A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

JOSHUA, THE BOOK OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. The learned are divided in their opinions about the author of the Book of Joshua; the title at the head of the book being supposed, not to denote its author, but the subject matter of it, being the history of the wars and transactions which happened under the administration of Joshua. Some think the 26th verse of the last chapter are an evidence, that Joshua was the author of this book: the words are; “Joshua wrote all these words in the book of the law of the Lord.” But this may only relate to what is said in this chapter concerning the covenant that the people made with God. For Joshua, a little before his death, having assembled the Israelites at Sichem, and laid them under a solemn engagement to serve only the Lord, gave them fresh laws and ordinances, and “wrote all these words in the book of the law of the Lord.” Some allege what is said concerning Joshua in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, (ch. xlvi.,) that “he was the successor of Moses in prophecies,” as a proof that he wrote a sacred book. But this may mean no more, than that he succeeded Moses in the spirit of prophecy. The ancient Talmudists, and many of later date, expressly ascribe this book to Joshua, and the Jews reckon him among the first prophets, as they call them, though the book is merely historical.

Some of the ancients, and many of the moderns, deny, that Joshua was the author of this book. Theodoret affirms, that it was compiled a long time after the death of Joshua, and that it was but an abstract of an ancient commentary, called “The Book of Jasher,” or “just men,” spoken of in the tenth chapter of this book. Others have endeavoured to show, from particular passages of the book, that it could not be Joshua’s; as when it is said, (ch. iv. ver. 9,) that “the twelve stones, that Joshua set up in the midst of Jordan, remain to this day:” and, in another place, “This place is called Gilgal to this day.” But these, and the like passages, might have been afterwards added to the collections of Joshua.

However it be, the Hebrews, as well as the Greeks and Latins, have distinguished this book by the title of Joshua, or Jesus. This great personage was the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim. He was first called Oshea; but Moses changed his name to Jehoshua, or Joshua. These names, which have all the same root, signify a Saviour: and Joshua was appointed by God to be the successor of Moses, and to lead the Israelites in safety, by subduing their enemies, into the promised land; the history of which great event is the subject of the Book of Joshua; which may be divided into three parts. The first is a history of the conquest of the land of Canaan. The second, which begins at the twelfth chapter, is a description of that country, and the division of it among the tribes. The third, comprised in the two last chapters, contains the renewal of the covenant he caused the Israelites to make, and the death of their victorious leader and governor. The whole comprehends a term of seventeen, or, according to others, twenty-seven years.

JUBILATE DEO. (“O be joyful in God.”) One of the psalms appointed to be used after the second lesson in the morning service. It is the same with the 100th Psalm in the Psalter. It was first inserted in the Prayer Book in the Second Book of King Edward VI.

JUBILEE. A solemn season recurring at stated intervals in the Church of Rome, chiefly marked by the indulgences then granted by the pope to all of his communion. Boniface VIII. was the first that instituted it, in 1300, in imitation of that of the Jews, ordering it to be observed every hundredth year. Clement VI. reduced it to fifty, Urban IV. to thirty, and Sixtus IV. to twenty-five, where it hath continued ever since. Besides this, the popes, upon their exaltation to the see of Rome, have frequently celebrated a jubilee, as likewise upon other extraordinary occasions. The ceremony observed at Rome, for the jubilee, at every twenty-five years’ end, which they call the holy year, is this: The pope goes to St. Peter’s church to open the holy gate, (as they call it,) which is walled up, and only opened upon this occasion; and knocking three times at the said gate, with a golden hammer, says these words, Aperite mihi portas justitiæ, &c., “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go into them and I will praise the Lord” (Psalm cxviii. 19); whereupon the masons fall to work to break down the wall that stopped the gate; which done, the pope kneels down before it, whilst the penitentiaries of St. Peter wash him with holy water, and then taking up the cross, he begins to sing Te Deum, and enters the church, followed by the clergy. In the mean while, three cardinal legates are sent to open the other three holy gates, with the same ceremonies, which are in the churches of St. John of Lateran, of St. Paul, and St. Mary Major; and the next morning the pope gives his benediction to the people in the jubilee form. When the holy year is expired, they shut up the holy gates again on Christmas eve in this manner. The pope, after he has blessed the stones and mortar, lays the first stone, and leaves there twelve boxes full of gold and silver medals.

The Jewish jubilee was celebrated every fifty years. The word is derived from jovel, which in Hebrew signifies the blast of a trumpet, (Josh. vi. 4, 13); because the year of jubilee was proclaimed with trumpets. This year was a year of general rest and universal liberty, wherein all servants were restored to their freedom, and all sold possessions returned to their first owners. The Jews observed these jubilees very exactly till the Babylonian captivity, but after their return did no longer observe it; for their doctors assure us that there were no jubilees under the second temple. See Lev. xxv. 9, et seq.

JUDGES, THE BOOK OF. A canonical book, of the authenticity of which there is no doubt in the Church, though the author is unknown; some ascribing it to Phinehas, others to Ezra or Hezekiah, though most to Samuel.

JUNE THE TWENTIETH. (See Forms of Prayer.)

“JURE DIVINO.” By Divine right; an expression frequently occurring in controversial writings, especially in relation to the ministry of the Church.

It is evident, and generally confessed, that the right to minister in holy things is not in every man’s power. If it were so, the very idea of the ministry, as a distinct class of men, empowered to act “in Christ’s stead,” would be broken up, and the Church would lose its character as a society; for that implies the existence of officers and of subordination. It is also confessed that in the Christian Church men are not born to the ministry, as they were under the Jewish dispensation. Whence, then, comes that authority with which the ambassador of Christ is invested? Is it human? Can any body of men confer the power to rule and minister in a society, the full control of which is in the hands of the eternal God? Most evidently not. Human power, or a commission derived from human resources, is as void and inadequate in qualifying for the functions of the ministry, as it would be in the attempt to create a world, or to found a new rank in the hierarchy of heaven. We are driven then, at once, to the Divine institution as the foundation of all legitimate power in the Church.