The Early History of Israel Part One
Introduction
In the Bible Unearthed, by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, it is shown that many of the origin stories of Israel are myths unsupported by archeological evidence. The developments of Source Criticism by scholars like Julius Wellhausen and Richard Elliot Friedman, have demonstrated that the common interpretations of Biblical text don’t reflect the ideas of the Bible’s original authors. Works like The Bible Unearthed and Friedman’s, Who wrote the Bible?, show that the books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) and Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1Kings, and 2 Kings) were wrote during the time of the kings of Judah and Israel and reflect more their own time than the period they propose to describe. The Bible can’t been seen then as a reliable witness to the events it describes, as Finkelstein says in the Bible Unearthed, “The biblical stories should thus be regarded as a national mythology with no more historical basis than the Homeric saga of Odysseus’s travels or Virgil’s saga of Aeneas’s founding of Rome”. Keeping all this in mind, we who have grown up and studied these tales though our lives wonder, if this is so then “Who are the Israelites?”, “What was the Exodus?” “Who is YHWH?”, and “When was the Bible written?”. In the following essays I will share some of my ideas on these topics.
Who are the Israelites?
Israel is a Hebrew word meaning “fight with El” or “El prevails” .[1] Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Canaanite group. It is specifically southern Canaanite with Moabite, while Phoenician is a northern Canaanite language. Its closely related to Aramaic and south central Arabic.[2] El is Canaanite deity common thought the middle east. His name is often used to mean generically, a god.[3] Often it was a specific deity, a sky god who reigned from a heavenly mountain over his son the storms and his wife the Earth. The Babylonians worshiped this god under the name Enlil, “lord wind”. In Arabia he was called Al’Lah.
In Genesis 32: 29 E source[4], El renames Jacob, the ancestor of the tribes of Israel, to Israel because, “you’ve struggled with God and with people and were able.” Now it seems odd that a group of people would name themselves for fighting God (My teams name is Beat Down Jesus!), and I think it’s more likely that fighting with God on our side is implied here. The first mention of this name in known history is in a victory monument for Ramses II son Merneptah. Dates vary for the reigns of Egyptian kings. Quite frankly I haven’t picked a favorite, so I’ll give broad range based on several sources for the monument, c. 1220 to 1208 BC with 1207 being most supported.[5]
The monument (called a stele) refers to Merneptah defeating a number of cities and peoples in Canaan. Israel is designated as a people as opposed to a nation, implying that Merneptah considered them to be nomadic or at least not controlling the territory they lived on. While Merneptah boast that he has eliminated Israel, obviously he exaggerated his claims.[6] How much he exaggerated is not known, but the Bible records no battles between Egypt and Israel in the pre-monarchy period. The Merneptah Stele tells us that a people called Israel existed in Canaan at this time but had not yet taken control of any major settlements. The timing of the conflict with Israel coincides with a transformation in the settlements of the central highlands of Canaan.
As explained in The Bible Unearthed periods of Egyptian strength over Canaan tend to result in the use of the highlands for nomadic herding. During down turns in international trade the nomads have to focus on procuring their own grains and create farming settlements. During Merneptah’s reign the stability of the wider world was being undermined. The twelfth century witnessed the collapse of the Hittite empire and Mycenaean civilization.[7] We can speculate that proceeding these collapses may have been a decline in international trade. Already, during the reign of Ramses II (c.1304-1237), Egypt battled pirates who would later be found among the infamous Sea People[8]. As trade declined communities would have became less specialized and more self-sufficient. Around 1200 BC new settlements were created in the highlands between Jerusalem and Shechem. Land, that evidence points to having been used as pasturage, was being tilled for crops. Circular tent camps were replaced with house arranged in the old nomads pattern. As the economy declined far ranging nomad settled down to farm on limited land.
For four hundred years before, the highland was occupied by pastoral nomads called Shosu or Hapiru by the Egyptians.[9] These were fairly generic words meaning “moving on foot” and outlaw, , respectively.[10] The name was applied to a broad range of people but it is likely that Israel had its origins in peoples who were referred to as being Hapiru. Hapiru would have been a Canaanite equivalent of the term “hillbilly” for Appalachian rural mountain dwellers. Linguist are still undecided if the word Hebrew is related to Hapiru but it seems likely that early Israelites would have been called Hapirus by their detractors. The term has a long pedigree and broad usage. It turns up in sources as far away as Ur in southern Mesopotamia and as far back as 2100 BC.[11] In a telling window onto pre-Israelite Shechem, the Amarna Letters of Egypt (c. 1417-1362)[12]contain the correspondences from Canaanite princes to Egypt requesting help to fight Hapiru. Also found are the details of the career of Labayu, ruler of Shechem, who fights using Hapiru troops, against the rulers of Jerusalem and Megiddo.[13]
Was there an Israel at this time? Possibly there was a band of Hapiru fighting under that name. Its likely that different bands of mercenaries and brigands fought under tribal names and these were just to minor to be mentioned in sources, they were just “terrorist”. On the other hand none of the events or personalities of the period are recorded in the Bible, so Israel may not of remembered this period or felt that they took no part in it. But it demonstrates the restlessness of the region, and how, in a time of weakness, bandits in the hills and desert fringes were ready to take on the urban elites of Canaan.
From the time of Amosis (c.1570-1546) until Ramses II (c.1304-1237 or 1279-1213)[14] there was no such weakness in Canaan. Ramses II routinely traversed Canaan in his early years, a feat that precludes any states in opposition to Egyptian rule. As the great king grew older , the situation begins to change. Evidence suggest that two major cities in Canaan were destroyed after Ramses II death or in the decade or two before. Hazor and Bethel were burned in the late thirteenth century (1250-1201)[15]. Aphek can reliably be dated for destruction around 1230.[16] From this point on more and more cities in Canaan are burned and Egypt’s reach grew shorter. Lachish is destroyed between 1184 and 1153. Megiddo has evidence of lasting until the reign of Ramses VI in the late twelfth century (1150-1101)[17]. Archeology doesn’t tell us who destroyed these cities, but Hazor, Bethel, Lachish, and Aphek were claimed to be the work of Joshua and Israel by Biblical writers.
Destroyed Cities
Jericho: c.1560 BC
Ai: c.2650-2350 BC
Aphek: c.1230 BC
Hazor: c.1225 BC
Bethel: c.1225 BC
Lachish: c.1184-1153 BC
Megiddo: c.1150-1101 BC
# [1]http://net.bible.org/strong.php?id=03478
# [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew
#[3] http://net.bible.org/dictionary.php?word=el
# [4]E source is the Elohim book of the Torah according to the Documentary Hypothesis. It is suspected of being composed by those sympathetic to the Northern Israeli kingdom. Other major sources are the J source, for Jehovah, sympathetic to Judah, P source, by the priest of Judah, and D, by the writer of Deuteronomy. Opinions differ somewhat on which particular verses belong to which source, but there is a broad consensus on most passages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis
[10]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapiru
http://unixware.mscc.huji.ac.il/~hatsor/hazor.html
[17]Negev 196
[19] Negev 21,22
[12] Negev p. 378-379
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labayu
The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, edited by Avraham Negev, Prentice Hall Press, New York 1990 p. 182 c. 1220 BC
[14] Negev 417, dates vary for Egyptian kings from source to source, so all dates are approximate. See
[7]A history of Ancient Greece, Nancy Demand, McGraw Hill, Boston, 1996 p.72
