EPS Article Library
Yahweh Wars and the Canaanites
References
[1] Abstract: The divine command to kill the
Canaanites is the most problematic of all Old Testament ethical issues. This
article responds to challenges raised by Wes Morriston and Randal Rauser. It
argues that biblical and extrabiblical evidence suggests that the Canaanites
who were killed were combatants rather than noncombatants ("Scenario 1") and
that, given the profound moral corruption of Canaan, this divinely-directed
act was just. Even if it turns out that noncombatants were directly targeted
("Scenario 2"), the overarching Old Testament narrative is directed toward the
salvation of all nations–including the Canaanites.
- Paul Copan, "Is Yahweh a Moral Monster? The New Atheists and Old Testament Ethics," Philosophia Christi 10 (2008): 7–37; Wesley Morriston, "Did God Command Genocide? A Challenge to the Biblical Inerrantist," Philosophia Christi 11 (2009): 7–26; and Randal Rauser, "‘Let Nothing that Breathes Remain Alive': On the Problem of Divinely Commanded Genocide," Philosophia Christi 11 (2009): 27–41.
[2]. Joseph A. Buijs, "Atheism and the Argument from Harm,"
Philosophia Christi 11 (2009): 42–52, and Clay Jones, "We Don't
Hate Sin So We Don't Understand What Happened to the Canaanites: An Addendum
to 'Divine Genocide' Arguments," Philosophia Christi 11 (2009): 53–72.
[3]. Morriston, "Did God Command Genocide?" 25.
[4]. Thanks to John Goldingay, who sent me a draft
of chap. 5 ("City and Nation") from his forthcoming third volume, Old Testament
Theology, vol. 3 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2009). Any unreferenced
quotations from Goldingay are taken from this work.
[5]. See Meredith Kline, The Structure of Biblical
Authority (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1997), 158.
[6]. See historian Stephen J. Keillor's suggestive
book, God's Judgments: Interpreting History and the Christian Faith
(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007).
[7]. Morriston, "Did God Command Genocide?" 25.
[8]. Ibid.
[9]. Christopher Wright, The God I Don't Understand
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 93.
[10]. Appendix to The Abolition of Man,
by C. S. Lewis (1944; San Francisco: Harper, 2001).
[11]. Richard S. Hess, Joshua: An Introduction
and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity,
1996), 146–7; also, Aaron Sherwood, "A Leader's Misleading and a Prostitute's
Profession: A Re-examination of Joshua 2," Journal for the Study of the
Old Testament 31 (2006): 43–61.
[12]. Morriston, "Did God Command Genocide?" 14.
[13]. Hess, Joshua, 48, 49, 146. Furthermore,
Deut. 20:10–11 offers peace with servitude for the fortified towns that do not
resist Israel.
[14]. Rauser, "‘Let Nothing that Breathes Remain
Alive,'" 32.
[15]. Michael Shermer, The Science of Good and
Evil (New York: Henry Holt, 2004), 39–40.
[16]. Goldingay, "City and Nation."
[17]. Wright, The God I Don't Understand,
92.
[18]. Ibid., 102. Cp. Josh. 16:53; 2 Sam. 5:6–10.
Wright says that the Jebusites moved from the "hit list" to the "home list"–an
indication that these enemy nations could be incorporated into God's people.
[19]. Nicholai Winther-Nielsen, A Functional
Discourse Grammar of Joshua: A Computer-Assisted Rhetorical Structure Analysis,
Coniectanea Biblical Old Testament Series (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell,
1995). This work points out that the textually-unified book of Joshua emphasizes
the presence and significance of theological and cultic themes (e.g., Rahab's
faith, the priestly role in the Jordan crossing).
[20]. Susan Niditch, War in the Hebrew Bible:
A Study in the Ethics of Violence (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993),
45, 46.
[21]. Richard S. Hess, "War in the Hebrew Bible:
An Overview," in War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century,
ed. Richard S. Hess and Elmer A. Martens (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2008),
25.
[22]. Hess, "War in the Hebrew Bible," 29.
[23]. Iain W. Provan, 1 and 2 Kings, New
International Biblical Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995), 186.
[24]. See Baruch Margalit, "Why King Mesha Sacrificed
His Oldest Son," Biblical Archaeology Review 12, no. 6 (1986): 62–3.
[25]. John J. Bimson, "1 and 2 Kings," in The
New Bible Commentary, 4th ed., ed.Gordon Wenham, et al. (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity, 1994), 365; see also T. R. Hobbs, 2 Kings, Word Biblical
Commentary (Waco, TX: Thomas Nelson, 1986), 38.
[26]. Anson Rainey in The Sacred Bridge: Carta's
Atlas of the Biblical World, ed. Anson Rainey and R. Steven Notley(Jerusalem:
Carta, 2006), 205.
[27]. E.g., John Sailhamer, The NIV Compact Bible
Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 211.
[28]. Gordon J. Wenham, Story as Torah (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000), 63; David Janzen, "Why the Deuteronomist
Told the Sacrifice of Jephthah's Daughter," Journal for the Study of the
Old Testament 29 (2005): 339–57.
[29]. Wenham, Story as Torah, 60.
[30]. Goldingay, "City and Nation."
[31]. See also Wright, The God I Don't Understand,
88. Furthermore, Gordon McConville observes that Joshua reveals not "a simple
conquest model, but rather a mixed picture of success and failure, sudden victory
and slow, compromised progress" ("Joshua," in Oxford Bible Commentary,
ed. J. Barton and J. Muddiman [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001], 159).
[32]. Goldingay, "City and Nation."
[33]. See Hess, "War in the Hebrew Bible," and Hess,
Joshua.
[34]. For a fine overview of a range of related questions,
see Richard S. Hess, "Early Israel in Canaan: A Survey of Recent Evidence and
Interpretations," Palestinian Exploration Quarterly 125 (1993): 125–42.
[35]. Hess, "War in the Hebrew Bible," 25.
[36]. For instance, Gordon Mitchell mentions a certain
flexibility regarding how Joshua understands herem (e.g., Rahab, the
Gibeonites, and others are spared) (Together in the Land: A Reading of the
Book of Joshua [Sheffield, England: JSOT, 1993]).
[37]. Hess, "Jericho and Ai," 39. By "stereotypical,"
Hess says that herem with its attendant "all"-languageinvolves not
an exaggeration (which we do see in the hyperbolized "totally destroyed"
and "everything that breathes" language), but a "means of describing something
by detailing a ‘checklist' of what it could include (but not necessarily must
include in every case). So the terms (and these are the only ones in Joshua)
‘men and women' (6:21; 8:25) and ‘young and old' (6:21) need not require that
there really were children, senior citizens, or women there who were put to
death" (Hess, personal correspondence, April 5, 2009).
[38]. On the exaggeration of numbers in the ANE/OT,
see Daniel M. Fouts, "A Defense of the Hyperbolic Interpretation of Numbers
in the Old Testament," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
40 (1997): 377–87. In military contexts in the Bible, ‘eleph (the Hebrew
word for "thousand") can also mean "unit" or "squad."
[39]. Richard S. Hess, "The Jericho and Ai of the
Book of Joshua," in Critical Issues in Early Israelite History, ed.
Richard S. Hess, Gerald A. Klingbeil, and Paul J. Ray Jr. (Winona Lake, IN:
Eisenbrauns, 2008), 46.
[40]. Canaan was comprised of towns and city-states–smaller
versions of roughly contemporary cities such as Ugarit. The Amarna letters also
show that citadel cities/fortresses such as Jerusalem and Shechem were distinct
from (and under the control of) their population centers. Such cities could
form military coalitions as well as cooperate politically (cp. Josh. 10–11).
Archaeological evidence (such as the Amarna letters) reveals that these were
not population centers but often fortresses or citadels (e.g., Rabbah in 2 Sam.
12:26; Zion in 2 Sam. 5:7; 1 Chron. 11:5, 7). Evidence of a civilian population
at, say, Ai is lacking (e.g., no prestige ceramics or artifacts). The same can
be said for Jericho, which happened to be strategically located at the junction
of three roads leading to Jerusalem, Bethel, and Orpah in the hill country (Richard
Hess, personal correspondence, April 5, 2009); see also Hess, "Jericho and Ai,"
33–46; and Hess, Joshua.
[41]. Hess, "Jericho and Ai," 29–30.
[42]. Ibid., 35, 42.
[43]. Ibid., 38, 39.
[44]. Richard Hess, personal correspondence, January
28, 2009.
[45]. Hess, Joshua, 91–2. See Hess's comments
here in light of Morriston's musings about the spies' visiting with a harlot.
Note the laws of Eshnunna regarding the role of innkeepers (§15, §41). See D.
J. Wiseman, "Rahab of Jericho," Tyndale Bulletin 14 (1964): 8–11.
[46]. Moshe Weinfeld, The Promise of the Land:
The Inheritance of the Land of Canaan by the Israelites (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1993), 141–3.
[47]. Hess, Joshua, 91–2; Richard Hess,
personal correspondence, April 3, 2009.
[48]. Hess, "War in the Hebrew Bible," 29.
[49]. Ibid.
[50]. See chap. 18 in Paul Copan, "That's Just
Your Interpretation": Responding to Skeptics Who Challenge Your Faith (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker, 2001).
[51]. Hess, "War in the Hebrew Bible," 30. Also,
though I shall not pursue this matter further, we should not forget that fighting
was simply a way of life and survival in the ANE.
[52]. See Glen Miller, "How Could a God of Love Order
the Massacre/Annihilation of the Canaanites?"
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qamorite.html.
[53]. Goldingay, "City and Nation"; also Hess, "War
in the Hebrew Bible," 30.
[54]. Hess, "War in the Hebrew Bible," 30.
[55]. What of the killing of the Amalekites in 1
Sam. 15? Verse 3 has similar sweeping language that we find in Deuteronomy and
Joshua: "man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." The
idea of lex talionis stands behind Yahweh's threat in response to
Amalek's attacking vulnerable Israel–not to mention its ongoing threat to Israel
thereafter (cp. Exod. 17:6–17; Deut. 25:17–19; Judg. 3:12–13): "I will punish
Amalek forwhat he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while
he was coming up from Egypt" (15:2). Even so, we are not told whether the Amalekites
against whom Saul was to fight were noncombatants or combatants. In any case,
the "utterly destroyed" Amalekites show up again in 1 Sam. 30! According to
Hess, they could simply be combatants (personal correspondence, February 26,
2009). Thanks to Bill Craig as well for discussion on this point.
[56]. See Paul Copan, When God Goes to Starbucks:
A Guide to Everyday Apologetics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2008), chap.
12; see also chapters 13–14.
[57]. Goldingay, "City and Nation."
[58]. God tells the Israelites that they will not
quickly drive out the nations from their presence, which would and leave the
land empty (Deut. 7:22); on the other hand, Israel's disobedience and idolatry
would further slow down the process and even prove to be a snare for
Israel (Josh. 23:12–13; Judg. 2:1–3).
[59]. I address the specific question of Abraham's
sacrifice of Isaac in "How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?" (Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker, 2005).
[60]. Buijs, "Atheism and the Argument from Harm,"
46.
[61]. Goldingay, "City and Nation."
[62]. For example, Karen Armstrong makes this Crusade-Canaanite
connection in her book, Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's
World (New York: Anchor, 2001).
[63]. Buijs, "Atheism and the Argument from Harm,"
48.
[64]. Lee made this statement during the Battle of
Fredericksburg in December 1862.
[65]. John Stott's response in David Edwards,
Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal-Evangelical Dialogue (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity, 1988), 263.
[66]. Rauser connects "bludgeoning babies" in Joshua
with Psalm 137:9. Rauser mistakenly reads too much in to the anguished cry of
the psalmist, which gives way to the metaphorical language of bashing
babies against the rocks. One commentator reminds us, "Biblical poetry, like
most poetry, employs graphic imagery to portray and express its ideas. . . .
This imagery [in Ps. 137:8–9] is no more intended to be taken literally than
elsewhere in the psalms where the psalmists speak of rivers clapping their hands
and mountains singing for joy" (Sailhamer, NIV Compact Bible Commentary,
346; on the idea that infants represented a potential threat to Israel during
the next generation, see John Goldingay, Psalms,vol. 3, Psalms
90–150 [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008], 609–10). Consider the
prophet Jeremiah, who had the thankless task of pleading with and warning God's
hard-hearted and hard-headed people. In one instance, Pashhur the priest–a spiritual
leader of the people!–had Jeremiah beaten and then placed in stocks (Jer. 20:1–2).
In his distress, Jeremiah appeared much like the psalmist: he not only cursed
the day he was born, but he cursed the messenger who announced his birth to
his father, wishing he could have remained in his mother's womb until he died
(Jer. 20:14–18). It is doubtful Jeremiah literally meant this. For
further elaboration on the imprecatory psalms, chap. 11 in Paul Copan, When
God Goes to Starbucks.
[67]. On this, see Paul Copan,
"Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?"
[68]. Paul K. Moser, The Elusive God: Reorienting
Religious Epistemology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 91–2.
[69]. The Hebrew word naqaph "circle, march
around" (Josh. 6:3) involves various ceremonial aspects in Josh. 6–including
rams' horns, sacred procession, shouting (cp. 2 Sam. 6:15–16; also 2 Kings
6:14; Ps. 48:12). This word has the sense of conducting an inspection to see
if the city would open its gates. Jericho, however, refused. Jericho, however,
refused to do so (Hess, Joshua, 142–3).
[70]. Perhaps one final comment on human sacrifice
is in order here. In another context in the NT, Paul speaks of God the Father,
who "did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all" (Rom. 8:32).
While God "sent" and "gave" his Son (John 3:16; 1 John 4:10), this giving is
not to be misconstrued as "divine child abuse." Jesus's self-sacrifice for
the redemption of human beings is not accomplished coercively but freely and
willingly (John 10:14–18; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:2, 25). God thus makes a selfless
provision for us by an act of self-sacrifice. Through this act, God
was "reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19)–an act in which God gives
his very self for the sake of humanity.
[71]. Paul K. Moser, "Divine Hiddenness, Death, and
Meaning," in Philosophy of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Issues
(Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), 221–2.
[72]. C. S. Lewis, "The Obstinacy of Belief," in
The World's Last Night (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1960),
25, 26, 27.
[73]. Thanks to Paul Moser for his comments on this
topic.
[74]. I am grateful to Tremper Longman for his wise
suggestions and to Rick Hess in particular for his helpful insights and detailed
comments on an earlier version of this essay.