Reading Deuteronomy after Joshua | Amsterdam University Press Journals Online
2004
Volume 31, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0960-2720
  • E-ISSN: 2666-9730

Abstract

Summary

The Book of Joshua, especially its introductory passage, clearly presents itself as a sequel to Deuteronomy. As one reads further into Joshua, however, several elements in this book become problematic. As a result, readers of Joshua are pushed back to re-read Deuteronomy after their reading of Joshua. Do the treaties with Rahab and with the Gibeonites contravene the commands in Deuteronomy? Is Joshua 11:15 a correct verdict? The article argues that Joshua enjoys considerable freedom in carrying out commands from Yahweh which do not specify his required behaviour in detail. It then argues that the book makes clever use of anachrony, especially in the form of analepsis, which means that the narrator omits information until a later point in the narrative, encouraging readers to re-read, and perhaps re-interpret, parts of the story already narrated. When they do so, they see that divine commands in Joshua leave space for human variation and that the Book of the Torah does not address all possible issues.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/EJT2022.1.002.FIRT
2022-02-01
2024-04-25
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/09602720/31/1/EJT2022.1.002.FIRT.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.5117/EJT2022.1.002.FIRT&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Culp, A.J., Memoir of Moses: The Literary Creation of Covenantal Memory in Deuteronomy (Lanham: Lexington / Fortress Academic, 2020).
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Dozeman, Thomas B., ‘Joshua 1,1-9. The Beginning of a Book or a Literary Bridge?’ in E.Noort (ed.), The Book of Joshua (Leuven: Peeters, 2012) 159-182.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Firth, David G., ‘Disorienting Readers in Joshua 1:1–5:14’, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament41 (2017) 413-430.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Firth, David G., ‘Joshua 24 and the Welcome of Foreigners’, Acta Theologica38 (2018) 70-86.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Firth, David G., Including the Stranger: Foreigners in the Former Prophets (London: Apollos, 2019).
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Fritz, Volkmar, Das Buch Josua (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1994).
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Genette, Gérard, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980).
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Hawk, L. Daniel, Joshua (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2000).
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Koorevaar, Hendrik J., De opbouw van het Boek Jozua (Heverlee: Centrum voor Bijbelse Vorming België, 1990).
    [Google Scholar]
  10. McConville, J. Gordon, and StephenN. Williams, Joshua (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).
    [Google Scholar]
  11. McConville, J. Gordon, Deuteronomy (Nottingham: Apollos, 2002).
    [Google Scholar]
  12. McConville, J. Gordon, Grace in the End: A Study of Deuteronomic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 1995).
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Nelson, Richard D., Joshua (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997).
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Römer, Thomas, ‘The So-Called Deuteronomistic History and Its Theories of Composition’ in Brad E.Kelle and Brent A.Strawn (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Historical Books of the Hebrew Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020) 303-322.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Rösel, Hartmut N., Joshua (Leuven: Peeters, 2011).
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Walton, John H., and J.Harvey Walton, The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest: Covenant Retribution and the Fate of the Canaanites (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017).
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Wenham, Gordon J., ‘The Deuteronomic Theology of the Book of Joshua’, Journal of Biblical Literature90 (1971) 140-148.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Wray Beal, Lissa, Joshua (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019).
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Zehnder, Markus, ‘The Annihilation of the Canaanites: Reassessing the Brutality of the Biblical Witness’ in MarkusZehnder and HallvardHagellia (eds), Encountering Violence in the Bible (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2013) 263-290.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.5117/EJT2022.1.002.FIRT
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error