And yet Joshua, the leader of Ephraim, is leader here also
of all Israel, having been preserved from the old original tradition,
which was Ephraimitic.
It involves no contradiction that, in comparing the versions of the
tradition, we should decline the historical standard in the case
of the legend of the origins of mankind and of the legend of the
patriarchs, while we employ it to a certain extent for the epic
period of Moses and Joshua. The epic tradition certainly
contains elements which cannot be explained on any other
hypothesis than that there are historical facts underlying them;
its source is in the period it deals with, while the patriarchal
legend has no connection whatever with the times of the
patriarchs. /1/ This justifies the difference of treatment.
*********************************************
1. Some isolated statements there are here also to which the
historical standard may be applied. We may call it a more
accurate representation that Hebron was inhabited in the time of
Abraham by the, Canaanites and Perizzites, than that the Hittites
dwelt there at that time. The latter, according to 2Samuel
xxiv.
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