The Merneptah Stele: The First Mention of "Israel" Outside the Bible
- Filhos para Jesus
- May 14
- 3 min read
The Bible speaks of Israel as a nation chosen by God, with a rich and profound history. But did this Israel really exist in ancient times? Archaeology answers with an ancient stone that echoes through the centuries: the Merneptah Stele, the oldest extra-biblical record ever found that mentions the name “Israel”. This discovery not only confirms the existence of the Hebrew people in the land of Canaan in the 13th century BC, but also raises important reflections on the historical accuracy of the Old Testament.
What is the Stele of Merneptah?
The Merneptah Stele is a massive slab of black granite over 10 feet (3 meters) high and containing about 500 lines of hieroglyphic text. It was carved by order of Pharaoh Merneptah, son of Ramesses II, who ruled Egypt from about 1213–1203 BCE.
The inscription celebrates the pharaoh’s military victories, especially in Canaan. Among the list of defeated peoples, one line stands out:
“Israel is devastated, its seed is no more.”
This phrase appears in line 27 of the stele and represents the first known mention of the name "Israel" outside the Bible, placing it as a people already established in the region of Canaan in the 13th century BC.
Discovery and current location
The stele was discovered in 1896 by archaeologist Flinders Petrie in Thebes (present-day Luxor), Egypt, in the funerary temple of Merneptah. Interestingly, it was carved on the reverse of an older stele of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which was reused by the new pharaoh — a common practice in ancient Egypt.
Today, the Merneptah Stele is preserved in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Historical and archaeological importance
What is most striking about the Merneptah Stele is that it places Israel as a people already present and recognized in Canaan by 1208 BCE, which has profound implications for the chronology of the Exodus and the conquest of the Promised Land.
Unlike the city-states listed on the stele (such as Ashkelon and Gezer), “Israel” is described with an Egyptian grammatical determinative that indicates “people” rather than “territory,” meaning that the Egyptians viewed the Israelites as an ethnic or tribal entity, not yet organized as a nation with a defined territory—which aligns with the biblical account of the Hebrews gradually entering and settling Canaan.
Connection with the Christian faith
For Christians, this stele reinforces the credibility of the Old Testament, showing that the people of Israel really existed as a distinct identity at that time. It serves as a point of contact between biblical revelation and the history documented by other ancient civilizations.
More than a simple “external confirmation,” the Merneptah Stele shows that biblical faith is anchored in historical reality, and that the God of the Bible acts in the concrete history of peoples and nations. Israel’s name is engraved in stone by its enemies—and it survived, not as a defeated people, but as part of God’s eternal plan.
The Merneptah Stele is more than a war monument—it is an archaeological landmark that proves that Israel was real, present, and active on the scene of the ancient Near East. For those who believe in Scripture, it serves as powerful evidence that biblical faith unfolds within time and history, not myth or legend. The people whose “seed was no more,” according to Pharaoh, continue to exist today—and their story lives on in the pages of the Bible and in the stones of the desert.
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