Joshua Did Fit

When archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon worked at the site of Jericho in the 1950s, she stated that she had not found collapsed walls or anything which proved habitation of Jericho during the time of Joshua. In short, there was no battle for him to fight. There was, however, an earlier, fortress city that around 1550 BC showed signs of destruction. There were fallen walls and a layer of ash a yard thick, a clear sign of violent destruction by fire. Her interpretation, however, was that this happened before the Israelites captured Jericho. Skeptics appropriated her findings as absolute proof that Joshua and the Battle of Jericho simply did not happen.

Bryant G. Wood, archaeologist and editor of “Bible and Spade,” discovered that Kenyon had incorrectly dated her finds. The conquest of Jericho actually took place in the 1400s BC. During this time, Joshua was certainly there. Wood demonstrated that the carbon-14 datings, stratigraphy, pottery, and other evidences, including fallen walls, give archaeological confirmation to the Bible account in Joshua 6. (Bryant G. Wood, “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho?”, “BAR”, March/April 1990, 44-58).