The Biblical Conquest; Myth or History?
Jonathan Moore, D.P.M., Ph.D.
BIBLE & SPADE 36.3 (2023), 2023
We live in an amazing time in history when almost every month another discovery is unearthed that in some way validates the details of the biblical text. Yet, despite the mounting evidence for the Bible's authenticity, skepticism and challenges to the historicity of the biblical text remain prevalent in the halls of academia. Our universities and mainstream media have largely embraced a minimalistic philosophy that continues to designate the biblical text as an agenda-driven treatise that cannot be trusted objectively since they allege biased authors wrote it long after the events it describes. Even some in Christendom have waved the white flag of surrender and gone as far as to declare that archaeology has proven that the Exodus and Conquest did not happen as the Bible describes. According to our postmodern culture, truth is relative and unobtainable unless it is delivered by people of "science" as opposed to those who can only posit arguments of "faith." What many fail to understand is that every unearthed piece of pottery or bone requires an interpretation that is inevitably filtered through one's presuppositions. In many cases, it can take several years for the often-differing interpretations to be parsed and weighed to determine which is better supported by the evidence. It is my objective to always remember the scriptural mandate found in 1 Peter 3:15: "…always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." And I would contend, as one who has studied archaeological and apologetic matters carefully while completing my PhD and working in the field for several years, that it truly takes more faith to reject the biblical account of the Conquest than it does to accept the historicity of the events recorded in Joshua and Judges. I have targeted the five specific sites of Jericho, Ai (Khirbet el-Maqatir), Mount Ebal, Hazor, and Shiloh to best demonstrate substantial archaeological evidence for the biblical account of the Conquest during the Late Bronze Age, ca. 1400 BC.