From the SelectedWorks of Jordan P Ballard Fall August 12, 2015 An Apologetic for the Canaanite Conquest (PPT).pdf Jordan P Ballard Available at: https://works.bepress.com/jordan_ballard/23/
Jordan P. Ballard
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
While it is clear that the wars were religious in character, were they holy? Did God s command and God s presence transform something essentially evil into a holy act? Can the ruthless requirement for the extermination of the enemy men, women, and children in any way be regarded as holy? I think that it can not!
What causes otherwise decent and loving people like the above commentators to defend genocide in God's name? A big part of the problem has to do with the assumption that faithfulness to Scripture means accepting everything it says unquestioningly.
No need to be afraid to attack and kill, because God will be right there with them making sure they come up winners... He will stand watch as they run their swords through every living thing in Canaan: men, boys, infants, someone's grandmother, or pregnant wife, and even livestock. God will be with the Israelites, pleased as they level town after town, deaf to screams and cries for mercy. This takes my breath away. It's enough to make you want to stop reading.
To be clear, my argument is not that God is evil for commanding genocide. I am not claiming to know better than God -- an accusation Christian apologists often make against Christians who hold my position. My contention is that God never did command the Israelites to slaughter the Canaanites wholesale. These accounts reflect a standard ideology that Israel shared with many of its ancient neighbors, and I read them as products of ancient culture, rather than products of pure divine revelation. Therefore, my claim is not that I know better than God, but that we all know better than those who wrongly killed women and children in God's name.
As a result, thousands of people are forced to flee the only lives they ve ever known, setting off into the desert with what they can carry. In extreme conditions like this, the handicapped, the sick, the widows, and the elderly, are most likely to be left behind, along with the occasional child who is separated from his/her desperate family. And what happens to these desperate folk on the margins of society who are left behind? They are to be hacked apart by the advancing Israelite armies. ~Randal Rauser The Tentative Apologist
! (1) God is the most perfect being there could be.! (2) Yahweh is God.! (3) Yahweh ordered people to commit genocide.! (4) Genocide is always a moral atrocity.! (5) A perfect being would not order people to commit a moral atrocity.! (6) Therefore, a perfect being would not order people to commit genocide (4,5).! (7) Therefore, Yahweh did not order people to commit genocide (1,2,6).
If we believe that Jesus is truly the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15), then we must resist all efforts to defend Old Testament genocidal commands as reflective of the will and character of God.
! My approach & background! Terminology: genocide, conquest, holy war, Yahweh war! Ethnic cleansing? It would be better termed moral cleansing or more specifically, long-awaited moral judgment on a wicked people whose time had finally come (Gen. 15:16). ~Copan
! The conquest was evil, but it did not actually happen. Apologetic: no harm, no foul; no problem except for a primitive, violent story (no casualties)
! The conquest was evil, and it did actually happen. Apologetic: Marcion, Origen, Accommodation
! The conquest was justified, and most of it happened as reported. Apologetic: The Canaanites were wicked, God is just, and God has the right to give and take human life (including children), but there were probably no children killed.
! The conquest was justified, and it happened as reported. Apologetic: The Canaanites were wicked, God is just, and God has the right to give and take human life (including children).
1. Understand the context. God s covenant with Abraham " Land " Great nation " Great name " Bless/Curse " Blessing to all nations A kingdom of priests & a holy nation " Exodus 19:5-6
1. Understand the context. The land of Canaan " The land belongs to the Lord (Lev 25:23). " The land had been promised to the patriarchs (Gen 12:7; 15:18-21; 17:8; 26:2-3; 28:13-15; 46:1-4; Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:31-33; 34:11-16). " The patriarchs had once occupied the land (Gen 13:12; 16:3; 23:20; 25:10-11; 26:6; 33:18-19; 37:1) and had even purchased some of the land (Gen 23:16-18; 25:10; 33:19; 50:13). The Israelites were repossessing the land. " The Israelites were not to take land from the Edomites, Moabites, or Ammonites (Deut 2). " The Israelites were later driven out of the land because of their own wickedness.
2. The Israelites had specific instructions for war. Exodus 23:20-33 " Drive out the other nations. " Smash their sacred stones. " Do not let them live in the land, or they will entice you to worship false gods. Deuteronomy 7:1-6 " Seven larger and stronger nations: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites " Make no treaty with them. " Do not intermarry with them. " Totally destroy them. " Break down their altars. " Smash their sacred stones. " Cut down their Asherah poles. " Burn their idols in the fire. " Israel was to be God s holy people.
Deuteronomy 20:10-18 " Distant cities get an offer of peace. If accepted, the people would be subject to forced labor. If rejected, then they were to kill the men and plunder the women and children and livestock for themselves. " The Canaanite cities were to be completely destroyed (Deut 20:16-18). Do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them Otherwise, they will lead Israel into idolatry.
Herem - to ban, devote, or destroy utterly " Common in the ANE " First used in Num 21:2-3 " Jericho (Josh 6:21), Ai (8:26), Makkedah (10:28), and Hazor (11:11) " Applied to the Amalekites (1 Sam 15) " Applied to the end-time enemies of God (Isa 34:2) " Any town which harbored idolaters (Deut 13:12-15) " Final word of the Old Testament (Mal 4:6) " No one devoted to destruction could be ransomed (Lev 27:28-29) " It was never imposed against Israel. " It was seldom implemented after the Conquest. Instigated and directed by the LORD Himself " Deuteronomy 9:4-6 " The hornet (Exod 23:28; Deut 7:20; Josh 24:12)
3. The Conquest happened as depicted in the book of Joshua. Contra Hess, Copan, Flannagan, Craig, Butler, Lamb, etc.
Dispossession vs. genocide " Response: The Conquest included both dispossession and extermination (Deut 33:27 Fortified cities, not any or many civilians " Response: This may be true in general, but Rahab asks that her mother, brothers, sisters, and all who belong to her siblings (i.e., children) be spared (see Josh 2:8-13). " No mention of noncombatants killed Response: What about all of the herem passages?
" Herem = hyperbolic war rhetoric Exaggeration is common in ANE military accounts. The phrase men and women in Joshua 8:25 is stereotypical and could include anyone, whether men or women. Response: God did not need to accommodate the exaggerations. Response: See 1 Sam 22:18-23 for an exception to this stereotype. Response: Deuteronomy 2:34 says that Sihon and the Amorites were completely destroyed (herem), including men, women, and children (see Num 21:21-35). There is no stereotypical construction in Deuteronomy 2:34 (cf. Deut 3:6). Response: The fact that the herem was even carried out against the animals (see 1 Sam 15) argues against the idea of stereotypical language.
" Canaanites still living after the conquest If Joshua fulfilled all of the commands given to Moses (Josh 22:2) to destroy the Canaanites (e.g., Josh 10:40; 11:12-15), yet there were still Canaanites living in the land afterwards, then the herem must have been hyperbolic. Response: Joshua did fulfill all of God s commands to Moses in that Joshua was faithful and obedient, but there was still work to be done in driving out the Canaanites (see Judg 1). It was a process. Response: The texts which speak of killing all of the Canaanites refer to the local battles (e.g., Jericho).
4. The Canaanites were extremely wicked. Hebrew: abomination Idolatry, sorcery, divination, witchcraft, adultery, incest, homosexuality, bestiality, child sacrifice Leviticus 18: the land will vomit them out
5. God s just and holy character necessitates the extermination of the Canaanites. God is holy and hates sin. For example, do we genuinely comprehend the depth of Canaanite sins? Do we understand the significance of God s having all but destroyed Israel for committing Canaanite sins? Could it be that because our culture today commits these same Canaanite sins we are inoculated against the seriousness of these sins and so think God's judgment unfair?... In short, most of our problems regarding God s ordering the destruction of the Canaanites comes from the fact that God hates sin but we do not. Clay Jones, We Don't Hate Sin So We Don't Understand What Happened to the Canaanites, Philosophia Christi 11, no. 1 (2009): 66
God is just and will not leave sin unpunished forever. " Example: Sodom & Gomorrah God does not enjoy punishing the wicked " Ezek 18:23; 33:11; cf. Jer 18:7-10 Imagine what would have happened if God had not exterminated the Canaanites.
6. The Canaanites had ample time to repent. Genesis 15:16 sins of the Amorites Exodus 12:40 430 years Rahab s report 40-year warning
7. Mercy was available for those who defected and for others. Rahab (Josh 2, 6) Gibeonites (Josh 9) Canaanite man (Judg 1:22-26) Kenites (1 Sam 15)
8. The Canaanites wanted to exterminate the Israelites. Either Israel had to fight or it faced extinction. ~Hess, Joshua, 675.
9. God has the right to give and take life (Deut 32:39; Job 1:21). God does not owe anyone life. Life is a gift that can be taken away at any time. God has the right to take life by whatever means He chooses. " Divine command theory of ethics: what God commands is right. " Saul was wrong to impose the herem on the Gibeonites (2 Sam 21) " A spiritual reason Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? ~Deuteronomy 4:34
10. God was justified in ordering the execution of all of the Canaanites, including the children.! God has the right to give and take life in order to bring about a greater good. Other examples in Scripture " The Flood (Gen 6-8) " Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:25) " The near sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22) " The firstborn in Egypt (Exod 11-12) " The rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Num 16) " Achan s family (Josh 7) " Plagues (Exod 32:35; Num 16:46-50 [14,700]; 25:9 [24,000]) " God allowed Satan to kill Job s (adult?) children (Job 1) " Deaths during the Assyrian invasion (see Hos 13:16; cf. Isa 10:5) " Plagues, famine, and catastrophes during the Great Tribulation (Rev 6-19)
Corporate solidarity Children who die before the age of accountability (Isa 7:16) go to heaven (2 Sam 12:23). If the Canaanite children were spared (cf. Deut 20:14), they may have retained the moral and spiritual corruption. Did the children die for the sins of their parents (Deut 24:16)? No.
11. Jesus approves of the Canaanite Conquest. Jesus is God the Son and is thus holy, righteous, and just. Jesus hates sin too (see Rev 2:6). Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save the world (John 3:17), but He will return to judge the world (John 5:22; 2 Tim 4:1). " The wrath of the Lamb (Rev 6:16) " The return of Christ in Revelation 19:11-16 Possible Christophany in Joshua 5:13-15
12. Question to skeptics and critics: What is the standard for judging God to be immoral for genocide?
! The Canaanite conquest is part of a larger narrative and must be understood in context.! God has the right to judge the wicked, to choose the instrument of judgment, and to give and take life as He deems fit.! The Conquest is sad because of human sinfulness, but it is not evil.! We learn from the Conquest that God hates sin and that we should fear the Lord and strive to obey the command to be holy even as He is holy (Lev 19:2; 1 Pet 1:15-16).! We are also reminded of the urgency to share the Gospels with others.
1. If God knew that the Canaanites were going to become even more depraved, why did he do nothing to intervene in their selfdestructive course? (Stark, 107) 2. Who deserved the punishment? At what point is the slaughter of children, infants, and the unborn fully deserved? (Stark, 108) 3. Did it just so happen that only the tribes living inside Israel's borders happened to be sufficiently wicked to annihilate, whereas it also just so happened that everybody outside those borders were only slightly wicked, but not enough to merit annihilation? If Yahweh wanted to use Israel to punish wicked nations, why did such a crusade conveniently terminate precisely at Israel's borders? (Stark, 108) 4. Did Yahweh abundantly love the Canaanites and the Egyptians? ~Lamb, God Behaving Badly, 39
Jordan P. Ballard