probably of a few months conquered the whole land of canaan, expelled or slaughtered the canaanites, divided up the whole land among the 12 tribes, then joshua gives a sermon at the end, and it's all over. >> reporter: jericho is a highlight now on most holy land tours. the pilgrims are drawn here by the violent version of how the israelites came into the promised land. but it's unlikely that this is actually how it happened. >> people forget that there are two versions of the so-called conquest of canaan in the hebrew bible. >> the book of joshua suggests a blitzkrieg. it's a form of mass colonialism, massive slaughter. it's horrible. and then we have the story of judges, a gradual infiltration into the sparsely populated hill country, do we want the blitzkrieg model or do we want the gradual settlement model.