QUESTION: I don’t understand about this in Genesis, in the time of Joseph, when he had this dream about the 7 fat years and the 7 lean years, and then he took all the peoples cattle, and bought all their land for Pharaoh, then after that he gave them seed to plant and said that they were to give one‑fifth to Pharaoh, but he had taken their land?
ANSWER: You have a different type of operation at that time. You will discover that Pharaoh is the Sovereign over all Egypt. And if you go into this type of government you find not only was it maintained as a sovereignty with nobody but Pharaoh or the Royal household owning the property, but all Egyptians were considered their family. This was the kind of Aristocracy that they had, and Pharaoh alone could grant a piece of territory to anyone else, thus he granted the land of Goshen unto the brethren of Joseph when they came in. So the entire aristocracy was controlled by Pharaoh and his family, and he had around him a bunch of Priests, and soothsayers who helped shape his decisions, but Joseph had no control over the existing structure of this government, he only worked under it.
I have Dr. Petries copy of the “Book of the Dead”, and I can show you the entire structure of control of Egypt at that time, and the Pharaoh so to speak had “the last word”. Pharaoh set up everything, Pharaoh was the owner of all Egypt. Pharaoh was our gracious master, he gives us our homes, Pharaoh gives us everything, see.