RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Josephus Joshua
Joshua led the people in a northerly direction to Ebal and Gerizim, and overcame a combination of Canaanites gathered to punish Gibeon for its treaty with Israel, on which occasion occurred what has been read as a miracle in the staying of the sun and the moon in their courses, to be interpreted probably as a subjective effect of the quickness and completeness of the victory (Josh. x. 1-14). This was followed by the conquest of the southern part of the land as far as Kadesh-barnea and westward to Gaza (Josh. x. 29 sqq.), succeeded by a third campaign in which the kings of the northern cities were subdued near Merom. While by these wars the country was won, with the exception of the Philistine and Phenician coast, not all was actually in the possession of the Hebrews; and several years after the ending of the campaigns Joshua's seat of government was still at Gilgal (Josh. xiv. 6) . It was at this place that Joshua's second task was begun — the division of the land among the tribes. Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh first received their allotments, and the ark was carried from Gilgal to Shiloh in Benjamin (Josh, xv.xviii. 1). This was followed by the allotment of the portions to the other tribes, and the permission to the East-Jordan tribes to return to their own district, . having fulfilled their duty to the tribes west of the river (Josh, xviii.-xxii.). In anticipation of his death Joshua gathered first the elders and then the people at Shechem to receive his last instructions, which he commemorated by a pillar or stone under the terebinth at Shechem (Josh, xxiv. 26-27). He died at the age of one hundred and ten. (W. VoLCKf.)
Bibliography: J. H. Stahelin, in TSK, xxiv (1849), 394 sqq.; J. Sockel, Die Eroberung des heiligen Landes durch Josua, Gleiwitz, 1870; J. B. Meyer, Joshua and the Land of Promise, London, 1893; and the literature under Joshua, Book of.
JOSHUA, BOOK OF: The sixth of the books of the Old Testament in the arrangement of the English Bible. According to the Hebrew canon, it is the first book of the second part, containing the prophetical-historical books. It was originally the conclusion of the Pentateuch. The
Contents conception of the Talmud (Baba bathra, and 14b) that Joshua was the author of
Sources, the book is no longer tenable; nor is that of Keil, who regarded it as a unified book drawn up by an eye-witness of the events (cf. Josh. v. 1, R.V., margin). For contents see Hexatetjch, § 2. The part which deals with the conquest bears the impress of those sections of the Pentateuch derived from JE (hardly to be distinguished in this book); the second part resembles more the style of the priestly writer, but with insertions of JE (xviii. 3-10). But throughout, these elements are more or less interwoven, with Deuteronomic portions also thrown in (especially in viii.; cf. viii. 30 sqq., with Deut. iv. 41-43, and note the Deuteronomic expressions in Josh, xxiii. 5, 11, 14). There are also expressions which linguistically belong neither to JE nor P, indicating that the redactor has employed other material: such are the combinations " the Lord, the God of Israel " (fourteen times, only elsewhere in the Hexateuch in Ex.
v. 1, xxxii. 27), and the term "mighty men of valor" (Josh. i. 14, etc.). Thus the work of several hands is distinguishable in the composition of the book. It appears from analysis that the parts belonging to P are later than those which are assigned to JE; and that JE and P lay before the Deuteronomist who composed the book found in the times of Josiah. It was he who closed the Pentateuch and made Joshua the beginning of the historical narrative, reediting it and working it over, but bestowing upon it no such care as he exercised upon the Pentateuch. There are indications that its text has had an independent history.
In the book data are found which tend to fix the date of the sources out of which it was compiled or from which it was derived. Thus chap, viii. 28 must have been written long prior to Isa. x. 28; xvi. 10 must be earlier than the beginning of Solomon's reign (I Kings ix. 16); xv. 63 must precede the incident told in II Sam. v. 6; x. 13 can not be earlier than the time of David, since the book of Jasher contained David's elegy on Saul and Jonathan; vi. 25 and xiv. 14 do not imply that the source was contemporary with Rahab and Joshua, since the reference is to the descendants of Rahab and Caleb. That the part dealing with the division of the land rests on documents is in itself probable (cf. xviii. 9); and the absence of reports of strife over tribal boundaries implies that the boundaries were based on an old decision. The list of kings, xii. 9 sqq., is regarded by Ewald as an old document. But variations in, e.g., the count of cities shows that the text has not remained unaltered (xv. 32, xix. 15, 38). This book with the first four books of the Pentateuch and parts of Deuteronomy was known to the prophets Hosea, Amos, and Micah. Thus the general scheme of history regarded by Micah as known to his contemporaries under Hezekiah agrees with that presented in Numbers and Joshua (Micah vi. 1 sqq., which recalls the narrative of JE). So in Amos there are reminiscences of the narrative of P (as in ii. 10, v. 25, vii. 4; cf. particularly ii. 7 with Lev. xx. 3, xxii. 2, 32). So Hos. xii. 4 may be compared with Gen. xxxv. 9 sqq., in which minutiae of agreement suggest that Hosea had the report of P before him.
The credibility of the narrative of the book has been assailed on the ground that it contains not history but legend. The chief occasion for this is comparison with Judges i. It is said that while Joshua implies the conquest of Canaan by the tribes in unison, Judges i. records the His- piecemeal occupation by individual
toricity. tribes or aggregations. But Judges i. 1 professes to deal with what occurred after the death of Joshua, not with the events of his life. Moreover, while the general impression which the book of Joshua gives is that of a complete conquest, its individual expressions limit this (xxiii. 7, 12). Thus at Joshua's death no tribe had fully completed the conquest of the portion allotted to it, and especially the fortresses and plains remained in Canaanitic possession. Thus Judges i. appears as the story of the continuation of the subjugation of the land, and there is no
Joshua Jovianus