It is now well settled by Egyptologists that the Pharaoh who befriended Joseph was the last of the kings called Hyksos, conquerors of Egypt who came from Asia. At El-Kab there is a very ancient tomb, the owner of which was one Baba, who lived, according to the evidence of the inscriptions in his tomb, about the same time. The following extract from the inscription is given by Dr. Brugsch:

      I loved my father; I honored my mother; my brothers and sisters loved me. I went out of the door of my house with a benevolent heart; I stood there with refreshing hand; splendid were my preparations which I collected for the festal day. Mild was my heart, free from violent anger. The gods bestowed upon me abundant prosperity on earth. The city wished me health and a life full of enjoyment. I punished the evil-doers. The children who stood before me in the town during the days which I fulfilled were--great and small--sixty; just as many beds were provided for them; just as many chairs; just as many tables. They all consumed one hundred and twenty ephas of durra; the milk of three cows, fifty-two goats and nine she asses, a hin of balsam and two jars of oil.

      My words may seem a jest to a gainsayer. But I call the god Mentu to witness that what I say is true. I had all this prepared in my house; in addition I put cream in the store-chamber and beer in the cellar in a more than sufficient number of hin-measures.

      I collected corn as a friend of the harvest god. I was watchful at the time of sowing. And when the famine arose, lasting many years, I distributed corn to the city each year of the famine.

      On this Dr. Brugsch remarks:

      Not the smallest doubt can be raised as to whether the last words of the inscription relate to a historic fact or not. [132] However strongly we may be inclined to recognize a general way of speaking in the narrative of Ameni [our readers will recollect the story of Ameni], where years of famine are spoken of, just as strongly does the context of the present statement compel us to refer this record of "a famine lasting many years" to an epoch historically defined. Now, since famines succeeding one another are of the greatest rarity in Egypt, and Baba lived and worked under the native king, Sequen-Ra Taa III., in the ancient city of El-Kab, about the same time during which Joseph exercised his office under the Hyksos kings, there remains remains for a satisfactory conclusion but one fair inference--that the "many years of famine" in the days of Baba must correspond to the seven years' famine under Joseph's Pharaoh, who was one of the shepherd kings.--"Egypt Under the Pharaohs," 120, 122.

      Brugsch furnishes other evidence for the truth of his conclusion, found in the agreement of the narrative of Genesis with what is now known of places and of the habits and titles of the time. In this way the contemporary records of the Egyptians are gradually coming to light, after an entombment of thousands of years, to tell the same story, so far as they speak, that the Hebrew records have related through all the intervening generations. Who can fail to see in this the hand of Him who caused the latter records to be made, and who will not allow them to be discredited?

[SEBC 132-133]