Sept 15, 1999

"The book of Joshua takes us into that inheritance: it describes the conquest and distribution of the land." (107) The book of Joshua continues the story where the Pentateuch stops. It describes how the Israelites conquered the Promised Land.

The writer of the book of Joshua is not known. Some say that Joshua wrote it himself, but others disagree and claim others wrote it. A third group claims the book was written by the "E" in the JEDP theory. They claim that the theory does not stop at five books, but continues on to a sixth book.

There are words in the book that suggests that it was not written during the conquest. For example, the words "to this day" usually mean that what took place was a while ago, and now you can still see it.

The book of Joshua is a book that answers questions. One could ask, "why do we live here?" and the response would be in the book of Joshua.

The book, as most books can be split into parts for easier reading. The parts are: Jerico and Ai chapters 2-8, the southern campaign chapters 9-10, the northern campaign, chapter 11, a summery of conquered cities, chapters 13-22, and Joshua's death, chapters 23-24.

There is one theory that the book of Joshua is a book of fictional tales, not even remotely close to the real historical events. The theory is that the Israelites settles quietly in the land, ganged up with another large and powerful tribe living in the area, and then together conquered the land. Theses people obviously cannot accept the fact that God was the one who led the Israelites to conquer the Cannites. They would not have gotten far on their own.

Near the end of the book, when Joshua is dying, he reminds the people of the covenant, as Moses did before his death. The people listen while Joshua is alive, but after his death, they start forgetting what God instructed them to do.

The book of Joshua is a sideline to Deuteronomy. It shows what happened to the people when they obeyed God's commands. (354 words)