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logy places Abraham's visit to Egypt b.c. 201 0,* are we not 
warranted in considering that the inscriptions on the monu- 
ments of Bennee Hasan, compared with the statements of 
Eupolemus and Josephus, prove an important synchronism 
between the histories of Israel and Egypt ? 
12. If the monuments afford any testimony to the truth of 
Scripture respecting the life and times of Abraham, still more 
clearly do they speak respecting his great grandson Joseph, 
who was promoted from a prison to be the second ruler in the 
kingdom of Egypt. Julius Africanus, a writer of the third 
century, mentions that Joseph went to Egypt, and was raised 
to power under one of those Pharaohs who belonged to the 
“ Shepherd dynasty." Syncellus, a Byzantine historian of the 
eighth century, says, “ All are agreed that Joseph governed 
Egypt under Pharaoh Apophis , and commenced in the seven- 
teenth year of his reign." What has hitherto only been sup- 
ported by tradition is now confirmed by the monuments ; so 
that the assertion of Joseph being Viceroy of Egypt under 
Pharaoh Apophis is as much an historical fact as that 
Sejanus was prime minister to Tiberius in ancient, or William 
Pitt to George III. in modern times. 
13. Before endeavouring to show how this is the case, it 
may be right to notice an objection which is frequently 
brought against this opinion. As we read in the 46th chapter 
of Genesis, that in the time of Joseph “ every shepherd " was 
considered “an abomination unto the Egyptians," it has been 
naturally argued that a native Pharaoh would not have pro- 
moted Joseph, who was of a shepherd race, to be second 
ruler in his kingdom, and therefore that Joseph could not have 
been viceroy during the rule of the shepherds in Egypt. But 
it is doubtful whether our English version conveys the exact 
sense of the original ; as it is clear that Joseph, before intro- 
ducing his brethren to Pharaoh, prompted them to avow that 
they were in reality shepherds , “ from our youth even until 
now, both we and our fathers," in order that Pharaoh might 
give them “the best of the land (viz., Goshen ) to dwell in;" 
which the king at once consented to do. Now all this can 
only be explained upon the principle that the shepherd 
dynasty at that time was reigning in Egypt. The progress 
of hieroglyphic discovery has not confirmed the common 
* Osburn supposes that Abraham’s visit to Egypt was during the reign of 
Pharoah Acthoes , the last king of the eleventh Dynasty ; and it is certainly 
remarkable that the first intimation of the Egyptians practising the rite of 
circumcision, is found in an inscription as early as the eleventh Dynasty, 
where the cii'cumcision of the Sun-god is mentioned. 
