one verse (vi, 25) must have been written by some per- son who lived in the time of Joshua ; and two other verses, v, 1 and 6 — assuming the common reading of the former to be correct — are most fairly interpreted as writ- ten by actors in the scene.
No one would deny that some additions to the book might be made after the death of Joshua without de- tracting from the possible fact that the book was sub- stantially his composition. The last verses (xxiv, 29- 33) were obviously added by some later hand. If, as is possible, though not certain, some subordmate events, as the capture of Hebron, of Debir (Josh, xv, 13-19, and Judg. i, 10-15), and of Leshem (Josh, xix, 47; and Judg. xviii, 7), and the joint occupation of Jerusalem (Josh. XV, 63, and Judg. i, 21) did not occur till after Joshua's death, they may have been inserted in the book of Joshua by a late transcriber. The passages xiii, 2-6 ; xvi, 10; xvii, 11, which also are subsequently repeated in the book of Judges, may doubtless describe accurate- ly the same state of thmgs existing at two distinct pe- riods.
Other authors have been conjectured, as Phinehas by Lightfoot; Eleazar by Calvin; Samuel by Van Til; Jer- emiah by Henrj' ; one of the elders who survived Joshua by Keil. Von Lengerke thinks it was written by some one in the time of Josiah : Davidson by some one in the time of Saul, or somewhat later ; Masius, Le Clerc, jNIau- rer, and others, by some one who lived after the Babylo- nian captivity.
VI. Credibility. — That the narrative contained in this book is to be accepted as a trustworthy account of the transactions it records is proved alike by the esteem in which it was alwaj's held by the Jews ; by the references to events recorded in it in the national sacred songs (comp. Psa. xliv, 2-4; Ixxviii, 54, 55; Ixviii, 13-15. cxiv, 1-8; Hab. iii, 8-13), and in other parts of Scrii> ture (comp. Judg. xviii, 31 ; 1 Sam. i, 3, 9, 24; iii, 21 , Isa. xxviii, 21; Acts vii, 45; Heb. iv, 8; xi, 30-32,- James ii, 25) ; by the traces which, both in the historical and in the geographical portions, may be found of the use by the writer of contemporary documents ; by the minuteness of the details which the author furnishes, and which indicates familiar acquaintance with what he records ; by the accuracy of his geographical deline- ations, an accuracy which the results of modem investi- gation are increasingly demonstrating ; by the fact that the tribes never had any dispute as to the bomidaries of their respective territories, but adhered to the arrange- ments specified in this book ; and by the general fidelity to historical consistency and probability which the book displays (Hiivernick, Einl sec. 148 sq.). Some of the narratives, it is true, are of a miraculous kind, but such are wholly in keeping with the avowed relation to the Almighty of the people whose history the book records, and they can be regarded as unhistorical only on the as- sumption that «Z; miracles are incredible — a question we cannot stop to discuss here. See Miracles. In the list of such miraculous interpositions we do not include the standing still of the sun, and the staying of the moon, recorded in ch. x, 12, 13. That passage is ap- parently wholly a quotation from the book of Jasher, and is probably a fragment of a poem composed by some Israelite on the occasion ; it records in highly poetical language the gracious help which God granted to Joshua by the retarding of the approach of darkness long enough to enable him to complete the destruction of his ene- mies, and is no more to be taken literally than is such a passage as Psa. cxiv, 4-6, where the lied Sea is de- scribed as being frightened and fleeing, and the moun- tains as skipping like rams. See Jasheu, Book of. That God interjiosed on this occasion to help his people we do not doubt ; but that he interposed by the working of such a miracle as the words taken literally would in- dicate, we see no reason to believe.
Tlie account given, ch. viii, 1 sq,, of the taking of Ai has been much dwelt upon as presenting a narrative which is unliistorical. It is incredible that Joshua sent
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iwo bodies of men, one comprising 30,000 soldiers, the other 5000, to lie in ambush against the city, while he himself advanced on it with the main body of his army ; and yet this seems to be what the narrative states. What increases the improbability here is that the lar- ger body is never mentioned as having come into action at all, for the whole exploit was accomplished by the 5000 and those who were with Joshua, If the case were stated tluis : That Joshua took 30,000 of liis war- riors, and of these sent away 5000 to lie in ambush, while he, with the remaining 25,000, advanced against the city, the narrative would be perfectly simple and credible. The suggestion that verses 12 and 13 are a marginal gloss which has been supposed to creep into the text, leaves the narrative burdened with the im- probable statement that 30,000 men could advance on Ai in daylight, and lie concealed in its immediate neigh- borhood for several hours without their presence being suspected by the inhabitants. Still less probable seems the suggestion that in these verses we have a fragment of an older record. Keil labors to show that from the peculiar stjde of Shemitic narrative it is competent to supply, in ver. 3, in thought, from the subsequent nar- rative, that from the 30,000 whom Joshua took he se- lected 6000, whom he sent away by night. But, what- ever may be the difficulties in this text, it woidd be un- reasonable on this account to relinquish our confidence on the general credibility of the book.