The demise of Joshua according to Josephus

This article focuses on Josephus’ account of the end of Joshua in his Ant. 5.115-119. It offers a detailed comparison between that account and its biblical source (Jos 23-24) on the one hand, and two other postbiblical narrations of Joshua’s demise, that is those of Pseudo-Philo in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 23-24 and the “Samaritan Chronicle No. II,” on the other. As compared with Joshua 23-24, Josephus’ version appears highly abbreviated, leaving aside, for example, the whole of Joshua 23 as well as 24:1628, 31-32, even while also introducing various new elements. Josephus shares his non-reproduction of Joshua 23 and 24:31-32 with Pseudo-Philo and the Chronicle, for example, but deviates from these other witnesses in his downplaying of the role/activities of the dying Joshua.


INTRODUCTION
The Book of Joshua concludes, in chapters 23-24, with two, back-to-back farewell discourses by the protagonist (23:1-16; 24:1-15), 2 an exchange between him and the people (24:16-24), a series of initiatives by Joshua (24:25-28), and finally a complex of notices (24:29-33) concerning the death and burial of Joshua (vv 29-30), Israel's fidelity during Joshua's lifetime (v 31), the burial of Joseph's bones (v 32), and the death and burial of the priest Eleazar (v 33). Already in the two major ancient textual witnesses for the Book of Joshua, i.e. MT 3 and LXX, 4 one finds marked differences in their respective versions of the two chapters (Rofé 1982;Rösel 2002). In this essay I wish to focus on a postbiblical presentation of Joshua's demise, i.e. that given by Josephus in his Antiquitates Judaicae (hereafter Ant.) 5.115-119 (Marcus, 1934:52-57). 5 My study of the Josephan passage will proceed in two stages. I shall first compare this with Joshua 23-24 (as represented by MT and LXX) in terms of, e.g., its context, biblical text-form(s) used, degree of adherence to the Vorlage's content and sequence, and distinctive features. Thereafter, I shall compare Josephus' account with two other rewritings of Joshua 23-24, i.e. Pseudo-Philo's Liber Biblicarum Antiquitatum (hereafter L.A.B.) 23-24 and the "Samaritan Chronicle No. II," with a view to determining its similarities and differences with these other witnesses to the traditio-historical trajectory initiated by the biblical text.

2.
ANT Joshua's two separate farewell discourses as a lead-in to the single such discourse he will relate. This conflate introduction reads: "Twenty years later, 8 3 Joshua 23-24 is not extant in the Qumran fragments of the book. 4 For the LXX (Codex Vaticanus = B) text of Joshua 23-24, I use Brooke & Maclean (1917:775-783). I have likewise consulted the French translation of and notes on this in Moatti-Fine (1996:227-240). Closely aligned with LXX Joshua 23-24 is the Vetus Latina (hereafter VL) text of the passage for which I use Robert (1900:100-105). 5 On this passage, see further the text, translation, and notes of Nodet (1995:143-144*) and the annotated translation of Begg (2005:28-29). On the Josephan Joshua overall, see Feldman (1998:433-460) and Spilsbury (1998:147-153). 6 On this text (and its parallel in L. A.B. 22.1-8), see Begg (1997). 7 In the paragraphing of Marcus this notice constitutes the opening of Ant. 5.115, while in that of Nodet Goodblatt (1994:30-34, 90-99) and Mason (2003:573-581 i.e. their scribes and judges]") and 24:2 ("the elders [LXX , the heads [> LXX], the judges, and the officers [LXX: scribes and judges as in 23:2] of Israel"). 11 Josephus' formulation qualifies the biblical references to Joshua's summoning "all Israel" (23:2a)/ "all the tribes of Israel" (24:2a) in view of the vast numbers involved and the need for haste, given Joshua's advanced age. (I italicize elements of Josephus' text like the above which lack a clear biblical counterpart.) Jos 23:2 does not specify the site of the assembly called by Joshua, while 24:1a has him summon people and leaders to Shechem (so MT; LXX: Shiloh). Josephus' immediately preceding reference to Joshua's residing at "Sikima" suggests that the assembly was convened at the same site, à la MT 24:1a.
). 18 Joshua's second farewell discourse (24:2-15) leads into an extended, quite repetitious dialogue between himself and the people (24:16-24) on the (im-) possibility of their "serving" the Lord. Thereupon, Joshua (24:25-28) undertakes a series of concluding initiatives: he makes a covenant with the people and lays down "statutes and ordinances" for them (v 25), writes "these words" in "the book of the law of the God," erects a great stone beneath "the oak in the sanctuary of the Lord" (v 26), declaring this to be a "witness" to the words the Lord has spoken to the people in case they prove unfaithful (v 28a), and finally dismisses the people (v 28b). Josephus has no equivalent to the entire sequence 24:16-28. 19 Instead, he supplies (5.116b) his own conclusion to Joshua's (single) discourse, this consisting of a rationale for his delivering a discourse at this moment and an appended appeal that his hearers pay heed to his words. It reads: "It behoved him, he said, on the eve of departure from life, to leave them such admonition, and he besought them to bear his exhortation in their memory." 20 As noted above, Joshua 24 concludes with a series of narrative notices, vv 29-33. In this segment MT and LXX evidence numerous and noteworthy differences. Such differences emerge already at the start of the complex where LXX reproduces the sequence of MT 24:29-30 (death and burial of Joshua) and 31 (the Israelites remain faithful to the Lord in the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlive him) in reverse order. Lacking a counterpart to 24:31, Josephus (5.117a), in the line of MT Joshua 24, attaches his notice on Joshua's death (// 24:29) directly to the conclusion of the leader's speech (5.116b): "And so, after this address to the assembled company, 21 he died, having lived one hundred and ten years ....". 22 Biblically, mention of Joshua's death and life-span (24:29) is followed immediately by the notice of his burial in his Ephraimite inheritance (24:30). Josephus' rendering of these items, in 5.117a and 119a, respectively, is separated by an extended segment (5.117b-118) of his own composition. Within this interlude, in turn, one may distinguish two components. Of these, the first (  has no parallel to either of these items. 30 Instead, he proceeds immediately to relate (5.119b) the contemporaneous death and burial of Joshua's sacerdotal counterpart, i.e. Eleazar: "About the same time 31 died also Eleazar the high 27 The above collocation occurs once elsewhere in Josephus, i.e. in Ant. 6.347 (in the context of a reflection on Saul's courage in going into battle without any hope of emerging alive). 28 Josephus' above eulogy of the deceased Joshua's intellectual, oratorical, military, and political qualities echoes his initial characterization of him at the moment of his choice by Moses in Ant. 3.49: "a man of extreme courage, valiant in the endurance of toil, highly gifted in intellect ( ) and speech, and withal one who worshipped God with a singular piety which he had learnt from Moses and who was held in high esteem by the Hebrews." Such inserted eulogies of leading figures are a hallmark of Josephus' rewriting of biblical history; they serve to remind Greco-Roman readers that the Jews did have great men of their owncontrary to what their detractors claimed. On the point, see Feldman (1998:74-131). 29 Compare Jos 24:30: "And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah (LXX & ), which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gash." Josephus has no equivalent to the long plus attached to the notice on Joshua's burial in LXX (and VL) according to which the stone knives used by Joshua to circumcise the Israelites at Gilgal (see Jos 5:2-9 -a passage not reproduced by Josephus) were buried in the tomb with him. The historian likewise makes no allusion to the discussion, attested by various midrashic-rabbinic sources (b. Šabb. 105b; Midr. Sam. 23.7; Midr. Ruth Rab. proem 2; Midr. Qoh. Rab. 7.1.4), concerning the Israelites' failure, due to their preoccupation with their own pursuits, to give Joshua proper mourning and God's resultant displeasure. As we shall see, Pseudo-Philo (L.A.B. 24.6) provides an implicit refutation of this accusation by attributing to the people an extended lamentation for Joshua, prior to their burial of him. 30 His lack of parallel to Jos 24:32 is especially surprising in that earlier he does reproduce the biblical notices that prepare this, i.e. Gn 50:20 (// Ant. 2.200a: the dying Joseph's insistence that his bones eventually be buried in Canaan) and Exod 13:19 (// Ant. 3.319b: the departing Israelites take Joseph's bones with them). Perhaps, Josephus opted to omit the content of 24:32 lest the burials of the contemporaries Joshua and Eleazar be overshadowed (and "interrupted" -as they are in Joshua 24) by that of a figure of the distant past. results were mixed. The historian agrees with MT 24:1, for example, in his (implicit) localizing of Joshua' address at Shechem rather than Shiloh (see n 12), as also in his lack of equivalent to the LXX plus following 24:30 (the circumcision knives buried with Joshua; see n 28). On the other hand, he also evidences affinities with the wording of LXX 24:33 (see nn 30, 31) and with its subsequent plus for what concerns the mention of the succession of Phineas (see n 32) -even while having no equivalent to the remaining content of that 32 Josephus' ascription of this title to Eleazar has a counterpart in the plus of LXX 24:33 (MT calls him simply "the son of Aaron"). 33 This reference to Phineas' succession, unparalleled in MT Jos 24:33 (where Eleazar is buried "at Gibeah, the town of Phineas his son"), does have a counterpart in the long plus that follows 24:33 in LXX (see n 34). Josephus' utilization of the LXX element at this juncture makes sense, given that in the immediately following 5.120 he will highlight the initiative of Phineas in assigning military leadership against the surviving Cannanites to the tribe of Judah (compare Jdg 1:1-2 where Phineas is not mentioned). On the figure of Phineas in biblical and later Jewish tradition, see Feldman (2003). 34 This collocation occurs only here in Josephus. 35 Josephus simplifies the indications concerning Eleazar's burial place given in 24:33: "at Gibeah (LXX ( ), the town of Phineas his son, which had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim." Josephus has no equivalent (although see n 32) to the long LXX plus which follows the notice on Eleazar's death and burial in 24:33. This reads: "On that day the sons of Israel took the ark of God and passed it around among themselves and Phineas became priest in place of Eleazar his father until he died and was buried in Gabaar that was his own. Then the sons of Israel went each to his own place and town. And the sons of Israel worshiped Astarte and the Astaroth and the gods of the surrounding nations. And the Lord handed them over into the hand of Eglom, king of Moab, and he oppressed them for eighteen years (see Jdg 3:12-13)." plus (see n 34). 37 On the further question of Josephus' "fidelity" to Joshua 23-24, it has emerged that Ant. 5.115-119 is an instance where he does take considerable liberties with the content of his Vorlage. Those liberties concern above all his drastic abbreviation of the biblical material. In particular, Josephus conflates into one the two separate farewell discourses of Jos 23:2b-16 and 24:2-15. In addition, he offers no parallel to the material of Jos 24:16-28 (see n 18), 31-32 (the Israelites' service of the Lord and the burial of Joseph's bones). My final above question asked about the presence of distinctive features in Josephus' rendering of Joshua 23-24. Its brevity notwithstanding, Ant. 5.115-119 does, we discovered, evidence a whole series of elements that derive from Josephus himself: Joshua's twenty-year residence at Shechem (5.115a), the concluding words of his (single) discourse (5.116b), the chronological indications concerning his career in 5.117b and the eulogy of him in 5.118.
The distinctiveness of Josephus' version of Joshua 23-24 stands out, however, not only in relation to the biblical text, but also to the other abovementioned rewritings of that text, i.e. those of Pseudo-Philo and the Samaritan Chronicle No. II. Accordingly, I turn to a summary comparison between Ant. 5.115-119 and these two post-biblical presentations of Joshua's end. 38 14), a second, shorter dialogue between the two parties (24.1-3), and a series of notices on Joshua's death and burial (24.4-6). L.A.B. 23.1-14 opens, in the line of Jos 23:1-2a; 24:1 (and Ant. 5.115b), with Joshua summoning the people to him. As in MT 24:1 and Josephus, the assembly site is identified as "Shechem" rather than the "Shiloh" of LXX 24:1. Diverging from the presentations of both the Bible and Josephus, Pseudo-Philo (23.3) interjects a divine appearance to Joshua between the leader's summoning the people (23.1-2) and his words to them (23.4ff) in which the Deity instructs him about what he is to say. 40 Within Joshua's discourse in 23.4-13 one may distinguish -as in those of 23:2b-16; 24:2-15 and 5.115c-116 -both a retrospective and a hortatory element. The detailed review of God's past dealings with Israel that Philo-Philo attributes to Joshua in 23.4-11 basically corresponds to the historical survey of Jos 24:2-13, 41 while also contrasting with the highly generalized reference to God's "benefactions" one finds in Ant. 5.115c. The hortatory conclusion to Joshua's speech in 23.12-13 consists of a very brief protasis at the opening of 23.12 ("and now, if you heed your forefathers ..."), followed by an extended apodosis featuring divine promises for the people's life in the land (the remainder of 23.12) and their postmortem future (23.13). Whereas the "eschatological" component of this portion of Joshua's speech has no biblical (or Josephan) parallel, its conditional assurance of a good life on the land draws together elements of both Joshua 23 (see vv 6-8, 11-13, 15-16) as well as still other Scriptural texts (e. g., Dt 4:6-8). 42 Conversely, just as with the proceeding retrospective, the "Bible-like" expansiveness of Joshua's exhortation in Pseudo-Philo contrasts with Josephus' summary, generalized rendering of this item in 5.116a.

JOSEPHUS AND PSEUDO-PHILO
As noted above, Joshua's (second) discourse in 24:2-15 continues with an exchange between him and the people about their serving the Lord (24:16-24), and a series of initiatives by the leader (24:25-28) intended to ensure a 40 Pseudo-Philo likely found inspiration for this interjected theophany and accompanying divine instructions in the messenger formula with which Joshua begins his (second) discourse in Jos 24:2a, i.e. "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel." Such "prophetic" language presupposes a prior communication by God which Pseudo-Philo supplies in 23.3. (Josephus' Joshua makes no such claim to be speaking in God's name in his discourse of 5.115c-116.) 41 At the same time Pseudo-Philo also enriches Joshua 24's outline of Israel's history with a variety of elements peculiar to himself; see, e.g., the midrashic elaboration of the "covenant between the pieces" (Gn 15:7-21) in L.A.B. 23.5-7 and the description of the Sinai covenantmaking in 23.10. For more details, see Jacobson (1996, 2:713-26). permanent record of the people's commitment. Josephus, as was also noted, has no equivalent to this entire sequence. In this regard as well Pseudo-Philo stands closer to the Bible's presentation than does Josephus. At the same time he also gives a highly compressed and (partially) modified rendering of the content of 24:16-28 in 23.14 wherein all attention goes to the people who first pledge to serve the Lord alone (see 24:24) and then, after rejoicing on that day, "made a rededication ceremony for twenty-eight days." 43 In L.A.B. 24.1, some time after the ceremony spoken of in 23.14, Joshua summons a new assembly of the people whom he addresses with words drawn from, e.g., Jos 24:22,27 (the witness motif) and 24:15 (the call to decide between the Lord and other gods, with Joshua and his household opting for the former). In thus attributing a second, distinct speech to Joshua, Pseudo-Philo, here too, aligns himself with the biblical narrative against that of Josephus (who ascribes only a single discourse to Joshua). 44 To Joshua's renewed address to them, the people respond in 24.2 by expressing the hope that the Lord will account them worthy and then affirm "it is better for us to die in fear of him [the Lord] than to be blotted out from the land," this echoing their protestations of loyalty to the Lord in Jos 24:16-18, 21, 24, but without parallel in Josephus (where the people make no response to Joshua's words of 5.115c-116). 45 The ( Pseudo-Philo concludes his rendering of Joshua 23-24 in 24.4-6 47 with a much-expanded version of the death and burial notices of 24:29-30. His 43 For more on this sequence, see Jacobson (1996:2.729-30). 44 On the other hand, whereas in the Bible one has two, back-to back discourses in 23:2b-16 and 24:2-13, Pseudo-Philo derives the content for both the speeches he ascribes to Joshua from Joshua 24, likewise interjecting a period of a least twenty-eight days between the first and second. 45 On L.A.B. 24.1-2, see Jacobson (1996:2.730-31). 46 For more on the various biblical sources for Pseudo-Philo's presentation in 24.3, see Jacobson (1996:2.731-32). Pseudo-Philo's explicit mention of the people's "going away" in accordance with Joshua's directive to them has a counterpart in the LXX plus of Jos 24:28. (Similarly, his reference to the Egyptians "persecuting your fathers" in 23.9 is paralleled in LXX Jos 24:5, but not in MT.) 47 On this sequence, see Jacobson (1996:2.732-35). expansion of these items does have a certain equivalent in Ant. 5.117-119a where they undergo elaboration as well. The specific content of Pseudo-Philo's Ausmalung of 24:29-30 is, however, quite different from Josephus'. Specifically, in 24.4 Joshua, having taken to his bed, addresses Phineas with words of exhortation (Phineas is to "strengthen himself" in view of the people's coming apostasy) and expresses a wish for the prosperity of priesthood and people. Thereafter (24.5), he dies, and his sons place their hands on his eyes. Finally (24.6), the Israelites assembly to bury their leader, pronounce a panegyric over him that includes a reference to his "forty years" of leadership (compare the twenty-five year tenure Josephus attributes to Joshua in 5.117b), 48 bury him "on Mount Ephraim," 49 and then disperse once again. In thus ending his version of Joshua 23-24 with a parallel to 24:29-30, Pseudo-Philo leaves aside the series of appended notices of 24:31-33, to which Josephus has at least a partial parallel in 5.119b (the death and burial of Eleazar).
The above, two-sided comparison of L.A.B. 23-24 with both Joshua 23-24 and Ant. 5.115-119 makes clear that, in this instance, Pseudo-Philo hews more closely to the biblical story-line than does Josephus. 50 In particular, whereas Josephus overall significantly abbreviates the Bible's presentation, e.g., compressing its double farewell speech into one, Pseudo-Philo maintains (and amplifies) the expansiveness of the Scriptural narrative, for example, retaining (while also adapting; see n 43) the source duplication of Joshua's final words. Indeed, there is only one case where Josephus' version offers a "positive" parallel to the biblical account that Pseudo-Philo lacks, i.e. mention of Eleazar's death and burial (see 24:33 and 5.119b). Moreover, while Josephus and Pseudo-Philo both take the liberty of interjecting much 48 See also the additional, varying specifications concerning Joshua's tenure elsewhere in Jewish tradition cited in n 25. Pseudo-Philo's ascription of an eulogy for Joshua to the people in 24.6 constitutes an implicit rebuttal of the charge, cited elsewhere in Jewish tradition (see n 28), that the Israelites failed to mourn their leader properly, just as it fills the lacuna, common to both Jos 24:29-30 and Josephus, as to whether the people did pronounce a lament over Joshua. 49 Pseudo-Philo confines himself to this general indication concerning Joshua's burial place; compare the more expansive localizations given in Jos 24:30 ("in his [Joshua's] own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gath" and 5.119a ("He was buried in the city of Thamna of the tribe of Ephraim"). In his elaboration of the burial notice of 24:30, Pseudo-Philo does not draw on the attached plus of LXX concerning the stone circumcision knives buried with Joshua. 50 This, it may be noted, is the reverse of what usually finds when both authors offer a portrayal of some biblical personage or incident. In such cases, it is more common to have Pseudo-Philo recasting the Bible's account in more thorough-going fashion than does Josephus. A case in point is the two writers' handling of the story of Jephthah, his exploits, and (in-) famous sacrifice of his daughter (Jdg 10:6-12:7); see respectively. additional material into their respective reproductions of Joshua 23-24, their additions do not coincide "positively." 51 In this connection, one might say that in contrast to Josephus who seems concerned not to let the dying Joshua's stature overshadow that of Moses, Pseudo-Philo rather goes beyond the Bible itself in accentuating the former figure's status. 52

JOSEPHUS AND "THE SAMARITAN CHRONICLE NO. II"
The other extra-biblical text with which I wish to compare Josephus' version of Joshua 23-24 is the relevant segment ( § § "U-V") of the "Samaritan Chronicle No. II." 53 As with L.A.B. 23-24, I shall focus on Chronicle's similarities and differences with Ant. 5.115-119 rather than on the Chronicle itself. The Chronicle's parallel to Joshua 24 is preceded by a version of Jos 22:1-6 ( § T, the dismissal of the Transjordanian tribes) 54 and Jos 23:1 (the opening of § "U," Israel's "rest" and Joshua's advanced age). 55 § "U" then continues with a rendering of Jos 24:1 (the assembling of the people and leaders at Shechem), adding that those summoned by Joshua ascended Mount Gerizim and presented themselves before God "at the entrance of the tent of meeting." Next follows the Chronicle's reproduction of Joshua's rehearsal of God's benefits (// 24:2-14). As in Ant. 5.115c-116, but in contrast to MT Joshua (in LXX 24:5 Joshua shifts to referring to God in the third person) and Pseudo-Philo, the Chronicle's Joshua speaks of God in the third person, rather than mediating first-person divine speech. Also comparable to Josephus' rendition is the Chronicle's compression of the biblical historical review from which it omits, for example, the reference to the ancestors' serving other gods (Jos 24:2), the patriarchal succession (24:3-4), and the 51 Elsewhere Josephus and Pseudo-Philo do evidence a range of positive agreements against the Bible itself; see the listing in Feldman (1971:lviii-lxi). In our case, Josephus and Pseudo-Philo do agree "negatively" in their common non-reproduction of Jos 24:31 (the people's fidelity during Joshua's lifetime) and 32 (the burial of Joseph's bones). 52 Thus see, e.g., his inserted reference to the theophany accorded Joshua in L.A.B. 23.3 and the lament over him he attributes to the people in 24.6. 53 For the Hebrew text of the Chronicle I use Macdonald (1969:29-32) and for the translation (1969:98-100) (In both text and the translation Macdonald supplies the paragraph divisions and sub-divisions and the lettering of these) For the many problems concerning the date of the Chronicle, its relation to the MT, and its peculiar traditions, manuscripts, etc., see Macdonald's (1969:3-74) introduction. 54 The Chronicle lacks a parallel to the incident of the Transjordanian altar (Jos 22:10-34) that both Josephus and Pseudo-Philo report at length. 55 Macdonald (1969:98) parallels the opening of § U with Jos 13:1. In fact, however, that opening with its mention, not only of Joshua's advanced age, but also of Israel's "rest," more closely corresponds to Jos 23:1. In any case, the Chronicle, like Josephus, lacks a parallel to Joshua's initial farewell discourse of 23:2-16, directly juxtaposing Jos (13:1) 23:1 and 24:1. figure of Balaam (24:9-10). 56 The Chronicle, in contrast to Josephus (and Pseudo-Philo), does reproduce Joshua's appeal of Joshua 24:14-15, with its call for the people to put away their foreign gods (v 14) and allusion to their alternative option of serving other gods (v 15) virtually verbatim.
Whereas Josephus has no parallel to the extended sequel to Joshua's speech found in Jos 24:16-28 (exchange between him and the people [vv [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] and initiatives by Joshua [vv 25-28]), the Chronicle makes selective use of this portion of the biblical chapter. Specifically, the Chronicle reduces the people's four-fold declaration about their readiness to serve the Lord and Joshua's triple response to this of 24:16-24 to an initial statement by the people (= 24:16-17), response by Joshua (= 24:22a), and concluding assent by the people (= 24:22b), while omitting, for example, Joshua's affirmation (24:19) about the people's incapacity to serve the Lord. The Chronicle becomes more expansive in its handling of the segment Jos 24:25-28, devoted to the initiatives taken by Joshua following his exchange with the people. From this sequence the Chronicle takes over -with a variety of modifications and/or amplifications -vv 25 (Joshua makes a covenant with the people and gives them "statutes and ordinances at Shechem"), 57 26 (Joshua "writes these words in the book of the law of the Lord" 58 and erects a great stone "under the oak in the sanctuary of the Lord" 59 ) and 27a (Joshua's declaration to the people "this stone shall be a witness against us"). The biblical account continues in 24:27b-28 with Joshua expatiating on the witness function of the stone (which has "heard" all the Lord's words to the people and so can serve as a deterrent to their "dealing falsely" with the Lord, v 27a), and then (v 28) dismissing the people to their inheritances. In place of this concluding complex, the Chronicle substitutes the following notice on a sacrificial/ priestly initiative by the dying Joshua: "He built there (i.e. at the foot of Mt Gerizim] an altar and took a ram and offered it on account of that 56 On the Chronicle's many omissions in its reproduction of the content of Joshua 24, see the remarks of Macdonald (1969:23). 57 To its concluding mention of "Shechem" drawn from (MT) 24:25 the Chronicle appends the words "which is at the foot of Mount Gerizim, where he (Joshua) had set up a judgment throne." 58 The Chronicle's rendering of this item adds that Joshua gave the book "to the Levite priests" -an addition likely inspired by Dt 31:9 where, having written "this law," Moses entrusts it "to the priests the sons of Levi." In this instance, the Chronicle enhances the Moses-Joshua parallelism, whereas Josephus, as noted above, seems concerned not to allow Joshua to overshadow his predecessor. 59 The Chronicle's rendering of Jos 24:26b specifies that the Lord's sanctuary was situated "at the foot of Mount Gerizim". priestly service at Mount Gerizim, his covenant-making with the assembled people on Gerizim and sacrificing there, 65 as the Israelites prostrate themselves before the ark, a procession of the Levites and secular leaders led by the tearful Eleazar that takes them to Gibeah, his son Phineas' town, 66 where Eleazar renews the covenant, warning his hearers against worshiping other gods or sacrificing elsewhere than on Mount Gerizim, and then proceeds to invest Phineas with his priestly garments, 67 before finally expiring and being buried "at Gibeah." 68 With Ant. 5.115-119 the Chronicle shares, for example, its (virtual) elimination of Joshua's initial farewell discourse (Jos 23), compressed version of the leader's words of 24:2-15 (and third person reference to God throughout this), explicit mention of Phineas' succession to his father (see n 66), and non-reproduction of 24:31-32 (a point both versions have in common also with Pseudo-Philo). At the same time, however, the Chronicle and Josephus markedly diverge in many features of their respective rewritings of Joshua 23-24, with the former, for instance, including a (shortened) rendering of Jos 24:16-28, highlighting the site Mount Gerizim, accentuating the (Moseslike) figures of Joshua and (especially) Eleazar, and introducing the personage of "King Nethanel"--all elements absent in the Josephan presentation.

CONCLUSION
Our two-way comparison of Josephus' account of Joshua's end in Ant. 5.115-119 has served to bring into sharper focus its distinguishing features vis-à-vis both the biblical presentation and those of Pseudo-Philo and the "Samaritan 65 The dying Eleazar's covenant-making and sacrificing on Gerizim replicates initiatives attributed to the dying Joshua earlier in the Chronicle. 66 Macdonald (1969:100, ad loc.) points out that this element of the Chronicle's depiction of Eleazar's end has points of contact with the description of Moses' last acts found in the Samaritan document Memar Marqah 5.3. In the Chronicle's presentation then both Joshua and Eleazar are portrayed in terms reminiscent of the figure of Moses. The above processional motif also has a certain counterpart in the LXX plus following Jos 24:33 where, subsequent to Eleazar's burial, the Israelites cause the ark to circulate among them. 67 This mention of Phineas' succeeding his father has a counterpart in Josephus (Ant. 5.119b) who himself seems to derive the notice from the LXX plus after Jos 24:33; see n 32. For its mention of the transfer of the priestly garments from father to son, the Chronicle is likely inspired by the account of Eleazar's succeeding his father Aaron in Nm 20:22-29. 68 To this place name drawn from Jos 24:33, the Chronicle appends the identification "which is opposite the holy mountain, the place which the Lord chose, Mount Gerizim Bethel." The continuation ( § "W") of the Chronicle following Eleazar's death evidences a certain parallelism with the immediate sequel to Ant. 5.115-120 (see 5.120), both presentations featuring -in contrast to the Bible itself -the leading role assumed by Phineas subsequent to the deaths of his father and Joshua.