own city of Timnath-serah (Joshua 24); and “the light of Israel for the time
faded away.”
Joshua has been regarded as a type of Christ (Hebrews 4:8) in the
following particulars: (1) In the name common to both; (2) Joshua brings
the people into the possession of the Promised Land, as Jesus brings his
people to the heavenly Canaan; and (3) as Joshua succeeded Moses, so the
Gospel succeeds the Law.
The character of Joshua is thus well sketched by Edersheim:, “Born a slave
in Egypt, he must have been about forty years old at the time of the
Exodus. Attached to the person of Moses, he led Israel in the first decisive
battle against Amalek (Exodus 17:9, 13), while Moses in the prayer of
faith held up to heaven the God-given ‘rod.’ It was no doubt on that
occasion that his name was changed from Oshea, ‘help,’ to Jehoshua,
‘Jehovah is help’ (Numbers 13:16). And this name is the key to his life
and work. Alike in bringing the people into Canaan, in his wars, and in the
distribution of the land among the tribes, from the miraculous crossing of
Jordan and taking of Jericho to his last address, he was the embodiment of
his new name, ‘Jehovah is help.’ To this outward calling his character also
corresponded. It is marked by singleness of purpose, directness, and
decision...He sets an object before him, and unswervingly follows it”
(Bible Hist., iii. 103)
- JOSHUA, THE BOOK OF contains a history of the Israelites from the
death of Moses to that of Joshua. It consists of three parts: (1.) The
history of the conquest of the land (1-12). (2.) The allotment of the land to
the different tribes, with the appointment of cities of refuge, the provision
for the Levites (13-22), and the dismissal of the eastern tribes to their
homes. This section has been compared to the Domesday Book of the
Norman conquest. (3.) The farewell addresses of Joshua, with an account
of his death (23, 24).
This book stands first in the second of the three sections, (1) the Law, (2)
the Prophets, (3) the “other writings” = Hagiographa, into which the
Jewish Church divided the Old Testament. There is every reason for
concluding that the uniform tradition of the Jews is correct when they
assign the authorship of the book to Joshua, all except the concluding
section; the last verses (24:29-33) were added by some other hand.