The further back you go in the Biblical texts the more difficult it is to find historical material in it. The patriarchs go back to Genesis. Genesis is for the most part a compilation of myths, creation stories, things like that, and to find an historical core is very difficult. David Ilan, Hebrew Union College Jerusalem
This Stele is what the Egyptians would have called a Triumph Stele, a Victory Stele ... The text reads ... ‘Israel has been shorn. Its seed no longer exists’. Donald Redford, Pennsylvania State University
Are their stories real or merely myth? Archaeologists dig through the Bible to determine what is fact, what is fiction and whether Moses really wrote the Hebrew Bible. Is there evidence to support the exodus of the chosen people from Egypt or was the exodus really a smaller group of Canaanites who chose to be free? Nova: The Bible’s Buried Secrets 1/2, National Geographic 2008
It became known as the Merneptah Stele. Today it is in the Cairo Museum: ‘Israel has been shorn; its seed no longer exists’. ibid.
History proved the Pharaoh’s confident boast to be wrong. Rather than marking their annihilation, Merneptah’s Stele announces the entrance on to the world stage of a people named Israel. ibid.
The well-established Egyptian chronology gives the date as 1208 B.C. Merneptah’s Stele is powerful evidence that a people called the Israelites were living in Canaan in what today includes Israel and Palestine over three-thousand years ago. ibid.
Scholars search for intersections between science and scripture. The earliest is the Victory Stele of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah from 1208 B.C. Both the Stele and the Bible place a people called the Israelites in the hill country of Canaan which includes modern-day Israel and Palestine. ibid.
In the Bible no single event is mentioned more times than the Exodus ... It could not have happened before Ramesses became king around 1275 B.C. and it could not have happened after 1208 B.C. when the Stela of Pharaoh Merneptah – Ramesses II’s son – specifically locates the Israelites in Canaan ... In a hundred years of searching, archaeologists have not yet found evidence of migration that can be linked to the Exodus. ibid.
When archaeologists date the destruction of these buildings [Ai] they discover it occurred about 2,200 B.C. They date the destruction of Jericho to 1,500 B.C. And Hazor’s to about 1,250 B.C. Clearly these city-states were not destroyed at the same time. In fact of the 31 sites the Bible says that Joshua conquered, few showed any signs of war. ibid.
By dating the pottery Finkelstein discovered that before 1,200 B.C. there were approximately twenty-five settlements. He estimated the total population of those settlements to be between three and five thousand inhabitants. But just two hundred years later there’s a very sharp increase in settlements and people. ibid.
Archaeology reveals that the Israelites were themselves originally Canaanites. So why does the Bible consistently cast the Israelites as outsiders in Canaan? ... The answer may lie in their desire to forge a distinctly new identity ... If the Israelites wanted to distinguish themselves from their Canaanite past, what better way than to create a story about destroying them. ibid.
But Yahweh only appears in the Hebrew Bible. His name is nowhere to be found in Canaanite texts or stories. So where do the Israelites find their God? ibid.
But then in 1993 an amazing discovery shed new light on what the Bible calls ancient Israel’s greatest king. Gila Cook was finishing up some survey work with an assistant at Tel Dan, a Biblical site in the far north of Israel today ... But something caught her eye: a stone with what appeared to be random scratches but was actually an ancient inscription ... Cook had found a fragment of a Victory Stele ... It celebrates the conquest of Israel. It boasts: ‘I slew mighty kings who harnessed thousands of chariots and thousands of horsemen. I killed the king of the House of David’. Nova: The Bible’s Buried Secrets 2/2
So has Eilat Mazar discovered the Palace of David? She adds up the evidence: the building is huge; it is located in a prominent place in the oldest part of Jerusalem; and the pottery according to Albright’s chronology dates to the 10th century B.C. – the time of David. Mazar believes she has indeed found the palace of David. But the strength of her case rests on the outcome of dating shards of pottery. ibid.
Three monumental gates all based on the same plan would seem to be powerful evidence not only of prosperity but also of a central authority ... This stunning convergence between the Bible and Egyptian history gives a firm date for the death of Solomon ... 930 B.C. This is further evidence that David and Solomon lived in the 10th century ... Although a minority of archaeologists continue to disagree, this convergence of the Bible, Egyptian chronology and Solomon’s Gates is powerful evidence that a great kingdom existed at the time of David and Solomon spanning all of Israel, north and south, with its capital in Jerusalem. ibid.
Despite Josiah’s reforms the ancient Israelites continue to worship other gods. Their acceptance of one god and the triumph of monotheism begins with a series of events vividly attested through archaeology, ancient texts and the Bible. It starts with the destruction of Yahweh’s earthly dwelling, the Jerusalem Temple. In 586 B.C. after defeating the Assyrians a new Mesopotamian empire invades Israel. The Babylonians ransack the Temple and systematically burn the sacred city. Before his eyes the Babylonian victors slay the sons of Zedechiah, the last Davidic king, then blind him. The Covenant, the promise made by Yahweh to his chosen people and to David that his dynasty would rule eternally in Jerusalem, is broken. After four-hundred years Israel is wiped out. The Babylonians round up the Israelite priests, prophets and scribes and drag them in chains to Babylon. Babylonian records confirm the presence of Israelites including the king in exile. ibid.
The story goes that David brought together two tribal regions: Israel in the north, and Judah in the South. Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Bible’s Buried Secrets 1/3: Did King David’s Empire Exist? BBC 2011
I don’t think Judah and Israel were united under a Davidic king at all. ibid.
In the seventh century it was the southern kingdom – Judah – that was in the ascendancy ... It was a story filtered through the experiences of Judah. ibid.
There remains not a single trace of their passing. Not a footprint, not a shard of pottery, not a scrap of evidence. Mysteries of the Bible s1e1: Moses and Mount Sinai, A&E 1994
Who were they? And what created the unique phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient land of Israel? Mysteries of the Bible s2e6: Prophets: Soul Catchers
The Jewish Revolt: first the chronicler Josephus betrays the Jews in battle yet writes the only account of the conflict. Mysteries of the Bible s3e4: The Last Revolt
In the year 66 [A.D.] the revolt begins: it will last seven bitter years. ibid.
Jerusalem is attacked in the year 70 [A.D.]. The revolt finally ends at a fortress called Masada in 73. ibid.
Why didn’t the Jews unite against Rome? ibid.
Archaeologists have failed to find any evidence that an ancient people ever stopped here. Mysteries of the Bible s4e11: Ten Commandments
Ancient Palestine: about a thousand years before Jesus. The Israelites maintain an uneasy truce with the Philistines. Mysteries of the Bible s5e7: Samson & Delilah
Once upon a time a small boy slew a giant and saved his people. The Bible says he went on to conquer Jerusalem and give the wandering Israelites a home. His son Solomon the Wise built them a Temple, put the Ark of the Covenant in it and filled their coffers with wealth. David and Solomon made Israel a nation. Were they historical figures or mere legends? After three thousand years can any trace of these Biblical giants survive? Riddles of the Bible s2e9: Lost Kings of Israel, National Geographic 2010
Exodus: a Biblical tale of miracles. Catastrophes and history changed by the hand of God. From the burning bush to the death of the first-born, scholars and enthusiasts have pursued natural explanations for supernatural events ... Exodus is a three-thousand-year-old story of terrible plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and the Israelites freed from slavery in Egypt. The book of Exodus is central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The faiths of billions. The Bible Uncovered: Exodus/Riddles of the Bible: Exodus Revealed
No evidence of their passage out of Egypt has been found. ibid.
Not a single artefact has been found that could be definitively linked to the Biblical exodus. ibid.
There’s no way to confirm even that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. ibid.
Wandering for forty years there would be something. Professor Eric Cline
We do not have a single shred of evidence to date – there is nothing archaeologically to attest to anything from the Biblical story. No plagues. No parting of the Red Sea. No manna from Heaven. No wandering for forty years. Professor Eric Cline
It was the beginning of an epic story. The flight of the Hebrews from Egypt. God’s intervention was a turning point in the Bible. One man – Moses – was chosen to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Who Was Moses? Discovery Channel
No such evidence has emerged of a mass wandering of Hebrews. ibid.
The plagues ... could have been natural phenomena. ibid.