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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
January, 1935
Conquest o f PALESTINE B y JAMES L. KELSO* Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Joshua’s
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J o s h u a ' s conquest o f Palestine is one o f the major fields o f archaeological study at the present time. In 1931, Professor John Garstang published his important book, The Foundations o f Bible History, in which he worked out with great detail and by the use o f archaeological data the date o f Joshua’s conquest of Palestine as about 1400 B. C. Although Professor Garstang did excellent work on many o f the geographic problems o f the conquest, unfortunately his archaeological work failed to recognize the great cultural differences between the Canaanite civilization and the Is* raelite civilization. Thus his book still remains an excellent treatise o f the geography o f the conquest, but it is already antiquated from the archaeological viewpoint. Archaeology is now compelled to reject this early date for the conquest, i. e., approximately 1400 B. C., and to locate it after the reign of Merneptah, i.e., after 1200 B. C. E d o m ’ s H is t o r y U n c o v e r e d The conquest o f Palestine really begins as a military problem when Moses leads Israel out o f the forty years’ wandering in the wilderness into Transjordan. Numbers 20:14-21 tells us how Moses sent messengers to the king o f Edom asking permission for Israel to pass through Edom. Israel offered to pay for this privilege and to do no damage while crossing the land. Edom, however, refused the offer; and, at God’s command, Israel did not fight Edom, but instead took the long wilderness journey clear around the boundaries o f Edom. The account beginning with Numbers 2 1 :4 tells of the great sufferings o f Israel upon this journey. During the spring and summer o f 1934, Professor Nel son Gleuck, o f the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, traveled all over the land o f Edom, making the first ar chaeological survey o f that country. He found that Edom was a well-populated country with fine cities in the days of Abraham, just as Genesis 14 states. He discovered, how
sion), Edom suddenly took on new life, and cities grew up everywhere. A great line o f forts was built around the natural geographic frontiers o f the land. W e do not know what was the cause o f Edom’s resurrection ; we sim ply know that cities suddenly appear where for centuries all had been desert. It was this new Edom so recently recov ered from the desert that refused to let Israel pass through its territory. Moab’s history from Abraham’s time to the time of Moses is a parallel o f Edom’s history, and consequently Dr. Gleuck points out the impossibility o f the conquest of Pal estine as being in 1400 B. C., for “ the Israelites would have found neither Edomites nor Moabites who could have giv en or withheld permission to traverse their territories.” R u in s R e c o r d in g t h e T i m e o f t h e C o n q u e s t A fter the death o f Moses and the crossing o f the Jordan, the Israelites besieged Jericho. Before the war, the Ger mans excavated at Jericho, and since the war, Professor Garstang dug there. Each party thought it had found the Jericho o f Joshua’s time, but each was mistaken. Exca vations at other cities which Joshua conquered have been made, and here the cultural changes and the religious d if ferences between the Canaanite city which was conquered and the Israelite city which succeeded were so plain that the city o f Jericho must be studied a third time by the ar chaeologists. That they will find the city o f Joshua in the old mound is certain, for Pere Vincent, the greatest ar chaeologist in Palestine, has often picked up on the surface o f the mound the pottery from the correct date of Joshua’s conquest. A i was the next city Joshua conquered. He could not have conquered A i at 1400 B. C., for at that time A i was in ruins and had been in ruins for at least four hundred years. This city of A i is now being excavated by a Jewish expedition, and at the time the writer of this article last
visited A i in August, the excava tors were looking for the city o f Joshua’s conquest at the post-Mer- neptah date. A t Bethel, a mile and a half from Ai, our expedition (the Kyle Memorial) found the palace o f the king o f Bethel which Joshua cap tured. The city had been burned by him, but nevertheless the ashes o f the palace revealed a wealth of valuable objects and data. Imme-
ever, that a century or two after Abraham’s time, Edom was in vaded, her cities were annihilated, and the whole country became sim ply a part o f the Arabian desert. No cities existed in the land, and only the Bedouin roamed there. By the time o f Ramses the Great (the Pharaoh o f the Oppres- *Professor o f Semitics and Biblical Archaeology, Pittsburgh-Xenia Theo logical Seminary.
Above: Water jar and two cook ing pots as used in Bethel in the time of Christ. Left: House walls of a section of palace of Bethel which Joshua c a p t u r e d (lower walls). Upper walls are Israelite reconstructions. Right: Houses of Bethel from the time of Christ.
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