Canaanite Jerusalem

Week 2 Lecture 2 (1/13/11)

This lecture, we primarily focused on Jerusalem in evidence and text. Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities documented in actually text, such as execration texts and the Armarna letters. In the execration texts, written in hieroglyphics on clay figures, Jerusalem was listed as one of the enemies. This type of practice shows how people in the past believed that destroying a name brings bad curses onto the name. This explains why Muslims and Jews rarely saw and write the name of Yahweh, because it can potentially be destroyed and cause bad consequences. In the Armarna letters, Jerusalem sent letters to King Akenaten of Egypt asking for protection and aid. Both of these primary evidences show that a Jerusalem did indeed exist. The same can't be said about King David, because besides the Bible, there is no extra-biblical support that he existed.

The Bible, although an significant source, has many conflicts within its texts. For example, in the book of Joshua, he speaks of the brutal killing of all the people in the region of Jerusalem. This is supported many times in the Bible, but in other passages, such as those in Judges, it is refuted. In Judges 1:21, it says that the Benjaminites did not drive out the Jebusites. This leaves room for much biblical criticism and skepticism about the reliability of the Bible. In particular, it raises the question about how Israelites got to Jerusalem: was it by conquest, immigration, or were they already there?