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‘And the Walls Came Tumbling Down’ – The History and Historicity of the Biblical Account of Jericho

Khalid Elhassan May 16, 2025 16 min

Jericho - Depiction of the Old Testament's description of Jericho's walls miraculously falling down — Depiction of the Old Testament's description of Jericho's walls miraculously falling down. Pinterest

15. The Biblical Timeline vs the Archaeological Record

Ruins of et Tell, identified with the ancient city of Ai, from the biblical narrative of the conquest of Canaan. Wikimedia

Excavations revealed that Jericho had been destroyed around 1550 BCE and remained largely uninhabited during the supposed time of Joshua’s conquest. That suggests that if the Israelites did conquer Jericho, it may not have occurred in the way or at the time described in the Bible. At et-Tell, identified by many as the site of Ai, archaeological evidence shows that the city had been abandoned for centuries and was not inhabited in the late Bronze Age, when the conquest of Canaan is supposed to have occurred.

Other cities, such as Hazor, do show evidence of destruction around the appropriate time, but it is unclear who was responsible or whether the events align with the biblical narrative. Many scholars now believe that the Israelite settlement in Canaan was a more gradual and complex process than a single military campaign, with peaceful infiltration by nomadic groups who slowly settled Canaan’s hill country.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.