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 The Cult of Joshua 1
© Dr M D MageeContents Updated: Monday, November 30, 1998Thursday, 15 September 2005
 Abstract 
The Jews might have had a cult of a god or demi-god named Joshua. Joshua was an old cult namefor God, evolved from the idea of a Jewish saviour or messiah based on the Persian Saoshyant.The Joshua who “returned” with Zerubabel was a mythological personification of the saviour Joshua showing the eschatological significance of the “return” portrayed to the “returners”, thePersian colonists. The name Iesous (Jesus), throughout the
Septuagint 
, was the Greek translationof the Hebrew name Jehoshua or Joshua. Jesus is Joshua—in Greek—and, in the original
 Acts
and
Hebrews
, the scriptural Joshua is called Jesus. Most modern Christians do not know this, so whatwas clear to the first Christians is obscure to modern ones. Christian clergymen are not keen tomake it known that Jesus is Joshua because their flocks might come to see that Jesus was not asunique as they make out, and it might seem he was trying to be Joshua!
William B. Smith and the Pre-Christian Jesus
Some critics of the supernatural Christ have argued for a century that there was acult among the Jews of a god or demi-god named Joshua. William B Smith foundevidence from such sources as the Great Paris Magic Papyrus that a reverence forthe name Jesus or Joshua began before the Christian Jesus ever lived. Jesus/Joshua was an old cult name for God, an invention of the Persian so-calleddiáspora, and evolved from the idea of a Jewish saviour or messiah based on thePersian Saoshyant. The Joshua who “returned” with Zerubabel might have beena mythological personification of the saviour Joshua meant to signify theeschatological significance of the “return” to the “returners”, the Persiancolonists. Smith wrote in 1911:
“The doctrine concerning Jesus was a pre-Christian one, a cult which at themeeting of the centuries (100 BC to 100 AD was widespread among the Jews and especially among the Hellenists, more or less in secret and veiledin “mysteries”… From the beginning Jesus was nothing other than adivinity… namely as the redeemer, the guardian, the saviour.
This saviour had not had an earthly life but was one to come. The novelty ofChristianity was the claim he had! Smith thought “Joshua Messiah” (JesusChrist) was already a cult name among Jews long before the crucifixion of JesusBarabbas. It is not at all far fetched, indeed less so today, now that the Persianinfluence on Judaism is getting clearer and clearer. But, it is a proposal hard to
The Cult of Joshua
 
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settle definitely because Jews long ago tried to expunge any trace of it andChristians have played the Joshua record but at their own speed.The Persians already had the concept of a saviour, the Saoshyant, who wouldcome to redeem the world. So, there is nothing peculiar in thinking that Judaismhad the same concept right from its inception. It is not in dispute that they had it,but, for how long, and the degree of divinity in it, is. Christians claim their Jesusas the expected Jewish messiah, and gave him the messiah’s name and title—unless they are both titles. Their view is that a genuine son of God died on thecross beginning the cult of Jesus Christ. Smith says such a cult already existed.The Christian claim was simply that the pre-existing god appeared on earth inthe flesh, and his death by hanging was the redeeming act. Smith’s idea iscompatible with the Christian claim, except for Christians, who want their ideato be uniquely revealed by God, in which case no Jesus Christ could have beenknown before he appeared on earth. Christians will accept that a messiah wasproclaimed in the Jewish scriptures they renamed the
Old Testament
but they willnot accept that anyone could have begun to worship this messiah before heactually appeared.The Christians are on strong ground in that direct evidence of a pre-Christian Jesus cult is thin. Circumstantial evidence is easily dismissed by Christianbelievers immune to persuasion even when it does not impact in any way ontheir faith. Yet, circumstantial evidence
is
evidence. More recently Robert A Krafthas gathered some of the clues available and published them in
Ioudaios
of June1992.The central piece of evidence cited by Smith was from the
Great Paris MagicPapyrus
, line 3019, which names Jesus as a god of the Hebrews in a list of divinenames cited in an exorcism formula. Critics of Smith’s hypothesis say the list istoo late, being from the Christian era. Indeed, it is dated at 300 AD, but theargument is that the papyrus copies magical charms certainly from a muchearlier date. Adolf Deissmann, whom Smith cites in his own favour, demurs inthat the word “Hebrews”, when used in this period, always meant Palestinian Jews, not Diaspora Jews, as it does too in the
 Acts of the Apostles
, and this detailrefutes Smith’s hypothesis because he thought the “Joshua Messiah” cult hadarisen in the Diaspora among Hellenized Jews.The scrolls from Qumran might support a synthesis of the two views. A sect ofPalestinian Jews might have had the idea of a messiah god before the Jews of theDiaspora had it. They show that first century Judaism was anything butmonolithic in belief, as the Christians and Rabbis have made out. The Persianinfluence was much stronger than anyone in the last two millennia had thought,so Judaism then was not as rigidly monotheistic as its derivative religions like to
The Cult of Joshua
 
 3
think they are. So, the line in the
Great Paris Magic Papyrus
could have been anoriginal reference to a belief among some Palestinian Jews, as well as Diasporaones, that Jesus was a god.
Why Jesus?
Whatever remains of this old tradition must have left its mark in the Jewishscriptures. Early Christians quickly saw their messiah had the same name as bothMoses’s general who succeeded him as leader of the Israelites, and themysterious high priest in Zechariah, a scriptural book full of Christianprecedents. The name Iesous (Jesus) was used throughout the Greek version ofthe Jewish Scriptures, the
Septuagint
, as the Greek translation of the Hebrewname Jehoshua or Joshua. Jesus is Joshua—in Greek—and in the original Greekof
 Acts
7:45 and
Hebrews
4:8 the scriptural Joshua is called Jesus. Most modernChristians do not know this simple fact, so what was clear to the first Christiansis obscure to modern ones. Christian clergymen are not keen to make it knownthat Jesus is Joshua because their flocks might come to see that Jesus was not asunique as they like to make out. It might look as though Jesus was trying to
be
  Joshua!The principal Jesus of the
Old Testament
is Joshua son of Nun who led Israel intothe promised land after the death of Moses. Earlier, in
Exodus
17:8 hecommanded the Israelite army against Amalek, leader of the Amalekites, whileMoses, Aaron and Hur watched the battle from a nearby hill. When Moses raiseshis arms, it is surmised from his sides to make a cross of his torso and arms, thebattle favoured Israel but not otherwise. Joshua eventually defeats Amalek butnot decidedly, and Moses tells Joshua of Yehouah’s promise that Amalek wouldultimately be blotted out, Amelek therefore serving the role of Satan in thescriptural cosmogony.Later in
Exodus
, we find Joshua on Sinai with Moses (
Exod
24:13, 32:17) andministering in the “Tent of Meeting” after Yehouah speaks to Moses (
Exod
33:11).Moses changed Joshua’s name from Hoshea (Osea) (
Num
13:16 ff), and Joshuaand Caleb alone of the twenty spies encouraged the conquest of Canaan (
Num
 14:6 ff). He was divinely chosen and dedicated for the task of leading Israel intothe land and distributing the land to the tribes (
Num
27:18 ff; 34:17). For thislatter role, he received the “spirit of wisdom”, like Moses (
Dt
34:9), and thecommission of Yehouah (
Num
27:18; 34:17). Thus Joshua and Eleazer (or Phineas,in some traditions) replace Moses and Aaron as the civil and priestly leaders ofIsrael. A Christian commentator has noted that in the book of Joshua, Joshua iseffectively a second Moses.
The Cult of Joshua
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