Earlier posts on The Shaking Ground of Bible Chronology can be found here.
Merenptah’s Stele, the Israel Stele, and the Victory Stele of Merenptah.
For the record, it is the same stele,it’s just known by the various names above. Discovered by Sir Finder Petrie in 1896 at Thebes, Egypt; it is widely known as the first known mention of Israel (Isrir) in ancient Egypt. Shortly after its discovery, a member of his team translated the stele, and between them, they decided that one word of it referred to Israel. It contains multiple stanzas of the victories of Merenptah as he defended Egypt against enemies.
- Merenptah’s Stele that mentions Israel.
Leaving the question of correct translation of that one word aside, today the concentration of thought is on wording used in phrase “Israel is wasted; its seed is no more.” This word differs from the use of glyphs in the identification of the city-states Gerer, Ashkelon, and Yanoam from the glyph used for Israel in the same stanza, where it is foreign peoples. Apparently, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, foreign people signify nomadic people. Therefore, the reasoning is Israel, if mentioned at all, was still a collection of tribes, dating this Israel to the post-Exodus period. Do you see how that 17th century math is still working?
Yet, a simple look at the Bible tells us that after the first year of Solomon’s son Rehoboam the people divided forming the two states Judah, and Israel. The wording used to announce this spilt is “…to your tents O Israel.” This wording is found in both biblical accounts of the division 1Kings 12:16 and 2Chronicles 10:16.
This shows it is the scholars, their dependence on the old tradition that is off. If Merenptah is mentioning the state of Israel, he is correct in defining it using nomadic people word in Egyptian. The real question is can the divided monarchy be placed that early in the archaeological record? Archaeology doesn’t take sides on the issue of biblical chronology. It simply lays out the evidence is there any other evidence that suggests that Merenptah knew he was talking about the post united monarch state of Israel?
The opening line on this stanza is, “The Princes are prostrate, saying: “Mercy!” When did Israel have its own Princes? It was after the division at the end of King Rehoboam first year. Jeroboam, who had escaped Solomon’s anger fled to Egypt, had returned, and was made king of Israel at that time.
Surprisingly the evidence is rich in placing the nation of nomadic Israelites into this time frame. Only the insistence that ancient scholars were right in placing Exodus in the 18th dynasty keeps us from seeing the evidence archaeology simply revels.
When we correctly align chronology with scripture the false debates such as is the word Israel really mentioned in this Stele? Become emphatic denials of ancient knowledge before the enthronement of modern man understanding of ancient times.
Source Cited
Finegan, Jack. Handbook of Biblical Chronology. Rev. ed. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999. Sec. 415 pgs. 241—242. Print.
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Shaking The Ground of Bible Chronology 