The interpretation timeline

Josh 23:7

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Josh 23:7 · Douay-Rheims
“Lest after that you are come in among the Gentiles, who will remain among you, you should swear by the name of their gods, and serve them, and adore them:”
Patristic before A.D. 750
220
A.D.
Tertullian Patristic
c. A.D. 150–220
“Learning literature is allowable for believers, rather than teaching; for the principle of learning and of teaching is different. If a believer teaches literature, while he is teaching doubtless he commends, while he delivers he affirms, while he recalls he bears testimony to, the praises of idols interspersed therein. He seals the gods themselves with this name [of gods]; whereas the Law, as we have said, prohibits "the names of gods to be pronounced," and this name [of God] to be conferred on vanity. Hence the devil gets men's early faith built up from the beginnings of their erudition. Inquire whether he who teaches about idols commits idolatry. But when a believer learns these things, if he is already capable of understanding what idolatry is, he neither receives nor allows them; much more if he is not yet capable. Or, when he begins to understand, it behooves him first to understand what he has previously learned, that is, touching God and the faith. Therefore he will reject those things and will not receive them, and will be as safe as one who from one who knows it not knowingly accepts poison but does not drink it.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.