Editing Historicity of the Bible (section)

====The "conquest narrative" in Joshua and Judges====
A major issue in the historicity debate was the narrative of the Israelite conquest of Canaan, described in Joshua and Judges. The American Albright school asserted that the biblical narrative of conquest would be affirmed by archaeological record; and indeed for much of the 20th century archaeology appeared to support the biblical narrative, including excavations at [[Beitin]] (identified as Bethel), [[Tell ed-Duweir|Tel ed-Duweir]], (identified as Lachish), [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]], and [[Jericho]].<ref name=FinkelsteinSilberman2002/><ref name=OEANE>{{cite book |last=Holland |first=Thomas A.| title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East | chapter=Jericho | publisher=Oxford University Press | editor=Eric M. Meyers | year=1997 | pages=220–224}}</ref>

However, flaws in the conquest narrative appeared. The most high-profile example was the "fall of [[Tell es-Sultan|Jericho]]", excavated by [[John Garstang]] in the 1930s.<ref name=FinkelsteinSilberman2002/> Garstang originally announced that he had found fallen walls dating to the time of the biblical [[Battle of Jericho]], but later revised the destruction to a much earlier period.<ref name=OEANE/> [[Kathleen Kenyon]] dated the destruction of the walled city to the middle of the 16th century ({{circa}} 1550 BCE), too early to match the usual dating of the Exodus to Pharaoh Ramses, on the basis of her excavations in the early 1950s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kenyon |first=Kathleen M.| title=Digging up Jericho: The Results of the Jericho Excavations, 1952–1956 | publisher=Praeger | place=New York | year=1957 | page=229}}</ref> The same conclusion, based on an analysis of all the excavation findings, was reached by Piotr Bienkowski.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bienkowski |first=Piotr| title=Jericho in the Late Bronze Age | publisher=Warminster | year=1986 | pages=120–125}}</ref> By the 1960s it had become clear that the archaeological record did not, in fact, support the account of the conquest given in Joshua: the cities which the Bible records as having been destroyed by the Israelites were either uninhabited at the time, or, if destroyed, were destroyed at widely different times, not in one brief period.<ref name="FinkelsteinSilberman2002">{{cite book|author1=Israel Finkelstein|author2=Neil Asher Silberman|title=The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lu6ywyJr0CMC&pg=PA81|year=2001|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0743223386|pages=81–82}}</ref>

The consensus for the conquest narrative was eventually abandoned in the late 20th century.<ref name="FinkelsteinSilberman2002" />

''[[Peake's Commentary on the Bible]]'' argues that the Book of Joshua conflates several independent battles between disparate groups over the centuries, and artificially attributes them to a single leader, Joshua.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Peake |editor1-first=A. S. |editor2-last=Grieve |editor2-first=A. J. |date=1919 |url=https://archive.org/details/commentaryonbibl00peak/page/n5 |title=A Commentary on the Bible |edition=1st |location=London |publisher=T.C. and E.C. Jack}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2024}} However, there are a few cases where the biblical record is not contradicted by the archaeological record. For example, [[stratum]] {{which|date=June 2023}} in [[Tel Hazor]], found in a [[destruction layer]] from around 1200&nbsp;BCE, shows signs of catastrophic fire, and cuneiform tablets found at the site refer to monarchs named ''Ibni Addi'', where ''Ibni'' may be the [[etymology|etymological]] origin of ''Yavin'' (''Jabin''), the Canaanite leader referred to in the Hebrew Bible.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Early%20History%20-%20Archaeology/Hatzor%20-%20The%20Head%20of%20all%20those%20Kingdoms|title=Hatzor – The Head of all those Kingdoms|access-date=2018-09-18}}</ref><ref name=Finkelstein>{{Harvnb|Finkelstein|Silberman|2001}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2024}} The city also shows signs of having been a magnificent Canaanite city prior to its destruction, with great temples and opulent palaces,<ref name=Finkelstein/>{{Page needed|date=May 2024}} split into an upper [[acropolis]] and lower city; the town evidently had been a major Canaanite city. [[Israel Finkelstein]] theorized that the destruction of Hazor was the result of civil strife, attacks by the [[Sea Peoples]] or a result of the [[Late Bronze Age collapse|general collapse]] of civilization across the whole eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age, rather than being caused by the Israelites.<ref name=Finkelstein/>{{Page needed|date=May 2024}}

Amnon Ben-Tor ([[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]]) believes that recently unearthed evidence of violent destruction by burning verifies the biblical account.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ben-tor |first=Amnon |date=2013-01-01 |title=Who Destroyed Canaanite Hazor? |url=https://www.academia.edu/35948616 |journal=BAR}}</ref> In 2012, a team led by Ben-Tor and Sharon Zuckerman discovered a scorched palace from the 13th century BC in whose storerooms they found 3,400-year-old ewers holding burned crops; however, Sharon Zuckerman did not agree with Ben-Tor's theory, and claimed that the burning was the result of the city's numerous factions opposing each other with excessive force.<ref>{{Cite news |title=A 3,400-year-old Mystery: Who Burned the Palace of Canaanite Hatzor? |language=en |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/2012-07-23/ty-article/a-3-400-year-old-mystery-at-tel-hatzor/0000017f-e83f-d62c-a1ff-fc7f113a0000 |access-date=2023-05-11}}</ref> Biblical scholar [[Richard Elliott Friedman|Richard Elliot Friedman]] ([[University of Georgia]]) argues that the Israelites did destroy Hazor, but that such destruction fits better with the account of the [[Book of Judges]], in which the prophetess [[Deborah]] defeats the king of Hazor.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Friedman|first=Richard Elliott|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_sbADQAAQBAJ|title=The Exodus|date=2017-09-12|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-256526-6|pages=80|language=en}}</ref>