101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

244 101 Myths of the Bible
remained unoccupied until about the twelfth century B.C., at which time evidence
indicates the presence of a small village built over the ruins. As noted above, Ai is the
Hebrew word for“ruin” and given the state of the site after 2400, Ai was probably the
name applied to the remains of what had once been a famous old fortification. When
Joshua attacked“Ruin,” it had already been deserted for over a millennium and it had
no fortified walls.
Here, too, the author of Joshua borrowed from another text that told a similar
story about different events. The Book of Judges describes a battle almost identical in
form to the one at Ai. In the Judges account, some Benjaminites raped and killed the
concubine of a traveling priest. When the other tribes demanded that Benjamin turn
over the evildoers, it refused and Israel declared war on the reprobates.
What seemed like an easy victory at first turned into a route, just as at Ai, but here
no explanation is given for the defeat. At Ai, a wicked Israelite caused the defeat; here
the wicked Israelite was the enemy. Nevertheless, after some ritual prayer at the cult
site of Beth-el, God urged the Israelites forward and promised victory. The Israelites
followed the same strategy used by Joshua at Ai. A small force approached the enemy
and led them away from the city fortress, after which they were ambushed while a second
force attacked the defenseless city. Israel killed almost all of the Benjaminites.
In both stories, Beth-el is close by; some Israelite does great evil; an easy victory
is lost; God urged a second attack; and the Hebrews followed the same deceptive
battle strategy.
Coupled with the symbolic names“House of God,” House of Evil,” and“Ruin,” it’s
not difficult to see the existence of some earlier legend about a confrontation between
the inhabitants in the city of God and the inhabitants in the city of “Evil” going to
war. Initially, due to a betrayal of God’s commandments, the righteous suffered a
major setback, engaged in purification rituals, and resumed the battle, using the strategy
of luring the enemy out of the city and into an ambush. The House of God triumphed.
The House of Evil suffered a horrible defeat with its citizens utterly
destroyed before the LORD.