The+Occupation+of+Canaan

Group Members: Veena Advani Duncan Gallagher Phoebe Martenson

Notes: From Malik: __3 Theories of Israel's occupation of Canaan:__ -Invaded all at the same time like the bible says-Veena -Came over in small groups, and settled peacefully-Phoebe -Canaanites and Hebrews were the same people.-Duncs

Problems with Conquest Theory: In bible- talks about conquest theory, yet there are examples where it discusses the fact that much of the land was not yet conquered, and that other people were also living in different areas of Canaan. Suggests that the period of conquering/warfare took a long time?
 * From: http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/joshua/conquest.html** (Good counter evidence for what bible provides, diferent evaluation of what the Bible says)

Story- book of Judges- about the process of them fighting against the Canaanites, never says they succeeded. Describes it as:
 * guerilla warfare
 * not all the tribes participated
 * sometimes they turned against eachother (War against Benjamin tribe)
 * Hard for them to fight against high tech weapons and chariots of Canaanites
 * The only time they had a chance agains the Canaanites was in the hilly regions where the chariots couldn't go.
 * That meant that the Canaanites were most likely still in control of the nice, flat, fertile land and caravan routes.

Lack of Archaeological Evidence: Quotes: where the Lord said to Joshua, "You are old and advanced in years, and very much of the land still remains to be possessed" (13:1).
 * In bible story-city of Jericho prominent. v.s. in reality, city of Jericho not acitve during time of Joshua's conquest.
 * City of Ai- in the story- in reality- was a small village.

later chapters we learn that various non-Hebrew groups continued to occupy the land: the Jebusites in Jerusalem (15:63); the [|Canaanites] in Gezer (16:10); the Canaanites in lands allotted to the tribe of Manasseh (17:12); and the Canaanites who militarily dominated the plains (17:16)


 * From: []**

Conquest Theory:
 * Most evidence from Bible
 * Archaeological Evidence: series of destruction of cities: Debir, Bethel, Hazor, and Lachish- Some people attribute this to the Israelites

Problems:
 * If they actually did win and take over the land- you'd expect them to settle- no spot found. You'd think that if they had control over all of the land- they'd have settled in the best, most fertile area- no evidence of that.
 * Bible presents the Israelites as a different race from the Canaanites- that doesn't explain why the earliest descriptions of both of their religions are EXTREMELY similar.