Dating the Birth of Israel: ca. 1500 or 1200 BCE ? Gerard GERTOUX

The land of Israel appeared after the conquest of Canaan and according to the Bible, which states that 480 years elapsed between the Exodus and Solomon’s 4th year (1Kings 6:1) when he began to build the temple (around 1000 BCE), this conquest had to occur around 1500 BCE. As the very name “Israel” appears for the first time in the Israel Stele (dated ca. 1200 BCE), archaeologists claim that from 1500 to 1200 BCE, called the “period of the Judges”, Canaan was in fact a set of small Canaanite kingdoms vassals of Egypt and, consequently, Israel did not exist at that time! So there is a major contradiction between the biblical account, which would be a myth according to archaeologists, and historical interpretation derived from few archaeological remains. The chronological examination of that period shows that archaeological interpretations are baseless and are just a modern version of story-telling for adults. There are five datable synchronisms between Egypt and Canaan over the period 1500-1200 BCE: 1) sudden collapse of the Hyksos Dynasties when Pharaoh Seqenre Taa died in c. 1533 BCE after his last meeting with Moses, 2) Jericho and Hazor are burnt by Joshua in c. 1493 BCE then sudden emergence of Shasu “Bedouins” in Canaan, 3) King of Hazor Jabin II and the ruler Sisera died in c. 1347 BCE when the ‘Apiru’s war occurred (‘Apiru means “factious”), 4) War of Seti I against Amurru (defeated by Gideon) in c. 1294 BCE, 5) Askelon is taken and “Israel is laid waste” according to the Merenptah stele dated c. 1211 BCE (after Judge Jair’s death).