Uncovering Ancient Editing by Ville Mäkipelto

Author:Ville Mäkipelto
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

4.2.7 Joshua 24 and Other Historical Summaries

The last literary connection to be noted is the close relationship of the historical summary in Josh 24:2–13 with very late historical summaries in the Hebrew Bible and beyond. When analyzing these similar historical summaries, some scholars even speak of a “sub-genre of sorts”.636 It seems to be practically justifiable to loosely use the term literary genre when referring to this type of a historical summary. The texts in question are, most notably, Deut 26:5–9, 1 Sam 12:6–17, Neh 9:6–37, Ps 78, 105, 106, 135, 136, Jdt 5:5–21, and Acts 7.637 All the above-mentioned texts present a selective summary of the history of Israel to enforce their own message. It is not necessary to analyze all the textual connections between Josh 24:2–13 and these texts in detail, since these texts have a long history of research. However, I will briefly survey some of these key features of the texts to gain a deeper understanding of Josh 24:2–13.638

Some of the textual connections between Josh 24:2–13 and Deut 26:5–9 have already been referenced to. The most remarkable feature is the plus in the earlier text OG Josh 24:5–6 (“and became there a great and populous and mighty nation, and the Egyptians afflicted them”), which is an almost word-for-word reference to Deut 26:5–6. This link was lost in the MT due to a scribal mistake. OG Josh 24:7 preserved another earlier reading (“and we cried out to the Lord”) which is a reference to Deut 26:7 lost in the proto-MT editing.639 While the OG preserves a text closer to Deut 26, whether one reads the OG or the MT, the connections between these texts are clear. To name a few, both refer to the fathers moving down to Egypt (Deut 26:5 / Josh 24:4), both refer to YHWH leading the Israelites out of Egypt with signs and wonders (Deut 26:8 / Josh 24:5, 17), and both refer to YHWH giving them a land full of good things (Deut 26:9 / Josh 24:13). It was Von Rad who first observed the connections between these historical summaries, called them “small historical creeds”, and proposed that they contain traces of an ancient cultic creed.640 While the observations on the connections remain valid, in modern research Deut 26:5–9 is usually regarded as a late exilic supplement to the book of Deuteronomy.641 This is seen especially in the way that the text creatively utilizes older material from Num 20:15ff. and other sources.642 Since it is probable that Josh 24:2–13 secondarily refers to Deut 26:5–9, it seems that Josh 24:2–13 should be seen as an even later passage. While the relationship between Deut and Josh remains complex, and it is impossible to untangle all the intricacies here, it is safe to assume that both Deut 26:5–9 and Josh 24:2–13 are representatives of late Second Temple period efforts to concisely present a history of Israel to rationalize a specific message.

The connections between Josh 24:2–13 and Neh 9:6–37 are numerous. To name a few, both

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