While much of the conquest described in the Book of Joshua, which would have taken place about 1400 BCE (Before the Common/Christian Era), has been confirmed as consistent with the archeological evidence, discrepancy with that record occurs in chapter eight of the Book of Joshua, with the city of Ai. Khirbet el-Maqtir is the site that many claim as Ai, but there is no evidence of habitation during the period of the conquest. Even the loss of the walls around Jericho is something that is supported by the archeological record; archeology cannot always tell us whether the narrative of how things happened is how they happened, but it can tell us a lot about the historicity of particular stories and places. We then have to seek additional meanings for including the story that is separated into the eighth chapter, since it appears to have more than the recording function of the conquest of cities seen in chapters six, and nine through twelve, in the defeat of thirty-one kings.
Now, an astute leader of people may observe that continuing to require the Israelites to kill all of the livestock as they take cities and surrender all the other wealth to the Treasury of the Lord is only going to be carried out by a colonizing nation for so long. The story of Achan’s infidelity to that task in Jericho is a sign that our human desires to provide for ourselves and our families can only be denied when we’re already operating in a realm of rules separate from our regular operating rules. I tend to see the story of Ai answering some of the human desire-driven questions that the early listeners of the story might have raised: when are the Israelites allowed livestock? What kinds of military tactics are permissible in this kind of warfare? How do we keep the holy covenant to which we are committed at the forefront of our awareness?
So Joshua sends his army into two places – one to draw out and away from the protective walls of the city the army of Ai – and one to claim the open and defender-less city after the army has departed. This is a very successful tactic, although one might allow successful only once, for any survivors (although we are told there are none, you have to ask Really? Then how do the Hivites know about the Israelites deception? when we read the next chapter) will spread the word far and wide. The livestock are taken and distributed among the people, after there is a sacrifice to the Holy made upon the newly built altar. Then Joshua places all the words of the law on the side of the altar and teaches them again to the Israelites.
After each period of destruction, the law must be reestablished, ritually and in fact. We also discover a curious fact: there are now aliens residing among the Israelites, who also need instruction in the law. This inclusion suggests strongly that the total destruction of the populace named in the fall of Jericho and of Ai is a bit of poetic license. Surely, many died. But there are now also, beyond Rahab and her household, others who need to be taught what this new people’s covenant is, whose they are, and how they are expected to behave.
When groups of people use deceptive tactics, folks become generally more suspicious. What we can imagine, so can others. We become wary that things may not be what they seem. Encountering a feint for the first time in basketball or fencing or boxing can be a difficult surprise; but after that first encounter, we learn to be more wary, even more so when we ourselves learn to feint. As part of that learning, we apprehend the degree to which such tactics are acceptable, and which step out of the rules of the game. Joshua has to re-enforce what the rules of the game are with the whole people, because twice now he has legitimated in God’s name, the destruction of the everyday rules.
This raises for us some questions:
- When are the everyday rules to be suspended?
- How do you know what you believe is authorized and correct really is?
- What then are the consequences of that suspension of rules?
- How do we reestablish a sense of security, order, and normative meaning making?
- How do we hold onto a moral centre?
The Book of Joshua is probably not going to answer those questions for you. It can answer what the Israelites understood in 1400 BCE, but these raised questions shortly thereafter and continue to do so. Questioning, reflecting upon, and finding new meanings in these texts is part of our tradition and history, a process that developed so we would not lose our moral centre from generation to generation, and just start justifying all kinds of actions in the name of the Holy. If your encounter of the Holy is one of Wonderment and Love, how do you reassert that truth in a time of chaos, dispossession, and violence?
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