ABSTRACT
Studying the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) as history poses a problem to the modern history reader: a scarcity of evidence, particularly with respect to the earlier books. There is virtually no extrabiblical corroboration whatsoever of events in the Pentateuch and the books of Joshua and Judges, and limited evidence for subsequent narratives. To be sure, there is circumstantial evidence: the Egyptian Twenty-second Dynasty imported slaves from Phoenicia via the Land of Canaan around the same time that the Israelites were purportedly enslaved in Egypt; a nomadic tribe called the Habiru wandered in the vicinity of Canaan around the same time as the Hebrews wandered in the desert; and the existence of the Banu Yamina, a warlike tribe that recalled the militaristic behavior of the Benjaminites in Judges 23. All three of these examples suggest a possible attestation of the biblical narratives, but none conclusively.
