STORIES OF JOSHUA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, 17 July 1930, Page 4

STORIES OF JOSHUA

DIGGING UP BIBLE TRUTHS. How the spade has confirmed the story of Joshua's invasion of Canaan, and other details in the books of Joshua and Judges, was described recently in London by Professor Garstang. For seven years Professor Garstang directed the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, and he told a meeting at the Royal Institution how light had been thrown on the Old Testament. He placed the date of Joshua’s invasion of Canaan at about the fifteenth century 8.C., basing this upon historical details and allusions in old documents, Egyptian records, and recent excavation of ancient cities in Palestine. The speaker had, he said, been deeply impressed with the sense of reality underlying the Biblical narrative in the books of Joshua and Judges, and had devoted three years to unfevelling their problems. Every identified site mentioned in those books was visited. Three selected cities—Jericho, Ai, and Hazor—were examined with the spade.

“The impression became positive,” said Professor Garstang. “No radical flaw was found at all in the geography and archaeology of these documents. All the cities mentioned in the early documents of Joshua and Judges—chapters i. to v.—flourished during the Bronze Age, and occupied for the most part the great strategic positions of the land.” Twenty-four cities of the Canaanites in the age of Joshua were identical with those mentioned in the annals of the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty. Joshua was said to have destroyed the three cities chosen for evacuation. *

“Each place showed traces of destruction near the middle of the late Bronze Age, or about 1400 8.C.,” said the professor in relating the results of excavation. “A more complete investigation of the ruined fortifications and the site of Jericho in the spring of this year has contributed evidence in support of this conclusion.” According to Biblican tradition, the exodus took place about 480 years before Solomon began to build his temple. The date of Joshua’s invasion of Canaan fell about 1407 B.C. All the available archaeological evidence tallied with this clear Biblical tradition.

The fragmentary picture of Israel’s position under the judges was found to fit into the frame provided by Egyption chronology. It corresponded closely in certain details witn the record of Egyptians’ relations with the I -.nd of Canaan.

“There is no reason to dcubt,” concluded Professor Garstang, “but that the traditions embodied in the other documentary sources of both Books were founded on fact.”