3. “So Joshua returned, and all Israel with
him, to the camp at Gilgal.” (Josh 10:15)
4.
5. Identifying the Israelites
Destruction of religious artifacts:
“The temples and their elaborate
paraphernalia that are so typical
of Late Bronze Age Canaanite
society simply disappear by the
end of the 13th century' (p126),
… at Hazor there were 'six or seven
Egyptian statues that must have
been deliberately mutilated.
Heads and arms were chopped off,
the chisel marks still visible on the
torsos.…the Israelites were
responsible…there are currently
no better candidates' (p67)”
6. Identifying the Israelites
• Joshua 11:11
“Such acts in the Amarna period
were clearly religiously motivated,
and, as such, are an isolated
phenomenon in the Bronze
Age. They are exceptional in terms
of this early date, since they
reflect a monotheistic concept of
only one God, to the exclusion of
all others. As a rule, religiously
motivated iconoclasm makes its
appearance only with the
establishment of nation-states in
the first millennium BCE and the
introduction of monotheism, whose
adherents believe that there is only
one "true" God.”
7. Identifying the Israelites
'Only four groups active at the time
could have destroyed Hazor: (1) one
of the Sea Peoples, such as the
Philistines, (2) a rival Canaanite city,
(3) the Egyptians or (4) the early
Israelites. As noted above, the
mutilated statues were Egyptian and
Canaanite. It is extremely unlikely
that Egyptian and Canaanite
marauders would have destroyed
statuary depicting their own gods
and kings. In addition, as to another
Canaanite city, the Bible tells us
Hazor: "was the head of all those
8. Identifying the Israelites
kingdoms," and archaeology
corroborates that the city was
simply too wealthy and powerful to
have fallen to a minor Canaanite
rival city. So the Egyptians and the
Canaanites are eliminated. As far as
the Sea Peoples are
concerned, Hazor is located too far
inland to be of any interest to those
maritime traders. Further, among
the hundreds of potsherds
recovered at Hazor, not a single one
can be attributed to the well-known
repertory of the Sea Peoples. That
leaves us with the Israelites.'
9. Was this genocide?
“And they smote all the souls that were therein with the
edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was
not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire.”
(Josh 11:11)
“So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the
south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their
kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all
that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded.”
(Josh 10:40)
God’s command: Deuteronomy 20:16-17
10.
11. Idolatry and Morality
For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made
even His eternal power and Godhead, so
that they are without excuse…
…who exchanged the truth of God for the
lie, and worshiped and served the creature
rather than the Creator…
…God gave them over to a debased mind,
to do those things which are not fitting;
being filled with all unrighteousness,
sexual immorality, wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness… (Romans 1)
13. Baal & Anath
Baal: the bringer of rain
Anath: war and fertility
Cult prostitution
Incest/homosexuality
Gang rape
Bestiality
14. Under the influence of Canaanite mythology, so the argument runs,
many Israelites had come to see the processes of nature as the result of
the relations between gods and goddesses. Divine intercourse would
lead to abundant harvests and an increase of cattle. Cultic prostitution,
performed by humans, was a form of imitative magic by which the gods
could be moved to engage in similar activities, with all the ensuing
beneficial results.
Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary
15. Molech
• Gods of the dead
• Communicating
with those in the
afterlife
• Child sacrifice
16. Effect on Israel
• Golden calf: “they rose up to play”
• Balaam: “people began to commit
whoredom, they invited the people
to the sacrifices of their gods”
• Jereboam: “there were male cult prostitutes
in the land”
• Josiah: “brought out the Asherah…broke
down the houses of the male cult
prostitutes”
17. Some Conclusions
• God has moral authority and exercises it
• Humans are able to understand their moral
responsibility
• Idolatry justifies and legitimises the setting
aside of moral responsibility
• Canaanite religion and society illustrated this
• Israel’s morality repeatedly affected by
idolatry
18. Not racism or xenophobia
• Promise to Abraham
“I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him
who curses you; And in you all the families of the
earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)
• Treatment of foreigners in the Law
“And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you
shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells
among you shall be to you as one born among you,
and you shall love him as yourself; for you were
strangers in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34)
19. Was it a massacre?
“So Joshua conquered all the land: the mountain country
and the South and the lowland and the wilderness slopes,
and all their kings; he left none remaining, but utterly
destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel had
commanded.” (Josh 10:40)
“Then Horam king of Gezer “And they did not drive out the
came up to help Lachish; and Canaanites who dwelt in
Joshua struck him and his Gezer; but the Canaanites
people, until he left him none dwell among the Ephraimites
remaining. (Josh 10:33) to this day and have become
forced laborers. (Josh 16:10)
Josh 10:29-40 <> Judges 1:9-11
20. Was it a massacre?
• After each victory the Israelites
returned to the camp at Gilgal
• “these campaigns were
essentially disabling raids: they
were not territorial conquests
with instant Hebrew
occupation. The text is very
clear about this.”
21. Was it a massacre?
The type of rhetoric in question was a regular
“The rhetoric of total conquest, completethe second and
feature of military reports in
first millennia, as others have made very clear.
annihilation and destruction “Israel is enemy,his seed is not”
Merneptah: of the wasted, killing
everyone, leaving no survivors, etc, is a commonMitanni,
Tuthmosis III “the numerous army of
hyperbolic way of describing a victory inhour, annihilated
was overthrown within the ancient
totally, like those now non-existent”
near eastern histories of “Israel has utterly perished for always”
Mesha:
the same period”
Ramses II: “His majesty slew the entire force of
the wretched foe from Hatti, together with his
great chiefs and all his brothers, as well
as all the chiefs of all the countries that had
come with him, their infantry and their
chariotry falling on their faces one upon the
other.”
It is in this frame of reference that the Joshua
rhetoric must also be understood.
22. Was it a massacre?
• We can also read this interpretation back to
God’s command in Deut 20:16-17
• This hyperbolic language is consistent with:
“I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land”, says
the Lord; “I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds
of the heavens, the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks
along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the
land,” says the Lord.” (Zeph 1:2-3)
“I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”
(Jer 34:22)
“the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land,
and cause man and beast to cease from here” (Jer 36:29)
23. Some more conclusions
• Joshua’s campaign battles disabled the
Canaanites’ military power
• They did not immediately occupy the whole
land
• Both God’s command and the record of
decisive victories uses the hyperbolic military
language of the time.
• The command did not mean to commit
genocide (in the modern sense) and the
Israelites did not do this.
24. What’s the point?
• God was revealing himself through Israel to the
surrounding nations (Deut 4:7)
• Israel & its Law was one step in God’s purpose a
road, suitable for the times, but still morally
distinct from the practice of surrounding nations
• The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ (Galatians 3:24)
25. What’s the point?
• God still has moral authority and the
intention to exercise it:
“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked,
but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
because He has appointed a day on which He will
judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom
He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to
all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)
