The times can be considered [as] various. First: for [it] can be asked: how long after the assembly and this covenant [was] ratified did [he] live? And Masius responds: “[It] is credible [that] he did not live long after that assembly, but a little after, having returned home, departed from life — just as also, after a last speech of this kind, Moses suddenly departed.” Then [it] can be asked: in what year of his age did [he] meet death? And the sacred text itself responds (v. 29) [that he] was 110 years [old]. In which age also Joseph was, when [he] died (Gen. 50:25). Whence, on this passage, Bereschith Rabbah [Genesis Rabbah] (fol. 115, col. 3) notes six pairs [of persons] for whom the age of living [was] equal:
- Rebecca & Cahath [Kohath].
- Levi & Hamram [Amram].
- Joseph & Joshua.
- Samuel & Salomo [Solomon].
- Moses, & Hillel the elder.
- Iuchanan ben Zochai [Yohanan ben Zakkai], & R. Akiba.
[It] can, thirdly, be asked: in what [year] of his principate [rule] [he] died, or in what year after the crossing of the Jordan? And of this [there] are nearly as many opinions as [there are] hours of the day. The First, of Scaliger (in the Elenchus of Paraeus, p. 29): “Not only,” he says, “how many years Joshua presided over the people is unknown, but also how much of the years flowed between, from the beginning of the book of Joshua to the end.” The Second opinion defines no certain time, but [says that], however many years those finally were, [it] says those are contained in the 40 years which are wont to be ascribed to the Judge Othoniel [Othniel] first. So [think] certain [authors] cited in Abulensis (in the Prologue to Judges, q. 9; and the same [one] in the same place, q. 21); Ribera (bk. 1 On the temple, ch. 1); a certain Clement Schubert (in [his] book On chronological scruples, ch. 4). Other opinions define a certain time. The Third, therefore — which [is] that of Adrichomius, in both [his] Chronicle[s] — is [that] after the death of Moses and the crossing of the Jordan, only 7 years [are] given to Joshua. The Fourth, of Mercator (in [his] Chronology), [gives] eight or nine. The Fifth, of Caietanus [Cajetan], & Arias here, & Canus (bk. 11, ch. 5, at the 11th argument), [gives] ten. The Sixth, of Rambam [Maimonides] (bk. 2 Moreh Nebuchim [Guide of the Perplexed], ch. 32), [gives] fourteen. The Seventh, of V. Bede, Lucidus, & Hugh Broughton, in their agreement, [gives] seventeen. The Eighth, of Genebrardus, &
(col. 1283)
[…The Eighth, of Genebrardus] & Chytraeus (in his Onomasticon), eighteen. The Ninth, of Josephus (at the end of a chapter, bk. 5), twenty-five. The Tenth, of Ralbag [Gersonides] (on ch. 11 of Judges), of Eusebius, of Sulpicius [Severus], of St. Theophilus (bk. 3), of D. Augustine (bk. 18 City [of God], ch. 11), of Nicephorus of Constantinople, [and] of George Syncellus — who also says this is held from unwritten [agraphos] custom and tradition — [give] twenty-seven. The Eleventh, of Sederholam [Seder Olam] (ch. 12), & Radak [David Kimhi], & R. Abraham Zacuth (in [his] book Iuchasin [Yuhasin], fol. 10), of R. Godolias [Gedaliah] (in his Catena [Shalshelet], fol. 14 & 97), and also of Masius himself (ch. 11, 18, 24), [give] twenty-eight. The Twelfth, of Eupolemus (apud Eusebius, bk. 9 of the Preparation [Praeparatio Evangelica]), thirty.
Now, of all those opinions, which [is] the truest? Indeed, from those [things] which [were] established above about the years of the division of the land — [years] prior and posterior — [it] appears [that], of those opinions which (except for some [one] by no means to be disapproved — [the confession of ignorance]) establish something definite, the first four or five [are] to be rejected. But of the rest — all [of them] examined before the [book of] Judges, and the times [once] firmly established — [it] cannot certainly be pronounced. Await, therefore, a little while, [O] good Reader, and [wait] a little — either in the following [book], or in [the books of] Kings [3 Kings]: [the matter] is deferred. “Small conveniences have [i.e. come with] great delay.”
But the month and day of [his] death is recorded in the Calendar of the Hebrews [as] Nisan, the 26th day — so that, namely, after Moses, who departed from life in the preceding month, called Adar, Joshua should follow: and indeed also because, in this very month Nisan, the true Joshua, CHRIST the Lord, was once about to die.