JOS-01 An Introduction to Joshua

It’s common for people around the world to delight in the grand events that took place when their nations were founded. But when later generations face challenges, loss and disappointment, it’s often necessary to remind them of the significance of those events from long ago. In many ways, this common experience is reflected in the Old Testament book of Joshua. Grand events had taken place when the Israelites first entered their homeland in Canaan. But as later generations faced hardships, it became necessary for them to learn afresh how important those events were.

This is the first lesson in our series on The Book of Joshua, and we’ve entitled it, “An Introduction to Joshua.” As we’ll see, when we learn what the book of Joshua meant for ancient Israel, we’ll be better equipped to see how much it has to offer us in our day as well.

Our introduction to the book of Joshua will divide into three parts. First, we’ll explore its authorship and date. Second, we’ll introduce an overview of its design and purpose. And third, we’ll sketch several broad considerations we need to keep in mind as we make Christian applications of our book. Let’s begin with the authorship and date of the book of Joshua.

The Holy Spirit inspired the book of Joshua so that it would give us true historical records. But we also have to remember that the Holy Spirit employed the perspectives and purposes of Scripture’s human authors to shape their historical records. So, as with every other portion of the Bible, the more we know about the human author and his times, the better we’ll understand the book of Joshua.

We’ll briefly sketch three perspectives on the authorship and date of Joshua: first, traditional outlooks; second, modern critical outlooks; and, third, some basic evangelical outlooks that will guide us in this lesson. Let’s turn first to ancient, traditional outlooks on the authorship and date of our book.

The book of Joshua is anonymous. Neither the book itself, nor the rest of Scripture tells us who its final compiler or author was. The title, “The Book of Joshua,” that appears in most of our modern Bibles, was added to the book long after it was written. But the tendencies of traditional ancient Jewish and Christian positions on these matters are nicely summarized in the rabbinical perspectives expressed in the Talmud.