For the most part, the people surrounding the Hebrews
took little interest in them for much of Hebrew history. The Hebrews
themselves don't actually appear in history until the reign of Marniptah,
king of Egypt from about 1224-1211 BC. The son of Raamses I (1290-1224 BC),
generally taken to be the king of Egypt at the time of the Hebrew exodus,
Marniptah undertakes a military campaign in Asia in 1220 BC. In an account
of the campaign inscribed in granite, a list of all the conquered peoples
includes the Israelites who are mentioned as "now living in
Canaan."
Before this point, the only history of the Hebrews we
have are written by the Hebrews themselves, in Genesis 12-50. In the Hebrew
account of their own history, they trace their origins back to a single
individual, Abraham, who comes
originally from Mesopotamia. The histories of the pre-Egyptian Hebrews is
generally called the age of the patriarchs (patriarch means
"father-ruler"); while it is virtually impossible to date this
age since a.) the Hebrew history of the age is written down after more than
a thousand years had passed and b.) no-one else was interested in the
history, scholars place this age roughly between 1950 and 1500 BC.
Several aspects emerge from this history. First, the
history of the patriarchs indicates that the special election of the
Hebrews, made manifest in the delivery from Egypt, begins before the
Egyptian sojourn and delivery. In Hebrew history, Abraham and his descendants are
selected by Yahweh to be his chosen people over all other peoples. Abraham, who is a Semite living in
Haran, a city in northern Mesopotamia, and whose father, Terah, comes from
the city Ur in southern Mesopotamia, is visited suddenly by Yahweh and told
to move his family. If Abraham's migration can be dated to around 1950 BC, this means that his migration
from Mesopotamia would make sense, since the region was collapsing into
chaos. Migrating to the west, Abraham stops at Shechem and is again visited by Yahweh, who then tells him that
all this land will be given to him and his descendants. So the election of
the Hebrews involves a certain unexplained quality (why pick Abraham) that is partially answered by Abraham's unswerving obedience when
Yahweh asks him to sacrifice his son. But more importantly, the foundation
of the Hebrew view of history is contained in these patriarchal stories. God ("Elohim" in Hebrew) has a
special purpose in history and has chosen the Hebrews and the Hebrews alone
to fulfill this purpose. In order to fulfill this purpose, God has
entered into a covenantal relationship with the Hebrews and promises to
protect them as a lord protects his servants. As servants, then, the
principle duty that Abraham and his
descendants owe to god is obedience.
The second aspect that emerges is that the early Hebrews
are nomads, wandering tribal groups who are organized along classic tribal
logic. Society is principally organized around kinship with a rigid kinship
hierarchy. The relationship with god is also a kinship relationship:
anybody outside the kinship structure (anybody who isn't a descendant of Abraham) is not included in the
special relationship with God. At the top of the kinship hierarchy is a
kind of tribal leader; we use the Greek word, "patriarch," which
means "father-ruler." Well into the monarchical period and
beyond, the Hebrews seem to dynamically remember their tribal character,
for Genesis associates civilization with Cain and his descendants
(meaning that civilization is not a good thing) and the history of the
monarchy is clearly written from an anti-monarchical stance, since it is
made clear that desiring a king is disobedience to God.
The third aspect that emerges is that these tribal
groups of early Hebrews wandered far and wide, that is, that they did not
occupy the lands around Palestine; this occupation would come considerably
later. They seem to freely move from Palestine, across the deserts, and as
far as Egypt. At several points in the narrative, Hebrew tribes move to
Egypt in order to find a better life. It would not be unfair to imagine
that the Hebrews were among the infinite variety of foreigners who
overwhelmed Egypt at the end of the Middle Kingdom.
Beyond this it is difficult to come to certain
conclusions. As far as the religion of the early Hebrews are concerned, it
is generally believed that it had nothing to do with the Yahweh cult which
is introduced by Moses, for Exodus asserts that Moses is the first
to hear the name of god, Yahweh. The Hebrew accounts of the patriarchs
generally use the term "Elohim" (God), "El Shaddai"
(God Almighty), and other variants. Several religious practices described
in Genesis seem to indicate a belief in animistic forces and even,
possibly, polytheism, but these passages are highly controversial.
All we know for certain is that by the end of the
patriarchal age, several tribes identified with one another as having a
common ancestor and a common identity. We don't even know what they called
themselves; we haven't successfully figured out where the term
"Hebrew" comes from, although the best guess is that it comes
from the Egyptian word, "apiru," or "foreigner."
Several members of these tribes, whatever they called themselves, at some
point migrated to Egypt, and Egypt would be the crucible in which would
form the people and nation of Israel.