JOSUE. - I. THE PERSONAGE. - Son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim (Num. 13:9, 17; 1 Chron. 7:22-27), successor of Moses as theocratic leader (cf. "the man in whom there is spirit," Num. 27:18) of the people of Israel during the period of the conquest of the land of Canaan and of the settlement of the various tribes in their seats.
The Hebrew name is Jēhōfāa', Jēhōfūa', earlier in the form Hōfēa' (cf. Num. 13:8 with 13:16), abbreviated to Jēfāa' (Neh. 8:17), whence the name of "Jesus," from the probable sense of "Yahweh (is) salvation," cf. Josh. 1:9.
Already during the crossing of the desert he had been chosen as his "minister" (Ex. 24:13) by Moses, who used him for tasks of particular trust, such as the war against the Amalekites, while Moses prayed on the mountain (Ex. 17:9-13), and the exploration of Canaan (Num. 13); he took him with him onto Sinai when he received the Tablets of the Law (Ex. 24:13) and always held him dear (Num. 11:29; 14:6 ff.). For some time already J. had been designated to take up the succession of Moses and initiated with a kind of rite of investiture (Num. 27:18-23) into his office; the dying Moses repeated the designation, insisting on the particular task assigned to him of guiding Israel to the conquest and partition of Canaan (Deut. 31:3, 7, 23; cf. Josh. 1:6-9, where the insistence on the exhortation to be "strong, courageous" refers to the military functions characteristic of J.'s activity).
The chronology of the conquest of Canaan depends on the system one chooses for fixing the exodus (v.): if one admits that the pharaoh of the exodus is Merneptah of the XIX dynasty (end of the 13th century B.C.), one would arrive for J. at the period immediately following the death of Ramesses III
(1167), in which Egypt increasingly lost power in Palestine, where local sovereignties were asserting themselves (cf. 13:2-3).
II. THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
The history of Joshua is intimately connected with that of the conquest, a period of perhaps 30 years, the subject of the book that bears his name, and it stands in sixth place in the Old Testament, after the Pentateuch, of which it is the continuation as regards the narrative part: an account now vivid and minute, now schematic and essential, of that epic enterprise.
The book is divided into two parts of equal length: occupation (chaps. 1-12) and partition of Canaan (chaps. 13-24). In the first part the preparations are narrated (chaps. 1-5), then the conquest: Jericho (chap. 6), Ai (chaps. 7-8) and the remaining southern territory (chaps. 9-10) and northern territory (chap. 11). The account ends with a summary list of the kings defeated (chap. 12). The second part narrates the distribution of the territory among the tribes, beginning with those beyond the Jordan (chap. 13), then passing to the West: Judah (chap. 14), Ephraim (chaps. 15-16), Manasseh (chap. 17), Benjamin (chap. 18) with the six remaining tribes (chap. 19), then proceeding to designate the cities "of refuge" (chap. 20) and the Levitical cities (chap. 21). These operations completed, the tribes of the Transjordan are sent back to their settlements (chap. 22). The book ends with the account of two discourses of Joshua and the story of his death and burial (chaps. 23-24).
Archaeological exploration, especially in the region of Jericho, and documents from el-'Amârnah have illuminated this epoch in its general significance: thus, for example, a penetration into Palestine from outside and by armed force is established for that period. The excavations carried out at Jericho in 1907-1909 by a German society under the direction of Sellin, then in 1929-31 by the Englishman Garstang, have revealed a narrow circuit of walls, violently thrown down, in an epoch that can be fixed to the 15th-13th centuries B.C.; many identify it with the walls that fell in the time of Joshua. Other excavations from 1902 onward were carried out fruitfully at Ai (v.), Gezer, Bethel, Lachish. No scholar can any longer doubt the historical existence of a leader who guided toward that epoch a great penetration into Canaan, from the desert to the south-east.
The conquest in Ios. is described only in salient episodes, not always in chronological order. But the general reconstruction of the facts is not difficult: Joshua, by eliminating the fortress of Jericho, besides opening a passage for himself, secured the whole eastern side along the line of the Dead Sea and the lower course of the Jordan; he then invaded the center of the country, whence individual groups of Israelites began to spread south, reaching the southern line of Palestine, as far as Gaza, on the Mediterranean (Ios. 10, 41) and to the north, extending as far as Lebanon near Kadesh (Ios. 11, 17). The occupation took place probably in various ways, as the episodic elements in which the narrator often lingers show: for the most part a violent occupation of particular centers, on the initiative of individual armed groups, as and when they have the possibility or feel the need for expansion: naturally leaving everywhere, especially on the periphery, but also in the center, Canaanite localities, so that at the death of Joshua the ethnic configuration of the country was certainly varied and heterogeneous, as indeed it would continue to be in the time of the Judges and still in the monarchic age.
As for the historical-literary problems, until recent decades criticism made the book of Joshua share a common cause with the Pentateuch (v.), of which it was considered an integral part (v. ESATEUCO); today agreement with Jewish and Christian tradition is reached at least in the almost universal recognition of the individuality of the book. Criticism, however, continues to seek the "sources" of the book in distinct writings of different origin and physiognomy, in substance those "classical" of the Pentateuch (J. E. D. P. to which, for some, the "lay source" L has more recently been added), much later than the events narrated, brought together in the present book. The book as it is today cannot go back to Joshua, because it speaks of his death (24, 29 ff.) and of subsequent events (cf. Ios. 15, 13-19 and 19, 47 with Iudc. 1, 10-15 and 18, 27-29; Ios. 13, 30 with Iudc. 10, 3-5, etc.); the indications to the contrary, to which ancient Jewish opinions and very scanty late Christian testimonies refer, are explicable otherwise (Ios. 24, 26 refers only to the renewal of the covenant; certain expressions in the first person plural are critically erroneous, such as 5, 1, or suspect, or attribute individual parts to Joshua, etc.); the lower chronological limit is the age of David (cf. 15, 63 with II Sam. 5, 6-8, etc.; moreover 16, 10 with I Reg. 9, 16, of the age of Solomon); the author is unknown. He, however, besides not being very far from the events narrated, drew from sources contemporary with the events themselves, or from good traditions. Of the documents the most notable is the "Book of the Just" Jâfâr (others read "book of Israel," Jêsurîn; or "of the song," sîr), perhaps a collection of epic-lyric celebrations of the great national deeds and heroes, from which derives, by the explicit testimony of the text itself (10, 13), the well-known poetic passage containing Joshua's command to the sun and the moon to "stand still" at Gibeon and in the valley of Aijalon.
(Int. Alinari)
The text of Joshua shows slight differences between the Hebrew and the Greek form (Septuagint): the latter is at times better, but has here and there amplifications, to be considered late additions.
Bibliography8 works
und Wes. des Alt. Test. (Beilschr. Zeitschr. f. Altt. Wiss., 66), Berlin 1936, pp. 13-20; K. Möhlenbrink, Die Landnahmesagen des B. Josua, in Zeitschr. altt. Wiss., 15 (1938), pp. 238-68; A. Alt, Erudgungen über die Landnahme der Isr. in Pol., in Pol. Jahrb., 35 (1939), pp. 8-63.
Giovanni Rinaldi
III. ICONOGRAPHY
The deeds of J. were illustrated in some mosaics of the Old Testament cycle in St. Mary Major in Rome and in the "Joshua roll," cod. Vat. palatinus graecus 431.
It is a roll or volumen on parchment which, although lacking its beginning and end, is 11.50 m long and between 0.64 and 0.87 m wide. It comprises the story of J. from Josh. 2:15-16 to Josh. 10: it contains 23 illustrations, which have much in common with the mosaics of St. Mary Major, with legends in Greek in cursive majuscule. It is a copy of the 10th century of an original perhaps earlier than the 6th century. J. is also represented in some gilded glasses. The arrangement of the groups, the movement of the warriors, the series of mythological figures, of naiads, of nymphs, of divinities, recall those of the Vienna Genesis; and as in these, the classical tradition persists.
Bibliography
Enrico Josi
Artists of all times and countries have drawn inspiration from the wondrous tales of the book of J.: worth mentioning are the relief by Ghiberti in the so-called Gate of Paradise in the baptistery of Florence, the fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli in the Camposanto of Pisa (The Capture of Jericho), some frescoes in Raphael's Logge, a sketch by Tiepolo in Milan (Poldi Pezzoli Museum, The Miracle of the Sun) and, for the 19th century, some drawings by German Romantic painters as well as a painting by Segantini (Rahab hides the spies on the roof of her house). On the other hand, some episodes of the book also lent themselves to the typological concept of the Middle Ages: in the baptismal font of Hildesheim (first half of the 13th century) the Crossing of the Jordan prefigures the Baptism of Jesus; in the antependium of Klosterneuburg (1181) and in the reliquary of Tongres, J. and Caleb carrying the miraculous vine symbolize the Crucifixion and specifically Jesus carrying the cross. - See pl. XXXVI.
Bibliography5 works
Kurt Rathe