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Soleb Inscription

Soleb Topographical List

From the inscriptions on the columns of the hypostyle hall of the temple of Amun-Re at Soleb, built by Amenhotep III. Column N4 preserves a list of subdivisions within the “Shasu-land” (ta shasu), a regional designation for mobile pastoralist communities in the southern Levant. ta shasu trbr (Shasu-land: Trbr) ta shasu yhwʒ (Shasu-land: Yhwʒ)⁠ ta shasu smt (Shasu-land: Smt) pyspʒys (Pyspys)

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Compare Soleb Inscription and Exodus 3:14

Ancient Near East, Egyptian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

An Egyptian temple inscription from around 1390 BCE names a southern nomadic people group called Yhw, the same name later given to Moses as God’s own at the burning bush, developing the earlier name based on the region.

Passages

Soleb Inscription

Ancient Near East, Egyptian · Soleb Topographical List
From the inscriptions on the columns of the hypostyle hall of the temple of Amun-Re at Soleb, built by Amenhotep III. Column N4 preserves a list of subdivisions within the “Shasu-land” (ta shasu), a regional designation for mobile pastoralist communities in the southern Levant. ta shasu trbr (Shasu-land: Trbr) ta shasu yhwʒ (Shasu-land: Yhwʒ) ta shasu smt (Shasu-land: Smt) pyspʒys (Pyspys)
1390–1352 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Soleb Inscription

Exodus 3:14

Hebrew Bible
12 He replied, “Surely I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you bring the people out of Egypt, you and they will serve God at this mountain.” 13 Moses said to God, “If I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’—what should I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM that I AM.” And he said, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘The Lord—the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.’
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

References

... Fresh examination of the Egyptian evidence changes everything. Whether or not Yahweh could already have existed as a divine name near 1400 BCE, the reference here is not first of all to the god but to a specified unit of what an Egyptian scribe designated “Shasu-land.” The Egyptian evidence derives from a single military encounter, and the older version, from the reign of Amenhotep III, lacks any indication of a southern setting, leaving this to be reconstructed from the later Ramses II text. What is most important in any case is the identification of Yhwʒ as part of the Shasu. This material is by far older than all other evidence, and if the name indeed matches the divine name, as many have concluded, no account of Yahweh's roots can begin elsewhere. Further, my interpretation includes new observations that point discussion in previously unimagined directions, and the reader will benefit from knowing from the start what I have done with Yhwʒ. This is indeed “before Israel.” ...
Daniel E. Fleming, Yahweh Before Israel: Glimpses of History in a Divine Name (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 16–18.

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Soleb Inscription and Exodus 3:14

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