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Here I Stood: Merneptah Stele (Cairo)

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In our visit to Egypt in 1997, we were able to visit the museum in Cairo housing the King Tut exhibit and other wonderful artifacts of Egyptian history. Of course, Egypt is very much involved in the history of Israel, intersecting it at many points. Sceptics have been quick to point out that there are no references found in Egypt that would document their captivity there as is recorded in the books of Genesis and Exodus.





However, the sceptics are wrong. In the museum is an interesting stele that mentions the Hebrews, but from an Egyptian point of view. Great nations have a tendency to interpret events unfavorable to them in a different light. That situation obtains today as well as in the ancient world, and it is certainly true of the Egyptians. They would be quite reluctant to admit that their great army was unable to prevent a tribe of slaves from escaping them, depriving them of their workforce. It would be a shameful event indeed.


Thus, the interpretation was that the Egyptians had themselves driven these slaves out, even though it would be strange to find a motive. They called them Haburi, but clearly they were referring to Hebrews. Biblical scholars have questioned which king was ruling at the time of the Exodus. It would seem that the great Rameses II was the king who oppressed the Hebrews into abject slavery, and it was his successor, Merneptah who was the king of the exodus. (Pharaoh, a biblical term for Egyptian rulers, is actually derived from Hebrew words meaning “Big house”, because from the Hebrew perspective the king lived in a big house.)


Thus, the stele brags that King Merneptah had driven out the Haburi! I saw the concrete evidence of the presence of Hebrews in Egypt in the thirteenth century BC and documentation of the historicity of the Exodus!



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