Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 02/07/2006 16:05, Yigal Levin wrote:
> > ...
>
> While the Merneptah stele (which is usually now dated to c. 1207 BCE) is 
> certainly significant, it does NOT really "prove" any of the biblical story. 
> It speaks of the Pharaoh "destroying" Israel WITHIN the land of Canaan. This 
> is, of course, an exaggeration, but the text does NOT mention the Israelites 
> in Egypt or the Exodus, and the Bible makes NO mention of any battles 
> between Israelites and Egyptians within Canaan. So while the stele does 
> "prove" the existence of a people called "Israel", living within Canaan at 
> the end of the 13th century, it actually contradicts the "main line" of 
> biblical history.
>
>   
The relevant part of the Merneptah stela, according to 
http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/thera/stela.html (the first 
site I happened to find), reads
> Israel is desolated, his seed is not;
And, if I remember correctly, the hieroglyphs for "seed" include a 
determiner for agricultural produce, not for a nation. So the meaning 
would appear to be that Merneptah was claiming to have destroyed 
Israel's grain store, not to have destroyed the nation.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/