The Mernepta Stella - The Earliest Reference to Israel Outside the Bible

A monument known as the mernepta stella is the earliest reference we have to israel outside the bible. Egyptian writing uses a set of symbols called determinatives that tell you what's being described. On the menepta stella, when israel's name is given, a deter tive indicating a foreign people is used. That suggests they were not yet a settled people and had been wandering in the right part of the world. Just two centuries before were a settled, established kingdom with kings like saul david and solomon.