Making sense of Old Testament genocide : Christian interpretations of herem passages /

The divine commands to annihilate the seven nations living in Canaan (to 'devote them to destruction', herem in Biblical Hebrew) are perhaps the most morally troubling texts of the Hebrew and Christian bibles. 'Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide: Christian Interpretations of "Herem" Passages' ad...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Hofreiter, Christian, 1975- (Author)
Format:	Book
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018.
Edition:	First edition.
Series:	Oxford theology and religion monographs.
Subjects:	Bible. > Old Testament > Criticism, interpretation, etc. Bible. > Old Testament > Hermeneutics. Violence in the Bible. Genocide > Biblical teaching. Excommunication (Jewish law) Bible. > Old Testament. Bible. Hermeneutics. Genocide. Biblical teaching. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Summary:	The divine commands to annihilate the seven nations living in Canaan (to 'devote them to destruction', herem in Biblical Hebrew) are perhaps the most morally troubling texts of the Hebrew and Christian bibles. 'Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide: Christian Interpretations of "Herem" Passages' addreses the challenges these texts pose. It presents the various ways in which interpreters from the first century to the twenty-first have attempted to make sense of them. The most troubling approach was no doubt to read them as divine sanction and inspiration for violence and war: the analysis of the use of "herem" texts in the crusades, the inquisition, and various colonial conquests illustrates this violent way of reading the texts, which has such alarming contemporary relevance. Three additional approaches can also be traced to antiquity, viz. pre-critical, non-literal, and divine-command-theory readings. Finally, critics of Christianity from antiquity via the Enlightenment to today have referenced "herem" texts: their critical voices are included as well.