Joseph and Akhenaten: Similarities

Introduction:

Pharaoh Amenhotep III and Akhenaten (Joseph), his young "successor", ruled Egypt together for over a decade, or so it is believed by many experts. Many also believe that these two held concurrent jubilee celebrations, which were of an unusual type. These celebrations are believed to have started around the third anniversary of Akhenaten’s rule, which would have been during Amenhotep III’s Year Thirty. Most experts seem to agree that Akhenaten’s reign lasted about seventeen years. If all of these things are true, then Akhenaten’s reign can be divided into a three-year pre-Jubilee period, followed by the remaining fourteen years of his reign. I believe that these fourteen years, when divided into two consecutive seven-year periods, bear an uncanny resemblance to the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine described in the biblical story of Joseph. The first seven year period would begin with Amenhotep III’s first jubilee and end after his last jubilee in his Year Thirty Seven. This would correspond to Years 4 through 10 of Akhenaten’s rule. The second seven year period would then run to the end of Akhenaten’s reign, and include his Years 11 though 17.

Amenhotep III celebrated his three Jubilees at the start, middle, and end of the first seven-year period. Repeating Jubilees like this was highly unusual. But even more unusual was the form of the celebration that he chose. He abandoned the traditional form of this festival and replaced it with a celebration of "especially good harvests"(Holy Days). Now, at the same time, it is believed that Akhenaten, as his young co-regent, not only celebrated this same unusual form of the festival, but it seems that he also did it on an on-going, daily basis throughout all of these seven years. His god, at this time, was said to be "in Jubilee".

During these first seven years Akhenaten devoted himself to, what has been called, his "cultic practices". These consisted almost entirely of receiving "food offerings" at his "temples", which he had built in every city of the land during a burst of building activity that occurred in the first three years of his rule. These food offerings were then processed, and stored in tall stacks on rows upon rows of tables that filled these massive temple complexes. The abundance of nature became a dominant artistic theme in this period. A special emphasis was placed on food, which was shown everywhere. It was shown on the altars, kiosks, and tables in the temples, as well as in storerooms, in granaries, and in palaces. Its presence was everywhere. No one, as far as I can tell, has ever attempted to calculate the total amount of food in storage. And, by the way, the Egyptians began to look quite well-fed. Could this seven year period have been described as Joseph’s seven years of plenty?

The second seven-year period seems to be dramatically different from the first. Despite Amenhotep III’s attempt to protect the land from pestilence by building 730 statues of the god Sekhmet, these later seven years began with reports of plague and pestilence in many lands. Construction virtually stopped. Akhenaten’s god was no longer "in Jubilee", but was now said to be "Lord of Jubilees". The artistic themes changed from food being offered to food being eaten. It could even be argued that the famine was getting more severe by the second year of these seven. It would seem that the most notable event of that year could be best described as "the whole world came to buy food." By the end of these seven years it seems that Akhenaten might have come into possession of the whole land, as the name of the chief Egyptian god was removed from all of the monuments in the land. The temples of the Egyptian gods suffered from neglect and the traditional system of tithes was replaced by taxes collected by the army. Could this have been the seven year period that came to be called Joseph’s seven years of famine?

The similarity between the two seven year periods in each of these stories seems to me to be easy to see and hard to ignore. It is even easier to see when you start fitting in other characteristics of Akhenaten’s life, like his missing childhood, his unusual appearance and mannerisms, his various co-regencies, his monotheism, and the fate of the city he founded. In fact, I think there are a fair number of other things that are quite similar between these two stories.

There are a few differences between these two stories, as we understand them now. The biggest difference in Akhenaten’s story is that that he is believed to be the son of Amenhotep III and Tiye. But although this belief is held almost universally, there seems to me to be little hard evidence to support it. While at the same time, Akhenaten’s missing childhood makes it nearly impossible to refute a foreign slave background with any authority either. Similarly, there are only a small number of differences with the current understanding of the Genesis story account. The most significant of these being the number of years that the sojourn lasted. The age of Akhetaten when it was hurriedly abandoned would seem to suggest that the sojourn lasted decades rather than centuries. The number of differences seems insignificant when compared to the number of similarities. Using these two stories together seems to offer a simple, yet complete, way to view the otherwise confusing events of this era.

What follows is a summary of the biblical account with observations on the similarities that I have found: You’re going to need your Bibles for this study.