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

248
yth #87:
Joshua captured Jerusalem.
The Myth: Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the
king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered
themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before
Gibeon, and made war against it… . And all these kings and their land did Joshua take
at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel. ( Josh. 10:5, 42)
The Reality: The Israelites failed to capture Jerusalem until at least the time of King
David, approximately 1000 B.C., approximately two to three hundred years after Joshua.
The five kings allied against Israel at Gibeon included the kings of Jerusalem,
Hebron, Lachish, Eglon, and Jarmuth. Joshua chased their armies, trapped the kings
(who hid in a cave) and then killed the monarchs. The text says that Joshua followed
up the royal executions by going against their territories and capturing all of them. But
the conquest of Jerusalem remains questionable. The verses describing the campaign
specifically mention the defeat of Hebron, Lachish, and Eglon, but have no specific reference
to the capture of Jarmuth and Jerusalem. There is only a general claim that the
territories of all those kings were captured. Yet, a little later in Joshua, the text says,“As
for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive
them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day”
( Josh. 15:63). When this day was we don’t know, but Jerusalem was in the territory of
Benjamin and the Judahites didn’t live there until at least the time of King David, some
three centuries after the time of Joshua.
In Judges 1:8, however, we have a specific claim that Joshua did capture Jerusalem
and set the city on fire. Yet only a few verses later, Judges also says,“And the children of
Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who dwelt in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have
dwelt with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day” ( Judges 1:21).
So the Bible attributes the same failure to both Judah and Benjamin. Neither captured
the city, which lies on the Benjamin side of the border between Benjamin and