Early Jerusalem

Today, in class, we discussed Jerusalem in its early contexts of the Bible.  Professor Cargill started out speaking about early settlements in Jerusalem, starting from roughly 6000 years ago, which in my opinion, is a huge amount of time.  He continued to elaborate on why Jerusalem was an ideal place to reside, as the ideal factors of water, trade, and agriculture, were accommodated through nearby natural landscapes.  We then examined Jerusalem in the context of early Biblical texts.  He continued to provide us examples of execration, fortifications, and Amarna Letters.  All of these works reached back to 1900 BCE.  I found the Amarna Letters to be particularly interesting, as they were written from rulers in Canaan to Egyptian Pharaohs.  These letters are referencing to Jerusalem for aid in times of need.  It was extremely interesting to see how influential Jerusalem was in past times, especially on Egyptian culture. 

Professor Cargill continued to discuss a discrepancy within the book of Joshua.  In Joshua 10:40-42, the Bible implies that everyone in the city of Jerusalem was wiped out due to a military invasion.  However, this claim was negated in Joshua 15:63, which suggested that the invaders were unable to abolish all inhabitants, and the two societies were forced to be cohabitants.  This is clearly contradictory, and Professor Cargill attempted to make justifications as to how the Israelites got to Jerusalem, suggesting immigration, conquest, and assimilation.  He introduced the idea of a Caananite City, where the people were of mixed origins.  This theory, in my opinion, is a very reasonable way to explain how the Israelites came to exist in Jerusalem, as it is not far-fetched and is very plausible.