[Article] An Earlier Historical Reference to Israel?

The Biblical Archaeological Society just published an article where two Biblical scholars claim to have found a reference to the ancient peoples of Israel predating the Merneptah Stele by at least 200 years.

But a new publication by Egyptologists and Biblical scholars Manfred Görg, Peter van der Veen and Christoffer Theis suggests that there may be an even earlier reference to Israel in the Egyptian record. Manfred Görg discovered a broken statue pedestal containing hieroglyphic name-rings in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin and, after studying it with colleagues Peter van der Veen and Christoffer Theis, they suggest that one of the name-rings should be read as “Israel.”

More information can be found at the BAS website.