Footnote 1 – Redating the Exodus

Another approach is to try to make minor adjustments in the GAD for Israel’s entry into Canaan to account for the discrepancy at one site or another between the Biblical tradition and the archaeological record. This argument is frequently heard with reference to the two best-known conquest sites, Jericho and Ai. Thus, it is sometimes suggested that the Late Bronze Age remains from the 14th century B.C. at Jericho evidence the city Joshua conquered about 1325–1300 B.C. At Ai, a small village existed between about 1200 and 1050 B.C., with a break around 1125 B.C. Perhaps, some suggest, this small village was the one Joshua destroyed about 1125 B.C. The problem with these kinds of adjustments is that they are not applicable overall to a range of sites. They are limited to explaining a single site and are internally inconsistent among sites. The major adjustments for Jericho and Ai, for example, are internally inconsistent. Jericho and Ai were the first and second stops on the route of the Israelite conquest. Their destruction cannot be separated by hundreds of years without overturning the Biblical sequence of events.