Reading Joshua As Christian Scripture
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Durham E-Theses Reading Joshua as Christian scripture Earl, Douglas Scotohu How to cite: Earl, Douglas Scotohu (2008) Reading Joshua as Christian scripture, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2267/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture Douglas Scotohu Earl PhD Thesis The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from it, or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. University of Durham Department of Theology and Religion 2008 1 8 DEC 2008 Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture Douglas Earl Abstract The perception of historical and ethical difficulties associated with Joshua in the twentieth century have led to difficulties in appropriating it as Christian Scripture. I argue that from the perspective of cultural memory Joshua nonetheless has an important role as Scripture, but, moreover, that in engagement with patristic interpretation such difficulties call for Joshua to be read in a different way from that in which it has been since at least the time of Calvin onwards. I develop a way of reading based on recent anthropological approaches to myth, such as those of Victor Turner and Seth Kunin in particular. I combine this treatment of myth with Paul Ricoeur's approach to narrative hermeneutics and the hermeneutics of testimony to produce a reading of Joshua in dialogue with its reception and use in order to argue for a constructive contemporary means of reading Joshua as Christian Scripture. Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture Douglas Scotohu Earl A thesis presented to the Department of Theology and Religion of the University of Durham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2008 Contents Section I An introduction to the hermeneutics of reading Joshua as Christian Scripture Chapter 1: Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture? 1 1.1 Introduction - a sketch of the problem 1 1.2 Cultural memory 3 1.3 The Old Testament in the Christian tradition 6 1.4 The nature of Scripture and how we learn to speak of God 10 Chapter 2: Learning to speak of God through myth - approaching Joshua as myth 12 2.1 An introduction to myth 12 2.2 Ideological, sociological and political approaches to myth 17 2.3 Psychological approaches to myth 20 2.4 Existential and symbolic approaches to myth 24 2.5 Structuralist approaches to myth 34 2.6 Reading Joshua with mythical perspectives 42 Chapter 3: The hermeneutics of reading Joshua as Christian Scripture 45 3.1 The hermeneutics of texts 46 3.2 The significance of testimony 53 3.3 The life of symbols 59 3.4 Summary 64 Section II Making Joshua intelligible as discourse: Starting to read well Chapter 4: Joshua as part of tradition(s) 67 4.1 The compositional history of Joshua 67 4.2 The deuteronomistic nature of Joshua 69 4.3 The priestly nature of Joshua 71 4.4 Summary - the significance of the deuteronomistic and 75 priestly natures of Joshua Chapter 5: The genre of Joshua - codes of production and use of literary conventions 78 5.1 Similarities between Joshua and ANE conquest accounts 78 5.2 Differences between Joshua and ANE conquest accounts 80 5.3 Summary 81 Chapter 6: Understanding the significance of 0*111 83 6.1 Re-examining the 'priestly-like' approaches to Din in the non-priestly literature 86 6.2 A mythical approach to the deuteronomistic DUl 96 6.3 Summary 102 Section III Reading Joshua Chapter 7: The text of Joshua 104 7.1 Differences in the textual witnesses to Joshua 104 7.2 The significance of the choice of text for Christian reading 109 7.3 Summary 110 Chapter 8: Reading Joshua 111 8.1 Josh. 1 111 8.2 Josh. 2 115 8.3 Josh. 3-4 118 8.4 Josh. 5:1-12 124 8.5 Josh. 5:13-15 129 8.6 Josh. 6 131 8.7 Josh. 7:1-8:29 137 8.8 Josh. 8:30-35 145 8.9 Josh. 9-10 146 8.10 Josh. 11-12 156 8.11 Josh. 13-21 161 8.12 Josh. 22 168 8.13 Josh. 23 174 8.14 Josh. 24 180 Chapter 9: Drawing it all together: Reading Joshua as 189 Christian Scripture today 9.1 Joshua - challenging and constructing identity 189 9.2 Appropriating Joshua - the development and use of its symbols and mythemes 195 9.3 Appropriating Joshua - its development and use as an act of discourse as myth 203 9.4 The context and use of Joshua 222 9.5 Conclusion 226 Bibliography 230 List of tables Table 4.1: Instances of distinctive deuteronomistic language 69 Table 4.2: Summary of deuteronomistic and priestly language in Joshua 74 Abbreviations AB The Anchor Bible ABD D.N Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992,6 vols.) ACA K. Lawson Younger Jr., Ancient Conquest Accounts: A Study in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical History Writing (JSOTSup 98) (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990) ACQS J.R. Franke (ed.), Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Old Testament IV: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel (Downers Grove: 1VP, 2005) ACW Ancient Christian Writers Adv. Haer. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, in ANF 1 ANE Ancient Near East(ern) ANEP J.B. Pritchard (ed.), The Ancient Near East in Pictures relating to the Old Testament (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2nd ed. with supplement: 1969) ANET J.B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament 3rd ed. with supplement (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1969) ANF A. Roberts & J. Donaldson (eds), Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo: Christian Literature, 10 vols. 1885-1896, Reprint: Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994) ARM Archives Roylaes de Mari ATR Anglican Theological Review A USS Andrews University Seminary Studies BHS K. Elliger and W. Rudolph (eds.) Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart: Deutcsche Bibelgesellschaft, 4th ed. 1990) BZ Biblisiche Zeitschrift BZAW Beiheft zur Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft CAD A.L. Oppenheim, et al, (eds), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1956-) CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly CD K. Barth, Church Dogmatics (London: T&T Clark (15 vols.), paperback ed.2004) CoS W.W. Hallo & K.L. Younger Jr. (eds.), The Context of Scripture (Leiden: Brill, 3 vols. 2003 D Deuteronomist DH Deuteronomistic History/Historian DtrG/H Deuteronomistic History DJD Discoveries in the Judean Desert DtrN Nomist redaction of DtrG/H DtrP Prophetic redaction of DtrG/H EJ C. Roth & G. Wigoder (eds), Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Encyclopaedia Judaica, 16 vols. 1971-1972) H H source HALOT L.Koehler and W.Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, rev. ed. 1994-2000) HAT Handbuch zum Alten Testament Horn. Josh. Origen, Homilies on Joshua (Trans. B. J. Bruce, ed. C. White: The Fathers of the Church 105) (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2002) Inst. Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion (trans. F.L. Battles), (The Library of Christian Classics 20) (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 2 vols., 1960) J AOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series JSS Journal of Semitic Studies KBo Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkoi KRI K. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, Historical and Biographical (Oxford, 1969-) KTU M. Dietrich, et al, eds, Keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit einschliesslich der keilalphabetischen Text ausserhalb Ugarits. Teil 1 Transkription (AOAT 24/1) (Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker 1976) Life of Moses Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses (The Classics of Western Spirituality), trans. E. Ferguson & A.J. Malherbe (New York: Paulist Press, 1978) LXX Septuagint LXXA Greek text of the Old Testament, Codex Alexandrinus LXXB Greek text of the Old Testament, Codex Vaticanus MDOG Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft Ml Mesha Inscription MT Masoretic Text NIDOTTE W.A. VanGemeren (ed.), New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (Carlisle: Paternoster, 5 vols., 1997) NAS New American Standard Version NET New English Translation NIV New International Version NJB New Jerusalem Bible NKJ New King James NLT New Living Translation NPNF P. Schaff, et al (eds), A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (Buffalo: Christian Literature, 2 series, 14 vols. Each, 1887-1894, Reprint: Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994) NRSV New Revised Standard Version OG Old Greek recension of the Septuagint OTL The Old Testament Library P priestly source PTMS The Pittsburgh Theological Monograph Series Quest. Josh. Theodoret of Cyrus, 'Questions on Joshua' in The Questions on the Octateuch (The Library of early Christianity vol. 2), trans. R.C. Hill (Washington, The Catholic University of America Press, 2007), pp.260- 307 RedD Deuteronomistic redaction of Joshua RedP Priestly Redaction of Joshua RS Ras Shamra field numbers SJOT Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament ST T.