Studies in Joshua: text and literary relations

Abstract

Part One of this thesis reviews many of the studies on Joshua since 1938. Attention is concentrated, in the first two chapters, on the progression from von Rad's form-critical explanation of the shape of the Pentateuch and Joshua (treated as a 'Hexateuchal" unity)v through Noth's major works on Joshua, Deuteronomistic Historyp and Pentateuch, to Mowinckells restatement of a 'Hexateuchl hypothesis.. The third chapter surveys the attitudes to Joshua's literary relations found in introductions, commentaries, and special studies; and takes particular interest in the literary implications of a series of studies on the geographical material in the second half of Joshua.

Three main tasks are undertaken in Part Two. Chapter IV argues for a much more positive attitude than is current in contemporary scholarship to the Septuagint version of Joshua, as representing in the main an earlier edition of the book than our inherited Hebrew text. That some of the most striking textual differences occur in passages whose importance for any account of the book's literary. structure has long been recognized underlines the relevance of this argument.

Chapter V discusses the Deuteronomistic traditions in Joshua, with special reference to the land-division. Sympathetic attention is given to the thesis that the Deuteronomistic History underwent at least one major revision. It is suggested that little of the material in Jos. 13-19 need be denied to the Deuteronomists. Moreover, the identification in these chapters of traces of a Deuteronomistic revision makes it probable that the material on which that depends was in fact part of the earlier Deuteronomistic History.

The main element in Chapter VI, on the later traditions in the book, is an analysis of Jos. 21 whose account of the Levitical cities is deduced to depend on the traditions of 1 Chron. 6. This conclusion, both confirms and is confirmed by a favourable attitude to the Greek text of Joshua. Comparison of the final editorial stratum of Jos, 21 with similar material in Joshua and Numbers makes possible (1) a stratification of the later traditions in Joshua, and (2) some observations about relations between the end of Numbers and the second half of Joshua,

A brief Appendix discusses some views of the shape of the pre-Deuteronomistic narrative; while a chart summarizes the internal relationships of the traditions in the second half of Joshua.