Alright, for my first post I'm going to talk about the conquest of Canaan by ancient Israel. The Bible records a conquest of the land of Canaan by the Israelite nation shortly following the Hebrew exodus. The cities that were said to be destroyed have been found, and the destruction of those cities all took place in the Middle bronze age, or more specifically, around 1600 BC. For an example, Jericho was Carbon dated, and is said to have fallen anywhere from 1617 BC-1530 BC(1*). But the most popular date for the Conquest is c. 1400 BC. Biblical skeptics have used this dating error to discredit the Bible's authenticity since the 1950's when Jericho was excavated by Kathleen Kenyon, who placed the destruction in the middle 1500's BC. The Bible says that 480 years before King Solomon's reign, the Hebrew exodus took place (see 1 Kings 6 :1). By using this Chronology, we can say that the exodus was near 1447 BC, and the Conquest was 40 years after the exodus, so the Conquest was c.1407 BC. This obviously creates an error between the date of archaeology, and the date the Bible gives us. So how, you may ask, can the gap be bridged? Some people have tried to bring the date of the Middle Bronze age closer to 1400 BC(3*), but this contradicts the carbon dating of the Jericho. The true answer lies in the principle of "Unreckoned Time". This principle is used in some bible chronologies. Not using unreckoned time will leave the date of certain kings' reigns overlapping each other. Unreckoned time is time that was not counted for as a result of sin. When a Israel was under servitude to other nations, the time wasn't counted in the main chronologies. Please look at Acts 13(if you don't have a Bible, google it). The chronology in Acts say that Solomon reigned 611 after the exodus, but 1 Kings says that the exodus was 480 years before Solomon! This is a deference of 131 years! In Judges, and 1 Samson, there is a total of 131 years listed when israel was under servitude to other empires or nations. Therefore, it's evident that when israel was in servitude, the time wasn't counted in the main chronology. This puts the date of the conquest at 1599 BC(2*). This date is in agreement with all of the other cities destruction dates, except for the Tel identified as Ai. This chronology also shows that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed c. 2250 BC(I will discuss this in a future article). Ai is identified as et-Tel. Et-Tel, however, was destroyed in the early bronze age, several hundred years before 1600 BC. I believe that et-Tel is not the true location of Ai. It contradicts the Bible's description and location of the city, as well as some ancient historians location given for Ai(3*). I encourage you to read my sources, as they give a much more detailed description of why the recent finding of Khirbet Nisya is the real Ai.
1* Dating of Jericho
2* Unreckoned Time (The reign of Solomon as described by this site was found using Unreckoned Time)
3* True Ai, and the Attempt to bridge the gap.
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