deuteronomy 34 and the case for a persian hexateuch

Transcription

DEUTERONOMY 34 AND THE CASE FOR A PERSIAN HEXATEUCH
Journal of Biblical Literature, 2000
COMMENTS BY R. E. Allen
This document has been selected to demonstrate
origins of Biblical Literature and the profound
change in perspective that occurred after the
Biblical Exodus and the attempted expulsion of the
religion of the Egyptian Heretic, Akhenaten, that
eventually led to the Persian Captivity.
JBL 119/3 (2000) 401-419
DEUTERONOMY 34 AND THE CASE
FOR A PERSIAN HEXATEUCH
First, the origin of all major religions of human
civilization has been the celestial realm, known as
the cosmos, and also, as the universe. The religions
address the Greater Reality that includes and is
substantially more than any potential human
conception of reality.
Universe: http://www.answers.com/topic/universe
Cosmos: http://www.answers.com/topic/cosmos
The words, cosmos and universe, are used in
defining the celestial realm. However, it is
THOMAS C. ROMER
important to realize that in modern times they are
two distinct realms. Today, the universe is the
[email protected]
vibratory mass-energy material substance that
Universite de Lausanne, CH-I015 Lausanne, Switzerland
makes up the galaxies, the component stars and dust
and gases, as well as the intergalactic free electrons
and photons identified in the primordial ancient as
MARC Z. BRETTLER
evolved in modern astronomical sciences. As used
in these comments, the cosmos includes the
brettler®brandeis.edu
scientific universe and human cognitive aspects of
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02254
the universe that are beyond modern, or any,
scientific comprehension. The modern scientific
metaphysics of the astronomical universe includes
only the rational and material aspects, as it
purposely excludes emotional and spiritual aspects
Deuteronomy 34, the final chapter of the Pentateuch, holds a key position and denies celestial cognitive aspects that are
beyond modern scientific empirical methods and
for the compositional and theological understanding of the Hebrew Bible. The mathematical
models. The evolution of the redacted
Pentateuch concludes with the story of Moses' death, but this is not really a sat- modern science of the universe was substantially a
result of Persian Astrology and the redaction of
isfying thematic conclusion. The promise of land is not fulfdled; this must await emotional, spiritual, and cognitive potential within
the book of Joshua, where Joshua, depicted as the successor of Moses in Num- the holistic cosmic celestial realm. Zoroastrian
Astrology, or tropical astrology, significantly
bers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, completes the conquest of Canaan that was influenced the Book of Joshua, as the emotional
initiated
Moses' conquest of the Transjordan. This was the main reason that spiritual incognito of the Egyptian Heresy caused a
severe psychic trauma to afflict the "Men from Ur"
critical scholarship created the Hexateuch,l which served as the dominant who had wandered into Egypt and returned to Ur
during the subsequent captivity. The Egyptian
Heresy was that of the Aten Cult that represented a
This paper has its origin in a presentation by Thomas Romer at the 1998 Annual Meeting of dominate feminine righteousness of the Egyptian
the Society of BiblicaJ Literature in Orlando, Florida. Marc BTettler offered extensive comments to Cosmos over the Celestial Universe; rejection of
Amun. Harmony, the primary feminine quality of
this paper, which buttressed Romer's position in several ways from a different perspective. Romer the Cosmos, had become established Law and the
then wrote an initial (German) draft of this paper, to which Brettler reacted. R6mer's draft was "Boys from Ur" were castrated in the circumcising
then translated into English with the help of Dr. Fram;ruse Smyth, and Brettler integrated his com- process of Exodus 1:16, "If it be a man child, kill it:
if a woman, keep it alive."
by
ments into that draft. Ms. Sarah Shectman of Brandeis University then offered useful comments on
this unified draft. This version represents several iterations later, after the two versions were integrated more fully.
lAccording to K. Bieberstein (josua-Jordan-Jeri.cho: Archiiologte. Geschfchte und Thedogj.e
der Landnahmeerziihlungen Josua 1-6 lOBO 143; Freiburg: UniversitiHsverlag; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995]. 35), the notion that Joshua needs to be included with the Pentateuch
was first suggested by H. Ewald in 1831. It was quickly adopted by most critical scholarship in the
nineteenth century; see, e.g., A. Kuenen, An Historit;al-Critical InqUiry into the Origins and Camposition ofthe Hexateud. (London: Macmillan, 1886), 340: ~(T]hey looked upon joshua's activity as
inseparable from that ofMOlSes, and regarded an account of it as the indispensable complement of
the narratives of the patriarchs, the deliverance from Egypt and the legislation." It is best represented in the title of the classic 1938 article by C. von Rad, l'he Form-Critical Problem of the
401
http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/romer.pdf
Circumcision and Bullroarers were part of the
Civilizing Rites of Manhood for tens of thousands
of years prior to the PTSD caused by the Egyptian
Aten Heresy. The Persian Hexateuch restored
cosmic rational order lost by feminine cosmic
harmony imposed by Atenism. This was done after
the Exodus and Pentaeuch of Moses ended with
Deuterotomy 34 as Joshua received the strike of the
Scepter of the Realm of the Men from Ur. The
Book of Joshua clearly demonstrates the addition of
Civil Zoroastrian Law to the Torah attributed to
Moses.
Thomas Römer and Marc Z. Brettler present the
case for a sixth book of the Law, They use
hermeneutic methods based upon a corrupted
cosmic perspective. These comments are not
concerned with the correctness of their assertions,
but with the missing cosmic cognoscitur of them.
9/25/13 Page 1 of 20
402
Joumal of Biblical Literature
scholadycategory until the publication in 1943 of Martin Noth's Uberlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien. As a result of Noth's work and the "creation" of the
Deuteronomistic History (DtrH), the Hexateuch has been eclipsed, as Deuteronomy has come to be viewed as a hinge linking the Tetrateuch and the entire
DtrH. In fact, the recently published Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992) has no
article at all on the Hexateuch, in contrast to the short article in the Interpreter's DictionartJ of the Bible of 1962, and the very lengthy essay in the 1899
Dictionary of the Bible, edited by J. Hastings 2 Thus, the Hexateuch has virtuaUy disappeared.
Recently, however, oth's theory has come under heavy attack, and it has
become fashionable to deny the existence of a DtrH covering the books from
Deuteronomy to Kings, whose first or second edition offers a comprehensive
interpretation of the fall of Jerusalem and the temple.' We do not share this
current revisionism and believe that the DtrH remains a useful construct. Yet
we simultaneously believe in the existence of a Hexateuch. Deuteronomy 34
and Joshua 24 playa key role in understanding this seemingly contradictory
position.
I. A Synchronic and Diachronic Overview
of Deuteronomy 34
According to Felix Garcia Lopez, Deut 34 should be divided into three
parts: vv. 1-6, 7-9, and 10-12 4 The first part (vv. 1-6) is shaped into a narrative
unit with five forms in the wayyiqtol-conjugation, concluded by the differing
welo) qatal in v. 6b. These verses have at their center divine action: YHWH
Hexateuch," in The Pmblemofthe Hex.ateuch and Other Essays (New York: McCraw-Hill, 1966),
1-78. Additional information about the Tetrateuch-Pentateuch-Hexateuch debate in the middle of
this century is in A, G, Auld, Joshua, Moses and the Land: Tetrateuch-Pentateuch-Hexateuch in a
Generation Since 1938 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1980).
2IDB 2:597-98; J. Hastings, 00., A Dictionan; of the Bible (New York: Scribner's, 1899),
2;)63-76.
:3 E. WUrthwein, "Erwllgungen zum sag. deuteronomistischen Geschichtswerk: Eine Skizze,
in Studien tum deuteronomisff.schen Ceschichtswerk (BZAW 227; BerlinlNew York: de Gruyter,
1994),1-11; C. Westermann, Die Ceschichtsbacher des Alten Testaments: Gab es €in deuteronomistisches Geschichtswerk? ('fB Altes Testament 87; GotersJoh: Mohn. 1994); E. A. Knauf,
L'histonographie deuMronomiste (DtIC) existe-t-elle?" in Israet construit son histofre: L'historio-graphie deuttronorntste iJ la lU71"liere des recherches ricentes (ed. A. de Pury. T. ROmer, and J.-D.
Macchi; Le Monde de la Bible 34; Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1996), 409-18; J. R. Linville, Israel in
the Book of the Kings: Th. Past as a Project of SocWlldentity (JSOTSup 272: Sheffield, Sheffield
Academic Press, 1998). 46-73.
4 F. Garcia L6pez, "Deut34, Dtr History and the Pentateuch," in Studies in DeuterOfWmlJ in
Honour of C.j. 1..Abuschagne on the Occasion ofhis 65th Birthday (ed. F. Garcia Martinez et al.;
vrSup 53; LeiclenlNew York/Cologne: Brill, 1994), 47--61.
n
9/25/13 Page 2 of 20
Romer and Brettler: Deuteronomy 34
403
shows Moses the land and repeats the promise ofland to him (w. 1b-4). This is
framed by two actions of Moses: he climbs the mountain (v. 1a), dies, and is
buried there (w. 5-6). Verse 7 opens disjunctively, mdOl," and introduces a unit
(w. 7-9) that focuses on Moses, who is mentioned fouf times in three verses. In
its fInal verse it emphasizes the role ofJoshua as Moses' successor and the obedience of the people-two tbemes tbat recur in tbe first chapter ofJoshua. The
last unit (w. 10-12) is not structured as tigbtly as the previous ones. It concludes the Pentateuch, highlighting Moses' great power as seen by all Israel. It
accomplishes this by using the word ':>:>, "all: four times in its final two verses.
The synchronic analysis, which shows that the three parts of Deut 34 have
three different functions, corresponds to a diachronic analysiS of the chapter. 6
The first part is clearly connected to the Deuteronomic theme that the sinful
generation of the exodus, including Moses, may not enter the land (Deut 1:37;
3:23-29). Moses is exceptional in one way only: unlike his contem(X>raries, he
may contemplate the land (3:27). This Deuteronomic idea is realized in Deut
34:1-6.
According to (the Deuteronomic) Deut 31:2, the 120-year-old Moses has
become tired and weak. Though part 2 (Deut 34:7a) also indicates that Moses
was 120 at his death, it explicitly states (v. 7b): "his eyes were not weak nor his
strength gone." This section should be seen as related to Deut 32:48-52, a
Priestly text,7 which compares the upcoming death of Moses with the death of
Aaron and alludes to the Priestly Num 20 and 27. These texts feature topics
that reappear in Deut 34, espeCially the thirty days of mourning and Joshuas
appointment as Moses' inspired successor (cf. Deut 34:9 and N um 27:20)8
The first two synchronic sections thus match accepted diachronic divisions: w. 1-6 are typically seen as D, while w.. 7-9 are characterized as P. But
Deut 34 also contains topics that reflect neither earlier D nor P traditions.
These occur espeCially in the final part, w.. 10-12, where "signs and wonders,"
"a strong arm," and "great terrifying deeds" are applied to Moses, rather than to
YHWH. The unusual form of the promise of land in v. 4 also suggests that it is
The 120 years of Moses suggest that we are dealing with the duration of the Aten Cult and how long it took for them to
"Face Reality."
It is important noun-llist
to realize thatopening
the UP-Down
axis ofof
Akhetaten
was the galactic
Up-Down
axis ofa
S The disjunctive.
(jnstead
the verb-initial
1'100 axis.
'1'1'1) The
is used
to begin
Mosesunit;
cameseelBHS,
to be the Bootes-Phoenix
axis that is the axis at the mid point of the two Solar & Galactic Vesica Piscis, one
new
&50-52, §39.2.3.
above and one below. These are the end points of the original UP-Down axis of Egypt from Scorpion I to Cleopatra VII.
SeetheonLight"
the follOwing
alsothan
R. Lux,
l)er
Tad
des Mose a1sThe
besprochene
enAhltethe
Welt,
Moses 6"saw
and it was more
galactic,
it was
Zodiac-Jerusalem.
120 years are und
approximately
span
ZI'K
84the(1987):
andthrough
P. StoeUger,
l)euteronomium
34 ohne
105the
from of
reigns of395-42:5;
Tutankhamun
Ramesses II.
The District of Columbia
repeatsPriesterschrift,
the axis of AncientZAW
Egypt and
Shadow of Khufu is identified by the Rhombus of the Holy City of Columbia in a secular nation. This is the legend of the
(1993),21>-51.
Egyptian Bennu standing upon the Ben-ben, for which the pyramids were symbols. The ascending path of the bones of
7 We are using "Priestly" not in the sense of the priestly Grnrukdu;,ft (pg), but in a more genJoseph is the path of Osiris, and George Washington.
The sinful generation is the Aten generation that
resulted in their new leader reaching Maahes
and witnessing rightness. However, the example
of Akhenaten had to be sent back down to Baal
Peor. The result was that the examples of
Akhenaten and Moses define the Down to Up
axis of the New Heaven and the New Earth. In
Numbers 24:17 we are told what is expected on
this axis. I shall see him, but not now: I shall
behold him, but not near. A STAR SHALL RISE
out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring up from
Israel: and shall strike the chiefs of Moab, and
shall waste all the children of Seth. The
Moabites were the Atenists, and their Egyptian
political coalition was with the Sethians. The
striking of Israelites is the reincarnation of the
Atenists after the banishment of the Sethians.
The beloved son of Israel (Jacob) was buried in
Egypt along side Akhenaten until his bones
were to be retrieved as reported in Genesis
50:23-25. 23 After which he told his brethren:
God will visit you after my death, and will make
you go up out of this land, to the land which he
swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 24 And he
made them swear to him, saying: God will visit
you, carry my bones with you out of this place:
25 And he died being a hundred and ten years
old. And being embalmed he was laid in a coffin
in Egypt. The retrieval of the bones of Joseph
are reported Joshua 24:32. And the bones of
Joseph which the children of Israel had taken
out of Egypt, they buried in Sichem, in that part
of the field which Jacob had bought of the sons
of Hemor the father of Sichem, for a hundred
young ewes, and it was in the possession of the
sons of Joseph. Thus, Joseph was the one
identified in Numbers 24:17 with the words "a
STAR SHALL RISE out of Jacob and a sceptre
shall spring up from Israel." The implication is
that Joseph was a royal personage in buried in
celestial Egypt who ascended to celestial Israel.
And it was Akhenaten who knew not Joseph in
Exodus 1:8 and did not comprehend his dreams
or the wisdom of delayed gratification for a
rainy day. Joseph was the first Maahes Manchild of Rightness in celestial Israel who was
brought up out of Egypt.
REA
D
D
eral sense of an author or redactor who is familiar with priestly texts and traditions. On the Priestly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennu
character
of 32:48-52, see S. According
R. Driver,
DeuteronorTUJ
{ICC;
Edinburgh:
T & T Clark,
1895),382;
to Egyptian
mythology,
the Bennu
was a self-created
being said
to have
and,
A. D.
H. world.
Mayes,
Deuteronomy
{ (spirit
CRC;soul)
Grand
Eerdmans,
playedmore
a rolerecently,
in the creation
of the
It was
said to be the ba
of RaRapids:
(light soul)
and enabled 1981),394;
the creative
actions
of Atum.
It was said to have{HAT
flown over
waters of Nun
(abyss)
that existed before creation, landing on a rock and
E.
ielsen,
Deu.teroncmium
U6; the
Tabingen:
Mohr,
1995),285.
issuing a call that determined the nature of creation. It was also a symbol of rebirth and was therefore associated with
8 In contrast, the Dtr tradition, which also recognizes the succession of Moses by Joshua,
Osiris. Some of the titles of the Bennu bird were "He Who Came Into Being by Himself", and "Lord of Jubilees"; the latter
characterizes
this
with
theperiodically
phrase ron
pm;itself
cf. Deut3l:7-S;
Josh is1:6.
epithet referred to
thetransition
belief that the
Bennu
renewed
like the sun. Its name
related to the Egyptian verb
wbn, meaning "to rise in brilliance" or "to shine". The shining star that came out of Jacob was Joseph, the Bennu and
Phoenix that arose from Egypt after his bones had been interred.
REA
9/25/13 Page 3 of 20
404
from neither D nor P Deuteronomy 34:10-12, along with v. 4, should thus be
seen as redactional, created as part of a conscious effort to . . create.. a Pentateuch. 9
II. The Compositional History of Deuteronomy 34
The Original Dtr Version
The preceding reflections suggest that we may reconstruct the Dtr report
as follows: 10
l' Moses climbed to the top of Pisgah, and the LoRD let him see the
land.
4' And the LoRD said to him: This is the land." I have let you see it with
your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.
5. And Moses the servant of the LoRD died there in the land of Moab
according to the word of the LoRD.
6. He buried him [in the land of Moab]'2 in the valley opposite Betb
Pear, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.
This text is clearly related to the beginning of Deuteronomy (1:5; 3:25-29).
These links to Deut 1-3 suggest that this text is Dtr in style and ideology and
belongs therefore to the Dtr frame of the book. The title "servant of the Lord"
applied to Moses (v. 5) is also a Dtr feature 13 Additionally, the insistence that
no one knows the place of Moses' grave "until today" may well be explained by
the Deuteronomistic hostility toward the popular cult of the dead (cf. Deut
18:11 and 26:14, which are typically considered as Dtr). In the context of DtrH,
Deut 34:1-6' concludes the era of Moses. The next age (Joshua and the conquest) opens in Josh 1:1 ("After the death of Moses, the servant of the LORD
..."), an opening that fits very well atter Deut 34:6.
The theological purpose of these verses is
to establish that a Great Man cannot go
above the Hand of Bootes, but from there a
Great Man can "See" the Face of God,
which means he Faces Reality from above
mortal existentialism. The view is from the
Top of Creation. This contradicts the
Egyptian consideration that the Pharaoh
was God and is a principle tenet of the
eventual monotheism that began with the
Aten Priests creating the effeminate Image
of Akhetaten. From this point forward the
Biblical rendition of kingdoms has the
Ideal of Man as a Righteous Being. He can
see the Manna, consume it, and hear the
Bullroarer and consume it, but, a Righteous
Being must die at the Top of Creation to
ascend to the Divine State. The body will
return to Baal Peor (erotic flesh) and the "I
Am" (identity) will become One with the
Almighty. The "I Am" ascends by the
Sensus Plenior of Sagittarius (I See) rather
than the Mysteries of Virgo (I Analyze)
and the bondage of Andromeda (I Hear
Not). The stars become the Word of God
by the power of Aten (Light).
REA
9 Contrast the purpose suggested for these verses by J. H. Tigay, 'The Signjfjcance of the
End of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 34:10-12)," in Texts. Temples, and Traditions: A Tribute to
MennhemHaran (ed. M. V. Fo.xetal.; Winona Lake., IN: Eisenbrauns, 1996), 137-43.
10 The logic of this reconstruction will become obvious as we trace the various redactional
stages of the passage. The reconstruction is similar to that proposed by E. Nielsen (Deuterouomium, 308). However. the level that he considers to be pre~Deuteronomistic.we understand as
Deuteronomistic.
11 It is difficult to decide if parts ofv. 4 belong to the primary story. M. Rose reconstructs:
Ibis is the land which I will give to the Israelites" (5. Mose. vol. 2. 5. Mose 1-11 und 26-34:
RahmeflSfflcke wm Gesetzeskorpus (ZBAT 5; Zurich: Theologischer Verlag. 1994).5&5 and 587.
This would be a very good transition to the conquest report, but is speculative.
12 These words are missing from important witnesses of the Greek version and should be
considered a late addition: see BHS note c; C. Steuernagel. DeaterotW11lium and Josua (HAT 113;
C6ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht., 1900), 130; ielsen. Deuteronomium, 309.
13 See I. Riesener, De,- Stamm 1:J..t,l im Alten Testament: Eine Wortuntersuchung unter
Berticksichtigung neue,-er sp,-achwtssenschaftliche.r Methoden (BZAW 149; BerlinlNew York: de
Cruyter.1919).
9/25/13 Page 4 of 20
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This early ending concluded the book in a typical fashion: by killing off its
main character. 14 This separated Deuteronomy from what followed-in contrast to other traditions now found at the end of Deut 34, the early D tradition
did not mention Joshua because 34:1-u' was considered to be the end of the
Mosaic age. Only the opening ofJoshua (1:1), with the death of "Moses the servant ofYHWH" (see Deut 34:5), closely linked Joshua to the preceding Deuteronomy; Deuteronomy was not linked to anticipate what followed. This link
between Joshua and the preceding material was interrupted as a result of subsequent redactional activity-what we call the Pentateuch Redaction-which
reflects serious divergence of opinion concerning how the first large block of
the Hebrew Bible should be construed.
The Pentateuch Redaction
Before Noth, Deut 34:4 was attributed to JE.15 Noth's suggestion that the
mention of the oath to the patriarchs in v. 4 was a Dtr feature has gained wide
approval, 16 but this opinio communis is not compelling because the form of the
promise of land there does not agree with its typical Dtr form. Nowhere else in
Deuteronomy is the promise of land presented as a quotation (,lllnM 111li?),
introduced by iO~?; Dtr texts elsewhere use infinitive constructs arIDi' or lrLI. 17
Thus, Deut 34:4, mlnM 111li? 'I:lM? :JpJ)'?1 pn~'? tln,:lM? 'nll:llZil,IZiM r,Mn nMl,
should be contrasted with the expected tl:>'n:JM? nw ll:llZil ,IZiM nl:l,Mn/r,Mn
tln? tltl? (cf., e.g., Deut 11:21). This contrast highlights another significant way
in which Deut 34:4 is exceptional: it names the three patriarchs rather than
using the term n1:l~, which is much more typical in Dtr. These anomalies are
best explained by noting that this verse is not Dtr. It belongs to a redactional
layer that aims to strengthen the coherence of the Pentateuch; more specifically, Deut 34:4 is taking over the first promise ofland to Abraham in Gen 12:7,
tlMln r,Mn-tlM 1tlM 111l1?, refracting it as pn~'? tln,:lM? 'tlll:llZil,IZiM r,Mn tlMl
mltlM lll'l? 'I:lM? :lpll'?1. Nowhere else does Deuteronomy use the phrase
r,Mn tlML Additionally, the text of Deut 34:4 is grammatically problematic,
since the MT notes the names of the three patriarchs but continues in the singular mlnM 111li?, rather than mltlM tl:>l1li?18 This is best explained by suggest-
The sinful generation of the Atenists had
no need for land. Their horizon was the
galactic plane. The addition of land is the
Celestial Earth of the Ecliptic Plane. The
North Vesica Piscis is the promise of a
Hieros Gamos, with Bootes representing
the husband who rises in righteous self
esteem, falls in humility, and rises again
in rightness on the "last day". The
Righteous Wife is Virgo-Leo identified
with Sekhmet, Demeter, Columbia and
the Mavens of Hermeneutic Methods. A
husband sees that righteousness has its
downside, but he must operate in a Code
of Silence regarding the downside of
righteousness, or rightness cannot be
achieved by the "sacrifice of the virgin."
The North Vesica Piscis tells the adept
that this is what it means to succeed. The
South Vesica Piscis tells initiates to seek
success by building a nest from which to
"Raise Generations" to a Heiros Gamos in
a Promised Land.
REA
See I. B. Gottlieb. "SofDavar: Biblical Endings," PrO<ftexts 11 (1991): 214-15.
e.g.• Driver. Deuteronom.y. 418; O. EissfeJdl, Einleitung in dos Alte Testament (TObingen: Mohr. 1934). 223; G. Fohrer, Etnleitung in das Alte Testament (lIth ed.; Heidelberg: Quelle
& Mey..-, 1969),161.
16 M. Noth. Oberlteferungsgeschichtliche Studien: Die sammelnden und bearbettenden
GeschU;htru>erke im Alten Testament (lst 00. 1943; 3d ed.; Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1967),213 n. 1; Eng. trans. The Deuteronomistic History (JSOTSup 15; Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1991).
17 See already A. Dillmann, Die Bikher Nameri., Deuter<momi.um and Josua (Kungefasstes
exegetisches Handbuch zum Alten Testament 2; Leipzig: Hirzel 1886). 433.
18 The plurals in the LXX and the Peshitta are a secondary resolution of this issue: the MT is
to be preferred as the lecHo difficiJ.ior.
14
IS So.
9/25/13 Page 5 of 20
406
ing that this is a citation of the promise in Gen 12:7, where the singular is used
since Abraham alone is the promise recipient. If this is the case. the inversion of
nt':m
of Genesis to
nt':t might reflect an application of Seidel's law,
which suggests that earlier sources are often quoted chiastically. 19
We may also fmd a link to the patriarchal tradition in the description of
land in Deut 34:1, where God sliows Moses the whole land. This may well be an
allusion to Abraham seeing the land in Cen 13:14. In fact, the expression -?:I-nt':
is attested in the Pentateuch for the first time in Cen 13:15 and for the
last time in Deut 34:1. 20 By slightly revising vv. 1-3 and creating the reference
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in v. 4, the book of Deuteronomy becomes the
end of the Pentateuch. The same redactor has inserted seven references that
name the patriarclis in Deuteronomy (1:8; 6:10; 9:5, 27; 29:12; 30:20; 34:4),
identifying them with the n1:lt': of Deuteronomy.21 This clearly reflects a Pentateuch Redaction that wants to separate Deuteronomy from the following
books, since beyond the book of Deuteronomy the nl:lt': are never explicitly
identified with the three patriarchs.
The redactor who revised Deut 34:1-5 composed vv. W-12. 22 Verse 10 is
certainly not Dtr; in fact, it is correcting the Dtr statement in Deut 18:15,
which suggests that YHWH will raise up (D'p') a prophet like Moses. Deuteronomy 34:10, however, insists that Moses is incomparable, and "no prophet has
risen (Dp t':?) in Israel like Moses." Similarly, the notion that anyone could know
YHWH D'l'l-?t': D'l'l fundamentally contradicts the thesis of Deut 4, that YHWH
has no nl1l:ln (4:15)"3 The incomparability of Moses is the theme of the following verses. In these verses, Dtr expressions that are elsewhere used to cele brate
God's rescue in the exodus are transferred to Moses. 24 The consequence is, as
r't<.'
rt<.,
r t<.,
The "chiastically" comment means to mark
with a Chi (X) as in cancelling.
The Deuteronomy redaction is actually a final
revelation that identifies the stars of the North
Vesica Piscis as the Promised Land. The
promise is the Lake of the Hieros Gamos
surrounded by the Milky Way. This redaction
is of the full galactic circle to the GalacticEcliptic North Vesica Piscis with the Celestial
Earth in the promise of Celestial Paradise. The
meaning is that mortals can reach paradise if
they put the Earth in the Heavens. In other
words, by being Men of Rightness. The Son of
Man is the cognition of the mortal destination.
The Son of God is the Cognition of Divine
Destiny, the promissory materialism. The
Persian Zodiac is the Houses of the Sons of
Jacob/Israel that rationalizes the material
universe.
Remember that Moses was abandoned by his
birth mother and raised by the Egyptian
Princess (Isis) as an adopted Son of Man.
Eventually, Moses realizes that the inter
uterine Sound of the Heart must be
transcended by the Light of the Heavens
(Aten-Sol). That light is surrounded by a
"golden girdle" called the Persian Zodiac that
is the Ecliptic and the Celestial Earth, the
Persian Hexateuch.
REA
19 See B. M. Levinson, Deuteronomy and the HermeneutU;s of Legal InnovaHon (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1997), 18-20; and B. D. Sommer, A Prophet Reads Scripture: AUusions in
Isaiah 40-66 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), passim.
20 Garcia L6pez, "Deut34," 55.
21 See J. Van Seters, "Confessional Reformulation in the Exilic Period," VT 22 (1972):
448-59; and T. ROmer, Israels Vater: Untersuchungen zur Vliterlhematik 1m Deuteronomium und
in tIer deuteronortlistischen Tradition (Freiburg: Universitatsverlag; GOttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Rup,"ch~ 1990), 251-56.
22 See, e.g., G. Braulik, Deuteronomium 11, 16,18-34.12 (NEchtB 28; WUrzburg: Eehter,
1992),246.
23 See S. A. Geller, "'Fiery Wisdom: The Deuteronomic Tradition," in Sacred Enigmas: Literary Religion in the Hebrew Bible (London: Routledge, 1996),30-61. Most scholars agree that Deut
5:4 is secondary and does not represent the main strand of Deuteronomic thought (see, e.g., D.
Knapp. Deuteronomiam4: LiterarischeA1U1lY8e and theologische InterpretaHon [GTA 35; COttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1987). 58). Indeed v. 4 contradicts v. 26, where the people say that
nobody is able to hear the voice of the living Cod and stay alive.
2. SeeG. W. Coats, "Legendary Motifs in the Moses Death Reports," CBQ39 (1977):38. We
refer to the phrases (a) "the signs and the wonders.," (b) "the strong hand," and (c) "the awesome
deeds." A. b, and c are found together in Deut 4:34; 26:8; Jer 32:21; a and b in Deut 6:21-22; 7:19;
9/25/13 Page 6 of 20
407
Rendtorff puts it, "that Moses' deeds are almost identified with God's deeds.
Moses was more than a prophet, more than any other man, and nearer to
God."25
The work of this Pentateuch redactor is confined here to references to the
patriarchal (v. 4) and the exodus traditions (w. 11-12). The link between these
various traditions is elsewhere not very strong and may have been the work of
p26 The redactional work goes beyond that, suggesting that there is a strong
link between the patriarchal narratives, the exodus narratives, and the legal
material in the Torah. Deuteronomy 34:4, 10-12 intends to confirm the idea of
a Mosaic canon in which the patriarchal stories are an integral introduction to
the exodus and the legal materiaL27 In this scheme, the Deuteronomic law
mediated by Moses needs to be read in light of the patriarchal narratives and
the exodus story, rather than with the following former prophets."" As we will
now show, Deut 34:7-9, the Priestly-Deuteronomistic Redaction, has quite a
different program.
The Priestly-Deuteronomistic Redaction
As noted earlier, Deut 34:7-9 and part ofDeut 34:1 are often ascribed to P
or pg, and are typically seen as the end of the Priestly document.'" Some reflection, however, indicates that this is unlikely. The appointment of Joshua as
Moses' successor in v. 9 would be a surprising conclusion to P; furthermore,
this appointment actually looks ahead to the next episode, and thus does not
serve as a conclusion at alL Additionally, it is not at all certain that these verses
should be considered P, though, as noted above, they are acquainted with
Priestly traditions. Thus, 34:7-9 presupposes Num 20:1-13 and 27:12-23, as
Rendtorff is saying that Moses was another
rendition of Maahes, the Son of Sekhmet
(Virgo-Leo), a Son of Man who achieved the
state of Rightness.
REA
Subsequently the "Jews" fell by the wayside
and submitted to the Laws of Moses and
Joshua and did not rise to the Promised Land
of Rightness, but were confined to the Earth
(planet and ecliptic as tropical astrology).
They were bound by Persian Law. Joshua
got the Bullroarer Sounding by capturing the
37 Icons of the Civil Calendar. (See below
and on the next page.) But, Joshua was a
"Man of the Spirit" chosen by YHWH and
Moses. Joshua never saw the Light of Day.
Joshua created a new calendar for Western
Civilization as the Sheep of Moses walked
on toward the Promised Land. This activity
was conformal to Persian Zoroastrian
Theology. As such, the comment by Römer
and Brettler regarding the "appointment of
Joshua as Mosses' successor" carries
substantial weight to the point of suggesting
that the scribes were creating new law to
reflect the New World Order under the
Persian Empire.
The Hellenes restored the Light of Day in the
North Vesica Pisces on the Denderah
Planisphere. But, the "Jews" (All Hellenistic
cultures) submitted to the Law and Maahes
had to Come Again, not to break the Law,
but to Fulfill the Law by restoring the Son of
Man to the Promised Land.
REA
a in 29:2; bin Exod 3:19; Deut
5:15; 7:8;
9:26; etc. For
other
seeof
P.the
Stoellger,
Proof3:24;
of Persian
Hexateuch
of the
Sixtexts,
Books
Torah
UDeuteronomium 34," 48 n.llO.
These are
Cities conquered
by Joshua in Joshua 6 through
Joshua litera.rischen
11. In Joshua 12,und
the texts
identifies 31 Kings
2S the
R. 35-37
Rendtorff,
uDie Hecausfilhrungsformel
in ihrem
theoJogischen
Kon~killed by Joshua and two to six kings conquered by
Moses. Of the 31 Kings in Chapter 12, only 17 are listed in Chapter 11. Thus, the number of conquered cities from Joshua 6 through Joshua 11 supersedes the king count of
text," in Deuteronomy ana Deuteronomi.c Literature: Festschrift C. H. W. BrekelnuJns (00. M. Ver~
Joshua 12. Also, the 36.5 Decans of the Egyptian calendar represent cosmic places in the celestial calendar, not individuals.
venne and J. Lust; BETL 133; Leuven: Peeters, 1997),501-27, esp. 517.
The summary
critical
to proof of the Persian
of the Torah is in JoshuaTRu
11:23.
Joshua84-99,
took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said
26 Seeofon
this importance
E. Otto, "BrUckenschlage
jnHexateuch
dec Pentateuchforschung,"
64"So
(1999):
unto
Joshua gave
it for an
inheritance
unto
Israel according tozu,.
theirdoppelten
divisions by BegrlJndung
their tribes. Andde,.
the land
esp. Moses;
94; K.and
Schmid,
Env(Jter
una
Exodus:
Untersuchungen
U,.- rested from war."
sprilnge
lsraels
innerhalb
dersame
Geschichtsbi.i.che,.
desZodiac
AltenHouses.
Testmmmts
(WMANT
81; NeukirchenThe division
of tribes
is twelve, the
number as Zoroastrian
The "whole
land" conquered
by Joshua, as a Persian modification of the Torah, is the "whole
Vluyn:
Neukirchener
Verlag,
1999),
passjm.
We
areljkewise
here
assuming
that
Genesis
developed
ecliptic," the "Celestial Earth," with the twelve houses of the Sons of Jacob. The Land is Holy Jerusalem that is
identified in Revelation 1:13, "And in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks,
one like
the Son of man, clothed
with a garment
downonly
to theput
feet,inand
about the
paps with
golden girdle." This is confirmed in Revelation 3:12,
thetoExodus-Numbers
traditions
and was
itsgirt
current
position
as athe
independently
from
“He that shall
I will
make
pillar-rhe
in the ClOSing
temple of my
God; of
andthe
he shall
go out no more;
and IAwill
writefor
upon him the name of my God, and the name of the
prologue
at overcome,
a late date;
see
E. him
Bena Zvi,
Words
Pentateuchal
Books:
Clue
city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and my new name.” It was revealed as the Hieros Gamos in Revelation 21:2, “And I John
the the
Historical
the Book
of Genesis
the Pentateuch,
~ BNas
62a (1992):
7-10.for her husband.”
saw
holy city, Status
the new of
Jerusalem,
coming
down outwith
of heaven
from God, prepared
bride adorned
'r1 Cf. R. w. L. Moberly. The Old Testament of the Old Testament: Patriarchal Narratives
Then MCN;mc
reiterating
the death scene
of Moses
on mount Pisgah
from 1992).
Deuteronomy 34, Revelation 21:10-14 confirm the Holy City and the Promised Land, “10 And he took me
and
Yahwism
(OBT;
Minneapolis:
Fortress,
up in spirit
to a great and high mountain: and he shewed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out
heaven de
from God, 11 Having the glory of God, and the light
28 See also L. Schmidt, Studum zur Priesterschrift (BZAW 214; Berlin
ewof York:
thereof was like to a precious stone, as to the jasper stone, even as crystal. 12 And it had a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and in the gates twelve angels,
Cruyter,
1993),270.
and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. 13 On the east, three gates: and on the north, three gates: and on the
29 Ibid.,
271.
south, three
gates:
and on the west, three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them, the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the
Lamb.” The ultimate proof that the Persian Hexateuch was more than a redaction is the Book of Revelation, which leaves no room for doubt that the Cosmos has an UpDown axis rising from the brothel of Baal Peor to the Elysian Field where the Burning Bush is a sign of a Hieros Gamos of the Eternal Father and the Eternal Mother.
REA
9/25/13 Page 7 of 20
DEUTERONOMY 34 AND THE THIRTY-SEVEN CITIES JOSHUA CONQUERED
Rush Allen
dndrcolr5b1a2.gif
September 26, 2013
The Joshua Conquered Lands are identified on the planisphere "Decan Circle of Light" at the location of the 14 Stars above the boar (R & 12) representing the
fourteen parts of the Body of Osiris that included Ophiuchus and Orion. The Land of Bondage (d & 24) to Persian Tyranny (x & 18) is indicated by the "perfect
fitting box" of twelve stars under the Hebrew Messiah Aquarius (23) at the Swan of Satisfaction (c & 23) by the Great Shepherd (b & 22). From the Ram to the
Bondage of the Eight Kings the Circle of Light says, "The Great I Am is Satisfied with Men in Bondage. The Persians, and tropical astrology ever since, did not
want the equinoxes to leave the celestial houses of Libra and Aries because their "perfect fitting box" would not be perfect if the equinoxes moved to Virgo and
Aquarius, which represented the Righteous Mother and her Son. The Zoroastrian Rationalis (X & 18) represents Genetic Bondage, for the Enthroned Bull has no
head. In Egypt, Aquarius was Hapi and his return was predicted to coincide with the return of Maahes, the Son of Rightness, by the Giza complex 2450 years
before Christ and 1070 years before Akhenaten. The War of the Worlds was over the logic of the stars, Astrological Fate, and the Sensus Plenior of the stars,
Cosmological Free Will. The Men From Ur desired absolute control based upon the Judgment of Shamash and his eight spoked Wheel of Life. The Sons of the
Men from Ur are again seeking to place Free Will into Rational Bondage, as Al Qeida.
The Light Circle represents the evolution from Genetic Water (A) to Maternal Earth (M). After leaving the Maternal Earth (M), Maahes sounds a Bullroarer (N & 8)
before the Sinister Crooked Serpent (O) and then the Maternal Genetic Water (S) bows to the Air of Righteousness (T). The "Spirits of Creation" (U) are
employed by the Man-Child of Sinister Desire on the Lotus of Heavenly (V) Consciousness (W). This New Age Child is taught the Laws of Rational Material Order
(X-a) in the Temple of the Lord. The Man-Child of Sinister Desire becomes a Great Shepherd (b) who is Satisfied (c) with putting the Shamash in a Bullroarer of
Bondage (d). These Eight Bound Kings keep the Man-Child of Sinister Desire bound to the Cord of a Rational Spin Zone of the Stiff Necked Ram (Khnum, T).
The result is that the identity, "I Am", is defined by what the Man-Child of Sinister Desire knows, rather than what can be known by a Man-Child of Rightness.
After a traumatic identity altering event the Man-Child of Sinister Desire needs Empathy (23) and encounters Universal Knowledge (Thoth, e). This releases the
Bullroarer Cord and the Humble Shepherd (f) reorients to the Maternal Earth (M), from which the it Shepherd came and is reborn. The result is not loss of the
identity of the Great Shepherd, but the acquisition of the consciousness that the journey of searching for self identity had become a journey into rationalizing
bondage. The Wand of Reorientation is the hieroglyph of the Pythoness (g), which extends from the North Arrow (26) to the Isis-Polaris Star on the head of the
Sacred Cow of Maternal Earth (7). The Isis star is Sirius, which is beneath Gemini and behind Orion at the mouth of the Ouroborus inserted as Rational Material
Science. The Star Sirius identifies the Celestial Calendar, while the Star Polaris identifies the Civil Calendar and the location of the house of the King of Kings,
Cepheus, represented as Jupiter (37) at the head of the snake.
The reorientation to the Heavens and the Earth opens the bondage by rational material sciences and prepares for the recognition of Holistic Metaphysics, which
are bound by the Eighth King that is of the Seven in the spin of the Bullroarer Slat (d). The True and Right Seventh King is Maahes, he who hears cosmic space
and sees the solar
light. He is the Son of the Reflected Light of the Lunacy (h) of the Sensus Plenior (i-k) of Holistic Wisdom. This
is thePage
not material
9/25/13
8 of 20 science
bondage to Evolution as genetic fate, but the Cycle of the Cosmic Manna that represents the Journey of Panspermia of a Cosmic Father seeking a Son of
408
Journal of Biblical Literature
weU as Deut 31:230 and 32:48--52. Most of these texts are secondary Priestly
products that contain significant Dtr ingredients. 31
In contrast to the Priestly J urn 20, Deut 34: 7-9 does not mention any
fault of Moses that justifies his death outside ofthe land. The text is agnostic on
this issue because it does not want to side either with the Dtr (1:37; 4:21) or
with the Priestly (Num 20:12) explanation of Moses' death; yet it hetrays knowledge of hoth Priestly and Deuteronomic traditions. For these reasons, these
three verses are best understood as a Priestly-Dtr joint venture. 32 This is reaUy
not surprising; others have argued that we might nnd such texts which blend D
and P at the end of the redactional process.33 Deuteronomy 34:7-9 should he
added to these texts. These verses, however, as noted ahove, prepare the reader
for Joshua and thus should he linked to D-P redaction of the Hexateuch, rather
than to the Pentateuch.
m. The Struggle for Hexateuch
or Pentateuch in the Persian Period
Both redactions (the Pentateuch Redaction and the P-D Redaction) must
he viewed within the dehate ahout the puhlication of an ·official" Holy Scripture for Judaism in the Persian period. We lack much inform.afion concerning
this period, and any reconstruction, such as the so-caUed Imperial Authorization hypothesis,34 must remain somewhat hypothetical. 35 1t is most likely, how30 Cr., for instance, the reinterpretation ofDeut 31:2 in 34:7, pOSSibly under the influence of
Cen 6:3 (which probably belongs to a post-Priestly redactor; cf. L. Ruppert, Genesis: 1. Teilband,
C" 1,1-11,26 [FS 70: WOr.zburg, Echter, 1992J, 277-78).
31 See esp. Stoellger, "Deuteronomium 34," 42-43 and n. 84; P. J. Budd, NU1/wers (WEe 5;
Waco: Word Books, 1984), 216--17, 305-6. For example, the root '..,~ (Num 20:24; 27:14) occu.rs
often in texts that belong to the DtrH (Deut 21:18,20; 1 Sam 12:15; 1 Kgs 13:21,26, etc.), and
phrase constructions with 1,l1' (Num 20:12) are typical ofDtr style.
321n addition to vv. 7-9, this redaction probably added some geographjca.l terms in vv. 1-6,
espec;a1ly the "plains of Moab' (cf. Num 22,1: 26,3, 63: 3U2: 33,4S-50: 3,5,1: 36,13, all Pries~y or
post-Priestly texts) and "Mount Nebo" (cf. Deut32:49).
33 L. Perlitt. "Priesterschrift im Deuterooomium?".z.4 W 100, Supplement (1988): 65-88, esp.
88. See also H.-C. Schmitt, O<Redaktion des Pentateuch im Ceiste der Prophetie: Beobachtungen zur
Bedeutung der 'Claubens'-Thematik innerhaIb der Theologie des Pentateuch," vr 32 (1982):
17()...$.
:14 This thesis was first developed by P. Frci (7.entralge'>lllllt und Loblautonomie im AchA~
menidenreich," in P. Frei and K. Koch, Reichsidu und ReichsorganuatU'm 'lm. Perserre'i<:Jl. [2d
enlarged ed..; aBO 55; Freiburg: UniverotiUsver.la~ COttingen: Vandenhoeck: & Ruprecht, 1996;
1st ed. 1984],5-132) and has gained wide support.; see, e.g., R. Albertz. Rehgtonsgeschichte Jsrads
in alttestamentlfcher Zeit (CAT 812; Cottingen: Vandenhoe<:k & Ruprecht: 1992), 497-504; J.
Blenkinsopp, The Pentateud1: An Introduction to the Fint Five Books of the Bible ( ew Yak::
Doubleday. 1992).239-42; D. M. Carr. Heoding the Fractures ofGerlUis' H<storicol.nd Uter."1
Approoches (Louisville: Westminster Jalm Knox, 1996).321-33.
:l5 See the skepticism u R. North, ~zra," ABD 2:125-28; and E. Otto. "Brockenschlllge," 94
and n. 28.
When setting up a New Civilization outside
Egypt, it is mandatory that a New Heaven and a
New Earth be established. The pontiffs are
those who keep track of the movements of the
New Heaven and the New Earth. This they do
with the Canon Laws of the New Culture. They
need only to have the Spirit of Truth, without
the sensus plenior in visual (rational) or sonic
(empathy) form.
The celestial prince of Persia was Perseus, the
Prince of War. Thus, the so-called "D-P
redaction" is a Persian take over of the
Pentateuch, and far more sinister than Römer
and Brettler have imagined because they
approached the scripture from using the
hermeneutic method, as imposed upon Western
Culture by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes,
and Persians.
REA
The Temple to Hathor provides the "official"
Holy Scripture for Judaism in the Persian
period. It is not hypothetical that the Men
from Ur were more wise than the Queen of
Sheba. Modern Islamic Extremists
demonstrate ancient Persian Rational Tyrany.
The Denderah Planisphere was prepared in
order to establish the New Heaven and the
New Earth of the Age of Pisces that was
quashed by remnants of the Judaic and
Persian Canon Law employed by Jerusalem
and Rome.
After recovering from the trauma of the
Empire the results were presented in
Revelation 21:1; "And I saw a new heaven
and a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth was gone, and the sea is now no
more." The New Testament saw the Coming
of the Age of Aquarius and the return of
"Hapi Days" and it merged the Maahes of the
Age of Pisces as the Nazarene whose first
miracle was to turn water into wine. This he
did at the feast of the Cosmic Hieros Gamos
in John 2:3-4 when he andwered his Mother,
"3 And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus
saith to him: They have no wine. 4 And Jesus
saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and
to thee? my hour is not yet come. With these
words the Messiah of the Egyptians and the
Hebrews had announced that he was called to
duty an hour before his appointed time. This
is what salvation means. It must come before
destruction, not after. Thus, the "Good News"
was that Hapi Days were announced before
the Lambs were driven out of the Celestial
City.
REA
9/25/13 Page 9 of 20
409
ever, that the Pentateuch in its current form represents a compromise due to
long and difficult negotiations among different religious parties in Jerusalem
and Samaria, as suggested by E. A. KnauP"
The outlines of these negotiations may only be imagined. Yet. as we
attempt to reconstruct a model that best explains tbe current shape of the biblical text, we would suggest that they were ultimately complicated by the existence of a Dtr-Priestly minority, which coalesced to promote the publication of
a Hexateuch. This involved the structuring ofthe first six books into a more unified whole, which coheres beyond the structure of promise of the land and its
fulfillment.
Joshua 24 is the central chapter suggesting this coherence, thereby fostering the existence of the Hexateuch. Its place and composition have posed a
huge problem for critical scholarship.3? It was even a problem for Noth, who
insists that 24:1-28 is a "Deuteronomistically edited passage" that was added
"because it contributes something very important to the history of Joshua."38
Others have noted that the double ending of the book ofJoshua in chs. 23 and
24 does not fit very well with the traditional DtrH hypothesis. The Gbttingen
school has therefore postulated that Josh 24 should be considered the work of
DtrH, whereas ch. 23 would have been inserted later by DtrN,39 but this thesis
is overly complicated and not very convincing. It is therefore not surprising that
more and more scholars now consider Josh 24 to he a postexilic and post-Dtr
text 40 We concur, suggesting more specifically that Josh 24 was created by the
Hexateuch redactor to summarize and conclude the larger work as a whole.
Thus, positing the existence of the Hexateuch solves the various critical problems associated with the chapter.
Our position reflects a return to a modified form of the older model that
understood Josh 24 as the Elohisfs conclusion to the Torah,41 though we would
36 E. A. Knauf, Die Umweltdes Alten Testaments (Neuer Stuttgarter Kommentar Altes Testament 29; Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1994) 172.
31 For a summary, see W. T. Koopmans, Joshua 24 as Poetic Narrative (jSOTSup 93;
Sheffield Sheffield Academic Press, 1990).
38 Noth, Oberlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien, 9 (Eng. trans., p. 23 and n. 1). The position of
J. Van Seters ("Joshua 24 and the Problem of Tradition in the Old Testament," in In the Shelter of
Flyon: Essays on Ancient Palestinian Life and Literaturein Honor of G. W. Ahlstrlim [ed. W. Boyd
Barrick and J. R. Spencer; JSOTSup 31; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1984], 154) that the chapter was
written "as a second conclusion to the history of Joshua" is similarly too weak.
39 R. Smend, Die Entstehung des Alten Testaments (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. 1978), 114-15.
"A. D. H. Mayes, Th£ St""! ofl".ael between Settlement and Exde: A RedacHonal Study of
the DeuteronomU1ic History (London: SCM, 1983),51; E. Blum. Die Komposition der Vatergeschichte (WMANT 57; eukirchen~V1uyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1984), 59; Van Seters. uJoshua
24 and the Problem ofTrad.ition.~ 139-58; C. Levin, Die Verheissung des neuen Bund..es in ihrem
theologiegeschichtlichen Zusammenhang ausgelegt (FRLANT 137: Ctittingen: Vandenhoeck &:
Ruprecht, 1985), 118; and especially M. Anbar, Ja;uiet l'allumce de Sichem(josui 24:1-28) (BBET
25; Frankfurt am MainJNew York: P. Lang, 1992).
41 For a summary, see Koopmans,Ja;hua 24 as Poetic Narrative, 105--7.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexateuch
The term Hexateuch came into scholarly use
from the 1870s onwards mainly as the result of
work carried out by Abraham Kuenen and Julius
Wellhausen. Following the work of Eichhorn, de
Wette, Graf, Kuenen, Noldeke, Colenso and
others, in his Prolegomena zur Geschichte
Israels (Official introduction to the History of
Israel) Wellhausen proposed that Joshua
represented part of the northern Yahwist source
(c 950 BC), detached from JE document by the
Deuteronomist (c 650-621) and incorporated
into the Deuteronomic history, with the books of
Judges, Kings, and Samuel.
"The Pentateuch in its current form represents a
compromise due to long and difficult negotiations
among different religious parties in Jerusalem and
Samaria, as suggested by E. A.Knauf" represents
a blatant lack of cognition that there are Divine
Men and Mortal Men. The Men from Ur have
demonstrated for over 5,000 years that they do
not negotiate. The Persians were Warriors of God
from the first time they saw the Centaur of
Sagittarius and it said, "In this sign you shall
conquer." The way to get to Sagittarius was
through the opening cut in the belly of the
Cosmic Mother by Perseus as he "bagged the
Medusa's head" as a sign that negotiations are for
fools.
Had these researchers not been guided by this
"Man-child of sinister desire" they would have
understood that history does not get lost to Men
of Rightness. History gets distorted by the
propaganda of sinister desires after traumatic
conflicted conquests when multi-spirited beings
are conquered by single minded objectivity.
The Denderah Planisphere was needed to restore
and retain the story of the Son of Man, which the
Persians and the Jews did not accept as a
descendant from the Egyptian Canon known as
the Chapters of Coming Forth by Day when
Maahes established Egypt as the Light of the
World standing before the Bush of Burning
Desire that was the symbolic seed of a Son of the
Mother of Rightness.
The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day (Book of
the Dead) reveals the Sensus Plenior that had
been known since the first bullroarer sounded
over 33,000 years earlier. It says that conquest is
not a matter of how many kings are killed, as in
Joshua 12, but my how many alliances can be put
together to make the Bull Roar.
Revelation 17:9-11 9 And here is the
understanding that hath wisdom. The seven heads
are seven mountains, upon which the woman
sitteth, and they are seven kings: 10Five are
fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come: and
when he is come, he must remain a short
time.11And the beast which was, and is not: the
same also is the eighth, and is of the seven, and
goeth into destruction.
REA
9/25/13 Page 10 of 20
410
]oumal of Biblical Literature
not agree that this section is specifically Elohistic (whatever that might mean).
This function of the book of Joshua as a conclusion was highlighted over a centuryago by the Dutch scholar A. Kuenen, who noted that Moses is mentioned
fdiy-six times in Joshua, but only four (or five) in Judges, and two in Samuel. In
some ways, Joshua in general, but most certainly Josh 24 in particular, must
belong with what precedes, not with what follows. Kuenen continues: "The
other points of contact and agreement with tbe Tora [and Joshua] likewise gain
additional significance and weight from the contrast between Joshua on the one
side and Judges and Samuel on the other."42 Such observations remain true
even after oth's powerful hypothesis.
Many arguments support the view that Josh 24 is a late text that was created by the Hexateuch redactor to summarize and conclude the larger work as
a whole. In terms of narrative structure, Gen 50:25 and Exod 13:19, which deal
with the transportation of Joseph's bones from Egypt to Israel, serve as preparation for Josh 24. Joshua 24:32 is thus the end of a narrative trajectory that
starts in Cen 50:25 (or even in 33:19). In fact, the suggestion that Joseph was
buried in Shechem might even bring us back to the beginning of the Joseph
story; as noted by the great medieval Jewish commentator Rashi (Rabbi
Solomon son of Isaac, 1040-1105), "They [Joseph's brothers] stole him from
Shechem (see Cen 37:13), and they [Joshua's generation] returned him to
Shechem."43 Additionally, according to 24:29 Joshua dies at the same age as
Joseph (see Cen 50:26)44 This makes this chapter looks like a Hexateuch en
miniature, as already noted by Cerhard von Rad 45 The recapitulation of the
people's history starts, contrarily to the Dtr summaries, with the patriarchs (or
even before) and ends with the conquest of the land. In terms of language, Josh
24 employs Priestly as well as Dtr language. 46 For example, it uses the Priestly
term jlJl:> l'~; likewise, Josh 24:6 reflects the P account ofExod 14. These initial observations su pport the notion that Jash 24 was constructed by the Hexateuch redactor, who was familiar with both Priestly and Deuteronomic material,
in order to effect closure on his work.
In fact, Josh 24 is not only connected to the Joseph story atthe end of Genesis, forming a type of frame around the Hexateuch; it has broader connections
to the rest of the Pentateuch. Many ofthese are to texts that do not show "classical" Dtr language 47 For example, the author ofJosh 24 invites his listeners to
Kuenen. Historical-CrtHad Inquiry, 12.
Rashi. ad Josh 24:32. following earlier rabbinic sources. (Translation by Brettler.)
H See, e.g.. R. D. Nelson. Joshua (011...; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997), 219.
'5 G. von Rad, Dos erne Bm:h Mose: Genesis' (ATD 2-4; 9th 00.; Gl)ttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1972),3; Eng. trans., Ceneris (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1972),16.
46 For details, see Anbar, JOSfd. 69---100.
41 For example, Josh 24:25 states O:m:J &1001 pn 17 aD'1. It is easy to assimilate the verse's
phrase eEJliCll pn into the more common Deuteronomic phrase Q~Jlio1 Cl'pn (see the discussion in
42
43
Joshua 24:22-24
22 And Josue said to the people: You are
witnesses, that you yourselves have chosen you
the Lord to serve him. And they answered: We
are witnesses. 23 Now therefore, said he, put
away strange gods from among you, and
incline your hearts to the Lord the God of
Israel. 24 And the people said to Josue: We will
serve the Lord our God, and we will be
obedient to his commandments.
The last book of the Hexateuch seals the hearts
and minds to the Rational Order of the Son of
Man. It is purely hermeneutic and speaks of a
coming Messiah. That Messiah is the Son of
Rightness that will destroy the daughters of
righteousness. Joshua 24 completes the
creation of the New Heaven and the New
Earth. Yet, what was created is what always
was, provided that the daughters of
righteousness can find a Son of Rightness.
Sekhmet, Demeter, Sarah, and Columbia had
bound the ears of the masses seeking the
Harmonious Voice of a Bullroarer, whose
sound is seen at the Top of Creation.
REA
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choose (.,n:J) YHWH as Cod (see esp. v. 22). This idea is never found in Otr theology, according to which YHWH has already chosen his people,48 and they have
no voice in the matter. In Josh 24, the decision to choose YHWH is linked to a
rejection of foreign gods, which is prefigured in Cen 35:2--5. In Shechem,
Joshua makes the same claim as does Jacob:
Cen 35:2:
D::>::>ro
.,iD~
49;::>:n
'n'?~-n~
no,., 10.1> "iD~-'?::>
'?~lln':J-'?~
:Jf'll' "1:l~'1
Josh 24:14:
Both texts contain a promise that YHWH will accompany the addressees on their
journey (Cen 35:3; Josh 24:17), and both are situated by the OakofShechem. O.
Keel has argued persuasively that Cen 35:2--5 should be attributed to a postexilic redactor who uses both Otr and Priestly language.'" We submit that Josh
24 belongs to the same Otr-Priestly Hexateuch redaction.
The formula used in Josh 24:17-18a functions in a different way as a conclusion to the Hexateuch. In this section YHWH is depicted as
-n~l 'On~
n'?m., ~01 'O'n'?~ n01' '::> 17
-n~ U'l'.I>'? niDJJ1 "iD~l D'.,:J.\l n':JI:l D'''~I:ll'''~1:l u'm:J~
n:J ll::>'?n .,iD~ l.,.,n-'?::>:J '0.,00'1 n'?~n n1'?,., mn~n
D'I:l~n-'?::>-n~ mn' iD"'l 18 D:J'p:J 1l"1:J.I> 'iD~ D'I:l~n '?::>:J1
ll'lOO l',~n :JiD' "I:l~n-n~l
The juxtaposition between v. 17 and v. 18 is rather unusual. The focus of
v. 17a is YHWH's role as liberator from Egypt, which is a frequent biblical
motifS! In this chapter, however, this formula is supplemented through the
When Moses was memorialized on the Highest
Height of Heaven and Earth, he had not
established the civil order. His destiny was to
lead the Sheep of the I Am to the heights within
a New Heaven and a New Earth. The
establishment of the New Earth most fall upon
the following generation. Moses delivered the
First Element drawn from the Abyss, the Water
of Genetic Life.
To consider the Book of Joshua as the last book
of a Hexateuch is the work of a man-child of
sinister desire. The Pentateuch, righteous or
sinsiter, had the objective of restoring the Lost
Tribes of Hebrews to the Land Promised to their
ancestors. Joshua gave the offsprings of the
Hebrews a New World Order using the Egyptian
civil number of 37 Periods and the Persian
Zoroastrian number of 12 Houses of the Sons of
Jacob as the Canon of the New Heaven and the
New Earth. The result was the raising of
Zoroastrian-Persia Astrology to Divine Law.
Breaking the bondage to this Law was the
objective of the New Heaven and New Earth of
the Hathor Temple Science. The astrological
bondage was broken by the Christian Theology
after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
in 70 AD by Persian Men of Mithras. The
Persians carried on with their astrological
perspective for another five and a half centuries
before they were defeated by the Byzantine
Army in Northern Egypt. Within a decade the
whole of the Islamic Theology was formed and it
rejected Hebrew-Persian Astrology and
Egyptian-Christian Solarity as it established a
New Heaven and a New Earth synchronized to
the first witnessing of a waxing crescent Moon.
Islam did not decay into rational tyranny until
the Mongol Hordes destroyed the celestial dream
of Seventh Heaven six centuries later. Between
620 AD and 1220 AD the Arabs restored many
of the visions of the stars of Seventh Heaven
REA
S. D. Sperling, "Joshua 24 Re-examined., HUGA 58 [1987]: 131, esp. n. 69), but this phrase is
always in the plural in Deuteronomy and DtrH (Deut 4:5, 8, 14; 1 Kgs 9:4). The only prior use of
the phrase in the singular was in Exoo15:25 (outside the Pentateuch only in Ezra 1:1O!), significantly, also with the verb O'lz1: ~ttin, pn '7 olD 00. It is thus likely that Josh 24:25 is intentionally
referring back to this earIJer central "event" at Marah and updating it, saying that the "real"
!!El1!7i:11 pn were given at Shechem. Thus, at its conclusion, Josh 24 is self-consciously referring backward to several places in an earlier part of the same collection-in this case, to Exodus-thereby
concluding by summarizing. For other examples, see Anbar,}osu.i. 89-115.
48 Contrast, e.g., the use ofin:J in Deut 4:37; 7:6; etc. Only once in Deuteronomy is YHWH
not the subject ofln:J. In 30:19, the people are encouraged to choose "life," but even here they are
not given the choice, as in Josh 24, between choosing YHWH or other deities.
49 The same expression occurs in Josh 2420.
50 O. Keel, "Das Vergraben der 'fremden Gotter' in Genesis X'XXV 4b," VT 23 (1973):
305-36. esp. 331.
51 See, e.g., Lev 11:45; Deut 20:1; Judg6:8, 13; 1 Sam 10:18; 12:6; 2 Kgs 17:7,36; Ps. 81:11.
n
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addition of w. 17b-18a, which incorporates the conquest of the land as well.52
This enlarged formula reflects an attempt to correct and extend the earlier formula of the Pentateuch and thus to incorporate the Pentateuch into the Hexateuch. It is significant that the initial part of the formula is not expressed using
the hiphU participle of the verb ~:l" which is much more usual in Deuteronomy. It uses the hiphU of~?ll, which is found only once in Deuteronomy, as well
as in, e.g., Lev 11045 and Ps 81:11. 53 This bolsters the suggestion that the author
of this formula was not a Deuteronomist, but rather was a later tradent, who
used different language,54 and was interested in forming the Hexateuch as a literary body.
Additional verses in Josh 24 are also not mainstream D or Dtr in their
theology or phraseology, but instead reflect a combination ofvarious Torah ideologies and thus are part of the latest redaction of this material, which is
attempting to create a Hexateuch. For example, the juxtaposition in v. 19b of
~llP-?~ and O:>ll!liEl? ~'ID'-~? is quite remarkable.55 The former, found also in
Nah 1:2, is a variant of the Decalogue's~:p ?~ (Exod 20:5; Deut 5:9; cf. Exod
34:7),56 which is used in a context ofYHWH's intergenerational punishment and
reward. In fact, Exod 34:7 emphasizes that YHWH is ~~n1 ll!liEll ]1ll ~iDl---just
the opposite of our text's claim. However, the idea ofYHwH as not forgiVing is
found in another text, namely, Exod 23:21, D:>J!IliEl? ~iD' ~?, a text that is very
distinct from the latest levels of Dtr, which emphasize the role of repentance,
i1.~ltzjn, in convincing YHWH to change his mind. 57 The contrast between ~tlr ~,
D:>J!IliEl? and Deut 7:10b is especially sharp. Finally, the use of~?:> in the piel is
totally out of line with Deuteronomic or Deuteronomistic ideology, where
YHWH will never ~?:> Israel. 58 The notion that YHWH may ~?:> Israel is found,
for example, in Exod 32:10, which Deut 9:14 rewrites in the typical Deuteronomic and Dtr phrase of 100 in the hiphil. Thus, although Josh 24:19 knows
Dtr, it cannot be Dtr, and it reflects an attempt to effect closure on the Hexateuch by combining various Torah traditions.
S2 For an intermediary position, see Jer 2:6.
53 On the use ofi1?J.m and ~'~. see W. Cross, "Die HerausfUhrungsformel: Zum Verhaltnis
von Forme! uod Syntax," ZA W 86 (1974): 425----53.
Exodus 23:19-23
19 Thou shalt carry the firstfruits of the corn
of thy ground to the house of the Lord thy
God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of
his dam. 20 Behold I will send my angel,
who shall go before thee, and keep thee in
thy journey, and bring thee into the place
that I have prepared. 21 Take notice of him,
and hear his voice, and do not think him one
to be contemned: for he will not forgive
when thou hast sinned, and my name is in
him. 22 But if thou wilt hear his voice, and
do all that I speak, I will be an enemy to thy
enemies, and will afflict them that afflict
thee. 23 And my angel shall go before thee,
and shall bring thee in unto the Amorrhite,
and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the
Chanaanite, and the Hevite, and the
Jebusite, whom I will destroy.
Exodus 23:21 has the spirit of Maahes as a
Bullroarer of Rightness, for it states, "my
name is in him." The Son of Rightness is the
Son of God. Before the coming of the
Messiah, the flocks of Abraham and Moses
were puppets of the Great Shepherds. After
the Son of Rightness comes as the Son of
God, "my name is in him," will become
their I Am.
This Coming of the Son of Rightness is at
least as old as the Bullroarer, and there is no
indication that it was not present tens of
thousands of years before the Bullroarer
came into being. What we do know is that
the "Proper Motion of the Stars" would not
have shown the Ex 23:21 much before the
coming of the Bullroarer device.
REA
S~ Note similarly that verb ~ and the gentilic;~ are used in reference to the nations of
Canaan-neither of these uses characterizes the Deuteronomjst.
5S On the meaning of this phrase, see now B. J. Schwartz, "term' or Metaphor-Biblical
~n/.S)zj::v'pll~~)'" (in Hebrew), Tarbiz 63 (1994): 149-71 (English summary, XI-XII).
56 On the variants of this fonnula, see M. Fishbane, jorah and Tradition,'" in TradiHon and
Theology 'in the Old Testament (ed. D. A. Knight.; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977),279-81.
57 On the significance of repentance, alate (DtrH) idea here, see G. Mitchell, Together-in the
Land, A Reading of the Book of Joshua (jSOTSup 134; Sheffield, JSOT Press, 1993), 118. Mme
broadly, see the commentaries on Deut4, which is regarded as exilic or postexilic.
ssln Deut28:21, the verb;,?, is used in reference to Israel being "terminated" from the land
of IsraeL not ''terminated'' in the absolute sense.
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The use of the phrase ;'?l\,1 0'1::11;' in Josh 24:26 also offers significant
support in our search for an original Hexateuch. This phrase appears a full eight
times in Deuteronomy and was probably understood as a reference to the book
of Deuteronomy as a whole. 59 Thus, the author of Josh 24 is really saying that
;'?l\,1 0'1::11;', "these words," of Deuteronomy need to be updated through the
insertion of a new set of ;'?l\,1 0'1::11;', namely, the book of Joshua. Furthermore, is it purely coincidental that Deuteronomy begins with O'j:J1jl j'J?~,
while Joshua, almost at its conclusion, chiastically refers to i1?KJ1 0":1 i1(60
This "Hexateuchal address" by Joshua is situated at Shechem. This location may reflect the difficult discussion about the "identity" of Israel. Some
scholars have argued that this location could be understood as an attempt to
integrate the "proto-Samaritans" into IsraeL61 E. Blum's statement about this is
quite convincing: "Concerning the key question: 'Who he longs to Israel?'
Joshua 24 defends for its audience an inclusive position."62 We have a similar
ideology in the book of Chronicles, which contain some speeches inviting the
"brethren in the north" to "convert" to "real" Yahwism (cf. 2 Chr 30:1-18). The
protagonists of such an inclusive Hexateuch, who use "Shechem" as a symbol
for those who are typically considered outside the pale but are here invited in,
reflect the combination of Dtr and Priestly streams of traditions. L. Pertitt is
certainly right in stressing that such coalitions are very probable. It is impossible to imagine that the intellectual groups of postexilic Judaism lived in total
isolation from each other 63-there is no reason to believe that there might have
been separate Priestly and Dtr villages!
This conclusion concerning the composition of the chapter explains why in
the history of the study of these verses, such a wide diversity of sources has
been proposed," and why later, more open-minded scholars conclude that the
59 For a discussion of the references to a "book" within Deuteronomy, see ].-P. Sonnet, Tlw
Book Within the Book: Writing in Deuteronomy (Biblical Interpretation Series 14; Leiden/New
YoMCologne, BrilL 1997).
60 See the discussion of Seidel's law in Levinson, DeuterOf1011Uj, n.19 above.
61 Cf. E. Blum, Kmnposition, 56--59, adapting insights from L. Perlitl, Bundestheologie im
Alten Testament (WMANT 36; Neukirchen-V1uyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1969), 241--51. Cf. also
Nelson,Joshua, 272.
62 E. Blum, "Der kompositioneUe Knoten am Obergang von ]osua zu Richter: Ejn EntOechtungsvofSchlag," in Deuteronomy and Deutemnomic Literature: Festschrift C.H. W. Brekelmans (ed. M. Vervenne and]. Lust; BETL 133; Leuven: Peeters, 1997). 181-212, esp. 200. A
different type of inclusivist position is argued for jn Ruth. On the other hand, an exclusivist posjtion
is particularly identified with Ezra-Nehemiah; see P. Abadie, Le Livre d'Esdras et de Nthemie
(Paris: Cerf, 1996); and most recently B. Beeking. "Continuity and Community: The Belief System
of the Book of Ezra," in B. Beeking and M. C. A. Karpel, The Crisis of Israelite Rel-tgwn: Transformations of Religiow TradiHon in ExIliG and Post-ExIlic Times (OTS 42; Leiden: Brill, 1999),
268-75.
63
6-4
Perlitt, "Priesterschrifl, ~ 87.
See the survey offered in Koopmans.,Joshua 24, 104-41.
9/25/13 Page 14 of 20
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chapter is by an "author who is not to be identified with the Deuteronomist or
any other Pentateuchal source."ffi It also explains why the chapter shares such a
vast amount of phraseology with material that crosses all source-critical boundaries. 66 It is certainly likely that a late67 joint Dtr-Priestly redaction, would, like
Chronicles,66 share in the ideology and language of the two major theological
strands of the Pentateuch. and others as well.
The existence of a Dtr-P coalition also explains why the Dtr book of Joshua
incorporates a number of "Priestly" texts. 59 In addition. several texts. such as
Joshua 3-4 and Josh 6 are so blended with Dtr and Priestly elements that no
scholar has convincingly succeeded in making out the different strata of these
texts.'o Although P is later seen in the MT of 1 Kgs 8:1-10 and 62-68,71 in no
other place in the DtrH after Joshua is there so much P material or so sizable a
block of P material that is well integrated with D material. Thus, the D-P material seen in a significant part of Joshua is unique and reflects the unique status
55 Sperling, "Joshua 24 Re-Examjned, 120. IDs more general conclusions, however, that thjs
is an early text are vitiated by the many pa.raDels that he offers between this text and other clearly
postexilic texts.
66 Much of this is collected by Sperling, "Joshua 24," 122-33.
67 Note not only the connection to Neh 8:18, discussed below. but the very unexpected
phrase in Josh 24:19. tI'Id"p tI'il?t/;-cf. Dan 4:5, 6, 15. (This connection is noted by Sperling
["Joshua 24," 130J, who does not believe that this is a late text.)
68 For a sUlVey of the use of pentateuchal sources in ChJ"Onicles, see S. Japhet, I & II Chronicles (OTL; Louisville, KY: Westminster!J ohn Knox, 1993), 14-16. Many of the features we are
pointing out concerning Josh 24 may be typified as midrashic or proto-midrashic. Such features
have already been noted in other late biblical texts, so it is not surprising that they are found here as
well. See, e.g., M. Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1985); I. L. Seeligman, "The Beginnings of Midnl$h in the Books of Chronicles" (in
Hebrew), Tarbiz 49 (1979-80): 14--32 (English summary, II-III); and M. Z. Brettler, The Creation
ofH'istort} in Ancient Israel (London: Routledge, 1995), 62-78.
69 Most of the list material in Josh 13--19 is often oonsidered "priestly" (see E. Cortese,josua
13-21: Ein priesterschriftlicher Abschnitt im deuteronomistischen Geschichtswerk [OBO 94;
Freiburg: Universit~tsverlag; Cottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1990]). In the narrative sections Josh 5 is also sometimes considered "Priestly" (see Bieberstein, Josua-Jordan-Jemho,
403-12).
70 Noth saw Josh 3-4 and 6 as older material in which Dtr had made some insertions (espe~
cially the mentions of the priests! (Uberlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien, 42); Fritz distinguishes for
chs.3-4 the primitive text, a Dtr redactor, a post-Priestly addition, and other insertions (josua,
43-56). Bieberstein has for Josh 3-4 at least seven levels 0), including pre-Dtr, two Dtr, post-Dtr
and post-Priestly redactors (josua-Jordan-Jericho, 135--93). Philippe Cuillaume finds a Josianic
Dtr redactor, "P," and very late (Hasmonean) additions ("Vne travers~ qui n'en finit pas [Josu~
:>-4J: Fa< & Vie 97 [1998J' 21-32).
71 M. Noth speaks of a mix of pre-Dtr, Dtr and late Priestly inOuenced strands (Konige I.
1-16 [BK 0(/1; eukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1968), 174-75); J. Cray speaks of additions that have "affinity with p~ (I & II Kings [OTL; 3d ed.; London: SCM, 1977),203--4); E.
Wtirthwein suggests additions that depend on P (lM Bucher Jer Konige: 1 Konige 1-16 [AID lUI;
Cottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977], 86, 101-2).
D
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of Joshua as the conclusion of the Hexateuch. In this context, we might even
understand the notice about the death of Eleazar the priest in Josh 24:33 as a
gesture of good wUl from the Hexateuch Deuteronomists toward their priestly
colleagues. 72
The acceptance of Noth's DtrH hypothesis has blinded most contemporary scholars to the implications of tbe similarities between Josh 24 and Genesis. For example, R. G. Boling and G. E. Wrigbt note: "This [Josh 24:32] forms
an envelope construction witb Gen 50:25 (cf. Exod 13:19) tying the end of the
Joshua book to the end of Genesis and showing that the Tetrateuch is presupposed as one long epic, preface to the Dtr historical work.»'" We cannot fathom
this comment, which is internally contradictory: they are certainly correct in
noting the "envelope structure" or indusia, but have not realized that this
observation flies against Noth's suggestion for the existence ofa separate Tetrateuch and DtrH, instead strongly suggesting that we must, on some level, look
at the enveloped Hexateuch, which is followed by Judges through Kings.
These many observations concerning various anomalies in Josh 24 suggest
that this chapter in its current forms reflects an attempt to create a Hexateuch
as the official document of Judaism, and that for a very short time the Pentateuch and Hexateuch competed with each other for the status of the central
book in early Judaism. It is even possible that the original titles of these two
works have been preserved. The title of the Hexateuch may be reflected in Josh
24:26: o'~,,~ ni1n ioo. This book should be distinguished from what is elsewhere called mVI:l ni1n (and its variants), which refers to the shorter Pentateuch, understood to be given through the mediation of Moses. This is supported
by Neh 8:17-18, which is the only other case where o'~,,~(~) ni1n ioo is found:
om ilJ
1:J1D'1 n1:<J ':J1D~-11:l O':JID~ "~p~-'"
1l1lJ'1 17
P jll-p lJ'IIi' '1:l'1:l1I1lJ-~"
" n1:<J:J
"~ilD' 'l:J
O'~"~~ ni1n ioo:J ~iP'1 18 i~1:l ~"1il ~nl:ll!i '~n1 ~1~~
0'1:l' nlJ:l1D In-1IDlJ'1 j1intl,i
om ilJ
j11D~i~
om-jl:l 01':1 01'
t!l:)tVi:O m~.v 'n~ C1'~1
The fact that an eighth day is commemorated (v. 18---d. Lev 23:36) and
that the festival is connected to joy (cf. Deut 16:14) clearly suggests that some
form of Torah legislation that includes both (the latest levels of) Hand D
served as the basis for this legislation, as has been noted. 74 However, what has
not been suffiCiently explained is the reference to the fact that such a commem72 There is no necessity to consider v. 32 as a later addition (contra Blum, "Knoten.~ 210-11).
umbers 27:12£f., which may belong to the same redactional level as Deut34:7~ and Josh 24 has
the same interest in bringing Joshua and Eleazar together (cf. also Josh 14 :1; 17:4; 19:51; 21:1).
13 R. C. Boling and C. E. Wright, Joshua (AB 6; New York: Doubleday, 1982),542-43.
14, See the studies of Fishbane and Seeligman, noted above in n. 68.
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oration had not been celebrated from the time of Joshua. However. if we
understand O'n7ll:(n) ni1n ,,;)0 as the Hexateuch, all is much clearer-after
reading a book dealing with creation through the death of Joshua, it is quite
appropriate for the narrator to obselVe that this is the first great commemoration since the period of Joshua.75 If this surmise is correct, the book that was
read by Nehemiah was the Hexateuch, which most likely eclipsed, for at least
one moment in history. the Pentateuch. This was not to last. however. as the
Pentateuch ultimately reasserted itself as the primary canonical division. 76
Confronted with this valorization of Joshua by the D-P Hexateuch redactors, the Pentateuch redactors put Deut 34:10-12 at the end of the Torah,
insisting thereby that no one can be compared to Moses. Joshua 24 came from
an attempt to compare Joshua to Moses, but this was countered in Deut
34:10-12, by insisting that Moses was sui generis, since Moses, and only Moses,
could come so very close to God. With this statement, which looks back toward
the exodus and emphasizes the incomparability of Moses, the Pentateuch got a
fitting conclusion. The attempt by the D-P editors to create a Hexateuch was
erased and awaited rediscovery by historical-critical scholarship.
IV Summary and Conclusions
The analysis of Deut 34 has shown that this chapter incorporates three
strata, each with its own purpose.
• The primary level (vv. 1·, 4a?, 5-6) belongs to DtrH and relates the
transition from Moses to Joshua. This level encourages Deuteronomy to
be read in conjunction with the following book of Joshua.
• The second stratum (vv. 1·,7-9) builds on this transition and reflects a
conscious effort by the redactors to create a Hexateuch. These verses
were written by the Hexateuch redactor for the same reason that Josh
24 was composed-to stress that, like Moses, Joshua concludes a covenant, like Moses he enacts laws and decrees (24:25), and like Moses he
is concerned with a book. 77
75 This is an extension of the observation of J. Blenkinsopp, Ezra-Nehemiah (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1988), 292: !'he reader [of the verses in Nehemiah] is therefore invited to
thjnk of Joshua's assembly at Shechem in the course of which statutes and ordinances were made
and written and the people rededicated itself to the service of YHVH (josh. 24)." Since Joshua,
jncluding Josh 24, was read. the people could much more easily think of this passage.
76 It is also noteworthy that Neh 8 js followed, jn ch. 9, by a long recapitulation ofhjstory that
has its closest parallel in Josh 24 (see ROmer, Vater, 326--28). Nehemiah 8:17 is (with the genealogical notice in 1 Chr 7:27) the only text that mentions Joshua outside the Pentateuch and the Former
Prophets. Joshua, in ch. 24, and Ezra, in eh S, have identical roles.
77 Anbar, Josue, 137: "parce que Moise a conclu une alliance fondamentale, I'auteur du rt~cit
a attribue a Josue la promulgation d'une alliance; parce que MOIse a promulgue des lois, il a
attribue a Josue la promulgation de lois.; parce que MOise a ecrit dans un livre, it attribue a Josue
I'ecriture dans un livre et comme MOise a dresse des stE~les a I'occasion de la conclusion d'une
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417
• For various reasons, some of which we will explore below, the idea of a
Hexateuch was ultimately rejected. 78 This explains the composition of
the third layer (w. 1-3',4',10-12), which is responsible for the current
shape of the end of Deuteronomy, decisively rejecting the potential
continuity between Deuteronomy and Joshua. For this redaction,
Israel's Torah coincides with the life of Moses, which is to be sharply
divided from Joshua and the conquest.
Two of these corpora, the Tetrateuch (followed by the DtrH) and the Hexateuch, are constructions of modern scholarship. But it seems to us that these
constructions reflect ancient realities, as reflected in the structure of the Hnal
chapters of Deuteronomy and Joshua. Thus, the Tetrateuch-PentateuchHexateuch debate may not only reflect modern scholarly concerns, but might
be a case where these concerns actually mirror those that were played out in
the early postexilic community.
This debate goes well beyond the technical question of whether the initial
canonical division should contain five or SLX books. Even before the influential
hypothesis of Noth, scholars were quite ambivalent about Pentateuch versus
Hexateuch. While acknowledging the obvious, that thematically the conquest
ofJoshua completes the narrative begun in Genesis (12ff.), they felt uncomfortable about the possibility of Joshua being viewed as part of the Torah. In 1891
S. R. Driver summarized the problem quite clearly:
This distinction [Torah vs. Fonner Prophets] is, however, an artiBcial one,
depending on the fact that the book lJoshua] could not be regarded, like the
Pentateuch, as containing an authoritative rule of life; its content, and, still
more, its literary structure, show that it is intimately connected with the Pentateuch, and describes the final stage in the history of the Origins of the
Hebrew nation.79
This discomfort about the place ofJoshua derives from an assumption that
Torah must be law. so But the Torah is not all law-indeed, the book of Genesis
is, like Joshua, mostly narrative material, containing few laws (see esp. Cen
a1Hance, iI attribue aJosu~ J'~rection d'une pierre." See, in addition, Fishbane, BWltcal Interpretation in Ancient Israel,147,352,359.
78 See, in addition, F. Crusemann ("Le Pentateuque, une Tora: ProJ~gomenes a J'interpr~ta
tion de sa forme finale," in Le Pentateuqu.e enquemon [00. A. de Po.ry; Le Monde de Ja Bible 19; 2d
ed.; Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1991], 339--60), who stresses the political context of the Persian
period, arguing that conquest stories as in Joshua would never have been accepted by the Persian
authorities.
79 S. R. Driver,An IntroducHt:m to the L'iteratureofthe Old Testament (1st ed, 1891; reprint.,
Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1972), 103.
80 See the similar comments in O. Eissfeldt., The Old Testament; An Introduction (New York:
Ha.rper& Row, 1965 [trans. of 1964 German 00.]), 256.
9/25/13 Page 18 of 20
418
1781 ). Perhaps we can even argue for the inclusion ofJoshua as part of the
Torah on structural grounds, yielding the symmetrical structure of a narrative
introduction that largely dwells on the promise of the land (Genesis-Exodus
18), followed by laws (Exodus 19-the end of Deuteronomy), followed by a narrative conclusion, establishing the fulfIllment of promise repeated so often in
the narrative introduction (the end of Deuteronomy-Joshua).
What really stands behind the Pentateuch-Hexateuch debate, which looks
like a technical debate concerning the composition of the Bible, its editing, or
the stages in which it was canonized, is really a much simpler and much deeper
issue: the proper understanding of the term Torah. Here there is a remarkable
contrast, which goes back already to the beginning of the fIrst millennium C.E.
Josephus, the jewish historian who lived in the first century, described the fIrst
division of the canon as "comprising the laws and the traditional history from
the birth of man down to Moses' death." In contrast, Jerome, the early church
father who wrote at the end of the fourth century, noted, "These are the five
books of Moses, to which properly they give the name Torah, that is, Law."82 If
Torah is understood as nomos, as it so often is in the post-Jerome Christian tradition, surely Joshua has no place in this initial composition (but neither does
Cenesis!83). However, if Torah is understood more broadly as "instruction," a
sense that it often has in the HB, a sense that justifies the stories of Genesis as
well as those ofJoshua, then Torah may refer to the Hexateuch.
This fits as well with the surmised ancient title for this six-part composition: o'n"~(n) 11'111 '00. The instruction book of God instructed through both
law and narrative, while nlVtl m111, which was later simply called by the shorter
term i1i'l"'I, and was (mis)understood as nomos, used law that was understood to
be revealed to Moses as its predominant means of instruction. This suggested
distinction, however, bet\Veen i'1tVtl l"'Ii'l"'I and tl'i'1?tJ; l"'Ii'l"'I is somewhat conjectural, and our main arguments, which concern the existence of an ancient
Hexateuch (whatever it might have been called!) are independent of this suggestion.
Interpretations must be judged by their ability to answer compelling ques81 Is it a coincidence that the two central laws mentioned in Genesis and Joshua are circumci~
sion-in Gen 17 and Josh 5?
82 The quotations are taken from R. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Backgroundtn Early Judaism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 118, 120.
83 Indeed, this is what provokes the medieval Jewish exegete Rashi to ask, quoting an earlier
rabbinic te.'<l, why the Bible did not begin with Exod 12, the first time when Israel was given a law
as a community. The fact that Genesis is not law is one of the main motivating factors for the composition of JubUees, a rewritten version of Genesis that emphasizes Genesis as a law book. The fact
that that could be done in a second-century B.C.E. book indicates that the understanding ofTornh
as 1aw" is not late and should not be attributed either to the early rabbis or to jerome (cited above),
thereby supporting our notion that what truly stands behind the Pentateuch-Hexateuch debate is a
wider controversy on whether the Torah should be understood as '1aw" or as "instruction.-
9/25/13 Page 19 of 20
419
tions more convincingly than alternatives. Ten years ago, in a brief discussion of
Josh 24, C. Brekelmans raised the obvious question: "When we have seen that
Josh. xxiv may be an insertion in the book, and when we have studied OUf text as
an independent unit, we are left with the question why we fmd this text at the
place where it stands. And, in a way, it is astonishing that this problem has been
neglected almost completely.... "84
Tbe answer offered by Brekelmans, wbicb highlights the connection of
this unit to the following material in DtrH, is quite unconvincing. vVe believe
that the connections noted above, which show that the chapter has much more
significant connections to earlier pentateuchal material, are much more substantial than the few that Brekelmans manages to adduce to later texts in the
Former Prophets. In sum, the suggestion that this chapter was composed late
in the history of the composition of the biblical text, in an attempt by a late editor to create a Hexateuch, much more satisfactorily answers
text at the place where it stands.
why we nnd this
84 c. Brekelmans. "Joshua XXIV: Its Place and Function," in Congress Volume, Leuven 1989
[vrSup 43; Le;den; Brill, 1991J, 4).
The reason why Joshua exists is to establish the Zoroastrian
Calendar for the Kings of Kings. The Sacred Text cannot reveal
the Kingdom or it will be conquered and destroyed by young
bulls. By the time the young bulls figure it out they are too old
and too vested in the kingdom. This realization tells them that
there is no greater prophet than Moses. At that stage of Gnosis
they will not seek a "Land of Pride" for they will not cross over
into the "Land of the Fall of Man" as they acknowledge, and
thereby share, the Supreme Status of a reincarnated Moses.
In Christianity the faithful become part of the Gnosis of the
Father, having received the Body of Christ by Baptism in the
Waters of Contradiction (emotional experience). This completes
the Initiation of Christ as the I Am Cogito is reincarnated as I
Am Caritas.
From the throne on Leo's back, the man-child is a mature
human and a god-child. Looking across the Field of Khephera
the god-child can "see" the Lotus Child of a personal past and a
legacy of generations. Without personal conception of offspring,
the Master of the Plow is not a Father of the Flesh, though he
could be a Father by Laws.
9/25/13 Page 20 of 20

deuteronomy 34 and the case for a persian hexateuch

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