Matthew Curtis Fleischer - The Old Testament Case for Nonviolence

THE

OLD TESTAMENT

CASE FOR

NONVIOLENCE

Matthew Curtis Fleischer

Epic Octavius the Triumphant, LLC

Oklahoma City, OK

Copyright 2017 by Matthew Curtis Fleischer

Published by Epic Octavius the Triumphant, LLC

Oklahoma City, OK

First Edition 2018

ISBN 978-0-9994306-1-3 (eBook)

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact .

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scriptures marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the authors added emphasis.

Line editing by William Bernhardt.

Cover design by Steve Leard.

www.MatthewCurtisFleischer.com

For my God, whose will I seek.

VIOLENCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

At first glance, the situation isnt pretty. In fact, its downright ugly.

Sometimes God himself committed mass murder, once drowning to death every living thing on the face of the earth except for a handful of humans (Noah and his family) and a few hundred animals (Gen. 7:21-23). Later he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt and produced citywide wailing for there was not a house without someone dead (Exod. 12:29-30). On one occasion, he sent an angel to kill 185,000 people while they slept. On another, he rained down burning sulfur on two whole cities (Sodom and Gomorrah), killing everyone who lived in them (Gen. 19:24-26).

At other times God helped or commanded his followers to commit mass murder. In fact, the instances in which Israel destroyed a city and all its inhabitants in direct obedience to Gods instructions are too numerous to detail. The tenth chapter in the book of Joshua alone contains more than a dozen such examples.

God spared no one from his violence, In one fit of rage, God promised to grab those who disobeyed him and smash them one against the other, parents and children alike. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them (Jer. 13:14). His prophet Hosea warned his own people of the same punishment for disobedience: Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring (Hos. 9:12, 16). Likewise, when the people of Samaria had rebelled against him, he warned, They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open (Hos. 13:16). In a similar scene, Gods prophet Isaiah announced that the infants of their enemy Babylon will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated (Isa. 13:16). Their attackers will have no mercy on infants, nor will they look with compassion on children (Isa. 13:18).

God even promised he would cause his enemies, which broadly included anyone who disobeyed him, to cannibalize their own children. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one anothers flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them (Jer. 19:9). Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents (Ezek. 5:10). They will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine (Isa. 49:26). You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters (Lev. 26:29).

Mothers cannibalizing their own children? Seriously? Indeed, such abominations occurred. At least the prophet Jeremiah later lamented their occurrence.

On the other hand, unlike Jeremiah, other Old Testament (OT) writers rejoiced at the thought of such brutalities being inflicted upon their enemies: Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks (Ps. 137:8-9).

Furthermore, Gods violence often seemed arbitrary, petty, disproportionate, and vindictive. He killed seventy people merely for looking inside a box (the Ark of the Covenant) he had commanded them not to.

God also frequently demanded that his followers enthusiastically take part in his vengeance. He proclaimed, A curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lords work! A curse on anyone who keeps their sword from bloodshed! (Jer. 48:10). When one of his priests, Phinehas, drove a spear right through an idolater and into the stomach of another, God praised him for being zealous for the honor of his God (Num. 25:7-13). When the Israelites complained to their leaders that God was killing his own people, God sent a plague to kill 14,700 more.

If you doubt the strictness with which God demanded Israels obedience, read Leviticus 26:14-39. He promises the disobedient will experience sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever, barren ground, wild animals who will rob them of their children and destroy their cattle, plagues, hunger, cannibalism, paranoid fear, defeat at the hands of their enemies, destruction of their cities, rule by those who hate them, and ultimately death. God wasnt messing around.

In addition to shedding appalling amounts of blood, God also instituted civil laws so strict and comprehensive even a control-obsessed tyrant like Stalin would have been jealous. He regulated every aspect of ancient Israelite life (e.g. work, family, health, food, drink, religion, politics, etc.) and often in excruciating detail, right down to the type and location of the fringes (called tzitzits) on their clothing. Worst of all, the punishments for violating such laws were often shockingly harsh. For example, he prescribed the death penalty for adultery, sex before marriage, homosexual intercourse between men, prostitution, incest, bestiality, rape, kidnapping, sorcery, false prophecy, idol worship, blasphemy, merely approaching the tabernacle (if you werent a Levite), touching the foot of Mount Sinai, showing contempt for a judge or priest, laboring on the Sabbath, taking advantage of the widow or fatherless, and even attacking, cursing, or disobeying your parents. Lest you think it was all empty threats, the Bible records many examples of such punishments actually being imposed, often by the humiliating and tortuous means of public stoning.

Speaking of intolerance, God also demonstrated bias against the physically disfigured and handicapped. In a passage worthy of Hitlers Mein Kampf, he told Moses to tell Aaron:

For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a crippled foot or hand, or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. (Lev. 21:17-19, 23)

Likewise, No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord (Deut. 23:1 NRSV).

To top it all off, the violence and bloodshed committed by God and those under his direction doesnt merely appear in a few atypical passages. It is pervasive. Preeminent Christian pacifist John Howard Yoder Heres how OT professor Eric Seibert describes it: