Conquests Need Monuments and Monuments Need Inscriptions: The Textual Location of the Mount Ebal Altar Episode in Joshua

Abstract In Joshua 8:30–35 (MT), Joshua builds an altar to YHWH and inscribes the stones of the altar with a copy of the tôrâ of Moses. This episode’s earliest position among Hebrew and Greek text traditions remains a topic of debate. Several overlooked parallels between Joshua’s conquest of Ai (Josh 8:1–29) and Assyrian royal inscriptions indicate that the text of Josh 8 draws more heavily on Assyrian literary warfare traditions than previously assumed. Importantly, the narrated conquest in Josh 8, Assyrian campaign reports, and several Levantine inscriptions conclude their narrations of warfare with the building of an inscribed monument. Striking similarities between the royal annals of Assurnasirpal II and Josh 8:1–29 evince the influence of Neo-Assyrian narrations of warfare upon later Northwest Semitic literary traditions. The MT position of the Mount Ebal altar episode, I argue, is the earliest extant textual location of this pericope because it is the only location of the Mount Ebal altar narrative that satisfies the text’s connection with Deuteronomy and the narrative expectations created by the preceding conquest account in 8:1–29.