迈克尔·阿斯图尔(Michael Astour)注意到“yhw3”这一“象形字的表现非常精确地对应了希伯来语的四字神名或雅威,而且该名字比迄今为止出现在米沙石碑上最古老的神名还要早500多年”[7]。范德图恩(K. Van Der Toorn) 总结道 :“公元前14世纪,在雅威崇拜抵达希伯来前,以东人和米甸人就成群结队地将雅威奉为他们的主神了[8]。
加拿大埃及学家唐纳德·布·雷德福(Donald B. Redford)曾认为,最早的希伯来人,就是公元前13世纪末麦伦普塔赫石碑上所提到的巴勒斯坦中部半游牧高地人,被认为就是生活在一处沙苏飞地上,由此后来圣经传统上才将耶和华讲述为“出自西珥(Seʿir)”[9]。沙苏人最初是来自摩押人和北方的以东/西珥人,随后在"希伯来"联合体中构成了主要部分,并在以后建立起了希伯来王国[10]。根据对阿马尔奈文书的分析,特拉维夫大学古代近东文化和闪米特语言学名誉教授安森·弗兰克·雷尼(Anson Rainey)得出结论说:有关沙苏人的描述最符合早期的希伯来人[11]。
如果这一认定是正确的,这些希伯来/沙苏人就应定居在高地小村庄中,其房屋类似于公元前13世纪末同时期的迦南人样式[12]。
弗兰克·杰·尤尔科(Frank J. Yurco)和迈克尔·格·哈塞尔(Michael G. Hasel)曾根据穿着服饰和发式的不同,将麦伦普塔赫浮雕中的沙苏人与希伯来人区分开来,且与埃及书写者的判定不同[19],美国考古学家伦斯·斯塔格(Lawrence Stager)也反对麦伦普塔赫石碑中的沙苏人与希伯来人有关联,因为沙苏人的衣着与希伯来人不同,希伯来人的衣着发式都像迦南人[15][20]。
然而,限定词的用法受到了质疑;有人指出,在埃及著作中,包括麦伦普塔赫石碑在内,限定词被随意使用[21]。此外,山地限定词并不总是用于沙苏,像来自索莱布和阿玛拉西部的“雅赫维的沙苏(Shasu of Yhw)”名字指环就是这种情况。戈斯塔·沃纳·阿赫斯特伦(Gösta Werner Ahlström)反驳了斯塔格的反对意见,他认为,对比描绘是因为沙苏人是游牧民,而希伯来人已定居。他补充说:“后来定居在山中的沙苏人之所以被称为希伯来人,是因为他们定居在希伯来领土上”[20]。
Astour, Michael C. (1979). "Yahweh in Egyptian Topographic Lists." In Festschrift Elmar Edel, eds. M. Gorg & E. Pusch, Bamberg.
Dever, William G. (1997). "Archaeology and the Emergence of Early Israel" . In John R. Bartlett (Ed.), Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation, pp. 20–50. Routledge.
Hasel, Michael G. (1998). Domination and Resistance: Egyptian Military Activity in the Southern Levant, 1300–1185 BC. Probleme der Ägyptologie 11. Leiden: Brill, pp. 217–239. ISBN90-04-10984-6[1] (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆)
Hasel, Michael G. (2003). "Merenptah's Inscription and Reliefs and the Origin of Israel" in Beth Alpert Nakhai ed. The Near East in the Southwest: Essays in Honor of William G. Dever, pp. 19–44. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 58. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research. ISBN0-89757-065-0
Hoffmeier, James K. (2005). Ancient Israel in Sinai, New York: Oxford University Press, 240–45.
MacDonald, Burton (1994). "Early Edom: The Relation between the Literary and Archaeological Evidence". In Michael D. Coogan, J. Cheryl Exum, Lawrence Stager (Eds.), Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Honor of Philip J. King, pp. 230–246. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN0-664-22364-8
Miller (II.), Robert D. Chieftains of the Highland Clans: A History of Israel in the 12th and 11th Centuries B.C., Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2012
Nestor, Dermot Anthony, Cognitive Perspectives on Israelite Identity, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010
Sivertsen, Barbara J. The Parting of the Sea: How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plagues Shaped the Story of Exodus. Princeton University Press, 2009. ISBN978-0-691-13770-4[2] (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆)
Sparks, Kenton L., Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel: Prolegomena to the Study of Ethnic Sentiments and Their Expression in the Hebrew Bible, Eisenbrauns, 1998, p. 108: 'If the Egyptian scribe was not clear on the nature of the entity he called "Israel," knowing only that it was "different" from the surrounding modalities, then we can imagine something other than a sociocultural Israel. It is possible that Israel repr esented a confederation of united, but sociologically distinct, modalities that were joined either culturally or politically via treaties and the like. This interpretation of the evidence would allow for the unity implied by the endonymic evidence and also give our scribe some latitude in his use of the determinative'.
Stager, Lawrence E. (2001). "Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel". In Michael Coogan (Ed.), The Oxford History of the Biblical World, pp. 90–129. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-508707-0
van der Toorn, K. (1996). Family Religion in Babylonia, Ugarit and Israel: Continuity and Changes in the Forms of Religious Life (BRILL)
Yurco, Frank J. (1986). "Merenptah's Canaanite Campaign." Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 23:189–215.