Seder Olama timeline of Jewish history
Person · 2406–2516 AM · 1355 BCE — 1245 BCE

Joshua יהושע בן נון

Moshe's disciple and successor, conqueror of the Land of Israel

Yehoshua of the tribe of Ephraim was born in 2406, still in Egypt. He first appears as a general in the war with Amalek, then as the one who never left Moshe's side: "his attendant Yehoshua bin Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent". Because he never left the tent of study, the sages say, he received the Torah from his master's hands.

He was among the twelve spies and, with Kalev, one of only two who kept faith: "the land is very, very good". Moshe added a letter to his name—Hoshea became Yehoshua, "may God save you"—to shield him from the others' plan.

After Moshe's death he takes the people across the Jordan, captures Jericho, wages seven years of war, halts the sun at Givon, and spends seven more years dividing the land. The Mishkan is set up at Shiloh in his time.

Before dying he gathers the people at Shechem: "Choose today whom you will serve… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." He died in 2516, aged 110.

The twenty-eight years of his leadership, from which the year 2516 follows, are Seder Olam's count (ch. 12). Josephus gives twenty-five, and the fourteen sometimes quoted are the years the Mishkan stood at Gilgal—seven of war and seven of division—not the length of his rule: Seder Olam holds both numbers at once, which means they are not the same number.

Chain of transmission

Link no. 2 of 40 in the enumeration of Maimonides (Introduction to the Mishneh Torah): “from Rav Ashi back to Moses our teacher — forty men”. Maimonides’ own count runs the other way, making this number 39.
Moses → Joshua → Phinehas

On the timeline

2448 · 1313 BCEThe War with Amalek at Rephidim2449 · 1312 BCEThe Sin of the Spies and the Decree of the Ninth of Av2488 · 1273 BCEThe Discourses of Deuteronomy and the Death of Moses2488 · 1273 BCEThe Entry into the Land under Joshua and the Fall of Jericho2503 · 1258 BCEThe Division of the Land among the Tribes2503 · 1258 BCEThe Tabernacle at Shiloh: 369 Years

Places

Shiloh

Related

MosesCalebPhinehas

Sources

Tanakh

  • Bamidbar 13–14; 27 — among the spies, and his appointment as successor
  • Shemot 17; 24; 33 — the war with Amalek; the attendant who never left the tent
  • the Book of Yehoshua — the crossing of the Jordan, the conquest, and the division of the Land

Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar

  • Mishnah Avot 1:1 — Moshe handed it on to Yehoshua — the second link in the chain
  • Bava Batra 75a — “the face of Moshe was as the sun, the face of Yehoshua as the moon”
  • Seder Olam Rabbah 12 — "Joshua sustained Israel twenty-eight years" — the source of the year 2516
  • Zevachim 118b; Seder Olam Rabbah 11 — the fourteen years are the Mishkan at Gilgal, not the length of the rule

Documents of the period

  • Josephus, Antiquities V.1.29 — twenty-five years of rule — a different count

Basis: stated in the Tanakh.

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