The Book of Joshua as a Land Grant

Despite a variety of attempted identifications of the book of Joshua, or portions of it, with other ancient Near Eastern legal documents, the form of the royal land grant remains the closest of those studied in terms of structure and content. In particular, the form of this type of document, as illu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biblica 2002-01, Vol.83 (4), p.493-506
Main Author: Hess, Richard S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bronze age
Classical literature
Commentationes
Covenants
Descendants
Exegesis and biblical criticism
Historical books
History and sciences of religions
Joshua
Literature
Oaths
Old Testament
Treaties
Tribal land
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Summary:Despite a variety of attempted identifications of the book of Joshua, or portions of it, with other ancient Near Eastern legal documents, the form of the royal land grant remains the closest of those studied in terms of structure and content. In particular, the form of this type of document, as illustrated in the archive of the Middle Bronze Age site of Alalakh, provides an important and useful set of parallels with those found in the sixth book of the Bible. The essay considers the strengths and weaknesses of identifying the book of Joshua in this manner, as well as its implications for the interpretation of the book. In addition, the origin of these documents in the West Semitic world invites consideration of a specific genre or literary type that flourished in those cultures and perhaps provided a link for related documents in the Mesopotamian and Mediterranean worlds.
ISSN:0006-0887
2385-2062