Israel is Wasted Its seed is no more!

The History of the Hebrew ancestors of the Jews is very very murkey. Its so murkey that its even the Jew haters an opening to declare the pre 9th century BCE null and void, Any excuse to deny the Jews their place in history brings the shiver of excitement to the Jew haters, whether they be western Nazis or Islamists. It began with the book, the Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. In summing up decades of Israel archaeology, they could not find much evidence of the Exodus, Joshua, Kings David and Solomon. Anti-Semites cried with great glee the Bible is bogus. Although many of these very same anti-semites are scripture quoting automatons.

Silberman and Finklestein could discover no evidence of any journey of the Hebrews from Egypt. The time scale for Joshua's conquest of Cana'an could not be found. Either the burned cities were too early in the Bronze Age or much later in the Israelite kingdom.

They theorized with much supporting evidence than Hebrews were revolutionaries that overthrew the Cana'anite upper classes. They fled to Judea and Samaria to live simple yet free lives with a personal relation to God. One God.The first evidence of advanced civilization appear in Samaria as the Kingdom of Israel. By the In short time it grew powerful with megalithic buildings and palaces. The evidence supports this and supports that once destroyed by the Assyrian Empire the small virtually non-existant Kingdom of Judah replaced it. Just before or just after this destruction work was done on writing the most important piece of literature in Western civilization-The Old Testment of the Bible. Considering that much of the Bible is verified after the 8th century; its very likely that the older material is based on some facts. The cosmpolitan nature of King Josiahs Kingdom contrasts to the village existence 100 years previously.

Silberman and Finketein theorize the David was more a Robin Hood figure than a great king. Ditto with Solomon.

There is no evidence for Kingdoms just confederations of tribes.

But military historians point to the undeniable war stategies placed in real locales in Israel having to do with the war campaigns of Joshua, the Judges Gideon, Deborah, Samson, David and his son. Strategies from the Bible were followed in World war Two resulting is allied victories. So there was a realness here

To silence the OT deniers there is tiny bits of evidence. Theres the Ipuwer Papyrus which indicates a great upheaveal in Egyptian society about the same time as The megavolcano at Thera exploded. Excavations on Crete have shown that the megavolcano nearly destroyed the Minoan seafaring civilization by tsumami! So its easy to see tsumamis wreaking havoc and deluging the Nile Delta. The 10 plagues recited every Passover can be explained by the effects of such a catatastrophe, Canadian Jewish filmaker, Simcha Jacobovici, has made it one of his largest projects to prove the Exodus. He take on it includes another exodus of Hebrews to Mycenae. Where he feels the Ark of the Covenant ended up. Supporting this is a letter wrtitten decades after Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East. Its from King Arius of Sparta to the High Priest Onias of Judeaindicating a common ancestry. from the Avatar filmaker James Cameron has worked on this with Jacobovici. Explaining the Pillars of Fire/Light other have theorized that Mr Sinai was a volcano in whats now Saudi Arabia. Possible land bridges crossing the Red Sea have been found at the Eilat side of the Gulf of Aqaba and across the straits of Tiran as well.Josephus points to the origin of the Jews with the Semitic invasions of the Hyksos that lasted 300 years and may have ended in a great exodus.And Egyptian historian Manetho mentions two Exoduses One involving the Hyksos. The other one has been linked to a possible exile of monotheist Pharoah Akhenaten after an overthrow. This might explain the Hebraic one god Concept as developed from Akhenaten ong god aton Concept. This was all very circumstantal.

WHo was Moses? Was he the brother of Ahmose? Was he Akhenaten? Or was he the brother of Ahmose mentioned in the Ipuwer Papyrus? Or possibly an exiled Hyksos monarch. We dont know at this point. To say the Exodus was fiction is a little premature considering the leads. The Exodus is certianly not proven but neither has it been disproven like Joshua's conquests. When Greeks visited Judea after Alexander took the area from Darius they remarked the how obsessed the Judeans were with this ancient figure Moshe. Considering the the names of Egyptian Pharoahs, Ahmose, Tutmose, (Tothmoses), Rameses (Ramoses). Kmose (Kamoses) all around the era of a possible Hebrew or Hyksos emigration, was it a coincidence about Moses?

 And notice the bank place before the name Moses. A space possibly indicating belief in an invisible God. Its similar to depictions of the Ark of Covenant, where the two angels or sphinxes towards an empty space representing that invisible deity.

OT deniers suffered at setback when a stelae was found in Tel Dan in Northern Israel. This inscribed stone celebrated the King of Syria or Arams victory of the Houses of Israel and David. Notice it was David and not Judah. So David was such an impressive figure that his name preempted the name of Judah.

Another stelae from the same period celebrates the King of Moab's victory over the Kingdoms of Omri (Israel) and David (Judah). You might be able to infer that so dominating were the Hebrew kingdoms that stelae comemmorating setbacks were important to ther enemies.So however insignificant Judah was it was a frequent ally or it dominating neighbor. And for some reason despite the clashes they did have Judah was never conqured despites it Rhode Island size to Israel.

The most dramatic evidence of Israel emerging out of the murkiness is the Merneptah stelas. The Pharoah mentions a list of nations he defeated starting with the most powerful Libyans. The Libyans were allies of the mysterious combination of Seafaring nations, the Sea Peoples.

That particular age was marked by the end of the use of bronze which was the whole purpose of the Sea trade with the use of iron. That brought in land empires like Egypt later on. The Sea Peoples included Greek peoples and Semitic peoples. The Egyptians were the only nation to survive thise age of anarchy as the Hittite Empire crmbled and the coast of Cana'an was depopulated with survivors moving inland where the Hebrews later emerged.

One Sea People the Egyptians soundly defeated was the Peleshet. They forced the invaders to settle in Gaza and became the Phillistines associated with the Isrealites wars and David and Goliath.

The Merneptah document of stone was of a series of wars between two greater wars the Egyptians barely won against the Sea peoples confederation.

Before the Sea People wars nomads called Habiru had tormented the ruler of a pre-Hebrew Jebusite Jerusalem, so that he pleaded for help from the Pharoah. The Pharoah had evidented picked him as a local vassal.This was documented by the Armana letters dated to Akhenaten's reign.

Was there some connection to Biblical rulers like Priest-King Melchizedek?

The King of (Jeru)Salem who was very personally involved with the patriarch Abraham.Abraham is dated to an earlier Bronze age period coinciding with Hyksos domination of Egypt

Merneptah mentions many large to small victories. The defeated are Cana'an, Ashkelon (the Phillistines), Gezer and Israel. Thery arent referred to as a country but as a people. Silberman and Finklestein think that Israel was most likely nomadic or semi-nomadic people as indcated by their settlements resembled a circle of wagons turned into stone houses.

The people of Israel's defeat in 1208-9 bce is described as "Israel is laid waste, its seed is no more". There is even a heiroglyph of Merneptah metaphorically whipping his enemy. It practically sounds genocidal but it was common for the Pharoah to exaggerate because it enhanced his standing back in Memphis.   Much like the Palestinians and Arabs do today.What I find particularly striking is that Israels first mention, despite being a congomeration of nomads, is the declaration of their destruction. This theme of utter destruction was repeated by Haddad of Aram (Syria) Mesha of Moab, The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Seleucid Syrian Greeks, the Romans (twice), Crusaders, Kingdom of Spain, the Cossacks, The Russian Empire, Nazi Germany and manmy Jew haters on the internet today. Thats 3000 years of unfulfilled promises of extermination.

No people or country can match that resistance to obliteration.