MIAMI (AP) – Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is standing by his view that Egypt’s pyramids were probably built by the biblical patriarch Joseph to store grain for an impending famine, and not as tombs for pharaohs.
In a video from 17 years ago that was posted online this week by Buzzfeed News, Carson referred to the Genesis account of Joseph predicting famine. In the video, Carson said his belief that the pyramids were used to store grain was more likely than the conclusion accepted by archaeologists, who believe they were built as tombs.
In Florida Thursday, Carson was asked about his earlier statement. He said, “Some people believe in the Bible like I do and don’t find that to be silly at all.” Carson then accused “secular progressives” of trying to “ridicule it every time it comes up.”
A spokesman for Carson’s Seventh-Day Adventist Church says Carson’s beliefs about the pyramids are “his own interpretation.”
Ken Ham, CEO of Answers in Genesis, says most of the pyramids were built before the time of Joseph and it’s clear they were built as tombs for the pharaohs.
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