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

Myths of the Heroes 253
the archaeological evidence recovered from these communities specifically connects
them with Israel, the historical and biblical context suggests that the settlements signify
a growing presence of Israel in the hills and surrounding areas. No evidence shows
that these new communities arose in the wake of an alien invasion, indicating that
Israel’s rise to power occurred over several centuries rather than through a sudden
conquest early in the late thirteenth century.
Finally, not only does the historical data disprove the existence of a Canaanite conquest
in the time of Joshua, the Bible itself says that such a conquest never occurred.
The first chapter of Judges gives a very different picture of Joshua’s campaign, which
was mostly a failure. None of the tribes succeeded in conquering their targeted territory
and there were only a few limited successes. Judges presents in quick succession a
litany of failure: Judah couldn’t drive out the inhabitants of the plain; Benjamin couldn’t
drive out the inhabitants of Jerusalem; Manasseh failed; Ephraim failed; Zebulun
failed; Asher failed; Naphtali failed; Dan failed. And, in Judges 2 God condemns the
Israelites for their failures, saying, “But you have not obeyed my command. What is
this you have done? So now I say I will not drive them out before you; but they shall
become adversaries to you, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”
For the most part, Joshua was written several centuries after the time described.
From both the archaeological and other biblical accounts, we can see that the author
pieced the conquest stories together from a variety of myths and legends. It served as
a propagandistic tool designed to portray the Hebrews as the beneficiary of the
world’s most powerful god.