Richard Müller and Juha Pakkala on Textual Variants in Joshua 5:14

  

Joshua 5:14

 

Joshua 5:13-15 describes the encounter between Joshua and the commander of Yahweh’s army, who is presented as a semidivine figure. Joshua is told that an unspecified place close to Jericho where the Israelites have arrived is holy. The MT and LXX versions contain several small textual variants in this passage. One is particularly interesting, for the MT refers to Joshua paying honors to the commander, while the LXX lacks the reference. The Peshitta and Targum Jonathan follow the MT variant, while the Vulgate lacks all of 5:14b. Many Greek manuscripts (Cambridge: Fedgknpqt) and daughter translations (e.g., Armenian and Ethiopic) follow the MT plus, but this is probably due to a later harmonization toward a proto-MT. The verse is not preserved among the Dead Sea manuscripts:

 

Josh 5:13-14 MT	Josh 5:13-14 LXX
14 ויאמר לא כי אני שר צבא יהוה עתה באתי ויפל יהושע אל פניו ארצה וישתחו ויאמר לו מה אדני מדבר אל עבדו	14 ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ἐγὼ ἀρχιστράτηγος δυνάμεως κυρίου νυνὶ παραγέγονα καὶ Ἰησοῦς ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ δέσποτα τί προστάσσεις τῷ σῷ οἰκέτῃ;
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?” 14 He said, “Neither, but as commander of the army of Yahweh I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and he said to him, “What do you command your servant, my lord?”	13 When Joshua was at Jericho, that he looked up with his eyes and saw a person standing before him, and his sword was drawn in his hand. And Joshua approached and said to him, “Are you one of us or on the side of our adversaries?” 14 Then he said to him, “As commander of the army of Yahweh I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and he said to him, “Master, what do you order your servant?”

 

It is quite likely that the LXX is the result of a theologically motivated omission. The MT reading could be read to imply that Joshua worshiped a figure other than God. Although the original text may not have referred to a full-blown worship as such, it could easily be read as such. The original context of the hishtaphel חוה was the court, referring to the honors given to a superior, but in the Hebrew Bible it was increasingly connected with the worship of God only. With its reference to the commander of Yahweh’s army, Josh 5:14 could easily lead to the idea that Joshua worshiped a semidivine figure, which would violate the increasingly strict monolatry in early Judaism (The lack of a parallel to 5:14b in the Vulgate may go back to a similar motive for even without the verb in question, the half-verse can be read to imply some kind of worship or at least exceptional honors given to him. Joshua falls to the ground and calls the commander “my lord”). Furthermore, the preceding sentence, ויפל יהושע אל פּניו ארצה, anticipates a reason for Joshua to fall to the ground, and the ensuing honors or worship would be a logical consequence. The same sequence of action with similar expression—a person falls to the ground in order to worship or give honors—is found several times in the Hebrew Bible (e.g, 1 Sam 20:41; 25:23; 2 Sam 1;2; 9:6; 2 Kgs 4:37; Job 1:20; Ruth 2:10). In fact, the LXX reading is somewhat comic, for Joshua falls to the ground in order to speak from there, but this can hardly have been the original intention. Consequently, the MT is probably more original in this variant. (Richard Müller and Juha Pakkala, Editorial Techniques in the Hebrew Bible: Toward a Refined Criticism [Resources for Biblical Study 97; Atlanta, Ga.: SBL Press, 2022], 357-58)