Jerichosanomalies

The biblical presentation of Jericho's history is essentially contradicted by the archaeological evidence. This article will explore the nature of this contradictory data and attempt to establish that archaeological anomalies in regards to Jericho in 1 & 2 Kings dates these books and the whole of the Primary History (Genesis to 2 Kings) to either the 5th or 4th century BCE.

The bible narratives suggest that the Exodus occurred ca. 1446 BCE (cf. 1 Kings 6:1, 480 yrs + 966 BCE, Solomon's 4th yr), and some 40 years later, Canaan is invaded by Joshua, ca. 1406 BCE. Conservative scholarship prefers this date, but Liberal scholarship opts for an Exodus/Conquest circa 1220 BCE, during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II. Elsewhere, on this website, I have argued that the Exodus is a reflection of the

The archeological evidence at Jericho failed to substantiate a walled city in existence for Joshua to attack ca. 1220 BCE at the end of the Late Bronze Age. It was understood by Kenyon (the excavator) that the city had been abandoned by that date. The city was also an abandoned ruin earlier, ca. 1446 BCE, being sparsely occupied ca. 1400 BCE (with only one dwelling being found !).

Jericho was a mighty walled city, however, when it fell ca. 1550/1540/1530 BCE to the Egyptians, who are understood to have destroyed it in the course of their conquest of Canaan, upon the heels of the Hyksos expulsion. This city was found to have been thoroughly "torched," or set on fire. I suspect this phenomena is what is being remembered in Joshua's allegedly setting Jericho on fire, destroying everything-

Briefly quoted below, from a popular work in the 1970's by the English author Magnus Magnuson, are observations about just what was found at Jericho by Dame Kathleen Kenyon. Magnusson noted that an earlier excavator, Professor John Garstang in the 1930's identified collapsed walls, which he thought verified the biblical account. Kenyon's later excavations revealed he was in error, the walls were Early Bronze Age.

"She found that there had been a considerable Early Bronze Age city at Jericho throughout the third millenium BC, whose WALLS HAD FALLEN and been rebuilt no fewer than seventeen times between 3000 and 2300 BC, when the city suffered a catastrophic destruction. The last three stages of these fortifications had been built seven metres beyond the line of the original walls, farther down the slopes of the tell. These had been Garstang's celebrated walls that Joshua and the earth quake had apparently destroyed- except for the fact that they had been destroyed a thousand years before Joshua came on the scene.

For several centuries after the destruction of 2300 BC, Jericho was occupied only by squatter nomads. But then, around 1900 BC, a new city arose: the Jericho of the Middle Bronze Age...This city flourished until the end of the Egyptian Hyksos period, when once again it came to a violent end, around 1550 BC; this destruction by fire was probably associated with the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt and the Egyptian pursuit.

Once again the site was abandoned...The site seems to have been reoccupied around 1400 BC on a much smaller scale. No new walls were built...Dame Kathleen is adamant that the occupation of 1400 BC lasted for less than a century, before the town was wrecked or abandoned again no later then 1300 BC. Her conclusion is that Jericho, like Ai, must have been a ruin by the time of the Israelite conquest, if that is correctly dated at 1250-1225 BC, right at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age." (cf. pp.93-94, Magnus Magnuson, Archaeology of the Bible, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1977)

"Furthermore, not only is the city which Joshua conquered largely missing, but the next two cities that succeeded it, according to scripture, do not appear anywhere on the mound ! The city of palm trees which Eglon captured and where he received tribute from Israel (Judg. 3:13) must have been Jericho, but no signs of this city have yet been found in the excavations. David's ambasadors, who had been insulted by the king of the Ammonites, stopped at Jericho until their beards were grown (2 Samuel 10:5); but again the mound furnishes no remains of this town." (Vol.2, p.837, J.L. Kelso, "Jericho," George Arthur Buttrick, et al., The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1962, ISBN 0-687-19271-4)

"With regard to a LATE BRONZE AGE fortification system at Jericho, there is NO ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA TO SUPPORT THE PRESENCE OF A WALLED TOWN...After Jericho was abandoned during the early part of Late Bronze Age IIb [ca. 1350-1275 BCE), it was not thought to be reoccupied to any great extent until the 7th century BC."

Holland noted that a later restudy of some of the pottery excavated by the Germans at the turn of the century, as well as Garstang's and Kenyon's expeditions, revealed some Iron I and II forms suggesting some kind of a presence. But, to date, identifiable building structures and walls are still unattested until the 7th century BCE:

"The extensive 7th century Iron Age occupation was found by all three major expeditions to Jericho...The pottery from even later phases on the mound strongly suggests that the site remained inhabited until the period of the Babylonian exile in 587 BC." (Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 3, pp.736-7, T.A. Holland, "Jericho," 1992)

"It is striking that most of the remaining Old Testament references imputing some kind of sedentary life at Jericho (cf. Judg. 3:13, 2 Sam 10:5; 1 Ki 16:34; 2 Ki 2:5, 15, 1; Ezra 2:34, Neh 3:2, 7:36) are likewise without archaeological support. After the 14th century, occupation at Jericho is not substantially attested again until the 8th, but principally the 7th century BC...It may well be that this occupation continued until the coming of Nebuchadrezzar's army in the early 6th century BC (cf. 2 Kings 25:5; Jer. 39:5; 52:8)."

"Hiel the Bethelite was responsible for the first re-occupation, occurring in the time of Ahab (early ninth century B.C.). No trace of an Iron Age occupation as early as this has so far been observed, but it may have been a small-scale affair. In the seventh century B.C., however, there was an extensive occupation of the ancient site. Evidence of this does not survive on the summit of the mound, but is found as a thick deposit, with several successive building levels, on its flanks. On the western slope, a massive building of this period was found, with a tripartite plan common in the Iron II. The pottery suggests that this stage in the history of the site goes down to the period of the Babylonian Exile. Thereafter, the site by `Ein es-Sultan was abandoned, and later periods are represented only by some Roman graves and a hut of the early Arab period. Kathleen M. Kenyon" (Vol.2, p.564, Kathleen M. Kenyon, "Jericho," in Michael Avi-Yonah, Editor, Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1976, ISBN 0-13-275123-2)

"F. Iron Age. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF A WALLED IRON AGE CITY OF JERICHO. A number of buildings datable to the EIGHTH-SEVENTH CENTURIES B.C. were excavated by the Austro-German expedition and seventh century B.C. structures were found in the latest excavations. Pottery and structures were found on the lower slopes of the mound indicating that THE SETTLEMENT WAS extensive and UNFORTIFIED. This occupation probably continued until the Babylonian captivity in 587 B.C." (p. 307, "Jericho, Old Testament," Charles F. Pfeiffer, Editor, The Biblical World, A Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology, Nashville, Broadman Press, 1966, ISBN 0-8054-1130-5)

If Iron Age Jericho is no older than the extensive 7th century BCE ruins found at `Ein es-Sultan, then a period of 100/200 years would have had to have elapsed allowing the national memory to forget when Jericho had been rebuilt. This anomaly suggests the narrative is either of the 6th or the 5th century BCE.

I have argued in other articles posted on this website that the elusive "kernel of truth" behind the Pentateuch's "fictious" Exodus account was the Hyksos Expulsion which occurred in the 16th century BCE; furthermore, I pointed out that the Pentateuch's own chronology supports an Exodus at some point in time during the 16th century.

The biblical claim made that Jericho was rebuilt in Israelite times during the reign of King Ahab of Israel, in the early 9th century BCE by Heil the Bethelite, who supposedly set up the city with a foundation offering of his firstborn son, and the city's gates with another foundation offering of his youngest son (1 Kings 16:34) is unsubstantiated. Archaelogists did establish that the city had been rebuilt in Israelite times, but not in the early 9th century BCE. Rather, it had been established in the 8/7th century BCE and remained occcupied till the Babylonian Captivity, and IT POSSESSED NO IRON AGE WALLS, IT WAS AN UN-WALLED ISRAELITE SETTLEMENT CONTRA THE BIBLICAL PRESENTATION.

It is unlikely that the Heil the Bethelite narrative was composed in the 8/7th century BCE when the national memory would remember the correct foundation date of the city. The inhabitants of Jericho who went into Exile ca. 587 BCE would surely know of no Iron Age wall to their city, and would certainly have objected to the biblical portrayal of their city having a wall ! But 100/200 years later, that is ca. 487 or 387 BCE, when memories have faded or forgotten, would permit such a tale to be presented without objection. This would date the Heil the Bethelite narrative to the 5th or 4th century BCE, and thus establishes the Primary History, Genesis to 2 Kings as a very late Post-Exilic creation of the Persian period.