Brian2
Veteran Member
Academia fully recognizes that the Egyptians mentioned the Hebrew tribes of Judah and worshiped YHWH, but the Egyptians were reasonably knowledgeable about all the tribes and Kingdoms of the regions and recorded the information as a result of the trade and conquests. Unfortunately, the Hebrews did not have a written language so we do not have any records from Henbrews until well after ~1000 BCE
There is no evidence that the Hebrews had a significant army at all and as referenced it was the Egyptians who conquered Canaan and by the way the Hebrew tribes.
Between the Conquest and the time of the Monarchy there was the Judges period, where Israel was a coalition of tribes which joined forces at least partially on occasion to fight usually the Philistines who hassled the tribes at times. So true, the Hebrews had no significant army and that is shown in the Bible. Archaeology proves the Bible.
As for writing, the Bible indicates that books were written at the time by probably Moses and Joshua and that it was probably these books which supplied the information for the later redaction, compilations into the Pentateuch and Joshua.
This of course is not saying to reading and writing were wide spread in Canaan at the time, but it is a nonsense to say it did not exist imo.
Saying that seems to be a just a result of the belief that the Moses story etc were made up to give an origins myth for Israel. But really that idea is becoming less and less needed with the accumulating archaeology of the truth of Exodus and Joshua.
As documented by the Egyptian Stella and archaeological evidence Joshua's army is a myth and it was Egypt that conquered Canaan and not Hebrews.
The Stele does not show that for the 1400s, when the conquest happened.
You need to provide independent evidence to justify your claims.
The archaeology of the 1400s is independant evidence that justifies what is written in the Bible.
The evidence is clear, Egypt conquered the Hyksos Kingdom and Canaan in the period the evidence demonstrates including the Merneptah Stele
Merneptah Stele - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Remember there is no independent archaeological evidence that the Hebrews had any written language at the time.
With so much writing around at the time and in the area, there is no reason imo to say that it was not in use in Canaan and by the early Israelites. It certainly is attested to in the Bible stories and the early Bible itself shows it was used unless that evidence is just thrown out by theories of the late writing of the Pentateuch. (Errors on errors on errors lead to the complete denial of the historicity of the bible unfortunately)