Latest / Crosswalk / Can We Trust the Story of Jericho? — Joshua 6:26–27

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Can We Trust the Story of Jericho? — Joshua 6:26–27 · Crosswalk

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Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow
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him. You're listening to Crosswalk with Pastor
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Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio ministry
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of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities and it is our aim
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to lead you to the cross through the teaching
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of God's Word. Okay, we're in the book of Joshua
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and Actually, I didn't quite get done with Joshua
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chapter 6 last time And so I'm going to give
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you some science get ready for your science lesson
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right here So book of Joshua, let's pray before
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we get started and we'll get into this and then
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I want to talk a little bit more about the battle
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of Jericho And then we'll get into chapter 7
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with the battle at AI. So let's pray. God, thanks
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for our time together. Thank you, Lord, for your
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word. Thank you, God, for the fact that you're
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a God who's faithful to us. You're a God who
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fights our battles for us. And you're a God who
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holds us to account too. And Lord, as we're going
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through and talking about some of these things,
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we pray that you just bless the time. God, I
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just pray that you bless these people that come
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out on a Sunday night, and that's not usual in
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our town. And obviously, Lord, they're seeking
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after you, seeking after your word. And God,
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I just pray that you bless them, again, as we're
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going through it. Please speak to us, Jesus,
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and ask that you do this all in your name. Amen.
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Okay, Battle of Jericho. We went over the whole
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battle last time, and you know the story. Joshua's
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told to go around the city of Jericho each day
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for six days silently, carrying the Ark of the
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Covenant with the priests out in front. And then
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on the seventh day, they're to circle the town
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of Jericho, which is about, remember I told you,
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it's about nine acres. And so when we think of
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cities, we think of, you know, Kennewick, or
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we think of Seattle, or we think of Spokane.
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But when you're talking about ancient cities,
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they were actually pretty small. And especially
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the fortified areas were usually up on top of
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a tell. And you remember what a tell is, it's
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just this built up area where cities have been
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knocked down and then built back up and knocked
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down and they would put the walls up on the tell.
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And so it's about nine acres and all the people
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from the surrounding area would be inside there
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protecting themselves from the people of Israel
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as they're coming to attack Jericho. And so they
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walked around the city of Jericho one time every
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day for six days. And on the seventh day, the
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Bible says they walked around it for seven times.
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And at the end of seven times, they all shouted
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and they blew trumpets. And then the walls fell
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down. And that's how the city of Jericho was
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taken. So we sing a song, Joshua won the battle
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of Jericho. And it wasn't actually Joshua, was
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it? It was the Lord who won the battle of Jericho.
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And so we talked about that last time. What I
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didn't talk about was some of the archeological
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problems with that whole story. So that's what
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I want to hit on before we get out of chapter
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six. So you got that? I'll hold it nicely. Can
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you guys see that? This is a drawing of Garstang's
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excavations of Jericho. Garstang was an archeologist
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that dug at the city of Jericho in the 1930s.
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And so this is an illustration of what he found.
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When you're looking at the city of Jericho, you
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can see the Israelis. That's a picture of them
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marching around the city on the outside. The
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first group is soldiers and the second group
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there has horns. There was a retaining wall that
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came up the side. And then there was a mud brick
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wall that was about 15, 20 feet tall on top of
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that retaining wall. And then there was part
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of the city that was up there. And then there's
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another wall up on the inside. And when Garstang
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dug up the city of Jericho, this is what he found.
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And so the walls actually busted out and fell
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down and became ramps. So the guys could come
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up and get into the city of Jericho. I visited
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Jericho, you can see this. in the excavations.
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And so you can see where the mud brick came down.
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And so what Garstang found was exactly what the
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Bible describes. When he got inside the city
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of Jericho and he dug in there, he found all
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kinds of pottery and in this pottery, ceramic
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clay vessels, in this pottery was food. So there
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was grain inside of it. The grain was burnt.
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And actually the city itself had been burnt.
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When you find these places, if the city's been
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destroyed, there'll be an ash layer. And sometimes,
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depending on how much it's burnt, it can be up
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to a yard thick. And so that's what Garstang
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found there at the city of Jericho. And when
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he came out of the archaeological dig, basically
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he said exactly what the Bible says is exactly
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what took place in Jericho. So with Jericho,
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what the Bible teaches is that these guys hold
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themselves up There was a one -week, seven -day
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siege of Jericho. When these people would have
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holed themselves up, they would have taken all
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the food into the city as a preparation for a
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long siege. And like we talked about last week,
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they probably could have lasted for years. They
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had a water source inside the city so they didn't
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have to come outside. And then they had a food
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source, and the food is still there. just like
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the Bible talks about. And so the city of Jericho
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was taken, it was burnt, it was destroyed. Everything
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was left there, except for a few things. And
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that's what's happening in chapter seven. So
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everything was left at the city of Jericho, and
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it was found exactly as the Bible says. Then
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comes an archeologist who was actually a student.
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She was a protege of Garstang, and she came back
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in 1952 through 1958. Her name was Kathleen Kenyon.
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And Kathleen Kenyon went through and she dug
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in another part of Jericho. And her conclusion
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was that Jericho had been destroyed over 150
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years before Joshua could get there. So Joshua,
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if the Israelis had left Egypt in 1440 BC, right
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around there, 1445 BC, they would have been at
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Jericho about 1400 BC. And when Kathleen Kenyon
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got done with her excavations, she said that
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Jericho had been destroyed not in 1400 BC, like
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Garstang said, but in 1550 BC, which is 150 years
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earlier, and that it hadn't been even used. Nobody
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was around Jericho at the time that Joshua would
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have had to come through. And so that was her
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opinion of what took place at Jericho, and that
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has been. the scholarly opinion of Jericho from
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that point on up until the 90s or so. And when
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I say scholarly opinion, I'm not talking about
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Christians. I'm just talking about people who
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claim to be biblical archaeologists and that
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kind of stuff. And if you're familiar with this,
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if you read BAR, Biblical Archaeology Review,
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and that kind of magazine, then you're going
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to run into those kinds of arguments. There are
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three ways to date a biblical site. The way that
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Kathleen Kenyon dated it was with carbon -14
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dating. So you guys have heard of carbon -14.
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If you come here for any amount of time, you've
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heard of carbon -14. Okay, so carbon -14, I'll
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give you a short run -through of how this works.
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Carbon -14 comes from nitrogen. The atomic number
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of nitrogen is 14. The atomic number of carbon
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is 12. I'm not going to get into all the details,
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but nitrogen in the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen.
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It's not mostly oxygen. So mostly nitrogen, and
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gosh, I think it's 15%, 20 % oxygen. So mostly
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nitrogen. So you have all this nitrogen in the
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upper atmosphere. You have particles from outer
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space coming and hitting the nitrogen, knocking
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pieces off. And so what happens then is the nitrogen
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becomes carbon. and it has an atomic number of
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14 which makes it unstable. And so what it wants
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to do is decay and throw off more particles.
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So that's radioactive carbon, basically. And
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so what happens is that radioactive carbon comes
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down into the rest of the atmosphere and we eat
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it, we breathe it. So carbon dioxide, all that
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kind of stuff, we eat it and we breathe it. So
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the whole time that life is going on, whether
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you're a person or whether you're a piece of
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wood, you're ingesting carbon -14. And so that
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goes on for the whole time that you're alive.
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And then when you die, you stop ingesting it,
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right? Because you're not breathing anymore.
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And if you're a piece of wood, you're not doing
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photosynthesis anymore. None of that stuff is
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going on. And so at that point, what happens
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is the carbon -14 starts decaying. And it's got
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a decay rate. There's what's called a half -life.
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In so many years, half of it turns back to normal
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carbon. And so it starts decaying. And what they
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do is they take a body or they take a, it's all
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got to be organic material. They take the organic
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material and they do a ratio. of what they think
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the amount of carbon was in the atmosphere at
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the time. And they use what we've got in our
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atmosphere. They take a ratio of the carbon -14
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in the atmosphere and compare that to the ratio
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that you have in a body. And so obviously, what's
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going to end up happening is you're going to
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have less carbon -14 in the body or in the wood
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or in the grain, which is what they dated. You're
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going to have less carbon -14 in that, and they
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take from that, they do the math, and they get
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a date for that. And so that's how carbon -14
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works. Carbon -14 has a relatively short half
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-life. You don't date dinosaurs with carbon -14,
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or you shouldn't be able to, because dinosaurs
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supposedly lived too long ago. But they found
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carbon -14 in coal. They found carbon -14 in
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diamonds. They found carbon -14 in dinosaurs.
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of all things. And so carbon -14, you can't date
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anything with it past about 90 ,000 years. In
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any case, that's how they dated the city of Jericho.
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And what they did was they took samples of charcoal
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and grain seeds from the final Canaanite city
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at Jericho, and they were tested for the C -14
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levels. And Garstine couldn't have done it because
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carbon -14 wasn't around at the time. But Kenyon
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did do it, and she came up with a date that was
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150 years too early for the Battle of Jericho.
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Well, lately, right around 2000, they've gone
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through and they've redated charcoal and grain
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seeds from the Canaanite city. And they have
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one sample dated to 1347 BC. Got to remember
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that these dates go backwards. when you get before
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the time of Christ. So 1347 is closer to us than
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1400 is, right? And so that's 1347 plus or minus
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85 years. That puts it in the range of the Battle
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of Jericho. Another one was dated 1597 BC plus
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or minus 91 years. That puts it in the range
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of what Kenyon said. And then another one. Oh,
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actually, that's the only two that I've got.
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And archaeologist Dr. Titus Kennedy summarized
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the findings this way. The first of these dates
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fits roughly around the proposed 1400 BC destruction,
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while the other is closer to the proposed 1550
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BC destruction. These dates are so broad that
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they're useless in contributing to solving the
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problem for the date of destruction. Overall,
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the C14 dates from the destruction of the Bronze
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Age city of Jericho range from as high as 1883
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BC, which is around the time of Joseph. all the
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way to as low as 1262 BC, a range of over 600
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years. Clearly, you need to look to other methods
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to determine where Jericho was destroyed or when
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Jericho was destroyed. So people will talk about
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carbon -14. What you need to know about that
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is that we've got dates that are within the range,
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but the dating method has put it in a 600 -year
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range. that goes before the battle of Jericho
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and after the battle of Jericho. So carbon -14
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is useless in this situation. And there's some
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reasons for that, and I won't get into that.
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Another way that you date these things is by
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glyphs and inscriptions. And so one of the things
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that, again, Kathleen Kenyon said was that Jericho
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was abandoned during the time that Joshua came
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in, around 1400 BC. And so Jericho would have
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been abandoned and not inhabited for quite a
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while after the death of Joshua. The problem
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is that when Garstang was doing his excavations,
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he not only excavated the city, he excavated
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a graveyard. And when he excavated the graveyard,
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he came up with what are called scarabs. And
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that's what you see on the screen right there.
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Those are some of the scarabs from the graveyards
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around Jericho. And the scarabs that you see
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up there, are from left to right a scarab of
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Hatshaput, which she's dated at 1503 to 1483
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BC, a scarab of Thutmose III, and his reign is
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dated from 1504, or his life is dated from 1504
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to 1450 BC, and the reverse side of a seal of
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Thutmose III, and then a scarab of Amenhotep
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III, and he's dated 1386 to 1349 BC. So what
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that tells you is that all the way from around
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1500 BC down to at least 1349 BC, you have people
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burying people in Jericho. Okay, so if the city's
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not inhabited, I always say that wrong, if the
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city is not inhabited, then what are they doing
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putting people in the graveyard? And so again,
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that's an evidence against what Kenyon had to
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say. When you look at these different artifacts,
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when you're talking about pharaohs like Thutmose
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and the Mennotep, they were popular. And so many
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times these scarabs were like good luck charms.
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but Hatshepsut was despised and her name was
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systematically erased from inscriptions in Egypt
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in ancient times. So her scarabs are rare because
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they weren't copied or kept as good luck charms.
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And so the fact that we found a Hatshepsut scarab
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at Jericho is really interesting. And in addition
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to that... You have the chronological implications
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from that because she lived between 1503 and
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1483 BC and so you have a scarab that's there
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from that period of time and it's obviously after
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the time that Kenyon said that Jericho was destroyed
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and so that would put it within the range of
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the time of Joshua. Another thing that you have
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during that time is Kenyon herself discovered
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what's called a cowrie. It's a snail shell. that
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had been dated to 1485 BC. And so when you're
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looking at that, again, taken together, the continuous
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nature of the dates of the scarabs and cowrie
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demonstrates that the cemetery outside Jericho
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was actively used to the end of the 15th century
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BC. And so that contradicts Kenyon's claims that
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Jericho was uninhabited. The other thing that
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you can do with this, and this is something that's
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just lately come up, there is a guy named Bryant
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Wood who is an expert in ceramic typology, which
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is the idea that there were styles in the ceramics
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that were used in different areas in the Middle
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East. It's like we have styles. My wife gets
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these types of plates and stuff that's called
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milk glass. Is that what it is? It's milk glass.
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So she collects milk glass. And so that's a style
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that was around, gosh, it must have been around
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the 50s. Do you know when it was, when it's from?
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Anyway. It's a style of ceramics, right? And
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so we have styles of ceramics in our culture.
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Well, in ancient times it was even more distinct
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because you didn't have readily available factories
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to produce these things. And so there were fats
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that went on. And Bryant Wood, and again I'm
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reading from her article here, who's an expert
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in Canaanite pottery, conducted a comprehensive
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study of the excavation reports of Garstang and
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the various writings of Kenyon. She never produced
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an excavation report on Jericho before she died,
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although one was published posthumously after
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she died. Wood discovered that Kenyon had based
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her dating of the destruction of Jericho solely
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on the absence of imported pottery. During her
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excavations at Jericho, Canyon did not find any
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imported bichrome or two -colored pottery from
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Cyprus, which is a prime indicator of Late Bronze
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occupation. Thus, she concluded that it was unoccupied
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at this time and had been destroyed 150 years
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earlier. So she didn't even base her dating of
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Jericho only on carbon -14. She did it on the
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fact that there was pottery missing. She didn't
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find a certain type of pottery. You know what
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no evidence is evidence of? No evidence. That's
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all it's evidence of. It doesn't say anything.
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If you don't find something, that doesn't mean
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that you found something. Right? That means that
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maybe you were digging in the wrong place. Maybe
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you didn't dig enough. Maybe you weren't paying
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attention to what you were digging. And so you
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don't date sites based on that. And so she concluded
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it was unoccupied, and the article goes on to
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say she would have done well to follow esteemed
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Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen's maxim. Oh, he
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says this, the absence of evidence is not evidence
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of absence. He said it better than I did. So
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the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
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The article goes on and says, inexplicably Kenyon
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seems to have failed to consider the pottery
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discovered by Garstang. He had unearthed numerous
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examples of locally made imitation bichrome Cypriot
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pottery from the destruction layer of the final
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Canaanite city of Jericho. Garsting called it
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redware, and several of the pieces he published
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have classic Cypriot bichrome motifs. What that
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means is he found knockoffs. So when you go to
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New York, for example, there are certain types
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of bags that you might want to get, certain types
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of jewelry that you might want to get, and you
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have to be careful buying things on the street
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because you won't get those things. You'll get
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a knockoff that looks exactly like it, or looks
19:45
somewhat like it, and you get ripped off. And
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so what was happening was the people around Jericho,
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they weren't importing the Cypriot pottery. They
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were making it themselves and making knockoffs.
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They were copying. the Cypriot pottery, which
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means you have to have the Cypriot pottery before
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you can have a knockoff of the Cypriot pottery.
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So it puts it after that date, for sure. And
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so it goes on to say, locally made imitation
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bichrome pottery came into use in the late Bronze
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I B period and was no longer made in the late
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Bronze II A. Since both Garstang and Kenyon were
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digging in the poorer sections of Jericho, it's
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hardly surprising that only locally made bichrome
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pottery was found and that the real fancy Cypriot
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bichrome pottery was absent. The local pottery
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that Garstang and Kenyon found indicates that
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Jericho was destroyed around 1400 BC. So both
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Garstang and Kenyon conducted significant excavations
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at Jericho. Both were excellent field archaeologists.
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Garsting meticulously analyzed the pottery he
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excavated in Kenyon, carefully improved excavation
20:50
methodology in general, yet both differed on
20:52
their interpretation of the data. While the Carbon
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14 data is of no help in determining the date
20:58
of the destruction of Jericho, the dating from
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the glyphic inscriptional evidence and ceramic
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typology would indicate that Garsting's original
21:06
date of circa 1400 BC. is the correct date, this
21:10
would support the biblical chronology of Joshua's
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army destroying Jericho in what we now call the
21:15
Late Bronze Age I. And so Joshua fought the battle
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of Jericho, and the walls came falling down.
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And then he burnt the city, just like the Bible
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says, at the time the Bible says. And the scholars
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are silly. So once again, it's like every time
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that the archaeologists turn a spade over. What
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they're doing is they're finding the evidence
21:43
of the fact that the Bible is true. So you can
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trust the story about the battle of Jericho.
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There's good reasons to trust it, and they've
21:51
been there all along. And usually when you have
21:54
somebody contradicting scripture, it ends up
21:57
just being nonsense. Just on the face of it,
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what they found when they dug up Jericho was
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a city with the walls falling outward, like the
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Bible says, a city that was completely destroyed.
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like the Bible says, a city that was burned,
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like the Bible says, and it was burned with all
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the food inside it, like the Bible says. Because
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what God had said was, you're not to take anything
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from Jericho. The Israelis didn't take any of
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the foodstuffs, and they didn't take any of the
22:28
wealth that was in Jericho. And again, Jericho
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hasn't been completely excavated. So they were
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talking about the poorer areas of Jericho. It's
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those outer wall areas that were actually excavated.
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And so they haven't even found the wealth of
22:41
Jericho. Actually, if you went into Jericho,
22:44
if you wanted to be an archaeologist and you
22:46
wanted to make some bucks, you go find the richer
22:49
areas of Jericho and you're going to find gold
22:52
and silver. You won't find Babylonian garments
22:55
anymore because they've been in the ground too
22:56
long. But you're gonna find a lot of stuff there.
22:59
And so I'm really surprised that more archaeologists
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haven't gone treasure hunting. We need a guy
23:04
like, what's his name? Indiana Jones, thank you.
23:10
To go and do that. Okay, AI in chapter seven.
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Let's look at chapter six, verse 26. Then Joshua
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charged them. at the time this is at the end
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of the battle saying cursed be the man before
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the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho
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he shall lay its foundation with his firstborn
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and with his youngest he shall set up its gates
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so the Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread
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throughout all the country but and that's where
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things get scary when you get to chapter 7 but
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you don't want to have that after a great victory
23:49
You don't want to have God going, yeah, it was
23:51
awesome, it was great, it was wonderful, fame
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was spread around, but, and that's what you have
23:56
in chapter seven and verse one, but the children
23:58
of Israel committed a trespass regarding the
24:02
accursed things. You've been listening to Crosswalk
24:06
with Pastor Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio
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ministry of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities in Kinoent,
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Washington. If you're wanting to know more about
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what it means to follow Christ, then please contact
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our church office by phone at 509... 736 -2086.
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You can also look us up online at calvary -tricities
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.org Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities is offering two
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in -person training courses for those seeking
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to serve in missions or ministry. The School
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of Missions starts with 12 weeks of classroom
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-style learning and local outreach in the Tri
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-Cities, Washington, followed by a 10 -week cross
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-cultural mission outreach. The School of Ministry,
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this course is 18 weeks of in -person learning
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environment, followed by a four -week mission
24:48
trip. Find out more at calvarytrainingcenternw
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.com.