Responses to Lectures on Joshua 23

Ralph W. Klein

Reinhard Müller

Original draft of Joshua 23: vv. 1-2, 14-16a
Subsequent redactions:

  • Addition of vv. 3 (Deuteronomy 3, 29); and v. 6, which was once followed directly by v. 14
  • Addition of vv. 9-13 (remaining nations)
  • Addition of vv. 4-5, 7-8
  • Text critical notations from LXX vv. 5 plus: until they perish and he will send wild beasts against them (see 3rd page of handout); v.12 these that remain; v. 16b absent from LXX and secondary

Relative chronology and complexity of literary critical changes; brevity of original draft
Relationship of Joshua 23 to the Deuteronomistic Historynot spelled out
Priority of Joshua 24 (See Königtum und GottesHerrschaft, 234, n. 92) and date of Josh 23: 1-2, 14-16a

Richard Nelson

Deuteronomistic Historian in Joshua based on a pre Deuteronomistic source or collection of conquest stories contained in Joshua 1-12 and 21:43-22:6 that overstate the extent of the conquest. The modification of this source to indicate the ongoing presence of other nations is achieved in Joshua 23 and Judg 2:7-10 (= the rest of the story)

Rhetorical unity of the chapter: intensification of threats, vv. 6-8 injunctions only; vv.11-13 injunctions and conditional threats;vv. 15-16 (16b is original) conditional threats only. No diachronic stratification of Joshua 23

Pre-exilic date of Joshua 23: Continued obedience will mean….Disobedience will mean…..Has the either/or posed by Joshua already been decided by the time the Deuteronomistic History was written? Cf. 1 Sam 12:25 If you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away.

Joachim Krause

Original layer of Joshua 23 according to Römer: vv. 1-3, 9, 11, 14b-16a
Original layer of Joshua 23 according to Blum: vv. 1-3, 6 (?), 11, 14-16a

Josh 23:6, with its reference to the book of the Torah of Moses, is original; also original Josh 1:7-9 (contra Smend, who ascribed all references to the Book of the Torah to DtrN). Chain of command in the time of Moses = Yahweh to Moses to Israel. After the death of Moses, chain of command = Yahweh to book of Torah of Moses to Israel. This focus on the book of the Torah identified already in Joshua 1. Joshua himself is instructed in Torah in ch 1, and Joshua instructs the next generation about Torah in ch. 23.The reference to Book of the Torah was in Dtr from the beginning.

The relative silence about the book of the Torah in the rest of the Deuteronomistic History (except for 1 Kgs 2:1-4; 2 Kgs 14:6) until the book of the Torah is found in the reign of Josiah (2 Kgs 22:8). The book of the Torah is the punchline of the plot of the Deuteronomistic History. See references to book of the Torah also in 2 Kgs 22:11, 16; 23:24-25.

Thomas Römer

Multiple endings to Joshua and other books in the Hebrew Bible.Literary critical results for Joshua 23 = Deuteronomy in miniature (see the diachronic analyses of Römer and Blumlisted under Krause). Josh 23 always connected to 21:43-45 and 22:1-6

Joshua 23 and Judg 2:7-10 mark the transition to the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings, the whole Dtr. Date: Babylonian times.

Secondary passages in Joshua 23 date to Persian times (distinction between children of the Golah and other residents [nations] in Palestine)

Joshua 24 as (failed) attempt to create a Hexateuch (also Nelson). Second half of Persian period.Parallels between Joshua 24 and Nehemiah 9.Lack of Deuteronomistic language in Joshua 24. Subsequent additions to Joshua 24, after the notion of the Hexateuch discarded, in Joshua 24:19-21, 22b in order to mark transition to the period of the Judges

Issues at stake among Essayists

  • Synchronic reading (Nelson) versus diachronic readings (Krause, Müller. Römer)
  • Chronological relationship between Joshua 23 and 24 (Römer and Nelson vs. Müller)
  • Date of Joshua 23-24: pre-exilic to Persian times; relative and absolute dates

Joshua 23:5

וַיהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא יֶהְדֳּפֵם מִפְּנֵיכֶם MT Reading A

κύριος δὲ ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν οὗτος ἐξολεθρεύσει αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν

Yahweh your God will push them back before you

*****************************************************

וְהוֹרִישׁ אֹתָם מִלִּפְנֵיכֶם MT Reading B

Omitted by LXX (homoioteleuton) and he will dispossess them before you

LXX Plus discussed by Müller:

ἕως ἂν ἀπόλωνται καὶ ἀποστελεῖ αὐτοῖς τὰ θηρία τὰ ἄγρια

until they perish and he shall send wild beasts against them

Another LXX Plus not discussed by Müller

ἕως ἂν ἐξολεθρεύσῃ αὐτοὺς καὶ τοὺς βασιλεῖς αὐτῶν ἀπὸ προσώπου ὑμῶν

until he utterly destroys them and their kings from before you (partially repeats the translation of Reading A with the addition of “their kings”)

*****************************************************

וִירִשְׁתֶּם אֶת־אַרְצָם כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם לָכֶם MT Reading C

καὶ κατακληρονομήσατε τὴν γῆν αὐτῶν καθὰ ἐλάλησεν κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν ὑμῖν

and you will inherit their land, as Yahweh your God spoke to you