Archaeology suggests that the Exodus never happened, and that Joshua never conquered Jericho. So how did the Israelites end up inhabiting the land of Canaan? Well the dates don’t exactly line up, so some archaeologists believe that Jericho could have been destroyed by fires. This hypothesis is also supported by the evidence that was found. Evidence suggests that there is an even higher chance that there was an earthquake though, given the location of Jericho. It has been shown that there are earthquake patterns that reflect that of an earthquake storm, where earthquakes continue to occur along the faults, shaking up and moving the people, thus explaining how the Israelites ended up in Canaan. I have never heard of this prior to taking this class. I have only ever thought that the story of Joshua was exactly what happened, but this story has definitely opened up my eyes to view stories in the Bible from a new perspective.
One point from the video that I found very interesting is that this is a story of liberation. The archaeologist mentions that if we take the story’s details as exactly how they are written, it leaves out the main point of the story, which in this case is liberation. The point is that there was an important leader named Joshua, and the Israelites ended up in Canaan, but there is no way that we can know exactly what happened. All we have to work with is evidence, which suggests that the Wall of Jericho is along or near the fault lines, where there is much seismic activity. Therefore, there is no way to conclude that there was actually a war fought, or that Joshua lead them to conquer the land.