Battle of Jericho

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of Jericho also known as the Siege of Jericho is an event concerning Jericho which is described by the Book of Joshua, and which is prominent among cultural references to the Bible. According to the Bible (Joshua 5:13-6:27) it was the first battle of the Israelites during their conquest of Canaan. An increasing number of archaeologists have begun to question the historical reality or at least the oft-quoted size of the battle due to a near complete lack of archaeological evidence.^{[citation needed]}

1 Biblical account
2 Historicity
3 Notes
4 Sources

[edit] Biblical account

[edit] Spying on Jericho

Before crossing into the land west of the River Jordan, Joshua sent two spies to look over the land. The king of Jericho heard that two Israelite spies were within his city and ordered them to be brought out to him. The spies had to look out for things such as where guards were placed, whether anyone disliked the king and could help them, what weaponry and armour the guards had, when the guards changed shifts, how much food, water, and other supplies the city had, and the height and width of the walls so as to determine how to get over the walls. The woman the spies were staying with was named Rahab and she protected them by hiding the two men on her roof. Safely escaping the city, the two returned to Joshua and reported that the "whole land was melting with fear".

[edit] The battle

After crossing the Jordan, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan where they laid siege to the city of Jericho. The Lord spoke to Joshua telling him to march around the city once every day for six days with the seven priests carrying trumpets in front of the ark. On the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times and the priests were to blow their trumpets. This Joshua did, and he commanded his people not to give a warcry until he told them to do so. On the seventh day, after marching around the city the seventh time, the priests sounded their trumpets, and Joshua ordered the people to shout. The walls of the city collapsed, and the Israelites were able to charge straight into the city. The city was completely destroyed, and every man, woman, and child in it was killed. Only Rahab and her family were spared, because she had hid the two spies sent by Joshua. After this Joshua burned the remains of the city and cursed any man who would rebuild the city of Jericho at the cost of his firstborn son.

[edit] Aftermath

With the fall of Jericho came the Israelites' first victory in their conquest. As a result of the battle, Joshua's fame spread throughout Canaan. Joshua then sent an expedition against Ai west of Jericho. For over 400 years Jericho lay in ruins until Heil of Bethel rebuilt the city. The city was rebuilt at the cost of Heil's firstborn son, Abiram, and was fortified at the cost of his second son, Segub.

[edit] Historicity

According to most archaeologists there is very little evidence of a single campaign of conquest, and there is Canaanite cultural continuity; most archaeologists now believe that the Israelites were simply a branch of Canaanite culture, and that there was no invasion.^[1] Nevertheless, it is true that the archaeological remains suggest that many Canaanite cities were destroyed over a large window of around 200-300 years during the Late Bronze Age, and according to at least three different excavations, such destruction included Jericho.

Archaeologically, there are signs of a wall around the city of Jericho with a stone outer revetment, but primarily built of mud brick. The exact sequence and dating of these remains in relation to the destruction layers is difficult and somewhat debated. John Garstang working in the 1930s concluded that the city had been destroyed in around 1400 BC, after which it had been left uninhabited. Significantly he suggested that the walls could have been destroyed by an earthquake. However, like much early biblical archaeology, his work later became criticised for using the Bible to interpret the evidence rather than drawing conclusions based on some scientists observations.

One of the first modern archaeologists to reassess the Jericho remains was Kathleen Kenyon, who significantly disagreed with Garstang's dating, and dated the destruction he had found close on 1000 years earlier^[1] She noted 15 different destructive episodes in the Bronze Age remains, and did find a much later destruction, but concluded it was circa 1550. From 1550, the mid 16th century BC, to about 1200 the site was virtually a ghost town, and even after 1200 it was inhabited for some time on a modest scale. Kenyon's conclusions while by no means undisputed are the current orthodoxy among archaeologists. ^[2]

The Biblical account of its destruction is found in the Book of Joshua. The Bible describes the destruction as having proceeded from the actions of Joshua, Moses' successor. The exodus is usually dated to the 13th century BC in Biblical chronology, with the associated Pharaoh being Ramses II, or to the 15th century BC (at some point between 1490-1430) under Thutmose III; hence the current opinion of most archaeologists is in stark contradiction to the biblical account - Bill Dever, for example, has heavily emphasised the non-historicity of Joshua's capture of the city: ...if you want a miracle, here's your miracle: Joshua destroyed a city that wasn't even there.^[2]

Nevertheless, a few scholars follow the controversial Glasgow Chronology of David Rohl, which postulates that the entire mainstream Egyptian chronology is 300 years misplaced; with the consequence that, among other things, the exodus would be dated to the 16th or 17th century BC, and hence the archaeological record on Jericho would be much more aligned with the biblical account. Despite this, a number of literalist Christians, most prominently the respected Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen, have vehemently attacked Rohl's chronology, since it introduces a number of other problems and issues (such as identifying the biblical Shishak as Ramses II, rather than the far more obviously named Shoshenq).

From the point of view of Biblical criticism, in view of the prevailing archaeological opinion on Jericho, and on the Israelites, it is likely that some event, likely connected to general collapse of late bronze age Eastern Mediterranean civilisation, or more specifically to the raids of the Sea Peoples, resulted in the destruction of Jericho and that its destruction was recorded by folk memory. The author(s) of Joshua then took that folk narrative and, along with others about destruction in the region, telescoped the timeframe to a narrow period in which it could have been caused by an army lead by one man, a proto-Josiah.^[3]