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the history of Israel is a history of defeat and the response to defeat

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most concretely, the military and political catastrophe in which the states of Isreal and Judah were destroyed by Assyrians and Babylonians

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Israel (9th century BC - 722 BC)

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fell to Neo-Assyrian Empire

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Judah (8th century BC - 586 BC)

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was client-state of Assyria, then Babylon

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revolt again Neo-Babylonian Empire led to its destruction

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after Babylon fell to King Cyrus, some returned to Jerusalem

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the writing that became the Bible emerged from five successive empires:

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1. Assyrians

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2. Babylonians

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3. Persians

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4. Hellenistic Rulers

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5. Roman Empire

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Assyrian and Babylonian empires deported the kings of Israel and Judah, the royal families, the elites of the palace

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replaced them with their own governments, so now you didn't have a local government, but one that reported externally

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territories of Israel and Judah were transformed into provinces

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this brought about profound changes in economics, demographics, family lives, language, religion

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this situation left people asking:

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who are we?

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where do we go?

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Israel's origins

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first historical reference to Israel outside the Bible

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19th century BC: Execration texts

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texts which mention important towns in Canaan which would become Israel

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during Egypt's 12th dynasty

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on pottery shards

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on figurines

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names of enemy places were written on pottery and then it was destroyed

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one supposedly mentioned a town that some say became Jerusalem

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the context is important: curses calling for the defeat of these places and their inhabitants

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The Amarna Letters

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most important source of what was happening in Canaan in pre-Israel and pre-Judah times

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discovered by local Egyptians in 1887

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on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan

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The correspondence spans a period of at most thirty years

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discovered by Sir Flinders Petrie

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excavated these letters

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pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and preservation of artifacts

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developed the system of dating layers based on pottery and ceramic findings

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correspondence between rulers in Middle East with ruling Egypt

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kings also wrote epistles back and forth to their town leaders in Canaan

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these leaders wrote details about competitions with leaders in neighboring towns

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Merneptah Stele [STEL-ah]

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discovered by Sir Flinders Petrie

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a large stone with writing

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named after King Merneptah

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an account of his military campaigns

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last three lines are a military campaign in Canaan

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"...Israel is wasted, bare of seed, all who roamed have been subdued, by the King of Upper and Lower Egypt..."

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in heiroglyphs, Ashkelon, Gezer and Yanoam have a determinative marker, three sticks and three mountains, which is used before cities

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Israel, however, has the three lines but not the three mountains

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this determinative appears before foreign peoples who are typically nomadic rather than urban

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so Israel is being referred to as a people without an urban center

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we are told that Israel is defeated

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the word for defeated could refer to Israel's crops or its biological seed

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either way, it meant that the Egyptian king had destroyed their means of survival

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the location of Israel is revealed from the Merneptah Stele as likely to be in the southern Levant, but not more detailed

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but they could have been in the Transjordan, now modern Jordan

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the Mernepta Stele is significant because

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1. the name of Isreal is mentioned for the first time (1200 BC) outside the Bible

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2. referred to Israel as a non-urban population, not yet a state

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3. the first reference to Israel is that it has been defeated, it's "seed is no longer"