THE TWO-PART ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK OF JOSHUA

 A random survey of commentaries on Joshua reveals that there is general agreement in dividing the book into two roughly equal parts with the break occurring after Joshua 11 or 12. The evidence given for such a two-fold division is summarized below:

    a. Tabulation of the various parallel verses noted in any good, detailed commentary, such as Butler's, reveals an interesting pattern. They are for the most part grouped within chs. 2-10 or within 13-21. This finding confirms the contention that the book is composed of two parts quite different in nature and may possibly give some clue as to how the subsections in each half relate to one another.

    b. The promise at the beginning of the book (1:6) to “divide the land for an inheritance” is followed by seven occurrences of the same phrase, all in chs. 13-19.

    c. Similarly, the last verse of ch. 11 introduces the noun “inheritance,” which will occur over forty times in Joshua 13-24 as the major theme of the second half.

    d. Moses is designated as “the Lord's servant” twice in the same sentence only at 1:1-2 and 12:6, perhaps functioning as bookends for the first half of the book.

    e. The second part of the book may be “set off formally in parentheses, as it were” by the only descriptions of Joshua as “old and stricken,” twice each at 13:1 and 23:1-2. (Gunn) This purposeful literary function is in contrast to those who see this duplication as a obvious sign of multiple authorship. (Hawk)   A more appropriate indication of the boundaries for the second half may be the descriptions of Joshua's age in 13:1 and 24:29.

    f. Woudstra has noted that there is a close correspondence between the promise given in 1:3,6 and the summary in 11:16ff, which may delineate the limits of the first section of the book.

    g. Several scholars have remarked on the obvious halt in the action with the statement at the end of ch. 11, which serves as a general summary of the preceding action.

    h. Butler sees the “rest theology” of the book announced in 1:12-18, ending the first major section with ch. 12, and summarized in 21:43-45. He states that “the entire book is to be read in light of these [latter] verses.” In fact, it would be more precise to say, with Boling and Wright, that this theme finds its more explicit statement at 11:16-23, rather than with ch.12.

    i. Butler states that Joshua13:6 “points forward to the repeated promise in 23:5 with the associated warning in 23:13.” and says that Yahweh himself is pictured as giving the land to Israel in these verses.

    j. The tone of the first half is almost bloodthirsty while in the second half “a more sedentary mood prevails.” (Howard)

    k. “Joshua 2-11...exhibits a coherence of content and structure that stands out from the rest of the book in its devotion to detail and imagery.” (Hawk)

    l. Kaiser notes that the four full-length descriptions of Yahweh's “Holy War” in the book are all found in Josh. 1-11 (chs. 6, 8, 10 and 11).

    m. Radday even proposes a chiastic structure encompassing chapters 1-12, although it is deeply flawed by lack of symmetry.

    n. The chiastic structure of Koorevaar divides the book in half between chapters 12 and 13:

        A. Going Over (1:1-5:12)

            B. Taking (5:13-12:24)

            B'. Dividing (13:1-21:45)

    A'. Worshiping (22:1-24:33)

A review of the above data reveals that only observation (d) would indicate Josh. 12 should be included in the first half of the book. On the other hand, there are no obvious literary indications that this chapter belongs to the second half either. To rescue this passage from limbo, we may profitably adopt Lilley's suggestion that ch. 12 be treated as a link between the first and second divisions of the book. To explain further the role played by Joshua 12 as the factor tying together the two major halves of the Joshua as well as the way in which they are parallel to one another, see my post titled “Book of Joshua: Introduction to Literary Structure.”