Historical Evidence
It is difficult to place Potiphar or Joseph accurately to a particular pharaoh or time period. On the Jewish calendar, Joseph was purchased in the year 2216, which is 1544 BC, at the end of the Second Intermediate Period or very beginning of the New Kingdom. The original scriptures (Torah as translated in the King James version Bible) are complete and predate other referenced historical evidence by 1700 years and thus should be considered as such in the formulation of hypothesis based on other sources such as the Quran, theatrical compositions, poetry, and other dated story-telling, all of which can add to the richness and understanding of the account. According to the documentary hypothesis, the story of Potiphar and his wife derives from the Yahwist source, and stands in the same place that the stories of the butler and the baker and Pharaoh's dreams stand in the Elohist text. According to Dr. G.J. Wenham (IVP New Bible Commentary) execution was normal for rape cases, so Potiphar may have had doubts about his wife's story.
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