Joshua by Carolyn J. Sharp (review)

The urgent importance of Sharp's extensive Joshua commentary is readily apparent in its introductory chapter: "I know of no contemporary commentary on Joshua written in English by a scholar who identifies as female" (p. 34). This single statement alone justifies her work, although it is assumed that she meant large-scale commentaries, since concise commentaries—both Carolyn Pressler's Joshua, Judges, and Ruth(Westminster Bible Companion; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002) and Hélène M. Dallaire's Joshua(Zondervan's Expositor's Bible Commentary; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012; rev. ed. 2017)—preceded S.'s extensive entry. Thus, S.'s commentary is, indeed, a pioneer in this regard and, as such, it is much welcomed and eagerly needed. The Book of Joshua with its "particular kind of masculine ideology" (p. 34) and masculine topics (e.g., conquest, war, military actions and strategies, etc.) overly attracted the imagination of male scholars and interpreters, who seemed to monopolize its interpretation. S.'s commentary, however, signifies a new beginning in the history of interpretation of Joshua, since the previous male dominance soon will be balanced by numerous other female endeavors (note the forthcoming Joshua commentaries: Hélène Dallaire for Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament, Lissa Wray Beal for Zondervan's Story of God Bible Commentary, and Tammi Schneider for Eerdmans' Illuminations).

Sharp's commentary features three crystal-clear, self-admitted characteristics that help to clarify the purpose of her work. First, she writes with a literary-critical approach. Second, she is indebted to feminist, womanist, postcolonial, and native studies. Third, her work is intended for a nonspecialist audience. I offer here a detailed examination of these characteristics and their execution in the work, and I give special attention to S.'s "holy wrestling" with the central topic of the ban ( ḥērem) in the Book of Joshua.

Regarding her literary-critical approach, S. states, "[F]or me as a literary critic, the Spirit drives me deeper into the rich scriptural signifying of ambiguity, irony, and inner-biblical contestations" (p. 55). Indeed, S.'s commentary is essentially a powerful rereading of Joshua by applying the approaches and hermeneutics of postmodern literary criticism. She gives special attention to literary context and narratological structure, as well as literary features (genre, topic, foreground, plot, characterization, rhetoric, etc.) and literary devices (especially irony, ambiguity, humor). The exposition concerning literary structure is the strongest part of S.'s introduction to the Book of Joshua. In the analysis of the text, her careful attention to characters and characterization is extraordinary and especially influential and illuminating. For remarkable examples, see her sharp-eyed characterization of Rahab (pp. 113–19), the two spies of Jericho (pp. 119–21), and Joshua (pp. 40–44). It is also important to note that she places the Book of Joshua in a postexilic historical setting (p. 34) and reads the text from this perspective "as idealized retrojections of characters, conflicts, and theological issues that would have mattered profoundly to a fractured covenant people, traumatized and now struggling in the aftermath of exile" (p. 12). As a literary critic, however, she is prescinds from redaction and source criticism (p. 5); instead she offers a "close reading" of the Book of Joshua as an artfully crafted ancient literary text, collected and generated by the postexilic scribal imagination (p. 5).

Regarding her debt to feminist, womanist, postcolonial, and native studies, S. states, "I am grateful to the pantheon of feminist and postcolonial biblical scholars whose work has been catalytic for my own thinking" (p. xvii). Although S. does not define herself as a feminist or liberation theologian, her work is continuously impregnated by the thoughts and perspectives of such contributions. She equips herself with these tools, because the Book of Joshua is "a fascinating piece of ancient literary art," but "it is also appalling" (p. 1). In her view, it is appalling in different ways: (a) The worldview of the book is constructed in "a particular kind of masculine ideology" (p. 34); thus, "Joshua is a...