Theologische Nuggets IV (Genesis 34 - 44:26)

Genesis 41:1

Und nach zwei Jahren hatte der Pharao einen Traum, und siehe, er stand am Nil,

Nachdem die Geschichte mit den Obersten im Gefängnis und deren Schicksal passiert waren vergehen weitere zwei Jahren in dem Josef im Gefängnis vergessen wird. Nach zwei Jahren von diesen Geschehnissen wird uns aber erstmal nicht von Josef berichtet, sondern vom Pharao der einen Traum hatte. Allein mit dieser Information können wir erahnen in welche Richtung es gehen könnte. Es erinnert uns an die Träume von Josef und an die Träume von den Männern im Gefängnis und es erinnert uns daran, dass der Mundschenk diese Erfahrung mit dem Traum und der Auslegung des Traumes gemacht hat. 

Das Wort "und siehe" zeigt uns das der Pharao im Traum an Nil stand und nicht während dem Traum oder nach dem Traum. Somit bekommen wir erstmal ohne jegliche Einführung zum Pharao direkt den Traum serviert. Auch Josefs Beteiligung daran wird erstmal nicht erwähnt.  

A two-year period passed, giving Joseph ample time to despair over his state. The narrative presents a word cinema of the king's dreams, as if they were taking place before the reader's eyes. The significance of the Nile in the dreams was its centrality to the life of Egypt. The word "Nile" (yĕʾōr) is the first of many Egyptian loanwords in this chapter (itrw; Iteru when the Nile not in flood), as we would expect, due to its technical description of Egyptian officials and practices. The Nile water system was the most conspicuous feature of Egypt's geography and the primary source of the country's economic and social stability. The Nile was deified in Egyptian religion (god Hap or Hapy when Nile in flood), and the appearance of the cows from the river may have suggested to Pharaoh a close connection to the gods. Pharaoh's state was responsible for maintaining the irrigation of the river system, distributing land grants, gathering taxes, and storing grain. Despite the success of natural irrigation and human engineering (dams, canals), high and low Niles occurred, producing famine and its ill effects on society. Significant inundations delayed the planting season that subjected tender sprouts to the cyclic hot winds ... that produced drought and famine.
K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26, Bd. 1B of The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 755.

It is not certain whether these years are reckoned from the beginning of Joseph's imprisonment, or from the events described in the preceding chapter—most likely the latter. What a long time for Joseph to experience the sickness of hope deferred!

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, und David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 41.

Under what particular monarch Joseph came to Egypt is a question of much perplexity, and has been variously resolved by modern Egyptologers in favour of—

1. Osirtasen I., the founder of the twelfth dynasty, a prosperous and successful sovereign, whose name appears on a granite obelisk at Heliopolis (Wilkinson, 'Ancient Egyptians,' i. 30, ed. 1878). 2. Assa, or Assis, the fifth king of the fifteenth dynasty of Shepherd kings (Stuart Poole in Smith's 'Bible Dict.,' art. Egypt). 

3. Apophis, a Shepherd king of the fifteenth dynasty, whom all the Greek authorities agree in mentioning as the patron of Joseph (Osburn, 'Monumental History,' vol. ii. ch. 2; Thornley Smith, 'Joseph and his Times,' p. 42). 

4. Thothmes III., a monarch of the eighteenth dynasty (Stanley Leathes in Kitto's 'Cyclopedia,' p. 744). 5. Rameses III., the king of Memphis, a ruler belonging to the twentieth dynasty (Bonomi in 'The Imperial Bible Dict.,' p. 488; Sharpe's 'History of Egypt, vol. i. p. 35).

 It may assist the student to arrive at a decision with respect to these contending aspirants for the throne of Pharaoh in the time of Joseph to know that Canon Cook ('Speaker's Commentary,' vol. i. p. 451), after an elaborate and careful as well as scholarly review of the entire question, regards it as at least "a very probable conjecture" that the Pharaoh of Joseph was Amenemha III., "who is represented on the lately-discovered table of Abydos as the last great king of all Egypt in the ancient empire (the last of the twelfth dynasty), and as such receiving divine honours from his descendant Rameses"

H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Hrsg., Genesis, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 460.