God, evil and moralityDraft · awaiting advisor review
What about the violence in the Old Testament?
In short
The Old Testament records wars, including commands to destroy Canaanite cities, that are deeply troubling. Christians read them as particular judgements at one moment in history, not a pattern for any later time, and in the light of Jesus, who taught love of enemies. Christians differ on how literally to read the conquest accounts.
The Objection
The God of the Old Testament commands his people to destroy whole populations, men, women and children (Deuteronomy 7, Joshua 6, 1 Samuel 15). Such texts have been used to justify violence ever since. A good God couldn’t command that.
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Scripture
The conquest is presented as judgement on nations that practised child sacrifice and other evils, held back for generations, and the Bible warns that Israel would be judged the same way if it did the same, as it later was.
- Historical evidence
Ancient war reports used sweeping, stock language of total victory: the Mesha Stele, for example, claims that Israel “perished for ever”. Many scholars think the Bible’s language of utter destruction works the same way, and the same books record many Canaanites still living in the land afterwards.
- Scripture
The commands were tied to one time and place; nothing in the Bible makes them a model for later wars. Israel’s law also commanded love and care for foreigners.
- Scripture
Jesus taught love of enemies, refused violence in his own defence, and took judgement on himself.
- Christians differ
Christians read these texts in different ways: some hold that the commands were literal and just, as divine judgement; some read the language as exaggeration for driving people out rather than killing them; some see in them Israel’s limited understanding, corrected in Christ. The last view is the most disputed, because it sets parts of Scripture against others.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
None of these readings makes the texts comfortable, and the “stock language” reading doesn’t explain every passage; 1 Samuel 15 is very specific. This is one of the hardest questions in the Christian faith, and honest Christians say so.
Arguments to Avoid
- Defending the texts glibly, as if the deaths of children were not troubling.
- Using these passages to justify any war or violence today.
- Saying the God of the Old Testament is a different God from the God of Jesus: the church rejected that idea (Marcionism) in the second century.
Read for Yourself
Deuteronomy 7:1–2
1When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; 2And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
Deuteronomy 9:4–6
4Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee. 5Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
Matthew 5:43–45
43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Related Finds
Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone)
c. 840 BC · Found: Dhiban, Jordan, 1868
Louvre, Paris
King Mesha of Moab’s account of throwing off Israelite rule.
What it shows
Moab’s revolt after Ahab’s death, naming Omri king of Israel and the God of Israel, YHWH.
What it doesn’t show
It tells Mesha’s side, as a Moabite victory. A possible reading “house of David” in one damaged line is debated.
Further Reading
- Is God a Moral Monster? · Paul Copan (2011)
- Did God Really Command Genocide? · Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan (2014)
- The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest · John H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton (2017)
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
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