Joshua 8 · a question people ask
Did Joshua write the law on the altar, or on other stones?
Joshua 8 says, "He wrote there on the stones a copy of Moses’ law" (8:32), right after the altar "of uncut stones" (8:31). Deuteronomy 27 had commanded two things on Mount Ebal: great stones coated with plaster, to be written with "all the words of this law" (Deuteronomy 27:2-4), and an altar of uncut stones (Deuteronomy 27:5-6). Joshua 8 doesn't mention plaster. Christians read 8:32 in two ways. Both agree that the law was written on stones on Mount Ebal, "in the presence of the children of Israel" (8:32), as Moses had commanded: "You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly" (Deuteronomy 27:8). How much could fit on them is a question Deuteronomy 27 takes up.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Stones set up beside the altar
Those who read it this way note that Joshua did everything "as it is written in the book of the law of Moses" (8:31), and that there the stones for writing are set up and plastered first, and then the altar is built: "you shall set up these stones… on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster. There you shall build an altar" (Deuteronomy 27:4-5).
Joshua 8:31 · Deuteronomy 27:2-5
The stones of the altar
Those who read it this way note that the only stones Joshua 8 has named are the altar's "uncut stones" (8:31), and that the next words are "He wrote there on the stones" (8:32), with no other stones set up in between. In Deuteronomy 27 too, the command "You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly" (Deuteronomy 27:8) comes right after the altar and its offerings (Deuteronomy 27:5-7).
Joshua 8:31-32 · Deuteronomy 27:5-8
The verses
“as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones, on which no one had lifted up any iron. They offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings. He wrote there on the stones a copy of Moses’ law, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.”