About a month ago I posted the first part
of my thesis' first proof. This first proof is that of historical right -
essentially proving through history that the Jews are Israel's legitimate
owners. In my latest post I outlined history's general summary of Jews in
Israel - in this post I will attempt to back that up with archaeological
evidence, upon which huge importance is placed in today's scientific,
rationalistic world. This research was very rewarding, because it's important
to know that tangible proof of our ownership exists. Enjoy :)
The Jews’ historical presence in Israel
is not only found in the records of the past, but embodied in physical objects
of today, such as jewelry, writings, art, furniture, buildings and so forth. As
historian Andrea Berlin said, archaeologists view physical remains as cultural
data. For many, items such as money or pottery serve as factual evidence that
something or someone once existed where it was found. Monuments and artifacts
that have stood the test of time transport us back into history in order to see
characteristics of previous cultures, to ponder their ideas and thoughts - even
to discover new civilizations. Physical remains exist as proof to our pragmatic
eyes that lands were settled, nations were born, wars were fought and ancient
communities lived and worked in modern territories. It is simple to discard the
Torah and claim that the Jews never existed in the Holy Land – that their
presence was conjured up by pro-Israel fanatics seeking to discredit the Arabs.
But it is not so easy to dismiss shards of Hebrew pottery found in the south of
Jerusalem dating back 3,000 years ago, nor artifacts found inside the Temple
Mount and Old City of David from 1000 BCE.
The evidence of the Jews’ existence
reaches even further back into the past than David, however. According to the
Torah, Joseph lived in Egypt for 93 years serving the Pharaoh. Historical
evidence supports this account also - “Imhotep (2655-2600 BCE, Egyptian
ii-m-hatāp meaning "the one who comes in peace") was an Egyptian
polymath, who served under the Third Dynasty king, Djoser, as chancellor to the
pharaoh … He is considered to be the first architect and engineer and physician
in early history… The Upper Egyptian Famine Stela, dating from the Ptolemaic
period, bears an inscription containing a legend about a famine of seven years
during the reign of Djoser. Imhotep is credited with having been instrumental
in ending it.” (Wikipedia, Imhotep) The similarities between the historical
Imhotep and the Biblical Joseph are too vast to be ignored – according to
history, both were physicians, architects, and overseers; moreover, both lived
to be 110 years of age, married into the priesthood of On, interpreted dreams,
instituted a tax of one-fifth, and came from families of twelve. (Were Joseph
and Imhotep the Same Man? The Genesis of Israel and Egypt, by Emmet Sweeney,
2001,2nd Edition)
From
Joseph’s family, who later joined him in Egypt, emerged the numerous Jewish
people, a nation fathered by Joseph and his eleven brothers, the Twelve Tribes
of Israel. According to the Torah, the Jews remained in Egypt in the small
region of Goshen for 430 years after Joseph. Extraneous evidence supports this
fact as well – for instance the details of Egyptian life given in the Torah are
surprisingly consistent with the historical culture of the time: “If the
Israelites did not spend time in Egypt, it is unclear how the author of Genesis
and Exodus would have known enough to so accurately describe Egyptian… customs…
In the Joseph narrative, when the author mentions the titles of the Egyptian
officials, he employs the correct title in use and exactly as it was used in
the period referred to….In Genesis 41:40 Pharoah elevates Joseph to a high
position, which corresponds precisely to the office of prime minister or vizier
of Egypt, who was the chief administrator in the country, second in power to
Pharaoh himself.” (Quartz Hill School of Theology, Israel’s Sojourn in Eyypt.)
A papyrus scroll in the Brooklyn Museum
dating from the reign of Sobekhotep III (the pharaoh who reigned one generation
before Moses) was acquired in the late 1800s by Charles Wilbour. It is a decree
by the pharaoh for a transfer of slaves, half of which are Semitic in origin.
(Did the Exodus Happen? Answering the Skeptics, by Dr. David Lewis) A city
called Avaris, unearthed by the Austrian archaeologist Manfred Bietak in the
land of Goshen underneath the city of Rameses, provides additional proof of the
Israelites’ presence in Egypt; “The people who lived in Avaris were not
Egyptian but Asiatic Palestinian or Syrian. The finds there included numerous
pottery fragments of Palestinian origin. Several factors about the graves were
particularly fascinating: - 65% of the burials were of children under 18 months
of age, the norm for this period being 20-30%. Could this be due to the killing
of the male Israelite children by the Egyptians, recorded in Exodus 1:22?” (Did
the Exodus Happen? Answering the Skeptics, by Dr. David Lewis, John Fulton)
If the Jews’ presence in Egypt can thus
be so conclusively proved through archaeology, it must follow that the
subsequent Exodus and conquest of Canaan recorded in the Torah is also true.
The Egyptian historian Manetho recounts how Egypt collapsed in the reign of
Dudimose: ‘In [Dudimose’s] reign, for what cause I know not, a blast of God
smote us; and unexpectedly, from the regions of the East, invaders of obscure
race marched in confidence of victory against our land (Egypt). [These were the
Amalakites, or “Hyksos,” as they came to be called.] By main force they easily
seized it without striking a blow and having overpowered the rulers of the
land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly… and treated all our natives with
cruel hostility, massacring some and leading into slavery the wives and
children of others.” The Amalekite invaders thus found the Egyptian nation,
devastated by Divine judgment, easy prey.
A papyrus dating from the end of Egypt’s
Middle Kingdom was found in the early 19th century and interpreted by A.H.
Gardiner in 1909. “The papyrus describes violent upheavals in Egypt,
starvation, drought, escape of slaves (with the wealth of the Egyptians), and
death throughout the land. The papyrus was written by an Egyptian named Ipuwer
and appears to be an eyewitness account of the effects of the Exodus plagues
from the perspective of an average Egyptian.” (The Ten Plagues – Live from
Egypt by Rabbi Mordechai Becher, Ohr Samayach) Some suggestive phrases found in
this papyrus are, “Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere….The
river is blood… Men shrink from tasting and thirst after …All is ruin. All
animals, their hearts weep. Cattle moan... The land is without light… the
children of princes are cast out in the street… he who places his brother in
the ground is everywhere. It is groaning throughout the land, mingled with
lamentations… Gold and lapis lazuli, silver and malachite, carnelian and
bronze… are fastened on the necks of female slaves….” These events correspond
exactly to the ones recorded in the Torah – the plagues of blood, cattle
disease, darkness, death of the firstborn, and the plunder of the Egyptians.
After
their departure from Egypt, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40
years. They conquered Canaan around 1250 BCE under their leader Joshua. They
established their presence and remained in this land until the Babylonian exile
in 598 BCE.
If the Jews’ own proof were not enough,
and one still found oneself in need of external sources to be convinced, other
ancient cultures testify to the presence of Jews in Israel. The Tel Dan Stele
is an inscribed stone discovered in 1993 during excavations at Tel Dan in
northern Israel dates back to the 9th century BCE - its author was a king of
Damascus, Hazaelor, and it contains an Aramaic inscription commemorating
victories over local ancient peoples including "Israel" and the
"House of David." The Mesha Stele from around the same period is
similar, written by King Mesha of the Moabites. “Revisionists insist there was
no such entity as "Israel" until at least the 9th century BCE. Yet a
well known Egyptian inscription dated to about 1210 BCE clearly identifies an
Israel in the land of Canaan as a people that had to be reckoned with. The
inscription, which depicts the victories of Pharaoh Merneptah in Canaan, reads
in part: ‘Israel is laid waste, his seed is no more.’” (Archaeology and the
Bible, pt.2, by Rabbi Dovid Lichtman, aish.com) Thus the presence of Jews in
the land of Canaan, conquered by them under Joshua, is not only confirmed by
their own history recorded in the Torah, but by extraneous evidence from other
contemporary cultures.
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