Comments on: Does the Merneptah Stele Contain the First Mention of Israel?

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 16:56:19 +0000

In reply to David Madison. Amen!!

By: David Madison

David Madison — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:25:20 +0000

In reply to Walt. Walt, your definition of schizophrenia is not one that any psychiatrist would recognise. Schizophrenia is not a belief in supernatural beings. Belief in supernatural beings is found in all cultures. It is normal, not pathological. If you are going to promote your atheism, at least try to do it in a sensible way.

By: Khalied Sedeek

Khalied Sedeek — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 11:39:44 +0000

In reply to vince. The word in the Tablet of Merenptah ,doesn't mention the word Isreal at all ,It is Is rear !! The Pharaoh in the Bible suppose to be dead drowning in the Sea .Merenptah Mummy is in the Second floor of the Egyptian Museum In Cairo ,no salt traces (Which would show if there were any) ....The Tablet also talks about the 5th Year of his reign ,which therefore indicates he is still alive brag about his victories out of his 11 years of reign .The More suggested one is to be Ahomse (Perhaps) who has a broken Tablet in the Museum (In the store room ) Talks about incidents very similar to the 10 Plagues !!!

By: Andrew J. Shanks

Andrew J. Shanks — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 14:41:36 +0000

In reply to Marc Pilossof. The Bible chronology gives an Exodus date of 1446 BC. If the Bible chronology is matched up with the High Chronology for the 18th dynasty of Egypt then it becomes clear that the pharaoh of the Exodus was Amenhotep II. According to the Bible just before the Exodus there died a pharaoh who had reigned for at least 35 years. This fits Thutmose III who reigned 54 years; after Thutmose III came Amenhotep II.

By: Andrew J. Shanks

Andrew J. Shanks — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 14:30:46 +0000

In reply to Walter R. Mattfeld. Walter, I don't know where you get the idea Kenneth Kitchen and Hoffmeier think the Exodus was 600 years before the building of the Temple by Solomon. Both of them believe the Exodus was about 1250 BC, and both of them believe the Temple began to be built about 968 BC.

By: Walt

Walt — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 23:31:31 +0000

Articles like these only go to show how dangerous, in every way imaginable, is to have people suffering from schizophrenia (belief in a supernatural being abov one’s head/sholuder, with whom one communicates) really is.

By: Marc

Marc — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 23:53:03 +0000

I try not to be abrupt on websites like this, but commentators like Vince and Malcolm know not what they speak of, at the very least. At worst they are trying to foist upon the rest of us figments of their own imaginations. Malcolm especially imagines parallels between known Egyptian personages and established biblical heavy hitters that are assertions of a radically overheated mind.
Back to the original point:
Exact translation of Merneptah’s stele:
Canaan is captive with all woe. Ashkalon is conquered, Gezer seized, Yanoam made nonexistent; Israel is wasted, bare of seed. Khor is become a widow for Egypt. All who roamed have been subdued”, etc. This is from “Ancient Egyptian Literature” by Miriam Lichtheim, Univ. of California Press, 1976

By: Marc Pilossof

Marc Pilossof — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 02:40:25 +0000

When Flinders Petrie discovered this stele in the late 19th Century he, as well as every other linguist specializing in hieroglyphs, knew the glyph deciphered IN CONTEXT means Israel. The glyph does not read NORTH! If you have a political or religious stance that clouds your judgement, do not comment on purely linguistic/ scientific matters! We will never know the identity of the specific Pharaoh mentioned in Exodus. The Freudian theory has Moses as the Egyptian born High Priest of Aten under Akhenaten. Upon Akhenaten’s death in 1335 BC, this Moses and his followers escape Amarna/Thebes and spend 40 years among the Midianites who worship Yahweh- a mountain god among many lesser gods. Moses, the Egyptian, introduces them to monotheism in the form of Atenism, that many generations later, is absorbed by the Yahweh cult, turning Yahweh into YHWH who is none other than Adonai or Elohim the singular Creator of the Universe.
Ever visit the Cairo Museum? The Merneptah stele is referred to as the Israel stele by the Egyptian guide!

By: vince

vince — Tue, 26 Dec 2017 15:41:28 +0000

the word isra el is Egyptian for northearn and nothing more

By: Walter R. Mattfeld

Walter R. Mattfeld — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 22:14:39 +0000

Some scholars, citing 1 Kings 6:1, opt for an Exodus circa 1446 BC. However, two Egyptologists, Kenneth Kitchen and James Hoffmeier, have noted that almost 600 years elapsed from the Exodus to Solomon’s Temple, not 480 years (1 Kings 6:1). This aligns the Exodus with the Hyksos Expulsion under Pharaoh Ahmoses I, founder of the 18th Dynasty. Manetho, an Egyptian historian, said the Hyksos fled Egypt for Jerusalem. The hill country of Canaan circa Iron I explodes with 300 new settlements, believed to be Israel settling the land under Joshua. How to account for the Hyksos Expulsion being recast as Israel’s Exodus? The answer is Judges 3:5-6, which sttaes after the conquest of Canaan Israel married Canaanites and worshiped their gods. If this be so, then Iron I Canaanites, descendants of the expelled Hyksos, passed on to their Israelite sons and daughters of Iron II traditions of their ancestors removal from Egypt, to Canaan.
If the 300 Iron I villages are Israel settling in Canaan and Transjordan, are they coming from Egypt or elsewhere? Abraham and family are portrayed entering Canaan and Transjordan in a Philistine world. Rameses III mentions the Philistine conquest of Canaan and their attempt to conquer Egypt. He defeats them circa 1174 BC. So, Israel (Abraham) is entering Canaan circa 1174 BC or later? Abraham is a Iron Age I patriarch, not of 2000 BC as portrayed in the Bible. He is of Harran and of Ur of the Chaldees. If so, then the Iron I pottery should resemble Syrian forms of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I times. For more info visit my website, http://www.bibleorigins.net