Establishing a Nation: Biblical Conquests and Modern Wars

Keywords: Bible, Israel, Archeology, History, Geography, Conquest, War, Political, Military, Colonialism, Middle East
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 69

Abstract

This paper serves as a critical literary and historical analysis of the biblical conquest narrative. The paper focuses on the account of the conquest as recorded in the book of Joshua, but also refers to the sending of spies into the land as accounted in Numbers 13 and Deuteronomy 1-3, as well as other mentions of the conquest in the book of Judges. This paper then parallels these narratives with the modern geographic aspects of establishing nations. Parallels are drawn from the medieval era, colonialism, and today's middle eastern crisis. The goal of this paper was to gain a comprehensive comparison between the biblical texts and other nation establishment histories from a geographical perspective. The data is explained through geographic interpretation by utilizing maps and charts cross-referencing the various textual, archaeological, and geographic sources.