Ai (Hebrew: העי; "heap of ruins") refers to one or two places in ancient Israel: Hebrew redirects here. ...

• A city mentioned along with Heshbon by Jeremiah 49:3, whose location is currently unknown, and which may or may not be the same as:
• A Canaanite royal city which according to the Book of Joshua was conquered by the Israelites on their second attempt. The ruins of the city are popularly thought to be in the modern-day archeological site Et-Tell (see below).

Heshbon was a town in Ancient Israel. ... Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem by Rembrandt van Rijn. ... Canaan (Canaanite: כנען, Hebrew: , Greek: Χαναάν whence Latin: Canaan; and from Hebrew, Aramaic: whence Arabic: ‎). Canaan is an ancient term for a region approximating present-day Israel(94%.) and West Bank and Gaza plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Lebanon and Syria. ... The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... Et-Tell is an archaeological site in Israel that is popularly thought to be the Biblical city of Ai. ...

The Ai of Joshua

The Ai mentioned by the Book of Joshua is also mentioned by the Book of Genesis as having been a religious sanctuary, which it claims was founded by Abraham (though most biblical scholars now think this is an aetiological myth); Abraham's tent, i.e. the area he settled, is stated by the bible to have been between Bethel and Ai. Genesis (Greek: Γένεσις, having the meanings of birth, creation, cause, beginning, source and origin) is the first book of the Torah (five books of Moses) and hence the first book of the Tanakh, part of the Hebrew Bible; it is also the first book of the Christian Old Testament. ... It has been suggested that Abraham (Hebrew Bible) be merged into this article or section. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation. ... Bethel (בית אל), also written as Beth El or Beth-El, is a Semitic word that has acquired various meanings. ...

In the Bible, the Israelites attempt to conquer Ai on two occasions, the first failing. The Biblical account portrays the failure as being due to a prior sin of Achan; for which Achan, his children, wife, sheep, and other livestock, are stoned to death by the Israelites. On the second attempt, Joshua, who is identified by the narrative as the leader of the Israelites, plans and leads an ambush at the rear of the city on the western side. When the city was captured, it was set on fire and razed to the ground, with the inhabitants being subjected to genocide - every adult male, woman, and all the children were killed in accordance with what the narrative states was "God's command". An Israelite is a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of the Biblical patriarch Jacob who was renamed Israel by God in the book of Genesis, 32:28 The Israelites were a group of Hebrews, as described in the Bible. ... This entry incorporates text from Eastons Bible Dictionary, 1897, with some modernisation. ... Collective punishment is a term describing the punishment of a group of people for the crime of a few or even of one. ... Joshua or Yehoshua (Hebrew: יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, Tiberian: , Israeli: Yəhoshúa) was an Israelite leader who succeeded Moses. ... Look up Genocide in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Monotheistic faiths believe that there is and can only be one unique supreme being; polytheism means the belief in several coexisting deities. ...

Edward Robinson suggested in 1838 that et-Tell could be the location of the Biblical city of Ai, as did Charles Wilson in 1866, on the evidence of Biblical references and nearby topography. This identification was backed by the American scholar William Foxwell Albright, who further argued in a 1924 paper that the site of et-Tell held the ruins of a great Canaanite city. A further point in its favour is the fact that the Hebrew name Ai means more or less the same as the modern Arabic name et-Tell. Albright's identification has been accepted by the majority of the archaeological community, and today et-Tell is widely believed to be one and the same as the Biblical Ai. | Jöns Jakob Berzelius, discoverer of protein 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Et-Tell is an archaeological site in Israel that is popularly thought to be the Biblical city of Ai. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... It has been suggested that Geomorphometry be merged into this article or section. ... William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891 - September 19/20, 1971) was an evangelical Methodist archaelogist, biblical authority, linguist and expert on ceramics. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Canaan (Canaanite: כנען, Hebrew: , Greek: Χαναάν whence Latin: Canaan; and from Hebrew, Aramaic: whence Arabic: ‎). Canaan is an ancient term for a region approximating present-day Israel(94%.) and West Bank and Gaza plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Lebanon and Syria. ...

If et-Tell is indeed Ai, this poses a problem for defenders of the literal historicity of the Biblical accounts concerning the origin of ancient Israel; the reason for this is that traditional dating schemes place the Exodus from Egypt and Joshua's conquest around 1400 BC, a time at which the archaeological evidence implies that Ai was completely unoccupied, and had been for almost 1000 years. The later Iron Age I village appeared with no evidence of initial conquest, and the Iron I settlers seem to have peacefully built their village on the forsaken mound, without meeting resistance. In addition Ai, meaning Ruin is a particularly strange name for a city to have, while it is a quite ordinary name for a pile of rubble to have; Ai would only really be expected to become Ai after it had been destroyed not before. It has been suggested that Pharaoh of the Exodus be merged into this article or section. ... (Redirected from 1400 BC) Centuries: 16th century BC - 15th century BC - 14th century BC Decades: 1450s BC 1440s BC 1430s BC 1420s BC 1410s BC - 1400s BC - 1390s BC 1380s BC 1370s BC 1360s BC 1350s BC Events and Trends Palace of Minos destroyed by fire (1400 BC) Several board... Archaeology, archeology, or archology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ...

A fair proportion of archaeologists and biblical scholars have therefore suggested that the biblical account of Ai's conquest derives from an aetiological myth; an impressive ruin and some vague details of its destruction were known to folk memory, but the authors of the Bible sought to explain it in a way that fitted with their view of an Israelite invasion and brief campaign of conquest. Since the ruin was a ruin since c. 2400 BC, a time when Canaan was under Egyptian control, Callaway has proposed that the city somehow angered the Egyptians (perhaps by rebelling, and attempting to gain independence), and so they destroyed it as punishment ^[1].

Although the vast majority of archaeologists support the identification of Ai with Et-Tell, a few opponents, prominently including Bryant Wood, object to this identification on purely religious grounds (since the facts on the ground appear to contradict the biblical account). Bryant G. Wood is currently the Creationist Director of the Associates for Biblical Research. ...

See also

• Book of Joshua

The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ...

References and Notes

1. ^ Callaway, Joseph. "Ai." In David Noel Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol.1, p. 125-130. Doubleday, 1992.

External links

• Easton's Bible Dictionary