BBS Merneptah Stele
Introduction
What is for the most part an exact
copy of the script follows. There are a
few places where individual speakers could neither be heard nor understood: for
this we apologize. Every effort was made
to be precise: there were just spots that defeated us. Since this is a quote in its entirety it
seemed unnecessary to mark it with quotation marks. The notation for each speaker is tedious
enough: Narrator, Reader, etc. If you
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The use of the Merneptah Stele as a
starting point is misplaced. Several
other artifacts, in particular those for Enûma Eliš, should have been preferred.
The evidence that the Merneptah Stele reveals is grossly
overstated. The suppression of the
Creation, Temptation, Flood, and the like is purely opinion and presupposition;
without any statistical basis and devoid of logical warrant.
Script
The
Merneptah Stele (time 3:00)
N: Near the banks of the Nile in southern
Egypt in 1896, British archaeologist Flinders Petrie,[1] leads an excavation at
Thebes, the ancient city of the dead.
Here he unearths one of the most important discoveries in biblical
archaeology, from beneath the sand appears the corner of a royal monument
carved in stone. Dedicated in honor of
Pharaoh Merneptah, son of Ramses the Great, it became known as the Merneptah Stele.[2] Today it is in the Cairo
Museum.
Donald
Redford:[3] This stele is what the
Egyptians would have called a triumph stele, a victory stele, commemorating
victory over foreign peoples.
N:
Most of the hieroglyphic inscription celebrates Merneptah’s triumph over Libya,
his enemy to the west, but almost as an afterthought, he mentions his conquest
of people to the east[4] in just two lines.
Redford:
The text reads, “Ashkelon[5] has been brought captive,
Gezer[6] has been taken captive, Yano’am[7] (in the north Jordan
valley) has been seized, Israel[8] has been torn, its seed no
longer exists.”
N:
History proves that Pharaoh’s confident boast could be wrong. Rather than marking their annihilation,
Merneptah’s Stele announces the entrance onto the world stage of a people named
Israel.
Redford:
This is priceless evidence for the presence of an ethnical group called Israel
in the central highlands of southern Canaan.
N:
The well-established Egyptian chronology gives the date at 1208 BC. Merneptah’s Stele is powerful evidence that a
people called the Israelites are living in Canaan, what today includes Israel
and Palestine, over three thousand years ago.
Commentary
If the Babylonian Captivity is not a
proper starting point for the topic before us, neither is the Merneptah Stele
(discovery 1896). For in 1896, when
Petrie first discovers the Merneptah Stele; the Babylonian Creation Story (1800-1501, possibly 1100)[9] was already discovered by Austen
Henry Layard[10]
(1849) and published by George Smith[11] (1876). So the Merneptah Stele is neither the
chronological, or logical starting point for such a study. One Adam and Eve or Temptation cylinder seal (2200-2100)[12] was also discovered at
about the same time. Flood
legends are also widely known (Atra-Hasis:
1800-1701).[13]
Some readers will at first find the
existence of these Genesis parallels disturbing. However, they are evidence; they also support
the idea of widespread knowledge of the creation, the flood, and possibly even
the temptation. So the pagan world is in
no place to claim that they did not know.
Nor are the authors of The Bible’s Buried Secrets in any place to claim that they
did not know. For Christians, this means
that Israel is being called to witness to the world in the context of a world
that has “suppressed the truth in unrighteousness.”[14] Israel is not elected to accomplish such a
task in a vacuum. In fact Israel is not
elected to accomplish much of anything.
What Israel is elected to do is to be a witness to the accomplishments
of Yahweh.
Evidently, neither the materials
collected by the British Museum, and several other prominent museums; nor the
work of contributors, such as James
B. Pritchard[15]
were important enough for The Bible’s Buried Secrets to notice. Nor should the Amarna Letters (1350-1330) have
been neglected in this discussion.[16]
The purpose in selecting the
Merneptah Stele as the discussion starting point, other than merely heightening
the archaeological drama, is to set the stage for a false contrast with
biblical origins. The Merneptah Stele
creates the impression that no significant archaeological finds existed before
it. We have shown that such finds are
not only older, generally; but The Bible’s Buried Secrets could not have been ignorant of
them. It is this contrast that creates
the impression that the contents of Genesis cannot possibly be historic when
examined archaeologically and scientifically.
What exactly does the Merneptah
Stele actually establish concerning Israel?
“Israel is laid waste and his seed is not….”
Or, as Redford reads it:
“Israel has been torn, its seed no longer exists.”
The obvious implication is that
since Egypt has been attacking Libya,
to the west, it now concerns itself with Arabs to the east. The only (weak) indication of any residence
in the central highlands to the north is the reference to Yano’am. However, we are not at all certain of the
identity of either Yano’am or the word rendered Israel. What the Merneptah Stele actually establishes
is that a people, possibly Israelites, were attacked by Egyptians, but we
cannot know where. In other words, as Thomas
L. Thompson[17]
has showed, we learned little or nothing.
We most certainly did not learn that:
“Merneptah’s
Stele announces the entrance onto the world stage of a people named Israel.”
“This
is priceless evidence for the presence of an ethnical group called Israel in
the central highlands of southern Canaan.”
“A
people called the Israelites are living in Canaan, what today includes Israel
and Palestine, over three thousand years ago.”
Conclusion
The use of the Merneptah Stele as a
starting point is misplaced. Several
other artifacts, in particular those for Enûma Eliš, should have been preferred.
The evidence that the Merneptah Stele reveals is grossly
overstated. The suppression of the
Creation, Temptation, Flood, and the like is purely opinion and presupposition;
without any statistical basis and devoid of logical warrant.
[1] Sir
William Matthew Flinders (and Hilda. 1871-1957) Petrie (1853-1942), an English
Egyptologist, and a pioneer of
systematic methodology in archaeology and preservation of artefacts. Works: Giza (1880), Tanis (1884), Tell
Nebesheh (1886), Fayum (1887), Palestine (1890), Tell el-Hesi (1890), Tell
el-Amarna (1891, temple of Aten), Merneptah Stele (1896), Tell el-Jemmeh, Tell
el-Ajjul (1930). Petrie is also credited
with the discovery of two different metrical systems at Wadi al-Rababah
(Hinnom); yet it is not clear what these two systems are.
[2] The following translation is not identical
with that given in The Bible’s Buried Secrets.
“The princes are prostrate, saying, ‘Peace!’ Not one is raising his head among the Nine
Bows. Now that Tehenu (Libya [Nubia])
has come to ruin, Hatti is pacified; The Canaan has been plundered into every
sort of woe: Ashkelon has been overcome; Gezer has been captured; Yano’am is
made non-existent. Israel is laid waste
and his seed is not; Hurru is become a widow because of Egypt.”
Hatti most likely
refers to the Hittites or a people ruled by the Hittites. They occupied the territory of Anatolia
(Turkey), but there is growing evidence that they were a powerful and significant
political and military force in the Holy Land, and may have given Egypt
considerable trouble in the south. http://www.ancient.eu/hatti/
Hurru is ostensibly Syria/Palestine; yet, no evidence for this opinion was uncovered.
There is no
evidence from this stele for the presence of Israel in the central highlands. At most it shows that Egypt engaged an
unidentified people, with a name sounding something like Israel, at some
unknown location, in 1208.
The identification
with Israel is not without problems; yet, it fits the era perfectly. It pinpoints a time in the middle of the
period of Judges (1396-1050) during which Israel lived in great uncertainty;
finally being dominated by the Philistines.
The invasion of Egyptian raiding parties, makes perfect sense for the
period. What makes less sense is that
Egypt is not mentioned in the record of Judges.
It is possible that the Egyptian war parties never engaged Israel; or
(less likely) were mistaken for Philistines; or (more likely) are Egyptian
bombast, typical exaggerations of Egyptian prowess; or (most likely) they
describe typical raiding parties, which exert no long-term, lasting effect:
nothing more than raiding parties counting coup. As was the case with the twelve Israelite
spies, the Egyptians entered and exited Canaan largely unnoticed (Numbers
13). Thomas L. Thompson comments in Early History of the
Israelite People, pages 139, 311, 404:
“References to the
Merneptah stele are not really helpful.
This text renders for us only the earliest known usage of the name
‘Israel.’” So, “to begin the origins of
biblical Israel with Merneptah ... on the grounds that we have extra-biblical
rather than biblical attestation is willful.
These texts are, mirabile dictu, even less relevant than the
biblical traditions.”
“With the "Israel" stele we have only a name in an
historical context in which the shifting signification and dislocation of
regional and gentilic toponymy over centuries is a commonplace.”
[3] Donald B. (and Susan) Redford (1934 …), a Canadian
Egyptologist and archaeologist, professor at Pennsylvania State University. Works: Karnak, Mendes.
[4]
Israel is to the north, not to the east.
[5] Ashkelon is the ancient southern seacoast
city ruled first by Canaanites (?) and later by Philistines. It is possible that the Egyptians conquered
the Canaanites in Ashkelon during the late thirteenth century and established a
Philistine contingent there to maintain control.
However, the
equation of Ashkelon with Canaan is unlikely: for the Philistines are known in
the area from the days of Abraham (Genesis 21:32, 34). The Egyptians (Mizraim) are distinctly Hamitic, and direct
brothers of the Canaanites: so it is no mystery that Egypt is involved in
Canaanite politics and wars (Genesis 10:6).
Because of this Egypt may have been invisible in Canaan as a distinct
identity. The Philistines (Philistim) are the direct descendants of Casluhim (Genesis 10:14), and Mizraim aka Egyptians (Genesis 10:13):
so it may have been difficult to distinguish them from Canaanites or Egyptians as
well. This close familial relationship
between Canaanites, Egyptians, and Philistines may very well explain why Egypt
is not mentioned in Judges as anything other than the origin of Exodus (9
times): Judges is simply in a position to be more specific.
[6] Gezer
is located in the south-central
Shfela plains, not in the central highlands.
[7] Yano’am remains obscure and unidentified,
which is why Redford feels compelled to identify it; yet neither the name nor
the location can be verified: it rests on Redford’s opinion alone.
[8]
This is a far from certain identification.
[10] Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894)
[11] George Smith (1840-1876)
[14]
Romans 1:18
[17] Thomas
L. Thompson (1939 …)
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