Man vs. History

            “A minority of scholars agrees with the Biblical chronology, which places the Israelite entry into Canaan in about 1400.” I think it’s interesting how quick people are to throw what the Bible says right out the window because of so-called evidence from archaeology. Archaeology attempts to investigate the past, but cannot account for every single thing. Man does not know everything and it seems ridiculous to say something did not happen just because we cannot find what we think should be there thousands of years later.

            One of the most debated topics is Jericho, whether or not it happened when the Bible’s chronology says it did, or even if it happened like the Bible says at all. Jericho accounts a major conquer for the Israelites as they began their conquest of Canaan. The Bible says that after seven days of marching around the city, Jericho’s walls came tumbling down and the Israelites burned the city. Following the chronology of the Bible, the Exodus, where the Israelites left Egypt, took place around 1447 B.C.; this places the capture of Jericho around 1400 B.C during the Late Bronze period (c. 1550-1200 B.C.).  

            Several people have been involved in excavating the area where Jericho was located at Tell es-Sultan, west of the Jordan Valley and north of the Dead Sea. The first major excavation took place by Ernst Sellin and Carl Watzinger from 1907 to 1909 and again in 1911. Though pottery chronology had not been well developed at this time, they came to the conclusion that when the Israelites were said to begin their conquest of Canaan that Jericho was not occupied or even fortified.

            Next to investigate the site was John Garstang. He used modern methods that had been developed and immediately published what he found. He excavated a double city wall and what he referred to as City IV from 1930 to 1936. From his findings he concluded that the city and the wall met their destruction about 1400 B.C., which he credited to the Israelites.

            Kathleen Kenyon excavated again from 1952 to 1958 at the ruins of Tell es-Sultan. She agreed with Sellin and Watzinger’s conclusion that there was no Late Bronze city for Joshua and the Israelites to conquer. She expected to find imported Cypriote ware which is supposedly a diagnostic for Late Bronze dating. She dated the wall Garstang excavated to a thousand years before 1400 B.C. and the city’s destruction at about 1550 B.C by the Egyptians or Hyksos.

            The most recent review of the excavations was conducted by Dr. Bryant Wood. He agrees with Kenyon’s conclusion about the double wall, but is skeptical of the date she assigns to the city. Here a few issues with her dates:

·         Kenyon lacked a focus on local pottery

·         Jericho was not located on the major trade routes and you would not necessarily expect to find the imported Cypriote ware

·         Her conclusions were based upon an argument from silence—what was not there rather than what was

·         Her and Garstang both excavated poor quarters of the city

·         Her analysis was of a very small excavation area

·         There is no evidence for her claim that Jericho was destroyed by Egyptians or Hyksos

Next, Wood gives four areas of evidence that support Garstang: ceramic data, stratigraphical considerations, scarab evidence and radiocarbon date. A closer look at the pottery Garstang found shows that there actually was Bichrome ware pottery! There are several other indications that support the Biblical narrative such as evidence of “tumbling down”, evidence of fire, lots of grain that was stored and left, so they obviously were not starved out, etc! Other evidence now suggests that Israel did occupy Canaan throughout the Late Bronze period.

            All in all, I reviewed this debate over Jericho to show that people have all kinds of opinions! Even though they may excavate the same areas, people come up with their different conclusions. One person thinks this, another thinks that… We are attempting to figure out the past from what we know now; this is not a fair judgment of the past! We cannot expect to prove anything 100%. Can you prove to me, without any doubt, that George Washington was the first President of the United States? Were you there? We cannot prove anything historical with 100% certainty. Remember that, and do not let man’s fallible interpretations weaken your faith.