Encyclopedia Biblica Vol 2 Joiada Jotham

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JOIADA

JOIADA

‘Yah knows’; an abbreviation of

: see J

EHOIADA

).

I

.

(AV

b. Paseah in list of wall-builders (see

N

EHEMIAH

,

E

ZRA

[

I

],

[ I

(a‘)]),

Neh.

36

of

the’high priest, in pedigree of Jaddua

(E

ZRA II.,

6 9 ;

contemporarywith Nehemiah: Neh.

and

[BN],

JOIAKIM

cp J

EHOIAKIM

), ben Jcshua

high priest

Neh.

1210

(

[BKAL]).

JOIARIB

I

I

[K]).

I

.

[A])

om.)

om.

See

JEHOIARIB.

A Judahite, temp. Nehemiah (Neh.

115,

JOKDEAM

[L]),

in the hill-country of Judah, mentioned

with Juttah and Jezreel (Josh.

T h e name is

probably

a corruption of J

ORKEAM

,

a clan-name or

place-name in

I

Ch.

belonging t o the S W . of

Hebron, and to be identified with R

EKEM

.

T h e place

intended by Jorkeam and Rekem is probably the
Judahite C

ARMEL

and the common original of

all these forms is probably Jerahmeel

T h e

Jerahmeelites did not confine themselves

to the Negeb.

JOKIM

a descendant of

S

HELAH

(I

Ch.

T h e name might conceivably he mis-spelt

for J

EHOIAKIM

(so

but cp

JOKMEAM

as

if= let the [divine] Kinsman

arise

rather, perhaps,

‘ t h e Kinsman (?) takes

vengeance,’ c p

a

city in Ephraim

mentioned with

Gezer, and Beth-horon.

I n

the parallel

of Levitical cities in Josh.

2 1 ,

K

IBZAIM

is the name given

(v.

[A], om.

B,

This form, however, seems to be an old corrup-

tion

of

Jokmeam

from

Jokmeam is

also

mentioned in

I

K.

[B

precedes],

[A],

[L]), but the reading

as

far

a s beyond Jokmeam’

(so RV, and similarly the Geneva

Bible, but AV, by

a

printer’s error, substitutes

neam) is probably corrupt

substitute ‘ a s far a s the

ford of Meholah’

See J

ERAHMEEL

,

4.

T.

K.

C.

LEHEM.

See Z

ARETHAN

.

T. K. C.

JOKNEAM

rather

a s

if

the (divine) Kinsman (?) makes, or acquires’ We.

4, compares

the name of

a

king

of Tyre, Jos.

I

.

A town of Zebulun (Josh.

reckoned by

P as

Levitical (Josh.

paav

[B],

[A]).

It was also

a

royal city of the Canaanites

( 1 2 2 2 ,

[B],

[L],

[A]); Thotmes

claims to have taken it in his victorious campaign
against the ‘upper

( W M M

393).

T h e city was situated in the Carmel district

t o

the

E.

of

a

torrent-valley

W e may

probably identify it with the

of

Judith

7 3 ,

and both with the

on the

E.

side

of

the

el-Milh, a t its mouth a s it enters the plain

of

draelon, to which Eusebius and Jerome refer a s

(see

T h e position is conspicuous

and important, commanding the main pass from the
western portion of Esdraelon to the more southern
plain’ (Rob.). On

Jokneam’ in

I

K.

412,

AV, see

The Jokneam referred to above

is

called by way

of

distinc-

tion Jokneam

in

Carmel’ (Josh.

It

follows that another

Jokheam must have existed elsewhere. Probably it la in the

hill

country of Judah,

J

OKDEAM

in Josh.

being wrong in the third letter.

On the forms cp Rob.

BR,

JONADAB

JOKSHAN

BD and in

I

Ch.

in

Gen.

A (see Swete) in

3

(

[A*]);

[A in

I

and

L

in Gen.]),

son of Abraham by Keturah (Gen.

I

Ch.

Interpreted of

a

tribe

in

Yemen by Arabian genealo-

gists (see

ZDMG

Glaser

compares names like

in S. Arabia. Tuch‘s

with Joktan (Gen.

is attractive, hut the change of

into

is hard

to

explain.

F.

B.

younger

son of Eher and father

of

thirteen sons or

Sheleph

Obal

Ebal,

Ch.

Probably there were

only

the list (cp Israel, Ishmael, and

see

G

ENEALOGIES

i.,

col.

n.

Joktan

is

the assumed

the older Arabian

tribes a s distinguished from those later tribes which
were more closely related by origin and perhaps by
language to the Israelites.

T h e Arab genealogists.

identify the name with that of

a n ancient

southern Arabian tribe well known t o themselves (see
G

ENEALOGIES

But this identification has n o

historical value.

T h e name Joktan may indeed b e

simply an artificial name, devised for the younger

son

of Eber. When we look at the names of the Joktanites,
we notice that two

of them (Sheba and Havilah) occur

in the list of Cushites. This simply arises from the fact
that the names of the Cushites and the Joktanites come
from different documents

( P and

J

respectively), re-

flecting, perhaps, different political circumstances and
tribal relations. I t is difficult to explain all the Joktanite
names.

The very first (A

LMODAD

) is among the most

obscure the name seems

T h e limits of the

Joktanites (Gen.

30)

are also matter for discussion

(see M

ESHA

, S

EPHAR

).

JOKTHEEL

for attempted explanations see

Wetzstein in Del.

Olsh.

624).

I

.

city in thelowland of Judah mentioned between Mizpeh

and

Josh.

1538;

either

for

or

a

corruption

Jerahmeel from which indeed

may also

come (cp

dut

The name given by

to

a

place

in

Edom

called the Cliff’

which he had captured,

K.

it

is

the rock, or cliff of Kadesh-

‘barnea’ which

is

meant.

seeks to

it

b y

Ch.

25 14,

where

is accused of having bowed down

before the gods of Edom, and extracts from it the meaning

‘Yakt is God’

le

Dr.

No

Edomite deity as Yakt

is,

however, known.

name is corrupt. ‘Joktheel’ should probably be Jerahmeel,

for the battle was

the valley called

or rather

Jerahmeel (see S

ALT

, V

ALLEY

On the ‘ragged spur of the

north-easterly mountain -range from underneath which the

fountain of Kadesh issues, therk

have been

a

fort.

This

fort Amaziah captured

named Jerahmeel because of the

‘crowning mercy’ which he had received.‘ It

the place

is commonly (see

Kittel,

identified

Petra

.

but this must be an error, as Ki.

his commentary has shown:

See S

ELA

.

T. K.

C.

JONA

[WH],

[Ti.]),

‘John.’ See J

OHN

,

S

ON

OF

Z

EBEDEE

,

I

,

and

44 46;

abbrev. from

ismunificent,’ cp Nedabiah,.

Amminadab).

I

.

Son of Shammah and nephew of David, who

displayed his subtlety in advising his cousin Amnon
how to entrap his half-sister Tamar

S.

(in

M T gives Jehonadab’

v .

B

v.

in

[L]). See

J

ONATHAN

(4).

Son of Rechab and presumed author of the rules.

which bound the Rechabites, Jer.
in

v . 8

in

Jonadab‘

M T only

vv. 6

elsewhere

Jehonadab.’

It is usual t o

as represented by some MSS restored the normal

The former

J

EKUTHIEL

.

by leaving

out

Obal in Gen. and Jerah in Ch.

omission has some plausibility (see

background image

JONAH

identify this Jonadab with

3.

Rechabites, however, was of older date.

T h e true 'father'

of

the

See

3.

EV

J

EHONADAB

, b. Rechab, a n abettor of Jehu

in his zeal for

2

K.

10

23.

T h e clasping of

hands in

implies partnership in the measures

which followed (see

H

A

N

D

,

though there are dif-

ficulties in the narrative.

See J

E H U

;

I

SRAEL

,

31

R

ECHABITES

.

4. T h e name of Saul's second son, according t o

I

S.

31

(see A

BINADAB

).

There is a similar confusion

in

title of

Ps.

71

[R]).

See

JONATHAN, I.

JONAH

68, dove

originally, according

to Robertson Smith

9

connected with

ism; but many such names in modern Syria, a t all events,
are certainly due t o fancy, and early corruption from

is possible

[BAL], [in the title]

I.

who prophesied the deliverance

of

Israel from the

Syrian oppression

(2

K.

T h e reference to Jonah

in

Tob.

14

4 8

(BA,

followed by

EV)

is probably due t o

a

error

reads

(Nahum) in

4.

W h e n

we compare

K.

it seems probable that Jonah

delivered his prophecy in the time of Jehoahaz, the father

of

Jeroboam

(Klost.

Jonah seems to have spoken

of

a deliverer who would bring the Israelites out of the grasp
of Aram

so

that they would

dwell in their tents a s beforetime. T h e deliverer is
not the Assyrian king

111.

(Duncker

Whitehouse in

C O T

2

Wi.

GI

1

as

a

matter of history the victory of that king over Syria
must have been a great relief t o Israel-but Jeroboam

There is no probability that the Deuteronomistic

writers

of

K.

knew anything of

nirari but it is beyond doubt that they wished t o do
honour to Jeroboam.

C p Stade

296.

Hitzig and Renan think that the prophecy of Jonah is

still extant in Is.

15

but this is most improbable.

ITES.

See also J

ONAH

[B

OOK

].

T. K.

C.

2.

16 17.

JONAH

[BOOK].

I t

is

by a strange inconsistency

that the

of Tonah ranks among the records of the

JONAH,

BOOK

Twelve Prophets,

the only oracle

of

which it Professes to

is

comprised in five words (Jon. 34, Heb.).

it

must be compared, not with the accompanying prophetic
books, but with narratives of episodes in the lives

of

prophets, such as are found in

I

K. 17-19,

K.

4-6,

and Is.

1-16,

20

36-39.

T h e narratives referred

to a r e

based

on traditional material, sometimes oral, sometimes

written.

Can we hope to find such in the Book of

Jonah? Unfortunately we cannot.

T h e leading fact

of the story-the journey of an Israelite prophet to

Nineveh-is

so surprising that

on good pre-exilic

testimony could we be excused for receiving it.

Such

testimony, however, is wanting.

No

part of the book is

pre-exilic indeed, except in glosses and

the psalm

ascribed t o Jonah there

is

no trace of more than one

hand.

Winckler AOF

has'snggested that the words 'ben

Amittai' in

K. are an interpolation from Jon.

1

I

hut the

double description is uuohjectionahle (see

I

K.

1916).

Linguistic and other arguments have convinced an American

that the original Book of Jonah, which he thinks that he

has disengaged from the additional matter, was much shorter

than the present one and that it may have been of the age of

Jeremiah (Kohler

pp.

His

however, is

and linguistically there

is

no

between the original Book and the inserted matter. W. Bdhme

also

denies the unity of authorship

He presents us with two distinct works on the

story

of Jonah

whichhave been combined by an editor

;

he further recognises

hands of a supplementer and of

a

glossator. Bohme's argument

is much more elaborate than Kohler's, but is hypercritical.

He

greatly exaggerates the critical importance of the inconsistencies

which permit us

to

speak of glosses, hut not of

authorship

(so

Kue., Einl.,

2426,

86). For an earlier attempt

I

.

It

is

certain that, though the diction

of

Jonah

is

purer

than that

of

Esther, Chronicles, and Daniel, it has some striking

Aramaisms and other late words or forms.

has endeavoured to refute this argument hut his opposition

the criticism of the

OT hooks prevents him frpm forming

a just idea of the phases of linguistic development.

The phase

of Hebrew which meets

in the hook of Jonah is not that of

the eighth century'

that of Amos and Hosea.

One need not lay any stress on

which, though more

Aramaic than Hebrew, might perhaps have been used

the

non-maritime Israelites before the Exile

but such words and

forms as

these are conclusive

as

to

the post-exilic date of the

Book ;

-

;

(3

(3 7)

' t o

6)

and

(4

8)

are designedly

The writer's conception of pre-exilic prophecy is oppcsed

to the facts of prophecy gathered from the works of Amos,

Hosea, and Isaiah.

H e imagines that revelations were,

to

prophets of the eighth century

as

objective, as external,

as

they

were to Zechariah.

it suited his purpose (which we

shall study presently)

to

represent Jonah as

to

evade

his mission hut he could not have done this had he lived in the

age of Amos and Hosea.

(The story of the disobedient

prophet in

I

K.

13

is

also

too

peculiar

to

be pre-exilic.) He

assumes

too

that Jonah would have been surprised at the

fulfilment of

a

prediction-a surprise which there

no reason

to suppose such

a

result would have awakened in Hosea though

certainly that prophet would have been very much

a t

the conversion of the arrogant Assyrians.

3.

The writer's explicitly universalistic conception of religion

and morality (cp

with

is not in harmony

with the prophecy of the eighth century.

4.

His imitativeness is

striking; cp

with

and Ex.

346;

and the

of

under the

(see below,

5) with that of Elijah

under the

in the desert

K.

194

Pusey, it is true

(4

(4

I

oel 214;

4 2

with

is

of

A

from

nur

a

to

of

a

' a n imaginative develop-

ment

of

a

thought or theme suggested

by Scripture, especially a didactic or

homiletic exposition, or a n edifying religious story.
Tobit and Susanna are universally admitted to be such

Midrashim; Jonah should be added t o the list.

As

such it is not deprived of value for historical purposes.
For, a s Kuenen long ago pointed

the Rooks of

Jonah and Ruth are records of a current of thought
among the Jews opposed to that identified with the

name of Ezra.

That great reformer, and the

of

his school, based their system on the recognition

of a

real

and permanent

between Israel and the

heathen, and even psalmists of the post-exilic period
spoke sometimes as if the 'nations' were necessarily
wicked because non-Israelites.

Against this the author

of

Jonah enters a protest.

T h e scene of the prophet

under the

is specially introduced to check Jewish

to dissect the

Book

of Jonah see Eichhorn's

9

Bertholdt

'Einl.

and cp Kleinert

who is willing)

to

admit that

a

later writer (temp. Ezekiel)

have

his account on two

distinct traditional narratives.

read

for

in Is.

2

but this is hardly

the

critical emendation.

Both words are plainly corrupt. Read for the former

[or

and for the latter

('it came to pass

at

dawn,

when the sun rose ').

Dr.

497

; cp We.

(chap.

6,

end).

2

2566

background image

JONAH,

BOOK

JONAH, BOOK

arrogance, and the whole course

of

the previous story

leads to

a fairer view of ' t h e nations.'

Indeed, the

writer partly explains the non-fulfilment of prophecies
against the heathen (which doubtless puzzled some of
his contemporaries) by the readiness

of the heathen to

repent.

One might even infer from the story that he

placed the heathen morally and religiously above his
own people.

Jonah begins by stifling the voice of

conscience, and afterwards both expects

desires

Nineveh's destruction.

No

epilogue tells us of any

change in the prophet's feelings towards the heathen.'
T h e Phcenician mariners, on the other hand, fear the
great God of the Hebrews (Jon.

1

and the people

of

Nineveh at once repent

on hearing the prophetic

announcements (Jon.

W e are reminded

of

Lessing's

N a t h a n the Wise, and of

a

more ancient and

venerable story (the Good Samaritan).

This theory has excellent points

but it does not do

justice to the entire problem.

If

the hero

of the story

is merely a type of the too exclusive
contemporaries of the writer, why is
he called Tonah?

is he made

a

prophet? and why is he-swallowed-up hy

a fish?

These questions are

to a

large extent answered by the

symbolic theory.

I

.

The hero of the story is called Jonah, not primarily because

an early narrative mentions

a

person of this name, hut because

a custom was springing np of calling Israel, symbolically,

a

dove.

earliest trace of this is in

Ps. 68

where

the people of Israel, delivered

its God from the powerful

kings of Caanan, and enriched with their spoil, is called

a

dove

'whose

s

[God] will cover with silver and her feathers

with gold.

Elsewhere the faithful community personi-

fied wishes for itself the wings of

a

dove, not for their

but for their swiftness and for the unerring instinct which

the doves

to

their retreats

(Ps.

2.

Jonah is made a prophet, because Israel was called upon

to

prophesy.4 The Prophecy of Restoration said that all Zion's

children would he

disciples-;.e. prophets (Is. 54

;

cp

tnat

the duty

of

the prophetic Servant

was

to

make known the true religion

to

the nations (Is. 42

4

49

a),

purposehe

40

It is

true,

there was

a

historical Jonah who prophesied hnd who:

an interesting coincidence, is called

servant

K.

; cp Jon.

1

;

hut

this was not the fundamental point with the late narrator, whose

mind was

in symbolism. It is also to be observed that,

according

to

11.

Isaiah, the 'servant of Yahwb' would not 'draw

back' from his work (Is.

50

5). The psalmists,

too,

Israel's

deliverance into connection with the spread of true religion (see

Ps.

06-loo), and one of them makes the true Israelite

promise to speak

of

God's precepts (like Jonah) before kings

3.

Jonah is swallowed up by the

sea

because this was

a

common poetical phrase for the danger of destruction which

repeatedly

Israel (see

326 4 2 7

66

69

74

Lam.

3

54). And the purpose

of the whole story, according to the

theory, is, that

Israel, called to preach

to

the nations

(a

touching antedating of

Isaiah's revelation), evaded its duty, that God punished

Israel by exile, but turned the punishment

to

Israel's good, and

that Israel afterwards took up its neglected duty, but in an

spirit which grieved its patient teacher, the all-merciful

God of the whole human race.

T h e theory here described

is

a great advance upon

the

one. and much credit is due

to Klcinert

(1868)

and

S.

Bloch (1876)

for

applying the key of symbolism to the
narrative more fully than any previous

But the hesitation of critics

to adopt it indicates

that there

is

some serious defect

in

it.

Where it fails

is

The omission

of

an epilogue was every

advisable.

(

I

)

If

Jonah was symbolical, it remained

to

he

seen

whether those

who were symholised would amend their ways

or

not.

Epilogues

are apt to weaken the effect of

a

work of art (as in the

case of Job).

Symbolical designations of peoples are in the manner of this

(see Ps.

3

Point

and for

simply

(Che.

In later times Jonah or 'Dove' became a standing title for

Israel. Both

and Tg. recognise the people

or

the congregation

in

the

of

Ps. 56

I

.

Cp Talm. Bah.

etc., and

the Midrash on Cant.

2

4

I

;

also the

in the Jewish

Passover Service, based on the midrashic explanation of the

Song of Songs (especially the first, Festival

Prayers,

de Sola's

in its treatment

of

the story

of the great fish.

It is

a

mistake

to say that 'Jonah's adventure in the sea is but

a

very subordinate feature (Kalisch,

Studies,

On the contrary, it is the turning point of the whole
narrative

prepared

the great fish to be a n

instrument not only of preservation but

also of moral

discipline to the disobedient prophet.

W e must there-

fore supplement the key of symbolism by that

of

mythology.

The earlier critics

Eichhorn) were not wrong in seeking

for parallels where they could at the time most easily he found

in Greek mythology. That Andromeda was in peril

a sea-monster

on

the rocks of Joppa, gives, however, no real

help the myth may rather he regarded as an

one for

Joppa

3); and only very moderate requirements can

he satisfied with the parallel

of

the story of Hesione. F. C.

Baur went

to

the right quarter when he took a hint from

(Oannes) hut onah neither was, according to the

story nor could

have been represented as a

god, 'which is also an objection to

original use

of

and Oannes in

11

Pt.

Quite recently

Ball

(Hastings'

and

less

accredited

have supposed

a

connection between the

mention of the 'great fish' and the fact that the Assyria?

ideogram for Nineveh implies the explanation
(Sayce,

57 ;

hut cp Hommel,

logical Notes,' 42).

Apart from other objections, however,

(

I

)

there is

no

trace

of

the writer of Jonah having been

a

man

of

learning, and

criti-

cism should group not isolate, narratives, phrases, or other data

which may refer

folklore. We have many references

to

the

dragon-myth in the OT, and it is quite easy to regard the preat

fish

as

a degenerate dragon

;

whereas fish-myths are, naturally

enough, unrepresented.

even illustrates the sojourn

of

onah

'the belly of the fish' by the descent of the 'dove'

from the fish-woman'

or Derceto.

That critics should look everywhere except in the right place

for the origin of the Jonah story is one of the many proofs that

the reproaches addressed

to

us by Winckler

not wholly

unjustified.

Tylor saw much more clearly than most contemporary

critics when he pointed out that the widely-spread
nature-myth of the dragon

lies a t the root of the

apologue of

But it was left for the present

writer, in 1877. to combine the theory

of Bloch with

that of Tylor, and to show how indispensable each

was to

a dne comprehension of the narrative.

I n

details both theories admitted of improvement, by the
help partly of biblical exegesis, partly of Assyriology.
T h e writer also pointed

that the myth of the dragon

or sea-monster is preserved, not only in the story

of

Jonah, but

also in fragmentary allusions to Rahab, the

leviathan, and the

t a n n i n in the Books

of Job and the

Second Isaiah (cp

D

RAGON

).

The only error (an

error into which G.

A.

Smith seems to have fallen

in

2524) was

in not distinguishing

sufficiently between the dragon

of

the subterranean and

the dragon of the heavenly ocean.

I t is the dragon of

the subterranean ocean which (at

command

-for he has been subjugated by

swallowed up

Jonah

or,

to pass from the myth to its application, it

is the all-absorbing empire of Babylon which swallowed
np Israel- not, however,

to destroy it, but to preserve it

and to give it room for repentance.

The present writer

also indicated the link between

the story of Jonah and the original myth.

That link is

to

he found in Jer.

51

34

king

of

Babylon has eaten and discomfited me

Israel); he

has set me as an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up as the

he has filled

his

belly with my dainties

;

he has

cast me out.' 'And I will punish Bel in

and hring

forth that which he has swallowed out of his mouth.

Of course,

it is only a shrivelled-up myth that we have before

us.

Bel,

who in the Babylonian story is the opponent of the dragon has

now become identified with that monster, and

(as

the

dragon) is for

a

time successful. Bel, or the dragon, has in fact,

as we have seen already, become a symbol of the

.

Primitive

1306

; cp

Hist.

;

6

670 ;

de Guhernatis,

M

2 390.

Or

as a dragon.'

Mythical dragons (plur.) are referred

to in

Ps. 74

Joh

9

: helpers of Rahab.' The singular,

however, is more obvious.

only in Jer. 5134;

'her

belly,' in the account of the fight

and Marduk (Del.

44

a568

background image

JONAH, BOOK

JONAH,

BOOK

empire and of its head Nehuchadrezzar who thought to bring

Israel under his own power hut whom

(276)

distinctly

calls

'servant

commissioned agent). For another

instance of

a

story

based on mythology, we may

venture to refer

to

E

S

TH

ER

It is strange that

(The Jonah Legend,

though

he refers once

to

the Babylonian

legend,

so

completely miss its significance as

to

make the stretching out

of the slain monster's skin support his theory that the story of

sprang out of

a

ceremony which was acted at

a

rite of

initiation (perhaps into

a

priesthood). Criticism and

seem here

to

he parted.

T h e story

of

the wonderful plant, which contrasts

with Elijahs perfectly natural desert plant in

I

K.

has quite a different origin, being ob-
viously the product of the fancy of a n

individual. T h e name

probably connected with

the Assyr.

(

this designates some

garden-plant, the precise nature of which is unknown

(for another such Assyr. plant-name in Hebrew see

H

A

BAKKUK

). If

the mention of the 'booth'

( 4 5 )

belongs

(as it probably does) t o the original narrative,

we can hardly help agreeing with Tristram that some
kind of gourd is meant, gourds being commonly
used for shading

If, however, the narrator

mentioned only the plant, we may not unreasonably fix
upon the

Ricinus communis,

L.

(see G

OURD

).

In

either case, the growth of the plant has been super-
naturally fostered.

We may compare the plant with the caroh-tree (see

which

no fruit for seventy yearsas

a

to

Honi Hame'agel

that he had really slept seventy years and which

so

proved

to

him the credibility of

Ps. 126

I

(see

Bah.

the other hand, folklore is certainly present in the

story of the voyage.

Jonah revealed by the lot as the guilty cause of the ship's

danger

thereupon thrown into the sea is the counterpart of

the son of

a

merchant of

who is put out

of the ship in which he has embarked as the

of its luck,

not so roughly

as

H e answers equally

to

the

merchant in the Roman folk-tale of the

Pot

of

and the

same traditional idea is a t any rate presup osed in the classical

passages

3

quoted

Kalisch

(Bib.

n.

Primitive superstition has also supplied

a

detail

to

chap.

3.

The Persians are said to have made their horses and

draught-beasts join with them in the rites of mourning for

Masistius (Herod. 24).

But

the Assyrians in Jonah go beyond

the Persians they make their animals abstain from food like

themselves to propitiate

This may imply the Jewish

idea of the depravation of animal

6

; cp

Is. 11

For this Whitley Stokes has produced

a parallel

Irish literature.3

Into the question of editorial alterations we cannot

enter a t length.

T h e attempt

of

Bohme to distinguish

four strata

the Book of Jonah has been already referred

t o (col.

n.

it carries

us

beyond the evidence.

But a few minor interpolations

or insertions may safely be

allowed, in addition to the great one in

2

That chap.4 has been

by scribes or editors is

obvious (see especially Wi.

2

It

is

'im-

possible that the detail of the booth

(v.

5)

is

Of

an addition, and that it is connected with an

the text.

alteration in the prophetic announcement of

Jonah

(so

K.

Kohler). According to the MT

Jonah 'cried

said Yet forty

and Nineveh

be overthrown.

however, gives three days instead

of forty

as

the interval allowed, and though this reading may

conceivably he an error produced

the mention of

three

days' journey' in

it is

also

possible that it may he correct.

The story is constructed for effect and

the

wonder of the re-

pentance

of

the heathen Ninevites

he still greater

if

only

three days were allowed

as

an interval than if there were

Jona c.

I

43

hy

E.

Hardy

50

In

the Buddhist story it was not

a

storm, but another unknown

power which hindered the progress of the ship. The guilt of

Mittavindaka was caused by his disobedience

to

his mother. In

almost the same words

as

those of Jon.

1 8 ,

the mariners obeyed

the law

of

self-preservation. Mittavindaka was put

out

upon

a

raft and the ship pursued its course.

Miss

57-62.

In this case the

hero of the story is not actually thrown overboard.

cited in

Acad. 15th

Aug.

'96,

p.

The componhd

name

Elohim

(4

6)

due

to

an

editor. His object was

t o

show that the

who prepared

the 'gourd' was the Elohim who prepared the worm

(47).

It

is

true, this was very unnecessary with the clear statement of

Cp Gen.

as we now have it.

Kohler,

Theol.

'79,

pp.

A later editor however, might prefer forty days and alter the

text

at

the same time introducing

booth (see

B

OOTH

)

as

a

for Jonah for the remainder of his time.

This suggestion will seem

to

most not very probable. I t was a t

any rate an editor that inserted the psalm in chap.

2,

which is

largely composed of reminiscences of the canonical psalms

(31

42

88 107

120 142).

It

is, if faithfully

not more

connected with the story of the prophet

than the psalm

of Hannah is with that of Hannah; for

describes how pious

Israel, when in danger of

struggled with its des-

pondency.

apart from the purely external one, in the phraseology of

out

of the belly of

etc.).

H e may also have known that

the Jonah of the hook was, like

JOB

a

or

(

I

)

W h y was the book

placed in the 'Twelve'

(z)

W a s it

Not

improbably the editor found a connection

Three questions now occur.

previously a n independent literary work?
and

(3)

W h a t is its d a t e ?

A

brief answer

must suffice.

(

I

)

T h e probability is that

the closing words, assigned to God himself, brought the
book into the prophetic canon.

(z)

Budde

( Z A T W

12

conjectures that the Book of Jonah was

originally

a

part of the Midrash

(RV

commentary') of

the Book of Kings,

on

which Chronicles is based

Ch.

T h e introductory And it came to pass

'

and the absence of the descriptive statement

'

who was of

Gath-hepher

I

) ,

appeared a t first sight to favour this.

But the difficulty of imagining a reference

to

Assyria

and still more t o the destruction of Nineveh, has been
well pointed out by Winckler

who would

prefer t o give the Book of Jonah

a

place in that

Midrash where the reign

of

Manasseh

was

treated.

T h e Midrashic narrative

of Jonah explained, according

t o Wi., why the prophecy of Nahum was not strictly
fulfilled. Wi.

also

thinks that the Jonah of the apologue

is not the Jonah of Gath-hepher (see J

O N A H

n.

).

( C p

Smend,

A

T

Konig,

Einl. 77, p. 379.

)

(3)

T h e book is apparently referred to in Tobit (14

8

but see

JONAH,

I

) , and earlier still its existence is

presupposed by the mention of the Twelve Prophets in
Ecclus.

49

(see the Hebrew text). T h e considerations

mentioned above justify

us

in assigning the narrative,

without the psalm, to the half-century which followed the
arrival of Ezra.

T h e psalm, however, was probably

written much later- as late perhaps a s the

prayer

in the appendix

to

Ecclesiasticus

(51

If so,

it is a n interesting fact that the symbolic interpre-

tation of the book should have held its ground

so

long.

Of later references to the book three have a special

claim to be mentioned,

two passages in the

a n d one in the

NT.

In

we are told that, in times of drought, it was

usual for one of the leaders of the

to

exoound the

8.

The

of the

doctrine of repentance naturally sent Jewish teachers in search

of illustrations to the Book of Jonah (see

Gesch.

L i t . 3 158).

The third passage is Mt.

12

again in a simpler and more probable form3 in Lk.

11

'The sign of the prophet Jonah' means the striking

fact that an Israelitish prophet proclaimed the purpose of God

in

a

heathen city, and Jesus' statement is that the men

of

Nineveh will 'rise up'

as

witnesses (cp

against his own 'generation' and prove them

guilty

looks like an inaccurate rendering of the

Aramaic equivalent of

cp Is.

54

where condemn is

an impossible rendering). What the Ninevites testify is that they

had not been repelled

the foreign garb and manners

of

Jonah

but

had believed him and turned to God. The divine Judge will

then condemn the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus

they

So

Jonah himself

too

is treated in this liturgy with

a

to

edification.

prayer

'out

of the belly of the fish' makes him

an example

of

faith

(Festival

de Sola,

5

168).

It

may he regarded

as

critically certain that Mt.

is

a

later insertion. It is the explanatory comment of an editor who

required a 'sign of Jonah' more marvellous, more overwhelming

than that which Jesus actually offered. The true 'sign

Jonah' must have been one which the Ninevites at once

cognised. Cp Sanday,

Lect. o ? ~

435

G.

A. Smith,

2

background image

JONAN

did not repent at

a

still greater ‘sign’-the appearance among

them of

a

more exalted personage than Jonah.

It

may he safely

assumed that

the time of Jesus the symholic character of

Jonah had been

as

completely forgotten

as

that of the good

Samaritan must have been by those who first pointed out the

traditional site of the ‘inn’ of Lk. 1034.1

The post-biblical legends respecting Jonah are uninteresting

(see

De

Pro

16, and cp Kalisch

Bib.

It

was,

however,

9.

appropriate fancy

to

place the

of

Jonah on the hill called the ‘mound

of repentance,’ from which, the Moslems

believe, Jonah delivered addresses

to

people of Nineveh

to the E. of the probable site of that city. Nor must we

to notice that Jonah and

a

fantastic monster (not

a

whale) occur

several times in early Christian paintings in the catacombs

at

Rome.

For

a

full conspectus of works on Jonah

Kalisch Bib.

2,

‘The Book

of

Jonah; ’78 Chapman

Jonah,’

or

Jonah,

vol.

Pusey’s

comm.’ should he

on

the conservative

side which

is now seldom represented. Konig, Einl.,

77, is of

for

the linguistic argument, and his article, just referred

to,

comprises

a

rich collection of facts, though condensation would

greatly have improved it. G. A. Smith, on the other hand

Prophets,

gives much in

a

small compass, and

is

very judicious. On

text see

Z A T W

3

contribution to Lange’s

Jonah

’68) has

an

interesting introduction.

S. Bloch,

der

and Che.

Jonah, A Study in Jewish Folklore and Religion,’ in Th.

Rev.,

are referred to above. C. H.

H. Wright,

Studies ’86

argues very ably for the symbolic apart

from the

thbory. Nowack, Die

a

thorough exegesis hut is most unsatisfactory in his treat-

ment

of

the

the story

Winckler

AOF

2

helpful, see above). On the plant called

see

Tristram in Smith, DB,

and

cp G

OURD

.

T.

C.

JONAN,

RV

Jonam

[Ti. WH]),

a

name in

See GENEALOGIES

JONAS

(

I

)

[B])

the genealogy of Jesus Lk.

2.

[A]),

I

Esd.

See

JONATH-ELEM-RECHOKIM

among David’s thirty

in

I

Ch. 1134

In

S.

2 3 3 2

the name of Jonathan, without a patronymic, is

immediately followed by that

of Shammah the Hararite.

But as ‘Shammah the Hararite’ has already been
enumerated

S.

2311

:

see S

HAMMAH

), there can be

little doubt

(I)

that

in S.

immediately after Jonathan’s

name the word

ought (with L ) to be restored from

Ch.

that

ought (with L.

to

be read for

(Ba. for the common

[A],

Thus in both places ‘Jonathan the

of

Shammah the Hararite’ ought to be read.

Marquart

(Fund.

goes further

in

reading

in place of

Jonathan was the brother

of

Shammah in

S.

everywhere]).

Heh. MSS).

(I

Ch.

He is possibly to he identified with 4.

6.

A scribe, temp. Zedekiah

37

15

38

26,

[B

7. h. Kareah,

a

Judahite captain (Jer.

om. with

some

8. h. Jada, the father of Peleth and

(I

AV

JEHONATHAN,

h.

one of David’s overseers

IO

.

The kinsman

of David,

a

counsellor

2732).

EV

J

EHONATHAN

,

a

Levite, temp. Jehosbaphat

Ch.

17

8).

Father of Ehed

Ezra

Esd.832.

h.

one of Ezra‘s opponents (cp Kosters,

in the putting down of the foreign marriages,

Esd.

h. Joiada and father of Jaddua (see E

ZRA

6

Neh.

1211

See

Two priests, temp. Joiakim (E

ZRA

55

6

:-(15)

Head of the Family of

1214

( o m

EV

JEHONATHAN,

head of the family of

(Neh. 12

18;

om.

17.

Father

of

Zechariah,

a

priest

in the procession at the dedi.

cation of wall (see

E

ZRA

Neh. 1235

(iwavav

18.

The Maccabee, son’of

(I

Macc.

etc

[A

Macc.

11

see

i.,

5.

In

I

Macc.

is surnamed

‘dissimulator.’

Son of Ahsalom, sent

Simon the Maccahee to seize

Macc. 1311);

perhaps the hrotherof the Mattathias

11

70.

20.

The priest

whom the prayer was led when the first

sacrifice was offered

up

after the return from the Exile

Macc

123,

See N

APHTHAR

.

21.

A member

of

the

family who

sat

in judgment

on Peter and John (Acts 46). So D and other ancient authori-

ties (see

and cp Nestle,

205).

Cp Jos.

Ant.

viii. 4 3

5

3,

ii. 12

and see

Most

MSS, how-

ever, have

John ’

(so

RV). See

JOHN,

6.

JONATHAS,

brother of the

Tobit‘s kinsman, whose

son

the archangel Raphael, when in disguise, claims to be

(Tob. 5

13).

UPON

;

Of the congregation of Israel which is like

a

mute

dove [Tg.]

.

pan

hut see

Field] ;

[Theod.]

;

a.

[ed. quintal; ‘pro columha muta, eo quod procul

ahierit David,’ etc.

A phrase in the heading

of

Ps.

56,

still defended

by

but most probably corrupt.

Emending a s in

cases

read : ‘for the Sabbath’ ‘for the

sacrifices.

AV ‘upon Jonatb,’ is probably

a

corruption of

(‘for

the Sabbath

or

more strictly of the inter-

mediate reading

upon

Neginoth’

;

cp Ps.

and

(RV

of

(‘for the

’).

(EV

for the chief

also=

is

no

objection

to

this theory; in the headings,

as

else-

where, dittography comes into play. The

modern

view, however, is that

should be pointed

(so

Bochart),

phrase explained

to

the tune of The dove of distant

tradition (see

Tg.; cp

J

ONAH

3,

the dove

to

he the Jewish people.

in

EZER

8.

3

[Ti. WH]) Mt.

RV

JONAH,

[Ti.],

John.

SIMON

PETER,

JOHN

[SON

O F

See

JONATHAN

and in 7, 8,

12-15,

17

I.

Eldest

son

of Saul, with whom he fell

on

Gilboa

according to tradition, David‘s sworn brother,

I

S.

14

6

and often

S.

1

23

25

4 4

I

Ch.

8

33

9

40

K]

(in

a

genealogy of B

EN

JAMIN

ii.

see

11

There is

a

possibility that

Jonathan and Abinadab, or Jonadab (see J

ONADAB

,

a r e really the same person, Jonathan and Jonadab
being liable

to

confusion (cp Marq.

Fund.

2 5 ) .

Cp,

however, M

ALCHISHUA

.

For

the romantic story

of

Jonathan, see D

AVID

, S

AUL

and

on

S.

123

see

J

ASHER

,

R

OO

K

OF.

b. Gershom

b.

head

of

the priesthood at Dan

(Judg.

[B])

Dan was one of the places (Abel

being the other) proverbially renowned for the retention
of old customs

S.

and

that the priests of

D a n traced their descent from Moses is a fact of great
interest.

For Mosaic priestly families see G

ERSHOM

,

E

LEAZAR

, M

USHI

.

3.

b. Abiathar, mentioned

along

with Ahimaaz b.

Zadok as David’s messenger and spy during his contests
with Absalom

S.

1527

36

H e was the person

who announced to Adonijah and Joab the tidings that
Solomon had been anointed

( I

K.

M T

[A]

in

42).

4.

b. Shimei, the brother

of

David who slew Goliath

S.

21

I

Ch.

H e is apparently the same as

Jonadab

(

I

).

See

b.

Shage, the

is enumerated

‘A

place where an affair happened

never did

The MT inserts an over the name to

that Jonathan

See T.

See also

happen’ (Hasselquist Voyages a n d

was

a

descendant of the idolatrous king

on

see Moore’s note.

view

see S

AUL

.

background image

JOPPA

JOPPA

difficult.

refers to Lev.

where ‘the name of thy God’

becomes in

a

Neuhauer, more plausibly,

thinks that

read

‘porch’: cp

Ch.158, ‘the porch of

Yahwb.’ More probably

read

‘people,’ and took it for

a n explanation of

Cp, however, Staerk,

136

T.

C.

JOPPA

or

[BAL;

Ti.

W H ; Jos.

Egypt.

[Maspero],

[WMM]

Am. Tab.

Ya-a-pu,

Ya-pu;

Ass.

The name and site of Joppa havenever changed.

T h e biblical passages are :

Josh.

19

46

Ch. 2

16

Jon.

1 3

;

Ezra

3

7

;

AV,

I

Esd.

5 5 5 ;

I

Macc.

10

V

75

and

in

1 1 6

1233 13

14

j

34

15

28

35

Macc.

AI 12

3 7

A,

V

3,

7,

‘men

of

Joppa

Acts

9

36

38

10

5

8

5

is

no

reference to Joppa in any early biblical

writing;

cp

178

that

a n Egyptian officer guarded ‘ t h e gate
of Gaza and the gate of Joppa’ for
Amen-hotep IV.

T h e place occurs

in the list of cities in Syria and Palestine conquered by
Thotmes

547, no.

and in the papyrus

Anastasi

I.,

where its gardens with their blooming

palms are specially mentioned.

T h e ruse, exactly like

that

of

Ali Baba in the Thousand and

One

Nights, by

which an Egyptian officer was said to have taken
Joppa, forms the theme of a n Egyptian

It

is

no sport of the fancy, however, when Sennacherib

tells

us

that he besieged and took Joppa, then a part of

the dominion of Ashkelon

T h e notice

is

im-

portant.

I t

the only hint we have of the political

connection of Joppa during any part of the pre-exilic
period of the history of Israel.

W e may assume that

throughout that period it was either Philistine

or

T h e circumstance that Joppa is nowhere

mentioned in the pre-exilic biblical writings where the

Philistines are referred to seems to justify

us

in suppos-

ing that during the flourishing period of the Phcenician
cities its political connection was Phcenician, not

That it. was ever in Israelitish hands,

is

not

suggested even by

P

(Josh.

it was Jonathan, or

rather Simon the

who first incorporated Joppa

into the Jewish territory.

In

the meantime, however,

had the Israelites no access to the

sea

by Joppa?

Did

not Jonah,

son

of Amittai, go down t o Joppa and find

a

ship going to Tarshish (Jon.

T h e reason why

pre-exilic Israelites did not ‘ g o

to Joppa (cp

JONAH,

B

OO

K

O F )

is that there was Philistine territory

t o be traversed before getting to Joppa.

I n post-exilic

times, however, we

do hear of timber being brought to

Jerusalem from the Lebanon by ships which discharged
their cargo a t Joppa (Ezra

and accordingly the

Chronicler

Ch.

changes the indefinite ex-

pression

(

I

K.

to the place that thou shalt

appoint me,’ into ‘ t o

W h a t the place re-

ferred to indefinitely by the older writer was,

is

certain

it may have been D

OR

In

148

B.C.

Joppa was captured by Jonathan the

Maccabee

(I

Macc.

1076).

T o keep a coast-town like

this, however, was difficult, owing to the
mixed character of the population, and
Jonathan’s brother Simon had to recapture

it about six years later

I t was felt to be an

important event,

for

never before had the Jews possessed

a

harbour

on

the Great Sea.

‘And together with

all his (other)

the historian

(I

Macc.

‘ h e took Joppa for a haven, and made it a n entrance

for

the isles of the

he opened the door for

commerce, and perhaps (as

A.

Smith thinks

5

) for

Chabas, Voyage

; Brugsch, Gesch.

.

.

.

Maspero

de

ancienne,

So

Buddb

336

n.

So

RV,

Ezra and

Kau.

AV, less

correctly, renders ‘to the sea

of

Joppa.

the propagation

of

the Jewish religion.

Simon himself

took a pride in his achievement, for be caused

to

be represented

on

the family monument a t

For other references to Joppa, see Macc.

12

I

Macc.

13

after capturing Jerusalem

(63

B

.c.), refortified

Jpppa, and annexed it to the province of Syria (Jos. Ant.

44).

Sixteen years later it

was

restored

to

Hyrcanus

xiv.

106)

next, it

was

united to the kingdom of Herod the

Great

xv.

upon

whose death

it

passed to Archelaus

xvii.

11 4).

On

the deposition

of

Archelaus

(6

A

.D.)

it was

annexed, with the rest of Palestine, to the Roman province of

Syria.

Joppa is mentioned several times in the Acts

of

the

Apostles

see

see

C

ORNELIUS

).

N o better place could be imagined for

the vision assigned by the historian, rightly

or wrongly,

to

Peter, which showed that Jews and Gentiles alike

were admissible into the fold of Christ.

T h e city,

now fanatically Jewish, suffered terribly during the
Roman war.

I t was surprised by Cestius

massacred

8400 of its inhabitants

(BY

18

IO

).

Some-

what later, it was repaired by enemies of the Romans,
and became a nest of pirates.

Vespasian quickly took

action, and captured and destroyed the city.

T h e

people had fled to their ships, but a black north wind

cp W

I N D

)

arose,

and the ships were

dashed to pieces on the rocks

9

2-4).

In the fourth century it

the seat of

a

bishopric. During the Crusades it was

taken and retaken by Franks and Saracens and fell into

a

state

of ruin. According to Badeker

8)

the construction

of the stone quay dates from the end of the seventeenth century.

That may he; but Hasselquist, in

found that it had lately

been

by an Armenian from Constantinople, who

also

‘erected some stone houses and magazines on the shore.

These, he adds,

give the place an appearance from the seaside,

much preferable to the miserable prospect it formerly afforded.’

In

it was taken

the French under Kleber.

It had

already been surrounded by

Fortifications were erected

by the English and afterwards extended

the Turks. Under

the name of

(Jaffa) it is now an important town, partly

from its trade, but still more from the large number

of

pilgrims

passing through every year to Jerusalem; the population is

estimated

at

over

Joppa is built

on

a rocky eminence

116

feet high,

and its name probably means

the conspicuous‘ (cp

J

APHIA

)

on

such

a

level beach the

smallest eminence is noticeable.

It is

only with qualifications that Jaffa can be

called a seaport. Josephus

93) remarks that by

nature Joppa is harbourless, for it ends in a rough
beach, straight for the most part, but the two extremities
nearly converge, and here there

are

steep crags and

rocks that jut out into the sea.’ In fact, the harbour is
formed by a ridge of low and partly sunken rocks which
run out a t a sharp angle towards the N W . from the

S.

end of the town.

Boats can enter it either by rounding

the point or by a narrow break in the ledge, and even
this by

no

means pleasurable entrance is often impos-

sible, ‘ t h e haven being (with some winds) more
dangerous than the open sea.’

So

Josephus

states, adding that

on the rocks of which he has spoken

the chains wherewith Andromeda was bound are still

shown, attesting the antiquity of that

Pliny

also states that ‘ i n front

of the city lies a rock upon

which they point out the vestiges

of the chains by

which Andromeda was bound

5

14)

the skeleton

of

some marine monster was also shown (see

J

ONAH

4).

Certainly it is probable that

the dangerous character of the haven of Joppa
was accounted for in olden times by the presence
of a dragon,

just as a tawny fountain near Joppa was

thought to derive its

from the blood of the monster

slain by

T h e sea seemed more alive near

Joppa than elsewhere (cp Jos.

BY

and the living

power

in

certain waters was frequently held to be de-

rived from serpents

or dragons.

Some may have said

Later Joppa rose

from

its

is not equally plausi

background image

JORAH

JORDAN

mediately opposite Tell

are meant.

In adopt-

ing the expression once, and once only, the Chronicler

( I

Ch.

6

63

is conscious that it needs a paraphrase

he therefore adds on the E. of Jordan.’

Another expression which may now become plainer

EV the plain (lit. circle) of Jordan,’ Gen.

13

(see

L

OT

),

I

K.

46

(see A

DAM

, Z

ARETHAN

),

2

Ch.

417,

or

simply

EV

the plain’ (Gen.

19

17

Dt.

3 4 3

to which corresponds

the phrase

in the

LXX

and in

35

Lk.

33.

T h e Hebrew phrase means, according t o

Buhl

(Pal.

the middle and broader part of the

Jordan valley from the

S.

end of the Dead Sea to about

the

‘Ajliin (see G

ILEAD

). This view is based

on

a comparison of Dt.

343

the circle, even the Plain

of Jericho [the city of palm-trees], a s far as

with

2

I

K.

In

Dt.

343,

however, the phrase

the Circle

c p

P

LAIN

,

4)

certainly appears t o

have a narrower reference, and the words

in

S.

and

in

I

K.

are with good reason

suspected of corruption (see M

AHANAIM

,

T

EBAH

).

T h e primary meaning of the phrase ‘ t h e Circle of
Jordan was probably the district between Jericho and

Z

O

A

R

This suits not only Dt.

3 4 3

but also

Mt.

35,

where the phrase ‘ a l l the region round about

Jordan

seems t o

the

country near Jericho and the Jordan.’

3.

In Job

40

23

Jordan has been thought to be used

a s a n appellative.

Most critics

Dillmann,

son,

Duhm) render, ‘ H e is careless though a Jordan

break forth upon his mouth,’ explaining a Jordan

t o

mean

aviolent outbreak of water.’ Considering that the

context points to the Nile, this is hard doctrine, and if

‘Jordan’ were used a s a n appellative, it should mean

ford.’ Hence Ley and Budde propose to omit

a s

a

gloss, and Winckler emends it into

(but

whence comes

Certainly the Nile, not the

Jordan, is to he expected, and perhaps we should read
thus,

’ h e is careless though G

IHON

the Nile,

the Euphrates) overflow

for

v.

24

see

Bib.).

4.

I n

Ps.

426

( 7 )

‘from the land

of

Jordan and the

Hermonites is commonly thought to mean the

bourhood of Dan (Tell

or

where the Jordan rises from the roots

of

Hermon’ (Kirkpatrick). This view of the text places

6 (7)

in a very pleasing light, and adds a fresh and

interesting association to the picturesque scenery of the

Upper J o r d a n ; but it

i s

of very doubtful accuracy.

See

M

IZAR

.

5.

On Jer.

‘ t h e swelling’

(AV

Ew.)

or

pride

(RV)

of Jordan,’ see

6

and cp

F

OREST

, 3

6.

Josh.

Whether the passage of the Jordan

was represented in the earlier form of the tradition

as

having occurred opposite Jericho,

or at a point farther

such a s the ford

16

m. above the ford

near Jericho), need not

again (see

4,

I).

T h e latter view fits in better with the story of

Jacob’s miqration a s it now stands (Gen.

and

with the direction given to Moses in Dt.

(see

G

ERIZIM

,

I

Still, whichever theory we adopt,

it remains true that,

if

the

passage of the

Israelites occurred

a t harvest-time,’ it must have

synchronised with the overflow of the Jordan.

T h e

circumstance that this river overflows the narrow strip
of vegetation

on each side of its channel at harvest time

at the latter end of March, cp

I

Ch.

1215,

Ecclus.

is recalled

to

the mind

of the reader that he

duly estimate the marvel which tradition has

7.

Passing over the references in the lives-of G

IDEON

,

D

AVID

(cp F

ORD

), E

LIJAH

, and

we pause a t

See Keim,

1

494

(ET 2

In

Lk.

3

however a wider reference

possible.

On

h e legendary character of

the

narrative

cp

2

that the dragon was actually slain, others that he was
merely confined below the sea (cp D

RAGON

,

4).

Jaffa is beautiful when viewed from the sea, beautiful

also in its surroundings.

T h e orange gardens are

modern

but fruit has always been grown in abundance

on this rich soil.

the Jaffa fruit has a high reputa-

tion, and, a s

and viticulture spread, other

parts of

SW.

Palestine will vie with Jaffa.

Antiquities

are wanting.

Dean Stanley’s defence

of the supposed

house

of

the Tanner

(Sinai and

is

JORAH

harvest-born,’ cp

early

autumn) r a i n ’ ; but see below;

[A],

[L]), a family in the great post-exilic list (see

E

ZRA

9,

Sc),

I

Esd. 516 (A

ZEPHURITH

,

RV

A

RSIPHURITH

).

Harvest-born (cp

autumn

’)

for Jorah and Hariph

is

certainly wrong. The forms

are

parallel

to

Haroeh and Hareph

Ch.

of which (like

R

EAIAH

and possibly

HOREPH

)

come from

In

of

I

Esd.

5

16

(see

and

probably=

Hurith

a

to Hariph. See,

Gnthe (on

Neh.)

E.

Meyer,

a t least eloquent and chivalrous.

T. K.

C.

T.

C.

JORAI

a

I

Ch.

,

other corruptions of tribal names.

JORAM

shortened from

Pinches and Hommel, however, compare Ai-rammu,

an Edomite royal name read by Schrader and Bezold

Ai

being viewed by

them a s

Y a ;

cp Del.

Par.

It is a

whether all these three names have not arisen out

of

Jerahme‘el).

See J

ORAH

.

I

.

Son of Ahab see

J

EHORAM

,

I

.

Son

of Jehoshaphat see

J

EHORAM

,

3.

A

Levite,

I

Ch.

2625

[BAL]).

4.

A

reading in

S.

8

see

5.

One of the ‘captains

of

in

[BA]

corresponding to

5), ‘chief of

the

in

Ch. 359.

T. K.

C.

JORDAN

also

-avos],

the chief river

of

Palestine.

T h e name was felt by the Hebrews to be a n appella-

tive; hence in prose it almost always has the article.

I t is most probably of Semitic origin (though
Wi. dissents), and may be connected with

Syr.

a lake,’

warada

to go down t o water‘

(of cattle),

watering-place

and hence we

may explain

a s watering-place,’ ford.

was

a

river in Crete (Hom.

Od.

See further

Ew.

1

267;

Wi.

A T

186,

422.

Of

the

two

traditional explanations, one-that

from

‘ t o descend’ (cp

169

81

203 98)-has found

much acceptance, but we should expect rather the ‘swift’ or

‘sinuous’ stream to he the title of the Jordan. The other, from

and

a s if

meant either ‘river of Dan’

or

the

river which has two sources, Jor and Dan’

Mt.

16

13;

c p

D

AN

ii.

needs no refutation, though it is perhaps

implied

by

B y

a coincidence the current Arabic

name of the Jordan

means the wateringplace,’ or

‘the

from which the Jordan is sometimes

distinguished by the addition of

great is the

see

6).

The name

also

known

ZDPV,

‘92,

p.

the Jordan of Jericho

(See maps to G

ILEAD

and

E

PHRAIM

.)

I

.

W e now understand how

P

can use the expression

(Nu.

22 26

3

34

.

Josh.

1332,

etc.), apparently with

a

reminiscence of its original use a s a n

appellative

(

ford

’).

Probably the famous fords

Since the above was written, the author bas found that this

explanation was first proposed by Seyhold,

’96,

p.

261.

AV

‘Jordan by (also, near) Jericho

RV

‘the Jordan

at

(cp

(opposite).

in

h

recognises

chat the genitive

is added to indicate

a

particular part of

the Jordan.

Dillmann paraphrases, that part

of

the Jordan

which touches the domain of Jericho.

2575

background image

JORDAN

JORDAN

stream from it called

flows

through a narrow

glen

into the plain

falls into the main

stream about a

mile

S. of

the junction

the

and

The relative

size of

the three streams

thus estimates--‘ That

is twice as large as the

while

the

. .

.

twice

if

not

three times the

from

3395).

T h e river then flows southward through the marshy

plain for 6

and then into Lake Hiileh.

Besides the streams mentioned a considerable stream

comes

down

from the

of

Ijon W. of the

and

two

large

fountains (called

burst

forth from the base

of

the mountain-chain

of

Naphtali.

the ancient

which Josephus

to

the source

of

the

is

at

the bottom

of

a

deep basin

resembling

an

extinct crater. According

to

local tradition it

occupies the site

of

a

village which

was

submerged

to

the inhabitants

for

their inhospitality

to

travellers cp

AND

G

OMORRAH

).

With regard

to

the morass

Lake

it is enough

to refer to

J. Macgregor’s entertaining

narrative,

Roy

on

That the Lake is

not the

(Josh.

5

7)

as used

to

he supposed may he taken

as

almost certain (see

cp

M

EROM

,

W

ATERS

O

F

).

(6)

On

issuing from Lake

the river flows in

a

moderate current for about

m.

O n passing through

(‘bridge of Jacob’s

daughters,’ see

7), however, the banks

suddenly contract and become steep.

T h e

river now dashes along over

a rocky bed in sheets of foam.

Here a n d there the retreating banks have

a little green

meadow, with its fringe of oleanders

(a

characteristic

plant)

all

wet a n d glistening with spray.

Thus i t

rushes

on, in its serpentine course, till, breaking from

its rocky barriers, it enters the rich plain of
where

on

the left bank stand the ruins of Bethsaida

T h e river now expands, averaging some

yards in width.

Across its channel here a n d there

extend bars of sand, a t which it is easily forded.

At

length the turbid stream reaches the still bosom of t h e
Sea of Galilee, where, for

a

considerable distance, it

is still visible.

This gave rise to the Jewish legend

4)

that its waters a n d those of the lake d o

not intermingle.

T h e fall of the river between Jisr

a n d the lake ( a distance

of

only

7

m.)

is not less than 689 feet.

T h e total length of t h e

section between the

lakes is about

m.

as

t h e

crow flies.

T h e Jordan between the Sea of Galilee a n d t h e

Dead Sea flows through

a deep depression

(65

long)

called in Arabic the

‘bottom,

depth, cavity, valley

the

of the Hebrew Bible a n d the

of

Greek writers

Sic.

48

T h e

is

3

m. wide a t its northern end, but gradually expands
till it attains

a

width of upwards

of

m. a t Jericho.

Down this broad valley the Jordan has worked out for
itself

a

about

ft. deeper a t the northern end,

a n d

zoo

ft. towards the Dead Sea this bed varies from

a

quarter of

a

mile t o two miles in breadth, a n d is known

as

the

Along its banks is that jungle

semi-

tropical trees known in the O T

as

the

Pride of Jordan.’

T h e

itself is to

a

large extent

of exuberant

fertility.

On

the

E. side, N. of the

(see

where

streams abound, the productivity is great, and the traces

of

ancient canals

of that

river show that

the

land

was

in ancient

times well cultivated. And why should

not

the

desert once

more ‘blossom as

the

rose’? A number of the affluents of

the

would lend themselves admirably

to

the purposes of

It is only

the southern end

of the

for

a

few

miles N.

of

the Dead Sea, that the soil is really sterile,

being covered with a white nitrous

like hoar frost, through

which

not a

blade of grass

possibly spring.

T h e Jordan issues from the Sea

of Galilee, close t o

the hills

on

the western side of the plain, sweeping

round the little peninsula.

T h e fall of the river is a t

first 40 ft. per

m.

but

on entering the plain

of,

it becomes only

IO

or

ft. per m. a n d farther

S.

only 4

or

5

ft.

A short distance down are the remains

The Jordan

runs in too deep a

But

cp

The

The statementis onite groundless.

See GASm.

channel

to

be easily useful

for

irrigation.

the deeply interesting scene

of the baptisms of John in

Jordan.

I t was to the reed-covered banks

of this river

that the one religious teacher of his time whom none,

as

Jesus implies (Mt.

Could compare t o

a

reed,

summoned his penitents.

To a

modern observer,

indeed, the scenery of the Jordan near Jericho seems
the most appropriate that could have been chosen for
those solemn events.

At the same time we must

not

he

too

sure that Jesus’

baptism occurred there. That John baptized

at

the great ford

near

Jericho, is likely enough. But

that

he also baptized

Beth-nimrah (the probable original of the readings Bethany

and

Bethahara’ in

128

;

see

and

‘at

near

(Jn. 3

23,

see

are

facts

by

n o

means difficult

to accept, considering that the

new

Elijah

must

have travelled

about like the old. And we may

suppose that the

scene of Jesus’

was

in some district more convenient

than that of Jericho

for

pilgrims.

Without such inquiries a s these,

a

critical geography

of Palestine

is

impossible but the historical interest

of

the Jordan (in spite of t h e want of great events in

political history connected with it) is not seriously
affected b y them.

T o

us,

as

well

as

to

the

Jordan is far more than Abana a n d Pharpar, rivers of
Damascus,’ m o r e even than the great river, the river

T h e physical interest of the Jordan is hardly inferior

to

the historical.

I t has been well said, ‘ T h e r e may

b e something

on the surface of another

planet t o match the Jordan Valley

:

there

is

this.

No

other part of

our

earth, uncovered

water, sinks to

300 ft. below the

level of the ocean.

But here we have

a

rift more than

160

m. long, a n d from

to

broad, which falls

from the sea-level t o

as

deep a s

ft. below it a t the

coast of the Dead

Sea,

while the bottom of the latter

is

feet deeper still.’

I t was supposed by Burckhardt

that the waters of the Jordan originally flowed down
the whole course

of the depression from the Lebanon

to the Gulf

of

This view, however, has been

rejected by Lartet a n d disproved by Prof. Hull (see

I

am disposed

to

think says this eminent geologist, ‘that

the fracture

of

the

valley and

the elevation

of

the

tableland of

and Moab on the

E.

were

all the

outcome

of

simultaneous operations and due

to

causes namely

the

tangential pressure

of

the earth’s crust due

to

the

being in its

turn

due

to

the secular cooling of the

crust.

the land area was gradually rising out of the sea

the close

of

the

period], the table-lands

of

and Arabia were

more

and

more

elevated, while the crust fell in

along

t h e

western

side

of

the Jordan-Arabah fault

;

and this

seems

to have been accompanied by much crumpling and

fissuring of the

From this time the

of the Dead

Sea must have been a salt lake, the level

however

must

have varied greatly

at

different times.

evidence

of

this we

find a succession

of

terraces

of

Dead Sea deposits extending

around the basin

of

the sea and far up the Jordan

The

present level

of

the waters of the Dead Sea having been reached

at

the close

of

the Miocene

or

the commencement of

the

Pliocene

period,

no

material change can have occurred in the course

of

the Jordan

historical times.

T h e

of

the

mav b e

divided

Euphrates.‘

T.

K.

C.

Cp D

EAD

S

E

A

,

into three parts:

the Upper Jordan from the

to Lake

( b ) from Lake

Hiileh to the Sea of Galilee and

(c) from

Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea.

T h e reputed sources of great rivers in antiquity

were often not the real ones.

Though supposed to take

its rise a t

(see

D

AN

)

a n d

(see

7),

the highest perennial source of the

Jordan is in the bottom

of a valley a t the

W.

base

of

Hermon.

a short distance from the

small town of

a n d

m.

N.

of

The

in

a pool at the foot of

a

the

GASm.

468.

Geology

Syria

The source

at

Dan is mentibned

( A d .

v.3

8 4 )

as

being that of the Little Jordan,

For

the source

of the Jordan at

cp Jos.

xv

21

3,

10 7 .

background image

JORDAN

JOSABAD

'Ford of Jacob'

Will. Tyr. Hist.

1813)

is

mentioned. The bridge was probably built during the fifteenth

century, when the caravan road was constructed from Damascus

to Egypt. At

el-Hajjla, opposite the Roman Jericho,

the annual bathing of the pilgrims takes place (see

and cp Stanley,

Sin. and

There are

two fords, one above and one below the bathing-place.

1

bey

are much deeper than those higher up, and when

river is

swollen they become

On the bridges, see

T h e Jordan valley is a tropical oasis

sunk

in the

I t is possible to pass in the depth of

winter from sleet and cold winds at
Jerusalem to a delightful summer atmo-

sphere

Fahrenheit) at Jericho.

In summer the

heat is equatorial.

T h e climate of the shores of the Sea

of Galilee, though enervating, is less trying Josephus's
panegyric of the natural products of Gennesaret is well
known (see G

ALILEE

4,

end).

Josephus, however, does not mention the graceful papyrus

which flourishes, not only in

marshes of

the

but

also on

the W. shore of the

Galilee. Here

too

the

or

tree

spina

a

tropical tree, which abounds all along the lower course of the

Jordan. Below the

Sea

of Galilee indigo is grown, and

trees unknown elsewhere in Palestine crowd the river-banks.

In the five oases of the Dead Sea region many products of the

tropic zone including the

or false balm of Gilead

(Balanites

gorgeous scarlet

the

henna (see C

AMPHIRE

), and the

abound.

Balsam (see B

ALSAM

,

has long since disappeared

in

the crusading age sugar was still grown

at

Jericho. On

'rose of Jericho'

see Tristram,

477. The

plane does not grow any longer

at

Jericho, hut

is

found at

Masada.

T o boat voyagers the jungle

of

the Jordan affords a

delightful spectacle of luxuriant vegetation (see

F

OREST

,

and cp Lynch,

varied not seldom

by tokens of the presence

of wild animals.

'At one place says Lynch we saw

fresh track

of a

tiger

on the low

margin

Jordan) where he had come to

drink. At another time

a

wild boar

savage grunt

and dashed into the thicket but for some moments we traced

his pathway by

shaking cane and the crashing sound

of

breaking branches.

Evidently however, it

was a

cheetah, not

a

tiger, that the voyager observed. The jackal, fox,

boar,

leopard, and cheetah (the two latter both

called

see L

EOPARD

) may in fact easily be met with in the

Jordan Valley.

How wonderful, too, is the bird-life of the Jordan

Valley!

often notices there Indian, and still

oftener Ethiopian species.

T h e butterflies, too, which

hover over the flowers in winter are, like the flowers
themselves, many of them of

and Abyssinian

types.

W h a t a garden all this favoured land must have

been not merely in the time of Jesus but in the more
remote age when the Yahwist

(J)

wrote the eulogistic

temperate zone.

of

a Roman bridge, whose fallen arches obstruct the

stream, and make it dash through in sheets of foam.

Below this, says Molyneux, who surveyed the Jordan in

a boat in

1847,

are several weirs, constructed of rough

stones, and intended to raise the water, and turn it into

canals,

so

as

to irrigate the neighbouring plain.

Five

miles from the lake the Jordan receives its largest
tributary, the

(the

of

Pliny, the

of

the Talmud), which drains a

large section of

and Gilead. This stream is

1 3 0

ft. wide at its mouth.

Two miles farther is the

quaint structure (Saracenic, according to Porter) of the

'bridge of

Here Molyneux found the river

upwards of

ft. broad and

4

to

6

ft. deep.

As

described by Porter, the ravine now inclines east-

ward

to the centre

of the plain, and its banks contract.

Its

sides are bare and white, and the chalky strata

a r e deeply furrowed. T h e margin of the river has still
its beautiful fringe of foliage, and the little islets which
occur here and there are covered with shrubbery.

Fifteen miles

of the bridge the Wady

(see

J

ABESH

-G

ILEAD

) falls in from the

E.

A short distance

above it a barren sandy island divides the channel, and
with its bars

on

each side forms a ford on the western

bank, in a well-watered neighbourhood, the site

of

has been placed.

9

m. lower down, and about half-way between

the lakes, the J

ABBOK

the only otherconsiderable

tributary, falls into the Jordan, coming down through a
deep wild glen in the mountains

of

Gilea

After this

the jungle of cane, willow, and tamarisk along the
banks grows denser, and the plain above more dreary
and desolate.

As the river approaches the Dead Sea, the mountain

ranges

on each side rise to a greater height, and become

more rugged and desolate. T h e glen winds like a serpent
through the centre, between two tiers of banks.

T h e

bottom is smooth, and sprinkled on the outside with
stunted shrubs.

T h e river winds in endless coils along

the bottom, now touching one side and now another,
with its beautiful border of green foliage, looking all
the greener from contrast with the desert above. T h e
banks are of soft clay, in places

IO

ft. high the stream

varies from 80 t o

ft. in breadth, and from

to

in depth.

Near its month the current becomes more

sluggish and the stream expands.

Where the

falls in,

in

1848

found the river

150

ft. wide and

deep, the current four knots.'

Farther

down the banks are low and sedgy the width gradually
increases to 180 yards at its mouth: but the depth is
only

3

ft.

Lynch adds that the extraordinary fall in

the Jordan is accounted for by its tortuous course.

I n

a space of

60 m. of latitude, and

4

or

5

m. of longitude,

the Jordan traverses a t least

zoo

m.

.

.

.

W e have

plunged down twenty-seven threatening rapids, besides

a

manv of lesser

The four main affluents are the

and

Jabbok

on

the E., and on

W.

the

passing

and the

rising not far from Shechem.

supply of

these and other perennial streams, however,

and

fords.

scarcely balances t h e

loss

from evaporation

of

the river. It

is

difficult to compute the total

number

of

the fords.

According to

PEFM

2

225 385 3

there are

50

fords in the

42 m.

of stream above

and

only

5

in the

25

m. below. Some of them have been historically

important

near

(according to Conder, the

of

on

the road from Shechem to

Gilead, and

ford of

(see below). The bridge called

J i s r

may

also

b e mentioned (see

5)

it was long

the leading pass from Western Palestine to

It is

first referred to

in

but

as

early

as

the Crusades

a

'Its name is derived from the Bedawin tribe called

being the Arabic word for ford or

place,

graze their flocks in its valley and cultivate its

slopes (Schumacher,

Across

8).

Lieutenant Lynch made an adventurous boat-voyage

in

1848

to

survey the Jordan from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea.

Robinson,

;

GASm.

427

origin

of

the name is unknown (but see

Pal.

Not

far

off

is a khan now named after the pit of Joseph.

2579

.

in Gen.

13

IO

!

See

Palestine,

'

Flora and

Fauna' (Tristram

'89)

Molyneux

and

Reports

('47)

;

Lyhch,

E x edition

('49):

J., Macgregor,

Roy on

Neuhauer,

Warren in Hastings'

works of Robinson,

Porter, Tristram, G. A. Smith.

T. K. C.

JORIBAS

[BA]),

I

Esd.

816

2.

RV

has

Joribus

(so

EV

in

I

Esd.

JARIB,

3).

JORIM

[Ti. W H ] ) , a name in the genealogy

of Jesus, Lk.

329.

See G

ENEALOGIES

JORKOAM,

or rather, as in

RV,

J

ORKEAM

grandson of

one

of

the

sons

of Hebron

(I

Ch.

in

6

M T

see

3).

T h e

[L] suggest that this

the same name

as

that which M T of Josh.

(cp

gives

as

There is no satisfactory explanation of Jorkeam

(

pallor populi,' Ges.

may serve a s a warning to

etymologists) and the name is most probably a cor-
ruption

of

(see J

E R A H M E E L

, §

4).

JOSABAD.

I

.

I

Ch.

AV.

See

I

Esd. 863

3.

I

Esd.

[A]).

of

T. K. C .

BAD,

I .

See

6.

See

I

.

2580

background image

JOSAPHAT

JOSAPHAT

Mt.

RV

J

EHOSHAPHAT

JOSAPHIAS

(

I

I

Esd. 8 36

8

IO

,

J

OSIPHIAH

.

JOSE (

Lk.

AV,

RV J

ESUS

,

8.

See G

ENEALOGIES

JOSECH

RV, thereading

to he preferred to AV.

See

JOSEPH

[TRIBE]

to abstain from making any use of the Meyer-Groff
hypothesis.

T h e next question is, T o what sections

of the com-

munity was the name Joseph applied, and when? That

it included Ephraim and Manasseh

is

P

tells

us

that the children of

Joseph were two tribes

Manasseh and Ephraim

(Josh.

and

a

gloss (see below) says the same in

1717.

That this was not merely

a late notion is shown

by its being assumed in the genealogies of J and

E.

T h e case

of

Benjamin is more ambiguous.

excludes

Benjamin formally : the children of Benjamin settled
between the children of Judah and the children

of

Joseph (Josh.

with which agrees the southern

border assigned to the ‘sons of Joseph

(16

which

is repeated (with modifications) as the northern border
of Benjamin

P).

T h a t Benjamin was some-

times, however, definitely included in Joseph there can
be no doubt (see B

EN

J

AMIN

,

I

) ; and that some

of

the ambiguous cases also may have been meant to
include it is possible.

In Josh

we should probably (Kue

read not ‘sons

of

Joseph” (MT) but, with

‘Joseph’

the hero himself.

In Josh. 17

14-18

‘house of Joseph’ (read

so

also in

v.

with Di.) is not improbably correctly interpreted

the interpolated gloss in

17

(om.

of Ephraim and

Manasseh. On the other hand. in

there can be

clear.

.

LOGIES

ii.,

3f.

JOSEDECH

Hag.

1

I

(etc.)

AV, RV

Josedec

(

I

55

( = E z r a

3

AV ; RV J

OSEDEK

.

See J

EHOZADAK

.

JOSEPH [TRIBE]

on name see next article,

one of the constituent parts of Israel in its wide sense.

If Joseph was really called

a tribe

(Nu.

P

he

consider-

ably from the rest of the tribes.

H e

ranked not only with Gad and Zebulun, but

also

with

Jacob

and the other ancestral heroes of Israel ; indeed

h e even stands apart from them.

As a

legendary hero,

mainly, he is considered in the next article.

Here

Joseph is dealt with

as

a

community.

With regard t o the name something must be said

on

the theory

of

a

connection with the place-name

no.

78

in Thotmes

list.

T h e question is, Can the interpretation

of this as

a

transcription of

first

brought prominently for-

ward by Edward Meyer in

1886

( Z A T W

; cp

841

.and by Groff

(Rev.

4

98

be

regarded

as

made out?

T h a t

may be

is

admitted

:

it is a regular and recurrent equation

no.

The difficulty,

as

Meyer

admitted, is in

no.

38

;

The Semitic name would therefore be

than

Noldeke, accordingly, has suggested ( Z A

8

45

n.

3

that the Hebrew name to be compared is rather

I

Ch.

8

16)

which occurs in

a

genealogy of

There has been a temptation

to

save the original

hypothesis by adopting some conjectural explanation
implying differences of pronunciation.6

Max Muller6 thinks it certain that the

list embodies

names which the scribe had before him in cuneiform, and

suggests that although he accommodated his transcription

to

Canaanite pronunciation where the word

or

its etymology was

known to him, elsewhere he wrote for

and

following

(probably)

a

northern (Mesopotamian) usage. The name we are

considering might,

on

this theory, have been written in the

source employed approximately

Notwithstanding the prevailing tendency in the

con-

trary direction it seems for the present more prudent

The late passage where the word tribe is applied to Joseph

is

evidently out of order. There can be little doubt that the

clue is to be found in the name Joseph in

7.

Igal, son of

Joseph’

should be ‘Iga

. .

.

Of the sons of

Joseph

. . .

cp the suggestions of Di.

perhaps represents a MS which gave the tribes in the

Zehulun, Issachar,

E

hraim and Manasseh,

; whilst

v.

represents

a

that gave them in

the order Issachar, Zehulun,

Manasseh, Ephraim.

I t

is

not unlikely therefore that tribe of Joseph ought to

sons of Joseph.’ In

27

however, Joseph and Levi are

two of twelve tribes.

Egyptian usually represents

See later.

3

See also de

Schmidt,

2

535

rejects without discussion any connection with

the patriarch Joseph.

On the view of Petrie who adheres to

see next article

I

.

Such as that a t the

of Thotmes

the name

nounced with

and that the of the Hebrew

is

to

a

later peculiarity of Ephraimite pronunciation aided perhaps
the explanation from

(see next article,

I

).

See, how.

ever, S

HIBBOLETH

.

397

Driver for example, passes over the phonetic difficulty

2

2581

little doubt that ‘house of

as it

certainly does

S.

19

;

and here perhaps would belong

the

Blessing of Jacob’ if we should adopt the restoration

of

Gen.

49

proposed by Cheyne

21

242

:-

Ephraim is an ornament for Joseph,

in

26

Joseph seems to be less than

probably,

Manasseh

a

bracelet for Israel

N .

Israel.

It was natural, however, that Joseph should give its

name to the whole of the

N.

kingdom, as England often

does to Great Britain : in Amos

5

6

house

of

Joseph

is the

N.

kingdom, and

so

in

66

‘Joseph.‘ Perhaps

I

K.

11

28

is similar.

In

Josh.

1 8 5

‘house of

Joseph’

and

Judah’ seem between

them to represent the whole of western Palestine. Similarly,

in Oh.

‘house of

is

parallel

‘house of Jacob,’

and in Zech.

to house of Judah

;

compare

Ps.

where

e.,

Israel. In the other passages

the Psalms the text has

Amos

515

(on

the late date of which see

Nowack,

ad

reminds one of the still later idea of a Messiah

Joseph alongside of the Messiah ben David (see

IO

,

end, and

there).

There is clearly a tendency to apply the name Joseph

to the whole

of

the northern kingdom.

Winckler goes

further.

H e holds

(GZ

2

67-77)

that Joseph is not really

a tribal name a t all, in which capacity Joseph is repre-
sented by his son Ephraim.

Joseph is a genealogical

creation,

a

personification of the northern kingdom, and

therefore older than

Israel,’ the personification of

David’s kingdom of the twelve tribes’

(p.

Remnant of Joseph

This

is

probably now the attitude of Meyer himself

8 45

n.

3

cp also

W.

E.

Crum

Hastings D B

who

approval Noldeke’s remark

there

i s

further difficulty in the

fact that

would be pro-

nounced

for

WMM, however, cites against

this (in

a

private letter) the Canaanitish gloss

in the

Amarna letters. H e winds up his recent discussion of the

saying that the equation

not proved, but ‘probable.’ H e now says ‘possibl’e,’

ing as better Winckler’s identification with the old Canaanite

name

(see next art.,

I

),

which Winckler writes

with

6

(Wi.

268

n.

3).

‘Three times in

Psalms (post-exilic) we apparently find

as

a

designation of the entire people

of

Israel, side

side with Jacob

or

Israel. It is highly probable, however, that

all these passages

77

80

I

81

4

are

corrupt. Beyond the shadow of

a

doubt this is the case with

Ps.

4

where MT gives the resolved form

None

of

examples of such forms adduced by the grammarians will

hear examination (Che.

In Ps.

is preceded

a warning Pasek; most probably

the

right reading is

(Cheyne, MS note).

Like Jacob, Joseph has also amythological significance.

A s

hero of Shechem he is the Baal-berith of the northern confedera-

tion, and represents the sun-god to whom the moon and the

2582

background image

JOSEPH [in

JOSEPH [in

OT]

ever that may be, there is certainly

a tendency t o equate

Joseph and the Ephraimite kingdom.

T h e case of

Benjamin, however, requires special study

B

EN

-

JAMIN,

Whatever may be the real facts

of the earlier history of that

it appears that in later

times it seemed unnatural to regard it

as

forming part of

the same whole as Ephraim and Manasseh.

If,

is frequently supposed, Joseph

an

old name

for all the clans that settled in

I

],

this will account for its not being mentioned in the Song

of

Deborah

:

it is represented by its constituent parts.

I t seems not improbable that Joseph and Ephraim a r e
simply two names, older and younger, tribal and geo-
graphical (see

E

PHRAIM

,

I

),

for the same thing (cp

also R

ACHEL

).

W e have suggested that Ephraim was a younger

n a m e than Joseph

but only

as the name of a people.

As

a geographical name it may have

T h e question arises

accordingly, Were there Israelites in Ephraim before
Joseph settled there? W e are hardly entitled to find

a

hint of

a

theory that this was

so in the story of the sons

of Leah dwelling by Shechem

or tend-

ing their flocks in the plain of

176,

E)

before

Joseph joined them

this may

as

easily belong to the

Joseph-tule.

There is more chance of there being

a

legendary trace of such

a theory in the story of Gen.

34

(see D

INAH

, S

IMEON

,

E

PHRAIM

,

7

cp

85).

Nor would it be safe to interpret of the tribe what we

are told in J of Joseph’s having

an Egyptian

In

this respect Joseph stands with Jacob and the other
heroes of legend, in whose case also the name of the
wife is given.

This is

so

even if we should incline

to

follow Marquart in finding traces of Egyptian names in
Josephite clans.

T h e point that the names of Joseph’s

sons are bestowed

not by his wife, as is the custom in the

patriarch stories of

J

and

E,

but by himself (Gen.

41

51

E),

may be taken direct from the source that both

E

and J used (see next article,

On

the notions about the mutual relations

as t o

dignity and status of Reuben, Joseph,

Judah

: with

read

for

with

and

I

Ch.

see R

EUBEN

.

JOSEPH [in

OT]

79, 84,

the

tribal god]

the

form

passim).

I

.

Son of Jacob and Rachel and brother of Benjamin

(Gen.

the eponym of the tribe of Joseph

Tradition

connected the name variously with the re-

moving’

of Rachel’s childlessness

(so

E

; c p

Eliasaph, Asaph), and with her longing for

the addition

let him add of another

son

(so

If ‘Joseph’ contains an utterance respecting God, the
latter explanation approaches the truth.

T h e multi-

plication will refer to all the blessings poetically
described in Gen.

Names like Joseph, however,

are generally shortened from

names.

analogy of Ishmael and Jerahmeel suggests that ‘Joseph

been much older.

4).

w.

(

and Ephraim).

eleven stars how down. On Winckler’s explanation (from the

calendar) of the two

sons

and the advancement of the

see

For

a

brilliant discussion of the whole question see Winckler

GI

where it

is

argued that Saul, a Gileadite, made

ruler of Benjamin, which he transformed into a state

representing roughly what was later the Ephraimite kingdom

stretching southwards beyond Ephraim). Cp S

AUL

,

and nrticles referred to there.

The mention of the sons of

and

as heing not

with the

sons

of Leah

but with Joseph, seems to he due

to a

late hand

(Gen. 372).

The

Test.

Gad in

particular take great blame

to

himself for ill will

to

Joseph.

For Winckler’s mythological ex

see

G I 2

72.

4

Cp

and

(Baal-

the one, the name of

a

king of

in the time of

and

(KB

the other, of an

prince, in the time of

2

was

originally Josiph-el (cp Josiphiah).

There is

a

Palestinian place-name in the Karnak list of Thotmes

(16th cent.

which in Hebrew letters might

stand as

(popularly, Joseph-el), and which, if

rightly

so

read

J

OSEPH

I

),

have been first

of all

a clan-name (see

Pinches too has dis-

covered on a very ancient Babylonian contract-tablet the
personal name

(rather

which has

some resemblance to

As

to Joseph-el, a

final

decision seems far

off.

See

I

,

and note that Flinders Petrie reads Yeshephar,

a n d

identifies the place with

SE. of Ashdod (see

while Tomkins

identifies Joseph-el

Yasuf. in

a

wadv E. of Kefr

and Nehi

(see

All

most uncertain.

On

the ethnic

use

of the name which in pre-exilic

prose means the same a s ‘ E p h r a i m ’ in prophetic
language-;.e., the tribes of N.

( 2

S.

I

K.

see

JOS

EPH

In

Jos.

1 3 2

Chaeremon,

an Egyptian

Greek writer, is said to have spoken

of Joseph under

the name

and it is plausible to hold that

simply distorts the name ‘Joseph when he

speaks (Jos.

126

of the leader

of the lepers

(see

as

or

T h e name

Osarsiph is properly

a divine name

it

denotes Osiris as god

of the

I t is possible

t o interpret Peteseph he whom the god Seph has given,’
and

to

suppose another distortion of Joseph.

Still it is

very possible that

be

a

mere clerical error

for

the

form

of the name of

father-in-law.

T h e traditional story of Joseph in Genesis (we omit

the meagre post-exilic abstract of P ) presents

a very

2.

different aspect from that of Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob.

T h e hero is

doubt idealised but the details of his life are such

as,

in

a more recent biography, we might accept as to some

extent

an approach

to

truth

even in such

a point

as.

the age of Joseph at his death (Gen. 5026) the biographer
does

not

overstep the bounds of possibility.

How

Joseph came to be regarded

as

the ‘son of Jacob, and

how it was that the stream of tradition flowed

so much

more abundantly for’ biographers of Joseph than for
those of the first three patriarchs, we must consider
later

4).

It

is evident, however, that, though more credible in.

its details, the story of Joseph cannot be accepted

as.

genuinely historical, since it comes t o

us

in two forms

which do not altogether agree, and neither of the two
narratives can be presumed to be

on the whole earlier

than the ninth or eighth century

It was the life

of the founder of his people that the Israelite writer

o r

writers called

E

had

to relate; how could we expect

even

a

moderate degree of what moderns are pleased t o

call historical impartiality?

I t would be hardly less

absurd to expect

a narrative of well-sifted facts from the

Judahite writer or writers known as

T h e working

of

popular prejudices, and the plastic influence of the
popular imagination, which delights to find anticipations
of later historical facts, can readily be discerned,
who that has any sympathy with antique modes

of

thought could desire it to be otherwise?

I n fitting the Joseph-traditions into the general narra-

tive, it was necessary to give some idea of the relative

ages of Joseph and his brethren.
different views were taken.

I t follows from

account of the births that Joseph was horn

not

long

after the

sons

of Leah, and at

most

only twelve years

after Reuben (Gen.

31

47). The fragments of J in Gen.

30,

however, leave it open to us to suppose that the interval between

Cp Sayce,

Pnt.

Pref. ; Hommel,

A N T

96.

Elsewhere

Hommel compares the name

with the

S.

name

(from

which he ,explains

84) as

He

(God) regards.’

Cp Staerk

etc

3

As

if

were

a

syncretistic name

Ebers,

561

Tomkins, Acad.,

Sept.

I

,

1883.

background image

JOSEPH

[in

OT]

JOSEPH

[in

the births of Joseph

was longer than the fragments

of E would incline

us

to suppose.

At

any rate, the extracts

from the Joseph-section

of

J

represent Joseph as born

to

Jacob

in his

old

age

(37

3

The notice that he was seventeen

years old when he was sold into Egypt

(37

comes from

and

due

to

learned hut not authoritative calculation.

This difference of view helps to explain the first

chapter in Joseph’s composite biography.

T h e two

narrators agree that Joseph’s brethren conspired together
t o kill h i m ; but the reason for this step given by

E

( 8 7 2 6

is the more intelligible the older we suppose

Joseph to

he.

J simply states that the brethren of

Joseph hated himbecause of the partiality for him shown
by his father Israel, who had provided him with

a

‘long tunic with sleeves (see

T

UNIC

),

such a s befitted

one born to greatness and not to hard toil

(37

3,

J ) . Thus

the mischief is traced in J t o an act of Jacob but in

E

we find it accounted for by an act of Joseph, viz., his
communication of ominous dreams.

I n neither case is

the act blameworthy according to the writer

it con-

duces to the accomplishment of

great purpose,

which is the exaltation of Joseph for the good of his
whole family and for that of the country where the
Israelites are

to

sojourn.

T h e other differences between the two narratives in

chap.

37

need not long detain

us.

T h a t according t o

J

Joseph is

sent

from Jacob‘s abode to Shechem is

merely

a

consequence’ of the statement in Gen.

35

( J ) that Jacob had settled in the neighbourhood

of

Ephrath (or perhaps Beeroth see

E

PHRATH

)

the vale

of Hebron

37

should be the vale

(or plain)

of Beeroth.

Of

course,

account is the more

accurate; but

J

does not alter the tradition that the

brothers were a t

N. of Shechem, on

the caravan-route from Gilead to Egypt, when they got
rid of their ambitious brother.

Nor is the discrepancy

between

J

and

E

as t o the ethnic designation of the

merchants who convey Joseph to Egypt (Ishmaelites
from Gilead,

Midianites,

E)

a s important a s two

other differences :

(

I

)

that the spokesman of Joseph’s

brethren and the averter of Joseph’s death is Reuben in

E,

but Judah in J

and

that, according to E ,

Joseph was stolen (by the Midianites) out

the water-

less cistern into which he had been cast, whilst, according
t o

he was sold to the merchants (Ishmaelites) by his

brethren.

T h e difference a s to the spokesman is of

interest a s suggesting the N. Israelitish origin of the
story a s given by E

version is, in its present form,

not less distinctly of southern origin.

T h e difference

a s to how the passing caravan obtained Joseph shows
the superior skill of

E

as

a narrator.

.

I t was important,

h e considered, t o show that Joseph was not rightfully
used

as

a

slave.

Chap.

39

is mostly due to

J.

Joseph is sold as

a

slave to an

who perceives his

worth and places him over his household

;

but his master’s wife

casts her eyes upon the young man, and makes proposals from

which he can escape only

flight. Falsely accused to his

master, he is cast into prison.

however, gives him

favour with the governor, who in his turn sets Joseph over his

house.

This plain story, however, is complicated by being

interwoven with passages from

E.

According to these,

Joseph was bought by a

(see

E

UNUCH

)

named

Potiphar, the captain

of

Pharaoh’s’. bodyguard, ‘who

entrusted him with the care of all that he had.

A

subsequent passage of E refers to Joseph

as

being in

the prison, not for any real or supposed offence, but t o
attend on two high officers

the Pharaoh who had

been confined for some fault in the prison in Potiphar’s
house.

T h e chief butler

and

chief baker in their imprisonment have strange

dreams which only Joseph can interpret.

Two years

Cp C. Niehuhr Gesch.

der

I n 37

should

of

course he Judah.’

The

alteration was made

the editor.

3

The words ‘Potiphar,

a

of Pharaoh, captain of the

bodyguard’

(39

I

)

,

are

a

harmonistic insertion of

R.

Chaps.

40-42

are mainly from

E.

See

Hex.

83

later the Pharaoh himself has dreams which, by divine
favour, Joseph succeeds in explaining.

(Dreams are

frequently introduced by

E,

though

happens that

a

belief in the significance of dreams was particularly
characteristic of

Seven years of great plenty

a r e a t hand, which will be followed by seven years of
famine.

Joseph counsels that during the years of

abundance a fifth part of the grain should be exacted
from the agriculturists and laid up in storehouses.
T h e Pharaoh perceives that a divine spirit is in Joseph,

makes him high steward and grand

and, among

other honours, introduces

by marriage into a grand

sacerdotal family.

Joseph also receives a n Egyptian

name

( 4 1 4 5 ,

J ) , and we shall see later

that the

three Egyptian names in

41

45

have an important bearing

on criticism. T o the two sons of Joseph, however,
born before the famine, pure Hebrew

a r e given

(Gen.

Joseph‘s counsel has been

carried out, and the Egyptians come to the Semitic
grand vizier t o buy grain, till

money is exhansted

(41

56

47

By a clever contrivance (the narrative

is

J’s) Joseph obtains for the Pharaoh the proprietorship

of the whole land of Egypt, except that which belongs

to

the priests.

Of this, more hereafter (see

IO).

Suffice it t o remark that though the story in

47

can be fitted fairly well into the general narrative

(by

making

it

the sequel of the description in

it

shows

a

new side to Joseph’s character which is not

altogether

and contrasts with the spirit of the

fine passage, God sent me before you to preserve life ’

( 4 5 5 8 ,

E).

Now comes the true turning-point in Joseph‘s life.

His honours were not for himself alone they were to
prepare the way for the friendly reception of his entire
family in Egypt.

Driven by hunger, all Joseph’s

brethren except Benjamin come to Egypt to buy corn,
and do obeisance

to

the grand vizier

E,

but

J

end of

7).

Joseph recognizes them and remembers the dreams of his

youth.

To prove the truth

their story the must fetch their youngest brother to see him,

Simeon

as

surety with Joseph. They return

home sadly admitting the justice of their fate

and with

because the corn and the purchase-money

were both unaccountably, in their sacks.

the had

news to

father, who querulously answers, Joseph is

no

more : Simeon is no more : it

is

I (not you) who suffer from

these things’

E). Reuben, however, who has already

deserved well

his brethren

(42

E), pledges his

word that he will bring Benjamin hack in safety

37,

E).

I t is only from

a

few interwoven passages in chap.

42

that we gather that J also gave

a

version of the same

Nothing was said in this of the captivity of

Simeon, for, a t the beginning

of

the next long passage

From J

(43

1-13),

it is implied that the only fresh trouble

which Jacob is aware

is

the necessity for parting with

darling Benjamin.

From

42.38-44

all but

a

few lines from

E

referring t o

belongs to

whose dramatic presentation

of

attracted the editor.

In

a family council respecting

the famine, Judah (as before) becomes the spolcesman

the brothers.

Like Reuben a t

an

earlier point in

he pledges his word to his

for the

of

Benjamin

(438).

Jacob gives way with an

and Benjamin accompanies the others to Egypt.

bring double money,

and a

present

for

the grand vizier,

frugally

as

he lived in general (see

43

ordered them to

evil years arrive.

He affects to

them as spies.

Cp especially the

story

of

the Possessed Princess of Bakhtan

Maspero,

cp

RP

53-60;

Brugsch, Gesch.

; Erman,

’83,

pp.

54-60).

Gen.

(E)

run,

‘Thou shalt he over

ny house, and unto thee shall all my people hearken’

who

traces of both T and E. and holds that the

also

On

the analysis of the section see Holzinger,

.

-

eceived later

expended all his generosity on his brethren.

4

It

may

of

course be replied that Joseph felt as

a

Hebrew,

2586

background image

JOSEPH

[in

be received hospitably.

So

three tables are placed one for

Joseph, one for his brethren, and one for his

guests,

who must

not

eat with Hebrews

32).

Joseph lavishes atten-

tions

on

Benjamin, his mother’s

son.

Then he deliberately

subjects his brethren

to

a fresh trial, though it is as much as he

do

to

restrain his emotion. To some extent indeed he has

prepared them for

it.

For

the mysterious return of the corn

msney

on

their former visit, which

so

much perplexed and

affrighted them, was due

to

order

of

Joseph. Once more the

astute Hebrew vizier

the money to

be

replaced in the

sacks, and in Benjamin’s sack he has his own silver divining-

cup deposited

;

by this means he seeks to awaken their con-

sciousness of guilt

(44

J). Then he sends after them, and

on their return accuses them by his steward of theft. The

riddle has now become harder than ever. Not many hours ago

they had been assured by the steward that the money restored

on

the former occasion was a gift indeed, even now

no

difficulty

arises out of the replaced money but only

out

of the

Judah

chief of the brothers,

no

attempt at justification:

God he says ‘has found

out

the guilt of thy servants’

but

he

Joseph how their father’s life is bound up with

and how certainly he will die if his child does not return, and

offers himself as

a

bondsman in place of Benjamin.

T h e recognition scene

(45

1-15),

t o which

E

is

a

large

contributor, need not be repeated here.

Jacob is invited

to come with his family and his flocks and herds to
the province of

His

sons,

Simeon and Benjamin, return to Canaan with rich
presents, and Israel ( J ) a t once resolves t o accept the
invitation.

E , however, gives

a remarkable detail

which is passed over by J.

T h e road from

S.

Palestine

to Egypt started from Beersheba,

so closely connected

with memories

of

Isaac.

There,

E

tells

us,

Jacob

offered sacrifices, not to Isaac

but to

the God

of his father Isaac’

(461).

For the present

nothing more is drawn from this writer.

enough, it is J who tells that Judah was

sent

on

in advance to give Joseph notice of the approach

of his father.

T h e Hebrew text of Gen.

is not, as

it stands, quite intelligible

with the help of

we

can with some probability restore the text thus

:

And

he sent Judah before him to Joseph t o the land

of

Jarmuth.’

Jarmuth (see

is mentioned repeatedly

in the Amarna letters it was apparently

a

district

in

Lower Egypt, either in the

or more probably in

the

E.

part of the Delta, in the neighbourhood of

Goshen.

Here Judah found the grand vizier, who lost

no

time

in

preparing his chariot and going up

to

meet

Apparently

J does not conceive divination

t o

be inconsistent

with the worship of

‘to

divine,’ used again by J

(a

speech of

We are not to compare Ps.

908

The early

against

Joseph presses

on

Judah’s conscience.

In

31

53

we may perhaps trace the earlier form

of

the

tion, according

t o

which the hero Isaac was himself worshipped

(cp Holzinger, ad

In 46

I

E

adjusts the tradition

t o

later religious ideas.

.

4

M T

has

but,

as

Lagarde

Socin and Ball have seen,

point

out

be

correct.

Ball

(‘96)

would read

but the sentencedoes not tell

us

whom Judah was

t o

meet, nor does

‘to Goshen,’

naturally. Lagarde (GGN,

’go,

119)

and, independently, the

present writer (in

thought that instead

of

read

Heroopolis, as

Naville has shown, is

may perhaps

come

from

the Egyptian

7).

Lagarde accepts this as the true reading;

too

hastily.

version needs

a

more thorough inspection. It

thus in A,

What is

I t represents

in MT.

however,

is nowhere else rendered

‘Pap.

In

spite of

plausible

theory

(Goshen 17)

that

may mean a larger district than

Goshen, the

writer holds that

must have read some-

thin rather different from MT,

)+&

Here

is to be taken

a

correction of

(a

miswritten

ment), the right reading and the

being preserved,

as

often,

sidebyside.
Heroopolis’-and

to

be

for

‘to

(the land

of)

Rameses.

is

a gloss

omits

‘P.

both

and in

(or

and

at the end of

and in

are also insertions. In

47

land of Rameses should

the land of Jarmuth.’

DIVINATION

3

or the

‘ t o

Heroopolis.’

The true reading of

JOSEPH

[in

OT]

his father.

T h e meeting is described in few but appro-

priate words

such as that colourless writer

P could never have found.

If we may give way to the

spell of the narrator, and treat the events narrated a s
historical, we may suppose the meeting to have taken

near one of the Egyptian fortresses

on

the border

of the

After this, according to J, the whole

party went up to the court, and Jacob and five of his
brethren were presented

to

the Pharaoh (Gen.

47

2-4,

J).

A remarkable honour, for we have

been told

( 4 6 3 4 )

that ‘everyshepherd isanabomination to the
T h e Priestly Writer, generally

so

even gives

us

a conversation held by Jacob with the Pharaoh (Gen.

T h e patriarch speaks in the tone of Ps.

and

as

Jacob goes out, like

a

superior being,

he blesses the Egyptian king.

Both

J

and

E

described the last meeting of Joseph

and his father.

I t was specially important

record

the blessing of Joseph‘s two

sons

J E ) and the

oath exacted by Jacob from Joseph (cp

S

TAFF

)

that he

would bury him, not in Egypt, but in the grave which
he (Jacob) had digged for himself in the land of Canaan

Jacob on his side promised that Joseph should

return to Canaan and occupy the finely-situated hill of

S

HECHEM

E).

Upon Jacob’s death his son per-

formed all the requisite funeral rites
both Egyptian and Hebrew, and then returned with his
brethren, whom he continued to treat magnanimously
till he died at the ideal age of

(see

I

O

).

W e have seen that the pre-exilic story of Joseph is

made

of

of two distinct

which

have been skilfnlly

together by

a

redactor.

This is

a

fact of much im-

portance.

Since there are two records,

and these (as will appear) are equally accurate in their

Egyptian colouring, we may assume that there was

a

earlier document from which both J and

E

drew.

It may be asked, Can we fix the dates of J and

E,

looking simply a t their respective lives of Joseph ?

(By

J and

E

we mean here members of the schools of writing

denoted respectively by the letters J and E . ) W e may
presume that J (or better

lived after the fall of

Samaria (722

for otherwise, being

a Judahite

writer, he would not have felt free to treat

so

elaborately

a

northern legend aiming at the glorification of Joseph.

For the date of

E

(or

E,)

we have perhaps a clue in the

name Asenath, and a t any rate

the name Potiphera

in

4145.

Though

a name

the type Potiphera has

been shown to occnr close upon the Hyksos

the

name referred to

gift of Baal’) is only half

Egyptian, and the type first becomes frequently repre-
sented in the 26th dynasty.‘

T h e name Asenath may

also be explained as

a specimen of a late type of name.

It is generally held to be a Hebraised form of Egyptian

e . , belonging to [the Saite goddess] Neith

’-

and if

so

may indicate that the editor lived in, or shortly

before, the period

of

the 26th or Saite

T h e

name, however, is not doubly attested like that of
Potiphera (cp ‘Potiphar,’

E),

and may not be

the form which

wrote.

Let

us

not neglect to be

So

Tomkins

75.

On Gen.

47

where the text of

is clearly preferable, see

Herdsmen are caricatured on the monuments as ugly and

We.

53,

and

Bacon,

Ball,

Gen.

deformed.

A reference to Gen.

12

does

not

lighten the

inconsistency for that narrative has reached

its

present form by

a

(see

6).

Ladv

Duff

Gordon (Letters

thinks that Gen.

47

is

the hollow spkech

a

would make to-day

t o

a Pasha.

Not

necessarily M

ACHPELAH

;

47

30

seems

to

have been

The

does not at all hit the intention of

touched by R

t o

harmonise it with P

See

Gesch.

cp

; and especially Tomkins,

Acad.,

Jan.

1891

;

183.

Steindorff

cp Lag.

Mitt.

3

Brugsch,

‘go,

p.

245

41.

So

Steindorff

Names of this type occur

now

and then

earlier, and are

in the

dynasty.

2588

background image

JOSEPH [in OT]

JOSEPH

[in

OT]

warned by the wrongly read Egyptian names,

I

K.

(Swete), and Tahpenes in M T of

I

K.

(see

If

so, we have nothing to depend upon but the name

Potiphera, and this is a very weak basis for a theory.

There were learned scribes before a s well as after the
exile, and such an one may possibly have changed the
original name given t o Joseph‘s father-in-law by

into

a

name of the type which

in his own

time was more

fashionable in Egypt

or

perhaps the text may have

become indistinct, and the scribe may have corrected
the older name

in

accordance with the fashion of the

time.

Next, assuming (as we must) that

J

and

E

drew from

a n earlier Hebrew story, can we form a n opinion a s to

i t s

probable period? This Hebrew story was certainly

no mere romance, the scene of which was laid in Egypt.
T h e Egyptian colouring is too profuse, and the details
too peculiar, to be altogether ascribed

a Hebrew

narrator.

W e can imagine that

a

romantic story of the

Egyptian

sojourn

of

a

Joseph who was merely the

eponym of the Hebrew tribe of that name would have
presented some Egyptian features.

Such a story, how-

ever, being mainly a reflection of the fortunes of a tribe,
could not have been

so

deeply infused with Egyptian

elements a s the existing Joseph-story.

I t is therefore a

reasonable conjecture that that earlier Hebrew story of
which we have spoken was based

on a still more ancient

Hebrew narrative which had no elements of tribal legend
and related entirely to a n individual, and that those
elements in our existing Joseph-story which are most
undeniably personal, and by which this story contrasts
most strongly with the unhistorical tribal legends of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were present in

a

purer

and of course a more complete form in that ancient
Hebrew narrative.

To

what extent this most ancient Hebrew tale may

have suffered alteration in the course of centuries, it is
impossible t o say.

W e may conjecture, however, that

it was really based

upon

facts which, however idealised,

were yet truly historical, that it was written not many
generations after the events t o which it referred, and
even that it was derived directly

or

indirectly from an

Egyptian source.

T h e number of Semites in the eastern

provinces of Egypt was

so

large that this Egyptian origin

is

far from being an extravagant hypothesis. T h e upper

limit of the period within which the Hebrew stories,
which seem to have preceded

J

and

E,

have to be placed,

depends on the date or dates of the events recorded
idealistically by the earliest of them.’

Let

us

first consider some of the most remarkable

phenomena in the Joseph- story (com-

pleteness cannot be aimed a t ) in con-
nection with

a.

T h e close parallelism between Gen.

and

the Egyptian tale of Two Brothers has often been
remarked., T h e Egyptian tale is extant in a copy which
belonged t o Seti

11.

(19th dynasty), and was probably

written early in the 18th dynasty.

That such

a story

could have arisen only in Egypt, it would be too much
to assert; in fact, similar stories have been found in
perfectly unrelated

Still, considering that

the scene of the tale of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife is
laid in Egypt, and that the rest of the story of Joseph
in Egypt is strongly Egyptian in colouring, it is most
plausible to hold that Gen.

is based upon a par-

allel Egyptian story, though hardly upon the tale of the

Two

Brothers, for that has to do

peasant life.

Such

a borrowing would certainly be less surprising than the
undoubted fact that in early Christian times an Egyptian
monk named Visa, in writing the life

of

his father Shniidi,

See,

Brugsch,

Gesch.

Meyer,

G A

1 2 8 5 ;

Sayce,

zog.

For translations, see Renouf,

R P

2

; Maspero,

3-32

; Flinders

Petrie,

2

.

cp Erman,

See

A. Lang, Myth,

and

2

twice imitates the story

of the Two Brothers in some one

of its forms.

b.

T h e rise of Joseph the ,Hebrew from low estate to

the second position in the kingdom has many parallels.
Semitic slaves were common at all times in the Nile

Often, for their capacity and fidelity, they

were raised to high positions, and became naturalised
Egyptians.

the armour-bearer of Thotmes

I I I . , and

his brother the priest User-Min, were the

sons

of an Amorite.

W e do not hear that they had been

slaves but there is nothing

to prohibit the idea ; and

the chief point t o notice in the rise of Joseph is not his
having been

a

slave but his Hebrew origin.

too,

under the Pharaoh Merenptah the office of first speaker
of His Majesty’ was held by a Canaanite named Ben
Mat’ana, and in the Amarna Tablets we meet with two
Egyptian officials who appear from their names Dudu

and Yanhamu

to b e of Semitic origin.

That the honours conferred upon Joseph (Gen.

41

)

are such as a newly appointed vizier might well

have received,

is

undeniable.

The royal seal-bearer

was the chief government official he was the deputy

of

the

T h e ‘garments

of

linen’ (plural), if the

story is of Egyptian origin, cannot be right ; the first
narrator may have referred t o the royal apron-garment
(the so-called

which was worn by others a s well

a s by the king under the Middle and the New

‘Garments of byssus’

see

L

INEN

,

7)

were not

exceptional enough

all Egyptians of rank had t o wear

them.

T h e ‘golden collar’ was

a

highly prized

Egyptian decoration ; Ahmes, the conqueror of Avaris,

won it seven times by special acts of

the Louvre

is a stele

which the investiture

of a

grandee with

a

golden collar is represented

to

the life. Seti

I.

presides over the ceremony

and

while he makes

a

speech two

officers put

a

magnificent

round the neck of

who lifts his arms in token of

joy

(De

49

; cp

2

105

See also Brugsch,

Gesch.

426.

Still we cannot lay too much stress’ even upon this

decoration

a t any Eastern court such an honour would

have been prized (cp Dan.

5 7 2 9

and see

N

ECKLACE

).

W h a t the meaning

of

h e

made him ride in the second chariot that

The text has been injured; we may with some probability

steeds.’

T o

both words

this phrase there may have been

corresponding Egyptian terms

;

to

the first there certainly was

hut both were originally Semitic (see C

H

A

RI

O

T

,

I

,

and cp

I

I t is more important, however, to note the titles

of

Joseph‘s office. ‘They cried before him, Abrech’ (Gen.

41

‘ H e has made me an

ab to Pharaoh, and

of all his house (45 J). Abrech, if the reading is cor-
rect,

is

possibly the

Ass.

a title

of a very high

dignitary, which like

so

many other Asiatic words may

have passed into Egypt

(see A

BRECH

).

More prob-

ably, however, the first three letters represent an ,
Egyptian title-viz., friend

in

45

8

an

t o

Pharaoh should probably be

a

friend of Pharaoh.’

Brugsch, it is true, points out that the Egyptian

meant

a

person who gave orders in the name of the

A lower dignitary would be called

adon, though Brugscb

has once found the the title of an

adon over the whole

l a n d ’ (in connection with the early life of
afterwards

In any case, however, we could

not press this.

if not also

ab, is possibly a

Semitic loan-word.

is the natural Hebrew word

Ebers,

die

294

;

Erman,

Flinders Petrie,

16

Ten Years‘

6 6 ’

Ebers Smith‘s

47.

he

had (Gen.

41

43)

can be, no one has explained.

chariot

Erma;,

62,

206,

4

Renouf,

6

Petrie, Hist. 2

21-23.

Gesch. Aeg. 207, 248,
Gesch.

252.

background image

JOSEPH

[in

OT]

for

‘ l o r d ’

so also, according to the lexicons, is

for vizier.

For

the extent of Joseph’s newly given authority we

may refer to the descriptions of the two Egyptian feudal
lords,

and

‘If

does not, like Ptah-hotep, bear the title of royal

prince, he was perhaps of even

rank since he is called

‘the double of the Pharaoh,’ animated by

spirit taking his

place in his absence, governing all Egypt like

addressed

by the same titles, and saluted like him by the courtiers. We

must not

surprised, therefore, a t the royal title given

to

the prefect of the capital was next to the king

the

in the

less remarkable is the abject servility

of the

letters addressed to

Dudu,

a high officer of Amen-hotcp

IV.,

by Aziri, prefect of the land of the

it

is

not easy t o decide which is greater, ‘ t h e king, my

lord,’

or ‘ m y lord, my father.’

Aziri even refers t o

the king and the grandees collectively as my

gods

Does not this remind

us

of Gen. 41

40,

Only

in the throne will

I

be greater than thou

With the viziership Joseph combined the office

of director of the granaries (Gen.

This was

distinct.

It

held,

by

Beka

or

dynasty), whose

sepulchral stele is now preserved a t

Kings’

sons did not disdain to hold

W e know, how-

ever, that

(see

who was a vizier,

was

superintendent of the storehouses, which from time to
time he had inspected.

This constant supervision is

insisted upon by the real

or

imaginary princely sage,

Ptah-hotep, in his famous collection of precepts.

So,

too,

a

chief overseer of the granaries, named Am-n-teh,

tells

us

that he never took rest from

his responsibilities.

Such a t least was the ideal.

T h e magazines had to be

carefully guarded and replenished, for

on

this the life

of thousands might depend.’

This duty, according

to Gen. 4148

Joseph,

as

an

ideal vizier, discharged

in person.

T h e scene of Joseph’s brethren presenting

themselves a t the granaries may be illustrated by a
wall-painting in the tomb of

already referred

tO.8

W e now come t o the seven years of famine (Gen.

41

were sometimes confined t o Egypt.

On one such occasion,

as the decree of

Canopus mentions, the reigning Ptolemy

imported grain from Syria and Phcenicia. T h e story

of

Joseph, however,. refers to one which extended to

all the neighbouring lands, natives of which came into

Egypt to Joseph to buy corn (Gen. 4157).

It used to

be thought that

a

pictorial record of this event was

still extant.

On the

N.

wall of the tomb

of prince

Chnemhotep

on

the steep height of Beni

can

still be seen depicted the meeting

of thirty-seven Asiatics

with the Egyptian. prince-governor.

It is not, how-

ever,

a famine but trade that brings them to Egypt,

and they are nomads from Arabia, headed by their
prince Abesha (see

n.

bringing stibium

or

eye-paint (see

In another

of

the

caves is the tomb

of

Ameni

one of the feudal princes of the Middle Empire. This

But this

is

extremely doubtful. In Is.

96

and

we

See

should almost certainly read

(strong one, protector).

Bib.

Am. Tab.

4

Flinders Petrie

Ten

Years’

66)

suggests

a

further comparison

‘chief of the chan-

cellors,’ or ‘royal seal-bearer,’ who stood at the head of the

bureaucracy under the Hyksos kings. We

not, however,

base an argument upon this for placing Joseph in the Hyksos

period, for the officials a t that period were not Semites but

chosen from among the native Egyptians.

Chabas

5459-465.

Dawn

286.

T

O.

See

Part

69

The tombs

n.

2,

and cp

M

USIC

,

8.

dynasty.

JOSEPH

[in

OT]

is made

to

relate the chief events of his life, and speaks thus in

the conclusion.

‘(When) there became years of famine

. . .

I

made

to

live

its inhabitants, making its provision; not became

a

hungry

man in it.

. . .

When thereafter great rises of the Nile took

place, producing wheat and

. . .

not did I exact the

arrears of the

A similar statdment is made by a governor

named Baha in his sepulchral inscriptions a t

(end of

17th dyn.) Baha speaks of ‘ a famine lasting many years,’ and

Brugsch has recorded his conviction that the inscription refers

to

the identical famine

of

the Joseph-story.

Baba at

was under the native king

while Joseph lived

and worked

as

Brugsch thinks, under one

of

the Hyksos kings.

Of

a

third

which has been

into connection with

Joseph it is enough

to

say that the

of the monument proves

it

to

he not earlier than the Ptolemies. See Wiedemann,

des

68.

W e

pass

on to the policy

of

Joseph (Gen.

47

13-26,

T h e statements in

have some

affinity to those of Herodotus

and

Diodorus

and the probability is

that all these stories are the attempts

of

later generations to account for the fact that the Egyp-
tians handed over a fixed proportion of the harvest t o
the king.

‘Whatever the details may have been, we may accept

as a

general fact that

and

exterminated the old nobility

very much

as

the Mamluks were exterminated by

Ali and as the latter obtained the greater part of all the

property in the kingdom

the confiscation of the estates of

the Mamlnks,

so

the former absorbed the roperty of the small

princedoms.

Thus

those

agrarian conditions

found in later Egypt, by which all property, with the exception

of the priests’fields, belonged

to

the Pharaoh, and was rented from

the crown by

a

payment of

per cent. In Gen. 47 these con-

ditions are declared to be due to the clever policy of

T h e narrator in Gen.

47

is certainly accurate in one

part

of

his statement.

T h e land of the priests was

exenipt from taxation

no

inspector of the palace

could enter the sacred

W e do not hear,

however, that the priests received special portions

of

provisions. from the king

this statement is not con-

firmed.

One small point alone remains- the age ascribed t o

Toseph at his death.

‘Toseph died, being

years

composite).

Erman writes thus

:-

-

-

J

oseph

s

old

(Gen.

J).

No

Hebrew -tale-

...

writer would have written thus.

T o

reach the age of

years was every

good Egyptian’s prayer

it was the favour desired by

the high priest Bak-en-Honsu

dynasty) when

he was 86 years of

Ptah-hotep, whose collec-

tion of maxims has been called (with

justice)

the most ancient of books, says that his virtue has
brought him to this advanced age, which few were
privileged to

and

a

strange reminiscence

of

this Egyptian belief meets

us in the life of another

Joseph (see J

OSEPH

IO).

W h a t historical elements are there

in

the Joseph

story? W e are prepared by the preceding inquiry to

find that there are some, and it will
be best to go a t once into the heart

of

the question.

Let

us

notice, then,

(

I

)

that several names possibly of Egyptian origin

occur in the families of Moses and Aaron and of Joseph.
T h e name of Moses may possibly be analogous to
messu, ‘child of

R a

(RE‘)

the son of Eleazar, corn-

monly called P

H I N E H A S

and

a son of Eli bear,

according to the prevalent opinion, the same well-known

Egyptian name, of which H

OPHNI

may be

a

corrupt variation.

Eleazar’s father,

.

and

the Korahite clan called Osir ( M T

also have been

thought to bear, the one a partly disfigured, the other
a still completely Egyptian name.

too, the

companion of Moses and Aaron, may also possibly be
added t o the list.

T h e present writer probably stands

nearly alone in looking elsewhere for the true explana-
tions of these names.

But with such a n eminent

cp

56.

3

Ancient

4

Naville,

8.

De Horrack, R P

3

34.

Cp

also

Petrie,

background image

JOSEPH [in

OT]

authority

as

W.

Max Muller

on the other side, he will

not be

so

discourteous as to call the above explanations

impossible.

Certainly, if correct, they tend to justify

the theory that the tribe of Joseph and some part of
the tribe of Levi once sojourned in Egypt.

Whether

the story of the selling

of Joseph for a slave may be

best regarded

as

antedating of the reported subse-

quent oppression, or a s

a feature of a once extant

biography of

a

Hebrew vizier, is

open question.

I t should be noticed that from

Am.

55

it

appears that the sons a n d daughters of the Syrians
were sometimes sent t o Jarimuta t o be sold for corn.'
Not only Joseph, but in an earlier form of the story

also

Simeon and Benjamin seem t o have been represented a s
sold into slavery in Egypt, and it has been already
noted

as

perhaps significant that the name of

a

tradi-

tional grandson of Joseph means sold

(see

E

PHRAIM

Passing now to Joseph himself, we find that in

story of the expulsion of the lepers (Jos.

c.

the leader of the lepers is said

to

be

a

priest of Heliopolis named Osarsiph (see

I

) .

T h e

kernel of this story, according to

E.

Meyer

( G A

a n d Marquart

is the virtually

monotheistic reform

of

(Amen-hotep IV.

).

A

similar story is given by

(Jos.

c.

who gives the names of the leaders of the 'unclean

as

and Peteseph.

T h e latter name, in one

way

or

another, may fairly be brought into connection

with Joseph (see

I

),

and it should be added that

Chaeremon too connects the story with Amenophis
(Amen-hotep).

I t becomes natural, therefore, to look for light to the

Amarna tablets which are concerned

the period

of Amen-hotep

and Amen-hotep

and we are

not disappointed.

W e find there

a n

important Egyp-

tian functionary, whose name

is

apparently Semitic,

Yanhamu

according to Marq.

H e is

a

or 'general ( 7 ) ' who has the control of the

magazines of grain in the land of Jarimuta (see

3),

a n d superintends the affairs of the Egyptian dominion

in

Palestine.

When the Syrian chieftains and governors have a request to

make of the Egyptian

king

they

often

add that he need only

ask Yanhamu who knows the

circumstances

well. When

Addi

has

grievances

against

of Amurru

he

refers

them

to Yanhamu

(as

one

of three

and

asks the king to say

Behold,

in thy

power, and anything which happens to him touches thee'

Another

time

asks the king

to

bid

take the field at once with troops

(75

87

Notice

too that Yabitiri, commandant

of

Gaza a n d Joppa,

speaks of having been brought by

t o the

Egyptian court while still small

(214

24-26).

Yabitiri

seems t o have been

a

countryman of

; but his

name, which looks Egyptian (Ra-hotep?), may have
been given t o him in Egypt.

T h e latter circumstance is interesting because Joseph

too is said to have received

an Egyptian name in

Egypt Marquart thinks

(677) that the name intended

is

Zaphtan

and that

represents Aten, the

name of the god of the solar disk, worshipped by

This is not the present writer's view

(see Z

APHNATH

-

PAANEAH

)

but the theory from

which it springs seems to him likely to be correct.
Joseph (whose Egyptian name was perhaps

or

indicating that life

the

bearer of the name) is probably an imaginative
version of some Semitic courtier of the reforming king
Amen-hotep IV.

T h e untranslatable passage in Gen.

41

43,

should perhaps be read

friend

of

Khu-en-aten (Che.

April

cp

4),

a n d the

Josepli'swifemayperhapshavebeen

'An$-

I

however, M

ACHIR

).

are by no means all the references.

*

This is Marquart's

pertinent

observation

(678).

was

a

priestly name it was current in the family

of

the priest"-king

JOSEPH [in OT]

Marq.

677). A daughter of

who

had this name, was married to

the

next king but one after Khu-en-aten.

Potiphera,'

too, should probably be corrected into

this

was the name

of the high priest of Aten a t the king's

new capital of

(el-Amarna). W e have also

found reason to suspect the occurrence of another
ancient Egyptian name in Genesis,

Jarimuta

Gen.

see

3).

Marquart's theory that Jarimuta

was in the province now called the Fayyiim-a natural
depression in the Libyan hills, far more fertile anciently
even than it is now-seems not quite

so

natural

as

the

view which places it nearer t o Palestine, in the East

of

the Delta.

Some such conjectnres as the above seem forced upon

us

in

the light of Egyptian history. As

to

the names,

we must not

expect too

great

exactness. W. Max Miiller

Oct.

objects to

as the representative of Kh. But the confusion

of

and

is too

common in

to

surprise

us.

The

after

is

a scribe's second attempt

to

write

Aten. As

to

the

impoliteness of choosing the name

the

would have

more

force if an Egyptian story

were

in

question

T h e ordinary view that Joseph, if historical, is to

be placed in the Hyksos period, is acquiesced in by

Fliuders Petrie.

Ebers, however, who is in agreement

with Lepsius, says, ' I n the whole section there is
nothing which does not exactly fit

a

Pharaonic court

in

the best periods of the kingdom, while there

is

much which can never be reconciled with

a

Hyksos

court, however much Egyptianised.'

A

later date,

too, makes it easier t o believe in the existence of

a

true tradition as the kernel of the story.

Following

Marquart, whose brilliant research

3

has

a

flood

of light

on'

the Joseph-story, the present writer places

the great Hebrew vizier now called Joseph in the
reign of Khu-en-aten o r Amen-hotep IV.

W e may now perhaps venture on the statement that

there are five distinct elements in our present
story

:-(

I

)

the transformed tradition of

a sojourn of the

tribe of Joseph in E g y p t ;

( 2 )

the tradition, true in

essentials, of

a Hebrew vizier under Khu-en-aten

(3)

story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, etc.

(an

imaginative appendage)

(4) the narrative (not historical)

connecting the changed agrarian law of

with

Khu-en-aten's vizier

(5)

the narrative (also unhistorical)

of the sojourn of the other

'

sons of Israel in Egypt.

All these have been skilfully woven together by several
Hebrew writers.

There is something more, however,

to

be mentioned-it is the ideality of the whole narra-

tive.

None of the Old Testament biographies attracts

such universal admiration

as

the story of Joseph.

See

in

addition to the hooks cited already, F. Vigouroux,

La

et

1896,

tom.

archaeology), and the vastly superior

of Driver ,in

Hastings'

2

the archaeological exactness

of

is not

less than

its

treatment

of the Hebrew text. What

has been omitted

here

for

want

of

space

will be found

this

very

That there

is room

for considerahledifference

of opinion

on

the difficult

textual

and historical questions

volved

will

be readily imagined.

In MT. father

of

(Nu.

13

7

but

the real name

T.

IC.

C.

seems to

dropped out

:

I

n.

3.

One of

t h e

Asaph

(

I

Ch.

25 9).

4.

One

of

the b'ne Bani

in

the

list

of those with foreign

wives

(see E

ZRA

end) Ezra

Esd. 934,

A

head of the b'ne Shebaniah.

(see

E

ZRA

12

1 4

[om.

6.

h.

Zacharias, a Jewish

officer

defeated

(

I

Macc.

Maccabee

Macc.

8

10

an ancient

false

reading

for

see M

ACCABEES

i.,

8.

Ancestor of Judith

8

I

).

It depends on the reading and translation of an imperfect

of one

of the Amarna tablets

T o

so

far away as the Syrian

(Flinders

Syria

and

is

hardly desirable. The

view

that

it

in

the Nile delta'is due

to

the sagacity of C. Niehuhr

seventh supplementary volume of

3

reprinted from the

background image

JOSEPH

[in

NT]

JOSEPH [in NT]

JOSEPH

[in

NT]

[Ti.

I

.

Joseph

T h e passages relative to this Joseph

of

should first be compared.

As to

his description. Matthew says

rich man of

belonging

to)

named Joseph, who himself

had

a disciple

of

Jesus

1.

Description.

(15

‘Joseph

of

Ari-

( b

Ap.), a

noble

councillor

who

also

himself was expecting the

kingdom of God.

Luke

(23

‘ a

man

named Joseph,

was a councillor

a

good

and

righteous man

(he bad

not given

his

their counsel and deed) of

a

city of the

who

was

expecting

the

kingdom of God. John

(19

Joseph

of

( b

’Ap.),

being

a

disciple of Jesus,

but a

secret

one for fear

of the Jews.’ The Petrine Gospel

‘Joseph

the

of

Pilate and of the Lord.’ Tradition therefore

is not

entirely unanimous

as

to

the description

of

Joseph.

some respects the simplest accounts in our Gospels

a r e those of Mt. and Jn.

Both agree that Joseph

belonged to the wider circle of Jesus’ disciples, a n d

Peter probably means the same thing by the peculiar

phrase quoted above; a n d neither Mt. nor Jn. is
aware that he belonged to any Jewish council.
Mt. indeed says that he was

a

rich

whilst

Jn.

is

silent

on

this point; but the fact that, ac-

cording to Jn., Joseph in the first instance under-
took the whole of the arrangements for burial, a n d

was

afraid of the consequences t o himself if he

avowed his ‘discipleship, proves that

too, must

have regarded Joseph

as a

rich man.

T h e account

in Jn.

however, presents one apparent dis-

crepancy from that in Mt.

Apparent we call

it, because it only rests on a n inference;

that

inference is certainly

a

very natural one.

I t appears

from Jn.

that the body of Jesus was laid in the

sepulchre adjoining the place of crucifixion only because
it was nigh a t hand

that Joseph happened to be the

owner, would he

so remarkable a coincidence that the

evangelist would surely have stated it.

I t is true,

Mk. and Lk.,

as

well

as

are silent

as t o

Joseph’s proprietorship of the t o m b ; but the

is that Joseph, who was evidently, according

to

them,

a man of social standing, and would there-

fore certainly have prepared his own ‘long home,’ is
t o be supposed t o have taken the body of Jesus to his
own new tomb, which was somewhere near Jerusalem.

Is there also

a

discrepancy between Mk. (and

Lk.) and Mt. as regards Joseph‘s discipleship? Ac-

cording t o

B.

Weiss

2

574)

there

is.

Mk.

accurately, though indirectly,

states that hitherto Joseph, who

was

a

councillor, had

kept aloof from the circle of the adherents of Jesus,
whereas Mt.

27

57

expressly affirms that he had become

a

disciple.

Weiss also thinks that

description

of Joseph as

a

rich man was due to his desire for

a

fresh

of prophecy

(Is. 539).

Here, how-

ever, there appear to be several misunderstandings.

(

I

)

Joseph was of course not

a

close ‘adherent’ of

Jesus

but he belonged to that wider circle of disciples

which Mt., though less distinctly than Mk. and

L k . , presupposes (see Keim,

Joseph was scarcely

a

‘councillor’ in the sense

supposed by Weiss.

( 3 )

Neither

Mt. nor any

other early Christian writer thought of Is.

as

a

prediction of Christ’s burial.

Let

pause here and ask

if

thus far the accounts are

historical. T h e statements that the

who arranged

for the burial of

body of Jesus

a

member of the wider circle of dis-

ciples,

a

rich man of Arimathaea (see below,

named Joseph, and that the tomb in which he placed
the body of Jesus was his own, is questioned by few
critics.

These were points which tradition was not

likely to have invented.

T h e notion

of

that

the story of the tomb was suggested by Is.

is

refuted by the circumstance that none of the Gospels,
nor any subsequent work

of the early Christian period,

refers to that passage, the obscurity

of which evidently

caused great difficulty to the ancient translators.

W e

at any rate accept as

a

historical certainty the

(

he was buried

of

I

Cor.

154.

W e now

pass

on to the statement of

Mk.

Lk.

that

was

a councillor.’

If by councillor’

both mean member of the Sanhedrin,”

,

we are involved in hopeless perplexity.
That

deficient in courage.

is

shown by his

to Pilate, for the notion-of

3

that he was

a friend of Pilate is clearly

a late fancy.

If

a member of the Sanhedrin, he must

have attended

on such

important occasion

as the trial

of Jesus, and must have spoken for him, and have trans-
mitted the knowledge of this fact and of much more
important facts to subsequent generations of Christians.
T h e inevitable inference from Mk.

however, is that

no

member of the council was absent, and certainly

one can say that the evangelical tradition of the trial of
Jesus has the appearance of exactness.

Does it not seem

t o follow from this that Mk. did not, any more than
Mt., suppose Joseph to have belonged to the Sanhedrin
-in short, that Lk. must have misunderstood the

of

N o one can say that the

epithet

‘noble’

applied to

a

member of the Sanhedrin, is at all natural.

If, how-

ever, we interpret

from

a

Greek o r

a

Roman point of view, it becomes equivalent to

‘ a

man of high social r a n k ’

( = a

noble senator), and

is

quite in place in

a

work intended mainly for Gentile

Christians.

Lk. and

however, may easily have

misunderstood

John shows special thoughtfulness

in dealing with it.

H e considered, apparently, that he

had before him

a

twofold tradition.

According to

version, Joseph

of

Arimathaea,

a rich disciple of Jesus,

paid his Master’s body the last sad honours

according

t o another, it was

a councillor named Joseph of

who did this.

H e therefore combined the

two traditions, only substituting

Nicodemus’ for

’Joseph’ as the name of the councillor, for which he

had prepared the way by the statement respecting

a

speech of Nicodemus in the council apparently suggested
by the parenthetical remark about Joseph in Lk.
See

Opinions differ (see Keim,

Jesus

as to the place intended by Arimathaea.

Most prob-

ably it is the Ramathaim mentioned

I

Macc.

1 1 3 4

Lydda.

See

OS

and

2.

From the

fact that Joseph possessed a rock-tomb near Jerusalem,
we may assume that he had taken up his abode at any
rate for

a time in the Holy City, and the fact that

nothing is heard of him afterwards justifies the supposi-
tion that he

afterwards have left Palestine possibly

he was

a

merchant.

I t is

a

weakness, however, in our

position, that we

are compelled to speculate.

As

far

as regards the

entombment itself, not much need be added

to

what

The

simplest statement is that of Mt.

it

is difficult to think that the earliest

tradition referred to Joseph‘s purchase of

see L

INEN

) for the purpose

of

enwrapping the body.

T h e mention of

a

garden in

Jn.

may also be mere amplification

the Petrine

Gospel

(24)

says that Joseph‘s ‘own tomb’ was called

Joseph’s garden’-apparently the name of

a

well-known

locality in the time

of

the writer.4 T h e story of Joseph’s

interview with Pilate

is

very simply by Mt.,

and

Jn.

Mk., in his graphic way, lays stress

on

the

As

to the deed of Joseph.

has incidentally been said already.

On the text see

SBOT,

and cp

Ad-

See

Acts 13

17

‘Of noble bearing’

is

3

So

Brandt,

79.

4

V.

Schubert, Die

62.

denda

:

cp

also

ad

surely impossible.

background image

JOSEPH

[in

NT]

age required for Joseph’s act

and adds that

Pilate marvelled

if he were already dead, and calling

the centurion, he asked if he had been any while
dead

he knew it, he gave the body to

Joseph’ (Mk.

None of the Synoptics makes

any reference to the fact stated in Jn. 1931 that the
Jews had already asked Pilate that the
might be performed (see C

ROSS

,

4,

6), and that the

bodies of the crucified might then be removed.

Yet

this certainly makes the whole occurrence more intel-
ligible

5 ) .

It was not usual, according

t o Roman law, to grant burial for the bodies of the
crucified

hence the need of ‘courage

on

Joseph’s

part.

That Pilate first of all asked Herod for the body

3-5)

is a n

fancy

and the

elaborate tale of the imprisonment of Joseph, of his
miraculous release and of his baptism by Jesus, after
which he is taken by the Lord to

are

specimens of the inventions of the

(12

15).

For the English legends on which the abbey of

is

founded see William of Malmeshury, De Antiq.

in

and elsewhere;

and cp Nutt,

on

the Legend

the

wifh

t o

the Hypothesis

its

1888.

2. H u s b a n d

of

Mary.- The references in the Gospels’

must be carefully considered.

Seven occur in Mt.,

JOSEPH [in

NT]

judah, and apparently does not accept this particular

tradition.

H e cannot, however

(if we regard the gospel

as

a whole), have been indifferent to the earthly origin

of Jesus.

Though Jesus was

(Gods only be-

gotten one), yet he

abode among

us,’ and the evangelist

makes Jesus invite inquirers to come and see where he
dwelt’ (Jn.

One of these inquirers (Philip of

Bethsaida) seeks out

finds after seeking)

and says, ‘ W e have found him, of whom

Moses

in

the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of

Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’

Elsewhere

a

Galilean multitude is represented

as

murmuring at t h e

great Rabbi

(a.

25)

because he said that he had come

down from heaven, and gave life to the world

33

although he was ‘Jesus the son

of Joseph, whose father

and mother we know’

42).

Both these passages

suggest that Jesus bar Joseph was

a

common phrase

in some

of the primitive Christian tradition, and t h e

latter passage suggests the inquiry whether there

is

not

a

sense in which Jesus could have been the son of Joseph,
although the name of the husband of Mary was unknown.
T h e phrase

the sons of Jacob and Joseph’ (Ps.

does not mean the men called Reuben,

Simeon, Manasseh, Ephraim,

nor does

the son of Jabesh

( 2

K.

15

IO)

probably mean Shallum,

whose father, in the strictest sense, was called Jabesh.’
O n the analogy of such passages ‘Jesus the son

of

Joseph’ may mean ‘Jesus

a

member of the house of

Joseph’

It is true that the Jewish belief

in

a

Messiah ben-Joseph, the forerunner of the Messiah

ben-David, did not exist

as

a

developed scholastic

doctrine in the time

of

Jesus (see M

ESSIAH

), but some

of the germs of it may have appeared even then.

T h e

primitive Christians certainly seem to have traced Christ’s
origin to Galilee (see N

A Z A R E T H

) , and to have quoted

Is.

91

of his

birth (Mt. 223

Even

in

the latest of our Gospels we seem t o

find traces of

a division among the Jews in this respect,

some affirming that the holy one and

the prophet

could not proceed from Galilee (Jn.

1

46

others that Jesus

the Holy One,’ and

spoken

of

in the law and the prophets, although he was

6

(Jn. 145, and cp

According

to Mt.

1 3 5 5

Jesus, when

on

a visit to his

or fatherland (but

Cur. and Lewis, ‘ h i s

city

’),

was called

6

It is true t h a t

this was early understood to mean the son

of Joseph.’

Not only does Lk. substitute this phrase in

but

the Sinaitic Palimpsest does the same in Mt. 1355. T h e
phrase

however

simply

means

‘ a

carpenter’

and,

as

Mr. N.

has

already suggested, the phrase,

as used in the

tradition, may have meant

no

more than this (cp

S

ON

).

In this case, Jesus himself is the carpenter,

a

result

which agrees with the statement in Mk.

and is

in

accordance with what we should expect and desire.
T h e possibility must be admitted, however, that there
has been

a confusion between two Semitic roots

and

Elsewhere (see

N

AZARETH

) it h a s

been shown that

a

name for Galilee, or for a district in

Galilee, was

or

but that this was also written

or

Now the Aram.

(Heb.

c p

‘ a

saw’)

means ‘ t o saw,’

so

that ‘Jesus t h e

(Nasarene?) might be taken to’mean ‘Jesus,

the carpenter.’

Possibly, or probably, there was

a

play

upon

words.

A

mere carpenter, said the Jews

yes,

a carpenter- one of ourselves, said Christ’s poor.

The

opinion that Joseph died before

Jesus’ ministry began seems to be based

on

The accounts

the Apocryphal Gospels and similar writings

In

146,

for

read

See

the carpenter’s son.’

63 cp

and parallels.

in

for

read

G

ALILEE

, 5,

n.

but all in chaps.

a

section which

stands apart from the rest of

Gospel, and has nothing answering to it in Mk. or Jn.
The-most important is that in

because it refers to

Joseph

as

a

person well known by name to the reader

as

‘ t h e husband of Mary.’

In

Mt.

mentions the mother

of Jesus, but not his father.

Mk. nowhere, directly or indirectly, refers to Joseph.
(c) Lk. also mentions Joseph seven times, but only in
chaps.

It is true that one

of these references is

outside chaps.

1-3,

a

section which

(if we put aside

and

which are unique, and 31-22, which

corresponds to Mt. 3, and is properly speaking outside
the prelude of the fuller traditional Gospel)

is

in the

parallel to Mt.

In

the two narratives which

are here called unique, however, the father of Jesus is
twice referred to, without being named

6

and

[WH,

followed by RV]).

T h e last reference (Lk.

occurs in

a

narrative which

has evidently been expanded and

is

less accurate than

the tradition given in

Mk.

Mt. 1 3

54-58,

and may

perhaps be ascribed to the influence

of

chaps.

1-3

in

which Joseph

is

referred to by name.

Is not this the

son of

Joseph in Lk. corresponds to I s not this the

carpenter’ in

and Is not this the carpenter’s son

in Mt.

( d ) In Jn., Jesus is twice referred to

as

the

son

of Joseph

in the latter case with the addition,

whose father and mother

know.’

Thus the evidence that primitive Christian tradition

knew anything about the father of Jesus

is very slight,

and considering the high probability that the narratives
respecting the birth

of Jesus in Mt.

If.

Lk.

1

21-39

3

23-38 are partly Haggadic

or edifying tales like those

in the

(upon which, indeed,

Conrady thinks that the infancy narratives are based),
partly the offspring of the keen interest which post-exilic

displayed in real and imaginary genealogies (this

applies t o Mt.

11- 17

Lk.

3

23-38), it becomes the historical

student to confess that the name of the father of Jesus
is, to say the least, extremely imcertain.

I t would, however, be hasty to assert that there was

no

element

of

in the expression, ’Joseph the

husband of Mary,

of whom was born

Jesus, who

is

called Christ’ (Mt.

A

hint

may

perhaps be gained from the

two references in

T h e writer of this

Gospel says nothing of the birth-of Jesus a t

Cp. G

OSPELS

The

’of the Sinaitic Palimpsest, however: gives

‘Joseph, to whom was betrothed Mary

the

Virgin.

Cp.

G

OSPELS

,

background image

JQSEPHUS

JOSHUA

Perhaps Joshua is another form of

which in

I

Ch.

6 4

Ezra75 is the name

of

the son

of

Eleazar, b. Aaron.

and Joshua

are

associated in assigning the lands of the

Israelites (Josh. 19

and the burial-places of the two are

mentioned in the same narrative (Josh.

are both in

Mt.

Ephraim, and both probably contain the name Jerahmeel

(see T

IMNATH

-

HERES

; P

HINEHAS

). If

it was originally the

priestly and warlike tribe of Levi that was represented by

Joshua.

His name is

a

clan-name and should perhaps be read

Josheba or Abi-sheba (cp

where Sheba

probably an obscure divine name (see S

HEBA

). This

a

probable explanation of Joshua’s patronymic.

(N

UN

) may

he an abridged way of writing

(N

AHSHON

), which is a

Jerahmeelite name (cp Timnath-heres).

Even apart from these considerations the

character

of

Joshua as an individual is doubtful.

It was natural

to

provide Moses with attendants, and

to

give a name to the chief

of these

11

who was in training

to

become Moses’

successor. Nor

such

a

successor have a more suitable

name than

Eliezer (Ex.

Eleazar (Ex.

6

23

Josh.

24

the names of a

son

of Moses and of a son of Aaron

respectively. Naturally too he would he assigned to the tribe

which had the leadership in early times, and if Joseph was

originally (as Wi. maintains) a solar

it would not be

surprising if details

of

solar-mythical origin

themselves

to

the Joshua tradition; note in this connection the name

of

Joshua’s ‘inheritance’ (see above), if this really means ‘portion

of the sun.

At any rate, whether the name ‘Joshua’

is

a pure

invention or has its origin in a clan-name, the actions
ascribed to Joshua are purely legendary, unless indeed
the work of critics

on

the narratives which relate them

is a failure,

We.

n.

I

See I

SRAEL

,

7 ;

E

PHRAIM

.

6

; J

ERICHO

J

OSHUA

ii.

High-priest Hag.

1

I

Zech.

3

.

see

5.

A man of

(‘house

the sun,’ cp

serah’ above), in whose field the ark rested,

I

S.

Governor of Jerusalem, temp. Josiah,

K.

238

[L]).

JOSHUA (BOOK)

Name etc.

Analysis

7-10).

Redaction

Accounts of settlement

12-14).

Ultimate sources

Chronology

17).

Text

( 5

Literature

In the Hebrew Bible, Joshua is the first

of

the

four

historical books (Josh.,

S.,

K.

)

which make up the

first half

of

the canon of the Prophets,

and are hence called the

Prophets

I n Greek manuscripts, Josh., Judg., and Ruth are frequently

included with the Pentateuch

a codex (Octateuch)’ in the

Latin Church the same

books,

omission

of

are

often similarly united

In all these Josh. immedi-

ately follows the Pentateuch

;

hut in the Bible of the Syrian

Church this place is given

to

Job

(as

the work

of

Moses), and

Josh. stands next in order.

T h e book of Joshua, in narrating the conquest and

settlement

of

Canaan, records the fulfilment of the

promises to the patriarchs and the completion

of

the great movement of which the Exodus is the
beginning

it is thus the necessary continuation of the

Pentateuch, and must once have formed part

of

the

same historical work with the preceding five books.

In

recent critical investigations, therefore, the first six books

of

the

OT

(Hexateuch) are usually taken together

:

the

separation of Josh. from the Pentateuch in the Jewish
canon was due to the predominance of the legal point
of view

the books of Moses were law (Torah), while

Josh. was only history.

It need not be assumed, how-

ever, that the Hexateuch ever formed by itself a com-
plete historical work ending with the death of Joshua;
we know it only a s part of

a more comprehensive history

extending from the creation

of the world to the destruc-

tion of Jerusalem

in which Josh. is hardly

more

closely connected with the Pentateuch than with

the following books and the similarity

redactional

phenomena in Dt., Josh., and Judg. shows that this
connection is not one

of

mere sequence,

Canon.

See C

ANON

,

6.

2600

the

Death

see Forbes Robinson’s

Gospels

1896)

are

not

historical traditions at

all.

See

(for dates)

In

Sahidic

apocryphal Life of Joseph, which is strongly impregnated with

Egyptian ideas, the age of Joseph at his death is fixed a t

years. The ideal age for the close of life in Egypt was

years (see

J

OSEPH

Lk.

3 30

3

26

JOSECH

and Lk.

3

24,

names

of individuals in the genealogy of Jesus

G

ENEALOGIES

ii.,

7.

oseph

A n t .

2

43)

called

8.

foseph

(Acts

called B

ARSABAS

Joseph whose mother was Mary; br

AV

Mk.

6 3 ,

EV

Th

supported by

in Mt and by

Mk. See

$ 4 .

IO.

Acts

RV

;

see

[A]),

I

Esd.

JOSES,

RV J

OSEPH

.

(

I

)

Mt.

( I

[Ti.

6 3

[Ti.

see

4,

J

OSEPH

Acts436

see B

ARNABAS

.

31

probably

a

corruption of

JOSHIBIAH),

a Simeonite prince,’

I

JOSHAPHAT

abbrev. from

I

.

One of David‘s heroes, probably from

for

we can hardly help assuming

a

slight error in the

Mithnite,’ which should be

‘the Timnite,’

I

6.

see D

AVID

,

a.

AV

a Levite, temp. David,

I

Ch. 1524

JOSHAVIAH

probably a corruption

of

JOSHIBIAH),

a

name in David‘s army-list (D

AVID

,

favour the reading,

Joshaviah his

instead

M T Jeshaviah, the

sons

of

Elnaam.’

JOSHBEKASHAH

according to the

Chronicler a son of

I

Ch.

B

AKATA

23

T. K. C.

JOSEPH,

4.

T. K.

C .

Cp

E

LNAAM

.

but see

RV.

See J

ASHOBEAM

.

a

(

I

Ch. 435 ;

AV

J

OSIBIAH

,

[BA],

[L]).

Cp

J

OSHAVIAH

.

JOSHUA

and (Nu.

Jehoshua

Dt. 3

Judg.

2

is

deliverance’;

N

AMES

,

55

27,

84,

but see below. I n

Nu.

138

16

Dt.

3244

we find

[see

but we cannot

venture to assume that

is really a traditional form, Nu.

23

proceeding from

and Dt.

32 44

being incorrectly read

[see Driver,

ad

I.

Son of N

U N

attendant

of

Moses, and one

of

his young men’ ( N u .

cp Josh.

I

),

traditional

leader of Israel in the conquest of Canaan.

H e is said

to have died a t the same age as the tribal hero Joseph

and to have been buried in his inheritance at

(Josh.

(Judg.

the hill-country of Ephraim.

In Nu.

1 3 8 1 6

he is said to have belonged to the tribe

of

Ephraim, and to have been called Hoshea (see above),

until Moses, on sending forth Hoshea among the other

spies,’ changed his name to Jehoshua.

According to

Budde, Judg.

states that Joshua accompanied the

house of Joseph’ in its invasion

of Mt. Ephraim.

Verse

however, favours

reading

out

of

which the reading J u d a h ’

etc.)

would easily arise.

At

any rate, ‘Joshua,’

if

correct,

ought in this context to be

a

clan-name.

From the time of the

Maccabees onwards the purely Greek name

JASON

was

commonly regarded by Hellenizing Jews

as

an equivalent of

Joshua.

JOSHIBIAH

God enthrones

usually

Whence the name

JESUS

background image

JOSHUA (BOOK)

Thebooktakesits

from the name of the great

JOSHUA

(BOOK)

.

-

-

T

it

le

a

~~

leader whose achievements it relates (cp
the books of

T h e opinion that

Joshua is not only the hero but the author

of the book

3

-if not merely an inference from the title-

rests, presumably, upon a theory of Hebrew historio-
graphy like that set forth by Josephus
T h e book of Joshua begins, immediately after the death
of Moses (Dt.

with the command of God to Joshua,

who had already been appointed Moses’ successor

(Dt.

t o cross the Jordan it relates the conquest

and division of Canaan, and ends with the death

Joshua.

The book

naturally into two parts

:

the

invasion and conquest

and the allotment of the

land t o the several tribes

T h e first part closes

with a recapitulation of the Israelite conquests

E.

and

W.

of the Jordan

(12)

the second, with Joshua’s parting

charges and admonitions

.

The contents of the

book

may be summarised thus

:

crossinq

of

the Jordan; capture of Jericho

operations against

successful ruse of the

(9)

; victory over the

coalition of Canaanite kings, subjugationof the South

(10);

cam.

paign

the king

of

Hazor and his allies, subjugation

of

the North

(11)

recapitulation

(12).

of

the land

.

the

trans-Jordanic

Caleb

Judah

Ephraim’and

Manasseh

survey and allotment of the remaining

territory

to

the

tribes, Joshua’s own inheritance

;

designation of cities

of

levitical cities

(21) ;

dismissal

of the trans-Jordanic contingent

(22)

;

last exhortations of Joshua

(23);

assembly at Shechem, and covenant there; death and

burial of Joshua

(24).

Throughout the Pentateuch- from the first promise

t o

Abraham down to the vision of the dying Moses on

Mt. Nebo-the possession of the land

of

Canaan is kept steadily in view a s the goal

to

which the history is moving. T h e critical analysis

shows that this is true not only of the actual Pentateuch,
but also of all its sources, and

of every stage in the

redaction.

Thus, in

JE (J, E, and

are all represented), Gen.

263

etc.

Ex.38

also

JE

Nu.

32

and

Dt.

31

in

D

Do,

Dt. 31

cp also

in

35

484)

Ex.

Nu.

Dt.

I t is not conceivable that any of these sources broke

off

with the death

of Moses, a t the very moment when

the fulfilment

of

these promises and commands

was

about to begin

the conquest and settlement

of

Canaan

must have been more or less fully narrated in all

of

them.

On the other hand, the book of Joshua is con-

nected in the closest way, both materially and formally,
with the Pentateuch.

Cp Josh.

with Dt.

31

23

Josh. 1

12-15

with (Nu.

Dt.

3

Josh.

8

with Dt.

11

Josh.

with

Nu. 3 4 ‘

Josh.

with Nu

Dt.

osh.

with Nu.

27

Josh.

35

Since, furthermore, the book

is

obviously composite,

it is a natural inference that Josh. was compiled (in
the main) from the same sources as the five preceding

books ; and the critical analysis accordingly set itself to
distinguish these sources.

The problem has proved,

however, more difficult than might have been anticipated,
and upon some important points opinion is still much
divided.

T h e hook opens with a deuteronomic introduction

and has

a

similar close

23)

evidence of

deuteronomic redaction is found in both
partsof the book-much moreabundantly,

a s would be expected, in the narrative chapters

(1-12)

than in the statistical account of the possessions of the

On

tht origin of this form see

N

U N

.

so

Theodoret and others.

3

and ninny.

of the opinion, which has been maintained in

recent tilhes by some Roman Catholic scholars

L.

is sought in

I

K.

34 ;

cp also Josh.

24

26.

5

De

Wette

’45)

was

the first

to

extend the analysis

to

Josh.

see Hollenberg,

47462

Albers

Geddes and others had seen that Josh:

was put together in

same way as the Pentateuch.

2601

tribes

I t is clear, therefore, that the basis

of

our book is a deuteronomic history of Joshua,

that of

the following book is a deuteronomic history of the Judges

(originally including Eli and Samuel).

Indeed, the

two books are connected in such

a

a s to suggest

that, a t one stage

of the ’redaction, a t least, they were

united in a single work-a deuteronomic history

of

Israel

from the invasion of

to the establishment of

the kingdom.

Josh.

1-12

has come down to

us

substantially as it

was in the deuteronomic book

the

of the priestly

editors

is

here limited to some minor

changes in phraseology and the insertion

of

a

few verses

54- 7

7 1

some

of which may be derived from

P

(so probably

17-21),

whilst others are additions of

or later

diaskeuasts.

I n

13-24

the share of

P

is much larger

the description of the territories of the several tribes in

1 3 - 1 9

is

in great part from this source, a s are also the

cities of refuge

(20)

and the catalogue of levitical cities

is

of still later

T h e narrative in the deuteronomic book is not itself

deuteronomic.

As

in Jndg., it is taken from older

sources, the hand of the compiler or editor

appearing, aside from the introduction and
close, chiefly in

a

consistent heightening

of the colours, and in enlargements on the moral
and religious aspects of the history.4 T h e materials
incorporated by the deuteronomic historian are not
homogeneous ; in

1 3 - 1 9

there are considerable fragments

of a n

of the conquest which, like Judg.

repre-

sented it, not a s the work of Joshua a t the head of all

Israel, but as slowly and incompletely achieved by the
several tribes; and in

1 - 1 2

(particularly in

1-9)

it is

possible to distinguish a n older and simpler account of
the invasion from

a

later version of the same story in

which

a

tendency to magnify the events and exaggerate

the miraculous character of the history is conspicuous.

there is a similar relation between J and

E

in the

history of the

and since, a s we have seen above,

both J and

E

must have included the conquest

of Canaan,

the natural hypothesis is that in Josh. also the older
version

of

the story is derived from

the younger from

E.6

To

some critics, however, this presumption appears to be

refuted by other considerations

E.

and

hold-

ing that

J knew nothing of Joshua, must for this reason regard

J as excluded from the greater part of Josh.

1-12.

Kuenen,

on

the contrary, maintains that the representation of the conquest

Josh.

(E)

differs

so

radically from that in

1-12

as

to

prevent our ascribing any considerable part

of

these chapters to

that

Kuenen also thinks that the diverse materials

have been more completely fused than is common

Penta-

teuch ; in

they can in part be distinguished, but in

6-11

they

are inseparable.

T h e reasons urged for the exclusion

of

J

or

E

from

the analysis d o not outweigh the strong antecedent
probability created by the relation of Josh.

to

the Penta-

teuch, and the impression which the composition of
Josh. itself makes.

I t

is

no more improbable that the

historians

(J)

should have adopted Ephraimite

traditions about Joshua than that they should have

On

deuteronomic element

Josh.

see Hollenberg,

with whom the modern period of investigation begins

p.

Kue.

Di.,

Alhers.

On the deuteronomistic phraseology Kue.

H e x . 7,

n.

26

nn. 4

;

Holzinger,

Hex.

34

;

in Smith’s

1

See

J

UDGES

14.

On

P in

see

;

Kue.

Hex.

6,

n.

cp

n.

; Di.

4

See

3.

J

and

E

in Josh. by Schr.,

Vatke, Co.,

7

See

1136

161.

H e x . 8

n.

cp

13

Ki.,

Dr., Bennett, and others.

Cp also We.

Against this view see Bu.

Sa.

Kue.

Hex.

I

.

Albers.

See

also

Bu.

Sa.

who

in

J ,

epigoni of the Yahwistic

and

2602

background image

JOSHUA

(BOOK)

JOSHUA

(BOOK)

t h e legends

of the Ephraimite holy places i n

the

patriarchal story.'

Even if we should admit that

the

contradiction between Josh.

and the representa-

tion in

1 - 1 2

is

as irreconcilable as

thinks,

E

is

not

such

a

homogeneous a n d consistent

that such

a

discrepancy is inconceivable in it.

The

,question can

be decided

only

by

the analysis itself.

T h e

difficulty of

the

analysis arises

not so

much from the

intimate fusion of the sources, which

are

not more closely

than in many parts

of

the Pentateuch,- the

accounts

of the exodus, for example,-but from

the

fact

that the two narratives were originally so much alike,
a n d that the younger version

of

the

story

is

here

on the older.

In chap.

1,

the deuteronomic introduction to the book, a kernel

older narrative

(E)

is contained in

The

nomistic element is not all from one

7.

Albers ascribes

7f: 176 186

to D

B

(the author

of Dt.

4

the rest

t o

D

A

(author of Dt.

The dependence of the latter

element on Dt. is to be noted

3-5a =

Dt.

11

56

6

dep.

o n Dt.

31

esp.

7f:

;

with Dt.

(not Nu.

32

2,

the story of the spies, the words of Rahab

96-11

are

a

deuteronomistic expansion, with reminiscences

439

(cp Ex.

15)

and of Dt. 2

IO,

cp also Josh. 5

I

24

is also deuterono-

mistic. The main narrative

in part,

6

8-9a 12-14 18-21)

comes

from the older source

;

with this is combined

a

second account

in part,

7

[El);

17

is editorial

32

seems to connect immediately with

(E); the

sending of the spies stood in an earlier place, perhaps before

(Albers) or before

1

In the account of the crossing of

seems

t o be later

a

connected deuteronomic narrative

is not

to

be

recognised. The conflation of two sources is apparent

:

at 317

the crossing is completed, in

4

the narrative has only reached

the same point

;

in

48

(cp

the stones are erected

at

Gilgal

whilst according to

4 9

they were piled up in the middle of

river.

The fuller narrative is here from E remains of the

briefer account of J are found in

5

Additions

to

both sources and harmonistic modifications may be recognised

4 2

seem to be displaced, the words would naturally stand

(in E) after

3 8.

869

contain an account (probably from

E)

of

the

circumcision of the Israelites

4.7

are an editorial amplifica-

tion

(later

than

designed to remove the natural impression

of the original narrative, that this was the introduction of the

rite

is from P

;

from

J (the sequel

a

plan for the

capture of Jericho, is to be sought in

6)'

introduced by

a n editor

R

D

)

from

Ex.35,

conformity with the

tendency at

a

certain stage of the redaction to

Joshua

the double

of

Moses.

In

the taking of Jericho, Wellhausen's analysis with slight

is generally adopted the shorter

simpler

narrative, rightly ascribed by most critics

to

J ,

is found in

( 2 3

The other version (E) has been heightened and

b y later hands

to

may be attributed

5 7a

(Albers) ;

R

J

E

apears in

also

or

in

176

246

R

D

in

27 ;

the

untimely

in

13

is probably still later, cp

cp also Josh.

23.

*

7

in part,

r7a

from

Judg.

7.

Traces

of

post-exilic hands are found in

7

I

186

(probably

not

from

P,

but merely late variants to

The remainder of

the chapter, which comes from J, exhibits some redundancies

in

24-26,

cp

;

but these

are

probably due

to

repeated

redaction rather than

to

the conflation of parallel narratives

t h e expansion of Joshua's prayer and the answer

is

also

t o

be ascribed to an editor.

I n

8 - 1 1

the views of critics diverge even more widely

in

the

preceding chapters

whilst Hollenberg,

Wellhausen, Meyer, a n d

Stade make

the narrative dependent o n

E,

nearly

quite

to the

exclusion

of

Kuenen

and Budde

derive it mainly from

J

(and

a n d Dillmann, Albers,

a n d

trace both sources through the chapters.

In 1-29 the analysis has very slight clues

to

work with, and

the results are

uncertain.

The chief source

seems to be

J

;

other

be recognised in

IO

(traces)

2628.6

The work of re-

dactors is seen in

I

f:

(chiefly deuteronomistic, but not

See below,

$ 1 5 .

On

the evidence of

a

double deuteronomistic redaction see at

t h e end of

I O

and

('86).

[The references

to

circumcision,

'the second time,' are probably due

t o

t o

4

Note the variations of

in this chapter, esp. in

5

Bndde ascribes this strand in a somewhat different analysis

2603

geneous),

76

27

33

The erection

of the altar on Mt. Ebal

stands in an impossible place.

introduce the'passage after

but with no

connection

;

Josephus and the Samaritan

(chap.

21)

put

this ceremony where

it is historically conceivable, after the

completed conquest. The verses are a comparatively recent

deuteronomistic addition

to

the book

;

they have been enlarged

and retouched by still later hands

(33

; the blessing

the

curse,'

9,

the ruse of the Gibeonites,

17-21

are of priestly

character ;

a

deuteronomistic hand is seen

the first

words)

27

in part. There is general agreement that the

chief

J

note the resemblance to Gen.

(ob-

serve

esp.

Josh.

9

and the relation to

I

Sam.

21 @

(J).

From

10

it appears that

also

related that the Gibeonites made

peace with Israel

;

traces of this source are, therefore, perhaps

to be recognised in

9

8

though in themselves

these verses might be editorial glosses

to

In the history of the war in the South (chap.

verses

8

25

are deuteronomistic; slight traces of the

priestly redaction are

also

discernible. Since in

the Israelite

armyreturns to Gilgal most critics ascribe

to another hand

;

Kittel and others

to E (slight contamination in

16-27

to J ; but the obvious dependence of

16-27

on

makes strongly against this partition. Wellhausen regards

as

secondary in JE, Budde

as

tertiary in J (later than

28-39 43).

It is

a

simpler hypothesis that

which should

stand after

has been misplaced

presumably in

connection with the intrusion of

Nothing then stands

in the way of attributing

to the author of

(E). The

poetical prayer of Joshua in

13a

is

from the old book

of

the setting in which the lines now stand is given

them by

R

D

,

or perhaps

whose fondness for poetical

has often been remarked

;

nothing points

to

28-39,

describing Joshua's further conquests in the South, are

obviously secondary, and are usually ascribed

to R

D

,

though

there are no decisive indications of

or

R

J

E

would be possible ; an underlying source

is

surmised by

Kittel and others

are a deuteronomistic general summary.

parallel to the war with Adonizedek and his allies is preserved

in an abridged form in Judg.

14-8

(cp also

9-15).

Chap.

11, a

counterpart in contents and form to

10,

relates the

conquest'of Northern Palestine. To the deuteronomistic author

are attributed

perhaps

also

6

and touches in

;

23

are

of

later origin. The chief

E

fragments

of

parallel

to

the war with

are combined with the

history of the struggle with Sisera in Jndg.

4.

seem

to

be a secondary addition to

(as

is to

10

1-27),

prob-

ably hy

or

R

J

E

subsequently worked over, with the rest

of

the chapter, by

Chap.

12 is a

of the conquests

E.

a n d

W.

of

the

Jordan

2-6

depend o n Dt.

14-17

c p

Josh.

the superscription of the following

catalogue of cities resembles

11

17.

Both parts of

the

chapter

are late a n d without historical value.

In

1 3 - 1 9

we

find some fragments of

J

;

1 3 1 3

1963

These are

plainly

taken from

a

context similar

to Judg.

1,

and

were

inserted in

their

present connection

by

a late redactor.

131

was the introduction in JE

to

an allotment such as

in twice redacted form we have in

Dt.

are deuteronomistic cp Dt.

3

Josh.

12

the description of the

unconquered territory in

is

also

deuteronomistic

whether by the same hand

as

or not (cp Jndg.

3 3) ;

so

ably

7

(cp

Verses

15-32

(with the title

146

are from P

and

has been worked over.

is from

P

34,

esp.

probably preceded by a general title

which now stands in

18 ;

the corresponding subscription is

19

cp

13

.

in its present form deuteronomistic,

related to

1

has perhaps

a

basis of E

defines the boundaries of the tribe of Judah,

enumerates the cities and towns

its several regions; the

list is probably based on an older (JE) list, traces of which still

appear here

'there.

In

territories of Joseph),

from

J

16

17

8

are at variance with the presumptions of

and must in substance be derived from J E

the re-

mainder is from

P, with additions by

T h e

a n d confusion of chaps.

compared

1 5

(Judah)

and

18

(Benjamin),

with the description

of

the

territories of the Northern

Tribes (note the absence of the

list of cities in Ephraim

a n d Manasseh), must

be

attributed

to

late abridgment ;

Note in this chapter also the variations of

See Hollenberg,

47

('74);

Kue.

3

Di. is an exception.

15

is repeated in

it

was originally lacking in both

5

See

A

S

HFR

[B

OO

K OF]

Kue.

I. Sack,

Hex. 7,

n.

n.

places in

it

2604

background image

JOSHUA (BOOK)

JOSHUA (BOOK)

similar abridgment may with good reason be suspected

in the account of the conquest

where we now

find nothing about the conquest of Central

Chap.

contain a survey of the land and allot-

ments to the remaining tribes.

18

I

(P

or

secondary) conflict with

the

presumptions of P the obviously

historical character of the transaction has led somecritics toascribe

the verses

as a

whole

to

R

J

E

(Kuenen) or

(Albers); but, the

representation is not D's, more probably the passage is derived

substantially from E

Kittel etc.)

;

the original scene

of the transaction was

has been supplanted in

I

P s

Shiloh (cp

in 24

I

).

'The idea of

a

division of land by

lot

the conquest) comes from J (Judg.

1,

see below,

and

successively heightened

E

and

P ;

it may even be

conjectured that traces of

representation have been pre-

served in

in the present form of

the

verses both R

JE

and

Ru may have

had a

hand. In what follows

the

older source (E) may be recognised, especially in the

19117,

and others), further, in

and

but it

is not possible to partition the material in the lists between E

and P, probably because

is here directly dependent upon E ;

it can only be said that E's description of the territories of the

several tribes was in the form of

a

catalogue of cities

(189

is

P s

closing formula for the whole, corresponding

to

I

.

Chaps.

are composite.

The appointment of the cities of refuge in 20

is from

supplemented in

8

by

a

very late hand from Dt.

Chap. 21

1-42

cities

as.

Chaps.

signed

to

the priests and Levites, is

also

from

P

;

20 and

21 1-42

correspond to the two parts

of Nu.

35,

cp Josh.

43-45

D's

conclusion to the occupation of the land originally followkd

; 22

also

deuteronomistic and

on Dt.

perhaps not wholly by the same hand;

7f:

is of

late;

Chap.

belongs to the most recent stratum

in the Hexateuch; its resemblance to

in

and

to

Judg. 20 has often been pointed out ; cp

also

the late work-

ing over of Gen. 34 and

Ex.

16.

Chap.

23

is the close of the deuteronomic book

of

Joshua,

originally followed immediately

on

21

I t not only corresponds'in position to the

parting exhortations of Moses, Dt.

4

but

so closely

resembles them in thought and diction as t o raise the
question whether they are not by the same author ;
c p also the farewell address of

(

I

12).

Chap.

24

contains the similar conclusion to

history of Joshua.

This conclusion has reached us only in deuteronomic redac-

tion, which may most certainly

be

recognised in

(cp

232)

Dt.

and

(cp Dt.

and in slighter touches

deuteronomistic colour in several other verses ; the seven nations

are editorial

or

;

are later glosses ;

96

are perhaps

also

T h e chapter must have been omitted by

author

of

2 3 ,

and restored by a later deuteronomistic editor

(cp the case of Judg.

1 9

Its

of the

Elohistic history is of great value.

concludes

narrative;

32

from the same source, is a

natural appendix.

contains further additions

see

below,

18.

J

and

E

appear

in

Josh. 1-12 to have been united,

not

by the deuteronomistic author

himself, but,

cp Josh.

is the

of

as in the Pentateuch, by a n earlier,
redactor

it is not improbable,

however, that

like

of the introduction to

Dt., had

E

separately, and used it, to the exclusion of

in

10-12

As

in the other deuteronomistic

histories, the religious comment and pragmatism which

introduced invited expansion by similarly-minded

editors or scribes; and the presence

of a secondary

deuteronomistic element in the book is generally

nised, though it

is

not always possible to distinguish

We.

with much probability conjectnres that this

mutilation bad

in hostility to the Samaritans ;

cp

Kue.

Hex.

n.

see

cp

; Hollenberg,

22,

see Kue.

Th. T 11

('77).

See Hollenberg

('74).

Mention

made of

conjecture that the

covenant referred to in

(cp

was made

the

Book of the Covenant,'

Ex.

21-23 (in its original form); see

Hex.

2605

it with certainty.

This secondary stratum is akin

to

the younger parts of Dt. (esp.

4

A

peculiar

deuteronomistic colour belongs also to the very latest
redaction of Josh.

T h e union of the deuteronomistic

Josh. with P was the work of

nothing

in

the

method of combination militates against the supposition

it was effected by the same hand

as in

Nu.,

though

this can hardly be proved.

A

late addition of haggadic

character cognate to

Nu.

etc. is found in Josh.

cp

20.

Still more recent, probably, is the

mutilation of

T o what stage in the redaction the

restoration of

24

and the interpolation of the fragments

of J in

13-19

belong cannot be determined.

Slight

and changes in the text continued

to

be made

even after the time of the Greek translation.

T h e

fragments of P preserved in Josh.

1-12

lead

us

to suppose that in P the conqnest of Western

Palestine was narrated summarily

without detail,

as

was that of Eastern

Palestine

(P

in

Nu.

war with the Midianites

in

Nu.

is later than P ) ;

as

in the history of

the exodus,

P

supposes readers familiar with the older

narratives.

From

we see that the whole land has

been subdued.

T h e congregation

then assembles

a t Shiloh, and sets up

tabernacle

Eleazar and

Joshua, with the heads of families, divide the land by
lot to the nine tribes and a half

(14

I

) .

T h e boundaries

of the tribal territories, beginning with Judah, are
minutely defined, in dependence

on an older description

with which P is here combined.

P s

doomsday book has

not been preserved intact for Ephraim and Manasseh
little more than the skeleton remains (see above,

It is characteristic that the priest Eleazar everywhere

takes precedence of Joshua.

T h e older of the two chief sources of the deuterono-

mistic history of the conquest (in our analysis, J ) gives

substantially the following representation.
From Shittim,

E.

of the Jordan, Joshua

sends spies to Jericho.

The spies take lodging with Rahah, who

saves

their lives and

receives in return

a

pledge of protection when the city is taken.

The Israelites encamp on the hanks

the Jordan; Joshua

orders them to purify themselves for the holy war, and predicts

that

will work wonders for them. They cross the river,

the waters being miraculously stayed in their course,

so

that they

pass over on dry ground.

At Joshua's

command they take twelve stones from the midst of the river

and set them up at their first halting-place (Gilgal). Joshua
has

a

vision of the 'Captain of

s

host who reveals to

him

a

plan for the capture of Jericho. The fighting men march

round the

city

without any demonstration, and return to camp ;

this

is repeated for six days ; on the seventh, Joshua

gives the signal for

assault.

T h e Israelites storm the city, which is taken by

surprise

into their hands

they slaughter the

inhabitants- sparing only

R

A

HAB

)

and her house-

hold-and burn the city.

Spies sent

to

Ai report that it will be easy to take the place'

but the division sent against it is badly 'defeated

;

anger has been provoked by the

appropriation

of part of

the

spoils of Jericho, the contagious

has

infected the whole people the guilty man is discovered

lot

and put

to

death.

Ai is then taken by a familiar stratagem (cp Judg.

20).

T h e Gibeonites deceive the Israelites by pretending to
come from a great distance, and secure the protection

of

a

treaty.

Thus far, in this source,

as in later representations,

acts

as

one body, under the leadership of Joshua

after the destruction

of

Ai

the army returns to Gilgal,

which is the scene of chap.

9.

The remains of

J in

Judg.

1

(and parallels

in Josh.

represent the

conquest of Canaan

as

the work of the several tribes

independently- Judah and Simeon in the

Joseph in

the central highlands.

There

also, however, the tribes

set out for the subjugation

of the interior from the same

point

in the Jordan valley (Gilgal, Judg.

2

I

cp Jericho,

Precisely the same stratagem

is

said

to

have been employed

by

the

Roman general

Calvinus

at

the siege of Luna,

a

fortified town of the

;

see Frontinus,

I.

See

J

E

R

I

C

H

O

,

4.

2606

background image

JOSHUA

(BOOK)

it is assumed that the region which each is to

subdue has previously been determined by lot (Judg.
and the order in which they shall invade their several
territories is decided by the oracle (Judg.

f.).

Judg.

1

must, therefore, have been preceded by a n

account of the crossing of the Jordan by the united
tribes and the taking of Jericho, and there

is

thus no

conflict

the oldest narrative in Josh. 1-6 and

Judg.

1.

T h e operations against

present

greater difficulty for, as that city was in the immediate
neighbourhood of Bethel, the war against it would seem

properly to belong to the particular history of the
conquests of Joseph (cp Judg.

Although,

however, the historical probability that the taking of

Ai

was accomplished

Joseph alone must be conceded,

it is

a

hazardous inference that our oldest source must

have

so

narrated i t ; in fact, both

7

and

9

show that

J

represented it a s the work of all Israel.

As

has been already noted, J in Judg.

1

supposes

that their territories had been assigned to Judah and
Joseph, a t least, before the invasion it is possible that
this source originally

a

brief description of

these territories; the enumeration in Judg.

1

(and

parallels in Josh.) of the cities which the several tribes
were unable to reduce may he thought to presume such
a description.

Fragments of

account of the war

(of

Judah and Simeon) with the king of Jerusalem and of
the war

(of

Zebulun and Naphtali?) with the king of

Hazor

preserved in Judg.

1

and

4

the conquests

and settlements

of Caleb, Simeon, and the Kenites

in the

S . ,

and the taking of Bethel by Joseph, a r e

related in Judg.

1

(cp Josh.

and it can

scarcely he doubted that this source also contained a t
least brief and summary accounts of the movements

of

the northern tribes (cp Judg.

1 3 0

T h e narrative

may have closed with a general statement of the
incompleteness of the conquest such as underlies Judg.

(see J

UDGES

,

5).

I n Joshua, a s frequently, the earliest written account

has determined all the subsequent representations.

The second chief source of the deuteronomistic

history of Joshua is manifestly dependent

on

the older narrative, whose representation it consistently

Thus, the conquests of Judah and the

kindred clans, and of the

tribes, are ascribed

t o

Israel in two great campaigns the gradual sub-

jugation of the Canaanites by the several tribes as it

appears in J becomes the complete conquest of Western
Palestine by Joshua (corresponding to that of Eastern
Palestine by Moses in the same source), and-at least
in the later strata of E- the annihilation of the whole
native population.

For the determination by lot, at

Gilgal, of the region to be invaded by the several tribes
we have a formal survey, and division of the conquered
land, a t Shechem, to the seven tribes and a

T h e

miraculous element in the history is exaggerated, and
takes

on

a more magical form, as in the crossing of the

Jordan (cp J

O R D A N

,

and especially in the account

of the taking of Jericho, where a military stratagem is
transformed into

a religious procession, and the walls of

the doomed city crumble into dust at the blast of the
sacred trumpets and the shouts of the people (see

J

ERICHO

,

3 ) .

T h e relation of the younger narrative to

the older one here is entirely similar to that

we

find in .the history of the Egyptian plagues and the
crossing of the Red Sea (see

E

XODUS

3

iv.])

and this fact strengthens the presumption that the
secondary version in Joshua also comes from

E.

Elements of independent historical value, derived from
sources other than

are not to he discovered in the

younger narrative.

T h e special Ephraimite interest

appears in the increased prominence given to Joshua.

From the point of

view of

historical criticism,

it is

therefore

It

is possible that for this last also there

was

some point of

of no

consequence

whether the

second source be E

or

connection in

J.

JOSHUA

(BOOK)

T h e redactors naturally adopt

conception

of the

history, and exaggerate its unhistorical features, the
deuteronomistic author in particular never failing to
emphasise the unsparing thoroughness with which
Joshua obeys the command to extirpate the Canaanites.
T h e disposition to make Joshua

a

double of Moses has

also been noted.

Behind the oldest account of the conquest ( J ) lies, a s

in Gen. and in Ex.-Nu., not

a

specifically

tradition, but the common Israelite
tion, the product of

a

fusion which

doubtless began in the time of the united

kingdom,

which the Ephraimite element naturally

preponderates over that which is distinctively of Southern
origin.

In Josh.

2-9

the ultimate basis is probably in

large part the local tradition of Gilgal (Stade). ( T h e
particular

interest is only occasionally to h e

discerned, as,

in

In this tradition the

Ephraimite hero Joshua is the successor of Moses

and

the leader of Israel in the first period of the invasion
all the tribes cross the Jordan a t

time and place

Judah and the allied clans enter their territory from the
NE.; the Galilean tribes were perhaps thought of a s
following in the wake of Joseph and reaching their seats
through the highlands of Ephraim.

T h e question how far this representation corresponds

to

the actual facts is one for historical criticism. I t is

not only antecedently more probable that Caleb and its
kindred clans,

as

well a s the Kenites, entered t h e

country from the

S.

traces of such a tradition seem t o

be preserved,

in

Nn.

Whether the same

is

true of Judah and Simeon (Graf, Kue., Land, Tiele,
Doorn., and others) is more doubtful.

T h e lower fords

of the Jordan, opposite Jericho, may have been the
place of some memorable passage

Israelite tribes

but it is in the highest degree improbable that they all
crossed there.

T h e invasion was not even in its first

stage

a

concerted movement

it was a series of irrup-

tions, with varying success,

as

the catastrophe which

befell Simeon and Levi in their attempt on Shechem
(Gen.

34

495-7) proves.

Thus even the oldest account of the invasion cannot

be accepted without question

as

embodying a sound

historical tradition

it shows very plainly the working

of that process

of concentration which is observed in

all legend, the tendency t o ascribe to one man, one
generation, one stroke of arms what was

in

fact t h e

result of a long

Of the age of J there are few definite indications in

Josh.

T h e curse laid by Joshua

on the site of Jericho

(626) is connected with something which
happened (see

in the reign of

Ahab

(circa

B

.C.

I

K.

1634) the treatywith

the Gibeonites is older than the time

of

S.

and may be probably referred to the period of the south-
ward expansion of Joseph (formation of Benjamin) in
the preceding century; the imposing upon

of

the supply of wood for the temple-which was, we may
surmise, the original meaning of

cp

be-

long to the time of Solomon, who imposed various
charges upon the subject Canaanites

(

I

K.

Judg.

30

35,

and see

In striking contrast to Judg. the Book of Joshua

has

no

chronological scheme.

We are

not

told

how many years

were

consumed in the

of

the

land,

nor how long Joshua lived after the end

the

wars. in both

cases we

read only that

17.

Chronology.

' a

(11

18

I

).

From

it may

be calculated

that

from

the

crossing

of

the

Jordan to

the

assignment

of

Hebron

to

Caleb (after the

conquest

was

completed) there had elapsed

seven

years

or

if,

with

Josephus,

following

in

Josh,

5 we allow

forty

full years

This,

it should

be

ohserved, was

a

necessary consequence

of

the

representation

in the

Pentateuch,

in

which

Moses leads

all

Israel

to

the

plains of

Moab.

A n

instructive parallel

to

Josh. is found in the Greek

legends

of the

Dorian invasion

of

the Peloponnesus ('return

of

the

partition

of the

land

by

lot,

etc.

2608

background image

JOSHUA (BOOK)

JOSIAH

from the sending out

of

the spies from Kadesh-barnea to the

crossing of the Jordan five years. Other computations are based

upon

I

K.

I

from the exodus to the building of the

temple). in this way there were reckoned out for

by

the earl; Christian chronologists

27

years in

28

by Josephus,

25 ;

by Eupolemus, followed by

30.

More probably the author of

I

K.

allowed Joshua

40

years ;

but there is no trace of this system in Josh.

T h e Hebrew text of Josh. is fairly well preserved.

Certain consistent variations in its orthography

Pent.

;

Pent.

show that

the text of Josh. was edited by different

hands from the Pentateuch.

T h e Greek version of

Josh. was not made

translators of the Pentateuch

;

it is not conspicuously inferior to that of the Pentateuch
either in knowledge of Hebrew or in fidelity of render-
ing.

T h e Hebrew text from which

was made was

not very different from M T but it was free from some of
the latest glosses in M T (cp

5

4-7

6

3-5

4-6),

and some-

times had a n intact text where there is now

a

in

Hebrew

in

15

59,

where the names of eleven cities

have fallen out from Hebrew, and

[ M T between

35

and

where many Hebrew codd. and edd. also

insert the missing levitical cities in Reuben) in varia-
tions

not infrequently exhibits the

reading.

additions a t the end of chap.

24

are of some

interest, especially the last, which seems to show that
the author had

a

book of Judges which began with the

story of Ehud (the

is made in the

Samaritan Josh. chap.

T h e Samaritans possess a n uncanonical Book

of

Joshua in Arabic, professedly translated from

a

Hebrew

original.4

I t

with the consecration

of

Joshua

as

Moses'

(Dt.

after which is narrated (from Numbers) the story of

Balaam and the war upon the Midianites

which Joshua is the commander of the

Josh.

Israelite army).

Then, with

a

new title

('Here begins the Book

of

Joshua the son

of

Nun'), it relates in

its

own way the conquest and division

of

the land.

to

the death of

and continues to the death of

is

and

to

of

sect

rule.

of

I

Jo.

20.

hyp

in

See Di.

439

;

250.

See

ZWT

On the

version of

see Hollenberg,

des

Buches

ikr

(Programm), Moers,

'76

; cp

T W

. . .

cui

Ed.

'48.

'The

of

Joshua in Hebrew

'95

analysis in

colours),

The Book

of

Josh.

Pentateuch,'

('98);

G. A.

Smith, art. Joshua' in Hastings'

2

('99);

J.

E.

Carpenter and G. Harford-Battersby,

G .

F.

M.

Zech.

'God supports'

[Ges.]

[for another derivation see Hommel,

A N T 83

king of Judah

before the rapid decline and

fall of the state

(2

K.

Ch.

If the

in

and

are correct, he was only

a

boy of eight when

the people of the land'

perhaps the men capable of bearing arms) placed him
on the throne in succession to his father Amon.

Of the first years of his reign we know nothing.

Probably the earlier events recorded in the annals did

JOSIAH

not, from the redactor's point of view,
deserve to be remembered. Of course

Assyria was no longer troublesome

but we should like to have been informed a s to the
nature of the

in the temple, and a s

to

the

Scythian invasion referred to by

(1

In the eighteenth year of Josiahs reign, however,
something occurred which affected the redactor very
deeply

:

it was not

so

much the attention given by the

king to the fabric of the temple (the royal sanctuary ;
cp Am.

7

a s the finding of

a book called

(

the book of direction

in the house of

See

D

E

U

T

ER

ONO

M

Y

,

2f:

The account of this 'finding' and

of

the effect it produced

on

Josiah is very disappointing. The section, K.

contains

some passages which were certainly not as they now stand in the

original narrative

it is silent

ab

to various point: about

we feel

a

legitimate curiosity.

next

which describes the details

of

the reformation, is much fuller

but by no means free from difficulty. Without an

investigation, we could not adopt from either section more than

this-that long after Josiah's accession a recast and development

of

Yahwistic laws was brought from the temple to Josiah, and

that the king adopted it and imposed it by force upon his people

having first of all obtained an endorsement

of

the

the book by a prophetess of high repute (see

I

T h e thirteen years which followed the reformation

were monotonously peaceful.

N o foreign exactions

hampered the industry of the subjects, and the king
won the highest praise a s a jnst and God-fearing ruler

This prosperity, however, arose from circumstances

which could not last, and in

608

a

storm burst upon

the little kingdom.

It

was the imminent

partition of the

empire that

was the cause.

Neco

the young and

king of Egypt, had not forgotten the

:lories of Thotmes and Rameses, and started soon

his accession to reconquer Canaan,

and

Syria.

His first object was to lay his hand on the

iorthern territories

the strong southern fortress of

he meant to leave till his return.

Josiah

however, appears to have had political plans of a

character

he was probably not such

a

as he is represented in the Old

nent.

T h e mortal sickness of Assyria may have given

hopes of restoring the old Davidic kingdom

it

is

that at the time of the reformation he exercised

sovereign rights in Bethel and the cities of Samaria

2

K.

This is not impossible, though fuller

would be desirable. W e may also presume

hat he was subject to a sad illusion relative to the

rewards

of righteousness.

H e had the courage

alone or with allies) to meet the Egyptian king, and

have two accounts of what took place.

Kittel,

( H i s t .

explains, 'the party

of

the

people ; he supposes that the

of

was

by friends

of

the reform movement, which ultimately

the original Deuteronomy.

On this subject and

on

the possible allusions to the Scythians

the

Books

of

Zephaniah, and Ezekiel, see

J E R E M I A H

i.,

and cp Che.

and

30.38

;

2610

background image

JOSIAH

JOTHAM

The ‘father of history’ tells

us

(from

that Neco

‘made war by land on the Syrians and defeated them in

a

pitched battle at

or

after which he took

Kadytis,

a

large city of Syria’ (Herod.

2

however, have misunderstood his informants, for Magdolos

obviously the Egyptian

whither Josiah is not at

all likely to have gone to seek Neco. Apparently Herodotus

confounds Megiddo with Magdolon, just as he confounds

Cadytis-Gaza with the Syrian Cadytis-Kadesh.

I t

states that Neco was o n his way to meet the king of
Assyria’ (see Schr.

a t the Euphrates when

Josiah went to meet him and fell in battle a t Megiddo.

T h e account

is

strangely short, a n d is unfortunately

not free from corruption.’ A later writer

Ch.

35

however, gives

a

fuller narrative.

Neco, it is said,

sent

an

embassy to Josiah, explaining that he

had

no

quarrel with Josiah,

and

that h e had been directed b y

a n oracle to g o to the Euphrates t o battle;

fate, if he makes opposition, will be due to his own
folly. Josiah, however, was bent o n war, a n d though

Neco’s words were dictated

by

the true God, he hearkened

not to them.

A

battle ensued in the plain of Megiddo

(Jos.

Ant.

x.

I

,

says

T h e archers

shot a t Josiah,

and

wounded him fatally.

H e was

bronght

in

his second chariot to Jerusalem.

An inspection of this narrative of the Chronicler shows that

(down to ’from the mouth of God’) are

Herodotus must

T h e

Hebrew account is in

K.

and the analogy of similar

suggests

that they must have been inserted from

in

2

Ch.

another source. Was that source

a

trust-

worthy one? No

;

it is

too

clear that the

insertion is midrashic and imaginative.

The idea of the

embassy of deprecation is taken from

K.

; that of the

oracle is characteristic of the Chronicler and his circle that

Neco should he represented

as

in communication with God

would not be strange in

an

age which nourished itself on Jeremiah

(cp Jer.276); but more probably Neco is supposed to have

heard of

a

prophecy of

3

Esd.

1

just

as

Cyrus is

supposed to have done in Ch.

3623.

The speech ascribed

to

the

wounded king is modelled on

I

K.

2234

(see C

HRONICLES

,

W h a t were the exact circumstances which seemed to

justify Josiah in encountering the Egyptian army,

we

do

not

M.

ventures on the conjecture that

prefect of

and Palestine summoned Josiah and other

vassal

princes to unite their contingents, and meet the Pharaoh

(who had reached Philistia) N. of Carmel. But was Assyria

strong enough to

an order? I t would be safer

to

suppose that independently several Syrian and Palestinian

princes combined against Neco under the leadership of Josiah,

and that on the plain of Megiddo or Esdraelon they tried their

fortune. The bare possibility must, however, be allowed for,

that the armies clashed at

a

spot nearer to

(one

of

the

Migdals, SW. of

and Nazareth),

on

the N. of

than to

(Megiddo) on the

may have been the

place where the hapless king died. This allows

us

to suppose

that Herodotus was correctly informed as to the name of the

place of the encounter. Reinach’s view

(Rev. arch.

that

the battle of Magdolon

was

a

slightly earlier one (the

the Egyptians being neither the Jews nor the Philistines, but

the

[Assyriaps]), which transferred the western Asiatic

Empire to Egypt, and Winckler’s defence (GI

1103,

n.

of the

statement of

are on different

highly

Whether Neco went by land or by sea to’the

hood of Carmel is disputed : the latter alternative has been

generally adopted, but

Why Josiah encountered

Neco at Megiddo

also

is

doubtful. Probably it was because of

the rapidity of Neco’s movements, and because he had effected

a

junction with N. Palestinian allies.

ink

is evidently wrong.

at the end

has been written twice over.

map conjecturally restore

‘and they looked each other in the

face

by Megiddo: and they shot at Josiah’

. . .

The corrupt

is partly produced by the neighbourhood of

of course

Josephus, therefore, bad

before him

an

incorrect Hebrew text. Cp WMM Studien

z.

derasiat. Gesch.’

54, n.

in

MVG,

’98,

3.

3

A scribe has already indicated this

the substitution of

‘disguised himself’ for ‘encouraged himself‘ in Ch. 3522 (cp

So too Hommel

Gesch. des

1 5 2 .

see WMM

Gesch.

(‘98);

against the latter,

des

On one side,’ see GASm. (HG

n.

on the other, Che.

Jeremiah, 96 (‘88)

(who mentions the other alternative, however

and supports it by the historical parallel of the march

of

Thotmek

See

and

I

Esd.

2611

The scantiness

of

our information is

to

be regretted. Few

tragic events are recorded in the history of

there were circumstances (not those which Josephus

[Ant. x. 5

I

]

imagines) which it cut the ancient historian to the

heart

mention. Whether the ‘mourning of

in the valley of Megiddo’ (Zech.

12

refers to the

lamentation for the death of Josiah is disputed. At any rate

the Chronicler’s statement that lamentations were held every

year for Josiah seems to be trustworthy (cp the contrast in

Jer.

22

even if we hesitate to believe that Jeremiah

composed the first funeral dirge.

b.

Zephaniah, one of the representatives

of the

Babylonian Jewish communities who brought silver and
gold to Jerusalem, temp. Zerubbabel (Zech.

6

according to necessary emendations of those texts). O n
the whole

(Zech.

see Z

ERUBBABEL

.

See L

AMENTATIONS

,

The words,

come thou- the same day, and go into the

house of’ have grown out

of a

single corrupt or illegible word,

the

of

which was doubtless

Several

were

to read this corrupt word

were put together

by

an

editor and some apparent sense made by the insertion of

‘the same

and.’ So first Wellhausen, who in

further

emends the name

Josiah into ‘Joshua.’ His

reason must be that

Zephaniah

is obviously added to

distinguish the person intended from some well-known living

personage of the same

(presumably the high priest Joshua).

JOSIAS

( I )

[B]),

I

Esd.

8 3 3

8 7 ,

J

ESHAIAH

,

4.

I

Esd.

11,

etc., Mt.

R V

T.

C.

JOSIBIAH

I

Rv

JOSIPHIAH

27

53,

Yahwk increases

the post-exilic lists

(E

ZRA

15

[I]

d ) , Ezra

the native place of Haruz, father of

lemeth

K.

21

O n the analogy of Jotapata (once

see Jastrow,

Lex.)

we may safely regard Jotbah

a s

a

popular corruption of Jiphtah ‘ ( G o d ) opens (the

womb).’

JIPHTAH

was

a place in the

JOTBATHAH

,

c p J

OTBAH

),

a

stage in the

wanderings in the wilderness (Nu.

[A]

Dt.

AV

WILDERNESS

OF.

Josh.

T. K .

C.

JOTHAM

perhaps ‘Yahwk is perfect (sincere),’

I

.

[B],

[A in

[A

in

L

T h e sole survivor of the massacre of Jerubbaal’s

(or rather Gideon’s) sons-of whom he was the youngest
-at Ophrah (see G

IDEON

,

I

) ; author of

a

fable

(Judg.

Strictly, however, the author of the

fable of the trees who sought for

a king a n d the sole

survivor of the house

of Gideon a r e different persons,

the former (of whose name

we

are ignorant) being

more historical than the latter.

T h e writer who first

collected the historical tales about Abimelech, king of
Shechem, probably knew nothing about Jotham.

A

subsequent editor, however, wishing to account for the
calamities which befel both the people

of Shechem and

their king Abimelech, represented one

of Gideon’s sons

a s having escaped, a n d

as proclaiming

a

parable in the

hearing of the Shechemites (see

who

had assembled to make Abimelech king.

T o

this editor

(escape

of Jotham),

6

(popular choice of Abimelech;

superfluous after

nv.

4

7-16a

most probably

helong.2

His

object was to impress

upon his readers

that the calamities of Abimelech and the Shechemites
were

a divine retribution, and this he makes still more

evident

by

putting into the mouth of Jotham

a

curse

Cp Che.

Jeremiah,

That

are

a

late amplification, is pointed out

by

Frankenb.

des

27)

and Bu.

(Richter,

72).


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