One of the things which confuses many Christians is the apparent difference in the character of God in the Tanakh compared to the character of God in the Gospels.\u00a0 Early Christians were confronted with this problem, leading many would-be believers to dismiss the Tanakh. The problem is, of course, one of hermeneutics. How exactly are we to understand the Tanakh? What value are we to give to the texts themselves? Many Fathers produced a hierarchy of value for the books of the Tanakh, giving the historical texts, the ones which most often lead one to question the character of God, one of the lowest positions in canonical authority.[1]<\/a> They provided the experience of the people of Israel, but that experience was confused, as revelation was continuing to be provided for in the world, altering how God can and should be understood; it was only in Jesus that this process of revelation ended, and the whole character of God is revealed \u2013 to Israel first, but afterward, to the whole world. \u00a0Nonetheless, these books were seen as useful by the Church \u2013 but only if one interpreted them properly, that is, in the light of Christ. To follow what they teach as literal histories with demands affecting our way of life in the empirical world is to read the books wrong, according to the letter that kills and not the spirit which gives life (cf.\u00a0 2 Cor. 3:6). \u00a0St Maximus the Confessor made it clear, the Tanakh is to be seen as having value, but only so far as we see within it the prefiguration of the Gospel: \u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe grace of the New Testament is mysteriously hidden in the letter of the Old. This is why the Apostle says that the Law is spiritual. Thus the Law is rendered old and obsolete by the letter and becomes useless, unless it is made young and thoroughly active by the Spirit. For grace is completely free of old age.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n It is in this light we are to look to the genocidal wars portrayed in the Tanakh. We are not to take them on a literal level, and follow their example, making for great wars upon the plains of the earth. Jesus is the king of peace; as Christians we are called to follow the path of peace. How, then are we to understand them? Origen, in his homilies on Joshua, gives us the way: they prefigure the coming of Christ into the kingdom of God (our soul), where all that is evil and vile is to be destroyed so that the kingdom of God, which is within us, can be pure and holy. Joshua (or, rather, Jesus, as it is the same name) presents the entrance of the Lord into the kingdom, and shows us how the ways of sin are overcome. All those enemies of the human soul, all those devils which would like to lead us astray, will be confronted and destroyed; not one of them can remain in the world to wreck havoc upon it:<\/p>\n When that Israel that is according to the flesh read these same Scriptures before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, they understood nothing in them except wars and the shedding of blood, from which their spirits, too, were incited to excessive savageries and were always fed by wars and strife. But after the presence of my Lord Jesus Christ poured the peaceful light of knowledge into human hearts, since, according to the Apostle, he himself is \u2018our peace\u2019, he teaches us peace from this very reading of wars. For peace is returned to the soul if its own enemies \u2013 sins and vices \u2013 are expelled from it. And therefore, according to the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we indeed read these things, we also equip ourselves and are roused into battle, but against those enemies that \u2018proceed from the heart\u2019: obviously, \u2018evil thought, thefts, false testimony, slanders,\u2019 and other similar adversaries of the soul. Following what this Scripture sets forth, we try, if it can be done, not to leave behind any \u2018who may be saved or who may breathe.\u2019 For if we gain possession of these enemies, we shall fittingly also take possession of the \u2018airy authorities\u2019 and expel them from his kingdom, as they had gathered within us upon thrones of vices. [3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Origen says that if there was no spiritual value, no higher value,\u00a0 there would be no reason for such texts to remain in the Christian canon. \u201cUnless those physical wars bore the figure of spiritual wars, I do not think the books of Jewish history would ever have been handed down by the apostles to the disciples of Christ, who came to teach peace, so that they could be read in the churches.\u201d[4]<\/a> However, as Christians, we must remain Christians and interpret these texts worthily, so as not to come out of them with a false God. If the texts are purely literal, and must and can only be seen in that light, the Gnostics would be right in declaring that God to be false. However, they did not and do not interpret the text with the Spirit, and so misunderstand the value and meaning of these texts to their own detriment:<\/p>\n But Marcion and Valentinus and Basilides and the other heretics with them, since they refuse to understand these things in a manner worthy of the Holy Spirit, \u2018deviated from the faith and became devoted to many impieties,\u2019 bringing forth another God of the Law, both creator and judge of the world, who teaches a certain cruelty through these things that are written. For example, they are ordered to trample upon the necks of their enemies and to suspend from wood the kings of that land that they violently invade. [5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is a sad fact that many Christians have abandoned the path of the spirit, have neglected the spirit and turned their vision away from it and look only to the letter. Is it any wonder that they end up causing ruin upon the land with their wars? They claim to be following Christ, but how can they be, when Christ is the king of peace? They are right in saying we must overcome our enemies, but the enemies are within, not without:<\/p>\n Let us go forth to the war, so that we may subdue the chief city of this world, malice, and destroy the proud walls of sin. You look around, by chance, for the road you must take, which field of battle to seek after. Perhaps what I am about to say will seem strange to you, but nevertheless it is true: You require nothing from without, beyond your own self; within you is the battle that you are about to wage; on the inside is that evil edifice that must be overthrown; your enemy proceeds from your heart.[6]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Early Christians knew and understood Christ as demanding them to follow the path of peace. When they were confronted by Roman authorities seeking their deaths, they did not put up a fight, they did not seek rebellion (like the Jews). Rather, they declared themselves to be Christians and non-violently protested the evils of Rome, even if it cost them their lives. They knew the texts which later Christians would read as justifications for war, but they dismissed such readings. Time and time again, they died instead of fighting back; time and time again they showed their desire to act in love, in accordance with Christ, knowing that it is through such action that their real enemy, the demonic powers which held sway over the hearts of humanity, would be overcome. \u00a0And, when Rome was converted, what happened? The demonic powers were still being confronted; the desert became a city where monks openly waged an assault on the powers of evil. Many came out on top \u2013 the countless desert fathers and mothers who are honored as saints (Sts Anthony of Egypt, Moses the Ethiopian, Mary of Egypt, Paula, et. al.) \u2013 but the war continues, the spiritual warfare against evil and the path of death continues. We are called today to follow through and to become a holy one, to take charge and see the real enemy and confront it. We are to let no sin pass by us by. This is what the \u201cgenocides\u201d of the Tanakh mean spiritually \u2013 we are not to wage such war against fellow humanity, but rather, against the evil within, to let not one temptation thrive within:<\/p>\n You will read in the Holy Scriptures about the battles of the just ones, about the slaughter and carnage of murderers, and that the saints spare none of their deeply rooted enemies. If they do spare them, they are even charged with sin, just as Saul was charged because he had preserved the life of Agag king of Amalek. You should understand the wars of the just by the method I set forth above, that these wars are waged by them against sin. But how will the just ones endure if they reserve even a little bit of sin? [7]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n We cannot let even one little sin preserve within. How, then, can we allow the big sins, the ones which lead us to kill our fellow human, to destroy them and their humanity dignity, to remain within? We must repent and change our ways before it is too late. Repent, for Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Robert Hill, with his vast experience with Patristic commentaries, points out that for the Fathers, historians and the writers of wisdom books were seen as holding a different level of charism as the prophets: \u201cIt is not that wisdom, Sophia<\/em> (Latin sapientia<\/em>), was not of interest to the Fathers; they can be found frequently citing these books of the sages, sophoi<\/em>. By referring to the authors in this way, however, and not applying to them the usual term for Old Testament authors, proph\u00eatai<\/em>, it may be that they did not consider them to be the recipients of the charism of divine inspiration to the same extent as prophets and psalmists (just as mere historians likewise forfeit the term).\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Robert Charles Hill, trans. and ed., St John Chrysostom: Commentaries on the Sages Volume One. Commentary on Job<\/em> (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2006), 1-2.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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