This book presents four views on the “Canaanite genocide” reported in the book of Joshua. This has always posed something of an ethical dilemma for Christians, as the Israelites are commanded to leave no survivors in their conquest of certain cities. The four authors are said to all sit “squarely within the evangelical tradition”, and are tasked with explaining how we can make sense of such bloodthirsty texts in our Scriptures. This is particularly pertinent as in a post-9/11 world, many atheists are claiming that religion is irrevocably violent.
Each writer gets to make their case in an essay of around 30 pages, followed by brief responses from the other three writers.
Radical Discontinuity – C S Cowles
The first essay is the most combative. Cowles considers the Canaanite conquest to be sub-Christian and even “anti-Christian”. He views the God of the Old Testament as violent and vindictive, while the God of the New Testament, revealed in Christ is one of love. He therefore freely repudiates the Old Testament texts (it is not a “Christian message”) and claims there could never have been any legitimacy for these attrocities. What is surprising is not that he should be so horrified, but that while claiming to be evangelical he has such low regard for the Old Testament. He seems to be suggesting that Joshua was not hearing from God, but simply making up whatever he wanted to do in the situation. He claims to be following the line that Wesley took on these matters.
The responses to him are polite, with the other authors thanking him for being so frank and honest in his views. However, he is rightly criticised for effectively de-canonising the Old Testament, and also for conveniently ignoring the “violent” texts of the New Testament. It is not at all clear that Jesus saw himself in any way as opposed to the revelation of God in the Old Testament.
Moderate Discontinuity – Eugene Merrill
Merrill represents a dispensationalist postition and his essay falls into two parts. First he surveys all instances of what he terms “Yahweh war” – war sanctioned (and fought even) by Yahweh. Interestingly, he also sees the future battle of Armageddon as another example. His justification from Yahweh war also is strongly Scripture based – God displays his holiness and omnipotence, without contradicting his goodness and mercy. The true foe in the war is idolatry and false gods. While Cowles freely criticises Scripture, Merrill shows determination to accept it’s witness to God however uncomfortable it may be. Strangely, while highlighting lots of instances of “God hardening the hearts” of various enemies, Merrill sees this as a human action (as opposed to divine initiative) of hardening which brings the judgement of God.
Unsurprisingly, Cowles castigates him for defending the indefensible, while the other two authors are more receptive to his arguments. Gard suggests he has not properly considered why, given his argument, all nations should not deserve to be annihilated. Longman feels that he has ignored instances in the OT where God is said to be fighting on the side of Israel’s enemies and altogether ended up with to “neat” an explanation.
Eschatological Continuity – Daniel Gard
Gard begins by arguing that revelation occurs not only through Scripture but through the God who acts in history. He views the Canaanite genocide as an eschatological foreshadowing of the final judgement. Like Merrill, he draws on Von Rad’s work on “Holy War”, and briefly surveys the biblical evidence. He believes that there was also “reverse holy war” – God was sometimes responsible for the defeat of Israel rather than its victory, but reminds us that Israel was never fully destroyed.
He focuses particularly on the understanding of the writer of Chronicles, who foresaw a “new David” coming. He says that Israel could participate in the holy wars because they were simultaneously a political and theological entity – unlike the church who can never justify a war, although he does agree with the concept of “just war”. He concludes by focusing on the cross – the sacrifice to save us from wrath.
Cowles again responds with hostility, arguing that the surrounding nations were less barbarous than the Israelites, making mockery of any concept of judgement in their destruction. Merrill agrees in part with Gard although rejects his eschatology and doesn’t agree that God fighting against Israel counts as herem – Yahweh war. Longman agrees with Gard’s conclusions but not his argument.
Spiritual Continuity – Tremper Longman III
Longman starts by comparing the Joshua accounts to modern terrorists such as Bin Laden with their concepts of “sacred space” and “holy war”. He also admits that there is a very small radical fringe of Christianity who might claim justification of violent action (e.g. against abortionists) from passages such as this. However, despite this Longman warns that we cannot conveniently disavow the OT. He argues that the holy war was itself an expression of “worship”. It was not that God was an enemy to Israel’s enemies, but that they were to be an enemy to God’s enemies.
As with Merril and Gard, Longman goes through the accounts and features of holy war. He notes that the Bible does not understand herem as the destruction of innocents – and views it as a final punishment after great patience on God’s part. His main approach is to argue for five phases of holy war – starting with God fighting for Israel, then God fighting against Israel, but then moving on to Jesus fighting against spiritual powers and authorities. Jesus radically changed people’s expectations by failing to bring political revolution. The church is involved in its own herem, but it is a purely spiritual battle – not against flesh and blood. And the fifth phase is the final battle as depicted in Revelation.
Summary
Personally, I think this book suffered by having too many contributors. Merrill, Gard and Longman are obviously in broad agreement about the historicity and authority of the Old Testament, and cover much of the same ground when summarising the biblical material. Their differences are not really strong enough to make for interesting reading. It would have been better to have two very differing views (probably Cowles and Longman) and let them hammer it out.
All four contributors of course completely disavow any warmongering or violence by the church, so in that sense, the argument is simply over what we do with the uncomfortable parts of the Old Testament. The answer seems to be that what you make of those parts depends on your view of Scripture. And that in turn has a very big impact on what your view of God is. It is the same issue that is at stake in current debates over the nature of the atonement – can we accept the Biblical testimony to God’s anger against sin, or do we say that this is incompatible with love and therefore reject any Scripture that does not fit our understanding of who he is, losing large parts of both Old and New Testaments in the process?