I'm intrigued with how early some of these are
Deuteronomy and Joshua are ~500-200 BC/BCE; Wisdom of Sirach is ~220-175 BC/BCE; and the Sibylline Oracles are ~180-140 BC/BCE.Ben C. Smith wrote:I will usually render the name Joshua as Jesus, just so that the modern ear can hear what the ancient ear heard (since I think we tend to file Joshua and Jesus away in two different categories sometimes).
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The name Jesus/Joshua comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, shortened to Yeshua. Yehoshua, a theophoric name, means something like "Yahweh saves" (or "Yahweh is salvation"). Philo seems aware of this etymology:
Philo, On the Change of Names 21.121-122: 121 Thus much we have thought fit to say on this subject. But, moreover, Moses also changes the name of Hosea into that of Jesus; displaying by his new name the distinctive qualities of his character; 122 for the name Hosea is interpreted, "what sort of a person is this?" but Jesus means "the salvation of the Lord" [Ἰησοῦς δὲ σωτηρία κυρίου], being the name of the most excellent possible character [ἕξεως ὄνομα τῆς ἀριστης]; for the habits are better with respect to those persons who are of such and such qualities from being influenced by them: as, for instance, music is better in a musician, physic in a physician, and each art of a distinctive quality in each artist, regarded both in its perpetuity, and in its power, and in its unerring perfection with regard to the objects of its speculation. For a habit is something everlasting, energising, and perfect; but a man of such and such a quality is mortal, the object of action, and imperfect. And what is imperishable is superior to what is mortal, the efficient cause is better than that which is the object of action; and what is perfect is preferable to what is imperfect. ...< . . snip . . >
The Jesus Hymn in Philippians 2 seems to utilize this etymology, since the "name above every name" ought to be Yahweh (the tetragrammaton), yet it comes out as Jesus: ...
Matthew, too, is aware of the meaning ...
As is Sirach:
Wisdom of Sirach 46.1-7: 1 Jesus [Ἰησοῦς] the son of Nave was valiant in the wars, and was the successor of Moses in prophecies, who according to his name was made great for the saving [ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ] of the elect of God, and taking vengeance of the enemies that rose up against them, that he might set Israel in their inheritance. 2 How great glory gat he, when he did lift up his hands, and stretched out his sword against the cities! 3 Who before him so stood to it? for the Lord himself brought his enemies unto him. 4 Did not the sun go back by his means? And was not one day as long as two? 5 He called upon the most high Lord, when the enemies pressed upon him on every side; and the great Lord heard him. 6 And with hailstones of mighty power he made the battle to fall violently upon the nations, and in the descent of Beth-horon he destroyed them that resisted, that the nations might know all their strength, because he fought in the sight of the Lord, and he followed the Mighty One. 7 In the time of Moses also he did a work of mercy, he and Caleb the son of Jephunne, in that they withstood the congregation, and withheld the people from sin, and appeased the wicked murmuring. 8 And of six hundred thousand people on foot, they two were preserved to bring them in to the heritage, even unto the land that floweth with milk and honey.
Sirach mentions in verse 4 the episode in which the sun stands still:
Joshua 10.12-14: 12 Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, “O sun, stand still at Gibeon, / and O moon in the valley of Aijalon.” / 13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, / until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies. Is it not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. 14 There was no day like that before it or after it, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.
The Sibylline Oracles appear to refer to this episode and assimilate both Jesus and Joshua somehow:
Sibylline Oracles 5.255-258: Then there shall come from the sky a certain / exalted man whose hands he spread out upon the fruitful tree, / The noblest of the Hebrews who caused the sun to stand still [Ἑβραίων ὁ ἄριστος, ὃς ἡέλιόν ποτε στῆσε] / When he cries with fair speech and pure lips.
This passage uses the same word here for "noblest" as Philo did while commending Joshua for his "most excellent" character.
It is interesting to me that the book of Joshua begins with the commission of Joshua (after Moses' death) and ends with Joshua's death; likewise, our extant gospel of Mark begins with the commission of Jesus (at his baptism) and ends with Jesus' death and resurrection.
The book of Deuteronomy promises the coming of what we have come to call "a prophet like Moses" in Moses' farewell speech:
Deuteronomy 18.15-22: 15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. 16 This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ 17 The Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. 18 I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
Was Joshua that prophet? Not according to the last passage in the book:
Deuteronomy 34.9-12: 9 Now Jesus the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. 10 Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, 11 for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
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Exodus, Ezra, and Zechariah are, of course, older than the 400 BC/BCE. too.