Jericho

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

Jericho, as mentioned in the Bible, was an ancient city that the Israelites encountered after their exodus from Egypt. Joshua, the leader of the Israelites at that time, received a command from God as to how the city was to be taken. With the massive outer two walls (One 5 meters thick, the other 6 meters, and both eight meters tall.) Jericho was a virtually impregnable city. But under Joshua's leadership, the Israelites had no need to get over the walls. And God gave them these directions:

March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in. Joshua 6:3-5 (NASB)

On the seventh day, the walls fell as the people honored what God told them to do. Every person in Jericho was killed, except for the woman Rahab who was spared for her aid of the spies.

Uncovering the Ruins

In the 1950's, archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon supervised the excavation of the ruins of the once great city. Her lack of faith in the Biblical account of Jericho was evident in her statement that she believed the 'folk tale' of Joshua's encounter with the city was merely fabricated after the destruction.

Jericho - Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906)

Location of Jericho near the Dead Sea.

The Battle of Jericho By: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872).

But, archaeologists have gone over the site numerous times to find their own account of the site, and many have come up with a bold conclusion: The walls really did fall as told in Joshua 6 .

Evidence as found later:

As the finds were dated again after it was discovered that Kenyon had committed an error in her own dating, the fall of the city was found to be around 1400 B.C., consistent with the Bible.
The fortifications of the city were virtually indestructible. The city had two outer walls, the base wall being 5 meters thick, and the inner wall being 6 meters thick. The base wall was below the inner wall, which would have made it infinitely more difficult for intruders to get through should they ever have been able to breach the first. Both walls were 8 meters tall, a huge feat to overcome.
In the Hebrew translation of the Bible, it states that the wall 'fell beneath itself'. After searching, there was a substantial amount of evidence that this is indeed what happened. A mud-brick retaining wall collapsed against the stone base wall, which was found by several teams who excavated the site.
As stated in the Bible, the Israelites burned the city and everything in it. The ample evidence of this fire was so great it was thought to be the only reason the city was destroyed in Kenyon's first uncovering.

More and more as archaeology develops people discover that the finds they bring up support the Bible, the ruins of Jericho are among them.