Something random crossed my mind: Recall the story of Joseph and his dream coat in Genesis. Recall the king who said he dreamed he saw seven fat cows and seven thin cows. Joseph said that meant seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Christians: do you think it's plausible for a person's dream to be that obvious?
Not all of it. Dreams and how to interprete them probably played a larger role in the days of Joseph. Superstition in general. Kings and other leaders all made use of it. And a lot probably had some real faith in it too. It's not like it is portrayed as a typical christian habit (logically as the story itself is older than christianity)
It's not so much the interpretation of the dream that's the cause of my suspicion, but the dream itself. It just seems too obvious.
The exact dream could be made up. Story is probably over 2500 years old. Who passed it through (if it really originated in reality and with Joseph in the first place)? The king/pharao and/or his following or Joseph or the people he told it to/affiliated with? The interpretation of the dream seems just as easy/obvious as the dream itself imo. Maybe you find this interesting as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_Stela
As a kid, the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors was my favorite Bible story. It had everything: daddy's pet sold into slavery by his brothers, an attempted seduction and false accusation by his master's wife, the rags-to-riches rise from prisoner to the second most powerful man in Egypt, the coyness with and ultimate forgiveness of, the wayward brothers, and the ingenuity of storing grain during a time of plenty to sustain Egypt during the terrible drought. Did it happen? I doubt it, because it's such a good story. In 2014, archaeologist Simcha Jacobovici announced the discovery of Joseph's seal ring at Avaris in Egypt. Remember, Pharaoh took the ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph's finger as a sign of Joseph's authority. And Jacobovici reported finding the ring--at least a ring he identified as Joseph's. There were some glitches: the ring bore the name Jacob. Jacobovici explained that the original ring had Pharaoh's name on it honoring the God Ra, and that Joseph, good monotheist that he was, had a new substitute ring made honoring his father, Jacob (Yacob). Sure.The name on the ring says clearly Yaqub-Har (Jacob-Hor). And Paraoh didn't know, or was cool with it? And Joseph put his father's name on his seal ring because he was modest? And people honored the ring because everybody knew Jacob? And "Har" (Hor) in the name was okay with Yaweh, even though it seems to honor another god, possibly Horus? (Haran is Hebrew for "mounaineer" or "parched", but may also have Hurrian or Horite origins with the god "Hor",Later Horus). Jacobovici has been accused of being a sensationalist. At best, the ring might indicate a western Asiatic presence in the eastern Nile Delta--but we knew that, the Canaanites and Hyksos who settled at Avaris in the biblical "Land of Goshen". The second king of the fifteenth (Hyksos) dynasty, or possibly the last king of the 14th (Canaanite) dynasty was Yaqub-hor, and his name has been found on 27 scarab seals over a wide geographic range. Who’s Who in Ancient Egypt (London: Routledge, 1999). Then, of course, there's Ben Carson's revelation that the pyramids were used to store grain, but I still say it's only a story.
