EPS Article Library
Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?
References
[1]. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
(Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2006), 248.
[2]. Ibid., 242.
[3]. Ibid., 243.
[4]. Ibid., 247.
[5]. Ibid., 241.
[6]. Daniel C. Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion as
a Natural Phenomenon (New York: Viking, 2006), 206.
[7]. Ibid., 265.
[8]. Ibid., 267.
[9]. Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How
Religion Poisons Everything
(New York: Hachette Book Group, 2007), 101.
[10]. Ibid., 102.
[11]. Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), ix.
[12]. Ibid., 8.
[13]. Sam Harris, The End of Faith (New York: W. W.
Norton, 2004), 18.
[14]. Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, 18-19.
[15]. Ibid., 23.
[16]. Ibid., 24.
[17]. John Barton, Ethics and the Old Testament
(Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998), 7. See Brevard S. Childs,
Biblical Theology in Crisis (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970), 125, where he
notes that there is no "clear-cut answer" on how to do biblical ethics.
[18]. Bruce C. Birch, Let Justice Roll Down: The Old
Testament, Ethics, and Christian Life (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox
Press, 1991), 36.
[19]. See Paul Copan, "That's Just Your Interpretation"
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2001); "How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?" (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker, 2006); When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Practical
Apologetics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2008). I have begun writing more
extensively on OT ethics in a forthcoming book.
[20]. An example of such an approach is Walter C.
Kaiser, Toward Old Testament Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993). Noted
in Robin Parry, Old Testament Story and Christian Ethics: The Rape of Dinah as a
Case Study (Bletchly, UK: Paternoster, 2004), 61; see also comments by J. Gary
Millar, Now Choose Life: Theology and Ethics in Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 28-9.
[21]. John H. Sailhamer makes this point in The
Pentateuch as Narrative (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993); Introduction to Old
Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995); at
a popular level, see his NIV Compact Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999).
[22]. Gerhard von Rad, Studies in Deuteronomy, trans.
D. M. G. Stalker, Studies in Biblical Theology 9 (London: SCM, 1953), 11-24.
[23]. Rifat Sonsino, Motive Clauses in Hebrew Law:
Biblical Forms and Near Eastern Parallels (Chico, CA: Scholars, 1975), 174; he
notes the "relative scarcity of motive clauses in cuneiform laws" in contrast to
the "greater frequency in biblical legislation" (173).
[24]. Christopher J. H. Wright, "The People of God and
the State in the Old Testament," Themelios 16 (1990): 5-6.
[25]. Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New
Testament (San Francisco: Harper SF, 1996), 295; see also Richard Hays, Echoes
of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1989), chap. 5.
[26]. Richard A. Burridge, Imitating Jesus: An
Inclusive Approach to New Testament Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007).
[27]. Craig Keener, Gift and Giver: The Holy Spirit for
Today (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2001); Max Turner, The Holy Spirit and Spiritual
Gifts (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998), 258.
[28]. John Barton, Understanding Old Testament Ethics:
Approaches and Explorations (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003). See
also John Goldingay, Approaches to Old Testament Interpretation (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity, 1981), chap. 2. J. W. Rogerson prefers "natural morality" to
the more philosophically developed term "natural law." See his "Old Testament
Ethics," in Text in Context, ed. A. D. H. Mayes (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000), 117-18.
[29]. Brevard S. Childs, Biblical Theology of the Old
and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible (Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1993), 680.
[30]. Waldemar Janzen, Old Testament Ethics: A
Paradigmatic Approach (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2004), chap. 3.
See also David Damrosch, The Narrative Covenant: Transformations of Genre in the
Growth of Biblical Literature (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987), chap. 6.
[31]. In the narrative of Neh. 13:1-3, this passage is
alluded to, but it serves the identical purpose when the Mosaic Law had been
given-namely, when there was a danger of spiritual/theological compromise. But
this hardly amounted to ethnic hatred. For instance, Ruth-from Moab-voluntarily
identifies herself with Yahweh and his people; we could also point to Rahab from
Jericho, who embraces Yahweh as her own. There was no theological reason to
exclude them from Israel's covenant community.
[32]. J. Daniel Hays, From Every People and Nation: A
Biblical Theology of Race (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 70-81.
[33]. Eckart Otto, Theologische Ethik des Alten
Testaments (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1994).
[34]. John Barton, Understanding Old Testament Ethics:
Approaches and Explorations (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 71.
[35]. Ibid., 73
[36]. See Daniel Block, "Will the Real Gideon Please
Stand Up? Narrative Style and Intention in Judges 6-9," Journal of the
Evangelical Theological Society 40 (1997): 353-66. Block (with Gordon Wenham
following [Story as Torah: Reading Old Testament Narratives Ethically (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000), 119-27]) notes that the following
characteristics call into question Gideon's effectiveness as Israel's deliverer:
(a) his cynicism (6:13); (b) his demand for a sign (6:17); (c) the Baal shrine
at the family house (6:25; the father calls him Jerubbaal-"let Baal prove
himself to be great"-a name a worshiper of Baal would give to his child to honor
the deity [6:32]); (d) his fanatical pro-Baal neighbors (6:30), (e) his
reluctance to fight Midian despite being clothed with the Spirit (7:9-10); ( f )
his continued fear (7:9-10); (g) his appeal to the tribes to attack Midian when
victory had been promised to the three hundred (7:7, 23); (h) the nonmention of
Yahweh's involvement in chapter 8, except in flippant asides (8:7, 19, 23); (i)
his ruthlessness towards Succoth and Penuel (8:16-17); ( j) his vendetta
against Zebah and Zalmunna (8:19); and (k) his demand that his young son slay
them (8:20-1). We could add that after his victory, he makes Baal-berith, the
god of Shechem, the god for Israel (8:33). He also takes a Canaanite concubine.
The ephod he makes sounds very much like the snare of the golden calf (8:27).
However, in all this, we can be heartened by God's using frail human beings to
bring about His purposes.
Regarding Solomon, the biblical narrator uses irony concerning Solomon's leadership as from the outset of his reign he violates the three Deuteronomistic prohibitions for the king (Deut. 17:14-20): marrying Pharaoh's daughter (1 Kings 3:1) and other foreign wives (11:1-8); accumulating (chariot) horses (10:26); accumulating silver and gold (10:27). By marrying Pharaoh's daughter and making an alliance with Egypt, he further violates the Deuteronomistic warning to avoid any dealings with Egypt (Deut. 17:16). Finally, he also worships at the high places (3:2-4) even though the tabernacle is in Jerusalem. See J. Daniel Hays, "Has the Narrator Come to Praise Solomon or to Bury Him? Narrative Subtlety in 1 Kings 1-11" Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 28 (2003): 149-74.
[37]. Goldingay, Approaches to Old Testament
Interpretation, 63-4.
[38]. Bruce C. Birch, "Old Testament Ethics," in
The
Blackwell Companion to the Hebrew Bible, ed. Leo G. Purdue (Oxford: Blackwell,
2001), 297.
[39]. Note too that common ANE worship
patterns-sacrifices, priesthood, holy mountains/places, festivals, purification
rites, rituals-are found in the Law of Moses. Yahweh, however, takes traditional
worship forms familiar to Israel and infuses them with new meaning and
significance in light of his salvation-historical acts and covenant relationship
with Israel. See Allen P. Ross, Holiness to the Lord (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2006).
[40]. Alden Thompson, Who's Afraid of the Old Testament
God? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1988), 33.
[41]. Ibid., 32.
[42]. Ibid., 33-42.
[43]. Birch, Let Justice Roll Down, 43.
[44]. John Goldingay, Theological Diversity and the
Authority of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987), chap. 5.
[45]. Some comments here taken from Joe M. Sprinkle,
Biblical Law and Its Relevance (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004),
chap. 3.
[46]. Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs:
Chapters 1-15, New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), 21-4, 65-7: "Proverbs' similarity to pagan literature is part
and parcel of Scripture's incarnation within its historical milieu. Its
theological significance does not depend on the originality of its individual
sentences or sayings any more than the theological significance of the so-called
Book of the Covenant (Exodus 21-23) rests on the originality of its individual
commandments" (66). Waltke notes how Proverbs utilizes general revelation
(various Egyptian wisdom sayings), but Proverbs names the covenant God who can
be known and in whom true wisdom is anchored (66).
[47]. Peter C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, New
International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
1976), 22-37.
[48]. Barton, Understanding Old Testament Ethics, 168.
Barton adds that the OT is unique in that death penalty for murder applies
regardless of the status or nationality of the victim.
[49]. Christopher J. H. Wright, Walking in the Ways of
the Lord (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1995), 124.
[50]. Muhammad A. Dandamayev, "Slavery (Old
Testament)," in Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 6, ed. David Noel Freedman (New
York: Doubleday, 1992), 65.
[51]. All references to ANE legal texts are taken from
William W. Hallo, ed., The Context of Scripture, vol. 2, Monumental Inscriptions
from the Biblical World (Leiden: Brill, 2003); Martha T. Roth, Law
Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, 2nd ed. (Atlanta: Scholars, 1997). A fine
summary about crimes and punishments related to women is Elisabeth Meier Tetlow,
Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society, vol. 1, The Ancient
Near East (New York: Continuum 2004).
[52]. The Code of Hammurabi also makes provision for
manumission. Some of my discussion here is taken from William J. Webb, "A
Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic," in Discovering Biblical Equality, ed. Ronald
W. Pierce and Rebecca Merrill Groothuis (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2005).
[53]. Gordon McConville, Grace in the End: A Study in Deuteronomic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993), 148.
[54]. Hittite law did not, however, permit sexual
relations with a cow or sheep or pig or dog (¶¶187, 188, 199).
[55]. Paul Johnson, Art: A New History (New York:
HarperCollins, 2003), 33.
[56]. Parry, Old Testament Story, 68.
[57]. On the surface, Deuteronomy 25:11-12 appears to
suggest that a woman's hand must be cut off if she seizes the genitals of the
man who is in a fight with her husband. If such a reading is correct, it would
be the only biblical instance of punishment by mutilation; such would be the
penalty, not simply for acting shamefully and humiliating the man, but also for
her permanently damaging the man's private parts such that he could never father
children (thus, P. C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy, New International
Commentary on the Old Testament [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976], 315-16).
However, a more plausible interpretation comes from Jerome T. Walsh. He
makes an excellent case for depilation-"you shall shave [the hair of] her
groin"-not mutilation. For instance the word translated "hand" here is
kaph-the
"palm" of a hand or some rounded concavity such as a dish, bowl, or spoon or
even the arch of a foot-rather than the commonly-used yad ("hand"). To
"cut off" a "palm"-as opposed to a hand-would be quite odd. Furthermore,
the verb qasas in the intensified piel form (ten occurrences) is rightly
translated "cut off" or "[physically] sever." However, here
qasas appears
in the milder qal form. Three other OT occurrences of qasas in the qal form mean
"cut/shave [hair]." In our case, this would be the open concave region of the
groin, and thus a shaving of pubic hair-a punishment of public humiliation not
unusual in the ANE. (This form of humiliation is implied in 1 Sam. 10:4-5 [where
"beards" is probably a euphemism for pubic hair]; cp. Isa. 3:17; 20:4; 20:4;
Ezek. 16:37). Thus, the talionic punishment is public sexual humiliation (of the
woman) for public sexual humiliation (of the man). See "You Shall Cut Off
Her . . . Palm? A Reexamination of Deuteronomy 25:11-12,"
Journal of Semitic
Studies 49 (2004): 47-8; also, Richard M. Davidson, Flame of Yahweh: Sexuality
in the Old Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2007), 476-80.
[58]. Tetlow, Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient
Law and Society, 12-13, 96-7, 136.
[59]. David Lorton, "The Treatment of Criminals in
Ancient Egypt," in The Treatment of Criminals in the Ancient Near East, ed. Jack
M. Sasson (Leiden: Brill, 1977), 1-64; see e.g., 25.
[60]. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, ed.
Donald B. Redford, s.v. "Crime and Punishment" (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2001), 1:318.
[61]. Johannes Renger, "Wrongdoing and Its Sanctions:
On 'Criminal' and 'Civil' Law in the Old Babylonian Period," in The Treatment of
Criminals in the Ancient Near East, ed. Jack M. Sasson (Leiden: Brill, 1977),
72; see also Christopher J. Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004), 310.
[62]. Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A
Critical, Theological Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974), 93.
[63]. Tacitus Annals 3.27 (or "laws were most numerous
when the Republic was most corrupt").
[64]. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative, 46-59;
see also Sailhamer, Introduction to Theology, 272-89.
[65]. Chart adapted from Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as
Narrative, 47.
[66]. This section slightly adapts from Goldingay,
Theological Diversity and the Authority of the Old Testament, chap. 3.
[67]. Gordon Wenham, Exploring the Old Testament: A
Guide to the Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 137.
[68]. Christopher Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the
People of God, 474-5; Iain Provan, V. Philips Long, Tremper Longman III,
A Biblical History of Israel (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 149.
[69]. Charles Taliaferro, Contemporary Philosophy of
Religion (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998), 317.
[70]. Goldingay, Theological Diversity, 85. Goldingay
goes on to talk about the next stage of the judges and monarchy: "being an
institutional state means that God starts with his people where they are; if
they cannot cope with his highest way, he carves out a lower one. When they do
not respond to the spirit of Yahweh or when all sorts of spirits lead them into
anarchy, he provides them with the institutional safeguard of earthly rulers"
(86).
[71]. Goldingay, Theological Diversity, chap. 5.
[72]. Keeping and doing Yahweh's commandments is "your
wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all
these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people.' For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the
Lord our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has
statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before
you today?" (Deut. 4:5-8).
[73]. Wenham, Story as Torah, 80. Some comments below
taken from Wenham.
[74]. Other male-favoring double standards exist: Males
can initiate divorce, not women (Deut. 24:1-4; this changes in the NT [e.g.,
Mark 10:12; 1 Cor. 7:10-13]); women were expected to be virgins on their wedding
day, though not necessarily men (Deut. 22:13-19).
[75]. Wenham, Story as Torah, 86.
[76]. E.g., Lamech (Gen. 4:19-24); Abraham's taking
Hagar; Jacob.
[77]. Wenham, Story as Torah, 86-7.
[78]. Ibid., 104; Barton, Understanding Old Testament
Ethics, 29-30; see also Parry, Old Testament Story, 65-6.
[79]. Cp. Judah's hypocritical infidelity (Gen.
38:20-3); Job's covenant with his eyes (Job 31:1; cp. 31:10); Mal. 2:16.
[80]. William J. Webb, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2001), 41-3. Another example of such a
progression is from the death penalty for sexually promiscuous acts for OT
Israel to the parallel of excommunication from the church in the NT (1 Cor.
5:1-3) (Webb, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals, 42-3).
[81]. Goldingay, Approaches to Old Testament
Interpretation, 60.
[82]. Webb makes this point in his Slaves, Women, and
Homosexuals.
[83]. McConville, Grace in the End, 148-9.
[84]. Christopher Wright, "Response to Gordon
McConville," in Canon and Biblical Interpretation, ed. Craig Bartholomew, et al.
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 283. See Wright's fuller explanation in
this chapter.
[85]. Parry, Old Testament Story, 68.
[86]. Gordon McConville, "Old Testament Laws and
Canonical Intentionality," in Canon and Biblical Interpretation, ed. Craig
Bartholomew, et al. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 263.
[87]. Wenham, Story as Torah, 81. Interestingly, the
last commandment of the Decalogue ("You shall not covet") directs our ethical
perspective in the direction of the heart's dispositions and intentions-beyond
property/theft laws.
[88]. Goldingay, Theological Diversity, 163.
[89]. Ibid., 153-4.
[90]. Brevard S. Childs, Biblical Theology of the Old
and New Testaments: Theological Reflection on the Christian Bible (Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1993), 678-84.
[91]. Birch, Let Justice Roll Down, 131.
[92]. Wright, Old Testament Ethics, 300. Wright uses a
three-fold paradigmatic approach to ethics-namely, the theological (God), the
social (Israel), and the economic (land).
[93]. Mignon R. Jacobs, "Toward an Old Testament
Theology Concern for the Underprivileged," in Reading the Hebrew Bible for the
New Millennium: Form, Concept, and Theological Perspective, vol. 1, Theological
and Hermeneutical Studies, Studies in Antiquity and Christianity, ed. Wonil Kim,
et al. (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000), 205-29.
[94]. N. T. Wright, Climax of the Covenant
(Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 181.
[95]. Parry, Old Testament Story, 78.
[96]. Goldingay points out that the OT tension of God's
revealed ideals in the midst of fallen human culture is instructive for
Christians who find themselves in the already/not-yet tensions of a realized
eschatology (Approaches to Old Testament Interpretation, 62).
[97]. Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian
View of Life (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 132-3.
[98]. Richard Dawkins, A Devil's Chaplain (Boston:
Houghton and Mifflin, 2003), 34.
[99]. Alvin J. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the
World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004); Jonathan Hill, What Has Christianity
Ever Done For Us? How It Shaped the Modern World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2005); Dinesh D'Souza,
What's So Great about Christianity?
(Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 2007); and Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason
(New York: Random House, 2006).
[100]. Michael Foster, "The Christian Doctrine of
Creation and the Rise of Modern Science," Mind 43 (1934): 446-68; "Christian
Theology and the Rise of Modern Science," part 1, Mind 44 (1935): 439-83, and
part 2, Mind 45 (1936): 1-27; Stanley L. Jaki, The Savior of Science
(Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 1988); Stanley L. Jaki, The Road of Science
and the Ways to God (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978); Christopher
Kaiser, Creation and the History of Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1981);
A. R. Hall, The Scientific Revolution, 1500-1800: The Formation of the Modern
Scientific Attitude (Boston: Beacon, 1954).
[101]. Paul Davies, Are We Alone? (New York: Basic
Books, 1995), 96.
[102]. Dinesh D'Souza, "Atheism, Not Religion, Is the
Real Force Behind the Mass Murders of History," Christian Science Monitor,
November 21, 2007, http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1121/p09s01-coop.html (accessed
Nov. 25, 2007).
[103]. I have attempted to make such a case: Paul
Copan, "The Moral Argument," in The Rationality of Theism, ed. Paul Copan and
Paul K. Moser (London: Routledge, 2003); "The Moral Argument," in The Routledge
Companion to Philosophy of Religion, ed. Chad Meister and Paul Copan (London: Routledge, 2007); "The Moral Argument," in
Philosophy of Religion: Classic and
Contemporary Issues (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007). See also John M. Rist, Real
Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Gordon Graham, Evil and
Christian Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Robert M. Adams,
Infinite and Finite Goods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
[104]. See Os Guinness and John Seel, No God But God
(Chicago: Moody, 1992).
[105]. See, e.g., R. T. France, "Old Testament
Prophecy and the Future of Israel: A Study of the Teaching of Jesus," Tyndale
Bulletin 26 (1975): 53-78; Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism: Road-map to
Armageddon? (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004).
[106]. I am grateful for the suggestions and comments
of an anonymous referee, which helped strengthen-and lengthen!-this essay.