Joshua 4 Footnotes

4:9 “The stones are still there today” is the first instance of etiology, or the explanation of origins, in the book of Joshua. Etiologies often contain the word “today,” referring to the time when the biblical writer was composing or compiling the narrative. Many critical scholars reject the authenticity of these etiologies, assuming that later editors inserted them. Recent scholarship, however, has shown that these etiologies should be taken seriously as preserving authentic reasons for the existence of particular situations, customs, place-names, settlement arrangements and the like. The etiological use of the word “today” is found elsewhere in the book of Joshua at 5:9; 6:25; 7:26 (2x); 8:28-29; 9:27; 10:27; 13:13; 14:14; 15:63; 16:10. The stones were set up at Gilgal (v. 20), a name derived from the Hebrew word for “roll”; the name may reflect the method by which the large memorial stones taken from the Jordan were put in place.