Authorship
No sufficient evidence exists to enable us with certainty to name the author. Joshua is named as the author of the Book of Joshua according to the Talmud. Some claim the book was written by an eyewitness to the events, just not Joshua. There are pros and cons to both views of authorship.
That someone other than Joshua wrote the book:
Perhaps he was one of the elders that survived after Joshua passed in Jos_24:31, for the book appears to have been written by one who saw the events. The hand of a writer contemporaneous with the events is indicated in several expressions, e. g. in Jos_5:6-7; Jos_6:25; Jos_10:2, a notice which plainly borrows its terms from the state of things in Canaan at the time of the invasion; and in the record of ancient Canaanite names of cities, though disused after the Israelites occupied them, Jos_14:15; Jos_15:9, Jos_15:15, Jos_15:49, Jos_15:60. The account of his death and that of Eleazar, with the few supplementary verses at the end of the book, might have been attached by another hand, as a conclusion to the historical work of Joshua, just as a like addition was made to the work of Moses. But there are up and down the book a number of historical notices, which point to a date clearly beyond the death of Joshua (compare Jos_15:13-20 and Jdg_1:1-15; 15:63, and Jdg_1:8; Jdg_15:13-19 and Judg. 18).
It is argued by those who deny Joshua to be the author, that there are both names and transactions in it which did not exist till considerably after Joshua’s time. The account we have, Jos_4:9, of the twelve stones set up by Joshua in the midst of Jordan remaining to the present day, seems to prove that the book, at least this verse, was not written till after Joshua’s time. It has been generally supposed that the book was written by some inspired person after the time of Joshua; and positively before many kings had reigned in
That Joshua is the author of the book:
The book can be a composition of Joshua himself. It is certain that Moses kept an accurate register of all the events that took place during his administration in the wilderness, at least from the giving of the law to the time of his death. And in that wilderness he wrote the book of Genesis, as well as the others that bear his name. Now, it is not likely that Joshua, the constant servant and companion of Moses, could see all this - be convinced, as he must be, of its utility - and not adopt the same practice; especially as at the death of Moses he came into the same office.
One commentator claims it is by Joshua because:
1. Because it is the relation of his own conduct in the conquest, division, and settlement of the promised land.
2. Because it contains a multitude of particulars that only himself, or a constant eye-witness, could possibly relate.
3. Because it was evidently designed to be a continuation of the Book of Deuteronomy, and is so connected with it, in narrative, as to prove that it must have been immediately commenced on the termination of the other.
4. With the exception of a few individuals, the whole of the ancient Jewish and Christian Churches have uniformly acknowledged Joshua to be its author.
The contradiction said to exist between some passages which speak of the land as completely subdued by Joshua, and of the Canaanites as utterly extirpated (Jos_11:16-17, Jos_11:23; Jos_12:7-8 etc.), and others which allude to “very much land,” as still in possession of the native inhabitants (Jos_13:1; Jos_17:14 ff; Jos_23:5, etc.), is to be explained partly by the theocratic view which the writer takes of his theme; a view which leads him to regard the conquest as complete when it was so “ex parte Dei,” and when all was done that was needed to enable the Israelites to realize fully the promises (compare Jos_21:43-45); partly also by the fact that territory was undoubtedly overrun by Joshua at the first onset, which was afterward recovered by the Canaanites, and only again and finally wrested from them at a subsequent, sometimes a long subsequent, date.
Joshua was a type of Christ as will be seen throughout the book.
In a spiritual sense the book of Joshua is the Ephesians of the Old Testament. "The heavenly" of Ephesians is to the Christian what
The government, as before, was theocratic; Joshua succeeding Moses as the ruler under God.
Joshua, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, was first called Oshea or Hoshea, Num_13:16, which signifies saved, a savior, or salvation; but afterwards Moses, guided no doubt by a prophetic spirit, changed his name into Yehoshua or Joshua, which signifies he shall save, or the salvation of Jehovah; referring, no doubt, to his being God’s instrument in saving the people from the hands of their enemies, and leading them from victory to victory over the different Canaanitish nations, till he put them in possession of the promised land. On the change and meaning of the name, see the note on Num_13:16.
in the New Testament he is expressly called Jesus; see Act_7:45; Heb_4:8.
The events recorded in Joshua cover a period of 26 years
Literary Composition
Joshua is written in a series of independent narratives, descriptions of tribal boundaries, lists of towns, all of which are joined by means of transitional commentary.
The contents group themselves into two main sections of nearly equal length. The conquest of the land is described in twelve chapters, and then in ten other chapters the subsequent partition of it. Joshua’s last acts and words comprise the final two chapters.
Joshua falls into four parts (as one commentator sees it):
1. The conquest (Joshua 1-12).
2. The partition of the inheritance (Joshua 13-21).
3. Incipient discord (Joshua 22).
4. Joshua's last counsels and death (Joshua 23 - 24).
The Book of Joshua is one of the most important writings in the old covenant, and should never be separated from the Pentateuch, of which it is at once both the continuation and completion. Between this Book and the five Books of Moses, there is the same analogy as between the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The Pentateuch contains a history of the Acts of the great Jewish legislator, and the Laws on which the Jewish nation should be established. The Book of Joshua gives an account of the establishment of that nation in the
The Annihilation of the Canaanites
The destruction of the Canaanites is always presented in Scripture as a judgment of God sent on them because of their wickedness. They had not only fallen into total apostasy from God, but into forms of idolatry of the most degrading kind. Their false religion cannot be regarded as a mere error of judgment; cruelty the most atrocious, and unnatural crimes the most defiling were part and parcel of its observances. Moreover, they had proved themselves to be incorrigible. They had had not only the general warning of the deluge, as had other nations of the earth, but the special one of the overthrow of
God chose to inflict His righteous judgment by the hands of the Israelites, and expressly commissioned them to be His executioners. If it be objected that this is to represent God as sanctioning cruelty, the answer is obvious: it is no sanction of cruelty to direct a lawful sentence to be carried out by human agents (compare Num_31:3). Nor would obedience to God’s command in this matter make the Israelites brutal and bloodthirsty.
The slaughter of the Canaanites served various important purposes besides the mere removal of them from the face of the earth. To make and keep the Jewish people as much as possible isolated, was a marked and vital principle of the Old Testament dispensation. No more effectual means could have been adopted for inspiring God’s people with an abhorrence for Canaanite sins, to which they were not a little prone, than to make them the ministers of divine vengeance for those sins.
They learned by experiment that God would certainly root out those who fell away in apostasy from Him. They were warned also that if they fell into the sins of the Canaanites they would themselves be the victims of those same judgments of which they had been the reluctant executioners.
New Testament references
The Book of Joshua is repeatedly cited or referred to in the New Testament: compare Act_7:45; Heb_3:5; Heb_4:8; Heb_11:30-31; Heb_13:5; Jam_2:25.
