Is the Bible story of the fall of Jericho historically and chronologically correct?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:

Not only is The Bible account of the capture of Jericho historical it is confirmed substantially by the discoveries of archeology in numerous places. Such confirmation is startling in its accuracy in terms of its correspondence to the the Bible account. In the early 1990s, there was a startling report by Dr. Bryant G. Woods, who was then at the University of Toronto, of finding remnants of Jericho from Joshua's time. Previous excavations had been in a different section of the mound of ancient Jericho.

Woods found a layer of ash 3-foot deep over his entire excavated area. This appears to be clear evidence of large scale destruction by fire. Large stores of spring harvested wheat that were barely touched were also discovered. The city seems to have fallen after a very brief siege, whereas a walled city would usually have been expected to hold out until starvation. 'The fact that Jericho was conquered in the spring (deduced from the spring wheat) also correlates to the biblical account that it was right after Passover, the spring holiday.

Dr. Lawrence Stager, the respected professor of Archaeology in Israel from Harvard University said this about Woods' work at Jericho: "On the whole the archaeological assessment is not unreasonable. There is evidence of destruction and the date isn't too far wrong."

In addition to the excavations by Bryant Wood, earlier excavations by John Garstang and Kathleen Kenyon, as well as an earlier excavation by a German team established that all of the expected evidence was found. This is quite striking and amazing to find that people still question this when the evidence is 'on the record'.

Answer 2

Kathleen Kenyon had dated the destruction of Jericho to around 1550 BCE, much too early for the biblical invasion. Then, in the early 1990s, Dr. Bryant G. Woods found a layer of ash that appears to be clear evidence of large scale destruction by fire. A piece of charcoal from the City IV layer was dated by the British Museum to 1410 BCE plus or minus 40 years, raising serious doubts about Kenyon's conclusions.

The British Museum later retracted this date after it was found that the radiocarbon measurement apparatus had gone out of calibration for a period of time, and thus had yielded incorrect dates during that period. The corrected date for the charcoal sample from City IV turned out to be consistent with Kenyon's ca. 1550 B.C. date for the City IV destruction.

In 1995, results were published by Hendrik J. Bruins and Johannes van der Plicht from high-precision radiocarbon measurements made on eighteen further samples from Jericho. Six of these samples were charred cereal grains from the City IV destruction. These provided further proof that Jericho was destroyed around 1550 BCE, not 1400 BCE as Woods had believed.

The latest radiocarbon dates confirm Kathleen Kenyon's previous conclusions that there was no walled city at the site of Jericho when Joshua supposedly conquered and destroyed the city. The biblical story in historically and chronologically in error.

Answer 3

Yes, it is precise in every detail, as demonstrated in this linked archaeological article.

See also a general discussion, as to how accurate is the Hebrew Bible.