Joshua - Introduction

Introduction

The book of Joshua describes the conquest of the land of Canaan, following on from Moses taking them to the edge of the Promised Land. There are three main “characters” in the book. One is obviously Joshua. Originally he was called Hoshea (Num 13:8,16), but Moses later called him Joshua . Hoshea means “salvation”, whereas Joshua means “The Lord saves”. Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua. A second “character” is Israel itself, the people of Israel. Finally, and most importantly, there is God! In our English Bibles this book, along with Judges, Samuel and Kings are known as history books, but in the Hebrew Bible they are called the “Former Prophets”. This distinction is important, for while they are delineating history, events which occurred, they are far more than that. They give understanding to the events in the light of God’s will and purpose, and provide pointers for the future fulfilment of God’s plans.

In terms of the three “characters” God is clearly the most important! He has His purpose, and His standards. Joshua is leading the people to live in line with God’s ways and to carry out His purposes. Then we have the people who are, to say the least, somewhat fickle.

One of the aspects of this book is warfare and conquest, and some people are greatly offended by this. What the book is not is a “pro Israel” book, nor is the Old Testament “pro Israel”. For the Bible makes abundantly clear that Israel is a sinful people (as is the whole human race). The Canaanites were cast out of the land because of their sin. They were not a nice simple peace loving people, and so they were evicted from the land. Exactly the same standard was applied to Israel. They too would eventually be evicted from the land because of their sin.

We are not told who wrote the book. The book is variously dated from about 800 years after the events, to dates much nearer the events. The events themselves occurred either around 1400 BC or 1250 BC, depending on the date of the Exodus. There is archaeological evidence to support many of the names and details mentioned in the book.

Bibliography

TOTC Joshua, Richard Hess (1996)