Texts in Conversation
Joshua 24 ends with a speech declaring a stone as a witness to the covenant made at Shechem. The Greek Septuagint adds a phrase that appears to reference a future time of failure, harmonizing the narrative with details found in Deuteronomy.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Joshua 24:27
Hebrew Bible
25 That day Joshua drew up an agreement for the people, and he established rules and regulations for them in Shechem. 26 Joshua wrote these words in the Law Scroll of God. He then took a large stone and set it up there under the oak tree near the Lord’s sanctuary. 27 Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against us, for it has heard everything the Lord said to us. It will be a witness against you if you deny your God.” 28 When Joshua dismissed the people, they went to their allotted portions of land. 29 After all this Joshua son of Nun, the Lord’s servant, died at the age of 110.
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Joshua 24:27
Septuagint
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people on that day, and gave them a law and an ordinance in Shiloh before the tabernacle of the God of Israel. 26 And he wrote these words in the book of the law of God: and Joshua took a great stone, and set it up under the oak before the Lord. 27 And Joshua said to the people, Look, this stone shall be among you for a witness, for it has heard all the words that have been spoken to it by the Lord; for he has spoken to us this day; and this stone shall be among you for a witness in the last days, whenever you shall deal falsely with the Lord my God. 28 And Joshua dismissed the people, and they went every man to his place. 29 And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that lived as long as Joshua, and all that knew all the works of the Lord which he did for Israel.
Date: 200–101 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Whereas the translator’s concern for style, variation and contextual harmonization can be detected throughout the Greek Joshua, particularly in the first part of the book, there is little evidence for specific ideological and contemporizing renderings. In the case of Joshua 24:27 where the Greek version seems to introduce an eschatological element into the text, the plus does not so much point to the end of days, but rather creates a link backwards to Deuteronomy 31.29 ..."
Michaël N. van der Meer, “Joshua,” in The T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint, ed. James K. Aitken, Bloomsbury Companions (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 86–101.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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