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when was joshua written

The Book of Joshua was not written all at once at a single clearly known date; instead, there are two main views about when it took shape as we have it now.

Quick Scoop

Most scholars today think Joshua reached its final written form centuries after the events it describes, during the late monarchy and/or the Babylonian exile, roughly in the 600s–500s BCE.

Traditional views, however, see the core of the book as written near the time of the conquest itself, around 1400–1300 BCE, with some later editorial additions.

Traditional View: Early Composition

Many religious traditions connect the book closely to Joshua himself or to his immediate contemporaries.

Common claims in this view:

  • The events of Joshua (entry, conquest, and initial settlement) are often dated to about 1406–1375 BCE.
  • Some argue that much of Joshua was written as events unfolded, with completion soon after Joshua’s death, around 1370 BCE.
  • Early Hebrew language features and “eyewitness” style details are sometimes cited as evidence for a near-contemporary composition.

In that framework, people answering “when was Joshua written?” might say something like: “during or shortly after the conquest, around 1400–1300 BCE.”

Modern Scholarly View: Later Final Form

Most critical biblical scholars separate the time of the events from the time the book took its current literary shape.

Key ideas in this view:

  1. Part of the “Deuteronomistic History”
    • Joshua is read as the opening book of a larger theological history (Deuteronomy through Kings) shaped by editors with a unified style and theology.
 * This collection is usually dated to the reign of King Josiah (late 7th century BCE) with major revisions during or after the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE).
  1. Probable timeframe
    • Many scholars place Joshua’s final literary form in the late 7th to 6th centuries BCE, i.e., roughly the 600s–500s BCE.
 * Some suggest that earlier conquest and tribal traditions were preserved orally or in shorter written pieces, then woven together and theologically interpreted in that later period.

So, in scholarly terms, an answer often sounds like:
“Joshua in its present form was written and edited during the late monarchic and exilic periods, roughly 7th–6th century BCE, drawing on older traditions.”

How to Phrase It Simply

If you want a short, balanced answer to “when was Joshua written?” you can say:

  • Traditional answer: Around the time of the events it records, roughly 1400–1300 BCE, with Joshua or his contemporaries involved.
  • Mainstream academic answer: Older conquest traditions were shaped over time, with the book’s final form likely produced in the 7th–6th centuries BCE, during the period of Josiah and the Babylonian exile.

TL;DR: The events Joshua describes are usually placed around the late 15th–early 14th century BCE, but the book as we have it was probably finalized much later, most likely in the 7th–6th centuries BCE according to most modern scholars.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.