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An exceptionally rare 1936 book by Rev Dr Izak Goller, called First Chapter, includes the following:

A powerful shepherd king of Canaan had invaded and conquered Egypt, and one of his descendants ruled from the throne of the Pharaohs, much to the annoyance of the Egyptians and their exiled dynasty […Joseph’s] death was followed by a general uprising that deposed the foreign dynasty, reinstated the old line of Pharaohs and bred a natural hatred for us due to our friendship and kinship with the hated usurpers … Moses, brought up in Pharaoh’s palace, received a princely education which included a knowledge of the One God undisclosed to the masses, among whom the Egyptian priests – for their own political purposes – cultivated the most absurd forms of idolatry.

This passage contains two narratives I’ve not seen before:

  1. Joseph’s Pharaoh was a Canaanite invader and there was a revolution between his death and the enslavement of the Israelites.
  2. The Egyptian priesthood were closet monotheists.

Did Rev Dr Goller invent these glosses or do we find them in any traditional sources? Thanks!

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    Seems like a mix of the Hyksos with the reforms of Akhenaten.
    – magicker72
    Commented Sep 22 at 17:52
  • @magicker72 I’m so sorry could you expand on that a teeny bit?
    – Zarka
    Commented Sep 22 at 18:07
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    The Hyksos were a Semitic group who ruled (part of) Egypt for some time. Akhenaten was a Pharaoh who instituted monotheism (or something, it's debated); it didn't stick, though, and his reforms were quickly reversed.
    – magicker72
    Commented Sep 22 at 19:18
  • Josephus is one of the most important sources for the Hyksos, that's about as "traditional" as you can get until Egyptology developed and interest in these theories surged in the 19th century and onwards. Then you can find similar theories in works by Rabbis such as RDZ Hoffman and RA Marcus.
    – Harel13
    Commented Sep 22 at 20:47
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    Josephus and the previous page; RDZ Hoffman, אהרן מארכוס, קדמוניות, pp. 108-116 (can be found on Otzar Hachochmah) (note that both RDZ and RAM reject the theory that Yosef was in the time of the Hyksos, but they discuss the issue). See also R' Philip Biberfeld and onwards. These aren't the only traditional rabbis who discuss the topic, but IMO they're a good place to start.
    – Harel13
    Commented Sep 24 at 13:19

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