Library / Commentary on Joshua, Volume I

Book II: Prolegomena — Eight

Prolegomenon V. Why is the same book entitled "Joshua"?

Although its author is Joshua (as [was] said in Prolegomenon II), yet the title seems rather sought from the matter itself. For those [things] are narrated in that book of which Joshua was the leader, author, and governor; and from him the book begins, and in him it ends. About whose parents, name, and other previously-done deeds, enough was set forth in the preceding book [Book I].

There survives among the Samaritans, even today, a book translated from Hebrew into the Arabic tongue, which is called IOSVE [Joshua] — because, namely, it begins from Moses’s departure and Joshua’s rule, although it does not end with him, but continues on beyond the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Scaliger writes (bk. 7 On Emendation, p. 627) [that] he possesses this [book], copied in the Samaritan character.

To cite this page

Nicolaus Serarius, S.J., “Prolegomenon V. Why is the same book entitled "Joshua"?,” in Commentary on Joshua, Volume I, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/serarius-joshua-1/176-prolegomenon-v-why-is-the-same-book-entitled-joshua/.

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