Exploring the Bible

  When it comes to biblical archaeology, few sites have sparked as much intense, drawn-out fighting as the ancient city of Jericho. According to Joshua 6, the Israelites marched around the city for seven days. On the final day, the trumpets blew, the walls "fell down flat," the army charged straight up into the city, and the entire site was burned to the ground. For centuries, skeptics viewed this as a theological myth. Then, the archaeologists started digging. What they found in the dirt over the next 60 years created a three-act drama of discovery, reversal, and ultimately, a stunning vindication of the biblical timeline. It all comes down to three prominent archaeologists looking at the exact same physical evidence and fiercely debating what it meant. The Scene of the Collapse (The Physical Evidence) In the 1930s, British archaeologist John Garstang excavated Jericho and found something that sent shockwaves through the academic world. The physical evidence perfec...

Did Archaeology Find Jericho?   If you grew up in Sunday School, there is a good chance you can hear the song in your head right now: “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down!” It’s one of the most dramatic scenes in the Bible. The Israelites cross the Jordan, circle the city for seven days, blow the trumpets, and shout. The massive fortifications of the city collapse flat, allowing God’s people to charge straight in. But for a long time, Jericho was the favorite target of skeptics. In the 1950s, a famous excavation led by Kathleen Kenyon concluded that while Jericho was an ancient city, it was abandoned and had no walls during the time of Joshua (around 1400 B.C.). For decades, this was taught in universities as "proof" that the Bible was historically inaccurate—a nice story, but not history. But as we discussed in our last post, archaeology is a discipline that is constantly updating itself. And when a new pair of eyes looked at t...