How to Disambiguate a Text

Two attitudes frustrate me beyond degree: being treated like a species of lower intelligence and being treated like I should be an expert on material that I’ve never looked at before. Of course, each of those situations may be proper depending on the context. Thus, when the Biblical text is ambiguous beyond the point of frustration or when it shouts its meaning from the mountain tops with ceaseless repetition, I cannot help but be “reverently” frustrated.

The Book of Joshua in some places often clarifies an object by means of apposition (e.g. Joshua the son of Nun, Moses servant of Yahweh, the land which I gave you). The book uses that literary device so much that one begins to think that the phrase in apposition is actually the object’s last name. One such point is in the moment Israel crosses the Jordan. The text identifies the priests who go before the people as the ones who “bear the ark of the covenant/testimony/the LORD/etc.” The author identifies the priests “as the ones who bear the ark” 10 times in two chapters but only identifies them as “priests” 4 times. The author must not feel comfortable with calling the priests by their first name alone. Actually, I think the continual identification of the priests (you know, the ones who are bearing the ark) presents a unique situation in the book of Joshua.

In Exodus, when the Israelites crossed the Red/Reed Sea, a pillar of fire blocked the way between Israel and their Egyptian pursuers. Moses stuck out his hand and parted the waters. The pillar of fire is, in the future of Israel’s travels, the guide God gave them at night; it was the visible sign of God himself leading them through the wilderness. Surely, God was present with his people in their crossing through the sea, but the most visible manifestation, in my opinion, was the pillar of fire behind them. In Joshua, the most visible manifestation of God’s presence during their crossing of the Jordan is the ark of the covenant. Joshua sends the ark ahead of the people and commands the people to keep their distance from it. The ark stands in the middle of the Jordan while the people cross through. I am probably making too much out of this fact, but Israel now has that sign of God’s presence in front of them. God has gone before them to establish a way into the land just as he has gone before them to fight their enemies. As the ark stands in the midst of the Jordan and the midst of the people as they pass through, they all witness the wonderful things that God is doing in their midst. That act they are witnessing assures them of God’s presence with them as they go into the land just as the pillar of fire dividing them from (and the waters crashing upon) their would-be captors assures them of God’s deliverance.

The priests are significant because they are bearing the ark. The author does not want us to pass over this detail so he reminds us in bold, italic, all caps, and underline.