You're listening to the Bible for normal people, the only God ordained podcast on the internet.

I'm Pete Ends.

And I'm Jared Bias.

Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the podcast.

And, you know, my last solo episode was on Deuteronomy, so let's keep the momentum going

and hit the next book of the Bible, Joshua.

The ancient tribal description of God as warrior is not the last word for either Judaism

or Christianity.

Taking someone's land through violence is simply not a gospel way of living.

For Christians, the gospel has always been the lens through which Israel's stories are

read, which means not every Bible story has the final word about what God is like.

So Joshua is the first of the so-called historical books of the Hebrew Bible.

And this is a common Christian designation for the books of Joshua through Esther.

And they tell the story of the conquest of Canaan, which is the book of Joshua, the early

settlement of the land, which is in judges before the time of the monarchy.

And then a brief story of David's lineage in the book of Ruth, and then the story of

the monarchy itself, ending in exile.

And that's first and second Samuel, first and second kings.

And next, we have first and second chronicles, which tells the tale of the monarchy from a

much later perspective, followed by Ezra and Nehemiah, which were counting to return

to the land after the exile and finally Esther, which takes place in the Persian period.

And these books cover hundreds of years, roughly 700 or so.

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