The Fall of the Moon City
(by Dave Livingston)
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During the conquest of Jericho, have you ever wondered why God told Joshua and Israel to do so many unusual things? Why march around six times? And why seven times on the last day? Why march in a certain order? Why keep quiet, then shout to make the walls fall down? And so on.
Various explanations have been offered. We have a new suggestion. We do not say it is the answer. But it may be provoke some thought.
Jehovah Verses the Gods of Canaan
Our proposed explanation is this. All of Israel's actions were commanded by Jehovah as a travesty, a mockery of a ritual or pageant known to the Canaanites living in Jericho. It possibly was related to the marriage festival of a "divine" king, or had some connection with an annual fertility festival. If so, it should have occurred at the turn of the year - in the spring, possibly April, just when the overthrow of Jericho took place.
The Bible is not a synthesis of other religions. It is in controversy with them. This was the battle of Jericho! And it was not just men fighting men. It was a spiritual battle. There was spiritual wickedness in heavenly places and the "Lord of Hosts" had come to be the Leader (Joshua 5:14).
Divine Kingship and Religion
First, a little background. The kings of the ancient near east were tyrannical god-kings. (See Who Were the Sons of God?). "A tyrant was roughly what we would call a dictator, a man who obtained sole power in the state . . . (He) is not necessarily a wicked ruler, but he is an autocrat . . ." (A. Andrewes, The Greek Tyrants, NY: Harper, 1963, p. 7).
In every place the sons of Ham went, "divine kingship" was established. In Mesopotamia, Cush (or Kish) was the founder; in Egypt, Mizraim. In Canaan, named for one of Ham's sons, it follows that "divine" kings controlled the city-states. On an unpublished Kinglist from Ugarit, described by Virolleaud, each of the kings is designated as il, "the god" (A. Rainey, Biblical Archaeologist Reader #3, p. 92). And, as Rainey points out, legendary king Keret is also called bn il, "son of god."
The prince, the eldest son of Krt, is one "Who sucks the milk of Atherat, Who sucks the breasts of the Virgin Anat." This conception is familiar in Mesopotamian and Egyptian royal ideology, and is expressed in the ivory relief from the royal bed in the palace of Ugarit. Standing thus in a special relationship to God, and indeed himself eventually regarded in popular belief as invested with that "divinity that doth hedge a king," the king in ancient Canaan was regarded as the special channel of divine power and blessing to the community. (J. Gray, The Canaanites, NY: Praeger, 1964, p. 106-7.)
Like Melchizedek, the kings named in the Ugaritic epics represented their people before the deity in a priestly ministry and represented the divine will to the people as ruler of the state. (C. Pfeiffer, Ras Shamra and the Bible, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1962, p. 38.)
In those kingdoms, religion was the "opiate of the people." It was used by rulers to bind the people's highest loyalties to themselves. So there was plenty of pomp and circumstance, special feast days and rituals during the year to support the religio-politico systems they controlled. One might expect religious feasts and processionals to be performed in Canaan, to some extent at least, as they were in Egypt and Mesopotamia, although very little Canaanite literature has been found to confirm this.
Attachment 2436
Canaanite libation vase depicting a serpent and a dragon. Serpents were used to symbolize fertility.
Legend of King Keret
With the discovery of Ugaritic literature at Ras Shamra (in northern Syria) in the late 1920's, we have texts which may be background material for an explanation of the unusual activities in Jericho's conquest. The Legend of Keret (which was found in Ugarit, north of the Land of Canaan) narrates the marriage of a "divine" king. He is repeatedly referred to as bn il, "Son of El," or "Son of God."
Scholars are divided about evenly whether or not this legend was dramatized with religious ritual. There is a good possibility it was with precedents of religious drama in connection with legends in Egypt and Mesopotamia. (That the king in Ugarit exercised distinctively priestly functions and was the chief cult official, see D.M.L. Urie, "Officials of the Cult at Ugarit," Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 1948, pp. 42-47. For Babylonian ritual action descriptions which accompanied drama see Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 331-2. For ritual describing circumambulation of the seat of government in Egypt, see T. Gaster, The New Golden Bough, NY: Mentor Books, 1964, p. 180, n. 55.)
The Keret legend itself may, or may not, have been in use in Jericho at the time it was overthrown. We only mean to use the epic of Keret as an example of the type of activity which might have been going on in Jericho when the Israelites arrived. (
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