Joshua: A Commentary.

• Author: GLATT - GILAD, DAVID A.
• Position: Review

By RICHARD D. NELSON. The Old Testament Library. Louisville, Ky.: WESTMINSTER/JOHN KNOX PRESS, 1997. Pp. xviii + 310.

This learned commentary is remarkably thorough in scope, yet written in a lucid, concise and enjoyable style. A twenty-four page introduction covers issues such as Joshua and history, formation of the book, literary analysis, theological themes, and text. In the commentary per se, Nelson's original translation divides each chapter into major literary units. The translation is followed by textual notes, an overview of the chapter's major exegetical, literary and thematic issues, and a more detailed commentary on the various chapter units. Particularly helpful are Nelson's expositions, in list form, of a given chapter's outstanding complications (pp. 55, 65, 88). Nelson confronts literary-historical problems directly, offering guidelines for separating earlier and later strands, while wisely tending not to endorse overly intricate redactional schemes.

An obvious strength of this commentary lies in Nelson's command of Joshua's textual witnesses. Nelson's layout of the text is very user-friendly, including his system of bracketing expansions and presenting lengthier diversions in parallel columns. His principles of textual reconstruction are clearly stated (pp. 22-24) and executed (e.g., p. 110). MT is most often shown to reflect secondary expansion, but OG is far from being free of errors originating in haplography, dittography, or homoioteleuton. A prime example of Nelson's judicious textual acumen is his discussion of the various textual loci for the section on the Mt. Ebal altar (MT 8:30-35; OG--following 9:1-2; [4Qjosha.sup.a]--immediately before 5:2). Only rarely does Nelson's adherence to his textual principles seem slavish--e.g., accepting MT in 22:22d as the lectio difficilior.

A welcome change in Nelson's commentary compared to many of its predecessors is the continuous attention given to literary aspects of the Book of Joshua. These include thematic interconnections or contrasts between various characters in the book and phenomena such as literary paneling, simultaneous narration from opposing perspectives, anticipatory material, thematic transitions, chiastic structure, and numerous word plays. Nelson's firm grasp of the text's literary and transmission history does not in any way diminish his respect for the integrity of the "received" canonical text, and he routinely challenges us to aspire to the level of the...