Fragment
The emergence of Israel is shrouded in mist. The reasons for this can be found, at least partly, in the Bible itself, since it does not provide a clear-cut picture of the emergence of Israel in the land of Canaan. The book of Joshua tells a story about a sweeping conquest of a warlike gang, while the book of Judges presents much more a picture of a long process, possibly of a few centuries, of infiltration and co-existence and even mixed marriages between Israelites and Canaanites. It also contains a memory of their roots outside Canaan, coming from either Egypt, after the exodus, or from Northern Syria, while at the same time an indigenous origin from Canaan is suggested by the prophet Ezekiel. It now is becoming more and more clear that the picture of a sweeping military conquest of Canaan, as described in the book of Joshua, is to be understood with more nuance and should be considered to represent a much more complex historical settlement process, written many centuries after the events they describe.
×