The Walls of Jericho
The Bible tells us a story of an ancient city, Jericho, whose walls came tumbling down by God’s supernatural power. When archaeologists excavated the tel of Jericho thousands of years later, they unearthed a collapsed city wall. Of all the cities that have been excavated in the lands of the Bible, the only one with a collapsed city wall is Jericho. Although the secular academic world has distorted the facts about Jericho in an attempt to discredit the historicity of the Bible, when the archaeological evidence is examined in the light of scripture, Jericho’s story “read from the dirt” reveals an amazing parallel with the Biblical account.
Today’s video short is a tool, just over 2 minutes long, which shows how the walls of Jericho demonstrate the reliability of Scripture. This short was pulled from our feature-length documentary, Jericho Unearthed, which goes into much greater detail examining the evidence that points to the Bible’s veracity. So, if you are ever conversing with someone who says, “Well, archaeology proves that the Bible isn’t trustworthy, just look at Jericho!” Then, go ahead…look at Jericho!!!
Jesus, Captain of the Lord of Hosts, lead us in obediently following you and sounding out the powerful truth of your Word. By your might, bring down the walls that keep people from entering into relationship with you and entering your promise of life and salvation.
Blessings,
Joel
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I led a group to Jericho last fall. What a disappointment at the site. No mention of biblical Jericho or any Jewish history. Surprisingly, the most important dig location with visual evidence of ancient fallen walls, that archeology scholars have excavated, was fenced off. We regrouped at the hotel in Jerusalem that night, and viewed your video on Jericho. Bang! Everyone in the group clearly understood the history, dating, and archeology of Joshua & ancient Jericho. A+ You have a great narration style to make things understandable. The graphics and video were clear and to the point. I have played this video for several small groups in the US and the result is always the same. They get it. God’s Word is fact and history. Thanks, Joel. We look to many more great videos from you.
I’m really glad you were able to help your group “see” what they’re trying to make inaccessible to see at the site. Jericho is such a powerful example of the Biblical account being amazingly accurate in the details of the event. But the majority of academia has such an entrenched bias against the Bible that it is unwilling to objectively examine the evidence. I’ve taken several groups of college and seminary students to Jericho. When I lay out the evidence for them, they are so encouraged and excited see that the archaeology of Jericho in fact supports the Bible. They’re being taught the opposite! If you’re ever leading another group to Jericho, let me know and I’ll meet you there! Thank you, Mick, for your encouraging words and for leading people to the truth!!
Hi. While I have read about the tumbled wall, it was my understanding that “Kathleen Kenyon (?), I don’t remember her name, sorry, ascertained that the walls that tumbled were thousands of years earlier than the Joshua conquest. Please help me here. Thanks, Vicki
Hi Vicki,
Thank you for asking for clarification! This video short, “The Walls of Jericho”, is just a small excerpt from the longer, feature documentary we produced entitled, Jericho Unearthed. The feature goes into the details of the controversy which you are asking about.
In a nutshell, the two major excavations of Jericho were done by two British archaeologists, John Garstang in the 1930’s and Kathleen Kenyon in the 1950’s. Garstang concluded that the archaeological evidence he found at Jericho matched with the biblical account and Kenyon disagreed, saying that the walls collapsed 150 years earlier than the Biblical record. Another archaeologist named Bryant Wood (also in our film) has re-analyzed the pottery from both excavations and concluded that Garstang’s dating was right and Kenyon’s was wrong. So, while there is agreement among scholars that the city wall of Jericho collapsed, there is disagreement about when that collapse happened. Both Garstang and Kenyon were secular scholars, but Garstang used the Bible as a historical source while Kenyon totally ignored the Bible.
In my opinion what makes Garstang’s interpretation stronger than Kenyon’s is that his is based on the only ancient text we have on Jericho from this period — the Bible. Kenyon’s interpretation is not based on any historical source. The Bible told archaeologists that they would find a collapsed city wall at Jericho thousands of years before it was excavated. This is an amazing correlation between the biblical account and the archaeological evidence!
Blessings,
Joel