Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( Yəhōšuaʿ, Yŏhōšuaʿ, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua,[ Bible ] the name by which he is commonly known in English. According to the Bible, he was born in Ancient Egypt prior to the Exodus.
In , the Hebrew Bible identifies Joshua as one of the twelve spies of Israel sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. After the death of Moses, he led the Israelite tribes in the conquest of Canaan, and allocated lands to the tribes. According to biblical chronology, Joshua lived some time in the Bronze Age. According to Joshua died at the age of 110.
Joshua holds a position of respect among , who also see him as the leader of the faithful following the death of Moses. In Islam, it is also believed that Yusha bin Nun (Joshua) was the "attendant" of Moses mentioned in the Quran before Moses meets Khidr. Joshua plays a role in Islamic literature, with significant narration in the hadith.
Name
The English name "Joshua" is a rendering of the
Hebrew language Yehoshua, and is mostly interpreted as "
Yahweh is salvation";
although others have also alternatively interpreted it as "
Yahweh is lordly". The
theophoric name appears to be constructed from a combination of the
Tetragrammaton with the Hebrew noun יְשׁוּעָה (
yəšūʿa,
yăšūʿā), meaning "salvation";
derived from the
Hebrew root ישׁע (
y-š-ʿ), meaning "to save/help/deliver".
Other theophoric names sharing a similar meaning can also be found throughout the
Hebrew Bible, such as that of the son of
David אֱלִישׁוּעַ (
ʾĔlīšūaʿ), whose name means "My El (
God) is salvation".
"Jesus" is the English derivative of the Greek transliteration of "Yehoshua" via Latin. In the Septuagint, all instances of the word "Yehoshua" are rendered as "Ἰησοῦς" (Iēsûs), the closest Greek pronunciation of the .[ Bible ][ Numbers 13:16 LXX καὶ ἐπωνόμασεν Μωυσῆς τὸν Αὐσῆ υἱὸν Ναυῆ 'Ἰησοῦν' (and Moses named Hosea, son of Naue, Jesus)]
Biblical narrative
The Exodus
Joshua was a major figure in the events of the Exodus. He was charged by Moses with selecting and commanding a militia group for their first battle after exiting Egypt, against the
Amalekites in
Rephidim,
[ Bible ] in which they were victorious.
He later accompanied Moses when he ascended biblical Mount Sinai to commune with God,[Exodus 24:13] visualize God's plan for the Israelite tabernacle, and receive the Ten Commandments. Joshua was with Moses when he descended from the mountain, heard the Israelites' celebrations around the Golden Calf,[ Bible ] and broke the tablets bearing the words of the commandments. Similarly, in the narrative which refers to Moses being able to speak with God in his tent of meeting outside the camp, Joshua is seen as custodian of the tent ('tabernacle of meeting') when Moses returned to the Israelite encampment.[Exodus 33:11] However, when Moses returned to the mountain to re-create the tablets recording the Ten Commandments, Joshua was not present, as the biblical text states "no man shall come up with you".[Exodus 34:3]
Later, Joshua was identified as one of the twelve spies sent by Moses to explore and report on the land of Canaan,[ Bible ] and only he and Caleb gave an encouraging report, a reward for which would be that only these two of their entire generation would enter the promised land.[ Bible ]
According to Joshua 1:1,[ Bible ] God appointed Joshua to succeed Moses as leader of the Israelites along with giving him a blessing of invincibility during his lifetime.[ Bible ] The first part of the book of Joshua covers the period when he led the conquest of Canaan.
Conquest of Canaan
At the
Jordan River, the waters parted, as they had for Moses at the
Red Sea. The first battle after the crossing of the Jordan was the fall of Jericho. Joshua led the destruction of
Jericho, then moved on to Ai, a small neighboring city to the west. However, they were defeated with thirty-six Israelite deaths. The defeat was attributed to Achan taking an "accursed thing" from Jericho; and was followed by Achan and his family and animals being stoned to death to restore God's favor. Joshua then went to defeat Ai.
The Israelites faced an alliance of five Amorite kings from Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. At Gibeon, Joshua asked the to cause the Sun and Moon to stand still, so that he could finish the battle in daylight. According to the text, the Sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. This event is most notable because "There has been no day like it before or since, when the heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel."[ Bible ] The also fought for the Israelites in this battle, for he hurled huge hailstones from the sky which killed more Canaanites than those which the Israelites slaughtered. From there on, Joshua was able to lead the Israelites to several victories, securing much of the land of Canaan. He presided over the Israelite gatherings at Gilgal and Shiloh which Land lottery to the tribes of Israel (Joshua 14:1–5 and 18:1–10), and the Israelites rewarded him with the Ephraimite city of Timnath-heres or Timnath-serah, where he settled (Joshua 19:50).
According to the Talmud, Joshua in his book enumerated only those towns on the frontier.
Death
When he was "old and well advanced in years",
[ Bible ] Joshua convened the elders and chiefs of the Israelites and exhorted them to have no fellowship with the native population, because it could lead them to be unfaithful to God.
[ Bible , ] At a general assembly of the clans at
Shechem, he took leave of the people, admonishing them to be loyal to their God, who had been so mightily manifested in the midst of them. As a witness of their promise to serve God, Joshua set up a great stone under an oak by the sanctuary of God. Soon afterward he died, at the age of 110, and was buried at
Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
[ Bible ]
Historicity
Current mainstream opinion
The prevailing scholarly view is that the Book of Joshua is not a factual account of historical events. The apparent setting of Joshua is the 13th century BCE which was a time of widespread city-destruction, but with a few exceptions (
Tel Hazor,
Tel Lachish) the destroyed cities are not the ones the Bible associates with Joshua, and the ones it does associate with him show little or no sign of even being occupied at the time. Given its lack of historicity, Carolyn Pressler in her commentary for the
Westminster Bible Companion series suggests that readers of Joshua should give priority to its theological message ("what passages teach about God") and be aware of what these would have meant to audiences in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE. Richard Nelson explained that the needs of the
Centralisation monarchy favoured a single story of origins, combining old traditions of an
The Exodus, belief in a
national god as "divine warrior," and explanations for ruined cities, social stratification and ethnic groups, and contemporary tribes.
It has been argued that the Book of Joshua holds little historical value. The archaeological evidence shows that Jericho and Ai were not occupied in the Near Eastern Late Bronze Age, although recent excavations at Jericho have questioned this. The story of the conquest perhaps represents the nationalist propaganda of the eighth century BCE kings of Judah and their claims to the territory of the Kingdom of Israel, incorporated into an early form of Joshua written late in the reign of king Josiah (reigned 640–609 BCE). The book was probably revised and completed after the fall of Jerusalem to the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE, and possibly after the return from the Babylonian exile in 538 BCE.
M. Noth (1930s)
In the 1930s
Martin Noth made a sweeping criticism of the usefulness of the Book of Joshua for history. Noth was a student of
Albrecht Alt, who emphasized
form criticism and the importance of
Origin myth. Alt and Noth posited a peaceful movement of the Israelites into various areas of Canaan,
contra the Biblical account.
W.F. Albright (1930s)
William Foxwell Albright questioned the "tenacity" of etiologies, which were key to Noth's analysis of the campaigns in Joshua. Archaeological evidence in the 1930s showed that the city of Ai, an early target for conquest in the putative Joshua account, had existed and been destroyed, but in the 22nd century BCE. Some alternate sites for Ai have been proposed which would partially resolve the discrepancy in dates, but these sites have not been widely accepted.
K. Kenyon (1951)
In 1951
Kathleen Kenyon showed that City IV at
Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) was destroyed at the end of the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2100–1550 BCE), not during the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 BCE). Kenyon argued that the early Israelite campaign could not be historically corroborated, but rather explained as an etiology of the location and a representation of the Israelite settlement.
G.E. Wright (1955)
In 1955, G. Ernest Wright discussed the correlation of archaeological data to the early Israelite campaigns, which he divided into three phases per the Book of Joshua. He pointed to two sets of archaeological findings that "seem to suggest that the biblical account is in general correct regarding the nature of the late thirteenth and twelfth-eleventh centuries in the country" (i.e., "a period of tremendous violence"). He gives particular weight to what were then recent digs at Hazor by
Yigael Yadin.
Religious views
In Judaism
In rabbinical literature
In rabbinic literature Joshua is regarded as a faithful, humble, deserving, wise man. Biblical verses illustrative of these qualities and of their reward are applied to him. "He that waits on his master shall be honored"
[Proverbs 27:18] is construed as a reference to Joshua,
[Numbers Rabbah 12] as is also the first part of the same verse, "Whoso keeps the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof".
[Yalkut Shimoni, Joshua 2; Numbers Rabbah 12:21] That "honor shall uphold the humble in spirit"
[Proverbs 29:23] is proved by Joshua's victory over
Amalek.
[ Numbers Rabbah 13] Not the sons of
Moses—as Moses himself had expected—but Joshua was appointed as Moses' successor.
[ Numbers Rabbah 12] Moses was shown how Joshua reproved that Othniel.
[ Yalkut Shimoni, Numbers 776]
"God would speak to Moses face to face, like someone would speak to his friend. Then he would return to the camp. But his attendant, Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not leave the tent. Joshua never moved from the tent".[Nachman of Breslov, Likutey Halakhot VII]
According to rabbinic tradition, Joshua, when dividing the Land of Canaan among the twelve tribes of Israel, planted sea squill () to mark off the butts and bounds of tribal properties.
Moreover, Joshua, on dividing the land of Canaan amongst the tribes of Israel, made the tribes agree to ten conditions, the most important of which being the common use of the forests as pasture for cattle, and the common right of fishing in the Sea of Tiberias.[Babylonian Talmud ( Bava Kamma 80b—81a).] Natural springs were to be used for drinking and laundry by all tribes, although the tribe to which the water course fell had the first rights.[Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (Hil. Nizkei Mammon 5:3); Achai Gaon, Sheiltoth, P. Ra’eh 147; Jerusalem Talmud, Baba Bathra 5:1. Even if the source of the natural spring were to originate in a distant tribal territory, and flowed along its course through another tribal territory, the people living in the territory where the water currently passes through have first-rights over the water.] Prickly burnet ( Sarcopoterium) and the camelthorn ( Alhagi maurorum) could be freely collected as firewood by any member of any tribe, in any tribal territory.
In prayer
According to Jewish religious tradition, upon making
Aliyah by crossing the Jordan River to enter the Land of Israel, Joshua composed the
Aleinu prayer thanking God. This idea was first cited in the
Kol Bo of the late 14th Century.
Several medieval commentators noticed that Joshua's shorter birth name, Hosea, appears in the first few verses of Aleinu in reverse acrostic: ע – עלינו, ש – שלא שם, ו – ואנחנו כורעים, ה – הוא אלוקינו. The Teshuvot HaGeonim, a
Geonic responsum, discussed that Joshua composed the Aleinu because although the Israelites had made Aliyah to the
Promised Land, they were surrounded by other peoples, and he wanted the Jews to draw a clear distinction between themselves, who knew and accepted the sovereignty of God, and those nations of the world which did not.
In the modern era, religious Jews still pray the Aliyah inspired Aleinu three times daily, including on the
High Holidays. The Aleinu prayer begins:
In Christianity
Most modern Bibles translate to identify Jesus as a better Joshua, as Joshua led Israel into the rest of
Canaan, but Jesus leads the people of God into "God's rest". Among the early
Church Fathers, Joshua is considered a type of Jesus Christ.
The story of Joshua and the Canaanite kings is also alluded to in the 2 Meqabyan, a book considered canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
In Islam
Quranic references
Joshua (,
Yūšaʿ ibn Nūn , is not mentioned by name in the
Quran, but his name appears in other Islamic literature. In the Quranic account of the conquest of Canaan, Joshua and Caleb are referenced, but not named, as two God-fearing men on whom God "had bestowed His grace".
[Abdullah Yusuf Ali, , Note. 726 to verse 23: "Among those who returned after spying out the land were two men who had faith and courage. They were Joshua and Caleb. Joshua afterwards succeeded Moses in the leadership after 40 years. These two men pleaded for an immediate entry through the proper Gate, which I understand to mean, 'after taking all due precautions and making all due preparations.' Cf. 2:189 and n. 203. But of course, they said, they must put their trust in Allah for victory."]
Joshua is also referred to in the journey Musa (Moses) took with him to find Khidr.
The narration collected by Bukhari reports that a man approached Moses after he gave a talk and asked him, "Who is the most knowledgeable person on earth?" Moses responded, "That would be me!" So Allah revealed to Moses that he should not have said this and there was in fact someone who was more knowledgeable than him. Moses was commanded to travel to meet this man, named Al-Khaḍir, at the junction of the two seas. Islamic scholars have argued this could be the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, the southern part of Sinai where the Rea Sea splits into the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba, or the Bosporus in Istanbul which is a strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
Hadith, exegesis, traditions
Joshua was regarded by some classical scholars as the prophetic successor to Moses (rtl=yes)
Al-Tabari relates in his
History of the Prophets and Kings that Joshua was one of the twelve spies, and Muslim scholars believe that the two believing spies referred to in the Quran are Joshua and Caleb. Joshua was exceptional among the
Israelites for being one of the few faithful followers of Allah.
Significant events from Joshua's Muslim narratives include the crossing of the Jordan River and the conquest of Bait al-Maqdis.[ Tabari, History of the Prophets and Kings, Vol. I: 414–429, 498–499, 503–516]
The traditional Muslim scholastic commentaries has narrated the miracle which shown by Joshua as a sign that he is a prophet in Islam. Ibn Kathir gave commentary of Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal Hadith that during the siege of Jerusalem, Yoshua prayed to God to withheld the sun until he won, which resulted in the day did not cease, and the sun only set after the Israelites under Joshua manage to capture the city.[ reference:
]
-
Dirasatun Fil Ad-yan Al-Yahudiyah wan Nashraniyah, Dr Su’ud bin Abdil Aziz Al-Khalaf, Penerbit Adhwa-us Salaf, Cetakan I, Th 1422H/2003M
-
Mujaz Tarikhil Yahudi war-Raddi Ala Ba’dhi Maza’imil Bathilah, Dr Mahmud bin Abdir Rahman Qadah, Majalah Jami’ah Islamiyah, Edisi 107, Th 29, 1418-1419H
-
Shahih Qashashil Anbiya, karya Ibnu Katsir, Abu Usamah Salim bin Id Al-Hilali, Maktabah Al-Furqan, Cetakan I Th, 1422H
-
Tafsir Al-Qur’anil Azhim, Abu Fida Ismail Ibnu Umar Ibnu Katsir, Darul Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Cetakan II, Th.1422H
al-Jalalayn says, "Ahmad b. reported in his Musnad, the following hadīth, 'The sun was never detained for any human, except for Joshua during those days in which he marched towards the Holy House of'."[Mufti Iqtadar Ahmad Khan. Lahore: Naeemi Kutub Khanah. Para 15, Surah 18, Ayah 58, "Scholarly exegesis", p. 589.]
Muslim literature includes traditions of Joshua not found in the Hebrew Bible. Joshua is credited with being present at Moses's death and literature records that Moses's garments were with Joshua at the time of his departure.[ Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. XI, pg. 351, Yusha ibn Nun Joshua,] In Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, Joshua is mentioned as Yusha' bin Nun and is the attendant to Moses during his meeting with Khidr.[Bukhari, Book 6, Volume 60, Hadiths 249, 250, 251: Prophetic Commentary on the Qur'an (Tafseer of the Prophet (pbuh))][Bukhari, Book 1, Volume 3, Hadith 124: Knowledge][Muslim, Book 30, Hadith 5864: The Book Pertaining to the Excellent Qualities of the Holy Prophet (may Peace be upon them) and His Companions (Kitab Al-Fada'il)] This hadith episode was used by scholars for the exegesis of Quran scripture chapter Al-Kahf about the journey of Moses.
In art and literature
In the literary tradition of medieval Europe, Joshua is known as one of the
Nine Worthies. In
The Divine Comedy Joshua's spirit appears to Dante in the Heaven of Mars, where he is grouped with the other "warriors of the faith."
Baroque composer Georg Frideric Handel composed the oratorio Joshua in 1747. Composer Franz Waxman composed an oratorio Joshua in 1959. Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed Josue (H.404 and H.404 a), an oratorio for soloists, double chorus, double orchestra and continuo, in 1680.
Nomenclature in biology
According to legend,
Mormons pioneers in the United States first referred to the
yucca brevifolia agave plant as the Joshua tree because its branches reminded them of Joshua stretching his arms upward in supplication, guiding the travelers westward.
Joshua is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of snake, Joshua's blind snake ( Trilepida joshuai), the holotype of which was collected at Jericó, Antioquia, Colombia.
Jewish holidays
Religious holiday
The annual commemoration of Joshua's
Yartzeit (the anniversary of his death) is marked on the 26th of
Nisan on the
Hebrew calendar. Thousands make the pilgrimage to the Tomb of Joshua at Kifl Haris near
Nablus,
West Bank, on the preceding night.
Israeli Zionist holiday
Yom HaAliyah (
Aliyah Day; ) is an Israeli national holiday celebrated annually on the tenth of the
Hebrew language month of
Nisan, as per the opening clause of the Yom HaAliyah Law, as a
Zionist celebration of "Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel as the basis for the existence of the State of Israel", and secondarily "to mark the date of entry into the Land of Israel", i.e. to commemorate Joshua having led the Israelites across the Jordan River into the Land of Israel while carrying the Ark of the Covenant.
Tomb of Joshua
Samaritan and Jewish traditions
According to a Samaritan tradition, noted in 1877, the tombs of Joshua and Caleb were in Kifl Haris.
[Conder and Kitchener, 1882, p. 218 - 219]
According to , the tomb of Joshua is in Timnath-heres, and Jewish tradition also places the tombs of Joshua's father, Nun, and his companion, Caleb, at that site, which is identified by Orthodox Jews with Kifl Haris. Thousands make the pilgrimage to the tombs on the Yahrzeit, 26th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar.
It seems that old Jewish traditions once associated Meiron in the Upper Galilee with the burial site of Joshua.[ Citing Reiner, Elchanan (2012). "Joshua is Simeon Bar Yohai, Hazor is Meron: Towards a Typology of the History of the Establishment of Galilee (Another Chapter in the Religious World of the Galilean Jews)". Tarbiz 80(2):1 pp. 79–218 (Hebrew).]
Islamic sites
Joshua is believed by some Muslims to be buried on Joshua's Hill in the
Beykoz district of
Istanbul.
Alternative traditional sites for his tomb are situated in Israel (the Shia shrine at Al-Nabi Yusha'),
Jordan (An-Nabi Yusha' bin Noon, a Sunni shrine near the city of
Al-Salt[Mazar Hazrat Yusha’ bin Noon, on the website of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada [4] ][Tomb of Prophet Yusha' (photo of the tomb; Islamic view on Prophet Yusha'/Joshua)[5] ]), Iran (Historical cemetery of Takht e Foolad in Esfahan
) and Iraq (the Nabi Yusha' shrine of
Baghdad). A local tradition combining three versions of three different Yushas, including biblical Joshua, places the tomb inside a cave in the Tripoli Mountains, overlooking the coastal town of
Miniyeh near Tripoli, Lebanon.
[ The Shrine of Prophet Yusha/Joshua (pbuh) , Sacred Places in Lebanon - Holy Places in Lebanon][ El-Nabi Yusha' Mosque and Maqam , at DestinationLebanon.gov.lb, Lebanon Ministry of Tourism]
See also
Explanatory notes
Citations
General and cited sources
-
-
-
Brettler, Marc Zvi, How to read the Bible (Jewish Publication Society, 2005).
-
-
Coogan, Michael D. (ed), The Oxford History of the Biblical World (Oxford University Press, 1998)
-
-
-
Day, John, Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan (Sheffield Academic Press, 2002)
-
Dever, William, What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? (Eerdmans, 2001)
-
Dever, William, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? (Eerdmans, 2003, 2006)
-
-
Finkelstein, Israel; Mazar, Amihay; Schmidt, Brian B., The Quest for the Historical Israel (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007)
-
Graham, M.P, and McKenzie, Steven L., The Hebrew Bible today: an introduction to critical issues (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998)
-
-
-
.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
External links
