The Bible and violence

The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament contain many passages outlining approaches to, and descriptions of, violent activity, centering on the ancient nation of Israel and their involvement with Gentile nations. They also provide civil guidelines on the subject of violent activity as it pertains to individuals within the nation, distinguishing individualistic from nationalistic actions.

These texts contain narratives, poetry, and instruction describing, or condemning, violent actions by God, individuals, groups, and governments. These actions include war, human and animal sacrifice, murder, rape, stoning, sexism, slavery, criminal punishment, and violent language. The texts have a history of interpretation within the Abrahamic religions and Western culture that includes justification for acts of violence as well as structural violence, and have also been used in opposition to violence.

In the Hebrew Bible

Main article: Hebrew Bible

Divine violence and herem

Main article: Herem (war or property)

Eric Siebert defines 'divine violence' as: "violence God is said to have perpetrated, caused, or sanctioned in some way. Specifically, this includes (1) violence God commits without using human agents (e.g., sending down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah); (2) violence God commissions, typically unbeknownst to those being commissioned (e.g., using Babylon to punish Judah for their sins); and (3) violence God commands directly (e.g., ordering Israelites to wipe out Canaanites)."

The Hebrew verb ḥāram means to utterly destroy (Deuteronomy 7:2) and the noun derived from it, ḥērem, denotes the separation, exclusion and dedication of something to God which may be set apart for destruction (Deuteronomy 7:26; Leviticus 27:28-29). The Israelites were not allowed to touch, possess, or redeem these "devoted things" (Josh. 7:2).

Over half the occurrences of the verb and noun for the root ḥ-r-m are concerned with the destruction of nations, but it is not the only Hebrew term associated with destruction; other terms such as ṣamat, shamad, nakah, aqar, qatsah, shabat, and kalah are also used in this context. For example, concerning those who worship idols, Deuteronomy 7:16 uses akal ("consume") when saying "You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you…". Deuteronomy 7:24, on the other hand, uses abad when saying "you shall make their name perish from under heaven…" while Deuteronomy 20:10-18 says "…you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy (ha-harem taharimem) them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you…".

Human violence and hamas

According to John I. Lawlor, professor of Old Testament, and the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, the Hebrew word ḥāmas, generally translated "violence", refers almost exclusively to human action. The word also connotes action motivated by arrogance, selfishness, or vindictiveness. Examination of the different uses of ḥāmas show it is not limited to physical violence but may refer to verbal, or even ethical violence as well. An example of the biblical view of this kind of human violence is found in Psalm 73, which identifies the "wicked" as violent people who deny God's demand for, and attention to, justice (v. 11).

Ḥāmas sometimes appears as a cry to God in the face of injustice. The Psalms identify the victims of violence as the righteous (ṣaddîqîm), a term that denotes helplessness, humility, and dependence on God (Ps. 34:20–23) while the perpetrators of violence are the wicked (rĕšāʿîm), whose behaviors are destructive and life-threatening and whose activity is linked to their arrogance and disregard for God (Psalm 10).

Exodus 23:1 and Deuteronomy 19:16 characterize a false witness as ēd ḥāmas: a "violent witness".

The Pentateuch also uses the terms gazal and asaq separately and in combination to describe violent taking/robbing/plundering which may or may not involve physical, verbal or other types of harm. The violence of "plundering the poor" (Isaiah 3:14, 10:2; Jeremiah 22:3; Micah 2:2, 3:2; Malachi 1:3), withholding the wages of a hired person (cf. Deuteronomy 24:14), political oppression (Hosea 12:7), charging oppressive interest (Ezekiel 22:12), and oppressing the alien (Ezekiel 22:7), are just some of the violent practices spoken against using this term.

Non-violence and shalom

The Hebrew Bible writes extensively in opposition to human violence supporting the pursuit of peace. The word "shalom" meaning "peace" has been absorbed into the usage of the language from its Biblical roots. A New Concordance of the Bible: Thesaurus of the Language of the Bible lists almost 300 words connected with the root "SH-L-M" for "peace." David Eglavish and Amichai Nachshon have written on practices of peace going back to ancient Israel using the examples of Abram's rescue of Lot, David's rescue of captives, and Elisha's command to free the Aramean captives.

Ethicist David VanDrunen says the lex talionis (an eye for an eye) is best seen as an expression of natural law and strict proportionate justice. It attempts to define retribution, or compensation, that is perfectly proportional to the harm caused. Historically, monetary compensation commonly took the place of literally taking an eye, but in the ancient world, the underlying concept of proportionality was a means of curbing disproportionate vengeful violence.

John Barton says the prophet Amos, when speaking against foreign nations, showed they violated standards of behavior in warfare which they recognized as ethical based on natural law, making it possible for Amos to use those same standards to correct and oppose their violence.

Biblical narrative

Noah's Ark and the Deluge.

Book of Genesis

When Adam and Eve disobey God, he curses them and banishes them from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). In Genesis 4:1-18 Cain, the first born man, murders his brother Abel. God curses Cain for this, and also grants him protection from danger.

In the Genesis flood narrative, chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis, God sees that "wickedness of man was great" and decides to exterminate mankind and all animals, saving only Noah and those he brought with him on the Ark. After the Flood, God promises to never again destroy all life by a flood.

In Genesis 18-19 God resolves to destroy the cities Sodom and Gomorrah, "because their sin is very grievous". God promises Abraham that he will spare a city if as few as 10 righteous people can be found there. The cities are destroyed, but angels save Abraham's nephew Lot and most of his family from the destruction.

Pieter Schoubroeck - The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, c.1600

God tests Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice Isaac, his son (Genesis 22). As Abraham is about to lay the knife upon his son, God restrains him, promising him numberless descendants.

Isaac's son Jacob conspires to gain his elder brother Esau´s birthright, but the brothers ultimately reconcile (Genesis 25-33). In Genesis 32:22-32, Jacob meets and wrestles with someone, a man, angel or God, who bless him and gives him the name Israel.

Joseph (Genesis 37-50), Jacob's favorite son, is sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers. Joseph prospers after hardship, with God's guidance, and saves his family from starvation.

Book of Exodus and Book of Leviticus

Lamentations over the Death of the First-Born of Egypt by Charles Sprague Pearce (1877)

A new pharaoh (Exodus 1) sees that the Israelites in Egypt have become many and fears they might aid Egypt's enemies. The Egyptians make the Israelites "serve with rigour" and their lives become "bitter with hard service". Pharaoh orders two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill the newborn sons of Hebrew women, but they disobey him. Pharaoh then orders his people to drown these children.

Moses, a Hebrew raised by pharaoh's daughter, one day encounters an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He slays the Egyptian and flees Egypt. God hears the plight of the Israelites and sends Moses back to Egypt to bring them out of that land to Canaan. On the journey back, God tries to kill Moses, but he is saved by his wife Zipporah (Exodus 2-4).

Moses asks pharaoh to release the Israelites, but pharaoh responds by demanding more work from them. Moses repeats his request several times as the Plagues of Egypt afflict the Egyptians, but God makes pharaoh refuse until the tenth plague, where God kills all firstborn people and cattle in Egypt, apart from those of the Israelites since they are given protection. The Israelites are allowed to leave, but God again changes pharaohs mind, and an army is sent after them. God saves them from the army by drowning it in the Red Sea.

At Mount Sinai, God gives the Israelites the Ten Commandments and the Covenant Code (Exodus 20-23). These laws include thou shalt not kill, eye for an eye and laws about slavery and other things. Capital punishment is prescribed for some crimes. "Direct intentional killing of the innocent is banned in Old Testament Law, apart from "certain excepted instances: reasonable personal/household self-defense (Exodus 22:2-3); communally sanctioned acts of proportional justice (Ex.21: 23-25); and divinely authorized warfare (Ex.23:23-33). Murder is distinguished in biblical law from unintentional killing (Ex.21:13-14), or death through acts of negligence (Ex.21:28) though gross negligence is sometimes treated as a capitol crime (Ex.21:29)." Animal sacrifice in the form of burnt offerings is mentioned, and it is prescribed that an ox that kills a person is to be stoned. The Code states that "And a stranger shalt thou not wrong, neither shalt thou oppress him; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." and "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child." The Israelites promise to follow these laws (Exodus 24:3).

The Israelites break their promise by worshiping the Golden Calf. God is angered by this and intends to "consume them", but Moses persuades him not to do so. Moses is also angered, and he breaks two stone tablets with God's writing. On Moses command, the Levites kill about three thousand people (Exodus 32).

God has Moses make new stone tablets, and gives Moses the Ritual Decalogue, which states in part "Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest they be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim" (Exodus 34).

The Book of Leviticus sets out detailed rules for animal sacrifice. The Holiness code, Leviticus 17-26, sets out a list of prohibitions, and the punishments for breaking them. Punishments include execution, sometimes by stoning or burning.

Book of Numbers

The Sabbath-breaker Stoned James Tissot c.1900

The Women of Midian Led Captive by the Hebrews James Tissot c.1900

God orders Moses to count "all that are able to go forth to war in Israel" (Numbers 1). God hears the people "speaking evil" and punishes them with fire. Moses prays, and the fire abates. God is again angered and sends "a great plague" (Numbers 11). God hears Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses, and punishes Miriam with leprosy. Moses asks God to heal her which he does (Numbers 12).

The Israelites reach the border of Canaan, but due to reports from spies they refuse to enter, and wish to return to Egypt. God is angered, and tells Moses "I will smite them with the pestilence, and destroy them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they." Moses persuades him not to, but God declares that the Israelites will now wander the wilderness for forty years before they can enter Canaan. They are attacked by Amalekites and Canaanites (Numbers 13-14). In Numbers 15, a man is found working on the Sabbath. God orders him to be killed and he is stoned.

Korah and a group of men rebel against Moses and Aaron. God destroys them (Numbers 16). The Isralites "murmur" about this, and God punishes them with a plague (Numbers 16). At Hormah, a Canaanite king fights the Israelites, and the Israelites promise God that if he gives them victory over this people, they will destroy their cities. He does and they do. The Israelites speak against God and Moses, and God sends venomous snakes that kill many of them. Moses prays for the people, and God helps them (Numbers 21).

The Israelites conquer the cities of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and they "smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him remaining; and they possessed his land." (Numbers 21). When the diviner Balaam beats his donkey, it speaks. Balaam later prophesise on the future of the Israelite's enemies (Numbers 22-24).

Some Israelites commit harlotry with women in Moab, and sacrifice to their gods. God is angered, orders executions and sends a plague, but "the main guilt is Midian's and on Midian fell the vengeance" (Numbers 25 and 31).

God orders Moses to "Harass the Midianites, and smite them", and to again count "all that are able to go forth to war in Israel" (Numbers 25-26). The Isralites war against Midian, and "slew every male". They take captive the women and children, and take all cattle, flocks and goods as loot, and burn all cities and camps. When they return to Moses, he is angered, and commands "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves" (Numbers 31).

God tells Moses "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When ye pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places. And ye shall drive out the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein; for unto you have I given the land to possess it." and "But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that ye let remain of them be as thorns in your eyes, and as pricks in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land wherein ye dwell. And it shall come to pass, that as I thought to do unto them, so will I do unto you" (Numbers 33).

Book of Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy begins with a review of previous stories, including a battle between the Israelites and the Amorites (Deuteronomy 1:41-44), and the destruction of Rephaim by the Ammonites with Yahweh's help (2:21), along with similar other displacements. Deuteronomy 2:31-37 records the complete extermination of the people ruled by Sihon king of Heshbon. Similar treatment, at Yahweh's command, was given to the people under Og king of Bashan. Moses also recounts how God destroyed the followers of Baal-Peor, and threatens to destroy the Israelites if they return to idolatry. Similar threats of destruction for disobedience, or idolatry more specifically, can be found in Deuteronomy 6, 8, 11. On the other hand, God promises that if his people obey him he will give them victory in fighting their enemies in Deuteronomy 6, 11.

Moses and Joshua in the Tabernacle, James Tissot c. 1900

Deuteronomy provides legislation to protect perpetrators of unintentional homicide from revenge killings (4, 19). The Ten Commandments prohibit murder (5:17). . Deuteronomy 7 orders the complete annihilation of the indigenous inhabitants of Canaan, and God promises in exchange for obedience to bring diseases on the enemies of Israel. Chapter 9 records an incident in which Yahweh was angry and intended to destroy the Israelites, but was dissuaded by Moses. Deuteronomy 12 records Yahweh's displeasure at the practice of burning sons and daughters as offerings to deities. Deuteronomy 13 insists that those who advocate the worship of other deities must be killed, and that a town that worships other deities must be entirely exterminated, including its livestock. Deuteronomy 14 forbids self-mutilation. Deuteronomy 17 punishes anyone who worships any deity or feature of the natural world with stoning to death, and likewise imposes the death penalty on anyone who disobeys the judicial decision of a priest.

Deuteronomy 19 imposes the death penalty for premeditated murder, establishes cities of refuge, and also imposes the lex talionis: "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" limiting vengeance (verse 21, NRSV). Deuteronomy 20 regulates warfare, allowing for various exemptions from military service, and mandating that a city which Israel fights (outside of Canaan) should have all of its males slaughtered, with women taken as spoils of war. The Canaanites, on the other hand, are to be completely exterminated (20) exempting only the fruit trees. Deuteronomy 21 commands the use of sacrifices to atone for blood in cases where a murderer cannot be identified, and mandates a month-long period of mourning before an Israelite warrior can have sexual relations with a female captive. It also mandates the stoning to death of rebellious children. Deuteronomy 22 orders to killing of women who cannot prove that they were virgins on their wedding night, and of both the man and woman when a man sleeps with another man's wife. It also mandates the death penalty for a man who has sexual relations with a betrothed virgin, and of the virgin if she does not cry out for help when raped.

Deuteronomy 24 imposes the death penalty for the kidnapping of a fellow Israelite, and forbids putting parents to death for crimes committed by their children, and vice versa. Deuteronomy 25 allows for judges to have people punished in legal disputes by flogging, but limits the number of strikes to forty. "If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, you shall cut off her hand; show no pity" (24:11). This chapter also urges the extermination of Amalekites (verses 17-19). Deuteronomy 28 contains blessing and curses: blessing, including the defeat of Israel's enemies, if Israel obeys; and curses if Israel disobeys. These curses include disease, famine, defeat and death in warfare, insanity, abuse and robbery, enslavement, and cannibalism due to extreme hunger. Similar threats appear in the following chapter (29) and in Deuteronomy 32.

Book of Joshua

The Taking of Jericho (Jean Fouquet, c.1452–1460)

God commands Joshua to take possession of Canaan (Joshua 1). The Jericho-woman Rahab aids two Israelite spies, and she and her family are promised to be spared in the coming conquest. The Israelites enter Canaan, carrying with them the Ark of the Covenant. Joshua conquers the city of Jericho. The city is burned, and apart from Rahab´s family, every person, ox, sheep and donkey is killed (Joshua 6). Joshua attempts to capture the city of Ai, but fails (Joshua 7). A second attempt, advised by God, succeeds. The city is set on fire and all the inhabitants are killed (Joshua 8).

Several kings ally together to fight the Israelites. The people of Gibeon, learning of the city's destruction, tricks the Israelites into a peace-treaty. When Joshua learns of the trickery, he curses the Gibeonites (Joshua 9). When the king of Jerusalem hears of the treaty, he and several other kings attack Gibeon, who then call on Joshua for help. God attacks Joshua's enemies with hailstones, the Israelites are victorious, and the enemy kings are captured. Joshua goes on to conquer more cities but never completes the conquest (Joshua 10).

More kings gather to fight the Israelites. The Israelites defeat and kill them all. Joshua 11 commands the hamstringing of horses.

Joshua finishes most of the conquest of Canaan, with the exception of Gibeon and possibly some Canaanites and Amelakites: "For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that they might be utterly destroyed, that they might have no favour, but that they might be destroyed, as the LORD commanded Moses." "And the land had rest from war" (Joshua 11).

The tribe of Manasseh is given cities with Canaanites they can´t drive out, but Joshua tells them that they will be able to (Joshua 17).

In Joshua 20, God tells Joshua to assign Cities of Refuge, so that "the manslayer that killeth any person through error and unawares may flee thither; and they shall be unto you for a refuge from the avenger of blood."

Book of Judges

Jephthah's Daughter, c. 1896-1902, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902) or follower, gouache on board, 11 5/16 x 7 in. (28.9 x 17.8 cm), at the Jewish Museum, New York

The Book of Judges contains a number of violent incidents. There is a graphic description of the assassination of the Moabite King Eglon, who defecates while rolls of his fat suck in the blade used to kill him (Judges 3:22). Later on, Jael hammers a tent peg into an enemy commander's head while he slept after fleeing from a battle (Judges 4:21). During a time of conflict with Ammon, Jephthah makes a vow to God that he will sacrifice whatever comes first out of the house and ends up sacrificing his own daughter (Judge 11). Towards the end of the book, an unnamed Levite's concubine is raped, and dies shortly afterwards. The Levite dismembers her, and has parts of her body distributed across Israel to inform people about what happened (Judges 19:29). This triggers a civil war between the Benjamites and the Israelites that kills thousands of people.

The Prophets and Psalms

Old Testament characters like Phinehas (Num. 25), Elijah (1 Kgs. 18:39–40; 2 Kgs. 1), and Elisha (2 Kgs. 2:23–25; 9) killed, ordered killing, participated in killing and foretold killing in the name of God. Elijah called down fire from Heaven to consume the sacrifice, then followed this display of God's power by catching and personally killing all the prophets of Baal; he twice called the fire down from heaven to consume the Captain and the fifty men with him sent by the King (2 Kings 1:10); Elisha called bears from the woods to maul the 42 "youths" who mocked him, and visited leprosy on Gehazi his deceitful servant, (2 Kings 5:27); Amos pronounces judgment on the nations including Israel offering a vision of Divine judgment that includes a swarm of locusts and divine fire; Ezekiel said, "The word of the Lord came to me" repeatedly pronouncing violent judgment against the nations and Israel, and a feminist interpretation of the book of Nahum speaks of the "rape" of Ninevah, the book's "fascination with war, and the glee with which it calls for revenge."

Scholars point out that collective punishment such as that pronounced by the prophets against foreign nations, particularly punishment of descendants for transgressions committed by ancestors of gentiles, is common in the Jewish Bible.

As a response to the violence of the wicked, numerous psalms call on God to bring vengeance on one's personal enemies, for example Ps. 109 calls for vengence on the entire family as "payment" to the Psalmist's accusers. Psalm 137 speaks against Babylon and dashing "their infants against the rocks".

In the New Testament

Foster Bible Pictures 0002-1

In the Gospel of Matthew, Herod the Great is described as ordering the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem.

There are sayings of Jesus that promote violence, such as those in which Jesus says he comes to bring fire or a sword. Jesus' cleansing of the Temple is an example of direct violent action by Jesus. There are also sayings of Jesus that oppose violence.

A 19th century rendition of the Cleansing of the Temple.

According to author David J. Hawkin, Professor of Religious Studies, the central act of violence in the New Testament is the crucifixion of Jesus.

Gustave Doré - Christ on the Cross

Apocalypse

Main article: Apocalypticism

The Book of Revelation is full of imagery of war, genocide, and destruction. It describes the Apocalypse, the last judgment of all the nations and people by God, which includes plagues, war, and economic collapse. Some other books of the Gospels also use apocalyptic language and forms. Scholars define this as language that "views the future as a time when divine saving and judging activity will deliver God's people out of the present evil order into a new order...This transformation will be cataclysmic and cosmic."

Whenever Jesus calls people to a new vision in light of God's impending kingdom, judgment, or a future resurrection, he is using apocalyptic speech. For example, Jesus uses apocalyptic speech in Matthew 10:15 when he says "it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town," and in Mark 14:62, where he alludes to the book of Daniel with himself in the future "sitting at the right hand of God." Bailey and Vander Broek go on to say, "In the material about John the Baptizer there also appear apocalyptic images: 'the wrath to come' (Luke 3:7); 'the axe ... lying at the root of the tree' (Luke 3:9); the Coming One with 'winnowing fork ... in His hand' (Luke 3:17); and chaff burning with 'unquenchable fire' (Luke 3:17)."

Charles B. Strozier, psychoanalyst historian says: "The most troubling dimension of 'endism' is its relation to violence. ... fundamentalists generally believe... transformation can only be accomplished violently, and that the move from our time into the next requires mass death and destruction when '...this earth will be purged in the fires of God's anger, that Jesus will return, and that a new heaven and a new earth will be reborn'". According to some authors, the Book of Revelation has been used to justify violence and has served as an inspiration of revolutionary movements.

Theological reflections and responses

Texts of violence have produced a wide variety of theological responses.

Various views

Regina Schwartz says "the exclusive claims of monotheistic faith expressed in the Old Testament lead to a sense of scarcity which produces violence: those outside the favor of God are doomed to destruction.”

Hector Avalos draws a similar conclusion to Schwarz advocating for a "recanonization" of the canon of scripture "in which the thoughtful reader, in line with pacifist sensibilities, excises objectionable texts."

Philosopher Louise Antony draws from the Old Testament stories of Adam and Eve, the binding of Isaac, and Job to demonstrate "the God of the Hebrew Bible is far more concerned with his own glorification than with the well-being of his human 'children'."

Evan Fales, Professor of Philosophy calls the crucifixion and its doctrine of substitutionary atonement "psychologically pernicious" and "morally indefensible". Fales founds his argument on John Locke’s statement that revelation must conform to our understanding. Philosopher and Professor Alvin Plantinga says this rests upon seeing God as a kind of specially talented human being.

Historian Philip Jenkins (quoting Phyllis Trible) says the Bible is filled with "texts of terror" but he also asserts these texts are not to be taken literally. Jenkins says eighth century BCE historians added them to embellish their ancestral history and get readers' attention.

Richard Swinburne says God is the one who grants life, and since he makes it clear it is a temporary gift for every human, God is therefore free to choose how long or short that gift is and he wrongs no one in that choice.

Philosopher, professor and author Eleonore Stump says the larger context of God permitting suffering for good purposes in a world where evil is real allows for such events as the killing of those intending evil and God to still be seen as good.

Old Testament scholar and author Ellen Davis insists difficult texts typically have internal correctives that support an educative reading.

Genesis and violence at creation

The god Marduk (right) fighting Tiamat

In 1895 Hermann Gunkel observed that most Near Eastern creation stories contain a theogony depicting a god doing combat with other gods thus including violence in the founding of their cultures. For example, in the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish the first step of creation has Marduk fighting and killing Tiamat, a chaos monster, to establish order. Kenneth A. Mathews says, "It has been typical of scholarship since Gunkel's Schöfung und Chaos (1895) to interpret Genesis 1's subjugation of "the deep" and division of the "waters" as a remnant of the battle motif between Marduk and watery Tiamat, which was taken up by the Hebrew author and demythologized, [but] most contemporary scholars now see the association of the Hebrew tehôm ("deep," 1:2) with Tiamat as superficial." Jerome Creach says, "This has important ethical implications" about the Bible's conception of the origins of violence.

Warfare from Genesis through Joshua

Figures Five Kings of Midian Slain by Israel

Warfare represents a special category of Biblical violence and is a topic the Bible addresses, directly and indirectly, in four ways: there are verses that support pacifism, and verses that support non-resistance; 4th century theologian Augustine found the basis of just war in the Bible, and preventive war which is sometimes called crusade has also been supported using Bible texts. Susan Niditch explores the range of war ideologies in ancient Near Eastern culture saying, "...To understand attitudes toward war in the Hebrew Bible is thus to gain a handle on war in general..." In the Hebrew Bible warfare includes the Amalekites, Canaanites, Moabites, and the record in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and both books of Kings.

God commanded his chosen people to conquer the Promised Land, placing city after city "under the ban" -which meant every man, woman and child was supposed to be slaughtered at the point of the sword. For example, in Deuteronomy 20:16-18 God orders the Israelites to "not leave alive anything that breathes… completely destroy them …", thus leading many scholars to characterize these wars as genocide. Other examples include the story of the Amalekites (Numbers 13,14), the story of the Midianites (Numbers 25,26),, and the battle of Jericho (Joshua 1-6).

Hans Van Wees says the conquest campaigns are largely fictional. In the archaeological community, the Battle of Jericho has been thoroughly studied, and the consensus of modern scholars is the battles described in the Book of Joshua are not realistic. For example, the Book of Joshua describes the extermination of the Canaanite tribes, yet at a later time Judges 1:1-2:5 suggests that the extermination was not complete.

Likewise, it is not clear whether the tribe of the Amalekites were exterminated. 1 Samuel 15:7-8 implies ("He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword.") that - after Agag was also killed - the Amalekites were extinct, but in a later story in the time of Hezekiah, the Simeonites annihilated some Amalekites on Mount Seir, and settled in their place: "And five hundred of these Simeonites, led by Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi, invaded the hill country of Seir. They killed the remaining Amalekites who had escaped, and they have lived there to this day."

Historian Paul Copan and philosopher Matthew Flannagan say the violent texts of herem warfare are "hagiographic hyperbole", a kind of historical writing found in the Book of Joshua and other Near Eastern works of the same era and are not intended to be literal, contain hyperbole, formulaic language, and literary expressions for rhetorical effect—like when sports teams use the language of “totally slaughtering” their opponents. John Gammie concurs, saying the Bible verses about "utterly destroying" the enemy are more about pure religious devotion than an actual record of killing people. Gammie references Deuteronomy 7:2-5 in which Moses presents ḥerem as a precondition for Israel to occupy the land with two stipulations: one is a statement against intermarriage (vv. 3–4), and the other concerns the destruction of the sacred objects of the residents of Canaan (v. 5) but neither involves killing.

C. L. Crouch compares the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah to Assyria, saying their similarities in cosmology and ideology gave them similar ethical outlooks on war. Both Crouch and Lauren Monroe, professor of Near Eastern studies at Cornell, agree this means the ḥerem type of total war was not strictly an Israelite practice but was a common approach to war for many Near Eastern people of the Bronze and Iron Ages. For example, King Mesha of Moab fought in the name of his god Chemosh, subjecting his enemies to ḥerem, recording it on the Mesha Stele.

Some scholars say the Bible presents the conquest as a largely defensive action and this is evident in a series of five editorial summary comments (Joshua 2:9–11, 5:1, 9:1–2, 10:1–5, 11:1–5) that tie together the individual stories of the conquest into a unified narrative. Creach quotes theologian Lawson Stone who observes the significance of Israel depicting the campaigns after Ai as defensive, adding this seems to evidence concern over the violence in these texts even among those who put them together.

Walter Moberly interprets the herem in Deuteronomy 7:1–11 as a continuation of that great prayer, the "Shema".

The Book of Judges and violence against women

The Levite finds his concubine lying on the doorstep, James Tissot

Deborah the Judge, Tenancingo, Mexico State, Mexico

Violence against women appears throughout the Old Testament. Many have attributed this to a patriarchal society, while some scholars say the problem stems from the larger context of a male dominated culture. Women are treated in differing ways in the Bible. For example, the Book of Judges includes the judge Deborah, who was honored, as well as two of the most egregious examples in the Bible of violence against women: Jephthah’s daughter (Judg. 11:29–40) and the Levite’s concubine (Judg. 19).

Scholar author Phyllis Trible looks at these instances from the perspective of the victim making their pathos palpable, underlying their human reality, and the tragedy of their stories. Some feminist critiques of Judges say the Bible gives tacit approval to violence against women by not speaking out against these acts.

O'Connor says women in the Old Testament generally serve as points of reference for the larger story, yet Judges abounds with stories where women play the main role. O'Connor explains the significance of this saying: "The period between the death of Joshua and the anointing of Saul...was a period of uncertainty and danger... lack of human leadership is viewed as disastrous, for when "every one does what is right in their own eyes," the results are awful" and that is illustrated by the violent acts against women recorded in Judges.

Beginning with the larger context and tracing the decline of Israel by following the deteriorating status of women and the violence done to them, which progresses from the promise of life in the land to chaos and violence, the effects of the absence of authority such as a king (Judges 21:25) is reflected in the violence against women that occurs when government fails and social upheaval occurs.

Non-violence and Shalom

"The Shalom vision includes the building and rebuilding of community. The prophets of the exile speak of the liberation and return of the Jewish people: the slaves, prisoners and exiles shall come home at last (Isaiah 61:1), rebuild their homes and communities, and live securely in a new-found unity. Shalom means inclusive community overcoming ethnic divisions as even the foreigner who lives in covenant faithfulness to God becomes a full and honored member of the community. The eunuch formerly seen as unclean is welcomed. All are welcomed on the same basis: "The Temple will be a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7). Shalom restores the original unity of humankind. Shalom means everyone has enough to eat and drink. Shalom means well-being and prosperity fairly distributed to all in a flourishing land. Shalom means economic justice and an end to economic oppression. Shalom means the healing of broken bodies and spirits. Shalom means peace and an end to the violence that divides us. Shalom means rejoicing and overcoming death with life. Finally, Shalom means obedience to God, maintaining justice, and doing what is right."

The violence of Hell

Main article: Problem of Hell

The ancient Jews did not have a developed concept of Hell; they did not worship the dead, sacrifice to them, or hope to reunite with them in an afterlife; but it is often asserted by scholars that the more developed Christian concept of Hell has its roots in Judaism. The word Sheol appears 65 times in the Old Testament; it is translated as "the grave" 31 times, "the pit" 3 times, and "Hell" 31 times, with Gehenna and Abaddon also sometimes translated as "Hell", plus Tartaros appears frequently in Jewish apocalyptic literature where it refers to a place where the wicked are punished. There are Hebrew Bible verses indicating early Jewish thought did contain some belief in an afterlife (e.g. Isaiah 26:14, Daniel 12:2,3). More evidence comes from Maccabees, written in the second century B.C.E., and by the first century C.E., friction between the Sadducees and the Pharisees over this issue is documented by both the New Testament writers and Josephus giving evidence of its presence in Jewish thought.

In the New Testament there are three words translated Hell: the Greek word hades, which is a general equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol, is used to identify the temporary place of the unsaved after death but is not used in relationship to the lake of fire or eternal punishment; gehenna is uniformly translated Hell and refers to eternal punishment; and one occurrence of tartaros appears in 2 Peter 2:4 and is considered equivalent to gehenna. All the references to gehenna (except James 3:6) are spoken by Jesus himself. A literal interpretation involves violence. Jesus also taught punishment in Hell would be by degrees (an idea Dante later developed) with one servant receiving a lighter beating than others, hypocrites receiving more condemnation than others, and so on.

"Probably the most disturbing concept in Christian tradition is the prospect that one day vast numbers of people will be consigned to Hell." "...Developing the implications of the apocalyptic strand of late ancient Judaism, Christianity ... proclaimed... For the individual there is only one life... [and] death becomes the deadline for conversion and right action." Alan Bernstein says there are three ways the New Testament addresses what happens to those who fail to meet the deadline. The first is simple death or what the New Testament calls "destruction:" the dead "remain in their graves, decompose and pass into nothingness". The second view is that justice demands retribution. The damned will suffer "wrath" or "evil" either on a temporary or an unending basis. "If postmortem sufferings are temporary, will they simply end or will they gradually reform the offenders and allow them to be returned to God and His company?...Reasoning from such questions as these, other Christians proposed a third possibility: universal salvation... Surely God would eventually draw all to Himself, even if after punishment."

Stanley N. Gundry and William Crockett say there are four views of Hell within the Bible: the literal view, the metaphorical view, the purgatorial view, and the conditional view.

Sociological reflections and responses

Scholar Nur Masalha writes that the "genocide" of the extermination commandments has been "kept before subsequent generations" and served as inspirational examples of divine support for slaughtering enemies.

Arthur Grenke quotes historian, author and scholar David Stannard: "Discussing the influence of Christian beliefs on the destruction of the Native peoples in the Americas, Stannard argues that while the New Testament view of war is ambiguous, there is little such ambiguity in the Old Testament. He points to sections in Deuteronomy in which the Israelite God, Yahweh, commanded that the Israelites utterly destroy idolaters whose land they sought to reserve for the worship of their deity (Deut 7:2, 16, and 20:16–17). ... According to Stannard, this view of war contributed to the ... destruction of the Native peoples in the Americas. It was this view that also led to the destruction of European Jewry. Accordingly, it is important to look at this particular segment of the Old Testament: it not only describes a situation where a group undertakes to totally destroy other groups, but it also had a major influence on shaping thought and belief systems that permitted, and even inspired, genocide.

Sociologists Frank Robert Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn question "the applicability of the term [genocide] to earlier periods of history, and the judgmental and moral loadings that have become associated with it." Since most societies of the past endured and practiced genocide, it was accepted as "being in the nature of life" because of the "coarseness and brutality" of life. Chalk and Jonassohn say the Old Testament contains cases they would consider genocide (if they were factual) because of women and children being killed even though it was war and casualties in war are excluded from the definition of genocide. They also say: "The evidence for genocide in antiquity is circumstantial, inferential, and ambiguous, and it comes to us exclusively from the perpetrators."

Historian and author William T. Cavanaugh says every society throughout history has contained both hawks and doves. Cavanaugh and John Gammie say laws like those in Deuteronomy probably reflect Israel's internal struggle over such differing views of how to wage war.

Arie Versluis says, "...indigenous populations have also appealed to the command (in Deut.7) in order to expel their colonizers. This is shown by the example of Te Kooti...in the nineteenth century who viewed the Maori as the Israelites and the colonizers as the Canaanites."

Scholar Leonard B. Glick states that Jewish fundamentalists in Israel, such as Shlomo Aviner, consider the Palestinians to be like biblical Canaanites, and that some fundamentalist leaders suggest that they "must be prepared to destroy" the Palestinians if the Palestinians do not leave the land. Several scholars draw similar conclusions.

René Girard, anthropologist, literary critic, and social commentator, says Jesus’ death calls into question the most fundamental and frequent violent acts in the Old Testament by exposing the "mimetic" sacrificial system on which all human society rests..

Philosopher, sociologist, theologian and author Jacques Ellul says: "I believe that the biblical teaching is clear. It always contests political power. It incites to "counterpower," to "positive" criticism, to an irreducible dialogue (like that between king and prophet in Israel), to antistatism, to a decentralizing of the relation, to an extreme relativizing of everything political, to an anti-ideology, to a questioning of all that claims either power or dominion (in other words, of all things political)...Throughout the Old Testament we see God choosing what is weak and humble to represent him (the stammering Moses, the infant Samuel, Saul from an insignificant family, David confronting Goliath, etc). Paul tells us that God chooses the weak things of the world to confound the mighty..."

Marcionism and supersessionism

As the early Christian Church began to distinguish itself from Judaism, the "Old Testament" and a portrayal of God in it as violent and unforgiving were sometimes contrasted rhetorically with certain teachings of Jesus to portray an image of God as more loving and forgiving, which was framed as a new image.

Marcion of Sinope, in the early second century, developed an early Christian dualist belief system that understood the god of the Old Testament and creator of the material universe, who he called the Demiurge, as an altogether different being than the God about whom Jesus spoke. Marcion considered Jesus' universal God of compassion and love, who looks upon humanity with benevolence and mercy, incompatible with Old Testament depictions of divinely ordained violence. Accordingly, he did not regard the Hebrew scriptures as part of his scriptural canon. Marcion's teaching was repudiated by Tertullian in five treatises titled "Against Marcion" and Marcion was ultimately excommunicated by the Church.

Supersessionist Christians have continued to focus on violence in the Hebrew Bible while ignoring or giving little attention to violence in the New Testament.

See also

• Judaism and violence
• Just war theory
• Religious violence

Further reading

• Armstrong, Karen (2008). The Bible: A Biography. Grove/Atlantic, Inc. ISBN 9781555849245.
• Boustan, Raanan Shaul; Janssen, Alex P.; Roetzel, Calvin J., eds. (2010). "Introduction". Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practices in Early Judaism and Christianity. Brill. pp. 1–12. ISBN 9004180281.
• Cohn, Robert L. (1994). "Chapter 4: Before Israel: The Canaanites as Other in Biblical Tradition". In Silberstein, Laurence J.; Cohn, Robert L. (eds.). The Other in Jewish Thought and History: Constructions of Jewish Culture and Identity. NYU Press. pp. 74ff. ISBN 9780814779903.
• Cowles, C. S. (2003). Show Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide. Zondervan. ISBN 9780310245681.
• Ehrlich, Carl S. (1999). "Part II Chapter 2: Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide". In Borrás, Judit Targarona; Sáenz-Badillos, Ángel (eds.). Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Volume 1: Biblical, Rabbinical, and Medieval Studies. Brill. pp. 117ff. ISBN 9004115544.
• Firestone, Reuven (2009). "Chapter 4: Judaism on Violence and Reconciliation: An Examination of Key Sources". In Heft, James L. (ed.). Beyond Violence: Religious Sources of Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Fordham Univ Press. pp. 74ff. ISBN 9780823223350.
• Garber, Zev (2004). "Chapter 17: Deconstructing Theodicy and Amalekut". In Moore, James F. (ed.). Post-Shoah Dialogues: Re-thinking Our Texts Together. University Press of America. pp. 231ff. ISBN 9780761828372.
• Kravitz, Leonard (1999). "Chapter 2: What is Crime?". In Jacob, Walter; Zemer, Moshe (eds.). Crime and Punishment in Jewish Law: Essays and Responsa. Berghahn Books. pp. 22ff. ISBN 9781571811974.
• Magid, Shaul (2009). "Chapter 11: Subversion as Return: Scripture, Dissent, and Renewal in Contemporary Judaism". In Benedix, Beth Hawkins (ed.). Subverting Scriptures: Critical Reflections on the Use of the Bible. Springer. pp. 217ff. ISBN 9780230101296.
• Selengut, Charles (2003). Sacred Fury: Understanding Religious Violence. Rowman Altamira. ISBN 9780759103627.
• van Wees, Hans (2010). "Chapter 12: Genocide in the Ancient World". In Bloxham, Donald; Moses, A. Dirk (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies. OUP Oxford. pp. 239ff. ISBN 9780199232116.

External links

• Chapter IV.—Not Peace, But a Sword. from the Testaments of the twelve patriarchs in "The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementia, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains of the First." Volume 8 in The Ante-Nicean Fathers. Translated by Philip Schaff. 1885