The seventh episode of the third season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (June 26, 2019). You can listen to the episode and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

SHOW NOTES

This episode is based on Joshua 2 and Joshua 5:13-6:27 in the Old Testament of the Bible. (Click the references to read the original texts). Any direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the episode.

Did Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho?

As mentioned in the episode, it is very difficult to establish any historicity of this famous battle described in the Book of Joshua. The city of Jericho is a well-known and much investigated archaeological site of great antiquity. But it was not destroyed at the time of the conquest of Canaan as told in the Book of Joshua. In fact, there really is no archaeological evidence of any conquest of Canaan.

So the battle likely didn’t happen, and yet that doesn’t mean that this story can’t teach us many things ancient battles of this sort. We have an interesting description have an ancient walled city and the intriguing indication that people lived in houses against the walls and the windows of their houses gave ready access, at least if you had a decent rope, to the outside.

The Israelite action at Jericho certainly seems to be a stylized description of classic siege warfare. The city is surrounded by the enemy force, a common tactic that was used to starve a city into submission by cutting off supplies and water sources.

Undermining

The sudden fall of the walls of a city was a common feature of ancient siege warfare. There were really only two ways to win a siege, either you had to starve the city into submission or you had to make a breach in the walls. In a time before the invention of explosive technology, undermining was probably the most effective tactic for making a breach. The attacking army would dig a tunnel underneath the foundations of the wall propping up the excavation as they went with wooden timbers. Then the tunnel would be filled with easily combustible materials and set on fire leading to the destruction of the supportive timbers, the collapse of the tunnel and, hopefully, the creation of a significant breach. Of course, if a commander could manage to keep the mine hidden from his fighters as well as the enemies inside the city, that could make the tactic all the more effective. If you could convince your men that your gods had taken down the walls for them, it would certainly embolden them for the very frightening task that lay before them of storming a breach.

I have always wondered about the rope

One element of the story of Rahab that has always puzzled me is the references to rope making. Why is it that, within the household of Rahab, we see all of the signs of such an industry? She just happens to have stacks of flax lying around on her roof. She also just happens to have pieces of rope lying around including at least one piece that has been dyed an expensive crimson colour.

The main reason why someone should have stalks of flax on their roof is that this is a part of a manufacturing process. In order to free up the flax fibres that are used to make linen rope, flax needs to sit and ret (that is, rot) for an extended period of time. I cannot help but feel that there is a little bit of intended humour in the account in the Book of Joshua when the spies are hidden in putrefying plant fibre. Can you imagine the smell? It certainly does help to explain why the Jerichoan authorities had been so unwilling to search the stacks for the interlopers.

But why should a woman, Rahab, who clearly makes her money and a very particular way, have all of the signs of a rope making industry within her household? As I pondered this question, it seemed plain to me that Rahab was not just your typical prostitute. She had plans for a better life. Maybe that life could not be hers for various reasons, but perhaps she dreamed of something better for her children.

How could Rahab have betrayed her city?

Of course, the really big question that arises from the story of Rahab stems from her betrayal of her city. Why should she protect and hide the spies who come to her in preparation for an invasion? The answer, according to the Book of Joshua, is simple: she believed that God had given the land to the Israelites and that there was, therefore, no point in resisting.

That may be true, but I have always assumed that the thought process must have been a bit more nuanced in Rahab’s mind. In my account, I haven’t definitively answered the question of what might have motivated her, but I have attempted to give us a better understanding of what her thought processes could have been.

And then there is all the genocide

The worst part of the story of the Battle of Jericho, of course, is all of the wholesale slaughter. This is very problematic, of course. I cannot believe in a God who would sanction such meaningless violence. This was not something that could be easily addressed with my narrative approach to the story. There are some Bible stories that I would like to tackle in the future that might help to get a better take on the issue of Biblical genocide, but I do appreciate the little episode in Joshua 5:13-15 that at least reminds us that God may not take sides in our human disputes in the way that we might like God to.

Inspirations

I think it should be fairly obvious where my inspiration for the cover art and music choices came from for this retelling:

I think the comparisons with the hit film are apt. It is not just that Pretty Woman tells the story of a meeting between a brutal corporate raider and a hooker with a “heart of gold.” There are other important parallels. The movie, Pretty Woman, certainly pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in a romantic comedy in its day. It was quite risqué for its time, but so is the story of Jericho. There is clear sexual innuendo in the Bible story that I tried to bring out in my retelling. I also see parallels between Julia Roberts’ Vivian character and Rahab. Both seem to have dreams of building a better life and future but they also have a very practical approach to their dreams.

In the movie, for example, Vivian’s secretive use of dental floss leads Edward to expose his stereotypical assumptions about her (that she must be a drug user) and leads to him reevaluating her when he discovers what she was up to. I find that Rahab’s involvement in a ropemaking enterprise also leads me to reevaluate my assumptions about her.