Saint Joshua

Saint Joshua, son of Nun, the servant and successor of Moses, led the people of Israel into the Promised Land. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on September 1 and calls him a servant of the Lord who was filled with the spirit of wisdom after Moses laid his hands on him. Scripture gives no dates for his life.

He came from the tribe of Ephraim and was at first called Hoshea; Moses named him Joshua. The name means “the Lord is salvation,” and in Greek it is the same as the name Jesus. During the wandering in the desert Joshua led the Israelites in battle against the Amalekites while Moses stood on a hill with his hands raised. As Moses’ servant he accompanied him on the way up Mount Sinai and would not leave the Tent of Meeting.

Moses sent him with the other scouts into the land of Canaan. Most of them discouraged the people, but Joshua and Caleb assured them that the land was exceedingly good and that the Lord would give it to them, if only the people did not rebel against him. God then declared that of that generation only these two would enter the land of Canaan. When Moses’ death drew near, God chose Joshua as his successor, so that the people would not be like sheep without a shepherd, and Moses laid his hands on him before Eleazar the priest and the whole community.

After Moses died, the Lord called Joshua to be strong and steadfast and promised to be with him as he had been with Moses. When the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant stepped into the Jordan, the waters of the river stopped and the people crossed on dry ground. The Catechism sees in this crossing a prefiguration of Baptism. According to the book, the walls of Jericho fell after the city had been encircled with the Ark for seven days, and the Letter to the Hebrews attributes this to faith.

The Book of Joshua goes on to tell of wars in Canaan and of the division of the land among the tribes. In 2001 the Pontifical Biblical Commission recalled that the accounts of the ban, the total destruction of the defeated, were written down at a time when it was no more than a theoretical postulate. In reading them, one must keep in mind both the call to fidelity to the one God and the human temptation to mingle religion with violence.

Toward the end of his life Joshua gathered the tribes of Israel at Shechem and called on them to choose whom they would serve. Of himself he said: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” The people renewed the covenant, and Joshua wrote down its words and set up a large stone as a witness. He died at the age of one hundred and ten and was buried on his own property at Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim. Scripture adds that Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua.

The Book of Sirach praises him as the successor of Moses in the prophetic office who, as his name implies, became great for the salvation of the chosen ones. The Fathers of the Church, among them Origen in his homilies on the Book of Joshua, saw in him a foreshadowing of Jesus, who leads his people into the true promised land. Joshua was never formally canonized. The Church venerates him as a saint, like the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament.