Unusual Bible Interpretations: Joshua

by Israel Drazin

Overview

With common sense close in hand, Dr. Drazin presents clear, logical explanations to issues that have perplexed readers of Joshua for centuries. Paying close attention to the biblical writing style and sensitive to ancient Near East culture, Dr. Drazin not only enhances our understanding of Joshua, but provides a blueprint for approaching the entirety of Scripture.
By examining the biblical book of Joshua with references to many classical, traditional, as well as modern scholarly sources, Dr. Israel Drazin interprets the biblical text in ways that many readers will consider unusual. His objective analysis of the book confronts such challenging questions as:

How much of the land of Canaan was actually conquered in Joshuas time?

When was the book of Joshua composed?

What scribal errors does the book contain?

If God assured Joshua of victory, why did Joshua use surprise tactics rather than direct frontal assaults?

What does the book tell us of the tensions between the tribes of Judah and the tribes of Joseph?

Is Shiloh, rather than Jerusalem, the place God chose for the center of Israelite worship?

In his well-written, informative, and always insightful work, Israel Drazin is sure to astonish you!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789652297099
Publisher:	Gefen Publishing House
Publication date:	03/15/2015
Series:	Unusual Bible Interpretations
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dr. Israel Drazin served for thirty-one years in the US military and attained the rank of Brigadier General. He has a PhD in Judaic studies, a master s degree in psychology, a master s degree in Hebrew literature, and is an attorney and a rabbi. He developed the legal strategy that saved the military chaplaincy when its constitutionality was attacked in court, and received the Legion of Merit for his service. He was the scholar who recognized that Targum Onkelos incorporated hundreds of words from the Tannaitic Midrashim, edited around 400 CE, and therefore must have been composed after that date, a period much later than has been widely accepted. He is the author of twenty-five books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authored with Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth-century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House.

Date of Birth:

May 1656

Date of Death:

August 1728

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Part 1 Joshua 1-12 - The Conquest

1 Did Joshua Lack Experience for His New Job? 3

2 Joshua Ignores Divine Assurances of Success and Repeats Moses's Mistake with the Spies 9

3 Was Joshua's Crossing of the Jordan a Miracle? Biblical Hyperbole 16

4 Errors in the Biblical Texts and More Hyperbole 22

5 Joshua, Why Didn't Moses Circumcise the Israelites before They Entered Canaan?" 27

6 "The Problem, My Dear Readers, Is Based on Wrong Assumptions!" 34

7 Comprehension of the Biblical Writing Style Is Necessary to Understand Its Meaning 40

8 Circumcision 45

9 Did the City Walls of Jericho Miraculously Fall? 49

10 Understanding Scripture by Making Comparisons, and Retaining Ancient and Taboo Practices 56

11 What Gave Joshua the Right to Kill Achan in a Nonjudicial Fashion? 59

12 Why Are Innocents Killed for Another's Misdeed? 66

13 Can We Rely on God to Perform Miracles? 71

14 Joshua Contains Two Accounts of a Single Episode 76

15 Did the Bible Intend for Shiloh to be Israel's Capital and Its Spiritual Center? 79

16 Was Joshua Acting Morally When He Enslaved the Gibeonites? 84

17 Two Versions of One Tale, Again 92

18 Did the Sun Stand Still for Joshua at Gibeon? 94

19 Hyperbole and Obscurities 99

20 Does the Book of Joshua Contradict Itself? 103

21 Were the Israelites Allowed to Make Peace with the Canaanites? 106

22 Was Joshua a Successful Leader? 110

Part 2 Joshua 13-21 - Distribution of Land

23 Ideas that May Make Some People Uncomfortable 117

24 Seeing Joshua Unable to Proceed, Caleb Attacks Hebron 122

25 The Cryptic Tale of Achsah 126

26 Why Did the Joseph Tribes Receive Two Allotments? 132

27 Many Discrepancies Here and in Other Chapters 134

28 Did God Allot the Canaanite Land or Not? 136

29 Two Tribes Did Not Receive Any Territory in Canaan 138

30 Did the Generation of Post-Moses Israelites Know about the Torah? 141

31 Levites and Priests 146

Part 3 Joshua 22-24 - fourteen Years After the Conquest Began

32 More on the Post-Moses Era Possibly Not Knowing that God Revealed the Torah to Moses 151

33 The Curious Near Civil War over an Altar 153

34 How Many Biblical Commands Are There? 158

35 Does Joshua 24 Deny the Revelation of the Decalogue at Sinai? 162

Afterword 169

Referenced 175

Index 177

About the Author 183

Editorial Reviews

Continuity is a societal and individual's experience that represents an important element of stability in our spiritual lives. Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin, in his work "Unusual Bible Interpretations: Joshua" in his first chapter, "Did Joshua Lack Experience for His New Job?" reflects upon asks the following questions:
1. Who was Joshua?
2. When Did Joshua's Conquest Of Canaan Occur?
3. Study Day and Night?

Within these three sections, Rabbi Drazin seeks to answer and explore a host of rather curious questions, scriptural oddities, and other curious observations.

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