Joshua 24:29–33
Flint knives in Joshua's tomb: the Greek ending
The Hebrew ends with three burials. The Greek adds that the flint knives used at Gilgal were buried with Joshua "and are there to this day," and after Eleazar's burial adds Phinehas' priesthood, Israel's turn to Astarte, and the Moabite king Eglon, leading straight into Judges.
Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not
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.
✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
What the Greek adds
- The knives
- A link back to Joshua 5.
- Phinehas and Astarte
- A bridge to Judges 2–3.
- Eglon
- The Moabite king of Judges 3:12–14.
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.
They buried him… and they put with him there in the tomb the stone knives with which he circumcised the sons of Israel at Gilgal… and they are there to this day… And Phinehas served as priest… and the sons of Israel worshiped Astarte… and the Lord gave them into the hand of Eglon king of Moab
Checked in the library (Giguet), 24:31 and 24:33.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Follows the shorter Hebrew.
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.
וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֹתוֹ בִּגְבוּל נַחֲלָתוֹ בְּתִמְנַת־סֶרַח (24:30)
they buried him in the border of his inheritance at Timnath-serah
No mention of the knives; the book ends with Eleazar's burial.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
Follows the Hebrew.
What changed, and why
Some scholars think the Greek preserves an edition in which Joshua and Judges were joined more closely; others see later expansion. No knives have been found.
What the evidence shows
- The Septuagint adds the burial of the flint knives and a longer ending. Checked in the library (Giguet).
Sources
- E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)
Related lessons
- The Covenant at Shechem and the Burials →At Shechem Joshua tells Israel's history from Abraham's idol-worshiping father to the gift of the land, and asks them to choose whom they will serve. The people choose the LORD. Joshua writes the words in the book of the law and sets up a great stone under an oak. Joshua, Joseph's bones and Eleazar are buried in the land.
- Gilgal and the Commander →The men born in the wilderness are circumcised with flint knives. Israel keeps its first Passover in Canaan, eats the produce of the land, and the manna stops. Near Jericho, Joshua meets a man with a drawn sword: "as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come."
- 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.