Changes

However, one should be careful to distinguish between murder for murder's sake, and being an instrument of God's wrath - the Canaanites at the time were practitioners of child sacrifice and other abominations<ref>http://www.theology.edu/canaan.htm</ref> and God told the children of Israel to wipe them out lest they be corrupted.  They failed to carry out his instructions, and corruption away from God was a constant problem in their history.

However, one should be careful to distinguish between murder for murder's sake, and being an instrument of God's wrath - the Canaanites at the time were practitioners of child sacrifice and other abominations<ref>http://www.theology.edu/canaan.htm</ref> and God told the children of Israel to wipe them out lest they be corrupted.  They failed to carry out his instructions, and corruption away from God was a constant problem in their history.

== Overview ==

== Overview and Dating ==

The Book of Joshua describes the leadership of Israel under Joshua, and Israel's expansion in the holy land, taking numerous cities including the complete destruction of Jericho, Ai and Hazor. Joshua continues the invasion of Canaan after they cross over the Jordan into the promised land, shortly after the death of Moses. The book is traditionally ascribed to Joshua himself, around 1400 BC.

The Book of Joshua describes the leadership of Israel under Joshua, and Israel's expansion in the holy land, taking numerous cities including the complete destruction of Jericho, Ai and Hazor. Joshua continues the invasion of Canaan after they cross over the Jordan into the promised land, shortly after the death of Moses. The book is traditionally ascribed to Joshua himself, around 1400 BC.

Evidence for the dating of the authorship of the Book of Joshua must consist of analysis regarding when the events it describes took place (which will be examined later on), as well as other internal clues. An internal clue that could solve the dating of the Book of Joshua is in Joshua 5:1, which uses the phrase "kings of the Canaanites". This phrase is only duplicated in an extra-biblical source in the corpus of the Amarna Tablets (specifically EA 8, 109),<ref>Waterhouse, S. Douglas. "Who are the Habiru of the Amarna Letters?." Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 12.1 (2001), p. 35</ref> and the dating of the Amarna Letters goes to ca. 1375-1350 BC.<ref>Albright, William Foxwell. Amarna Letters from Palestine, Syria, the Philistines and Phoenicia. CUP Archive, 2003, p. 5</ref> This may suggest that the usage of the similar phrase "kings of the Canaanites" in the Book of Joshua and the Amarna Tablets corpus could indicate that both documents were composed in the same time period, precisely the early to mid-14th century BC.

Evidence for the dating of the authorship of the Book of Joshua must consist of analysis regarding when the events it describes took place (which will be examined later on), as well as other internal clues. An internal clue that could solve the dating of the Book of Joshua is in Joshua 5:1, which uses the phrase "kings of the Canaanites". This phrase is only duplicated in an extra-biblical source in the corpus of the Amarna Tablets (specifically EA 8, 109),<ref>Waterhouse, S. Douglas. "Who are the Habiru of the Amarna Letters?." Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 12.1 (2001), p. 35</ref> and the dating of the Amarna Letters goes to ca. 1375-1350 BC.<ref>Albright, William Foxwell. Amarna Letters from Palestine, Syria, the Philistines and Phoenicia. CUP Archive, 2003, p. 5</ref> This may suggest that the usage of the similar phrase "kings of the Canaanites" in the Book of Joshua and the Amarna Tablets corpus could indicate that both documents were composed in the same time period, precisely the early to mid-14th century BC.