joshua, the israelite troops invaded en masse from transjordan and in a period 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
first house of worship. the bible doesn t mention mecca. instead, it tells us abraham finally found a permanent home in canaan. he and sarah had settled into their old age. perhaps at last enjoying some measure of tranquility after all they had endured. then, unexpected visitors appeared and changed their lives again. abraham sees three men. he greets them. sarah hurries to make them a meal. hospitality is quintessential. in nomadic cultures, travelers in these barren landscapes could never have survived without the kindness of strangers. when you re out wandering into a new village and you meet someone and they offer you a cup of coffee or tea, those are the moments that define abraham for
where was abraham born? yes. both. he goes down to the promised land, goes to egypt, and comes back. the story is trying to connect him to the entire arc of the region. it s a story shared by about half the world. abraham s path will eventually wind through ten countries. our next stop is in the biblical land of canaan, which is now israel in the west bank. my guide on this part of abraham s path is abner goran and his archaeologist. if somebody is thinking of getting back to roots, coming back to be in touch with god, this is always the place. it s always kind of shocking to me that these immense stories, more than two, three billion people believe in,
and the story of the holy city begins around 1,000 b.c. in the land of canaan. in 1,000 b.c., the major kingdoms were the egyptian kingdom to the south and the hittites to the north. this land of canaan in between, that was just a battlefield that the big boys came to duke it out on. canaan is the land that the israelites believe that god gave to them as the land that they were to inherit. the problem is, is that there were already people in canaan, the canaanites. according to the bible, god commands the israelites to kill every man, woman and child there, what we would call today genocide. and so you can see how in a modern setting, that might be cause for contention between