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Document Details : Title: Israel's Treaty with Gibeon According to Josephus Author(s): BEGG, C.T. Journal: Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica Volume: 28 Date: 1997 Pages: 123-146 DOI: 10.2143/OLP.28.0.583552 Abstract : Jos 9:3-27, the story of the making of a treaty between Israel and Gibeon, places the reader before many puzzlements. Literarily, there are the pervasive repetitions (most notably the double “enslavement” of the deceiver Gibeonites, see vv. 19-21 and 22-27), and the oscillation as to who is conducting the negotiations from the Israelite side — is it the men of Israel?, Joshua?, the “leaders of the congregation”? Questions of historic versimilitude likewise suggest themselves. Is it, e.g., conceivable that the Israelites, positioned in the midst of hostile territory and with Moses' prohibitions against covenant-making with the inhabitants (Deut 7:2; 20:16-18) still fresh in their minds, would have allowed themselves to be convinced so easily by the Gibeonites' claims? Conversely, how is it that those Gibeonites are in a position to cite Moses' words in Deuteronomy the way they do throughout Joshua 9 (compare, e.g., v. 10 and Deut 29:1.8; v. 13b and Deut 8:4; 29:5; v.24a and Deut 7:1-2)? Finally, too, the story leaves one with unresolved problems of a juridical/ethical/ theological nature: was the oath which the Gibeonites secured from the Israelites by deception a valid, binding one, especially since it involved a violation of a divine decree mediated by Moses? In other words, should the Israelites have abided — as they do in fact do — by the oath, once they became aware of the Gibeonites' deceit and their own, albeit unwitting, transgression of God's decree? |
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