Confirming Joshua As The Interpreter Of Israel’s Tôrāh: The Narrative Role Of Joshua 8:30–35 -- By: Nathan Chambers

Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 25:2 (NA 2015)
Article: Confirming Joshua As The Interpreter Of Israel’s Tôrāh: The Narrative Role Of Joshua 8:30–35
Author: Nathan Chambers


Confirming Joshua As The Interpreter Of Israel’s Tôrāh:
The Narrative Role Of Joshua 8:30–35

Nathan Chambers

University Of Durham

By reading Deuteronomy and Joshua in their canonical sequence and applying the framework of a three-stage accession process, the ceremony at Mount Ebal (Josh 8:30–35) emerges as the confirmation of Joshua as Moses’s successor. After describing Joshua’s designation (Josh 1) and demonstration (Josh 3–8), this study argues that his confirmation is specifically as the legitimate interpreter of Moses’s tôrāh.

Key Words: Joshua, Mount Ebal, inner-biblical interpretation, three-stage accession process

Author’s note: I would like to thank Phil Long, Bob Hubbard, Walter Moberly, and Robert Hay-ward for kindly taking the time to comment on this essay at various points in its development.

Introduction

Joshua 8:30–35, which describes a covenant ceremony at Ebal and Gerizim, has proved to be a difficult passage for commentators. Trent Butler’s comments on Josh 8:30–35 are representative of the prevailing consensus: “the biblical editor ignored problems of geography, unconquered territory, chronology, and even literary unity” when inserting this episode.1 Twenty years later, J. Gordon McConville shares the same sentiment: “this narrative does not sit naturally, chronologically or geographically, within the account of the conquest.”2

Apparently, similar difficulties were felt by early interpreters, as evinced by the variant locations of the unit in LXX and Qumran traditions,3

though in contrast to the contemporary objection that Josh 8:30–35 is surely too early in the narrative for Israel to have access to the Shechem region, the problem for earlier readers was that Josh 8:30–35 appears too late in the narrative to properly fulfill Deut 27:2–3. In either instance, there is no agreement among commentators regarding the rationale behind the MT placement of the Ebal episode following Josh 8:29.

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