Lecture 4: Jan 13

This lecture was shorter then usual but very informative. Class was cut short today which was amazing :) thank you professor!
This lecutre is about proving Jerusalems history with Architecture and Bible passages.We compare them inorder to make conclusions. We started off by talking about the agricultural settlements of Jerusalem before David. Settlements were somewhere around 2000BC. There were three main Settlement factors; water (Gihon spring), agriculture: (emek refa'im), and communication and trade (watershed highway).

We then talked about the bonze age of Jerusalem. The cliams made by the bible are not backed up by science. This make the bible considered false and imfaliable.Some people think we should just disregaurd it and others think that it is perfect. Professor Cargil thinks that it is somewhere in the middle. There is archiological evidence. He then showed us some pots from 3200BC that helps prove there was a long standing settlement. Jerusalem is also in the earliest non-biblical texts. For example they were showin in execreation text. Scholars found some in 1900 in hirogliphic. What they were was that you wrote you enemys names on the clay figurenes and then you smashed it. It was considered to be a curse. It refers to why we dont write the name of God, becasue if it is erased or torn it is a bad thing and a curse. He then refrensed that we can spell suck wihtout USC (which made me really happy i abosluely hate USC). If we did this and then ruined the picture of it, it would curse them. Besides text, there is archiological evidence. they found a wall near the gihon Spring. This could be the fountain gate in the book of Nehemiah. He shows us pictures to help us see the evidence of what was left behind.One picture was used to protect the Gihon spring. It was the pool tower. Another was the pool near Gihon Spring. It is evidence becasue people took the time to cave and protect he spring its not just ruble.

There are writings about Jerusalem before the bible. For instatnce in the Amarna Letters.They are written from rulers in Canaan to Egyptian Pharoahs. They did this becasue they were asking for help. The same reason we ask for finacial aid. They were a place of refuge because they needed the help. Egypt gets to decide who they want to be king by sending money to a certain group. This set assurance that these kings would back up the Egyptians Pharoahs.He then gave us an example of a text sent to one of the Pharoahs. It was from Jerusalem King Abdi-Kheba to Pharaoh. It states that you are so great, blah blah blah( just saying nice things), but i cant praise you if im not king so please send me money. He was basically bribing the Pharaoh.small nations couldnt defend themselves so they made deals with the biggest countries in order to protect them in exchange for money.

However there were problems with the "conquest". Problems? When you go in and kill EVERYONE, is it considered geniside? Why dont we think of it the same way now? Is it fair to take modern ethics and use them back in the day. In Joshua 21, again they whiped everyone out. In Joshua 24, they destroyed everyone. But in the same book, we find a different story, in Joshua 15 it says that they cant drive out the Jebusites, in Joshua 24, it says they defeated them. This is what makes scholars think that there are many different authors. Also in Judges 1, it says that Canaanites need to be faught, but wait didnt you already defeat them. There are a couple of contradictories in the book. It contradicts itself.

Then we are forced to ask the question how did Israelites get there? We have different stories so it leades to different theories. So what to do with the conquest.1) you except the story of the bible. 2) we have imagration storeis. people starting coming and they gradually moved in and they made up great stories of how they came to be there. 3) (which is becoming more and more popular), the isrealites are of mix ethnic orgin, in otherwords they were always there, they used to be canaanites and then intermarried and became a different society, that or they became a different society and started to drift apart. or people joined them and a group broke off.

Professor finished with two passages about the "Jubusite City". And then he ended class early because he did not want to start a new lecture and only get a little into it. But it was the perfect day to do it:)
Next blog coming soon!