Pharoah Montuhotep, the Cup Bearer and Joseph ( Vizier Ipi )

Submitted by Graeme Bertram (Australia), Aug 18, 2014 at 23:21

When Joseph was in prison he interpreted the dreams of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker of Pharoah( Montuhotep 11 1757-1706 BC ( My dating) On his birthday ( see my comments on Joseph as Ipi on a previous posting) which I have as his Heb-sed festival in 1718 BC the Pharoah restored the cupbearer to his former position , yet had the baker hung. Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him in a good light to the king of Egypt, but it was exactly 2 years to the day ( 1716 BC ) that this man made mention of him. Having then been presented to Pharoah, Joseph was able to interpret the king's dream and as a result was promoted to the second in all the land.As mentioned previously , the new name that Pharoah gave to Joseph was Zaphenath-paneah translated as Ipiankhu or ' he who lives. We see in the ancient records that Montuhotep 11 had a vizier called Ipi and this is no doubt Joseph.

We read in a preserved graffito of Montuhotep's 11's Year 41 from Aswan. "Year 41 under the Horus UNITER OF THE TWO LANDS, king of Upper and Lower Egypt NB-HPT-R, alive like Re forever, Return of the King's Sealbearer, Unique Friend, Overseer of Sealers Khety, born of Sit-Re, justified, boats of Wawat; and Meket-re the Sealbearer.From the paper by James P. Allen " Some Theban ."Officials of the Early Middle Kingdom. , I have been able to glean the following The recent re-dating of the tomb of Meket-re to the early years of Amenemhat 1 ( 1688-1660 BC) [ my dating } has provided a new benchmark for the art and history of the early Middle Kingdom.

The titles preserved in his tomb are mr htmt, ' Overseer of the Seal ' and mr pr wr " Chief Steward "

Meket-re also appears as mr -htmt in fragments from the reliefs of the mortuary temple pf Montuhotep 1 His predecessor as mr htmt was Khety.

Now what I propose is that when Joseph was promoted by Pharoah in 1716 BC, this Meketre was the chief cupbearer that had been restored by Pharoah in 1718 BC. Joseph's promotion to this position as Vizier then gave him authority to promote the cupbearer to that of sealbearer

The name Joseph means " He shall add or increase ".

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