As we all know, the reality was very different in real-time antiquity. Joshua was followed by no decisive leader, only by a short-lived, jelly-wobble committee of geriatric elders who showed no initiative and left no leader. With only patchy occupation, and no concerted follow-up to Joshuas lightning raids, the scattered tribes fell back on their own devices, acted as individual splinter groups and very soon got nowhere, ending up settling in with the Canaanites around them, leading to social (and then religious) relations precisely as forbidden by their ancestral covenant. And with very limited access to the tabernacle at Shiloh when non-Hebrew areas barred easy access, increasing numbers of tribesfolk simply did not bother to go to its feasts unless they lived close by. The tabernacle priests failed to encourage more active attendance but were content to vegetate among their local clientele; the covenant terms did not get read regularly; everything got slack, easygoing, and purposeless. Only when major crises were perpetrated by oppressors did the Hebrews remember they had a sovereign who long since got them out of Egypt and into Canaan, so Help, get us out of this! was their call, like many a modern since who has prayed in deep trouble but not in palmy times. -- Kenneth Kitchen, On The Reliability of the Old Testament
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 12:42:16 +0000
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