I Love What I Do

(not the marketing stuff… this kind of stuff… from a 2 hour presentation I'm giving on Monday on Joshua 7-12):

– Ai and Achan
     – story seems to be baed on separate folk narrative for Coote.
          – perhaps reflecting guerilla tactics that Josiah had to neutralize or co-opt.
     – Ai means "ruin."
          – in early bronze age (approx. 2k years before Josiah), Ai was significant town.
               – small unwalled town by time of David.
               – connected to Bethel
                    – Coote suggests Ai stood in for Bethel and the cult which the Dtr loathes
                         – destruction of Ai explains how Bethel would be destroyed by Josiah – etiology
     – same etiology applies to Achan and Ai
          – Achan's family corpses with a "great heap of stones"
          – King of Ai covered with "great heap of stones"
               – word for heap is gal (same as in Gilgal)
                    – further, word for hanging is tala is a pun on tel (or Ai).
     – Achan frames the story of failure at Ai just as Rahab frames story of Jericho.