Conquest of Canaan

Biblical Text and Narrative

The conquest of Canaan followed the Exodus and the forty years in the wilderness. In it the twelve tribes of Israel, led by Joshua, crossed the Jordan River and took possession of the land of Canaan. The central text is Joshua 1–12. Numbers 21 recounts the earlier victories over Sihon and Og east of the Jordan in the time of Moses, and Joshua 13–21 records the division of the land among the tribes.

The narrative of the Book of Joshua unfolds as follows:

• The spies and the story of Rahab (chapter 2)
• The crossing of the Jordan, followed by circumcision and the observance of the Passover at Gilgal (chapters 3–5). At this time the manna ceased (Joshua 5:12).
• The fall of Jericho (chapter 6)
• The defeat at Ai because of the sin of Achan, followed by a renewed attack and victory (chapters 7–8)
• The treaty with the Gibeonites (chapter 9)
• The southern campaign (chapter 10), during which the sun and moon are recorded as having stood still (Joshua 10:12-14)
• The northern campaign, including Hazor (chapter 11), and the list of thirty-one kings defeated by Israel (chapter 12)

Joshua 11:23 summarizes, "So Joshua took the whole land." Joshua 13:1 and Judges 1, however, record that much land remained yet to be possessed.

Background

The text presents the land as the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham (Genesis 15:18). A key term in the conquest narrative is the Hebrew word herem, which refers to devoting persons or objects to God so that they may not be put to human use. The New Korean Revised Version renders it variously as "devote completely" and "utterly destroy." Achan's sin was secretly keeping things that had been devoted in this way (Joshua 7:1).

The date of the conquest is bound up with the question of the date of the Exodus, and scholars are divided between a fifteenth-century BC view and a thirteenth-century BC view. Scholars also differ on how to interpret the excavations at Jericho and Ai. Some critical scholars (those who investigate the historical process by which the text was formed) regard the event not as a single military conquest but as a gradual settlement.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The New Testament refers back to this event in several places:

• The sermons of Stephen and Paul (Acts 7:45; 13:19)
• Hebrews 11:30-31, which states that by faith the walls of Jericho fell and Rahab was spared
• James 2:25, which speaks of Rahab's works

Hebrews 4:8 states that the rest Joshua gave was not the final rest and connects it with the rest found in Christ. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), Joshua's name is rendered Iēsous, the same form as the name Jesus.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

The chief point of debate is how to understand the command of total destruction ethically.

• Many Reformed and evangelical interpreters regard the command as God's judgment on the sin of the Canaanite peoples (Genesis 15:16; Deuteronomy 9:4-5). They also stress that because the command was limited to a particular moment in redemptive history (the history through which God accomplishes salvation), it is not a norm to be followed today.
• Some scholars read expressions such as "utterly destroyed all" as hyperbolic idioms common in ancient Near Eastern war accounts.
• Church Fathers such as Origen read the narrative as a spiritual battle against sin. This way of reading a text symbolically is called allegorical interpretation.
• Pacifist traditions, including the Anabaptists, emphasize that in light of the New Testament command to love one's enemies, these texts cannot be used to justify violence.

Some hold that the sun and moon standing still was a literal miracle. Others note that the passage is poetic language quoted from the book of Jasher. Interpreting Rahab's scarlet cord as a type of the blood of Christ is an ancient tradition, but the text itself does not state this directly.

In the Korean Church

• The words of the eighty-five-year-old Caleb, "Now therefore give me this mountain" (Joshua 14:12), are frequently quoted in sermons on vision and facing challenges.
• Some churches hold "Jericho prayer meetings," named after the march around Jericho, in which participants pray while walking around a church building or a neighborhood.
• "Land-treading prayer," based on Joshua 1:3, drew public criticism after it became known that it had been practiced at the sites of other religions, and it was also criticized within the church.
• In hymns and gospel songs, crossing the Jordan and entering Canaan is sometimes used as an image of entering heaven.