Joshua as “Prophet”
As already mentioned, Joshua is characterized in Joshua 24 as a
prophet in a double sense. For one thing, he communicates the salvation history
of the Hexateuch to the tribes of Israel as the messenger of YHWH: “Thus says YHWH,
the God of Israel” (24:2). For another thing, he prophesies the coming judgment
to the people (24:19). Both statements are connected theologically to one
another. The salvation history is characterized by the exclusive activity of
God therein (there are no actors except for him). Judgment history is
characterized by the activity of Israel. Joshua communicates the different
quality of each of these eras of history to the people. As a prophet, Joshua
possesses insight into YHWH’s plan of history.
In addition, Joshua must also be qualified as a prophet because he
coauthored the “book of the Torah of God.” The Torah was thus recorded by the
prophets Moses and Joshua, and because of its prophetic authorship, it can be
validated as the “Torah of God.” Thus, another point should be mentioned. The
Joshua of Joshua 24 shares the signs of a prophet not only with Moses,
specifically in Exodus 3–4, but also with Abraham in Genesis 15. (Konrad
Schmid, Genesis and the Moses Story: Israel's Dual Origins in the Hebrew
Bible [trans. James D. Nogalski; Siphrut: Literature and Theology of the
Hebrew Scriptures 3; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2010], 208)
