In the heart of Israel,
five miles north of the Dead Sea, five miles west of the River Jordan
at 670 feet below sea level lies a dry, lifeless mound that was once the
mighty Canaanite fortress of Jericho, the world's oldest city. The fall of Jericho is a
well-known story, fascinating children
and adults alike. But for all its fascination, the fall of
Jericho is also the subject of debate. What happened here
thousands of years ago? Did God
perform a miracle and bring down the walls of
Jericho as the Bible says? Or can natural causes explain the
toppling of the city's wall? The answers, previously
buried under rubble and dirt for three
and a half millennia, are now
being uncovered. But are there enough pieces
of the puzzle remaining to solve the mystery of what
really happened at Jericho? The story of Jericho
begins with the events described in the Old Testament
book of Exodus. Here the Bible recounts
how Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt only to
undertake a forty-year quest through the harsh desert
until the time was right for Israel to enter
the Promised Land. During those years, the nomadic
Israelites witnessed numerous miracles and enjoyed the protection
of God from their enemies. The desert experience
transformed God's chosen people. They turned from
idol-worship and bitterness, and become a people of the promise,
ready to occupy the land God prepared for them,
a land known as Canaan. This Promised Land was a fertile
tract suitable for agriculture and settlement, "a land
flowing with milk and honey." According to the Scriptures,
the Israelites would establish their nation upon the land as led by
Joshua, the successor to Moses. But first, what lay before them
was the formidable and seemingly impossible
task of driving out the inhabitants already
living on the land. We know a fair bit about
the Canaanites through archaeological findings. Of course, the Bible tells
us what they were like, but that's borne out through
archaeological findings. In particular, up in Syria in
a place called Ras Shamra and ancient Ugarit, and there they
found a great archive of clay tablets, which tell us a lot about the
Canaanite civilization, and in particular, their religion.
Of course, they were very paganistic. They had temple prostitutions and
all sorts of abominations, the Bible calls them. We do know the Canaanites were,
indeed, extremely sinful, as described in the Bible, and that
part's of the reason why that God took over that land and
punished them, judged them, and gave that land to His
chosen people, Israel. The way of life of the people in
Canaan was in contrast to what God had commanded His to observe
through the law He had given them
at Mount Sinai. The people of Canaan, were
by contrast, a dissolute, an unethical and
immoral people. The conquest of the
land was about to begin, and the first city standing in Israel's
way was the fortified city of Jericho. The city was built at a crossroads
north of the Dead Sea. The heavy traffic of east to west
travelers increased Jericho’s size and importance and created
many opportunities for trade. But it also increased
Jericho's chances for danger. The successive walls built around
Jericho over several generations were a response to the increased
threats from robbers and armies brought on by
the well-traveled roadways. The city of Jericho stood on a hill.
The city itself was oblong; its length roughly twice its width,
covering a total of about nine acres. Jericho's most notable
feature was its mighty wall. Many cities of comparable size
had defensive walls, but Jericho’s walls
were exceptional. Excavations at the site revealed that
a stone retaining wall rose from the ground at the base of the hill or
"tell" on which Jericho was built. On top of this was a
freestanding mud brick wall. A sloping bank covered
with hard plaster extended upward from the lower wall, creating
steep and slippery conditions, making the approach
all the more difficult for those who managed
to breach the first wall. Atop the embankment was a
second mud brick wall. The combined effect of these
defensive structures made for a single,
impregnable barrier that encircled
and protected the city. As Joshua and the Israelites
approached Jericho, the city's king showed no
interest in negotiating for peace. It must have appeared to him
that a siege was about to begin, and Jericho was undoubtedly
prepared to endure a long siege with stored grain and
a spring inside the city wall to counter the effects
of a military blockade. In that time and place, a
long battle of resources often came before a final
battle with weapons. One of the unique discoveries at
Jericho is large jars full of grain. Both John Garstang, who
dug there in the 1930's - - found every house with jars full of
grain, many jars full of grain -- Kathleen Kenyon, when she
worked there in the 1950's, found exactly the same thing in the
buildings that she excavated. On the lower floor, the ground
floor, many jars full of grain. Well, this grain tells us a number of
things about the final days of Jericho. First of all, it indicates that
it was harvest time. And it was, indeed, harvest
time according to the Bible, because when the Israelites
crossed the Jordan River, it was in flood stage, which
happens at harvest time. Rahab hid the spies under the
stalks of flax drying on her roof, which is the first thing you
do after you harvest flax. And the Passover was celebrated,
which is in the springtime, which is time for harvesting there
in the Southern Jordan valley. So that's the first thing that
we learn, that harvest had just been taken in, just
as the Bible describes. Also, the
jars were full. And so this indicates the
siege of the city was very short. Normally, a fortified city like
Jericho, when it was under siege, would hold out for months and even
years, if they had some food inside, if they had some water,
as Jericho did. They can hold out for years,
and we have examples in the Egyptian records where
they came into Canaan , with their mighty army, the
greatest army in the world's history, and they would lay siege
to the these Canaanite cities. And it would take them months
and months and, in one case, three years before
the city finally fell. Here, the Israelites went against
this very strongly fortified city, and were able to capture
it in just one week. Of course, God was involved in
that, and a miracle took place. But normally it would take
a long period of time, and the jars of grain verify
that the siege was very short. The jars were full. They didn't have to use hardly
any of that grain at all. The third thing that it demonstrates
to us is that the Israelites, for the most part, obeyed God
with regard to not plundering the city because
grain was valuable, and you just don't leave grain in a
city to be burned up in the fire. You would take it as plunder, and
again, when we look at the Egyptian records, when they
conquered these Canaanite cities, they plundered the city,
took anything of value including the grain. They were
very careful to tally up the number of the bushels of grain
that they had captured from that city. And so, if you didn't want it
for food, you could barter with it. It was like money. And yet,
here we find at Jericho, those jars, all of them, full
of grain. A very unique discovery. We have not found this at
any other site that's been excavated in the Middle East
because when a city is conquered, the conqueror takes the plunder,
including the grain. But it was left there at Jericho. Why?
Because God told the Israelites, 'Do not plunder Jericho,
except those precious metals which were to be put
in the Lord's treasury.' The Israelites obeyed.
They left that grain there." It may sound simple,
but in practice, a successful siege could prove
difficult to sustain. The defenders would send raiding
parties to harass the besieging army, which would have to spread itself
thin to surround the city. Added to which the defenders would
also have the decided advantage of choosing when and where such
conflicts would take place. The besieging army, on the other
hand, would face difficulties securing provisions once they had
ravaged the surrounding farmlands. Furthermore, a well-planned,
perfectly executed siege could be thwarted by the arrival of
another army. Armies travel slowly, but the time required for a successful
siege allows for messengers to reach allies, and for allies
to make preparations and march to
the city's rescue. The Israelites were a conquering
people in a foreign land. Their presence would have
united cities and kingdoms. If Jericho’s inhabitants
had sent for help, their plea would almost
certainly be answered. A direct attack on a city like
Jericho would likely prove pointless
and costly. The Israelites might try
to build an earth ramp, allowing attackers to pour over the
wall. This was perilous, as the defenders of the city would
attack the ramp builders from the wall with ranged weapons
including arrows, spears, and stones. The weapons would be more
effective, with the range and force of impact increased due to being
released from an elevated position. In opposition, projectiles released
from the ground would have stunted range and weak impact
when directed against targets above. And if any Israelite warriors
survived the hail of missiles from the outer wall defenders before
coming close enough to threaten the city itself, they would have faced
hand-to-hand tactics against fresh fighters defending
the second wall. Warfare in the time of Joshua was a
face to face, hand to hand, very bloody affair. There was no
equivalent to West Point. There weren't strategies, there
weren't trained armies. The only strategies were
that sometimes kings were able to deceive their opponents
and lure them into traps. The fighting was done
with edged weapons. Here's an example of one of
those. This is called a Kopesh. This would be found
in Egypt and elsewhere. It's, I would say, rather
doubtful whether Joshua had weapons just like this.
His swords would have been longer, straight swords. But that's
what the fighting consisted of. People facing one another
with edged weapons. Warfare in the late bronze
age, the time of the conquest, was fairly primitive. But yet we do
know that they had metal weapons, they had swords, spears, even
bows and arrows at that time. Now, the Israelites having
come out of the wilderness, probably didn't have the latest
in technology, but yet I think they had the advantage in numbers,
for one thing, and of course, they had the God of the universe
on their side directing them, leading them, and just going before
them, and doing what needed to be done for them to
occupy the Promised Land. One of the interesting weapons that
we find evidence for is the sling, and we think today of a sling
shot, but it wasn't that at all. It was the kind
of a sling that you you hurl around and then let
go of one end of the string. And it propels this stone missile
at a very rapid rate of speed. It's a very effective weapon.
The sling stones that we find are about the
size of a hardball, maybe a little bigger
than a tennis ball. And they were the long-range
artillery of that day. And then, as I mentioned,
there were the swords and the spears that were used.
And that was pretty much the extent of the weaponry in the late Bronze
period, the time of the conquest. Given the fortifications of the
city and the Israelites lack of sophistication in warfare, it
was clear that any attempt to capture Jericho by force would
have proved devastating to the Israelite army, leaving them disabled
or destroyed at the battle's end. A long siege, perilous as it was for
Israel, appeared the only way. But there would be
no siege of Jericho, nor any direct assault
on its ominous wall. Jericho's fall would
be sudden, complete, and for the defenders
of the city, unexpected. As Joshua prepared to assume
command of the Israelites after the death of Moses, he
received the challenge from God during his commissioning to "be
strong and of good courage." Joshua and his followers would
need such courage for the impending
battle ahead. The Old Testament book of Joshua
chronicles the events leading up to and including the battle of Jericho.
The early chapters describe Joshua making
preparations for war. First,Joshua would send spies
into the city to survey the enemy's positions
and fortifications. Second, he would lead the Israelites
across the Jordan River, a river the Lord dried
up for the passage, a miracle reminiscent of
the Red Sea parting. After the crossing, the Israelites
set up an offensive position at Gilgal on
Jericho's eastern border. Third,Joshua would prepare
his heart and mind, and those of his people,
for the battle ahead. The leader took time to circumcise
those who were born during the wandering in the wilderness
and all the Israelites the Israelites set aside
time to keep the Passover. Finally,Joshua would begin to gather
provisions from the land of Canaan to replace the now ceased
manna that sustained the Israelites during
their wanderings. Joshua's last remaining
need was a plan for victory. This would come
from God Himself. The Captain of the Host
of the Lord came and gave Joshua the details
of God's battle plan. One of the interesting aspects of
the story of Jericho is this heavenly individual that appeared to
Joshua just before the battle, is recorded toward the end of
chapter five of the book of Joshua. In it, it tells us that
Joshua looked up, and he saw a man standing opposite
him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went up to this
individual and said, 'Are you for us or for our
adversaries?' And the man said, 'No. Rather
I come now as captain.' So this is very interesting. 'Captain
of the Host of the Lord.' And so Joshua fell on his face
to the earth, bowed down, and he said to him, 'What has my
Lord to say to His servant?' And then the Captain of the Lord,
the Lord's Host, said to Joshua, 'Remove your sandals
from your feet, for the place where you
are standing is holy.' And Joshua did so. Well, this is
very much like the appearance of the angel to Moses
at the burning bush, and the angel said
the exact same thing. Imagine the sight of Israel's warriors
marching around the walled city of Jericho, led by priests blowing
their ram's horn trumpets and carrying the gleaming
Ark of the Covenant. All without
saying a word. This strange display would
have certainly unnerved even the fiercest
defenders. Many people wander why God
told the Israelites to march around the city those seven days. What
was the purpose of that? Well, maybe part of it was to test
the faith of the Israelites to see if they would be obedient.
That might have been part of it. But I think a large part of
it was siege warfare and psychological
warfare. The remnants of Jericho that are
visible today are about 1 000 feet long and 500 feet wide. Assuming the
ancient city was roughly that size, the Hebrews would have to march
over a mile to encircle it just once. Considering that the Israelites
were marching in desert heat on an uneven terrain of desert rocks
and sand without shade or rest, it most likely took an hour to
march one time around the wall. For six days,Joshua and
the Israelites marched silently around the city. The time
had come for their battle plan to play out to its
dramatic conclusion. It was day seven of the
Jericho offensive, and according to the
instructions given to Joshua by the commander
of the Lord's armies, the priests and Israelites were to
circle the city seven times. Seven miles and at least seven
hours of non-stop marching, a brutal test of endurance that left
many soldiers dehydrated and exhausted. The Canaanites in Jericho must
have watched with an apprehensive curiosity as the day
wore on and Israel kept marching. Then Israel stopped, the ram's horns
signaled, and the people shouted. The Book of Joshua says that the
walls of Jericho came down, and then the Israelites ran
straight into the city to claim it and destroy its inhabitants,
both people and livestock. None were spared except a woman
named Rahab and her family. Rahab was a prostitute,
a common profession in Jericho as the religion of Canaan
depended on temple prostitution. For her role in hiding the two
spies sent by Joshua into the city before the attack, Rahab was
spared along with her family. Her house was built against
the city's outer wall. She marked her house
with a red rope, a prearranged signal telling the Israelites which
household should be spared. Well, the story of Rahab is an essential part of this
larger story of Jericho. The participation of Rahab was
necessary to taking the city. She marked her house by a red
cord, or a red string, so that the Israelites,
in storming the city, would realize this was the one place
that they were supposed to spare. Now, the fact that her house is
against the wall in the story comports with what's
been discovered there in the
archaeological evidence. <i>Dr.. Wood:</i>
You looked at the Hebrew words used here, it says her house
was built against the vertical surface of the city wall.
"Qiyr chowmah" are the Hebrew words that are used there. And so,
her house was built up against that lower mud brick wall. It was
the back wall of her house, and that's why she could let the spies
out through her window in that wall. There was some kind of an opening
there that she had to let a little light there into her house, and
that's how the spies escaped. And that's why if she put that red
rope out, they could see that, even from outside the city. And
the interesting thing is the archaeologists found these
houses on that embankment, up against the city wall. Where?
On the north side of the tell. Well, the north side is the closest
to the hills of Judah, and so it would be very easy
for them to run from her house, after they had climbed down
the rope from her window, run from there to the hills of Judah
quickly so they could hide there. And so, we see the archeology
matches the Biblical story. There were houses
that were preserved. There was a section of the wall
that stood, that did not fall. Just on the north side. Everywhere
else, all around the city, every place the archaeologists excavated,
they found the walls had fallen, had collapsed, had gone
down to the base of the tell, but if you look at
the Hebrew, it says, 'The walls fell
beneath themselves.' And that, again, is a very
precise description. It's an eyewitness account of
somebody observing what happened because the archeology
has shown that the walls were built up a little bit on top of
the stone retaining wall, and then again, at the crest of the
embankment, built up there. When those mud brick walls fell,
they fell down to the base of the stone retaining wall.
And that's where the archaeologists found them. Another
aspect of that is we still have this fifteen-foot high retaining wall
that is holding this embankment in place. How were the Israelites
going to get over that? Well, the mud brick walls, when they
fell down at the base of the tell, they fell in a big pile and formed a
ramp that the Israelites merely climbed up over and were able to
get over that stone retaining wall, up the embankment,
and into the city. Again, the Bible is very precise.
After the walls fell, it says the Israelites went up into the city,
every man straight before him, up into the city. You know, the
critics claim this story was written hundreds of years later. It was
made up to explain ruins. It never really
happened historically. Well, how did the writer
know these little details?" British explorer,
Sir Charles Warren, was the first to excavate the site
of ancient Jericho in 1 868. Since then, several researchers
have followed in his footsteps, excavating the ruins of the ancient
city. From these expeditions, there remains a wealth of
archaeological evidence to support support the Biblical account
of the wall's collapse and the timing and
events of the siege. Radio carbon is used for dating in
archaeological excavations, but it is generally used
for very old material. If an archaeologist has
pottery in his excavation, he will use the pottery because
it is more accurate, actually, than the radio carbon dating. A
good example of the problems inherent in radio carbon dating
is the eruption of Thira which is modern Santorini
in the Mediterranean. There is a big debate going on
between those who have used the carbon-14 method to date
that event, versus those who are using historical dating
to date the event. And there are about 1 50 years
difference between the two of them. And this is significant for Jericho
because this event happened maybe 1 00 years or so
prior to the conquest, so it's in the same time range. And
so we see very clearly there about 1 50 years difference
between radio carbon dating and historical dating. And at
Jericho, in fact, they have done some radiocarbon
dates from grain, from charred wood, and other
things, and they have found exactly the same problem. They are
earlier than our historical dating determined from the pottery. But
this is true not only of Jericho, but of Santorini and of other
archaeological sites that have been excavated that have material
from that time period. There are still issues to be
addressed and further discoveries to be made regarding
Joshua's attack on Jericho. The archaeological evidence
that has been uncovered is remarkably consistent with the
Joshua account of events. The Israelites were given strict
instructions for the military action immediately following
the wall's collapse. Jericho's goods and riches would
not be divided among the soldiers, as was tradition. Fine metals
from the city were to be added to the Lord's treasury. Everything
else was to be destroyed and burned. One of the mysteries of
Jericho concerns the holy war that immediately followed
the city's destruction. It is the most difficult part of the
story because God commanded the utter destruction of all
living things in the city. How can this be from the God
that the New Testament calls the God of love? The fact remains, though,
that people today who consider themselves Christians,
many of them have difficulty with this particular
part of the Bible. And, in one way, that's as it should
be, because where the Bible has led from that time so long
ago, the time of Joshua, is through centuries and
centuries of revelation, culminating in what
we have in Jesus. So, we have the unfolding
of God's dealing with us, and to look back to a time so long ago
and somehow find fault, isn't right. First, there is evidence in the Bible
itself that God gave Jericho and the other cities of Canaan
a long opportunity to repent of what had become a corrupt,
reprehensible way of life. The prophetic tradition of the Old
Testament bears witness to the same opportunity given to
Israel later when its land was occupied
by corrupt kings. Second, the religion of Canaan was
not one in which morality and ethics played
any significant part. The Canaanite religion
was about nature. Men would visit
temple prostitutes to start the fertility
cycle in agriculture. During this period a
god known as Molech was worshipped in
Canaan and beyond. Molech was a bronze idol,
part human and part bull, and was really an oven
with a roaring fire inside. Children were given into the arms
of Molech as a human sacrifice. Surviving children would some
day kill their own children. The society of Canaan had
become so corrupt that God completely
erased it. A third factor to be kept in
mind is the societal principle of blood revenge. If Israel had not
fully and finally conquered Jericho, an eternal thirst for vengeance
would have lived within its survivors. Jericho's fall at the hands of the
Israelites is an important event in Biblical history. Archaeological
evidence is consistent with the Joshua story and challenges
other explanations for one of the most memorable battles of the
Bible. Today, the story of Jericho still speaks of God's faithfulness to
His people, of the peril of a society that exchanges good for evil,
and of the power of God Himself, for whom all things
are possible.
