DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
An Egyptian monument of Pharaoh Merneptah, from about 1207 BC, lists 'Israel' among peoples he claims to have defeated in Canaan — the earliest known mention of the name outside the Bible. The hieroglyphic writing marks it with the determinative for a people rather than for a city-state or territory, which is why scholars read it as attesting a population group.
Why it’s interesting
By around 1200 BC, then, a group called 'Israel' was already recognizable enough for an Egyptian king to brag about crushing it. It sets an outer marker — though it says nothing about that group's origins or its relationship to the biblical narratives.
Scholarly consensus
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.