King or Pharaoh?
Was the ruler of Joseph a King or a Pharaoh? One of the historical inaccuracies of the Bible corrected by the Quran.
In the Prophets (ﷺ) lifetime, information was scarce, as books were hard to come across. The Prophet (ﷺ) was also an illiterate man, which restricted the information available to him even further. Some of the only sources of history that could have been available to him were the Torah and the Bible. However, along with the fact that the Prophet (ﷺ) was illiterate, these texts were not even translated to Arabic at the time.
Despite these clear issues, many try to cite the Bible as the source of the information found in the Qur’an. Let us explore this theory further by comparing what is found in the Bible and the Qur’an. The rulers at the times of the prophets Abraham, Joseph, and Moses will be our highlights.
The Bible calls the ruler of Egypt during the time of Abraham “Pharaoh”…
”So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” …” Genesis 12:18.
The ruler of Egypt during the time of Joseph “Pharaoh”…
“Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt…” Genesis 41:46.
And of course, the ruler of Egypt during the time of Moses “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]
“Discussion on the various designations used for the king of Egypt.” [4]
This shows an ignorance of history from the authors of the Bible.
What does the Qur’an say about this? If the Qur’an copied from the Bible, surely it must have this error as well. 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 calls the ruler of Egypt during the time of Moses “Pharaoh”. This means that the Qur’an is perfectly historically accurate with its usage of this word, unlike the Bible.
If the Qur’an copied from the Bible, it would have made the same mistake. This is impossible because the Qur’an corrects the Bible.
Let us look at this through another lens. The Qur’an calls itself “The divider between truth and falsehood” (Al-Furqan) and claims to correct the Bible and all past corrupted scriptures. Here, we see the Qur’an accurately correct the Bible in its mistakes.
Thus, it becomes clear. The Qur’an speaks of the minute specifics in history lost to mankind for thousands of years, and it corrects the mistakes of every other source that speaks of such events. All while accurately attributing such impossible praises to its author. This is because the Qur’an is not from the Prophet (ﷺ), but from God 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:
Sir A. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar: Being An Introduction To The Study Of Hieroglyphs, 1957, 3rd Edition (Revised), Oxford University Press: London, p. 75.
“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.
“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.
W.V. Davies, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, 1987, British Museum Press: London, p. 45.