Cooper - The Authenticity of the Book of Judges

The Authenticity of the Book of Judges

By

Bill Cooper

Copyright 2015 Dr Wm R Cooper

Cover pic: A Syrian king of ca 1400 BC, from Nordisk Familjebok , 1876.

For Ross Rosevear

in gratitude for the many years of industry and expertise

that he has poured into managing and building up both the CSM

and its Genesis Expo in Portsmouth

Thank you, Ross!

About the Author

Bill Cooper is a Vice President and Trustee of the Creation Science Movement in England. He also serves as Adjunct Professor of Providential History and Apologetics on the Master Faculty at the Institute for Creation Research School of Biblical Apologetics (Dallas, Texas). He is the author of After the Flood (1995); Paleys Watchmaker (1997); William Tyndales 1426 New Testament (old spelling ed. British Library. 2000); The Wycliffe New Testament of 1388 (British Library. 2002); The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis (CSM. 2012); The Authenticity of the Book of Daniel (2012); The Authenticity of the Book of Jonah (2012); The Authenticity of the Book of Esther (2012); The Chronicle of the Early Britons (2012); Old Light on the Roman Church (2012); The Authenticity of the New Testament Part 1: The Gospels (2013); The Authenticity of the New Testament Part 2: Acts, the Epistles and Revelation (2014); After the Flood 2 nd edition (2014); Foxes Actes & Monuments 1463 (2014); Paleys Historicity of St Paul (Horae Paulinae 1790) (2014); The Wycliffe New Testament (1388) original spelling (2014); and The Authenticity of the Book of Joshua (2015).

He has authored numerous technical articles on Creationism, Palaeoanthropology, Bible Apologetics, the Reformation and the History of the English Bible. Graduating with Honours at Kingston University (England), he went on to obtain both his PhD and ThD from Emmanuel College of Christian Studies (Springdale, Arkansas). He lives in England, is married to Eileen (for more than 40 years now), has two daughters, numerous foster children, four fine grandsons and a granddaughter.

Acknowledgements

My thanks must go to Dr David and Joan Rosevear for their undying support and confidence in my work; to Dr James J Scofield Johnson, Chief Academic Officer at ICRs School of Biblical Apologetics for his always-freely-accessible expertise in Hebrew and related Semitic languages; to Dr Gene Jeffries whose kindnesses have made so much possible; to Dr Johnny Sanders for his undying encouragement; and to Dr Bryant Wood, archaeologist and Research Director of Associates for Biblical Research for some very timely info. Thank you all.

Contents

: The Early Writing of the Book of Judges

: Othniel and the Twice-Wicked King

: Ehud, Eglon and the Door

: Shamgar and the Philistines

: The Three Sons of Anak

: Samson

: Critics - Tampering with the Evidence

: The Displacement of the Canaanite Populations

: Conclusion

Introduction

This book is not a commentary as such on the Book of Judges. It is rather an examination into the question of the Books authenticity as an historical document. It looks into the question of the Books early writing, and into its integrity and truthfulness as an historical record. Of particular consideration will be the many microscopic details which will tell us either way if the Book of Judges is authentic or not. These corroborative details are the ones that the critics seem to miss all the time. They will happily disparage Judges, just as they do the rest of the Bible, with baseless allegations of late composition, error, misinformation, propaganda, or just plain fraud, whilst referring to each other for their evidence and authority. But they will not even attempt to deal with the finer evidences that shout the Books authenticity. Thats where this present study comes in.

The accounts of certain of Israels Judges will be examined. Each period of jurisdiction is documented in the Book of Judges, and these records were brought together (under God) when the Book of Judges was finally compiled - the period of the Judges being closed in the 11 th century BC when King Saul began to reign. These accounts will then be compared with whatever archaeology has discovered, including the contents of the Tell El-Amarna Tablets, a rich source of contemporary documentation that we have already encountered in our study of the Book of Joshua in this series. The Tell El-Amarna Tablets are a source of immense embarrassment for the higher critics, which is why they at first denigrate, and then steer well clear of them. I dont blame them. If I were a critic, Id do the same. But here, we dont ignore them. We make full and fair use of their contents wherever and whenever they touch upon events and personages that appear in the Book of Judges. Meanwhile, exactly when was the Book of Judges written? Is it as ancient as it claims to be?

Chapter One : The Early Writing of the Book of Judges

As with all the studies in the Authenticity series, we have to begin with the question of date of composition. So we proceed in this present case immediately to asking, when was the Book of Judges written? not by whom necessarily, but certainly when? If it was written nearly a thousand years after the events that it pretends to treat of, and as the critics so often allege, then we would be wasting our time in any further study which is the entire purpose of the allegation, of course. The Book of Judges would be nothing more than a propagandists forgery, of some antiquarian interest no doubt, but worthless as a truly historical document, and even more worthless as a Book of Scripture. So the question is important. When was the Book of Judges written?

The Internal Evidences

According to Jewish tradition, the Book of Judges was written by the prophet Samuel. That is why it is listed - along with Joshua (also allegedly by Samuel) - amongst the former prophets in the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible. Samuel could not have written Joshua, however, because Joshua tells us that at the time of its writing, Rahab was still alive (Joshua 6:25). Rahab would have to have been about 400 years of age to be still alive in Samuels day, a fact that must rule him out as the writer of Joshua. With Judges, though, it is a different matter. It could easily have been written by Samuel. It certainly dates from his time, as witness the following synchronism:

...the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin unto this day (Judges 1:21).

That was the state of play in Samuels day, because Jerusalem was not to fall entirely to the Israelites until Davids reign, and Samuel died before David became king (1 Samuel 25:1). Moreover, there are repeated statements in Judges (17:1; 18:1; 19:1; & 21:25) that there were no kings over Israel in those days, strongly implying that there was a king over Israel when these statements were written. That king can only have been Saul if the Jebusites were still holding Jerusalem. So with these evidences, we can say that it is very likely indeed that Samuel was the man through whom God gave us the Book of Judges. That would place the authorship of Judges at around 1010 BC at the very latest, and probably somewhere between 1030-1020 BC. Now that is some 600 years earlier for the writing of Judges than when the critics would have us believe the Book was written, so what further evidence do we need for its early writing? Not much, it would seem, but the following microscopic snippets are far too valuable to be omitted. The critics omit them for obvious reasons, but we must not.

Among these snippets are certain names provided for us throughout the Book of Judges. Now, it is unusual to use names as date indicators, for many names span several centuries. John and William, for example, span many centuries in English history, and David goes back some 3,000 years. Adam goes back 6,000 years! All other cultures and languages have names that are used across centuries and even millennia, and Hebrew is no exception to this rule. However, there are certain names in the Book of Judges which are peculiar to Canaan, and which are not found in records later than the 14 th -11 th century BC timeframe of the Book of Judges. We shall look at these names now, but it is important to note that no 5 th -century BC forger could have been aware of them, for by his day these records had been buried and out of sight for upward of a thousand years or more.