30 Facts About Joshua

Joshua plays a role in Islamic literature, with significant narration in the hadith.

Joshua was a major figure in the events of the Exodus.

Joshua was charged by Moses with selecting and commanding a militia group for their first battle after exiting Egypt, against the Amalekites in Rephidim, in which they were victorious.

Joshua later accompanied Moses when he ascended biblical Mount Sinai to commune with God, visualize God's plan for the Israelite tabernacle and receive the Ten Commandments.

Joshua was with Moses when he descended from the mountain, heard the Israelites' celebrations around the Golden Calf, and broke the tablets bearing the words of the commandments.

Similarly, in the narrative which refers to Moses being able to speak with God in his tent of meeting outside the camp, Joshua is seen as custodian of the tent when Moses returned to the Israelite encampment.

However, when Moses returned to the mountain to re-create the tablets recording the Ten Commandments, Joshua was not present, as the biblical text states "no man shall come up with you".

Later, Joshua was identified as one of the twelve spies sent by Moses to explore and report on the land of Canaan, and only he and Caleb gave an encouraging report, a reward for which would be that only these two of their entire generation would enter the promised land.

The first part of the book of Joshua covers the period when he led the conquest of Canaan.

Joshua led the destruction of Jericho, then moved on to Ai, a small neighboring city to the west.

At Gibeon, Joshua asked the L to cause the sun and moon to stand still, so that he could finish the battle in daylight.

Joshua presided over the Israelite gatherings at Gilgal and Shiloh which allocated land to the tribes of Israel, and the Israelites rewarded him with the Ephraimite city of Timnath-heres or Timnath-serah, where he settled.

When he was "old and well advanced in years", Joshua convened the elders and chiefs of the Israelites and exhorted them to have no fellowship with the native population, because it could lead them to be unfaithful to God.

The prevailing scholarly view is that the Book of Joshua is not a factual account of historical events.

The apparent setting of Joshua is the 13th century BCE which was a time of widespread city-destruction, but with a few exceptions the destroyed cities are not the ones the Bible associates with Joshua, and the ones it does associate with him show little or no sign of even being occupied at the time.

Archaeological evidence in the 1930s showed that the city of Ai, an early target for conquest in the putative Joshua account, had existed and been destroyed, but in the 22nd century BCE.

Joshua gives particular weight to what were then recent digs at Hazor by Yigael Yadin.

The story of the conquest perhaps represents the nationalist propaganda of the eighth century BCE kings of Judah and their claims to the territory of the Kingdom of Israel, incorporated into an early form of Joshua written late in the reign of king Josiah.

In rabbinic literature Joshua is regarded as a faithful, humble, deserving, wise man.

The Teshuvot HaGeonim, a Geonic responsum, discussed that Joshua composed the Aleinu because although the Israelites had made Aliyah to the Promised Land, they were surrounded by other peoples, and he wanted the Jews to draw a clear distinction between themselves, who knew and accepted the sovereignty of God, and those nations of the world which did not.

Joshua is not mentioned by name in the Quran, but his name appears in other Islamic literature.

Joshua was regarded by some classical scholars as the prophetic successor to Moses.

Al-Tabari relates in his History of the Prophets and Kings that Joshua was one of the twelve spies and Muslim scholars believe that the two believing spies referred to in the Quran are Joshua and Caleb.

Joshua was exceptional among the Israelites for being one of the few faithful followers of Allah.

Muslim literature includes traditions of Joshua not found in the Hebrew Bible.

Joshua is credited with being present at Moses's death and literature records that Moses's garments were with Joshua at the time of his departure.

In Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, Joshua is mentioned as Yusha' bin Nun and is the attendant to Moses during his meeting with Khidr.

Joshua is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of snake, Joshua's blind snake, the holotype of which was collected at Jerico, Antioquia, Colombia.

The annual commemoration of Joshua's yahrtzeit is marked on the 26th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar.

Joshua is believed by some Muslims to be buried on Joshua's Hill in the Beykoz district of Istanbul.