LECTURE 3: In Search of the Bible’s Earliest Traditions
In this lecture, we will explore the earliest stories and songs in the Bible, which were passed on orally for centuries. What was the Bible before it was written? Who sang the songs and told the stories? We will see what we can figure out about Israel’s beginnings from these traditions—and how these traditions would shape the peoples who created the Bible.
Around 1208 B.C.E., the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah erected a ten-foot (three-meter) granite slab with an inscription on it. This kind of commemorative inscription is sometimes called a “stele” or “stela.” On his stele, he boasted of his recent military victories. Most of the inscription is focused on his successes over the Libyans, but the last three lines mention victories over various Canaanite groups and cities, including Ashkelon, Gezer—and Israel. This was the earliest known reference to a people group called “Israel.” The stele was discovered in 1896 in Thebes and is currently housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Image from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo