Culture & Context: Joshua Part 1

Welcome to Culture and Context, a blog that will flesh out the context of the PATH journal and other content that we study here at True North.

When you think about “Joshua,” you can think about a couple of things:

1. Joshua the person

2. Joshua, the book of the Bible.

Today we will meet Joshua the person, but first take a short trip into Canaan, the land into which Joshua would lead God’s people.

Historically, this is during the Bronze Age, which ran from circa 3000 BC to 1125 BC. The Macedonian peoples were strongly impacted by the invasion of Greek-speaking people, who brought their culture and their metalworking talents. Their pottery and jewelry became a mixture of Macedonia and Greek influences, while the introduction of copper and bronze brought new innovations in warfare, art and the creation of weaponry.

Canaan was in the Late Bronze age when Israel arrived at its borders. The area had been under Egyptian rule for a long time until the rise of the Hittites. Letters from vassal kings to the pharaoh describe the upheaval as they begged for assistance that never came. An uneasy peace treaty collapsed when Egypt sent the Sea Peoples to defeat the Hittites. The most prominent of the Sea Peoples were the Philistines. Canaan and the Transjordan devolved into political kingdom-states like Moab, Edom and Ammon.

Canaan was arranged in agricultural villages, populated by clans who were in turn governed by family elders. The villages supported the area palace, the home of the local king. The palace had to support the king and his family, their religious leaders, a professional army, their court system and other economic leaders. Taxes were collected from the villagers and clansmen were forced into labor by the palace, a practice known as corvée. It was essentially a conscripted, or compulsive, public works program.

Israel’s culture was evolving. They had their history from their patriarchs, Joseph and Jacob, but 400 years of slavery had ground them down. They saw the might and love of their God, Yahweh, when He delivered them from Pharaoh’s yoke of slavery, but at the same time they were not accustomed to freedom. They likely could not worship Yahweh openly under Pharaoh. They needed to get to know God, and Moses was the leader chosen by God to teach the people how He wanted them to live.

The people had been stubborn. Even after seeing how God’s power had freed them from slavery, they were quick to grumble and see Egypt as “the good old days.” They were influenced by idol worship as evidenced by the creation of the golden calf while Moses was on Mt. Sinai, receiving the 10 Commandments. After many transgressions, God decreed that that generation would not enter the Promised Land.

But God had a plan and it revolved around culture. God would create a new culture in His people of Israel. This culture was unlike anything in Canaan, because its focus was to be on God. The commandments and the laws given to Moses were God’s way of shaping a people into a group who would love Him and wish to worship and obey Him. The laws of purity would be a way of keeping them separate from unclean, immoral and idolatrous lifestyles. He wanted their focus on His goodness and love to translate into justice, generosity and compassion for others. Unlike their neighbors in Canaan villages, the people of Israel had One God and their society was to be based entirely around Him. He would bless them as they lived a life very different from the generation that preceded them.

Joshua was to be one of the leaders in this new culture. Joshua was born around 1509 BC as a slave in Egypt. He was the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim. Israel was tribal; you were known by your father’s house and tribe. Joshua is known for being one of the 12 spies sent out from Kadesh-Barnea to spy out the land of Canaan, as a representative of his tribe.

His original name was Hoshea (Num. 13:8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun;); Moses changed his name to Joshua (Num. 13:16 And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua), which means “Jehovah is his help.” Joshua and Caleb were the only spies out of the twelve who believed the Israelites could conquer Canaan, and only those two of the twelve were permitted to enter the Promised Land.

Joshua became Moses’ successor and his leadership was confirmed by the Lord in Num. 34:16-17:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 17  “These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun.

Joshua led the people in conquering six nations and thirty-one kings in the twenty-five year period after crossing the Jordan. He died at the age of 110 and was buried in Timnath-Serah (Joshua 24). If you do the math, that means he was leading armies while in his eighties!

Next time we’ll look at the book of Joshua. It’s the sixth book of the Old Testament and the first of the Historical books. Some of the themes of the book are God and covenant, land, leadership and herem or devotion of the nations. These themes are all braided together in conquest and obedience. Stay tuned!

Works-cited and Resources

• Brisco, T. V. (1998). Holman Bible atlas. Broadman & Holman Publishers.

• Easton, M. G. (1893). In Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature. Harper & Brothers.

• Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). In Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale House Publishers.

• Jenkins, S. (1995). Nelson’s 3-D Bible Mapbook. Thomas Nelson.

• Kelley, J. L. (2016). Bronze Age. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, L. Wentz, E. Ritzema, & W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.

• Libolt, C. G. (1979–1988). Canaan. In G. W. Bromiley (Ed.), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised. Wm. B. Eerdmans.

• Mandel, D. (2007). In The Ultimate Who’s Who in the Bible. Bridge-Logos.

• Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary. T. Nelson Publishers.

• Schnittjer, G. E. (2023). Old Testament Narrative Books: The Israel Story (G. E. Schnittjer & M. L. Strauss, Eds.). B&H Academic.

• Strange, J. F. (1979–1988). Macedonia. In G. W. Bromiley (Ed.), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised. Wm. B. Eerdmans.

• Witthoff, D., ed. (2014). The Lexham Cultural Ontology Glossary. Lexham Press. [corvée]