ContradictionsReading order 246Bible context 2 min read
Who drove the Anakim from Hebron?
One passage credits Joshua with completely destroying Hebron's Anakim; another credits Caleb with expelling three named descendants of Anak from that city.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Supporting
- A supporting event, teaching, or biographical claim.
Joshua's complete destruction of Hebron's Anakim overlaps uneasily with Caleb's expulsion of named descendants there, without fixed chronology or exclusive agency.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Joshua utterly destroys the Anakim from Hebron and other cities
And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.
Joshua 11:21
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Joshua 11
Caleb drives three sons of Anak out of Hebron
And unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a part among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, even the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron. And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak.