#30SecondBible: Joshua

A Dangerous Genocidal Text

By Kate Common

The book of Joshua is a dangerous, genocidal text. The same God who liberates the enslaved Israelites from Egypt now calls them to become oppressors, to violently enter and take the promised land. The book details several key battles in this conquest and then the division of the promised land amongst the twelve tribes of Israel. Unfortunately for the indigenous Canaanites God’s promise of the promised land meant their complete destruction. Can there be good news in this book?

  1. What do you do when the Bible is filled with genocide?
  2. Can there be good news in the book of Joshua?

A More Liberative Christianity

By Kate Common

The good news in Joshua does not lie within the story itself but how this story challenges Christians to confront the dangers lurking within the Bible. These dangers still exist, even with hermeneutical strategies to deal with difficult texts. To disarm the conquest narrative we just might need to confront practices such as continuing to authorize the Bible as the sole scripture within our tradition. Ironically, Joshua just might lead the way to a more liberative Christianity.

  1. What dangers do you see lurking within the Bible?
  2. What would a more liberative Christianity look like?

The Mythic Model

By Aric Clark

It begins with Joshua son of Nun being described according to the criteria of the Deuteronomist: meditating on the law of Moses day and night and refusing to turn either to the right or to the left. He leads an unusually obedient nation of Israel in a brutal Holy War against the indigenous peoples of a land they believe God has set aside for them, culminating in Joshua distributing the land and renewing a covenant like an idealized king - the mythic model for the scions of the House of David.

  1. What do you remember about the story of Joshua?
  2. After hearing this summary, what do you think of Joshua?

A Severe Ethical Challenge

By Aric Clark

The book of Joshua is a severe ethical challenge, portraying as it does a religiously motivated campaign of genocidal conquest. It is a story that has too often been the basis of real world settler-colonialism, and various poisonous national mythologies, including the American doctrine of Manifest Destiny. The Good News here is found in subverting the text - the heroes are not the conquerors, but the conquered who creatively resist, and prove their status as righteous outsiders. Yeshua may be the aramaic form of Joshua, but Jesus is more the son of Rahab, than the son of Nun.

  1. Who are the "righteous outsiders" in our world today?
  2. How can we overcome colonialism and the doctrine of Manifest Destiny in our world today?

See the complete #30SecondBible series

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