Article of the Month

A popular assertion that the nation of Israel had not existed in the land of Canaan before the 12th century B.C has long been claimed by secular historians. This assertion against the ancient claim of Israel over the land of Canaan (or Israel today) has enormous ramifications today. These being the strength of claim the Israeli people have to the land today in political arenas, and the validity of the history recorded in the Old Testament. This aforementioned claim by secular historians is fuelled by a supposed lack of historical evidence outside of the Bible regarding Israel’s occupation of the land of Canaan prior to the 12th century B.C.

This bold argument has been dismissed however by the discovery of an intriguing piece of black granite called the Merneptah Stela. This discovery was made by William Flinders Petrie in Thebes,

Egypt in 1896. As many of you will know, Petrie is regarded as the father of Egyptology and the date of this discovery shows how happily hidden any evidence supporting Biblical history is by secular historians/media.

On this piece of black granite (dated to be from c 1208 B.C), a description is made to honour the Egyptian gods and the Pharaoh’s achievements, in this instance Merneptah, the son of Ramesses II. The majority of the text details Merneptah’s successes in complete victory over the Libyans.

The stela also details other victories over differing cities and people in Canaan, including the phrase, ‘Israel is laid waste and his seed is not’. There is exaggeration here as Israel was certainly not annihilated.

Egyptologists are in agreement that out of the eight other references to conquered groups recorded on the stela, seven refer to lands whilst the eighth refers to Israel as a people group. This would indicate that whilst Israel was indeed in the land of Canaan and a significant force to be recorded by the superpower of the time (Egypt), they were not yet fully established and in full control of the land. This would fit the Biblical period of the Judges, when Israel experienced numerous oppressions by foreign enemies (due to their wickedness before God) whilst they were still establishing themselves in Canaan.

As we have seen then, the argument that Israel had not existed in Canaan before the 12th century B.C cannot be made as by 1208 B.C, the Egyptians were recording victories over them in the land of Canaan.

The immense delay in this discovery reaching people highlights how biased historians are towards anything that verifies the Bible’s historical record. However, we can be reassured that once again, history and archaeology are very much in agreement with the Bible.