The books of Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings form one continuous work of history. These books take us from entering the Promised Land through the Babylonian exile. They are not so much history as a theological reflection on the past by a people trying to understand how they got where they are – from the land of milk and honey to exile.
One theme that runs throughout all these books is that of the search for an adequate successor. In the Old Testament, this was sought in judges and prophets and kings. Today’s story will show the fulfillment of that search.
The compilation of these books happened over the span of centuries through oral tradition and, later, written records. Many times there would be multiple oral traditions around the same stories and we often see this reflected in the text. Sometimes it will feel as though the collector of the material simply wrote down everything he received, even if the story contradicts itself or does not make sense. Always keep in mind that these “historical” books are not history as we would a historical account. They are a record of a people grappling with their identity and the ways in which God works among them.
Although the oral traditions are ancient, the written form of this material did not happen until the early 600s BC, when the people were in exile and struggling to understand how they came to be in that situation.
The books of Samuel and Kings were originally single books, but, since their did not fit on a single scroll, they were separated into two books each.
Joshua
The book of Joshua covers the death of Moses to the burial of Joshua, Moses’ successor. This book can be disconcerting to modern readers because there’s lots of violence. And it seems to be divinely sanctioned violence.
The genre is sort of historical. But it’s important to remember that ancient historians were not recording events as much as they were interpreting outcomes. The outcome was that the promised land was settled and the once-enslaved people were victorious.
This book makes it sound like the conquest was short and violent. Archaeology suggests rather than a short, violent conquest, the settlement of Israel was much more gradual and much less violent. It was more that the tribes moved in and mingled with the locals and intermarried and eventually just took over. But that makes for a much less exciting tale!
The events recounted here took place at least 1200-1500 years before Christ – the Late Bronze Age.
Most of what we know about Palestine in this time period come from a set of tablets called The Amarna letters dating from around 1350BC –
These were diplomatic correspondence tablets between Egypt and their representatives in the region of Cannan.
The stories in this book were handed down over centuries and what we have now is a theological reflection on the nation’s beginnings, compiled over a very long period of time. You can imagine if I wrote down a story of my youth and then one of my children picks it up decades later, they might modify a few details to make the story more understandable to their generation. If my grandkids did that as well and their grandkids, etc, eventually you have kernels of truth but probably a story that would be incomprehensible to me. The desire was not to present a story with historical accuracy. Rather, the intent is to portray the nation’s beginnings as solid and heroic.
And remember – most of this was written down during the Babylonian exile – they’re trying to make sense of their identity. Who are they without the land and without the Temple?