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Book 06 of 66

The Book Of Joshua

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Who is the Author?

The book of Joshua makes no claim regarding its authorship, though Joshua himself is traditionally considered the book’s author. The primary evidence for this comes from Joshua 24:26,where the narrator tells the reader that Joshua “wrote these words in the book of the Law of God” during a covenant renewal ceremony with the people.1 However, the account of his death suggests that parts of the book were not written by him (Joshua 24:29–31).

Even if Joshua did not write all of the book bearing his name, there are substantial reasons to assume that significant portions of the book come from eyewitness accounts.2 For example, Joshua 6:25 implies that Rahab was still alive at the time of the writing. Additionally, the phrase “until this day” recurs frequently throughout the book. Though this necessitates some passage of time between the events and the authorship of the book, two pieces of evidence suggest that the elapsed time was not substantial. First, Joshua 16:10 refers to Canaanites in Gezer. Since the Bible records the defeat of Gezer as a gift to Solomon (1 Kgs 3:1; 9:16), we know that Joshua must have been written before 970 BC. Second, Joshua 15:63 identifies the Jebusites as inhabitants of Jerusalem. Again, the Bible records David’s expulsion of the Jebusites from Jerusalem. Therefore, we know the book must have been written before 1000 BC, and it most likely consists of eyewitness accounts (2 Sm 5:6–10).3

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