The Merneptah Stele
A people called Israel existed in Canaan by about 1208 BC — named by a hostile Egyptian king with no interest in flattering them.
Citado fora da BíbliaInscriçãoc. 1208 BC
A black granite victory stele of the pharaoh Merneptah. Its closing lines list places and peoples defeated in Canaan — Ashkelon, Gezer, Yanoam — and among them "Israel", written with the hieroglyphic marker for a people rather than a settled city-state. It is the earliest known mention of Israel anywhere outside the Bible.
Israel is laid waste, his seed is not.
- Encontrado
- Merneptah's mortuary temple, Thebes, Egypt, 1896 — W. M. Flinders Petrie
- Conservado em
- Egyptian Museum, Cairo (JE 31408)
- Língua
- Egyptian (hieroglyphic)
- Como chegou até nós
- Escavado, ou ainda de pé onde foi construído.
O que mostra
The reading "Israel" is near-universally accepted. What the stele does not tell us is Israel's size, origin or organisation; those remain debated.
Como os historiadores o usam
Standard fixed point in the archaeology of Late Bronze Age Canaan, cited in secular handbooks as the terminus ante quem for Israel's presence in the land.
Na Escritura
Ligado a
Fontes
Por enquanto estes textos estão em inglês. As traduções virão.