Genesis 41:46

thirty years old This verse probably contains the brief record of P; according to which Joseph had spent thirteen years in Egypt before his elevation, and was aged seventeen when he was brought into Egypt, Genesis 37:2. There elapsed seven years of plenty and two of the years of famine, before his brothers came down to Egypt (Genesis 45:11). Accordingly, Joseph must have been in Egypt over twenty years before they came. Benjamin had been born some time before Joseph disappeared (Genesis 35:18). Hence, so far from Benjamin being "a little one" (Genesis 44:20), he must have been well over twenty, when Joseph saw his brethren. The computation illustrates the impossibility of harmonizing discrepancies, if the existence of independent narratives, or parallel versions of tradition, be rejected. When the separate character of the P record is recognized, the difficulties disappear.