Hebrew influence upon Amenhotep son of Hapu

by Damien F. Mackey The enigmatic Amenhotep son of Hapu, who had hoped to attain the age of 110 (that reached by Joseph of Egypt), has even been identified (wrongly) as this Joseph. His career in Egypt seems to have been closely modelled on that of Senenmut (my Solomon). Like King Solomon, he was an educated Steward. Amenhotep son of Hapu was a highly influential figure, whose fame reached down even into Ptolemaïc times: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amenhotep-son-of-Hapu Amenhotep, son of Hapu, was a high official of the reign of Amenhotep III of ancient Egypt (reigned 1390–53 bce) [sic], who was greatly honoured by the king within his lifetime and was deified more than 1,000 years later during the Ptolemaic era. Amenhotep rose through the ranks of government service, becoming scribe of the recruits, a military office, under Amenhotep III. While in the Nile River delta, Amenhotep was charged with positioning troops at checkpoints on the branches of the Nile to regulate entry into Egypt by sea; he also checked on the infiltration of Bedouin tribesmen by land. On one of his statues, he is called a general of the army. Some time later, when he was placed in charge of all royal works, he probably supervised the construction of Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple at Thebes near modern Luxor, the building of the temple of Soleb in Nubia (modern Sudan), and the transport of building material and erection of other works. Two statues from Thebes indicate that he was also an intercessor in Amon’s temple and that he supervised the celebration of one of Amenhotep III’s Heb-Sed festivals (a renewal rite celebrated by the pharaoh after the first 30 years of his reign and periodically thereafter). The king honoured him by embellishing Athribis, his native city. Amenhotep III even ordered the building of a small funerary temple for him next to his own temple, a unique honour for a nonroyal person in Egypt. Amenhotep was greatly revered by posterity, as indicated by the reinscription of the donation decree for his mortuary establishment in the 21st dynasty (1075–c. 950 bce) [sic] and his divine association with Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, during the Ptolemaic period. Influenced by the Patriarch Joseph Professor Joseph Davidovits had gone so far as to identify Amenhotep son of Hapu as the biblical Joseph of Egypt: https://www.geopolymer.org/shop/product/the-secrets-of-joseph-the-patriarch/ In 1935 in Karnak, in Egypt, two French Egyptologists discover a fresco in the ruins of the memorial temple of Amenophis (Amenhotep) Son of Hapu, the most eminent scribe and scientist of ancient Egypt, Great chancellor of the Pharaon Amenhotep III, father of the monotheist Pharaon Akhenaton. Recently, 75 years later, it was noted that the text of this fresco was reproduced almost word for word in the Bible in Genesis 41, when Pharaon [Pharaoh] installs the biblical Patriarch Joseph to rule over all Egypt. It is apparent that the royal scribe Amenophis Son of Hapu and the Patriarch Joseph are thus the same person. …. [End of quote] Professor Davidovits, however, was not the first to have discerned similarities between Amenhotep son of Hapu and Joseph - at least with the historical Joseph, who was Imhotep of Egypt’s Third Dynasty: Enigmatic Imhotep – did he really exist? (7) Enigmatic Imhotep - did he really exist? Even in antiquity it was thought of Imhotep and Amenhotep that, as we shall read further on, “they have a single ‘body’ and a single ba, ‘soul’ or ‘manifestation’, as if Amenhotep son of Hapu were a veritable reincarnation of his colleague who had lived one thousand years prior”. Dietrich Wildung wrote a book, Egyptian Saints: Deification in Pharaonic Egypt (NYUP, 1977), in which he nominated these two officials as the two real geniuses of ancient Egyptian history. At https://henadology.wordpress.com/theology/netjeru/amenhotep-son-of-hapu/ we read of some of the connections that Dietrich Wildung had made between Imhotep and Amenhotep: Amenhotep, Son of Hapu (Amenophis, Amenotes) … served in the local government and in the priesthood of Khenty-khety before being called to the royal court at Thebes in his early fifties. He had an extraordinarily distinguished career under Amenhotep III, holding the positions of chief architect (he is credited with the temple of Soleb), chief scribe and secretary in charge of recruiting, as well as steward to the king’s daughter. Amenhotep son of Hapu died at the age of around eighty. After his death he acquired a cult as a healer and an intermediary of the God Amun, and was often worshiped alongside his fellow deified architect and healer Imhotep, surpassing the latter in popularity in the vicinity of Thebes. In a hymn inscribed on the temple of Ptah at Karnak, it is said of Amenhotep son of Hapu and Imhotep that they have a single ‘body’ and a single ba, ‘soul’ or ‘manifestation’, as if Amenhotep son of Hapu were a veritable reincarnation of his colleague who had lived one thousand years prior. The spell Pleyte 167 of the Book of the Dead is labeled as having been found by “the King’s chief scribe Amenhotep the son of Hapu … He used it for him [the king] as protection for his body.” Amenhotep son of Hapu and Imhotep are mentioned in the Papyrus Boulaq (first century CE) as welcoming the soul of the deceased: “Your soul will go to the royal scribe and chief scribe of the recruits Amenhotep; your soul will be united with Imhotep … you will feel like a son in the house of his father,” (Wildung 1977, 105). Amenhotep son of Hapu is depicted as a scribe, often with palette and scroll, somewhat older and corpulent, with a fuller hairstyle or wig than the standard kind, a short beard, and often wearing a long apron. Votive inscriptions from a Ptolemaic chapel behind the upper mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari show that Amenhotep son of Hapu was still worshiped in the second century CE, more than 1,500 years [sic] after his death. Perhaps due to the similarity in name, Amenhotep’s father Hapu is sometimes identified in later texts with “the living herald Apis,” that is, the Apis bull, while his mother, Idit, is referred to as “Hathor-Idit, the justified, the mother of the helpful God who issued from her on this beautiful day, the 11th of Phamenoth, in her name ‘rejoicing’,” (Wildung 1977, 98-99). In addition to the divinization of his mortal parents, Amenhotep is often characterized as the son of Amun, or of Ptah, or of Seshat and Thoth. A text dating from the time of Tiberius refers to him as the “youthful repetition of Ptah … You give a child to the sterile; you release a man from his enemy; you know the hearts of men and what is inside; you increase the lifetime; there is no distress in you. You renew what has fallen down; you fill up what was found destroyed,” (ibid., 105). [End of quote] And again we read at: http://www.boap.org/LDS/Hugh-Nibley/TrFac.html …. The biographies of such great men as Imhotep and his later counterpart Amenhotep Son of Hapu are enough to show that. They were commoners, both of them, living some 1500 years apart, yet each achieving a renown equal to or surpassing that of Pharaoh himself. "As long as he lived, and no matter what he did," writes D. Wildung in his study of these two men, "no king of Egypt was able to ascend to the realm of the gods. Two mortals did." (Wildung, 28) How? Other Egyptians achieved a fame approaching theirs, but they were always remembered as the very top achievers. Their greatness and glory depended entirely on what they did for others: their religious writings and offices, their practical genius as inventors of useful devices and administrators of consummate skill in dealing with people, their all-embracing humanity as friends and benefactors of all their fellow-men, their modest, kindly and ever good-humored deportment, their contributions to the arts and sciences, great innovations in architecture, engineering, literature and philosophy, were all made possible by that one mysterious quality of intelligence in which they were supreme. After their deaths they were venerated in temples dedicated to them, to which for thousands of years pilgrims have repaired for the blessings of healing and especially for posterity. …. "To be united with Amenhotep and Imhotep in the after life" (Wildung, 105), even as the pious Jew or Christian longs to be clasped to the bosom of Abraham. They are depicted through the centuries clothed with the garments and insignia of various gods, but always with their own faces. …. Thus the Greeks in Egypt identified Imhotep in his healing capacity with their own Aesulapius, as a builder with Daedalus, as a Scribe with Thoth or Hermes; and Imhotep and Amenhotep, though living ages apart, were shown fused into a single person …. Right down to the 19th century pilgrims would come to Imhotep's shrine at [Saqqara], where he built the magnificent Temple complex 4500 years ago, for the healing of their bodies and especially for the promise of having children, for Imhotep like Abraham was the great patron of the family. To suit Moslem and Christian faith, however, the designation of the shrine was changed from the Tomb of Imhotep, pagan, to the Prison of Joseph--it could not be the Tomb of Joseph, since he was buried in Canaan, but the next best thing is the jail in which he was buried for years. And so for 1500 years Imhotep has been identified with Joseph, Abraham's own great-grandson, whose own biography shows us that the [honours] bestowed on great commoners in Egypt were not withheld from supremely deserving foreigners who showed the same capacity and zeal in the service of Egypt; one of the greatest merits of Imhotep like Joseph, was saving the land from a seven-years' famine. [End of quote] Imhotep, of course, was Joseph! 110 Years of Age One will read in books and on sites re ancient Egypt about the age of 110 being the ‘ideal’ one. Take e.g. this paragraph: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/oldage.htm#ixzz49uHnsTKu And yet, one hundred-and-ten years seems to be the ideal Egyptian life-span. There are 27 places in documents where this figure crops up, and it had its widest acceptance during the 19th and 20th Dynasties. King Pepi II of the 6th Dynasty certainly came close, since we know of events that took place in the 94th year of his reign. Ptahhotep, who was vizier to King Djedkare Isesi of the 5th Dynasty, and two others individuals, are reputed to have lived to that age as well. [End of quote] Since Imhotep was Joseph himself, then I would say that - given the Hebrew patriarch’s profound influence over Egypt - he was the reason why the age of 110 was so aspired to. Amenhotep son of Hapu was one who, according to http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/resource/ObjectCatalog/1853 had hoped to reach this sublime age of 110, but, despite being old, fell well short of it: Seated Statue of Amenhotep, son of Hapu Author(s): C. Zarnoch, E. Sullivan Description: This seated statue represents Amenhotep son of Hapu, the royal scribe and architect of Amenhotep III. He is depicted here as an aged man: his chest sags, his stomach is rounded, and the fleshiness of old age marks his face. The inscription states that he had reached the age of 80 (extraordinarily old for an ancient Egyptian) and wished to attain 110 years (the perfect lifespan). In a recent article: Akhnaton not obscure before he became Pharaoh (2) Akhnaton not obscure before he became Pharaoh I have traced the biblico-historical development of Amenhotep son of Hapu, starting with the leprous Na’aman (Osarsiph) the Syrian, who attained Syrian kingship as Hazael through the agency of the Sinai Commission, who became Aziru of Amurru (Syria) of the El Amarna archive and also (Irsu, Aziru) of the Great Harris Papyrus, who, finally, was pharaoh Amenhotep (so-called IV) Akhnaton. Hence: Akhnaton’s Theophany (2) Akhnaton's Theophany was entirely due to Hebrew influence, to the intervention of the great prophet Elisha.

Akhnaton not obscure before he became Pharaoh

by Damien F. Mackey “Egyptologists know very little about Akhenaten's life as prince Amenhotep”. Based on my article: Akhnaton one of the most influential men who ever lived (3) Akhnaton one of the most influential men who ever lived | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu pharaoh Amenhotep (so-called III) ‘the Magnificent’ was a mighty emperor, who ruled over both Syria and Egypt. ‘The Magnificent’ was the biblical king, Ben-Hadad I, of the C9th BC (conventional dating), whom Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky had well identified with the king of Amurru (Syria), Abdi-ashirta, of the El Amarna [EA] letters. This prominent king, thought to have been a vassal of Egypt, was in fact a master-king, with 32 other kings in tow. I have identified Akhnaton biblically with Na’aman the Syrian, the leper who was cured owing to the intervention of the prophet Elisha. Due to Na’aman’s total conversion to Yahwism, the Lord would order the prophet Elijah to anoint him as “king over Aram [Syria]” (I Kings 19:15), to wipe out Baalism from the land. Na’aman, though a commoner, a “son of nobody” as the ancients called it, would thus rise to the throne of Syria as Hazael, by assassinating his master, Ben-Hadad I. This fact adds a vital new dimension to Dr. I. Velikovsky’s view that pharaoh Akhnaton was the model for the Greek king, Oedipus. While Dr. Velikovsky had never gone so far as to have suggested that Akhnaton killed his father, as Oedipus is famously said to have done, the fact is that he, if he really were Hazael, had actually done this (taking ‘father’ in a broad sense of master). This explains, in part, how a most unlikely person, Hazael-Amenhotep-Akhnaton, had managed to come to the throne of Egypt. Apart from identifying EA’s Abdi-ashirta as Ben-Hadad I, Dr. Velikovsky had logically identified Ben-Hadad I’s regicide successor, Hazael, as Aziru, the king of Amurru (Syria) who would succeed the slain Abdi-ashirta. Dr. Velikovsky drew some compelling comparisons between Hazael and Aziru. This was a strong, tour de force, aspect of his Ages in Chaos I (1952) thesis, praised by later revisionists. It became something of a foundation for my university thesis (2007): A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah and its Background (5) Thesis 2: A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah and its Background | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Had Dr. Velikovsky gone a step further, and identified Aziru (Hazael) with the similarly-named Syrian, Irsu (Arsa), of the Great Harris Papyrus [GHP], as I have done, then he would have realised that Aziru had also come to control Egypt - though not as an invader, apparently - and had wrought there a religious revolution. Though GHP presents this revolution negatively, from the traditional Egyptian point of view, it could also be likened, from a different angle, to the religious revolution of pharaoh Akhnaton, which I believe it was. Akhnaton was also found to have been the model for Manetho’s semi-legendary Osarsiph, who, interestingly – in my context of Akhnaton’s being the formerly leprous Na’aman – was associated with lepers. As an official in Egypt before he became Akhnaton We can know something about Akhnaton’s pre-regnal years and character if he was, as I think, the Syrian Na’aman (2 Kings 5:1): “Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram [Syria]. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy”. From verses 2-3, we learn that this Na’aman had a wife, and a captive Israelite slave girl, who was desirous of her master approaching the prophet Elisha for a curing of his leprosy. Unlike the king of Syria, Ben-Hadad I, who was quite happy for his army commander to visit the prophet of Samaria, the king of Israel, presumably Ahab, an inveterate foe of the Syrians, was horrified after the king of Syria had sent him an introductory letter (v. 7): “As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, ‘Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!’” Na’aman was apparently a generous man, and presumably wealthy (v. 5): “So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing”. See also v. 23. He was a cavalryman (v. 9): “So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house”. Na’aman was also proud. He wanted a quick cure for which he would pay handsomely. But Elisha wanted from him a complete change of heart. Vv. 10-12: Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed’. But Naaman went away angry and said, ‘I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?’ So he turned and went off in a rage. Did the captive Israelite girl help to change his mind? Vv. 13-14: Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. Humility and ‘baptism’. Na’aman was fully converted to the one God (v. 17): ‘… please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the LORD’. That he was the king of Syria’s right-hand man, having even a liturgical rôle, may be gleaned from v. 18: ‘But may the LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant for this’. Now, given my argument that Na’aman (who became Hazael king of Syria), would also become pharaoh Akhnaton, and that Na’aman had formerly served Ben-Hadad I, who was also pharaoh Amenhotep ‘the Magnificent’, then it is logical that we would expect to find amongst pharaoh Amenhotep’s officials one who mirrors - because he was - this Na’aman. Before attempting to identify Na’aman the Syrian as a high military official of pharaoh Amenhotep, though, we need to consider what were Akhnaton’s origins. Generally thought to have been the second son of pharaoh Amenhotep and his wife, Queen Tiy, Amenhotep, as Akhnaton was called, is a figure of almost complete obscurity for Egyptologists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten Egyptologists know very little about Akhenaten's life as prince Amenhotep. Donald B. Redford dates his birth before his father Amenhotep III's 25th regnal year, c. 1363–1361 BC, based on the birth of Akhenaten's first daughter, who was likely born fairly early in his own reign. …. The only mention of his name, as "the King's Son Amenhotep," was found on a wine docket at Amenhotep III's Malkata palace, where some historians suggested Akhenaten was born. Others contend that he was born at Memphis, where growing up he was influenced by the worship of the sun god Ra practiced at nearby Heliopolis. …. Redford and James K. Hoffmeier state, however, that Ra's cult was so widespread and established throughout Egypt that Akhenaten could have been influenced by solar worship even if he did not grow up around Heliopolis. …. Some historians have tried to determine who was Akhenaten's tutor during his youth, and have proposed scribes Heqareshu or Meryre II, the royal tutor Amenemotep, or the vizier Aperel. …. The only person we know for certain served the prince was Parennefer, whose tomb mentions this fact. …. Egyptologist Cyril Aldred suggests that prince Amenhotep might have been a High Priest of Ptah in Memphis, although no evidence supporting this had been found. …. It is known that Amenhotep's brother, crown prince Thutmose, served in this role before he died. If Amenhotep inherited all his brother's roles in preparation for his accession to the throne, he might have become a high priest in Thutmose's stead. Aldred proposes that Akhenaten's unusual artistic inclinations might have been formed during his time serving Ptah, the patron god of craftsmen, whose high priest were sometimes referred to as "The Greatest of the Directors of Craftsmanship." …. …. Coregency with Amenhotep III …. There is much controversy around whether Amenhotep IV acceded to Egypt's throne on the death of his father Amenhotep III or whether there was a coregency, lasting perhaps as long as 12 years. Eric Cline, Nicholas Reeves, Peter Dorman, and other scholars argue strongly against the establishment of a long coregency between the two rulers and in favor of either no coregency or one lasting at most two years. …. Donald B. Redford, William J. Murnane, Alan Gardiner, and Lawrence Berman contest the view of any coregency whatsoever between Akhenaten and his father. …. Most recently, in 2014, archaeologists found both pharaohs' names inscribed on the wall of the Luxor tomb of vizier Amenhotep-Huy. The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities called this "conclusive evidence" that Akhenaten shared power with his father for at least eight years, based on the dating of the tomb. …. However, this conclusion has since been called into question by other Egyptologists, according to whom the inscription only means that construction on Amenhotep-Huy's tomb started during Amenhotep III's reign and ended under Akhenaten's, and Amenhotep-Huy thus simply wanted to pay his respects to both rulers. …. [End of quotes] This is all quite wrong, I believe. Amenhotep was not a prince, but was the pharaoh’s military commander, a commoner, with no thought of kingship. Did he not, as Hazael, say to the prophet Elisha? (2 Kings 8:13 ESV): ‘How could I possibly do a thing like that? I’m nothing but a dog. I don’t have that kind of power’. ‘Son of a nobody’. He did not live in the 1300’s BC, but about half a millennium later than this. Nor was he ever co-regent with his former master-king whom he slew. To find early Akhnaton, as Amenhotep, we must look for pharaoh Amenhotep’s mirror-image officer of king Ben-Hadad I’s Na’aman, preferably being named, like his king, AMENHOTEP. And we seem to find him in the amazing character Amenhotep son of Hapu, a man of legendary status: Amenhotep son of Hapu had rôle like Senenmut (13) Amenhotep son of Hapu had rôle like Senenmut | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Amenhotep son of Hapu mirrors Na’aman in his titles, as a commoner who made good, a military commander, and right-hand man of the pharaoh, with a liturgical rôle. Egyptologist Joann Fletcher provides a glimpse of his extraordinary power (Egypt’s Sun King. Amenhotep III, Duncan Baird, 2000, p. 51): In an unprecedented move, Amenhotep III gave extensive religious powers to his closest official and namesake, Amenhotep son of Hapu, not only placing the scribe’s statuary throughout Amun’s temple, but also granting his servant powers almost equal to his own: inscriptions on the statues state that Amenhotep son of Hapu would intercede with Amun himself on behalf of those who approached. The king’s chosen man, who was not a member of Amun’s clergy, could act as intermediary between the people and the gods on the king’s behalf, bypassing the priesthood altogether. …. [End of quote] In light of what we learned, however, in: Solomon and Sheba https://www.academia.edu/3660164/Solomon_and_Sheba the powers accorded by pharaoh Amenhotep to his namesake, the son of Hapu, were not “unprecedented”. All of this - and perhaps even more - had already been bestowed upon Senenmut, the ‘power behind the throne’ of Pharaoh Hatshepsut. I have identified this Senenmut as King Solomon in Egypt. Titles Amenhotep son of Hapu, likewise, had some most imposing titles: http://euler.slu.edu/~bart/egyptianhtml/kings%20and%20Queens/Amenhotep-Hapu.html He was: Hereditary prince, count, sole companion, fan-bearer on the king's right hand, chief of the king's works even all the great monuments which are brought, of every excellent costly stone; steward of the King's-daughter of the king's-wife, Sitamen, who liveth; overseer of the cattle of Amon in the South and North, chief of the prophets of Horus, lord of Athribis, festival leader of Amon. …. Several inscriptions outline his career and show how he rose through the ranks. Amenhotep started off as a king's scribe as mentioned on his statue: I was appointed to be inferior king's-scribe; I was introduced into the divine book, I beheld the excellent things of Thoth; I was equipped with their secrets; I opened all their [passages (?)]; one took counsel with me on all their matters. After distinguishing himself, Amenhotep was promoted to the position of Scribe of Recruits: ... he put all the people subject to me, and the listing of their number under my control, as superior king's-scribe over recruits. I levied the (military) classes of my lord, my pen reckoned the numbers of millions; I put them in [classes (?)] in the place of their [elders (?)]; the staff of old age as his beloved son. I taxed the houses with the numbers belonging thereto, I divided the troops (of workmen) and their houses, I filled out the subjects with the best of the captivity, which his majesty had captured on the battlefield. I appointed all their troops (Tz.t), I levied -------. I placed troops at the heads of the way(s) to turn back the foreigners in their places. Amenhotep mentions being on a campaign to Nubia. I was the chief at the head of the mighty men, to smite the Nubians [and the Asiatics (?)], the plans of my lord were a refuge behind me; [when I wandered (?)] his command surrounded me; his plans embraced all lands and all foreigners who were by his side. I reckoned up the captives of the victories of his majesty, being in charge of them. Later he was promoted to "Chief of all works", thereby overseeing the building program of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. His connections to court finally led to Amenhotep being appointed as Steward to Princess-Queen Sitamen (Sitamun). The career of Amenhotep son of Hapu in relation to Egypt reminds me in many ways of that of that other quasi-royal (but supposed commoner), Senenmut, or Senmut, at the time of Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Amenhotep son of Hapu was in fact so close a replica of Senenmut that I would have to think that he had modelled himself greatly on the latter. Senenmut was to pharaoh Hatshepsut also a Great Steward, and he was to princess Neferure her mentor and steward. So was Amenhotep son of Hapu to pharaoh Amenhotep III a Great Steward, and he was to princess Sitamun (Sitamen) her mentor and steward. Egyptologists are very wrong, again, in thinking that neither Senenmut (= Solomon) nor Amenhotep (= Na’aman-Akhnaton) ever married. Sir Alan Gardiner had claimed, in the Introduction to his Egyptian Grammar, that the ancient Egyptians were the least philosophical of peoples. And Dietrich Wildung (Gottwerdung im alten Ägypten, Münchner ägyptologische Studien) considered that ancient Egypt had produced only two geniuses, Imhotep and Amenhotep, both of whom became revered as saints. But neither Imhotep nor Amenhotep was even a native Egyptian. Imhotep was, for his part, the great Hebrew patriarch, Joseph: Enigmatic Imhotep – did he really exist? (7) Enigmatic Imhotep - did he really exist? Whilst Amenhotep son of Hapu was, as I now believe, a Syrian (Na’aman/Hazael).