On the Historicity of the Exodus: What Egyptology Today Can Contribute to Assessing the Biblical Account of the Sojourn in Egypt

Bietak, Manfred

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-04768-3_2

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…It is considered among the oldest sources in the Bible (e.g., Stager 1989), probably close in time to the first occurrence of the ethnic entity "Israel" in Cana'an, first on the often 12 On the Exodus see, e.g., 43 articles in Levy et al (2015), each with ample references. 13 E.g., Bietak (1987Bietak ( ), (2015; Hoffmeier (1997); Kitchen (Kitchen 1998); Shupak (2011); B. Sparks (2015); Rendsburg (2015); Schneider (2015); Römer (2015, 48-50).…”

Section: The Desert's Role In the Formation Of Early Israelmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Desert’s Role in the Formation of Early Israel and the Origin of Yhwh

Avner¹

2021

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The origin of ancient Israel has been questioned and intensively discussed for almost two centuries by many researchers, from two main schools of thought. One believes the early Israelites came from outside the Land of Cana‘an and conquered it, while the other believes they rose from within Cana‘an, forming a new polity and culture. Scholars are likewise divided whether the Israelite God, Yhwh, originated from the Near Eastern cultural environment or from the desert. A multitude of studies has been dedicated to these two themes, usually separately. This article attempts to examine the connection between the two through several themes: desert roots in the culture of ancient Israel, the origin of Yhwh, Asiatics in Sinai and the Negev, desert tribes and the copper industry, the location of biblical Paran, Nabataean data from Sinai which illuminate biblical issues, and others. By including materials which were previously underutilized or overlooked, these themes may be integrated to form a reasonable scenario of a chapter in the history of early Israel.

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