Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Walter Mattfeld" <mattfeld AT mail.pjsnet.com>]

I made an error in my last posting on Jericho's walls, stating that a 7th
century BCE "wall" existed, it doesn't (my apologies), there was only "an
occupation" of the Tell in that period. The *last wall* was of the Middle
Bronze Age (destroyed ca. 1540 BCE):

"F. Iron Age. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF A WALLED IRON AGE CITY OF JERICHO. A
number of buildings datable to the eighth-seventh centuries B.C. were
excavated by the Austro-German expedition and seventh century B.C.
structures were found in the latest excavations. Pottery and structures were
found on the lower slopes of the mound indicating that the settlement was
extensive and unfortified. This occupation probably continued until the
Babylonian captivity in 587 B.C."
(p. 307, "Jericho, Old Testament," Charles F. Pfeiffer, Editor, The Biblical
World, A Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology, Nashville, Broadman Press,
1966, ISBN 0-8054-1130-5)

John Ronning stated that evidence of an occupation by Eglon in the period of
the Judges had been confirmed by the archaeological data, his statement is
in contradiction to the understanding of the data by Kelso:

John Ronning ( 28 May 2000 ):

"Kenyon, by the way, also found a brief small occupation early from the
period of the Judges which fits in nicely with the account of Eglon's
headquarters being in Jericho."

Kelso, contra Ronning:

"Furthermore, not only is the city which Joshua conquered largely missing,
but the next two cities that succeeded it, according to scripture, do not
appear anywhere on the mound ! The CITY OF PALM TREES WHICH EGLON CAPTURED
and where he received tribute from Israel (Judg. 3:13) must have been
Jericho, BUT NO SIGNS OF THIS CITY HAVE YET BEEN FOUND IN THE EXCAVATIONS.
David's ambasadors, who had been insulted by the king of the Ammonites,
stopped at Jericho until their beards were grown (2 Samuel 10:5); but again
the mound furnishes no remains of this town."
(Vol.2, p.837, J.L. Kelso, "Jericho," George Arthur Buttrick, et al., The
Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, An Illustrated Encyclopedia.
Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1962, ISBN 0-687-19271-4)

Conclusions:

The archaeological data suggests that Jericho did not fall to Joshua in 1400
or 1220 BCE (1 Kings 6:1, and the Humanist posited 13th century Exodus), and
that a defensive wall was never erected after the fall of the city in 1540
BCE, implying the narrative about Hiel the Bethelite, who suppossedly
"rebuilt the wall" and its gate in the early 9th century BCE (1 Kings 16:34)
is fiction.

That the biblical narrator thought Jericho had a defensive wall, in the
Israelite period when it didn't, suggests that this narrative was composed a
considerable time after the abandonment of Jericho in 587 BCE. The 8/7/6th
century BCE occupants would know of no 9th century defensive wall in place
about their city, unless they thought the destroyed 1540 BCE wall had been
erected in the 9th century, but that makes no sense, because the implication
of the biblical narrative is that Hiel's wall remained Jericho's wall until
the Babylonian Exile. Thus it must be that the Hiel narrative cannot be a
8th/7th or even early 6th century composition, for these peoples would know
better than to accept it's 9th century milieu AND A WALL ABOUT THEIR CITY.
The story had to have been written after collective memory had faded and
forgotten that Jericho never had any wall at all (after 1540 BCE). This
suggests a composition of either the late 6th or 5th century BCE.

All the best,

Walter

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
Germany