What is Goshen in the Bible?

The “land of Goshen” is the name of the region that the pharaoh of Egypt gave to the Israelites when they settled in Egypt. This gift is the culmination of the story of Joseph, an Israelite sold into Egyptian slavery by his brothers. He later rose through the ranks of Egypt and became second to Pharaoh himself. Eventually, he reconnected with his brothers; forgave them for what they did; returned them to their father, Jacob; and invited the entire family to settle in Egypt.

“Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.’” Genesis 45:9-10.

Land of Goshen, Egypt

Jacob’s family—including his animals, servants, eleven other sons and their wives and children—settled in the land of Goshen, where they prospered. Part of this prosperity came from the quality of the land; when Pharaoh suggested that Jacob’s family relocate to Egypt, he said, “The land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land; let them live in the land of Goshen” (Gen 47:6). Goshen was a particularly good spot for farming and husbandry, as it was at the north of Nile in a delta, on the coast of the Mediterranean sea.

Another element of their prosperity was that Pharaoh put them in charge of his animals. “If you know that there are capable men among them,” Pharaoh adds to Joseph, “put them in charge of my livestock” (Gen 47:6). The children of Israel were experienced herdsmen and excelled in tending Egypt's livestock, which brought them considerable wealth. Animals were (and still are) an important source of meat, nutrition, hides, and milk. For ancient people, having control over many animals was identical to having great wealth. It’s no wonder that so many ancient texts like the Old Testament describe people’s wealth in terms of the number of animals they owned.

How long were the Israelites in Egypt?

The Israelites, as is well known, did not remain in the land of Egypt. Jacob’s already large family (twelve sons and their wives and children) kept growing. It grew so much that in time it became a distinct people group, the Israelites. They bore this name because Jacob was named “Israel” by God (Gen 32:22-31). Eventually, as recounted in the book of Exodus, there was contention between the Israelites and the Egyptians, which resulted in the Exodus (the “way out”, in Greek). The book of Numbers, later in the Old Testament, states that the Israelites lived in Egypt for four hundred thirty years (Exodus 12:40-41).

That is the Biblical account, but what is the consensus of scholars? As you might imagine, scholars disagree about the exact historicity of the Biblical accounts for three reasons:

1. Some of the timelines in the Biblical accounts are obviously incomplete or out of order.

2. Not everything claimed in the Bible can be independently verified by other historical sources.

3. Many of the texts of the Bible were written long after the recorded events took place.

Does this scholarly disagreement mean that the Bible is wrong and can’t be trusted? Such a conclusion would be too hasty.

There are two common mistakes that people make about the Bible—even, or especially, certain kinds of scholars. The first is to view the Biblical narrative with extra suspicion on the basis that it makes religious claims. The assumption is that, because the Bible makes religious or supernatural claims that are “obviously” false, anything the Bible says about history must be treated as suspicious unless it can be proven by some other, non-Biblical source from the ancient world. While it’s a good scholarly practice to try to look for consensus among ancient texts (especially timelines that match archeological data), many scholars raise the bar unfairly high for evidence from the Bible because they have a bias against Christianity, Judaism, or both. Less severe, but more common, is the idea that anything spiritual or supernatural can’t be proven or verified, but must be a matter of faith or belief. A similar mistake is the assumption that all ancient people were superstitious and ignorant, which explains their belief in “obviously” fake things.

These notions are unfair to ancient people groups. Ancient people were often quite sophisticated in their thinking—in many ways, even more than modern people. Long before electricity was discovered, they developed mathematics capable of accurately calculating the diameter of the Earth. Ancient Egyptians built structures like the pyramids that are incredibly impressive, even by today’s standards. These same people believed in gods and spirits. If we’re being honest, it’s quite difficult to dismiss the ancients as superstitious and ignorant. There are quite rational reasons to believe that they had a good sense of the world, which should invite us to take their claims about the spiritual world a bit more seriously. The existence of spirits is at least as good a hypothesis as the belief that it was aliens who came down and taught Egyptians how to use tools. Despite the fact that there is objectively less evidence for aliens than for spirits, modern people more frequently believe in aliens because they sound more scientific than spiritual.

Another mistake people make when considering the Bible comes from the modern bias toward things that sound scientific. When modern people think about writing down an account of something that happened, we value accuracy rather than truth. We want to have a certain kind of objective recounting of names and dates, precise measurements, and so forth. For decades, journalism focused on presenting “unbiased” narratives, and as a result, accounts that include the author's personal interpretation of events have become highly suspicious to modern readers.

But ancient people did not think this way. For them, truth was the most important thing—not facts. Facts are just the answer to the “what?” question. Truth is the answer to the question, “what does it mean?” If I asked you, “how was your day today?” you wouldn’t start telling me a minute-by-minute account of the facts of your day. You know that’s not what I’m asking. You would probably start by saying, “It was a good day” or “it was a bad day” and then you’d explain why. In other words, you’d start telling me a story, which is different from an account of the facts because a story has a specific meaning to it. Moving facts around in order to fit the meaning or deeper truth of a story was a universal practice among ancient authors.

This practice is evident in the differences between the four gospel accounts. Many details of the different accounts don’t line up, and they even contradict each other at points. The order in which Jesus experiences his temptations in the wilderness is different depending on the author (compare Matt 4:1-11 with Luke 4:1-13). In Matthew and Mark’s accounts, both of the thieves who are crucified with Jesus mock him, whereas in Luke’s account, only one of the thieves mock him while the other repents and is told that he will be with Jesus “in paradise” (Luke 23:39-43). Does that mean the gospel is “unreliable” because it “contradicts” itself? Not at all. Again, it was a universally accepted practice among ancient writers to move the facts around to help support their point. Not because they didn’t care about truth, but because they cared about truth more than mere facts.

We must keep this aspect of the Bible in mind. Searching the Bible to find where facts are out of place, or over-emphasizing the factual accuracy of this or that detail, is to evaluate the Bible anachronistically.

You can’t measure the Bible like you would a historical or journalistic account of a modern event. Biblical interpretation is quite a different matter, and the early Christians approached the Bible in a distinct, rigorous way. If you’re interested in learning more about how ancient Christians thought about the world, including how they interpreted the Bible, I recommend Journey to Reality: Sacramental Life in a Secular Age.