The Merneptah Stele is the reverse of a stela erected by Amenhotep III written by Merneptah. The stele was made to commemorate a victory in a campaign against the Libyans, but a short portion of the text is devoted to a campaign in the Levant. It is also known as the "Israel stela", as it is the first—and only—Egyptian document to mention "Israel", thus becoming the first known documentation of Israel. It was discovered at his mortuary temple at Thebes and now sits in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, but a copy of the Stele was also found at Karnak. It stands some ten feet tall, and its text is mainly a prose report with a poetic finish, mirroring other Egyptian New Kingdom steles at the time.
Because of the fact it mentions "Israel" and is the first known record of "Israel" in history, the stele has gained some fame. Some scholars have dubbed it the "Israel stela" because of this, however, this title is an erroneous one, as the stele is clearly not about Israel at all. In fact, the stele contains only one line about Israel—"Israel is wasted, bare of seed"—and very little about the region of Palestine as a whole, as Merneptah inserts just a single stanza to the Canaanite campaigns and multiple stanzas to his defeat of the Libyans.
There are two debates by scholars surrounding the details of the Stele. For one, there is disagreement over whether or not Merneptah actually did campaign in Canaan and didn't just merely recount what was there, mirroring later Assyrian documents that could never admit that Assyria could lose. This argument holds some weight, as a stele by Merneptah's predecessor, Ramesses II about the Battle of Qadesh, indicates firm control of the Levant, making it strange that Merneptah had to reconquer it—unless Merneptah had in fact lost it. On the flip side, if taken literally, Merneptah may have faced a revolt that he crushed, meaning that regardless Merneptah's rule over Caanan was most likely precarious at best.
The other debate surrounds "Israel". As the stele mentions just one line about Israel it is difficult for scholars to draw any information at all about Israel. The stele does point out that Israel, at this stage, refers to a people since a determinative for "country" is absent regarding Israel (whereas the other areas had a determinative for "country" applied to them). However, after that there is not much else that can be drawn about Israel at this time. A theory by Donald Redford states that "Israel" was a band of Bedouin-like wanderers known to Egyptians as "Shasu". Redford notes that among the Shasu in a 15th century BC list is one labelled "Yhw- in the land of the Shasu", thus providing a possible explanation for the origin of Israel. As far as what "Israel" became after that, there is little that can be drawn. The next extra-Biblical source about Israel, detailing a campaign against Moab by Omri, appears some 300 years later in the Mesha Stele, and Biblically-speaking, the 200 years between the Stele and the foundation of the Kingdom of Israel by Saul in c.1000 BC are treated in a rather cursory manner, leaving much in the air over how Israel became a kingdom. Regardless, the Stele becomes an important source for Israelite history simply because it is the first official record in history of an "Israel", even if this record does not explain much.
References
- Donald Redford, "Egypt, Caanan and Israel in Ancient Times"
- David Noel Freedman, "The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 'Merneptah'"
- Miriam Lictheim, "Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume II: The New Kingdom"
- James Pritchard, ed., "Ancient Near East Texts"
- George Arthur Buttrick, ed. "The Interpreter's Dictionary of The Bible, Vol. 3"
