Texts in Conversation
Joshua 24 sets the covenant scene at “Shechem,” while the Greek Septuagint changes it to “Shiloh.” This change may reflect tensions with the Samaritans, for whom Shechem near Mount Gerizim was a central site with symbolic meaning.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Joshua 24:1
Hebrew Bible
1 Joshua assembled all the Israelite tribes at Shechem. He summoned Israel’s elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and they appeared before God. 2 Joshua told all the people, “This is what the Lord God of Israel has said: ‘In the distant past your ancestors lived beyond the Euphrates River, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshiped other gods, 3 but I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and brought him into the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous; I gave him Isaac,
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Joshua 24:1
Septuagint
1 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shiloh, and convoked their elders, and their officers, and their judges, and set them before God. 2 And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers at first stayed beyond the river, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods. 3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, and I guided him through all the land, and I multiplied his seed, and I gave him Isaac;
Date: 200–101 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The fact that the events narrated in Joshua 24 take place at Shechem has always been an interesting point of discussion amongst scholars and especially the fact that the LXX changes Shechem to Shiloh, which some think could be understood as witnessing to an “anti-Samaritan tendency.” Thus the debate about the Samaritans enters the discussion. Strange thinks that “this chapter was written after the Samaritan schism and is a Samaritan effort to make Shechem with Gerizim the center of the Holy Land.” Schmid also thinks that the text and the location at Shechem has to do with the Samaritans in the latter half of the Persian Period ..."
Esias E. Meyer, “Leviticus 19:2 and Joshua 24:19: An Example of Literary Allusion?” in The Text of Leviticus: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthélemy Institute, ed. Innocent Himbaza (Leuven: Peeters, 2020), 179–204.
* 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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