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THE BIBLE UNEARTHED: THE MAKING OF A RELIGION -- ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY & SCREENCAP GALLERY |
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[Narrator] The Biblical text tells how, at the request of Joshua,
God would help the Israelites win their battle in an entirely miraculous way.
He extended the day during the battle by ordering the sun to stand still on Gibeon, and the moon to stop in the valley of Ajalon.
And the Biblical text goes on to say that there was no day like that before it, or after it, and YAHWEH LISTENED TO THE VOICE OF A MAN.
[Thomas Romer, University of Lausanne] The Joshua EPIC is the start of A GREAT STORY that ends up in a story of kingship. The Book of Joshua is in fact the Bible's FIRST INSTALLMENT of a STORY that would ultimately show WHY ISRAEL CHOSE A KING in the same way that other peoples had done. But it didn't happen overnight.
Joshua already prefigures in the Bible as being slightly royal as he is treated somewhat like a king. But after the STORY of Joshua, we find a book called The Book of Judges.
They were charismatic leaders who arose during a period that was chaotic and anarchical, a period in which NOTHING WAS DETERMINED.
There was NO CENTRAL POWER, and "every man did that which was right in his own eyes," according to the formula used in the book. SO THE BOOK OF JUDGES IS USED TO SHOW IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO ORGANIZE A NATION IN THE ABSENCE OF A KING or a central power. The Book of Judges ends on that final note.
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