The walls of Jericho miraculously crumbled for the Israelites
(Joshua 6)
The biblical invasion of Canaan is situated in the 13th century BC. And back then, Jericho didn’t have walls. In fact, Jericho had very little in those days; it didn't even have inhabitants. When the Israelites arrived, Jericho had been abandoned for at least 300 years.
But what they don’t tell you, is that Jericho had many walls over time, built on top another. The last one caved in around 2,100 BC. That’s more than 800 years before the Israelites arrived! 800 Years, that's the time difference between us and the crusaders.
Jericho is the oldest city of the world that is still inhabited.
People have lived in it since 8,000 BC, although sometimes the place was abandoned for centuries. And in some periods, it had walls.
But these ‘walls’ weren’t exactly castle walls: they weren’t very high and archaeologists suspect they were meant for defense against floods rather than enemy armies.
When archaeologist John Garstang dug up the first crumbled wall in the 1930s, there was excitement all over the world. The tumbling walls of Jericho had been found!
But in the 1950s, another archaeologist, Kathleen Kenyon, spoiled the party. She proved that the ruins Garstang had found were much, much older. The walls were destroyed many hundreds of years before Joshua arrived.
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Walls? |
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8,000 BC |
First settlement in Jericho: ‘PPNA-culture’ (the abbreviation is archaeology-speak for ‘pre-pottery neolithic A’) |
Yes
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7,000 BC |
Jericho is deserted for 1,500 years |
No |
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5,500 BC |
New settlement in Jericho |
Yes |
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4,000 BC |
Jericho is abandoned again, this time for 500 years |
- |
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3,500 BC |
New settlement in Jericho; new walls arise |
Yes |
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2,300-2,000 BC |
Walls come down, Jericho in decay |
- |
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1,550 BC |
Jericho has become an unsignificant village - without walls |
- |
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1,300 BC |
Jericho is abandoned |
- |
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1,300-1,200 BC |
Joshua arrives |
- |
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1,000 BC |
New settlement in Jericho |
- |
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600 BC |
Jericho is destroyed again and abandoned forgood; the current city of Jericho would be founded many centuries later at a distance |
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No one knows what had happened to the walls exactly.
Some archaeologists believe the walls of Jericho crumbled after enemies heated them up with fires. Others believe that the walls never were destroyed by force: they would have deteriorated gradually after Jericho was abandoned, because of rainfall, floods, or occasional earthquakes.
It is possible that the tumbling of the walls echoed through history and made its way into the bible.
Another possibility is that the ruins of Jericho themselves inspired the writers of the bible to the destruction story. After all, for many centuries the ruins must have been a well-known landmark in the Canaanite desert.
Most independent scholars however prefer the third option: that the bible has nothing to do with the real crumbled walls of Jericho.
The city of Jericho was rebuilt and had grown very important when the Book of Joshua was written (probably in the 7th century). Its ‘destruction story’ could simply be the bible’s way of saying: “Look how mighty you can become when you’re true to the Lord! Your faith can even bring down the walls of Jericho!”
You could compare it to the destruction of New York in Hollywood movies like The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day or Godzilla. It’s a style figure, meant to impress you. In that way, Joshua 6 could be the bible’s disaster movie!
Scholars agree that the biblical story wasn’t always the way it is today. Several sections containing details about the Ark and the rituals involving the collapse of the walls were added later. The original verses make a better, more exciting story!
It’s really fun to read them in one go: Joshua 6:1-7, 10-11, 14, 16, 20-21, 26-27.
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Scholars have pointed out that the Jericho story ‘borrows’ some classic themes from ancient literature.
When the Israelites conquer Jericho, they save the life of the whore Rahab, who has helped two Israeli spies. The Israelites ask her to hang down a red rope from her window, so they can recognise her.
Almost exactly the same happens in the Greek mythology regarding the conquest of Troy. Here, the Greeks get help from a Troy inhabitant named Antenor. After the fall of Troy, the Greeks save Antenor and his family. They ask him to hang a leopard skin by his door, so they know where he lives.
Ze'ev Herzog: "Deconstructing the walls of Jericho"
Jodey Bateman: "Thus went the battle of Jericho" (2002)
William Stiebing: "Out of the desert? Archaeology and the exodus" (1989)