"Eine siebenjährige Hungersnot, wie sie die Josephs-Geschichte beschreibt, ist dagegen erst auf der Hungersnotstele aus dem Jahr 187 v. Chr. belegt."

"Verfasser betont die ägyptische Herkunft des Motives der 7-jährigen Hungersnot - dort in der Saïten- oder Perserzeit entstanden - und ihre Übertragung auf die Josephsgeschichte durch Vermittlung der jüdischen Kolonie auf Elephantine."

"... In the introduction the author points out that it is not impossible that there is a direct link with the Biblical tradition about a seven-year famine in Egypt, in the way that the text might have been influenced by the O.T. tradition through the extensive Jewish colony of Elephantine. ... Once the text is accepted as a historical document and not as a pseudo-epigraph, it can be used as a source of historical information: it is a copy of a royal document issued by Ptolemy V as part of an encompassing plan to subject Egypt's south to the king's authority, and any comparison with the Biblical tradition about the 'seven lean years' has to be recognized as the pursuit of an accidental similarity. The text is secular in its outlook and has nothing to do with the O.T. traditions about a seven-year famine in Egypt, either directly or indirectly. ..."