Joshua 20:1–9
Cities of refuge: a shorter Greek law
The Hebrew of Joshua 20 explains the procedure at the city gate and the killer's release at the high priest's death. The Greek lacks most of verses 4–6. One text appears to have grown by borrowing from Deuteronomy and Numbers.
Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Sources of the longer text
- Elders at the gate
- Compare Deuteronomy 19:12.
- Until the high priest dies
- From Numbers 35:25, 28.
- Likely history
- Many scholars think the Hebrew added these details to harmonize with the Torah.
Every witness, in order
Unknown (debated)
Original Joshua
No original survives.
Translated c. 2nd century BC
Septuagint (Old Greek)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
The library's Greek (Giguet) has no text for 20:4–5, consistent with the shorter Old Greek. To be confirmed in a critical edition.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
stabit ante portam civitatis, et loquetur senioribus urbis illius (20:4)
Has the longer text.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
וְעָמַד פֶּתַח שַׁעַר הָעִיר וְדִבֶּר בְּאָזְנֵי זִקְנֵי־הָעִיר הַהִיא (20:4)
and he shall stand at the entrance of the city gate and speak in the ears of that city's elders
The longer text, with verses 4–6.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders
Follows the Hebrew.
What changed, and why
A data gap in a digital Bible can look like an ancient omission. Here the shorter Greek is well known in scholarship, so the empty verses in our Greek text reflect the Greek tradition; the exact extent still needs checking.
What the evidence shows
- The Old Greek of Joshua 20 lacks most of verses 4–6. Consistent with the library's Greek; to confirm in an edition.
Sources
- E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)
Related lessons
- Cities of Refuge →Moses' law of refuge becomes a map: six cities, Kedesh, Shechem and Hebron west of the Jordan, Bezer, Ramoth-gilead and Golan east of it, where someone who killed by accident could flee the avenger of blood until a trial. The Greek version of this chapter is markedly shorter.
- How Joshua Came to Us →Who wrote Joshua, and when? How does its Greek form differ from the Hebrew? Where does the altar ceremony belong? Why do the oldest Hebrew codices lack two verses? Here is the history of the book from its setting to your Bible, with every major variant linked.