JS 100gp Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Merneptah Stele, Lawrence Stager, Albrecht Alt
Document Summary
The merneptah stele: first historical mention of the state of israel, pharaoh"s account of defeating israel. Where did israel come from: israel"s own account (biblical hypothesis) Abraham, isaac, jacob/israel & sons, egypt slavery, moses, exodus, Sinai covenant, 40 years in the desert, settling in canaan. Not much historical evidence to support theory. Archeological evidence corroborates battle of jericho: nomad hypothesis. States that israelites were nomadic people who lived e of jordan. River and became an agriculture group of the land. Lack of evidence: peasant revolt hypothesis. Peasant class of canaanite coastal cities, revolted against. Also lack of evidence: ruralization hypothesis. Israelites were a poor class of canaanite people who wanted to farm and ruralize the land. Yahweh: chief god of israelites (clear as soon as they emerged, prior to 1200 bce, yahweh was god of the south, 1200-1000 bce, yahweh was leader of all the gods, then became the only god.
