Available here. and makes mention of Israel. Renowned British archaeologist Flinders Petrie discovered this two-meter-tall, … That makes the alternative reading "Jezreel" less likely – though Hebrew "s" and "z" could both be represented by the same Egyptian letter; also, since "Jezreel" is partly made up of the word for "seed", the inscription could be a pun by a Semitic speaking scribe. This reasoning, along with its implications for what it means for understanding the relevant biblical narratives, remains the same today. T he Merneptah Stele (or Israel Stele) is an engraved stone slab which describes Pharaoh Merneptah’s military victories in 1207 b.c. ↩, Flinders Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes, 1896 (London, 1897), 28. like the sun every day.13. Commonly called the Merneptah Stele, it was uncovered in 1896 by an English pioneer in Egyptology, Sir Flinders Petrie, who considered it his most important discovery because of its connection to the Bible. One of these was the Temple of Merneptah (or “Merenptah” as he used to be referred to as) – for the sake of any who’ve toured Egypt, it’s behind (north-west of) the Colossi of Memnon. ", J. K. Hoffmeier, "The Egyptian Origins of Israel: Recent Developments in Historiography", in Thomas E. Levy, Thomas Schneider, William H.C. Propp (eds. The thing is, it’s probably not that clear cut. The Merneptah Stele is significant to biblical archaeologists because it is the earliest extra-biblical reference to the nation of Israel yet to be discovered. All lands together—they are in peace. Israel and Judah. 1212-1202 BC. You’re not paying me for this. 5, No. It's definitely a magnificent specimen from the ancient past. Petrie in 1896. The Merneptah Stele is an important archaeological discovery because the name “Israel” appears in the Stele. I didn't realize it was so big until I stood in front of it. And Dever’s not alone in this. New York: Blackwell", "The Battle Of Kadesh: Identifying New Kingdom Polities, Places, And Peoples In Canaan And Syria", "Bitter lives: Israel in and out of Egypt", "Israel in Canaan. while Hatti is pacified. Pharaohs Ramsès II and Merneptah used this sentence when talking about the exiled Akhenaton’s followers, forced to quit Egypt. The people of Israel is laid waste,— their crops are not, The Stele of Merneptah (1220-1210 BC) Age of the Patriarchs Description: Under the winged sun disc stands the god Amon in double representation. The Merneptah Stele is different to other Stele, in that it mentions and claims victory over a people called Israel. 3523–27, The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. IV. The point is clear: if Merneptah felt that defeating Israel was as big a deal as defeating the mighty cities of Ashkelon and Gezer, then “Israel” wasn’t an insignificant entity. The stele itself depicts Amon-Re giving Merneptah a sword for his divinely sanctioned military campaign (Pritchard, 1950, 376). The most significant feature of the monument is that it is possibly the earliest extrabiblical attestation to ancient Israel.The poetic section containing the reference to Israel reads: "The (foreign) cheiftans lie prostrate, saying 'Peace.' The monument was found where it had once stood in ancient Egypt, at the temple that honored Pharaoh Merneptah. Those who went about While the Bible does not mention Pharaoh Merneptah or his campaign, the Merneptah Stele has great biblical significance. Merneptah’s 2012. ↩, “The Merneptah stele refers to Israel as a group of people already living in Canaan.” Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed (Free Press, 2001), 60. (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005), 94. This I have not yet looked over as it can only be seen a few inches from one’s nose as one lies under the stone; but I must copy it soon.10. As we’ve already mentioned, “Israel” appears in the final section of the Stele, a section which records Merneptah’s campaign in Canaan – fictional or otherwise.28 That helps pin down the area in which Israel, people or place, must have been located – somewhere in the southern Levant. In these three instances, the sign is that for “three hills,” signifying lands outside the Nile Valley and the Delta. For six hours the bowmen massacred the foe, after which the latter’s chief fled, and the Egyptian chariotry and infantry routed the demoralized enemy. ‘One of the knottiest problems in the archaeology of metal sources.’, © 2021 Biblical Historical Context. The 13th son of his long-lived father, Ramses II, Merneptah was nearing 60 years of age at his accession in about 1213. That makes it hard to demonstrate a one-to-one correspondence between Merneptah’s Israel and those who settled the Canaanite highlands. (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006), 206. The significance of this discovery is its connection with these events and its mention of King David as the founder of the southern kingdom of Judah. ↩, Flinders Petrie, “Egypt and Israel,” The Contemporary Review, May 1896, 624. Heliopolis There are difficulties with each option5: 1. Of significance to Biblical studies is a short section at the end of the poem describing a campaign to Canaan by Merneptah in the first few years of his reign, ca. The Merneptah Stele—also known as the Israel Stele or Victory Stele of Merneptah—is an inscription by the Ancient Egyptian king Merneptah (1213 BC-1203 BC), which appears on the reverse side of a granite stele erected by the king Amenhotep III.It was discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1896 at Thebes.. Despite these variations in opinion on the validity of the inscriptions historical significance, the Merneptah Stele does suggest some interesting details about … * The ancient Egyptian inscription dates to about 1205 B.C.E. On the opposite bank is the Temple of Karnak, where the fragmentary copy was found. villages recently brought to light by archaeology are located precisely [in the central hill country]?31. The Merneptah Stele is an ancient slab of granite etched with the conquests of the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah. Various archaeologists have proposed various options, but there’s no consensus on the matter. The Merneptah Stele is an important archaeological discovery because the name "Israel" appears in the Stele. The stele that he had commissioned was inscribed on the back of an existing stele, and this contributed to why it was not discovered until 1896 AD [1]. “Ceramics, Ethnicity, and the Question of Israel’s Origin.”. Miller makes the same point: The Merneptah Stele is direct positive evidence that the term “Israel” was used for some entity in the highlands of Palestine in the parlance of Late Bronze IIb sources.29. are subdued by the king of Upper and Lower Egypt … Merneptah.15. Israel is wasted, its seed is not; Merenptah Stele (Israel Stele): mirror image of the main part of the inscription. Merneptah, king of Egypt (reigned 1213–04 bc) who successfully defended Egypt against a serious invasion from Libya. At the present time, scholars are wary of seeking historically accurate information in such triumphal poetry; hence one would hesitate to treat the poem as firm evidence for an Asiatic campaign of Merneptah.” Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume II: The New Kingdom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973–), 73. Recently the Berlin Pedestal has been proposed to have an older mention of Israel. Perhaps Merneptah was symbolically stating, that he had regained that control, lost over a hundred years earlier? Also, in unrelated but relatively recent Matthew Flinders news… ↩, Let the record show that back when I was 13 years old I delivered the Yorkshire Post on my paper round – a short career that came to a sudden and abrupt end after sleeping in and missing my round. The southern Negev, according to other New Kingdom Egyptian texts was never conquered, nor did it need to be. Canaan is plundered, Available here. Not one lifts his head among the Nine Bows. ↩, “…the way Israel is introduced is different from the preceding place names, Canaan, Askalon, Gezer, and Yano’am. Or something. Some of Flinders Petrie’s notebooks are publicly available; here’s a transcript of what he wrote on the stele’s discovery where he mentions this small space: …Then on the other side of this great stele Merenptah has cut a long inscription of his own. Tell el-Ratabah 3. THE MERNEPTAH Stele is believed by some to contain the first written record of Israel, which a biblical scholar has said proves the Israelites occupied the ancient lands of Canaan. 296 (1994): 51. It also describes a separate campaign in Canaan, which was then part of Egypt’s imperial possessions. Israel in the Merneptah Stela* MICHAEL G. HASEL Department of Near Eastern Studies University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85716 The name Israel in the Merneptah stela of ca. It would be absurd for Egypt to attach during the life of Joshua. ↩, Tags: Date of death: 1202 BC. The Merneptah Stele. In our next post we’ll take a look at what one particular Israelite tribe can tell us about Israelite Origins…, A very grainy photo of the Merneptah Stele from Petrie’s Six Temples at Thebes entitled, “Black Granite Stele of Merenptah PL. Quite the statement. The stele is of importance for its mention of “Israel”. Miller explains this better than I can: …it makes no difference what the Iron I highlanders called themselves: they were the direct antecedents of Iron II Israel and, thus, “Proto-Israel.” There is direct continuity from the Iron I highlands to Iron II Israel and Judah in pottery, settlements, architecture, burial customs, and metals… So whatever the Iron I highlanders called themselves, by their continuity with Iron II they were nevertheless “those elements that were not yet Israel, but which went into or led up to the creation of Israel” (Thompson 1987:33). Renowned British archaeologist Flinders Petrie discovered this two-meter-tall, … The inscriptions are put down on a ten foot high piece of black granite. It was a great victory in which the Libyans and Sea Peoples lost nearly 9,400 men. the Israelites had no clearly defined political capital city, but were distributed over a region.17. Conquest, ↩, “All Egyptologists are agreed that the names of Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yanoam refer to city-states in Canaan, as shown by the fact that the Egyptian scribe has attached to these what is called a “determinative sign,” that is, a sign that specifies what the place is. One line mentions Israel: "Israel is laid … As the stela mentions just one line about Israel, it is difficult for scholars to draw a substantial amount of information about what "Israel" means in this stela. Spiegelberg wasted no time and published his transcription the same year.12 Here’s the pertinent bit, found on line 27 of the inscription: The mention of Israel comes almost at the end of the stele in a list of places and towns Merneptah had fought. ↩, Robert D. Miller II, Chieftains of the Highland Clans: A History of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries B.C. “Dating the Emergence of Historical Israel in Light of Recent Developments in Egyptian Chronology.”, This page was last edited on 28 March 2021, at 18:00. Elsewhere Flinders Petrie wrote that the destruction and looting Menreptah had inflicted on his predecessor Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple was, …as bad as anything ever done by Turk or Pope…7. First, the Israelites “were already calling themselves Israel in about 1211 to 1209 B.C.E.” [18] This is significant for dating the arrival of Israel into the land of Canaan. Available here. Spend a moment with one of the best-selling books of all time with The Book from Museum of the Bible. Libya is captured, Finding out that biblical ‘hail’ was actually ‘ice and fire mixed together’, which is actually ash blobs. This is the first time the name "Israel" appears outside the Old Testament. It … Israelite-Origins, But the name Israel is followed by a different sign… which refers… to an ethnic group… The determinative sign in the Egyptian text is a gentilic, that is, one designating a specific people, and it is in the plural.” William G. Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? Merneptah Tomb Facts: Tomb number = KV8. The discussion of the significance of Israel in the Merneptah stela revolves around the meaning of two words: “Israel” and “seed.” A number of possibilities have been suggested, as summarized by Hasel. Powered by. 1207 B.c. e. The stele itself is dated to the year 1205 b.c.e. The Merneptah Stele was thought for over a century to be the oldest and only mention of Israel in ancient Egypt. Israel alone is determined by the hieroglyphic sign for ‘foreign people’ something that may be taken as an indication of a different status of Israel in comparison to the other names on the inscription.” Niels Peter Lemche, The Israelites in History and Tradition (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 36-37. This scenario is in complete agreement with the picture portrayed in the books of Joshua and Judges, viz. The stela does point out that Israel, at this stage, refers to a people since a hieroglyphicdeterminative for "country" is absent regarding Israel (whereas th… Flinders Petrie had the ground below the stele shovelled out creating a small space to crawl into. ↩, Robert D. Miller II, Chieftains of the Highland Clans: A History of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries B.C. Yenoam is brought to nought, This ninth-century B.C. In the 1970s Frank Yurco announced that some reliefs at Karnak which had been thought to depict events in the reign of Ramesses II, Merenptah's father, in fact belonged to Merenptah. The text itself is dated by most analysts as c. 1209/1208 bc in the Conventional Egyptian Chronology (CEC). Within archaeological and historical circles, this stele also became known as the "Israel stele." The Merneptah Stele is famous for its inscription by the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah (1213 to 1203 BC) and was discovered in 1896 at Thebes. ↩, William G. Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? It indicates that they were seen as a worthy opponent, sufficient to be mentioned in the annals of a great king’s military victories. XIII.”, William Flinders Petrie, Seventy Years in Archaeology (New York, 1932), 172. ↩, Flinders Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes, 1896 (London, 1897), 13. The Israel Stela also known as the Merneptah Stele is a slab of rock which was found in 1896 at Thebes, Egypt. Yet since the Merneptah Stele records that the name of this community, or at least part of it, was Israel, once archaeology has established the continuity to Iron II, there is no reason to retain the prefix “Proto-.”32. 1210 BC. corner of the first court. The Merneptah Stele is an ancient record by an Egyptian pharaoh, Merneptah, documenting his war with the Libyans and the successes and/or failures from it. * The ancient Egyptian inscription dates to about 1205 B.C.E. A few weeks earlier Flinders Petrie had been in Egypt, excavating temples in Thebes on Luxor’s west bank over the winter of 1895-1896. This is the first time the name “Israel” appears outside the Old Testament. News of the stele caused a sensation. It had evidently stood against the south wall in the corner, and been overthrown forwards. Available here. The Merneptah Stele is an enticing inscription by the Ancient Egyptian king Merneptah discovered in 1896 at Thebes by Flinders Petrie. and makes mention of Israel. The text glorifies King Merneptah’s victories over the Libyans and their Sea People allies. The Merneptah Stele is an ancient slab of rock describing the many conquests of the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah. c.1200 AD, Israelite settlements appear in the archaeological record of Canaan, conspicuously lacking pig bones, implying that basic Biblical … Pretty much any scholar writing about the stele makes this point. The Merneptah Stele is one of the many external archeological evidence corroborating the historical events in the Bible and the existence of Israel / Jews in the Holy Land. Every one who roamed about ↩, “The determinative that is used to describe Israel as a ‘people’ does not suggest a disorganized body but rather one so pervasive as to occupy the entire interior of the hill country.” Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel, Second Edition. The stele was found in Merenptah's funerary chapel in Thebes, the ancient Egyptian capital on the west bank of the Nile. It is not impossible that Merneptah did battle with the few people who were living in the hills at that time. ", Shanks, Herschel. Artefacts, The Merneptah Stele is a 7-foot stone slab with Egyptian hieroglyphics inscriptions dating back to Pharaoh Merneptah (c. 1230 B.C.) For a summary of many of the issues and a sensible conclusion see Michael G. Hasel, “Israel in the Merneptah Stela,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (November), no. The four reliefs show the capture of three cities, one of them labelled as Ashkelon; Yurco suggested that the other two were Geze… As disappointed with Merneptah’s temple as Flinders Petrie was, the discovery of the Stele was the highlight of the expedition. New translation of line 27 of the Merneptah Stele with highlighted punctuation (rectangles). The Significance of Israel's Name in the Merneptah Stele A number of ironclad statements can be drawn from the fact that the Merneptah Stele makes reference to Israel. Given the fact that the purpose of the stele is to celebrate the great accomplishments of Pharaoh Merneptah—the most powerful man in the world at the time—the fact that he mentionsIsraelat all is significant. Available here. British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1903 AD. ↩, Flinders Petrie, Seventy Years in Archaeology (New York, 1932), 172. It was found face down, …in the S.W. Petrie explained this in an 1896 article as follows: That the name here is that of the people Israel, and not of the city Jezreel, is shown by the writing of it with s and not z, and by its being expressly a “people” unlike the other names here, which are those of “places.”16. All lands united themselves in peace. Merneptah Stele. (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006), 204–206. There’s one problem with all this: the Israelite Settlement Pattern we went through in the previous post didn’t begin until maybe 50-70 years after Merneptah’s mention of Israel. The contents of the Tomb were completely stolen by Tombs thieves. Flinders Petrie was not impressed by what he found: Though the end of his reign was peaceful enough Merneptah ruled during the beginning of the Late Bronze Age collapse and he suffered the first … However, Dever’s response to this sort of argument is pretty strong: Is it merely a coincidence that most of the 13th–12th century B.C. ↩, William G. Dever, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? How to say Merneptah Stele in English? Where in the beginning the king had been lauded as the victor who freed Egypt from the Libyan menace, the concluding poem extols him as victor over all of Egypt’s neighbors, especially the peoples of Palestine and Syria. The Merneptah Stele is an ancient slab of rock describing the many conquests of the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah. Merneptah was the son of Ramses II. T he Merneptah Stele (or Israel Stele) is an engraved stone slab which describes Pharaoh Merneptah’s military victories in 1207 b.c. The problem lies with its location: no one knows where it is. Merneptah, however, unleashed his archers against them, while his infantry and chariotry held fast. It … 1210 BC. (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005), 2. Commonly called the Merneptah Stele, it was uncovered in 1896 by an English pioneer in Egyptology, Sir Flinders Petrie, who considered it his most important discovery because of its connection to the Bible. pp. ↩, Flinders Petrie, Seventy Years in Archaeology (New York, 1932), 171. I have demonstrated that “iisii-r-iar” is in fact an egyptian sentence meaning: those exiled because of their sin. ↩, Flinders Petrie, “Egypt and Israel,” The Contemporary Review, May 1896, 619. Tell el-Maskhuta 2. Israelite Settlement Pattern we went through in the previous post, A critical assessment of the scientific explanation for the Ten Plagues in “The Exodus Decoded” – Plague 7: Hail, Continuing our critical assessment of the scientific explanation for the ten plagues in “The Exodus Decoded” – Plagues 2 to 6, A critical assessment of the scientific explanation for the Ten Plagues in “The Exodus Decoded” – Lake Nyos and the First Plague, From Cornwall to Canaan: Locating the Southern Levant’s Late Bronze Age Source of Tin, Galilee, being the northern part of Canaan, was under Egyptian control. ↩, “The final portion of the text is a twelve-line poem of praise which complements the initial encomium. 1997. It would have been a short and one-sided battle! ↩, “Poetic lines on this monument mention the conquest of the cities Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yenoam, as well as of Israel, which appears here (as a name of a tribe) for the first and only time in Egyptian sources.” Amihai Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible 10,000-586 B.C.E. Since the discovery of the Merneptah Stele, a considerable amount of noise has been made about the fact that its mention of “Israel”, in contrast to Canaan, Ashkelon, Gezer, Yenoam, and Hurru, is given the people determinative instead of the place determinative. Ancient-Conquest-Accounts, and Hurru is become a widow because of Egypt. The king is also shown twice, standing before the god with a sickle sword in one hand and a scepter in the other. Merneptah Stele pronunciation with meanings, synonyms, antonyms, translations, sentences and more BIO King Merneptah BIO King Merneptah: Mortuary Temple of Merenptah is considered one of the most important monuments that King Merneptah built during his reign in the Pharaonic civilization. Only two days after his lecture, readers of the Yorkshire Post3 were given the highlights by the journalist who’d attended Flinders Petrie’s lecture: The first mention of the “Children of Israel” discovered upon any monument of ancient Egypt has been brought to light as one of the results of the recent labours of Professor Flinders Petrie… this mention is quite brief, but perfectly clear.4. I suspect, however, that Israel was part of the lowland population.30. ↩, Sidney Smith, Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. The Merneptah Stele is an ancient slab of rock describing the many conquests of the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah. These powerful videos will deliver the history, narrative, and impact of … Israel is an established nation in Canaan. against the Libyans, and, eventually a campaign to Canaan by which a group of people named Israel would have been destroyed. Israelite-Settlement, Merneptah Tomb Facts Merneptah Tomb Map & Design: Tomb contains a long passage of 160 meters to the royal burial chamber. It was discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1896 at Thebes. Some refer to the stone as the \"Victory Stele\" because it records the military campaigns and victories of Pharaoh Merneptah, the son of the mighty Ramesses II who reigned in Egypt around 1215 BC., du… Toward the end of his father’s reign, Egypt’s military That much is easy. The stele itself was eventually transferred to Cairo's Egyptian Museum, where it … What can the stele tell us about Israel? Taken is Gezer, Tell el-Maskhuta was not occupied after the Middle Kingdom … The Stele is in honour of Pharaoh Mer-ne-Ptah Hotep-hir-Maat Son of Re: The Bull lord of strength, slaying his foes, the king of upper and lower Egypt. Tomb is carved into the rocks of the mountain in the Valley of the Kings. We can get closer to the intended meaning by … The Merneptah Stele - also known as the Israel Stele or the Victory Stele of Merneptah - is an inscription by the ancient Egyptian king Merneptah (reign: 1213 to 1203 BC) discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1896 at Thebes, and now housed in the Egyptian Muse The text glorifies King Merneptah’s victories over the Libyans and their Sea People allies. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 175. The stele describes the military campaign undertaken in 1207 B.C. The determinatives should not be overread for “what they say about Israel.”25. It also describes a separate campaign in Canaan, which was then part of Egypt’s imperial possessions. The Merneptah Stele The significance of the text to the topic of Israelite Origins should be obvious: If the Egyptians bumped into a people called “Israel” somewhere in Canaan, the Israelites must have already finished their wilderness wandering and arrived in Canaan, giving us the absolute latest date that the Israelites could have arrived in Canaan. The Merneptah Stele—also known as the Israel Stele or Victory Stele of Merneptah—is an inscription by the Ancient Egyptian king Merneptah (reign: 1213 to 1203 BC) discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1896 at Thebes, and now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. ", Miller, Robert D. 2004.