Studying About Ancient Food Preservation Helped Me Understand Joseph's Story Even More
I just thought about the weekly lessons from Ligonier.org which lessons by the late R.C. Sproul Sr. replayed were about Joseph the Dreamer. I remembered what Joseph said in Genesis 41:33-36 saying the following things:
Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. 35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. 36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.
Just thinking about this one - it's a valid question to ask, "How can food stored throughout the seven years of plenty be preserved for the seven years of famine?" We are all familiar today with the label "Best Before Date" right? It does seem absurd to think about how Joseph's advice became a piece of life-saving advice. That's why I believe studying science, mathematics, and history is necessary to understand the Bible better. Skeptics and agnostics may go ahead and laugh at the Bible to be unscientific but studying history, science, and mathematics prove otherwise.
The article "Ancient Egyptian Preppers - Food Security and Preservation (Including Ancient Recipes)" writes the following interesting, scientific detail:
How did Ancient Egyptians preserve their food?
Ancient Egyptians employed a variety of methods for food preservation. Great silos were constructed to preserve grain for long periods of time. Fish, meat, vegetables and fruits were were preserved by drying and salting. Grains were fermented to create beer.
“There is evidence that as early as 12,000 B.C., Egyptian tribespeople on the lower Nile dried fish and poultry using the hot desert sun. Areas with similar hot and dry climates found drying to be an effective method of preservation…Herodutus, writing in the fifth century B.C., describes how the Egyptians and their neighbors still dried fish in the sun and wind and then stored them for long periods.” —Pickled, Potted and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Processing Changed the World, Sue Shepard [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2000 (p. 31)
“…the Babylonians and Egyptians pickled fish such as sturgeon, salmon, and catfish, as well as poultry and geese. Sometimes salt was relatively easy to extract; in other parts it was more difficult.”
—ibid (p. 76)
“Salt has been used to preserve fish since ancient times, possibly even before meat was cured. The early Mesopotamian civilizations relied on a staple diet of salt fish and barley proridge…Fish curing, depicted in the tombs of ancient Egypt, was so highly regarded that only temple officials were entrusted with the knowledge of the art, and it is significant that the Egyptian word for fish preserving was the same as that used to denote the process of embalming the dead.”
—ibid (p. 79)
“For thousands of years the survival and power of a tribe or country depended on its stocks in grain. Harvesting, processing, and storing grain stocks was of huge importance, and war was declared only after harvest…One of the earliest records of large-scale food preserving was in ancient Egypt, where it was enourmously important to create adequate stocks of dried grain to insure against the failure of the Nile to flood seasonally. Huge quantities of grain were stored in sealed silo, where they could be kept for several years if necessary. Records from 2600 B.C. show that the annual flooding of the Nile produced surpluses of grain that were stored and kept to feed builders of irrigation schemes and pyramid tombs. The Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza was built around 2900 B.C. by slaves fed with stores of grain and chickpeas, onions, and garlic.”
—ibid (p. 51)
“Dried saltfish was part of a soldier’s rations. Roe from the mullet, a periodic visitor to the canals of the Nile, was also extracted during the drying process of the fish, to be pressed into large flat cakes and preserved.”
—Food: A Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Masimo Montanari [Columbia University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 42)
Since the early Mesopotamian civilizations already taught it - Egypt would have learned it. I believe these silos were airtight which wouldn't permit pests to enter during the seven years of famine. Drying the grains would mean they lack the moisture to attract that many pests. Being placed in a vacuum-tight container would have doubled the guarantee against pests. Modern-day grain storage also used airtight containers to preserve grain for a longer period of time.
Just think we hardly study how science progressed throughout the centuries. You may even be amazed that before the modern-day air conditioners - there were ancient methods of keep one's self cool without electricity. There were no refrigerators or freezers yet the ancients created effective methods to prerseve their food. It's amazing when you study history, science, and mathematics that you finally realize that the Bible's narrative makes a lot of sense.