Egypt plays a central role throughout the Bible, and particularly in the foundational narratives of Joseph, the Israelite enslavement, and the Exodus of the Israelites. With the influence these narratives have on the shaping of not only of Judaism and the Jewish people, but on western culture and religion as a whole, one would expect to find ample evidence for the existence of Israel in Egypt during the Bronze Age. Yet, despite the centrality of these events, there is no direct evidence outside of the Bible to support the existence of Israel in Egypt.

However, as has often been noted, the absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. There is much that is absent from the historical record in Egypt. Furthermore, there is actually indirect support for the existence of Semitic peoples and influence in Egypt during the Bronze Age that may or may not corroborate the accounts recorded in the biblical text. This indirect support includes the Amarna letters, Tale of Two Brothers, Papyrus Harris, Beni Hassan tomb, Karnak reliefs, possibly the stele of Ramesses II, and various scarabs and inscriptions.

Although this evidence does not directly support the accounts recorded in the Biblical text, they do help establish credence for some historical details that may have been retained in the collective memory of Israel and later recorded in the Biblical accounts.[1]

EGYPTIAN EVIDENCE FOR ISRAEL

The issue of direct evidence all changes by Iron Age I, when the Israelites (or proto-Israelites)[2] are already settling in Canaan.

During this period we begin to find direct archaeological evidence for the existence of a particular people group, the early Israelites, in the central Judean hills, and the development of a uniquely ‘proto-Israelite’ material culture;[3] which includes enclosed settlements with ‘Four Roomed Houses,’ collared rimed pottery, hewn cisterns, terraced farming, and other material culture in addition to a unique ideology.

This is important because it establishes the reality of a people known as the Israelites in Canaan by the 1200’s BCE. Furthermore, cultures do not crop up overnight. So if one can find direct evidence for Israel in Iron I, it is quite plausible to assume the existence of the Israelites at least back into the Late Bronze Age.

MERNEPTAH STELE

The earliest and most direct reference we have to Israel outside the biblical narrative is the Victory Stele of the 19^th Dynasty Egyptian king Merneptah.[4] Also known as the “Israel Stele,” it was erected in Thebes around 1210 BCE and records the victorious exploits of an Egyptian military campaign in Canaan, and lists specific enemies that were defeated. The Merneptah Stele is a black granite slab over 7.5 feet high,[5] and was discovered in 1896 in an expedition led by early archaeologist, Sir William Flinders Petrie. The particularly relevant portion of the Stele reads:

Plundered is Canaan with every evil;

Carried off is Ashkelon; seized upon is Gezer;

Yanoam is made as that which does not exist;

Israel is laid waste, his seed is not;

Hurru is become a widow for Egypt!

All lands together, they are pacified.[6]

Whether the events described are fictive or real, what is clear is that by the 13^th century BCE, a people called Israel existed, and that the king of Egypt not only knew about them, but felt it was worth boasting about their defeat.[7]

Additionally, the specific way Israel is mentioned is also significant. According to Hershel Shanks, “Unpronounced signs, called determinatives, attached to the place names in this section of the stele indicate that Ashkelon, Gezer and Yonoam were cities and that Canaan was a foreign land; the determinative for Israel, however, indicates that the term referred to a people rather than a place.”[8]

Archaeologist William Dever further explains[9] that the existence of the Merneptah Stele is of extreme importance and tells us four things:

1. By 1210 BCE there existed in Canaan a cultural and political entity called “Israel” that was known to the Egyptians by that name.
2. Israel was well enough established to be perceived as a threat.
3. This Israel did not comprise of an organized state like others in Canaan, but was considered a loosely affiliated people group.
4. Israel was not located in the lowlands, but in the more remote central hill region.

In summary, the Merneptah Stele contains a wealth of information, and is the earliest evidence we have outside the Bible for the existence of a people known as Israel in the 13^th century BCE.

In May of 1893, while clearing collapsed debris from a room overlooking the ancient ruins of Nippur, a group of Kaffej workmen made a startling discovery. Buried beneath the rubble they discovered a number of clay tablets.[1] The excavators quickly worked to clear the debris and within a few hours recovered a total of seven hundred and thirty tablets buried beneath layers of rubble.

The location had once been used as a business archive by the wealthy and influential Murashu family of Nippur who lived in the 5^th Century B.C.E. – during the reigns of the Persian kings Artexerxes I and Darius II (coinciding with the Biblical account of Ezra and Nehemiah).

Although not commonly known about, the Murashu archive provides invaluable information for multiple areas of study, including the History of Ancient Finance and Commerce, Biblical Studies, Linguistics, Paleography, Onomastics, Archaeology, and more.

An Interesting Twist

The bulk of the inscriptions, aside from a usual cylinder seal impression here and there, are in Cuneiform - similar to other Near Eastern Archives. Yet many of the tablets bear a second inscription or endorsement - a paleo-form of Aramaic - a Semitic and alphabetic language that would eventually replace Cuneiform as the Lingua Franca of the ancient world.

The Paleography of the texts reveals the development of the Cuneiform script – becoming more simplified and abbreviated over time (degeneration).[2] With the simplification of the Cuneiform, we simultaneously witness the development of Aramaic.

Additionally, we see a large number of foreign names and titles introduced into the Babylonian sources. The bulk of “borrowed” words are Semitic in origin due to a growing number of West-Semitic peoples introduced to the Nippur Region.

Jewish Exiles and Biblically Influenced Names

According to Michael David Coogan:

Names [containing] –yaw do not occur in Neo-Babylonian sources before the [Israelite] Exile, and their increasing frequency in the late sixth and fifth centuries can reasonably be associated with the gradual emancipation and increased prosperity of Judean exiles in Mesopotamia.[3]

A large number of these Jewish exiles were carried away by Nebuchadnezzar and settled in the region of Nippur. In fact, an unusually large number of Jewish names known from the Hebrew Bible (especially from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah), eventually find their way into Cuneiform texts and inscriptions, including the Murashu archive.

The prophet Ezekiel also mentions in multiple places “the community of the exiles by the Chebar Canal (for example, see Ezek. 1:1)”

These references suggest that the growing number of Jewish exiles began to hold positions of prestige, and conducted business like everyone else. Some references seem to support that a few Jews may even have amassed great wealth which would support the Biblical claim to large contributions of silver, gold and precious goods towards the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem (see Ezra 1:5-6 and 2: 68-69).

Despite the distance of time and space, these clay tablets still speak of a story long forgotten. For within the Murashu archive is a wealth of knowledge. Despite their having been recovered now for over 100 years, much work is still to be done. Further study needs to be carried out on the texts, those that produced them, and their influence for us today. Indeed, William Goetzmann of Yale University was on to something when he connected the Murashu archive to that “of a modern mystery full of intrigue.”[4]