Joshua & Judges: Summary Issues
Week of 4 November 2008
Traditionally, scholars list the books of Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings as part of "the former prophets," because prophets (Deborah, Samuel, etc.) speak in these books but no books are named after them (unlike Isaiah, etc.).Week of 4 November 2008
These books are also ranked, along with Deuteronomy, with the so-called "Deuteronomist History," because the D writer seems to have influenced all these books, which have the same focus and use of language.
At the same time, many scholars today see Joshua as a continuation of Deuteronomy, so they link it with the Pentateuch to make an Hexateuch ("six scrolls" instead of "five scrolls").
If these texts were "redacted" (as most scholars believe) in the age of the Exile or post-Exile, when keeping the faith was more difficult, one can see the need to stress the LAW so much here: when traditions seem weak, then it becomes even more important to emphasize the basic customs.
The main concern in Joshua is occupation of the Promised Land, which turns out to be more difficult than expected, because it's not so easy to uproot traditional customs of native peoples or to stop one's own people from being seduced into those customs.
Another purpose of Joshua is to show Joshua as Moses true successor (like Jesus will be shown to be Moses' true successor in the New Testament): like Moses, Joshua leads the people to the Promised Land, he crosses the water (the Jordan River instead of the Red Sea), and speaks directly to God on "holy ground."
Joshua, like Moses, is a Northern hero and the link between them in the stories in the book of Joshua is clear: both give laws (as Moses did in the farewell address in Deuteronomy).
Judges gives a more realistic picture of the conquest, which was never complete as Joshua suggests. A "judge" was not a judge in our sense, but more like a military leader or tribal chief. There were 12 judges, though most scholars believe that number was made up to match the 12 tribes.
Judges is part of the Deuteronomist History, which begins with the book of Deuteronomy and follows with Joshua. These books are histories, but they are also "theodicies," or explaining why the Israelites (later, Jews) had trouble.
Remember, these books were written AFTER events described in them; so they are "prophecy after the fact." The Jews in the Exile or post-Exile knew that they had lost Northern Israel (called "Israel" or "Ephraim) (722 BCE) and Judah (586 BCE), so it was easy to predict what would happen if they did not follow God's laws. To justify God, the D writer makes clear that these events "will happen" because God wills it due to the misconduct of the Jews. So this defends both God's power (God wills the enemy nations to conquer Israel) and his goodness (because the people have disobeyed his laws).
A motif throughout the D history is "They did evil in the sight of the Lord," or similar phrases.
An important word here is "syncretism." Syncretism is the combining of different religions, as in today's Christmas, which combines pagan and Christian elements: the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, the birth of Jesus, etc. Jewish leaders were especially concerned about weakening the Jewish religion with pagan ideas (idolatry of statues, fertility goddesses, even human sacrifices, worshiping the moon and stars, etc.). This would naturally happen if the Jews intermarried with the natives, which did occur. Sex and religion are two very strong motives, along with money. Key gods were Baal and Asheroth.
We can see in the stories of the judges that Israel was not unified but was composed of small military units that had to unite now and then to free themselves from oppression from native peoples (compare with the more idealized version of the settlement in Joshua, which makes it seem like the land had been conquered completely).
Many of the stories in Judges are very famous, including those of Deborah, Jepthah, Gideon, and especially Samson and Delilah. In fact, the great German composer wrote oratorios on three of these stories (Deborah, Jepthah, and Samson), and another Gideon, was produced after Handel's death in England from collections of his music.
Samson is especially interesting from the mythological point of view. Most scholars believe Samson was originally a sun God adapted by the Jews as a follower of Yahweh. Delilah then represents Night, and the contest between the two is a contest between night and day, as discussed in my original handout.
These stories should pose no problems; they are mainly colorful narratives similar to the ones familiar in Genesis. Thematically, the main issue is to "explain" (in the style of prophecy after the fact) why the Jews lost their land in 586, by looking backward as if the writer were looking forward. The main idea is that the Jews did not follow the Law and "did evil in the sight of the Lord." The other issue seems to be an attempt to justify the kingship, which will happen in the next book (1 Samuel). That is, the writer tries to show how bad society was without a king at the head.
This needed a lot of persuasion. Because, for the Jew, God is king (theocracy, rule by God). So having a king over them was not an easy choice for the Jews. On the other hand, the book of Judges shows that a nation cannot be militarily strong unless it has an established army (not "judges" and their followers) ruled by a king.
For those students who are still puzzled by issues we've discussed before the midterm, feel free to email me.
As for the exam, it will be in the regular classroom during regular class time, beginning at 8:10 a.m. on 16 November 2008.
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