Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide: Christian Interpretations of Herem Passages
Christian Hofreiter
Abstract
This book investigates the effective history of some of the most problematic passages in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament): passages involving the concept or practice of herem. These texts contain prima facie divine commands to commit genocide as well as descriptions of genocidal military campaigns commended by God. The book presents and analyses the solutions that Christian interpreters from antiquity until today have proposed to the concomitant moral and hermeneutical challenges. A number of ways in which the texts have been used to justify violence and war or to criticize Christianity are al ... More
This book investigates the effective history of some of the most problematic passages in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament): passages involving the concept or practice of herem. These texts contain prima facie divine commands to commit genocide as well as descriptions of genocidal military campaigns commended by God. The book presents and analyses the solutions that Christian interpreters from antiquity until today have proposed to the concomitant moral and hermeneutical challenges. A number of ways in which the texts have been used to justify violence and war or to criticize Christianity are also addressed. Apart from offering the most comprehensive presentation of the effective history (Wirkungsgeschichte) of herem texts to date, the book presents an analysis and critical evaluation of the theological and hermeneutical assumptions underlying each of the several approaches and their exegetical and practical consequences. The resulting taxonomy and hermeneutical map is an original contribution to the history of exegesis and to the study of religion and violence. It may also help Christian and other religious readers today make sense of these troubling biblical texts. Apart from an introduction and conclusion, this book contains four diachronic chapters in which the various exegetical approaches are set out: pre-critical (from the OT to the Apostolic Fathers), dissenting (Marcion and other ancient critics), figurative (from Origen to high medieval times), divine command ethics (from Augustine to Calvin) and violent (from Ambrose via the Crusades to Puritan North America). A fifth chapter presents near-contemporary reiterations and variations of the historic approaches.
Keywords:
apologetics,
biblical interpretation,
divine command theory,
genocide,
herem,
ban holy war,
Old Testament,
reception history,
religion and violence
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2018 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198810902 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2018 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198810902.001.0001 |