Did God command genocide within the Outdated Testomony? Be part of Kirk E. Miller and Tremper Longman as they look at the Canaanite conquest recorded in Deuteronomy and Joshua. Uncover how you can tackle the ethical and theological issues raised by these texts, together with divine judgment, violence, and the query of non secular warfare. Learn the way these accounts match into God’s plan and how you can educate these passages successfully as we speak.
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Episode visitor: Tremper Longman
Dr. Tremper Longman III (BA, Ohio Wesleyan College; MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary; MPhil and PhD, Yale College) is distinguished scholar and professor emeritus of biblical research at Westmont School.
He has written over thirty-five books, together with commentaries on Genesis, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Daniel, Nahum, and Revelation. His most up-to-date books embody Confronting Old Testament Controversies: Pressing Questions About Evolution, Sexuality, History and Violence and Revelation Through Old Testament Eyes. He’s additionally senior translator of the New Living Translation.
He’s married to Alice and has three sons and 7 granddaughters, and a grandson. He and Alice now stay in Alexandria, VA.
Episode synopsis
The issue of the Canaan conquest
This episode discusses God’s command for the Israelites to commit acts of violence within the Outdated Testomony, particularly the Canaanite conquests. Kirk E. Miller begins by introducing pattern texts and articulating the moral difficulties their elevate.
Early interpretations
Some premodern interpreters strategy the bodily warfare within the Outdated Testomony allegorically. Others, stressing a lot stronger continuity, as soon as considered Outdated Testomony warfare as a template for up to date warfare. Each views at the moment are largely discredited.
Advocates of sturdy discontinuity
Sure fashionable views emphasize a powerful discontinuity between the Outdated and New Testomony depictions of God. Greg Boyd’s Crucifixion of the Warrior God and Peter Enns’, as an illustration, counsel that the violent depictions of God within the Outdated Testomony should not true representations of the divine character.
Critique of sturdy discontinuity
Kirk and Tremper Longman, nevertheless, level to the dearth of consistency, arguing in opposition to cherry-picking passages and making use of Jesus’s mannequin solely by the lens of the cross. Theological issues additionally come up, as some interpretations danger compromising the doctrine of Scripture.
Warfare developed throughout Scripture
Tremper advocates for a view that comes with each continuity and discontinuity in how God’s warfare is depicted all through the Bible. He identifies 5 phases of divine warfare from Genesis to Revelation, illustrating how these phases developed over time.
Dedicated to destruction (חרם, herem)
The time period חרם (herem), typically translated as “dedicated to destruction,” has vital theological implications past an easy command for extermination. Tremper offers perception into how this time period needs to be understood inside its biblical and cultural context. The morality of those instructions can also be explored, contemplating the moral dilemma posed by divine directions for violence.
Evaluating hyperbole and historic realities
Historical Close to Jap battle experiences, together with these discovered within the Bible, often make use of hyperbolic language. Kirk and Tremper focus on the potential of accounts, akin to in Joshua, the place victory language is probably not supposed as a literal, complete destruction. Regardless of statements indicating full annihilation, the presence of Canaanite descendants after these occasions might counsel a extra nuanced historic actuality.
The goodness of divine judgment
Tremper offers Miroslav Volf’s perspective on divine wrath based mostly on his experiences in war-torn Yugoslavia, arguing that God’s judgment is important within the face of profound evil. Tremper emphasizes that divine judgment needs to be understood as an integral side of God’s love and justice quite than as an arbitrary act of violence. Tremper additionally notes that the Outdated Testomony’s accounts of divine warfare can function a place to begin for deeper discussions about the gospel.
Framing the conquest correctly
Kirk and Tremper focus on the Bible’s depiction of divinely commanded violence framed inside an moral context, portraying it as justice quite than arbitrary killing. The Canaanite conquest is in comparison with different biblical judgments, highlighting the continuities between Outdated and New Testomony narratives.
Sensible recommendation for educating and making use of as we speak
A complete biblical–theological framework, accounting for development across the canon, is important for educating about divine warfare. Academics can emphasize the spiritual nature of Christian warfare as we speak because it consists in resisting evil, not acts of bodily violence. Additionally it is essential to distinguish between historic divine instructions and any makes an attempt to use them to fashionable conditions, guaranteeing that these texts are not misused.
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