King or Pharaoh?

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Was the ruler of Joseph a King or a Pharaoh? One of the historical inaccuracies of the Bible corrected by the Quran.

Information was scare in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ as books were a rarity. Not to mention how the Prophet ﷺ was illiterate like the vast majority of humanity at the time. This restricted the information that he ﷺ could access even further, and some of the only sources of historical information that would have been available to him would have been the Torah and the Bible, yet even those were not even translated into Arabic at the time.

Despite these clear issues, some argue that the Qur’an draws its information from biblical texts. But is this claim justified? Let us explore this theory and find an interesting proof for Islam along the way

When discussing the rulers of past prophets, the Bible refers to the rulers of Egypt as "Pharaoh." For instance, during the time of Abraham ﵇, the ruler of Egypt is called Pharaoh:

”So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” …” Genesis 12:18.

During the time of Joseph ﵇, he is called Pharaoh:

“Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt…” Genesis 41:46.

Lastly, during the time of Moses ﵇ he is, of course, called Pharaoh:

“When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian...” Exodus 2:15.

However, this is a historical blunder by the Bible.

The word “Pharaoh” was never used to refer to the ruler of Egypt during the time of Abraham and Joseph. The earliest instance that “Pharaoh” is used to refer to the ruler of Egypt is during the reign of Amenophis IV, hundreds of years into the New Kingdom Period.[1] Both Abraham and Joseph were before the New Kingdom Period. [2][3] Meaning, the ruler of Egypt at the times of Abraham and Joseph could never have been called Pharaoh ﵈. This shows an ignorance of history from the authors of the Bible, but more importantly, if the Qur’an was copying from the Bible, it would have made the same mistakes.

“Discussion on the various designations used for the king of Egypt.” [4]

In the Qur’an, the term “Pharaoh” is never used to refer to someone before the New Kingdom Period. The ruler of Egypt during the time of Joseph is called a “King” and never a Pharaoh. Additionally, the Qur’an correctly names the ruler of Egypt during the time of Moses as “Pharaoh”. This means that the Qur’an is perfectly historically accurate with its usage of this word, unlike the Bible. This would normally be an impossibility considering all the past points, namely that the biblical texts would be the only feasible source of information for the Prophet ﷺ, as the Qur’an is correcting the Bible’s mistakes here. However, this perfectly falls in line with the Qur’anic narrative that the Qur’an is not from the Prophet ﷺ, but from Allah ﷾ Himself.

Credits to Islamic Awareness for the information used in this article. I recommend you give their article a read if you would like to see a more in-depth analysis of this correction.

References:

1. Sir A. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar: Being An Introduction To The Study Of Hieroglyphs, 1957, 3rd Edition (Revised), Oxford University Press: London, p. 75.

2. “To place Abraham at the beginning of the 2d millennium B.C. is, therefore, sustainable.”

   A. R. Millard, "Abraham" in D. N. Freedman (Editor-in-Chief), Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992, Volume I, Doubleday: New York, p. 40.

3. “Those who regard the Joseph stories as historical generally hold that the Pharaoh by whom Joseph was made the practical ruler of Egypt was one of the Hyksos kings.”

   "Joseph", The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1916, Volume VII, Funk & Wagnalls Company: London & New York, p. 252.

4. W.V. Davies, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, 1987, British Museum Press: London, p. 45.