Yuya - Identified As Biblical Joseph

Identified As Biblical Joseph

Journalist Ahmed Osman has suggested an identification between Joseph, the ancient Hebrew patriarch who led the tribe of Israel into Egypt during a famine, and Yuya. Through analysis of anomalous features of the mummy of Yuya as well as linguistic and chronological data, Osman points out how Yuya is the only Egyptian mummy to have his hands placed under his chin rather than across his chest, he has what appears to be Semitic features, and a beard style similar to that of the ancient Hebrews, whereas Egyptian officials were known to shave their facial hair. Additionally, Joseph in the Genesis 45:8 is called "a father of pharaoh" and Osman claims that Yuya is the only Egyptian official to ever have had this title (with the exception of his son, Ay, who held the similar title Itnetjer, or "father of the god").

This theory has not been accepted in mainstream Egyptology and as well contradicts the account regarding Joseph's burial location in Joshua (24:32). Donald B. Redford wrote a scathing review of Stranger in the Valley of the Kings for Biblical Archaeology Review. Similarly, Deborah Sweeney has expressed great doubt toward the proposed identification. Sweeney states that the title "God's father of the Lord of the Two Lands" is an extension of the title "God's Father," which is not exclusive to Yuya. The Bible states very clearly that Joseph's mummified body was exhumed and transported to Canaan by the Israelites, while Yuya's remained undisturbed in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, where his mummy was discovered in 1906. However, the biblical statement is proposed by Osman to be a later insertion based upon its placement with regard to the Documentary Hypothesis.

Read more about this topic:  Yuya

Famous quotes containing the word identified:

    Societies need to have one illness which becomes identified with evil, and attaches blame to its “victims.”
    Susan Sontag (b. 1933)