JERICHO (Time March 5, 1990)

It is one of the most dramatic events chronicled in the O.T., but for generations scholars have debated whether the Israelites' assault on Jericho was fact or myth. Over the past 3 decades, the consensus has gone against the biblical version. The late British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon established in the 50's that while the ancient city was indeed destroyed, it happened around 1550 B.C., some 150 years before Joshua could have shown up.

But archaeologist Bryant Wood, writing in the March/April issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, claims that Kenyon was wrong. Based on a reevaluation of her research, which was published in detail only recently, Wood says that the city walls could have come tumbling down at just the right time to match the Biblical account. While that does not prove that the event happened, it does give plausibility to the O.T. Version.

Kenyon's dating of Jericho's destruction was based largely on the fact that she failed to find a type of decorative pottery, imported from Cyprus, that was popular in the region around 1400 B.C.. Its absence, she reasoned, meant that the city had long since become uninhabited. But Wood, an ancient pottery expert at the U. of Toronto, argues that Kenyon's excavations were made in a poorer part of the city, where the expensive imported pottery would have been absent in any case. And he says that other pottery, dug up in Jericho in the 1930's, was common in 1400 B.C.

Except for the disputed dating, Kenyon's discoveries at Jericho were largely consistent with the Bible story. For one thing, she found that the walls had fallen in a way suggestive of sudden collapse. Many scholars think the destruction was caused by an earthquake, which could also account for a temporary damming of the Jordan River described in the Bible. Moreover, Kenyon found bushels of grain on the site. That is consistent with the bible's assertions that Jericho was conquered quickly. If the city had capitulated after a long siege, the grain would have been used up.

A thick layer of soot at the site, which according to radiocarbon dating 14 was laid down about 1400 B.C. supports the biblical idea that the city was burned, not simply conquered. Finally, Egyptian amulets found in Jericho graves can be dated to around 1400 B.C. as well. Says Wood: "It looks to me as though the biblical stories are correct.

...The most serious sticking point: few scholars think Joshua and fellows entered the land as early as 1400 B.C.. Most believe the Israelites came about 200 years later, and then not as military conquerors but as a wave of immigrants. (p. 59)

KING OG'S IRON BED - Bible Review, April 1990 p.16-21

"His iron bed is still Rabbah of the Ammonites, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, measured by a man's forearm" (Deut. 3:11).

...the bed (would be) about 13 ft. long (using common cubit of 17.5 inches) and nearly 6 feet wide, an impressive size even today with our so-called king-size beds. King Og may have had such a large bed as a sign of prestige, or perhaps as the result of a royal whim. But the more likely explanation is that he needed a large bed because he was so tall. ... the tells us that Og was one of the few Rephaim left; the Rephaim were a race of giants - or perhaps very tall people.

The puzzling question is why the biblical text should preserve such a notice about King Og's iron bed. This has troubled many scholars who have concluded that what the text is really referring to is not an iron bed, but a stone sarcophagus, a more likely candidate for public display and literary commemoration. Accordingly, if you look at the United Bible Society's Good News Bible, you will see the text refers to King Og's "coffin made of stone."... The New English Bible tells us that Og had a "sarcophagus of basalt" with a footnote "or iron" for basalt. Other translations, like the NIV, reverse the process and place a footnote at "bed" that says "or sarcophagus."...

The Hebrew phrase is "eres barzel", bed of iron. For a bed to serve also as a bier is understandable, both practically and semantically; however, both Hebrew and Phoenician use a different word ("'rn") for the different object (coffin) ... which enclosed the body. There is not really any evidence that the semantic range of "eres" extends so widely as to include a coffin.

Scholars who transformed iron ("barzel") into stone have been equally imaginative. One prominent exegete urged that by "barzel" "is meant probably the black basalt of the country, which actually contains a proportion of iron (about 2

0%). This claim has often been repeated...

First, we should not think of Og's bedstead as being solid iron. Most likely, it was decorated with iron. The situation with ivory is an obvious analogy. The Hebrew Bible contains references to "a throne of ivory" ("Kisse sen", I Kings 10:18; 2 Chron. 9;17), to "beds of ivory" ("mittot sen," Amos 6:4) and even "a house" and "palaces of ivory" ("bet hassan", I Kings 22:39; "hekle sen", Ps 45:8).... Archaeological discoveries at Samaria and in Assyrian towns have demonstrated that this furniture was not made of ivory... rather the ivory served as a decoration, plating, veneer and paneling....

But you may ask, why should a bed be decorated with a dull, utilitarian metal like iron? And, even if it were, why should it merit special mention, almost like an interruption in the text?...

The answer is simple. At that time iron was a kind of precious metal! And Og's bed was especially large....

In a famous cuneiform letter, a Hittite King named Hattusili III (c. 1289-1265 B.C.) replied to a request for iron from someone who may have been the king of Assyria. The Hittite king replied by saying that the iron was not available at present in the amount required, but that it would be produced later. In the meantime, he was sending one dagger-blade of iron a gesture of good intent. That such a small amount would be adequate to establish good royal intentions indicates how highly valued iron was…

In Southern Turkey an ivory box was unearthed from a level of 18th century B.C. decorated with studs of gold, lapis lazuli, and iron.

WORTHLESS TREASURES Pulpit Helps 12/92 p. 8

Hidden treasures today are rare. In the ancient biblical lands, how- ever, they were common. Palestine, caught as a land bridge between Egypt and the great empires, were repeatedly invaded, ravaged, and captured. Multitudes buried gold. There were no banks. The govt., nobility, clergy, & Arab invaders all robbed the common people often and without warning. Because of this, the people quickly buried treasure in the ground, in walls, in tree trunks, or wherever they could. Earthquakes could cover up entire cities and bury gold with them. All kinds of people quickly buried what they had in the face of invasion or political change. They left, they died, they were captured, and no one knew where the treasure was hidden.

W.M. Thompson was a missionary in Syria and Palestine for 30 years. He told of workmen digging up a garden in Sidon. They found several copper pots of gold. They did exactly like the man in the parable - concealed their find with care. But then, wild with joy, they could not keep their mouths shut. The governor of the city caught them, and recovered 2 of the pots, and it was found that they contained 8000 pure gold coins of Alexander and his father Philip. Thompson saw hundreds of persons all over the country spending their last penny looking for such treasure.

MUMMIFICATION & JOSEPH R.Digest 8/78 p.103

Herodotus, the 5th Century B.C. Greek historian, explained that there were 3 categories of funereal procedures. For the expensive 1st class funeral, bearers carried the body to a ferry on the Nile. Transported to the western shore, the deceased was borne in a procession, headed by a priest, to the embalming tent.

The corpse was there cleansed and, while priests chanted dirges, craftsmen went to work. The chief embalmer wore a jackal's mask - perhaps at first an echo from the days when jackals nosed around the shallow desert graves, but later on an image of the jackal headed god Anubis, conductor of dead souls.

Enter that formidable personage, the cutter. According to Greek historian Diodorus, he would make an incision with an Ethiopian stone in the left side of the corpse's belly, leaving a wound about 5 inches long, then flee as fast as he could run, pursued by flying rocks and curses - a token penalty for having violated a human body. Other workers now pulled out most of the viscera, embalmed them and placed them in four stone vessels to be buried with the mummy. The brain was dexterously extracted. Only the heart was left in place; seat of the conscience, it would be weighed in the Beyond. The empty body cavities were rinsed with palm wine and coated with liquid resins as a protection against parasites.

Human bodies are about 3/4's water. How to remove it without damaging the tissues was the mummy maker's secret. Modern scholars hold that dry natron, a natural substance containing sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride, was packed around the body. It would take 35 to 40 days to draw out liquids. The time span is referred to in Genesis. Joseph, on Jacob's death in Egypt, "commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father... and 40 days were fulfilled for him; for so fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed."