{"id":15591,"date":"2020-02-24T05:10:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T09:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/?p=15591"},"modified":"2020-02-21T03:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T07:40:00","slug":"andy-judd-on-thinking-through-old-testament-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2020\/02\/andy-judd-on-thinking-through-old-testament-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Judd on Thinking Through Old Testament Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Over at TGC-Australia is a great article by my Ridley College colleague Andy Judd on Thinking Through Old Testament Violence.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

For me, reading the Old Testament through the lens of the cross reveals a God who is\u00a0anti<\/i>-violent, rather than\u00a0non<\/i>-violent. It is not in his nature to destroy, but to redeem. He is not bloodthirsty like the Canaanite gods, but nor will he sit by passively while evil takes over his world.\u00a0<\/span>God does not delight in the death of the wicked, but he is not above getting his hands dirty to win back his world. When he uses force it is as a last resort, a measured response to restrain wickedness. He destroys only ever with tears in his eyes, and with a view to future salvation.\u00a0<\/span>Christians do well to remember that most of us, as gentiles, belong on the Canaanite side of the story in Judges. We are living proof of the grand scope and glorious mercy of God\u2019s rescue mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do we work through a book as horrifically violent as Judges? Just as in Michael Rosen\u2019s classic children\u2019s story, I would say: \u201cwe can\u2019t go over it, we can\u2019t go under it, oh no! we have to go through it!\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>I would suggest that as Christians we cannot\u00a0simply reject<\/i>\u00a0the witness of scripture in the Old Testament. Jesus treated the Old Testament as the authoritative word of God, and so must we (Matthew 5:17<\/a>). It may be necessary to\u00a0re-interpret<\/i>\u00a0<\/b>the texts in context to understand exactly what is and isn\u2019t being commanded. We affirm that God is\u00a0right<\/i>\u00a0<\/b>in judging the world. Ultimately we need to\u00a0re-contextualise<\/i>\u00a0the violence in light of the cross of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Also recommended from me is a fairly new book by William Webb and Gordon Oeste on\u00a0Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric?\u00a0Wrestling with Troubling War Texts <\/em>from IVP<\/a>. I found this very helpful. According to the blurb:<\/p>\n

They address the ethics of reading biblical war texts today. Theirs is a biblical-theological reading with an eye to hermeneutical, ethical, canonical, and ancient cultural contexts. Identifying a spectrum of views on war texts ranging from \u201cno ethical problems\u201d to \u201cutterly repulsive,\u201d the authors pursue a middle path using a hermeneutic of\u00a0incremental, redemptive-movement ethics<\/em>.\u00a0 Instead of trying to force traditional Christian answers to fit contemporary questions, they argue, we must properly connect the traditional answers with the biblical storyline questions that were on the minds of Scripture\u2019s original readers. And there are indeed better answers to the ethical problems in the war texts. Woven throughout the Old Testament, a collection of antiwar and subversive war texts suggest that Yahweh\u2019s involvement in Israel\u2019s warfare required some degree of accommodation to people living in a fallen world. Yet, God\u2019s redemptive influence even within the ugliness of ancient warfare shouts loudly about a future hope\u2014a final battle fought with complete and untainted justice by Christ.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at TGC-Australia is a great article by my Ridley College colleague Andy Judd on Thinking Through Old Testament Violence. For me, reading the Old Testament through the lens of the cross reveals a God who is\u00a0anti-violent, rather than\u00a0non-violent. It is not in his nature to destroy, but to redeem. He is not bloodthirsty like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAndy Judd on Thinking Through Old Testament Violence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Over at TGC-Australia is a great article by my Ridley College colleague Andy Judd on Thinking Through Old Testament Violence. 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