Biblical Miracles: Jericho

This is one of those stories that you learn about in sunday school, but as with everything else taught there, the facts are left out completely. The story goes like this, God commands Joshua to tell his army to walk around the city of Jericho for six days, rather odd I know but it gets better. Seven priests were to wield rams horns (probably sounded a bit like a vuvuzela), and on the seventh day they were to walk around the city 7 times blowing the horns, and then the walls of Jericho fell down and the Israelites took over the city. Here's what the bible says about the aftermath.

Joshua 6:21 

they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.

6:24  

they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.

This is where I find the story gets rather interesting. Based on the chronology in the bible, this would have happened around 1400 BCE, so digging up the city of Jericho we should expect to find that the city was destroyed around that time. Instead of confirming the biblical account, the archaeological evidence makes an absolute joke out of the bible. At the time of the supposed reign of Joshua, the city of Jericho was uninhabited. Jericho had been destroyed several hundred years earlier.

If you want a miracle, here's your miracle: Joshua destroyed a city that wasn't even there. - Bill Dever (Archaeologist)