November 2, 7 pm
Archaeological Evidence of
Hebrews in Canaan during the Conquest
By Dr. Douglas Petrovich,
Professor, PhD Syro-Palestinian Archaeology, epigraphy, and more.
On Nov. 2nd Dr. Petrovich will continue his series of lectures on the evidences of Hebrews in Egypt and the conquest of Canaan.
If biblical chronology is correct that the Israelite conquest of Canaan under Joshua took place from 1406 to 1400 BC, and at least three Canaanite cities were destroyed by fire, one would expect some level of physical evidence that confirms the Israelite efforts there soon after arriving. The sites of Jericho and Hazor do reveal the kind of destruction that is expected from the conquest, and they will be studied separately. Jericho is the first Canaanite city attacked, and its destruction is recorded in vivid terms in Joshua 6. Hazor was the largest Canaanite city in Canaan, and excavations there have yielded some amazing finds that validate biblical historicity for the event of the conquest.
So far D. Petrovich has presented an abundance of crosslinking evidence of the Hebrews in Egypt and the Exodus. He is one a group that is strongly effectively challenging the paradigm form the last century that there is little evidence for all of this so these parts of the bible must be largely mythological. For more on how that paradigm came about see the article below, Introduction to the State of Biblical Archaeology.
Plan on attending in person or online. Don’t miss Dr. Petrovich’s extensive body of evidence set forth with passion and expertise.
For location see the sidebar to the right. See Registration link below.
Introduction to the State of Biblical Archaeology
By Dr. Douglas Petrovich
In the 1930s, an American archaeologist named William Albright permanently changed what the perceived relationship is between biblical history and archaeological evidence. Whereas before him people held strongly to how the archaeological evidence should defer to the constraints of biblical chronology and a careful study of the biblical text in the original languages, his methodology was to elevate the archaeological finds to a position over how the Bible is to be understood and interpreted on its own terms, with a willingness to remove these constraints.
Albright used evidence from the destructions of minimally important sites in the Holy Land at the end of the Late Bronze Age (about 1200 BC) and their subsequent reoccupation sometime later by Israelites of the Iron Age (after 1200 BC) to deny that the Israelite conquest of Canaan took place at the end of the 15th century BC, as biblical chronology requires (1 Kgs 6:1; Josh 5:6). Instead, he demanded that the conquest occurred in the 13th century BC, which established a position usually called the late exodus/conquest view.
Cecil B. DeMille popularized this new view in his film The Ten Commandments, as he referred to the exodus pharaoh as Ramesses, a line of Egyptian kings that began in 1290 BC. This new view subtly undermined the belief in the minds of many Christians that the Bible’s history should take precedence over the interpretation of artifacts and evidence extracted from archaeological excavations. In the 1950s, Kathleen Kenyon went even further, ignoring the evidence excavated at Jericho that lends to a destruction of the city at the end of the 15th century BC, a timeframe that biblical chronology demands, and interpreting other evidence at the site to justify a redating of its destruction to a time over 150 years earlier.
From then until now, the consensus view among archaeologists and critical biblical scholars is that the Bible is out of step with the evidence dug up from the ground. For example, the majority have become convinced that there is little evidence of the biblical narratives of King David, and even less regarding earlier periods in biblical history. Skeptics who have followed in the steps of Kenyon strongly have preferred the conclusion that the Bible is progressively more mythological at virtually any period earlier than the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
Since then, a few trained archaeologists with a commitment to the accuracy of the Bible have recognized that the evidence related to sites in the Holy Land from the biblical period fits biblical history and chronology well. For example, Bryant Wood concluded in the early 1990s that much of what was found at Jericho matches the Bible, despite Kenyon’s misdating of the city’s destruction, and his presentation of the evidence has proven to be highly persuasive.
It was onto this scene that Dr. Petrovich made his entrance and soon started discovering a substantial body of evidence that affirms biblical history and chronology, such as the events surrounding the Tower of Babel and the Hebrew sojourn in Egypt before the exodus. The potential impact is huge, although too few people are currently aware of the new evidence. The ongoing progress of this work should prove to be of great interest to the Christian community in general.
Join us on Nov 2, in person in the Reception Room of Houston’s First Baptist, The Loop, at 7401 Katy Frwy, Houston TX 77024. See the map in the right sidebar.
OR, join online: Webinar Registration Link. (Register early and receive the Webinar link by email.)
Subscribe to our Newsletter and get a Link to use at 7 pm on meeting day. Newsletters are mailed about two weeks before events.
See newsletter signup in the right sidebar →
Newsletter archive available here.