at Gebel es Silsila’s use of "first time" to describe Akhenaten’s "giving command to the Master of Works… to undertake all constructions… and to the commanders of the soldiery for mustering a large corvee…", presumably refers to "the innovative decree of the king’s reign". Elsewhere, Aldred refers to the building activities as being "from the first months of the reign" and from "the first days of the new reign". (88-89)

2.     Like Joseph’s storehouses, these "Houses of Aten" were built in all of the cities of the land:

1.     The Cambridge Ancient History says, "Temples to the Aten appear to have been raised in most of the principal towns of Egypt during these early years of the reign;…" and goes on to refer to them as "vast and numerous". (55) Elsewhere, it refers to the "temples of the new god in every major center". (53)

2.     Aldred says that remains of temples to the Aten can be traced to Memphis, Heliopolis, the Gematen, Hierakonpolis, and Balamun. (87)

3.     Redford says that it is possible that Sam-Behdet, in the northern Delta, was a temple site, as well. (139)

4.     Aldred says, according to the monument at Gebel es Silsila, Akhenaten’s commands were "to undertake all constructions from one end of the country to the other". (88)

3.     The resources devoted to Akhenaten’s building program seem unparalleled:

1.     Aldred says of the monument at Gebel es Silsila that, "what this stela most vividly discloses is that from the first days of the new reign the masses of Egypt, the peasantry, workmen and nobility, were to be united in a great and pious undertaking, a labour of devotion to the king’s new god." (89)

2.     Aldred says of Akhenaten’s temple building that, "This great undertaking was set in train almost as a national enterprise, with an energy that had hitherto been devoted to foreign campaigns, ‘to extend the borders of Egypt’." (262)

3.     Aldred refers to the "great burst of activity" in the quarries from the very start of the reign. (88)

4.     Aldred says, "It seems clear that the army was being used as a labour-force for much of the constructional work,…". (273) Aldred says, "The army… had now become an instrument of centralized domestic policy, more concerned with laboring in quarries and vast building projects than combating in foreign theatres of war." (282)

5.     The Cambridge Ancient History says, "The rapid building of the new capital city at El-Amarna and temples to the new god in every major center must have drained the land of its labour and economic resources…". (53)

6.     Aldred says of Amenhotep III’s building projects that, "The general impression remains that work on the monuments of the senior co-regent was falling into abeyance during the last years of his life." (273)

4.     If Akhenaten had indeed needed to build massive storage facilities throughout the land before Amenhotep III’s first jubilee began, that could explain the urgency behind the invention of the "talatat" building method, as it allowed for hasty construction using large amounts of unskilled labor:

1.     Aldred says that Akhenaten’s architects devised a building system that was "rapid and effective". They cut the sandstone into small blocks which, when stacked and given a "generous application" of plaster, allowed for speedy building by an untrained labor force. (263)

2.     The Cambridge Ancient History says, "The impressment of workers by corvee shows the importance that the new king placed upon the swift fulfillment of his plans…. " It goes on to say that the talatat from Karnak "betray distinct signs of the haste with which they were built, particularly in the often careless and summary cutting of the reliefs in a somewhat coarse granular stone." (53-54)

3.     Redford says that all "the buildings that Akhenaten threw up were hastily designed and assembled. A modern engineer, asked to cast a judgment on the Gm.(t)-p3-itn temple in East Karnak, could scarcely opine that it was anything but jerry-built…". (144)

4.     [Ironically] Aldred says that it was the extensive use of plaster that made Akhenaten’s constructions so vulnerable to the later desecration of the iconoclasts. (32)

5.     If the primary purpose of the Aten temples was indeed long-term food storage, then the need to keep the food dry and well-ventilated could explain their unusual, open-to-the-sky design, the rows and rows of roofless kiosks, and the dominant role that food plays in the decorations:

1.     Aldred says, "The worship of a god in aniconic form simplified temple architecture which no longer had to consist of a ‘mansion’ but reverted to the court, open to the sunlight, and to the colonnades of the ancient sun-temples." (245)

2.     Redford says that the "simple open layout" of Akhenaten’s temples are "allegedly derived from a Heliopolitan original… but at present no one can say with certainty." (138)

3.     Aldred says of the traditional jubilee processional shrines, "The various shrines are shown, but they are not of traditional design, and are indeed roofless kiosks into which the same Aten alone darts his rays." (267) [See kiosks: Redford, Plate 7.11, 118; Fig. 15, 121]

4.     Aldred says that the purpose of the Rud-menu and the Teni-menu "is obscure at present". (265)

5.     Redford says, "The purpose of Rwd-mnw and Tni-mnw eludes us, though it is a fair guess that it was cultic in some manner." (72)

6.     Redford says that Tni-mnw was decorated with domestic scenes "such as baking bread and storing wine" and "the king engaged in the usual offering ceremony". (71)

7.     Redford says, "Rwd-mnw likewise featured scenes of cultic import, though now the offering scene is carried on in a series of roofless kiosks… lengthy scenes showing the king and his court riding out to visit open-air installations comprising row upon row of ten-foot-tall offering stands, each laden with offerings of fowl, bread, and wine… On other walls, row upon row of domestic servants advanced, each with a container of foodstuffs on his head. (71-72) [See servants carrying flat-breads: Plate 4.9, 74]

8.     Redford says that included amongst the jubilee scenes at Karnak are the following: Akhenaten inspecting the "host of small roofless kiosks", (111); Akhenaten making offerings at the temple, (114-115); butchers engaged in slaughter, (116-117); Akhenaten and Nefertiti seated at tables piled high with food, (117); and, Akhenaten making offerings at a large offering table. (119)

3.     For seven years the land in Egypt produced abundantly. (Gen 41:47)

1.     Amenhotep III replaced the traditional sed-festival rituals with an archaic form of the holiday that instead celebrated "especially good harvests". [See Above: The Prophecies]

2.     Amenhotep III’s three "proto-jubilees" occurred at the start, middle, and end of a seven year period:

1.     Aldred says that Amenhotep devoted the last decade of his life to planning and celebrating jubilees in Years 30, 34 and 37. (161) Aldred says the jubilees "were important national functions". (266)

2.     Redford says that Amenophis III’s sd-festivals, which "must have been regarded as the most important events of the reign", were celebrated in Years 30, 34, and 37. (51)

3.     Aldred says it was normal for Amenhotep’s first jubilee to be held in Year 30. (266)

4.     I cannot find any discussion of whether it was normal to hold the second and third jubilees.

3.     Large quantities of food were made available for Amenhotep’s "proto-jubilees":

1.     Aldred says that "large supplies of food" for the jubilees were "procured from different areas of the land and as far a field as Syria and the Oases." (162)

2.     Aldred says that much is known of the food that was consumed at the jubilees because of the hieratic dockets on the broken jars found at the Malkata palace. He also lists the types of food supplied. (163)

3.     There was a report of the record harvest in Year 30. [See Above: The Prophecy]

4.     To celebrate his jubilee, Amenhotep III moved his court to a palace in Thebes that is known today as "the place where things were gathered up":

1.     Redford says that Amenophis spent the last decade of his reign celebrating his jubilees at the Malqata palace in Thebes. (51) Redford says that Amenophis moved to Thebes "in about his 29^th year". (59)

2.     Desroches-Noblecourt says that for his first jubilee in Year 30, Amenophis renamed his palace "the House of Jubilation". She also says that Akhenaten lived there during the first four years of the co-regency. (115)

3.     Desroches-Noblecourt says that the Arabic name for the palace, Malkata, means "the place where things have been gathered". (115)

4.     Redford says that the Arabic name for the Malqata palace means "place of picking up". (238)

5.     The art of Amenhotep III’s jubilee years celebrated the grain harvests and nature:

1.     Aldred, discussing Parennefer’s tomb, refers to the "pictures of traditional design in the style prevailing towards the end of [Amenhotep III’s] reign, such as scenes of the grain and fruit harvest". (92)

2.     Desroches-Noblecourt says that the walls of the Malkata palace "were adorned with elaborate floral and animal friezes". (103)

3.     Aldred says that at Akhetaten the decorations of the Great Palace included pictures of plants and flowers; (53), and the aviary in the north suburbs had a painting of "birds among the marsh plants". (64) [See also: Plates 9 and 10, naturalistic ceramics from public buildings]

6.     Akhenaten celebrated the "especially good harvest" festival on an on-going, daily basis for, what seems to be, the same seven year period as Amenhotep III’s jubilees:

1.     Aldred wonders whether the similarities in the jubilee rituals of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten show that the two events coincided. (266)

2.     Redford says that no scenes have been found in the talatat that show some of the traditional jubilee rituals, like the ceremonial race, Akhenaten receiving dignitaries, or the shooting of the arrows. (130)

3.     Redford says we do not know what motivated Akhenaten to abandon the customary thirtieth anniversary and hold his jubilee on the third anniversary of his rule. (62-63)

4.     Aldred says that Akhenaten held his jubilee "early in his reign, probably in Year 3". (265-266)

5.     Aldred says that Akhenaten added "the distinction of celebrating jubilees to the titles of the Aten". Aldred says that Akhenaten assigned the jubilee to the Aten as a daily event, which eliminated the need for periodic events. (267)

6.     Aldred quotes the boundary stelae, "…Aten, the Great, who is in jubilee…", (47); and, Ramose’s tomb, "Aten the Living, the Great, Who is in Jubilee, Lord of Heaven and Earth". (261)

7.     Aldred says that the name of the Aten changed at some unknown time between Year 8 and Year 12. The Aten’s title "Who is in Jubilee" gets replaced with "Lord of Jubilees". (278)

8.     If the name change of the Aten marked the end of seven years of plenty and the beginning of seven years of famine then Akhenaten’s theoretical switch from food collection to food distribution could explain the change in the Aten’s title from "Who is in Jubilee" to "Lord of Jubilees".

9.     If the period when the Aten was "in Jubilee" was the seven years of Amenhotep III’s jubilees in Years 30-37, and, if this period started in Akhenaten’s Year 2 or 3, then it should have ended around his Year 9 or 10, which are acceptable dates for this change to have occurred. These dates could also explain why Akhenaten’s building campaign started and ended when it did.