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Southwest Radio Ministries: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. God is still on the throne and prayer changes things. This week we delve into Joshua's conquest of Canaan with biblical archaeologist Clayton Van Huss. Dr. Lonnie Shipman will reveal the correct way to study Bible prophecy. And Josh Davis will share the latest headlines from the end times.

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You can give your gift at our website swrc.com or by calling 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Thank you, friends, for your support this week of Southwest Radio Ministries and Watchman on the Wall. Join us as staff biblical archaeologist Clayton Van Huss talks about Marauders in Canaan. Can an account of Joshua's conquest of Canaan be found in ancient Bronze Age documents from Egypt?

Clayton Van Huss: All right, so we're going to talk about Marauders in Canaan, finding the conquest in ancient documents. This is going to be a lot of fun. Matthew kind of gave you a little preview of my first little section here. I mentioned to you yesterday that I'm a biblical archaeologist. I dig at Tel Shiloh in Israel. We spend about six weeks a year there, my wife and I.

In fact, we were married here at this site last year. So we get to spend our anniversary here at Shiloh. It's a wonderful thing. And she's my boss there. She's the real archaeologist. I feel like a poser around her. She is today wrapping up just the last little bit of the first draft of her PhD. She is working on actually a very similar subject to what I'm going to be talking about.

She's working on the transition in the hill country of Israel from the late Bronze Age to the Iron Age. And to translate that, she's looking at when Joshua came into the land and seeing this change in culture. And she's doing really cool things. This is great work because scholars will argue and fight as you're going to find out here. So we dig at Shiloh.

This is my square this summer. We were digging above a monumental structure, a big stone structure that we believe could well be the Tabernacle itself. Because Shiloh was the capital of Israel for over 300 years. The Tabernacle stood there, and the Ark of the Covenant was there until the sons of Eli took it to battle with the Philistines and lost it. Then it went to Ashdod and it went all around. It's a whole big story there. But this is where the Ark of the Covenant sat.

And we have some writings both in the Bible, in the books of Samuel, we see that we think the Tabernacle was a tent. Well, the Bible talks about the doorpost and the walls. And then in the Mishnah, we read that in two places that a stone structure, a temple, was built at Shiloh and the Tabernacle stretched over top like a roof. So the Tabernacle became more of a permanent structure.

And we have a permanent structure from that time period, that size, facing east-west. There are cultic items around it, things like altar horns and pomegranates are found around it. All these things that tell us this was a holy site. So it's very likely the Tabernacle. And so where you see this group of people standing, we're kind of standing at the front door of it.

We're trying to get this hill dug down to where we can get into more of this building. And so if you come with us to Shiloh, you can be a part of that. Here's the site without us standing there. So this is the UFO building I mentioned yesterday. We call it that because, well, obvious reasons. But it's our little visitor center there.

But you see the three white dots in the air? It's about the best picture I could get. Our last day there this year, a number of Iranian rockets were shot down over top of Shiloh. And so these are three rockets being shot down while we're standing there looking up in the sky. Everybody else was down towards the bottom and there's a metal container where we store things and they all got in there because shrapnel. I was just on the top of the hill minding my own business, so I stood there taking pictures.

But as Matthew said, we had a difficult time. We could not fly out of Ben Gurion Airport. Civilian airspace closed, and so we had to make a reverse Exodus through Egypt. We walked into Egypt, went to Cairo, and then God was nice and let us go to the Grand Egyptian Museum. And then he allowed us a full day in London to go to the British Museum and to see things from the Bible that are really cool. So many biblical artifacts in London.

Okay, let's talk about another Exodus. And I want to talk... here's a quote from an archaeologist named James Hoffmeier, an excellent Egyptologist. He says, "Because of the link the Bible makes between these events, the Egyptian sojourn, the Sinai period, entry into Canaan, the Exodus and Joshua materials are inseparable. Consequently, the events described in both books rise or fall together."

So what he's saying is in the Bible, we have the Exodus and we have the conquest when Joshua entered the land. And these two things are linked. If we believe what the Bible says, then these events will stand or fall together. Now sadly, most scholars today will say the Exodus never happened. And they come up with all sorts of theories.

Well, we know the Israelites existed because they're still around today. We can find them archaeologically. They were there. So how did they get there? Well, maybe there were revolts in the land and the people rose up against their rulers and they became the Israelites. Now this comes from the ideas in the 20th century, Marxist ideas, communism, when we had popular revolts. That's when that theory was born. "Hey, maybe the people did this and they revolted."

So that's where that theory was kind of born. But there are all sorts... the peaceful... they just kind of were Canaanites and one day they just suddenly realized they were Israelites. Different ideas. But I believe in the biblical conquest. And so the Bible records this event. And again, if you want to hear cool stuff, you can talk to Abigail about what she's working on, that amazing stuff.

But this Exodus that people say didn't happen, it is linked with this conquest. They happened or they didn't. Now sadly, the Bible doesn't just tell us outright all of the historical information we need to know. I challenge you to look for Exodus 5:22 in your Bible. It's not there. So my Exodus 5:22 says, "And lo, Moses did speak to Amenhotep II on April 1st, 1446 BC."

Wouldn't that be nice if we just had everything laid out for us? Who the Pharaoh of the Exodus was, the date that it happened. But we don't have that. So what happens? Good biblical scholars will fight. In fact, the man who I quoted, James Hoffmeier, disagrees with my people on the date of the Exodus.

He is a Bible believer, evangelical scholar, but he believes in what we call the late date where I believe in what we call the early date. If you want to know about that argument, we have a book back there called *Five Views on the Exodus*. And James Hoffmeier has a chapter in there, as does Scott Stripling, who is our director of our site.

And so Scott will argue for the early date of the Exodus. James Hoffmeier actually won't even argue for the late date. He's just like, "Yeah, it's here and I can change my mind if I need to." So that's kind of cool. Always be willing. Always be willing. Follow scripture, believe God's word. Always be willing to look and to examine your own ideas. And that's what I'm going to do a little bit here today.

So where do we get the idea for a date for the Exodus? How do we find... well, we find certain things in the Bible where we can date these things. And so one of the big dating schemes is we have a stone that's actually in the British Museum. I got to see it a few months ago. We have a stone that talks about King Ahab and his chariots that he brought into battle.

And so we're able to look at that. We know what year that battle was and we use that with looking at the chronologies in the books of Chronicles and Kings. And so we kind of go... but most scholars will put Solomon... we have a pretty solid idea of when these kings reigned. So in 1 Kings 6:1, we read, "And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord," the Temple in Jerusalem.

Okay, the fourth year of Solomon's reign, most scholars will say was the year 966 or 967 BC. This is in the fourth year of Solomon's reign he began to build it. Okay, well this is pretty easy. If we do some math and it was 480 years after they came out of Egypt, we take 966, we add 480, and we get 1446 BC. There it is, the Exodus happened in 1446 BC. Easy peasy, right?

It's not that easy. Scripture is true, scripture is correct, scripture records true things. Well, the Septuagint reads that it was the 440th year. So here we have two ancient texts, we have the Masoretic and we have the Septuagint, and then there are other texts here and there. And we have two different traditions in those texts: 480 years or 440 years before Solomon's fourth year.

So okay, if we take the Septuagint's numbers, then 966 plus 440 equals 1406 BC the Exodus begins, right? So it's either 1446 or 1406 if we take what we call the biblical date. But again, it's not that easy because our late date friends will say, "Yes, it happened, but the numbers that are used in 1 Kings 6:1 are honorific numbers."

The 480, they don't like the 440. The 480 they'll say that's 12 perfect generations of 40 years. So that's what we've got there. They're using these numbers symbolically to show that this perfect amount of time has passed since God took his people out of Egypt and had the temple built. Those are honorific numbers.

And to back up their point, they'll use Exodus 1:11, "Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses." Okay, Ramesses II was Pharaoh in the 13th century. So around 1260 is when they'll say the Exodus happened under Ramesses II.

So we've got 1446 or 1406 and we've got 1260ish. They don't really have a date for the late date. But these are believers, these are evangelical scholars who believe that the Bible is true. One of them will take the numbers literally, one of them will not. And why is this? We'll get to that. But by the way, on the early date, we would say that the mention of Raamses was likely a scribal notation.

We already have that when Joseph's family came into the land, it says they were in the land of Raamses. Well, certainly Raamses did not live at that point. He was much later because we're going to have a sojourn in Egypt. So what is happening is say Moses writes the scripture and he says that they built the treasure cities in Per-nefer.

Well, Per-nefer, Avaris, is also Raamses. So maybe he would write it in the words, the names that the people at his time in the late Bronze Age knew. But then down the road, a scribe is like, "Nobody knows where Per-nefer is." So how about we know it's the same city as Raamses, so we put that notation? Like if someone said the Vikings found themselves in America.

Well, there was no America at the time of the Vikings, but the landmass was here. And so that's the same sort of thing. It's not anything incorrect in the Bible, it's just, "Hey reader, here's what we're looking at." So what we end up with are these two traditions: the early date, which is 1446 for most early date proponents or 1406 for others under the reign of Amenhotep II.

The late date would be around 1260 BC under the Pharaoh Ramesses II. Now Ramesses is very popular if you've watched Charlton Heston yelling at Ramesses, then you'll understand that's a very popular view. Where did this view come from? Well, it existed for a while and because, of course, the city of Raamses is mentioned, but the man who made it popular was William Albright.

William Foxwell Albright was the father of biblical archaeology. I mean this guy, the things he did, the work he did... you hear about building on the shoulders of giants, well he's one of those giants. Biblical archaeologists today owe a lot to William Albright. But he introduced or he popularized the 13th century or late date Exodus model based on destruction at the site of Beitin, which many people think is Bethel.

At Beitin and Tell Beit Mirsim, at these sites he found, and one of his students found, destruction that dated to the 13th century that seemed to fit in with this late date of the Exodus. Well, there are some problems with that. One is one of the sites he had misidentified. Mirsim, I think he said was Debir, if I'm not mistaken.

And it turns out it's not. I believe Yosef Garfinkel is digging there today. But he claimed, "Oh, well these were destroyed, this must be the biblical conquest." The Bible never says these cities were destroyed. In fact, the Bible tells us about three cities, well there are actually four, we'll throw Jerusalem in as a bonus, that happened later.

But it tells us about three cities that were destroyed under Joshua. Does anybody know those cities? Jericho, Ai, Hazor, which is a massive city. It's like the capital of Canaan basically in the north. That city was destroyed, but it was also reinhabited because Barak and Deborah had to go back into it again. So the Bible doesn't say these cities were destroyed.

But based on that and because Albright's reputation and him being such a good archaeologist, people said, "Okay, alright, the Exodus didn't happen during the early time," which was the overall view. Since he believed it was a later one, everybody said, "Okay, it was later." And now archaeologists... and you've got to understand, biblical archaeologists, just because you're called a biblical archaeologist doesn't mean you believe the Bible. You've got to understand that.

So most biblical archaeologists today will say the Exodus happened in the 13th century and it never happened. Well, that doesn't help because there's not much evidence for a 13th-century Exodus. It's just not there. And then we find things like the Merneptah Stele where we have an inscription by the Pharaoh Merneptah who's like, "Yeah, I went into Canaan and I destroyed the Israelites."

How do you have Israelites like 20, 30 years after the Exodus? You don't have a whole nation, you've got individual tribes. So let's go back and look at some Egyptian history. Under the reign of Pharaoh Thutmoses III, Egypt reached the height of its power. Thutmoses III was far more powerful than any other Egyptian pharaoh before him and any after him including Ramesses II.

When you think of the quintessential Egyptian conquering Pharaoh, Thutmoses III is the man. Under his reign, Egypt reached the height of its power. I have a map here, and by the way, if I describe things, bear with me. I'm doing this so that we have audio that we can use on the radio and that sort of thing. So we have this map and we have the different empires and countries and things like that.

We have Hatti, which is where the Hittites are from. We have Mitanni. Mitanni is the greatest empire you've never heard of. Go back and read the Book of Judges and Othniel and you're going to find some really cool things that help us, I think, to date. Assyria's around, Babylon's around, the early Babylon is around at this time.

But Egypt controls not just Egypt, but they control the entire Levant. They control Canaan and above. And why? Because Pharaoh Thutmoses III took his army from Egypt up to the city of Megiddo and all these kings, these Canaanite kings were gathered at Megiddo. And Thutmoses went in and conquered all of them. He said that the conquering of Megiddo is the conquering of a thousand cities.

And it's true. When he took over this coalition of Canaanite kings, he took over Canaan, he took over everything up to the Euphrates River. It was pretty amazing. This is the first well-recorded battle in history if you're a military history person, this battle's amazing. Go to Megiddo, you can see the mountains and the passes.

I know we have someone here who lived in that area, so it's a really cool place to go and see where this happened. But Thutmoses III, mighty Pharaoh. And he was succeeded by his son, Amenhotep II. By the way, this is important: Thutmoses III, his son is Amenhotep II, not his firstborn son. Well, Amenhotep II is generally considered to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus by proponents of the early date.

There are some variations. In fact, I have a book back there by Dr. Steven Collins, who is digging at a site called Tall el-Hammam, which is almost certainly biblical Shittim, where Moses was camped when Balaam overlooked, but is also possibly Sodom. He found evidence that looks like of an airburst or a meteorite exploding over the site. Fascinating stuff.

But he has a book on Pharaoh Thutmoses IV being the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Thutmoses IV was the son of Amenhotep II. Again, not a firstborn son. He only reigned for 10 years and his son was a firstborn son, suddenly was Amenhotep III. And his son was Amenhotep IV, also known as Akhenaten. Have you ever heard of Akhenaten?

He's the guy who became a monotheist. You see these little pieces, little clues that are fitting in here. Likely Amenhotep III and Akhenaten were the Pharaohs when Joshua was entering the land of Canaan. These are likely the Pharaohs of the conquest if Amenhotep II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Because you have 40 years after him... and he's going to reign a little longer.

The Bible never says that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was drowned in the Red Sea. And this can be argued back and forth, this is a whole another subject, but it never explicitly says that. Some believe that he was, some believe that he wasn't. But his son Thutmoses IV reigned only four years. His son Amenhotep III reigned long enough because the Exodus is 40 years long before the Israelites enter Canaan.

So if they leave in 1406 BC, they're entering Canaan in 1366. The initial conquest under Joshua lasted about six years from what we can tell. So it would be around 1360 that Joshua tells the Israelites, "Now go and conquer your own lands. God has given you these lands, you go." When he stands there at Shechem and he says, he says, "You choose today who you're going to serve, whether you're going to serve the gods of Egypt, whether you're going to serve the gods of this land or the gods of your fathers. But as for me and for my house, we will serve Yahweh." That's what he tells them right there in Shechem.

There the Hyksos. The Hyksos, that's the Greek name, but the Egyptians called them the rulers of foreign lands. They're Asiatics. This is the hieroglyph that tells us they are the rulers of foreign lands. And specifically, they're considered the rulers of Canaan. And now modern scholarship is linking the Hyksos with the Amorites. But I want you to notice something here.

This is from an Egyptian tomb painting in Beni Hasan. And the man depicted in this image would be around the time of Abram when Abram and Sarah came into Egypt. That was about the time this guy came into Egypt. And notice what he's wearing. You see his tunic? What do you notice about that tunic? It's multicolored. It's a very colored tunic. These are well known in Canaan.

So when you think of Joseph and his coat of many colors, this is what Joseph is wearing because this is what the rulers in Canaan wore. Jacob was an extremely influential man in Canaan and he takes his favorite son and puts him in the very colored tunic. So when you picture Joseph, that may well be what Joseph looked like with his mushroom haircut and his very colored tunic.

So we also have the Retjenu. The Retjenu were from Syria, modern-day Syria, which is also a place where Abram's people lived. Remember they stopped at Haran and so Laban and some of those, they're there. This is where his people are from. So the Israelites... we're going to go ahead and skip the Exodus, we all know what happens there.

The Israelites trekked across the Sinai, and after receiving the law at Mount Sinai, they continued to the southern border of Canaan, the Promised Land. And then what happened? They took representative from each tribe, a leader from each tribe, and they said, "Now go scout out the land." Numbers 13:21 tells us the area where they scouted out.

They scouted the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, all the way from the Negev Desert all the way up to a place called Lebo-hamath. Lebo-hamath is at the Orontes River, which is in modern-day Syria. It's not horribly far from Damascus. But they scouted well past what we consider to be Israel. They scouted all the way up to this area by the Orontes River.

And then they came back and they brought a report. And they were like, "Wow, this is an amazing land. This is great. But the people are too big and mighty for us." They feared man rather than fearing God. They said the walls of these cities are going up to the heavens. And it's true. If you go and you see, they've got 15, 20-foot retaining walls. These are stone walls holding in the hills.

And on top of those, maybe 30-foot high mudbrick walls. And some of these had a glacis beyond that, a hill, and then above that was another 30-foot wall. They're huge, we can't do this. But two of them, Caleb and Joshua, are like, "We can do this." And then God said, "These people, these people are evil. You're going out back into the wilderness and your children will come back. You won't have land."

They said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on, we'll do it." So they go to fight and God tells Moses, "No, no, no." And Moses tells the people, "Don't do it, don't do it." But they're like, "No, no, we can do it, we can do it." And so they go and fight and they lose and a whole bunch of them die. So then they do go back to the wilderness.

This is the Sinai. This is a picture from earlier this year on our reverse Exodus to Cairo. Just thought I'd share that. And so after 40 years in the wilderness, when God has the people ready to go into the land of Canaan, they go in. And according to what we read in the Bible, the initial conquest of Canaan appears to have lasted about six years. After this initial invasion, Joshua sent the tribes of Israel to conquer their individual allotments.

Southwest Radio Ministries: We've been listening to the first part of Clayton Van Huss's presentation on the Marauders in Canaan. This presentation was first given at last October's conference in Bristol, Virginia. The entire talk is now available on DVD. Included in the DVD is Clayton's entire Marauders in Canaan presentation and his excellent Guardians of the Sacred Space talk.

Both presentations are contained on this outstanding DVD. Order your copy today when you call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Or you can order online swrc.com. Don't miss this prophetic conference experience. Order the Prophecy in the News Live 2025 Bristol Conference DVD featuring Clayton Van Huss today and see how archaeology shines light on the Bible. 1-800-652-1144.

Clayton will be back with part two of the Marauders of Canaan on tomorrow's Watchman on the Wall program. So be sure to tune in. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful listeners like you. Visit swrc.com.