JOSHUA AT JERICHO

Have you seen the film 'The Ten Commandments' with Charlton Heston as Moses? A rather pretty young actor called John Derek plays Joshua. Wrong, wrong, wrong. 

The real Joshua was an experienced military commander who led some very tough people. He was a man who'd earned his stripes. Think of one of the hard-faced military commanders in present-day Israel and you'll have it.

Joshua knew what his task was - to capture a foothold for the Hebrew people in the strange new land of Canaan  -

• strange because it was not Egypt
• strange because its people were more sophisticated and better organized than the nomadic ex-slaves of the Hebrew tribes.

Capturing Jericho was their first great victory.

IS THE BIBLE TRUE?

But is there any hard evidence that Joshua actually did the things described in the Book of Joshua, chapter 6? 

Is the Bible true?

Walls Collapse at Jericho

Archaeologists at Jericho have uncovered signs of a fierce fire and massive destruction - storage jars full of charred grain, fire-darkened bricks, burnt foundations of houses, that sort of thing.

So Jericho was destroyed by invaders at roughly the time that Joshua lived, and was conquered and burnt at harvest time, matching the biblical account in Joshua Chapter 6.

But was it the Hebrews who did this damage?

That's more difficult to say . They were wanderers, moving from place to place with their flocks, so they carried only light equipment, not objects that survive the centuries. In other words, there's no evidence it was them.

What we do know is that the Hebrews infiltrated the area over a period of time in about the 14th century BC, gradually taking possession of villages and towns.

Ordinarily they wouldn't have had a snowflake's chance in hell. The Canaanites were better equipped and organized, and could make mincemeat of an invader.

Rahab the Prostitute's House

But these were not ordinary times.

There was a great, multi-country migration going on, with civil unrest and disorder everywhere. The Hebrews had only been able to flee Egypt because the country was in chaos. The Pharoah's control had been drastically weakened, the great tombs and temples were being looted, the army was embattled - so the Hebrew slaves seized their chance to escape.

What was happening in Egypt was also happening in Canaan. Cities like Jericho fell into disorder, and could no longer defend themselves.

The Israelite tribesmen were quick to take advantage.

They seized what sites they could, then adapted to Canaanite culture - we know this because there is no break in the design of pottery and domestic articles during this period (see Pre-Historic Pottery for examples of this simple, beautiful pottery).

Moreover, you'll find constant references to Canaanite religion in the Bible - Jericho was a religious center for the Moon Goddess, something that the followers of Yahweh found very difficult to suppress.

DID THE WALLS COME TUMBLING DOWN?

Did the walls of Jericho come tumbling down at the sound of Joshua's horn?

Again, hard to say.

In Joshua 2:1 he commands his soldiers to reconnoiter the city, and then later, as the priests sound their horns, the walls collapse.

Collapsed Wall - an Earthquake?

If archaeological evidence is anything to go by, the walls certainly did come tumbling down. There are collapsed stone and mud brick support walls all over this level of the city - see the excavated rooms in the image at left.

But from an archaeologist's standpoint, it is impossible to tell whether this destruction was caused by invasion or earthquake. The truth is, it was probably both.

In any case, a literal reading of the story may not have been what the biblical writers intended - they were more subtle than that.

According to the Book of Joshua the Hebrews were able to capture Jericho because they made a 'great noise' on their shofars, the traditional instruments of summons for the Israelite herdsmen.  

These trumpet-shaped rams' horns had both sacred and practical use.

If you know that the Hebrew word for earthquake is ra'ash, literally a 'great noise', you'll see the point of the story. The 'great noise' of Yahweh, an earthquake, destroyed the walls and helped Joshua capture Jericho. 

After Joshua's capture and destruction of Jericho it was, according to the Biblical account, abandoned and then re-established in the 9th century BC (1 Kings 16:34)

But the most flamboyant time in Jericho's history was yet to come, with the murderous King Herod the Great.....

The Sound of the Shofar