(Posted by Michael J.

Caba)

This month’s

artifact is an engraved slab of granite that is more than ten feet tall. It was

discovered in 1896 in Western Thebes, Egypt by Sir Flinders Petrie and it

contains the oldest* certain reference to “Israel” outside of the Bible. It is commonly

referred to as the Merneptah Stela and the text was carved c. 1210 BC in

hieroglyphs under the auspices of Pharaoh Merneptah. It is now located in

the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the word “Israel” is in the

darkened section in the second line from the bottom that can be seen more

clearly by clicking on the photo to enlarge it.

The wording on the stela is hymnic in

nature and recounts the military exploits of Pharaoh Merneptah, especially

against the Libyans. Indeed, of the 28 lines of inscribed text, 23 deal with

the Libyan conflict. It is only in the later part of the inscription that

Israel is mentioned, and in this regard the Israelites are referred to with the

language designating them as an ethnic group instead of a settled nation state.

This description is fully in line with the Biblical portrayal of the Israelites

during the era of the Judges, which represents them as a people group lacking in central leadership

and without a capital city.

(Photo:

BiblePlaces.com. Significant resource for further study: The Context of Scripture, Volume 2, page 40-41.)