Dan Olinger

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: The Days of Abraham | Part 3: Egypt | Part 4: Canaan | Part 5: David 

After David and Solomon, civil war split the kingdom into Northern (Israel) and Southern (Judah) entities. Both kingdoms fell into idolatry; God judged Israel with exile to Assyria in 722 BC, and Judah with exile to Babylon in 3 deportations, 606, 596, and 586 BC. Archaeological finds have spoken of biblical figures and places throughout the period. 

During this time the Ancient Near East was a battleground among 3 competitors for King of the Hill: Egypt, Assyria, and (later) Babylon. During Solomon’s reign Egypt still dominated the region. When Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam toward the end of his reign, Shishak, king of Egypt, gave him asylum (1K 11.40). Later, when Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, was king, Shishak invaded Judah and besieged Jerusalem (1K 14.25; 2Ch 12.2). When the city’s residents humbled themselves and cried to God for help, he promised them deliverance (2Ch 12.7). Shishak did considerable looting, but he did not destroy the city (2Ch 12.9). 

⁶Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The Lord is righteous. ⁷And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of \ Shishak. ⁸Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. ⁹So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made (2Ch 12.6-9). 

Archaeologists have found several inscriptions mentioning a Pharaoh “Sheshonq” who reigned at this time. The most famous of these was found at a gateway called the Bubastite Portal, in Luxor, Egypt, at the Temple of Karnak. It lists the cities Sheshonq conquered in both Israel and Judah—more than 150 of them, including Megiddo, where a burn layer has been found from this period, indicating a major destruction. 

But there is no contemporaneous burn layer from Jerusalem. And the inscription does not appear to mention that city, which of course would have been the biggest prize had it been captured. 

But Megiddo? Another inscription was found there, in northern Israel, in 1925. Though little of the inscription remains, it does place Sheshonq in the area of Megiddo during the campaign described in the Bible, and consistent with the Bubastite inscription. 

One other interesting coincidence between the archaeological record of Sheshonq and the biblical account: the Bible mentions that the invading force included “the Lubim” and “the Sukkiim” (2Ch 12.3). These were from we today call Libya, to the west of Egypt and across miles of the Sahara Desert. What were they doing there? 

Well, the archaeological record shows that Sheshonq was not Egyptian, but Libyan; in fact he and his Pharaonic descendants are called “the Libyan Dynasty” by Egyptologists. 

What I find especially interesting about these coincidences, and many other similar ones, is that they’re so minor. By that I mean that they’re not the kinds of things that a later forger would insert into the biblical account to make it seem legitimate.  

Sukkiim? 

Seriously? 

As these finds and many others to come in this series robustly demonstrate, the Scripture is an accurate historical document. 

Next time: Assyria. 

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: The Days of Abraham | Part 3: Egypt | Part 4: Canaan  

What followed the invasion of Canaan was a time of loose confederation that we call “the period of the Judges.” 

Snippets from this period are recorded for us in, not surprisingly, the book of Judges. A repeated theme in that book is that “there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jdg 17.6; 18.1; 19.1; 21.25). Those days saw a regular cycle of apostasy, invasion, repentance, deliverance through a judge, and then apostasy again. 

There are a good many archaeological finds from this period—what archaeologists call the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages—but none that provide clear links to the wider “secular” history, so far as I am aware. No inscriptions naming any of the judges; no donkey jawbones with odd scratch marks. 

Given the biblical theme, we should expect that the political situation would be unstable and that yearning for a king and the resultant stability would grow—similar, I suppose, to the way the US Articles of Confederation eventuated in a robust Constitution and balanced but limited federal government. 

As we know, the first king, Saul, was a disappointment, but while he was still king, God had the prophet Samuel appoint his successor, the shepherd boy David (1S 16.12-13). David ended up reigning for 40 years, setting a standard that outshone all that followed, with the possible exception of his son Solomon. 

We have some interesting archaeology referencing David. 

Tel Dan Stele 

For more than two centuries after the rise of rationalism in the 18^th century, biblical criticism viewed the David / Solomon stories as the stuff of legends, attempts by an insignificant Levant-based tribe to legitimize its past. No historical Saul or Goliath or Bathsheba or visit of the Queen of Sheba. No wise Solomon, and no David. Legends all. 

Then, in 1993, archaeologists uncovered a paved courtyard in the northern city of Dan, which had been a worship center set up by Jeroboam I, the northern king after the split from Solomon’s son Rehoboam (1K 12.28-29). Upon turning over some of the paving stones, they found writing on the undersides. Three of the stones had been repurposed from a stele that had been broken up. The stele and inscription were ordered in the 9^th century BC, probably by Hazael, king of Syria/Damascus, in commemoration of his attack on the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. (You can understand why the memorial would have been broken up after Hazael’s dominance was over.) 

The key element in the inscription is the king’s reference to “Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of the house of David” (the phrase “the house of David” highlighted white in the photo linked above). This is the first known historical reference to David. 

In the years since its discovery, there have been arguments over details of interpretation (as there pretty much always are in archaeology), but most scholars agree that this is a reference to King David, and that he was a historical figure. 

Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone) 

Mesha was king of Moab, just east of the Dead Sea, in the mid-9^th century BC, during and just after the reigns of Jehoshaphat in Judah and Ahab in Israel. This stele, discovered in 1868, has been recognized for decades as containing the earliest historical reference to YHWH, the God of Israel. 

But after the discovery of the Tel Dan stele, scholars looked more closely at this artifact to see whether it too might contain a reference to the house (“BT”) of David (“DWD”). In “a badly damaged section” they found “BT[?]WD,” which would say that, if the damaged spot contained the letter “D.” 

Maybe, maybe not. 

(Yes, I just linked to a Wikipedia article, which is just not done in academic writing, but this article is actually pretty good.) 

So David has been rescued from the mists of legend to actual historical status. 

Ever onward. 

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: The Days of Abraham | Part 3: Egypt  

The Bible records that after the Exodus from Egypt and the Wilderness Wanderings in Sinai, Moses died before the Israelites, under Joshua’s leadership, conquered the Canaanite tribes and settled into their allotted tribal areas. 

There are a couple of archaeological sites that connect the biblical story of the conquering of Canaan with “secular” history. 

Ugarit 

Ugarit was a major city on the Mediterranean coast just north of the Phoenician capital of Tyre, in modern Syria. It was there for a long time, but most of what we know from the site is from the Bronze Age, up to about 1200 BC. Ugarit was apparently at its peak between 1500 and 1200 BC. This coincides nicely with the conquest of Canaan by Joshua and by the succeeding period of the judges. 

The site has yielded a wealth of cuneiform tablets, written in a language (“Ugaritic”) similar to Hebrew in some ways but distinct from it. These tablets describe trade and political relations across the Ancient Near East, particularly with Egypt. There’s even a letter from Merneptah (remember him?). 

But the site’s two most significant contributions to biblical studies are in religion and language. There are numerous references to Baal and Dagan, with descriptions of religious practices that illuminate the reasons that God saw the Canaanite religions as reprehensible. 

Ugaritic has also helped greatly in our understanding of Ancient Near Eastern languages. An example that I particularly like has relevance to 1 Samuel 13.21. The verse describes a problem the Israelites had with making weapons: they had to go to the Philistines to get their tools sharpened, and of course the Philistines wouldn’t sharpen any tool with a military application. 

Here the KJV says, “They had a file for the mattocks.” The Hebrew word translated “file” is pim, and nobody had any idea what it meant. Working off the context, the KJV translators guessed that the Israelites had their own tools for sharpening their farm implements. But the word pim shows up in Ugaritic: it’s a monetary value, about 2/3 of a shekel. So the verse says that the Israelites had to pay that fee for getting a tool sharpened. The modern English translations, published after the archaeological work in Ugarit, reflect that understanding. 

Deir Alla 

Deir Alla is an archaeological site on the east side of the Jordan, about midway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The site includes a wall that collapsed, likely from a tremor. We know that the area suffered a major earthquake during the reign of Jeroboam II in the mid-8th century BC (Amos 1.1), so that’s interesting. 

But what’s really interesting is that the wall contains an inscription, written in red and black ink on plaster. This inscription records “the book of Balaam, son of Beor, a seer of the gods.” 

As you might expect, the inscription is not in good shape, and there are words missing and writing that is not completely unambiguous. But the great majority of scholars, conservative and liberal, agree that this is a reference to the biblical Balaam. 

Interestingly, the inscription does not include the prophecy recorded in Numbers 23 and 24. But the inscription’s existence argues strongly for the historical existence of this prophet, and the details coordinate nicely with how the biblical account describes him. 

Next time, we’ll proceed to the time of David.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: The Days of Abraham

As we proceed through Israel’s history, we find that Abraham’s grandson Jacob, in his old age, traveled to Egypt to live under the protection of his son Joseph, who had become the pharaoh’s assistant (Gen 47.1ff). At that time only 70 of his descendants came with him (Gen 46.27), but 400 years later they numbered in the millions; at the Exodus there were just over 600,000 men of fighting age (Num 1.46), so we can estimate that there were probably 2 million Israelites including old men, women, and children.

There’s not much if any archaeological evidence of these people in either Goshen or the Sinai Peninsula. However, this is exactly what we would expect. Since we know that Goshen was prime agricultural land (Gen 47.6), the Egyptians would have moved rapidly into it after the Israelites left, obliterating whatever material culture they left behind. And in the Sinai, while initially we would think that 2 million people would leave some traces behind, we must remember that Israel was itinerant for the entire 40 years; they would have built nothing, leaving behind just firepits and latrines, which would have decomposed and disappeared quickly.

But there are archaeological findings that raise our interest. I’d like to note two of them.

Thutmose IV Dream Stele

Between the paws of the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau, near the pyramids, stands a stele—what moderns might think looks like a large vertical tombstone. But stela do not normally mark a grave; they contain an inscription typically announcing some great person or deed. This one is about 12 feet tall and was erected by Pharaoh Thutmose IV, a son of Amenhotep II.

In the inscription Thutmose describes falling asleep on that spot one hot summer day and having a dream in which a god promised him that if he would clear the sand from the Sphinx, he would become Pharaoh.

Now, this interpretation is sketchy at best, but scholars have noticed that if Thutmose was Amenhotep’s eldest son, he would already have known that he was going to be Pharaoh, and he wouldn’t have had to do any landscaping for that to happen. Something must have happened, then, to an older brother.

Thutmose took the throne in 1401, 45 years after the exodus. He reigned just 10 years, which may mean that he was relatively old when he became pharaoh—perhaps, oh, 60 or 70.—and was perhaps 20 or so when he had the dream, just before his older brother died.

Of what?

Well, there was that whole firstborn thing.

Now, caution is due here. The timing seems right, but all we have is that he was told he would be pharaoh. Everything else is speculation.

But it’s interesting timing.

Merneptah Stele

This stele was placed by Pharaoh Merneptah (or Meren-ptah), who reigned from 1213 to 1203 BC, about two centuries after Israel occupied the land of Canaan. It contains 28 lines of hieroglyphic writing, most of which describe his military campaigns in North Africa. But the last 3 lines have drawn attention, because they describe a campaign in Canaan. One of the locations is “I.si.ri.ar” or “Ysrir.” Most scholars now agree that this is a reference to Israel. This would mean, then, that Israel is established in that land 200 years after Joshua.

Side note: Most critics place the Exodus, if they believe it happened at all, in the mid-13th century BC. Conservatives date it at 1446 BC, based on 1 Kings 6.1. That’s a large topic, too big to handle here. The Merneptah inscription could accommodate either date, but I would argue that the apparent solid establishment of the nation would favor the earlier date for the conquest.

So far this is the earliest inscriptional reference to Israel we have outside the Bible. Israel is established as settled in the land in the late 13^th century BC.

As we know, Israel’s history extends far beyond this date, and as time progresses, we would expect more and more artifacts to be extant. We’ll look at some of these in future posts.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash