fictitious. yes, there are some battles. yes, there s some killing. but overall, they re coming in and they re living side by side with some of the canaanites. this sounds radical, but when i talk to most people they re relieved. the genocide that is god s will, yahweh s will, never happened. reporter: for some the story told in the book of joshua presents a troubling picture of a violent god. but others draw a sense of mission from the very same story. a few days after we visited jericho our team was invited to the graduation ceremony for jonathan friedland and his elite unit of the israeli defense force cadets. just like joshua and his troops came to israel and had their battles here and were able to live here, i m just continuing it just like my brother did it and my father did it and my grandfather did it.
for better or for worse. however you view that kind of image. whether that s one of excitement and action or that s one of hey, this is war, and war can be ugly. reporter: in this war the bible makes clear that no prisoners should be taken alive. every man, woman, and child should be slaughtered. and according to the bible, this bloody battle was just the first stop on joshua s campaign. now, according to the book of 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
it s the story of wandering for 40 years, joshua s more action-packed. this is where they come on in and they take over. fought the battle of jericho reporter: as told in the book of joshua the conquest of canaan has all the trappings of a summer blockbuster. and the walls came tumbling down sounds like a movie. it s an action-packed scene. reporter: with the ark of the covenant leading the way, joshua crossed the river jordan with his army. i m sure this is an elite fighting force. reporter: the conquest of jericho is one in which god is clearly in the role of a divine warrior. the bible tells us that joshua conquered jericho by walking around the city seven times. he marched around the wall seven times reporter: the whole time carrying the mystical ark of the covenant, which the bible describes as having special powers. god at that moment causes the walls to crumble and to fall down. and it s at that moment you that just get this image of them just rushing i
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. the question is what do we believe? what do we actually think happened? reporter: the archaeology does lend some support to the less dramatic and gentler account. of all the years when jericho was inhabited, the one period where we want it to be inhabited so joshua can attack it, there s nobody living there. it s empty. there s no wall for joshua to knock down. to put it bluntly, the book of joshua is almost all
land. reporter: the bible tells us that before his death on mount nebo, with guidance from god, moses chose a man named joshua to lead the israelites on the last leg of their journey. and so we have this real transition, a handing over of power from one generation to the next, where moses and his generation have been wandering it s the story of wandering for 40 years, joshua s more action-packed. this is where they come on in and they take over. fought the battle of jericho reporter: as told in the book of joshua the conquest of canaan has all the trappings of a summer blockbuster. and the walls came tumbling down sounds like a movie. it s an action-packed scene. reporter: with the ark of the covenant leading the way, joshua crossed the river jordan with his army. i m sure this is an elite fighting force. reporter: the conquest of jericho is one in which god is clearly in the role of a divine warrior. the bible tells us that