Two young men?

In the story about Joseph, we read about his imprisonment as punishment for the incident with the wife of Aziz:

And there entered with him two young men in the prison. One of them said: "Verily, I saw myself (in a dream) pressing wine." The other said: "Verily, I saw myself (in a dream) carrying bread on my head and birds were eating thereof." (They said): "Inform us of the interpretation of this. Verily, we think you are one of the Muhsinûn (doers of good)." [Hilali/Khan Translation]
-- Surah 12:36

In Genesis 40 the story is told in detail and there we learn that those two men were the chief cupbearer and chief baker of the Pharaoh.

There are two difficulties in the above ayah. First, it contradicts the Torah which in Genesis 39:19-40:3 makes clear that Joseph had been in this prison already for some considerable time before these two men were arrested and put into the same prison. The Qur'an claims they entered prison together with Joseph.

Second, even though their age is not mentioned in the Bible, it is highly unlikely that these senior staff of the court of Pharaoh (chief cupbearer and chief baker) were both "youths" as the Qur'an states them to be.


Contradictions in the Qur'an
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