A Recent Declaration
SOME of the most interesting and arresting confirmations of the accuracy of the Bible have been due to the recent investigations in Palestine, and especially at Jericho, made by Professor GARSTANG and his associates. Early in 1928, in an address delivered before the American Committee of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, this distinguished archeologist made the following important pronouncement: “Recent excavations in Palestine have proved that there is not a flaw in the Biblical narrative of the campaigns of Joshua, and they can now be traced with absolute topographical accuracy.” What a difference between this verdict of a man who has become acquainted with the facts, and the easy and foolish talk about “unhistorical legends” indulged in by learned “critics” content with their titter ignorance of those facts!
The Jericho Excavations
Recent researches have shown that the capture of Jericho was of the first importance for Joshua and the Israelites. From very ancient times it was a city to which great trade routes converged. GARSTANG, in his 1933 excavations there, revealed the ruins of the royal palace which was destroyed by fire when the city, fell before Israel. In order to get at the remains of this palace, it was necessary to clear away the remains of a strong fortress which had been built on a three-foot layer which in its turn had accumulated over the ruins of the burnt down palace. The palace therefore was built at an earlier period than was the fortress. Now GARSTANG declares definitely that the fortress belonged to the Rameses period (the 19th Dynasty of Egypt). So here we have another important confirmation of the Biblical History, which places Israel’s invasion of Canaan in the period of the 18th Dynasty.
The Walls of Jericho
GARSTANG has found that the city of Jericho was defended by two walls, separated by 12 or 14 feet. Some houses were built across the top of the walls, spanning them. Rahab’s house was one of these. There was also, just as is indicated in verses 5 and 7 of Joshua chapter 2, only one gate giving entrance to the city. The walls were very badly built: the bricks, says GARSTANG, “contained no binding straw, and varied greatly in size. The walls were therefore not regular, and the gaps were filled with mud. The outer wall was on the very brink of the mound.” The houses which bridged the two walls helped to ensure the common ruin of both. As is mentioned in Psa. 114, when Israel crossed the Jordan a terrible earthquake shook the whole region; and that was only a few days before the walls of Jericho fell. The excavations show that the walls fell outwards; and the defenders of the city would at the time be mostly on the top of the walls, expecting an attack by the army of Israel. At first the excavators thought that they had found some evidence of some undermining of the walls; but later on they discovered that this theory was a mistaken one, and that the walls must have collapsed just as the Bible says they did. Further, the excavations show that the city of Jericho had reached its climax of prosperity and enlargement during the period of the Hyksos Pharaohs, some two hundred years previously; but that in the time of Joshua the circuit of its walls amounted to less than three-quarters of a mile. It was thus perfectly easy for the army of Israel to march around the city seven times on the seventh day.
The Burning of Jericho
The excavations have proved that all Jericho was burned, and not merely the palace area. The burning of the city was carried out with intense thoroughness. GARSTANG speaks of “these impressive traces of a terrific conflagration;” and he adds: “and though the stored oil and grain must have contributed to the intensity of the fire, it is clear that such an effect could only have been obtained by studied preparation.” And another unusual feature of the burning has greatly impressed the excavators. In exact accordance with the Divine instructions recorded in Joshua chapter 6:19 and 24, they have found that while the foodstuffs were devoted to destruction, all objects of metal had been removed before the burning took place.
The “Goodly Babylonish Garment.”
Achan found in Jericho a “goodly garment” from Shinar (that is, Southern Mesopotamia); and he immediately recognized it as such. These two facts imply that there was at that period a regular trade in these articles between Babylonia and Caanan and Egypt. Recent arch2eological discoveries have emphatically confirmed this by revealing that at that time there was intense commercial activity between Babylonia and Egypt, and that the land of Canaan was the “halfway house” of that trade. Also, GARSTANG and others have shown that Jericho was one of the great centers for this international commerce.
The Date of the Conquest
As we have already shown, the Biblical chronology places the Exodus from Egypt and the conquest of the land during the 18th Dynasty of Egyptian kings, this being confirmed by what GARSTANG has discovered about the Rameside fortress which was built some time after Jericho was destroyed by Joshua. But the excavators have discovered other cogent facts to the same effect. In the old cemetery near Joshua’s Jericho they have found, in the tombs, 94 royal Egyptian scarabs (beetle-shaped gems, inscribed with royal names), ranging from the Hyksos period to the earlier part of the 18th Dynasty, but not beyond this. The conclusion is, that Jericho fell before Israel somewhere about the middle of the 18th Dynasty—that is, prior to the period covered by the Tel-el-Amarna Letters.
It is only fair to mention, however, that GARSTANG and others are of the opinion that the actual Pharaoh reigning when Jericho fell was Amenhotep III, and not the earlier monarch Thutmose III. Their opinion is based upon the fact that in the old Jericho cemetery were found two seals of Amenhotep III. However, their inference by no means follows from the fact observed; because some further use of that cemetery may easily have been made after the burning of the city, during the oppression of Israel by Cushan Rishathaim, who, as we shall presently see, was a marriage relation of Amenhotep III. Professor GARSTANG has himself shown, by his discovery of the remains of the Rameside fortress, that, when the opportunity offered, the site of Jericho was reoccupied by friends of Egypt. The chronological statements of Scripture (some of which are not accepted by GARSTANG) make it clear that Jericho was burned during the latter half of the reign of Thutmose III.
Further Confirmations
It has further been shown by GARSTANG that “numerous cities of the age of Joshua are identical in name and strategic importance with places mentioned by the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty.” This fact compels the acceptance of the Book of Joshua as a reliable document of Joshua’s own times; because after that period a number of those cities ceased to be called by the old names, and some others had altogether ceased to exist.
To the same archaeologist we owe the discovery of the site of the once strong fortress of Hazor, which was “large enough to contain a permanent garrison of 40,000 or 50,000 men.” The discoverer adds: “When, further, it is found that this ‘camp’ fulfills in character and situation all the indications of Hazor, the famous stronghold of the Canaanites in the age of Joshua, a new and welcome light of material evidence begins to illuminate some of the earliest and most fascinating pages of Bible history. The political and military situation, formerly obscure, becomes intelligible; and the background to the Biblical narrative becomes real.” The situation was not, of course, in the least obscure for the first readers of the Book of Joshua; but no writer of a later age could possibly have avoided falling into many inaccuracies.
Thus in this section also the Bible comes forth triumphantly from the most searching tests that can be applied to it. As the light from the wonderful modern discovery and research in Bible lands is focused upon its pages, there shine forth ever more brilliantly its faultless accuracy and its matchless descriptive excellence.
The Chronology of the Judges
It will be helpful, as we proceed to consider the period of the Judges, first of all to set forth the chronological data. However, before we do this, we would remind our readers that, while the facts as to the Bible dates have been available all along, it is only since 1927 that we have been able with certainty to ascertain the corresponding dates for this period of Egyptian history. Various friends of the Bible have tried to manipulate the Scripture chronology, in order to make it harmonize with the dates formerly assumed for certain Pharaohs; but now that the true facts are becoming known, it is seen that there is no need for any such manipulation. The facts may conveniently be set out as follows:
1546. Israel under Joshua crossed the Jordan
1586-1533 Thutmose III., whose Syrian Campaigns ceased in 1545
1516. The death of Joshua
1500-1492. Oppression by Chishan-Rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia
1508-1499. Thutmose IV., who married an aunt of Tushratta, King of Mitanni.
1492-1452. Forty years of prosperity due to godliness.
1499-1463. Amenhotep III., married a sister of Tushratta.
1452-1434. Oppression by Eglon, king of Moab.
1463-1447. Akhnaton, who married a daughter of Tushratta.
1434-1354. Eighty years of prosperity due to godliness.
1409-1387. Seti I., who made conquests in Syria.
1354-1334. Oppression by Jabin, “King of Canaan” and Sise-Ra.
1387-1320. Ramses II. Who subdued Syria.
1294-1287. Oppression by the Midianites.
1199-1159. Oppression of S.W. Israel by the Philistines; and also,
1199-1181. Oppression of N.E. Israel by the Ammonites.
Exact Historical Harmony
A study of the above facts and dates reveals a number of most interesting correspondences:
Thutmose III. found it advisable to cease his Syrian expeditions as soon as Israel entered Canaan.
Shortly after the death of Joshua, Egypt began a long-continued alliance with the kingdom of Mitanni, Israel’s northern enemy, and identical with the “Syria of the two rivers” of Judg. 3:88Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years. (Judges 3:8). Chushan was doubtless incited and abetted by his marriage relations of Egypt, in his attack upon Israel.
The famous Tel-el-Amarna Letters form part of a considerable correspondence between the kinglets of Canaan and the two Pharaohs, Amenhotep III. and Akhnaton. From the foregoing table it will be seen that just at this time Israel was enjoying forty years of prosperity due to godliness, and was therefore able to go on subjugating the Canaanites. Now these letters contain many appeals to Egypt by the kinglets of Canaan, for help against mighty enemies called the “Khabiri”—the Hebrews. We give one example: Ribaddi of Northern Phenicia writes to the Pharaoh: “The hostility of the Hebrews waxes mighty against the land, and against the gods.” Further, the Khabiri, though so mighty, have no king over them: exactly as was the case with the Hebrews at that time.
During that forty years the Canaanites were so thoroughly subdued that the next oppression of Israel came not from them, but from Moab, whose king reoccupied Jericho. After the deliverance wrought by Ehud, Israel “had rest for eighty years.”
Consequent upon the Syrian conquests of Rameses II., we find, instead of a number of Canaanite kinglets, “Jabin, king of (all) Canaan:” an appointee of the Pharaoh, who took care to place over this king’s army an Egyptian general named Sise-Ra, furnishing him with an equipment of 900 iron chariots. Sir FLINDERS PETRIE remarks, concerning recent excavations in Palestine: “When iron furnaces and massive tools are unearthed, the 900 chariots of iron of Jabin’s become real to us.” It is also noteworthy that Thutmose III. boasts, in an inscription about one of his campaigns in Canaan and Syria, that he brought back from Migdol 900 chariots, “not only of iron, but many plated with gold and silver.”
From Judg. 4:2424And the hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. (Judges 4:24) we see that after the defeat and death of Sise-Ra, King Jabin held out for some time against Israel, but was finally destroyed. No doubt he sent urgent appeals to Rameses II. for help; but he received none. This is in exact accord with the policy of Egypt just then, whose resources had been disastrously and permanently weakened by the costly victory over the great Hittite confederacy at Kadesh in B.C. 1367.
The “Victory Monuments.”
The more recent discovery of “Victory Monuments” of Seti I. and Rameses II. at Beth-Shan in Palestine has brought into fresh prominence the victory monument of Merneptah (the successor of Rameses II.), which was found at Thebes in 1896, and which says: “Kheta (the Hittite-land) is subdued, Canaan has been despoiled, Ashkelon is led captive, Gezer is taken, Israel is wasted and has no seed.” These fresh monuments boast of similar victories by Seti I. and Rameses II. The Israelites were therefore, in the days of those monarchs, already settled in Canaan, just as the Bible says; whereas this has been denied by many, who have also, in the interests of their theories, treated the Biblical chronology with contempt. The notion that Rameses II. was the Pharaoh of the Egyptian Oppression obtained some seeming support from the discovery of that king’s name on buildings and monuments at Pithom (see Ex. 1:1111Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. (Exodus 1:11)). Now, however, it is well known that Rameses II. in a wholesale manner “stole the monuments of his predecessors;” and so the mere occurrence of his name should no longer deceive anyone. While, then, it is clear that the inscription on Merneptah’s monument cannot be reconciled with the more popular idea about the Pharaohs of the Oppression and of the Exodus, it is in complete accord with the chronology given in the Bible and with the new and accurate dating now at last obtained for the reigns of the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. From these new Victory Monuments found at Beth-Shan, we see that towards the close of those eighty years of Judg. 3:3030So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore years. (Judges 3:30), the godliness of the Israelites began again to decline, and so difficult times set in for them once more (see Judg. 5:66In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways. (Judges 5:6)).
Thus every fresh discovery in Bible lands not only confirms the truthfulness of the Bible, but also helps us to enter more fully into the meaning and the implications of the sacred words.