Articles
“Three Discoveries at Jericho”
Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand…”
Joshua 6:1-2a
The majority of scholars consider Joshua’s account of the battle of Jericho to be legendary. They infer this because excavations at Tell es-Sultan, the biblical Jericho, are dated as Middle Bronze Age instead of the Late Bronze Age which biblical chronology suggests the conquest of Canaan occurred. Thus, they conclude that the book of Joshua holds little historical value but is rather a bunch of nationalist propaganda spun by later kings of Judah who were trying to validate their territorial claims.
There are different arguments one could make in favor of the text’s historical value. One of which comes from archeology. There are three pieces of archeological evidence that affirm the details of Joshua’s account of the battle of Jericho (Joshua 6).
The walls fell down — Joshua 6:20 says, “So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.” The phrase “fell down flat” translates the two Hebrew words נָפַל (nâphal – to fall) and תַּחַת (tachath – bottom or below). Read literally, it could mean something like “the wall fell below itself.” Excavations at Jericho have revealed that this indeed was the case.
Jericho was built on a hill encircled by an outer wall and an inner wall. The outer wall was built atop a stone revetment wall making it even higher. Between the two walls was a sloped earthen rampart. When archeologist Kathleen Kenyon excavated the west side of the hill, she discovered, “a heavy fill of fallen red bricks piling nearly to the top of the revetment. These probably came from the wall on the summit of the bank.” Her theory was later proven correct; those red bricks were the remains of the inner wall that “fell down flat.” The bricks from the inner wall had tumbled down the hill and created a natural siege ramp that allowed the Israelites to go “up into the city” to capture it, just like Joshua 6:20 records.
But, as stated before, these walls were carbon dated to the Middle Bronze Age not the Late Bronze Age when Joshua and the twelve tribes were said to have begun their invasion. This would have Israel invading a city which had already been destroyed, invalidating the chronology. However, all a Middle Bronze Age date proves is that the walls were constructed during the Middle Bronze Age. It says nothing of when they fell.
The wall left standing — Joshua records that Rahab, who hid the Israelite spies and confessed her faith in the LORD (2:9-13), lived in a house “built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall.” (2:15) When the walls came tumbling down, Joshua instructed those two spies to seek out Rahab and her family and bring them to safety, according to their promise (6:22). This implies that a portion of the wall was left still standing.
Excavations by a German team in the early 1900s discovered a section of wall on the north side of the city which had not collapsed. You can still see it today. What’s more, there were houses built on the rampart against the outer city wall. It is plausible that this was the location of Rahab’s home.
The jars of burnt grain — Kenyon also found storage jars filled with burnt grain. In fact, six entire bushels were discovered. Kenyon was persuaded that Jericho was destroyed by the Egyptians at an earlier date. Sieges usually lasted an extended period of time, months or even years in some cases. If Jericho was laid siege by an invading army, isn’t it odd to find large stores of grain? Wouldn’t the inhabitants have eaten it all? And if the siege was particularly short, wouldn’t the grain have been taken by the invading army as an important food source? Instead, we find numerous jars of burnt grain along with destroyed homes in the city.
This archeological evidence all agrees with the account in Joshua. The battle of Jericho occurred in the springtime (3:15; 5:10), which would have been shortly after the harvest. Full grain jars indicate that the city was destroyed during that time. Jericho was destroyed in seven days (6:4) so large grain stores indicate that there was no prolonged siege. Lastly, Joshua reminded the Israelites that God specified the city was to be “devoted to destruction” (6:21) and so it was “burned… with fire” (6:24). This explains why the grain had not been taken by the invading force.
While archeology can't prove the historicity of the Scriptures, it always affirms them as historically accurate. This consistency should build our confidence in the text, nourish our faith in God and help us persuade our neighbors that the Bible is worth believing in and following.
