What different accounts of the Israelite occupation of Canaan are given in the Books of Joshua and Judges?

Answer 1

In the Book of Exodus we find passages written by the Yahwist ('J' Source), who represented the interests of the southern Hebrew kingdom of Judah, as well as passages by the Priestly Source ('P' Source) who wrote during the latter period of the Babylonian Exile or after the Return from Exile, and sought to unify the histories of the two former kingdoms and help justify a claim to the 'lost' territory of Israel. Sometimes the writings of the two authors form doublets, such as in the Spies Narrative:

The Yahwist was only concerned with describing the conquest of the future land of Judah, so the spies only toured the southern hinterland. He made Caleb the hero who alone tried to encourage the Israelites to proceed with the conquest (13:30). As far as the Yahwist was concerned, the land promised to the Israelites comprised the south alone. The Priestly source says that the spies travelled the entire Promised Land, 'from the Wilderness of Zin to the entrance to Hamath'. For him, Caleb and Joshua both tried to encourage the Israelites to proceed with the conquest (14:6-10a).

To the Yahwist, Caleb represented the tribe of Judah; he knew little about Joshua, whose magnificent exploits in the Book of Joshua would be so much at odds with the archaeological evidence. The Priestly Source made Joshua, who represented Ephraim, or Israel, the main hero. This introduces us to the conquests in the Books of Joshua and Judges.

The Book of Joshua was written before the Babylonian Exile, and therefore before the time of the Priestly Source, by the Deuteronomist ('D' Source), based on traditions largely from the northern kingdom. Caleb is mentioned, but only in a minor role, and the Book of Joshua is an epic tale of the conquest of Canaan by Joshua.

The Book of Judges was also written by the Deuteronomist before the Babylonian Exile. The Deuteronomist seems generally to have kept overlapping stories from both kingdoms without choosing one over the other. So it was with the conquest of Canaan. Whether or not the Deuteronomist (who might have been more than one actual scribe, working as a team) realised the overlap, Judges begins with a brief account of the conquest of Canaan by Caleb - the Judahite story. It begins (1:1-2) by having the Lord tell the people that the tribe of Judah will lead them against the Canaanites.

In one parallel between the two stories, Joshua 10:36-37 reports that Joshua went up with all Israel to Hebron, took it and killed every person in it, leaving no one remaining, but Judges 1:10 claims that Judah (under Caleb) went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron. In another, Joshua 10:38-39 reports Joshua's conquest of Debir, when they "utterly destroyed every person in it" and left no one remaining, but Judges 1:11-13 also reports the conquest of Debir. These were not reconquests (Joshua left no one alive to be reconquered) and were not inadvertent repetition. They were simply the Judahite legends that parallelled the Israelite legends of Joshua.