‘Shall not the Judge of all the Earth Do What is Just?’
(Gen 18:25): God’s Mighty Acts and Basic Moral Rules
Martin Prudký
Introduction
Our volume is devoted to the theme ‘Nomos and Violence’ in the Hebrew Bible
(Old Testament). As is evident from the approach taken by most of the contributing authors, the aspect of violence is seen as being central to this issue. Since time
immemorial people who have read or listened to the biblical texts have regarded
as problematical the fact that many of these texts speak of violence between people, of violence perpetrated by ‘God’s people’, and even violence caused by God
himself, without such actions being viewed in a negative way or being clearly
condemned. Why are such sections part of the ‘holy texts’ from which the Jewish
and Christian traditions draw inspiration and motivation for their actions? In what
sense can such texts be regarded as authoritative and used kerygmatically? Isn’t
this biblical material dangerous? If it is read or preached in public, isn’t there a
danger that religious motivation will be misused, and people will be incited to acts
of violence or encouraged to imitate reprehensible behaviour?
In my contribution I would like to examine one of the sections which describes
how God decided to destroy a city full of people. This section explicitly raises
the question of where the limit to the sovereignty of God’s power lies and what
it consists of – referring to the limit of God’s sovereign authority to punish sinful
human beings. It also asks how the limit of God’s ‘violent’ behaviour is connected
with enforcing righteousness and justice, from the point of view both of God and
of human beings. The section in question is the story about God’s destruction of
Sodom, a sinful city, and in particular the part of the story in which Abraham
intervenes with the Lord on behalf of the ‘righteous’ who might also live in the
city (Gen 18:16–33 in the context of Gen 18–19).
The literary context – the Abrahamic narrative cycle (Gen 11:27–25:11)
Allow me first of all to introduce the literary context and some of the ideas that are
underlying assumptions for this part of the narrative about Abraham. If we enter a
certain scene which is situated in the middle of a longer narrative cycle, we need
to make at least a few remarks so we can orientate ourselves in the narrative as a
whole.
In the Abrahamic narrative cycle, which forms a substantial part of the Book of
Genesis (Gen 11:27–25:11), Israel, the Lord’s people, formulates the basic story
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of its identity.1 Through the characteristics of the main character, Israel’s first
eponym and the first of the patriarchs, the special features of his journey through
life are expressed, and thus the unique nature of the journey through life of all
the ‘sons of Abraham’ (Luke 19:9; Gal 3:7) and the nature of their relationship
to other people, the ‘sons of Adam’, upon the face of the earth. Specifically, we
are concerned here with the nature of the relationship between Israel and those
nations (or inhabitants) living in the land of Canaan – the land that the Lord
proclaimed he would give to Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1–7; 13:14–18
etc.; cf. Exod 3:8; Deut 7:1ff.). According to Gen 12:1–3, Abram/Abraham (the
main character in this cycle of stories) is called to leave behind his safe existence
and set out for a ‘land that the Lord will show him (reveal to him)’. This instruction
to set out on a journey is linked to the promise that the Lord will make him a ‘great
nation’ and will ‘bless’ him. This role of being special, ‘blessed among the nations
of the earth’ is the key (and final!) motif in Abraham’s calling and is a kind of
programmatic expression of his mission.2 It is an absolutely basic and fundamental
feature of the whole of ‘Abraham’s journey’ that the Lord’s blessing, this special
favour, protection, and support, is not a privileged status, not an advantage, and
not under any circumstances life at the expense of others, but life for others; it is
the ‘service of the one who is called’, so that through him and in him all the others
will also be included in God’s blessing.3 This key motif (‘in you all the families
of the earth shall be blessed’, Gen 12:3) is therefore repeated everywhere where
the patriarchal calling with its promise and blessing are alluded to or proclaimed
anew.4
In the cases of the patriarch Jacob and his son Joseph the Lord’s promise manifests itself in the form of the success and prosperity of their work – so clearly
and obviously that their foreign ‘masters’ and hosts also notice it and try to profit
from it (Gen 30:27f.; 39:3f.). With Abraham this motif appears as well (in the
case of Abimelech in the land of the Philistines, Gen 21:22), but in addition Abraham’s blessing manifests itself strongly in that he saves those close to him from
destruction; it thus stresses the soteriological aspect (especially when Lot is saved
in Gen 14:13–16 and 19:29).
The compound unit of Genesis 18:1–19:38
The literary unit that includes the section (the scene in 18:16–33) and statement
(v. 25) which are of interest for our theme is the text Gen 18:1–19:38.5 These two
1
2
3
4
5
Traditions about the patriarchs represent one of the foundational narratives of ancient
Israel; see Schmid 2010, and Römer 1990.
Prudký 2015.
It is therefore by no means illogical that in the Christian tradition this motif is often
understood and interpreted Christologically, as a typological reference to Christ, for
example, the explanatory note in the Czech Bible of Kralice (1579) on Gen 12:3: ‘The
promise about Christ, first given in Eden, here reconfirmed by God to Abraham’.
See Gen 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14 (cf. Ps 72:17; Jer 4:2).
A structured synopsis of the Hebrew text with English translation is available at the author’s web-page: http://www.etf.cuni.cz/∼prudky/pdf/PrudkyM-2018-
‘Shall not the Judge of all the Earth Do What is Just?’ (Gen 18:25)
29
chapters of the book of Genesis form a coherent literary text that has a clear overall
composition in terms of both the theme and the chronological and topological
narrative.
All the scenes in the story are accompanied by explicit details of place and time.
The narrator uses them to provide us with orientation and to lead us from Abraham’s tent by the shrine of Mamre, where the Lord appears to him in the noonday
heat (18:1), via the scene with the dialogue slightly later that afternoon (18:16),
and via the arrival of the two messengers in Sodom in the evening (19:1) and their
night-time experiences with the ‘men of Sodom’ (19:4–14), up until the moment
when the morning star announces the coming of the new day, the day of judgement
on Sodom (19:15f.). When the sun rises over the land a little later, Lot is already
safe in Zoar, and the Lord is able to ‘overthrow’ Sodom and Gomorrah. Finally
the narrator states that ‘that morning’ Abraham saw what the Lord had done, and
returned back (19:27–28).
This is followed by a kind of epilogue in the form of a narrative scene (following
on immediately topographically, but not explicitly chronologically), in which the
widower Lot begets children with his widowed daughters and thus ensures the
continuity of his family line after the catastrophe of Sodom. The motif of the
begetting of Moab and Ammon as ‘sons of Lot’, almost Dionysian in its wildness
and yet with Lot unaware of what he is doing, forms a contrast with the first
scene of this literary unit. There the Lord once again confirmed to Abraham the
promise that his wife Sara would give birth to his son. In contrast to earlier general
proclamations, the Lord was now saying quite specifically, with reference to the
present time, that the process was already under way and Sara would give birth to
the son that had been promised to Abraham. For the old woman, well on in years,
who had been barren all her life, what was being said was quite unbelievable, even
laughable (18:12–15).
Narrated epiphany – audible reflections of the Lord (Gen 18:16, 17–19)
It is within this context that the section is situated which is of interest to us. What
is important is that we are dealing here with an epiphanic scene – a ‘revelation of
the Lord’; this is expressed quite clearly right away in the first sentence and this
creates a basic foreshadowing of the whole unit Gen 18:1–19:38:
וַ יֵּ ָרא אליו יהוה באלני ממרא
18:1a
והוא ישב פתח־האהל כחם היום׃
18:1b
And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks
of Mamre,
as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of
the day.
To start with, the figure of the Lord is represented in this scene by ‘three men’
(18:2f.); when promising Abraham a son, however, this subject speaks in the
singular (v. 10f.), and the narrator, too, refers to him explicitly as the Lord
Gen18_16ff_text_synopsis.pdf (accessed 23 July, 2018). References to the verses,
sentences, and clauses used in this study point to the particular lines in this scheme.
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immediately afterwards ( יהוהv. 13, sing.). Further on it is the same. Where the
narrator recounts the action descriptively, he speaks of men ( האנשׁיםpl. – 18:16
‘Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom; and Abraham
went with them to see them on their way’; similarly, there is 18:22 ‘So the men
turned from there, and they went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord’); but where the form of direct speech is used for what God
says (that is, where God’s speech, ‘God’s word’ is heard) the subject of the relevant verba dicendi is consistently rendered as the Lord ( יהוהcf. 18:13, 17, 20,
26).
The first case of the Lord speaking using direct speech (18:17–19) is a monologue,
a textbook example of an internal monologue. This speech is not addressed to any
specific figure on the level of the story, such as Abraham; the intended addressee
is the person listening to the narrative.6 It is true that it is not explicitly said in
the introductory phrase that the Lord spoke ‘to himself’ or ‘in his heart’ (cf., for
example, Gen 8:21 ;ויאמר יהוה אל־לבוsimilarly 17:17; 18:12; 27:41; 1 Sam 1:13;
27:1; 1 Kgs 12:25; Ps 53:2 et al.), but the content and manner clearly belong to
the form which the ‘omnipotent narrator’ uses to present the inner reflections and
personal decision-making of a character. Animating a character in the story by
including an internal monologue is an effective instrument used by the narrator
to give his hearers the opportunity to follow aspects and associations of his story
that would otherwise remain hidden (in particular the motivations or purposes and
intentions of the characters). In this story the hearers have the privilege to listen
to the private considerations of the Lord himself!
In the first speech in our section, this function of internal monologue and the authorship of this utterance manifest themselves through an unusual feature: the
directing hand of the narrator reveals itself here in the closing sentences (verse
19c–d), whose rhetoric is ‘out of character’. Instead of the Lord speaking here
authentically about himself in the first person singular as at the start of the monologue (as if: ‘and they will keep my way … so that I may bring about for Abraham
what I have promised him’), the formulation reveals the perspective of the narrator, who speaks of the Lord in narrative form in the third person (in contrast to
17b and 19a): ‘and they will keep the way of the Lord … so that the Lord may
bring about for Abraham what he has promised him’. To put it briefly, the narrator
reveals himself here as the direct, not particularly well hidden, scriptwriter and
stage manager of the Lord’s monologue.
From the point of view of our theme, several important motifs appear in this monologue. Let us briefly refer to four of them.
1. The rhetorical question in the first sentence (v. 17b ‘Shall I hide from Abraham
what I am about to do?’) expresses the special role of Abraham, his exceptional
standing in relation to God, and his specific function for other people. Also related
to this is the sentence in v. 19a (‘Indeed, I have known [var. chosen] him’). Both
these affirmations mention features that are characteristic of prophets, in other
words characters who have a direct relationship with God, and to whom, on the
6
See Goldenberg 1991; Miller 1995; Prudký 2009.
‘Shall not the Judge of all the Earth Do What is Just?’ (Gen 18:25)
31
basis of their special calling, God gives an insight into how certain matters appear
from God’s perspective or into God’s intentions for his impending actions. For
example, Amos expresses the role of prophets in a way that is exactly suited to
Abraham on the road to Sodom: ‘Does disaster befall a city, unless the Lord has
done it? Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his
servants the prophets.’ (Amos 3:6b–7).7 The same idea, although on a more critical
level, is expressed by Jeremiah when he exposes the false prophets in Jer 23:17–22.
Jeremiah and his personal calling or election to be a prophet are referred to by the
Lord himself in a similar way to Abraham in our passage: ‘Before I formed you
in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed
you a prophet to the nations.’ (Jer 1:5). Thus in his monologue the Lord himself
characterises Abraham as a prophet, that is, as a specifically close figure of a
person who has insight into God’s actions, who is God’s herald among human
beings… and who can therefore become an advocate of human beings before the
face of God (in a similar way to Moses, Jeremiah, or Daniel, who are calling to
God for the people of Israel; see Exod 32:12–14; Num 14:17–19; Jer 7:16; 11:14;
Dan 9:15–19 et al.).
2. The second basic motif is the reference in the Lord’s monologue to Abraham’s
primary calling, as it was expressed in Gen 12:1–3. The sentences in v. 18a–b are
only slightly modified quotations of the basic programme to which Abraham is
called: in Abraham all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen 12:3; 22:18).
It is this role that Abraham plays in the dispute that follows about God’s intention
to destroy Sodom. Why is this important here? Because, together with the aspect
of the prophetic role mentioned above, this motif constitutes an important precondition for Abraham’s intervention with the Lord. The intercession on behalf
of the righteous in Sodom has a chance of being effective because it is made by
Abraham, of whom the Lord himself has proclaimed in this introductory scene
that he is close to his heart and has recalled the nature of his calling: in him and
through him others are to be blessed.
3. The third motif is absolutely fundamental and decisive for the overall conclusion and tenor of this speech. The final two sentences (19b–c and 19d) are both
introduced in symmetrical fashion by the conjunction ‘so that’ (v. 19b, d ;)למעןin
using it, the narrator is clearly expressing his kerygmatic and catechetical intention. It is not a question of the individual figure of Abraham, but of the forming
of God’s people, to whom this narrative is addressed and who are listening to it.
As an eponym of God’s people, Abraham should direct ‘his sons’ ()בניו, the entire
future community of ‘his house’ ()ביתו, to observe the ‘way of the Lord’ (דרך
)יהוהby ‘doing righteousness and justice’ ( עשה צדקה ומשפטv. 19c). This conspicuously Deuteronomic formulation here expresses a very important idea – the
fulfilment of God’s promises to Abraham (the gift of land and numerous descendants) is conditional on his sons, his ‘house’, ‘doing righteousness and justice’ in
the future (cf. Deut 28:15f., 58f.; 30:15–20).
4. The fourth motif has already been mentioned in the previous paragraph, but
it is necessary to present it separately and to emphasise it fully: the expression
7
See Mackerle 2016.
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the ‘way of the Lord’ ()דרך יהוה, which is a metaphorical expression for God’s
actions, for the manner of God’s active presence in this world manifested in his
rules and ordinances (see Isa 40:3; Jer 5:4–5; 2 Kgs 21:22; Prov 10:29), is here
defined as ‘doing righteousness and justice’ ( עשׂה צדקה ומשׁפטv. 19c). The Lord
‘does / carries out / performs righteousness and justice’; that is his way’, that is
his manner of being present among people and his way of ‘accompanying’ them
(Ps 33:9; 99:4; Isa 1:27; 9:6; 33:5; Jer 9:23; 22:3 etc.). And so the one who is
called to be ‘blessed’ among people – to be the recipient and bearer of the Lord’s
favour, care, protection, and support – also has to walk along this ‘way of the
Lord’ and to fulfil it through his actions (cf. Ps 106:3; 2 Sam 8:15; 1 Kgs 10:9;
Isa 56:1f.; Prov 21:3 et al.). This is a key motif in the following paragraphs, both
for Abraham’s intercession (his main argument is expressed in Gen 18:25d in the
words ‘Shall not the judge [ ]השׁפטof all the earth do what is just [)’!?]משׁפט, and
in expressing the corruption of the ‘men of Sodom’ and the righteousness of Lot
(Gen 19:9d).
Revealing the Lord’s plan: visiting Sodom (Gen 18:20–21)
The Lord’s second speech (vv. 20b–21) is also a monologue, but not an internal
one. There is no addressee mentioned in the opening sentence (v. 20a) – as if the
Lord was once again proclaiming these words on the stage of the story primarily
for us who are listening to the narrative. However, in view of the question that
Abraham addresses to the Lord immediately afterwards, we must assume that the
implicit addressee of this second speech is Abraham. Incidentally, the whole of
this speech can be understood as a direct fulfilment of God’s intention expressed in
verse 17b; it is as though the Lord was telling Abraham in this second monologue
about his problem with Sodom and what he now intends to do (see 18:20–21 as
the execution of sentence 17b). Abraham directly follows on from this when he
speaks to the Lord (v. 23c), and thus de facto opens up God’s monologue into
a dialogue. The interventional nature of Abraham’s role is here supported by the
fact that it is he who six times addresses the Lord, while the latter simply seems
to be replying defensively to the objections and arguments that Abraham raises.
Another alternative for the role of implicit addressees of God’s second monologue
(vv. 20–21) could be the remaining two ‘men’ (18:22 )האנשׁים, who went down
to Sodom as ‘messengers’ (19:1a )שׁני המלאכים, in order to carry out the planned
inspection there. It is possible to derive this interpretation from the transitional
parts of the narrative (18:16, 22, 33), and also from the introductory sentence
with which the scene in Sodom opens (19:1a). In this case, the purpose of the
monologue would be to formulate and declare the task of inspection which God
subsequently carried out in Sodom in the form of the two messengers (two persons
in the role of ‘eyewitnesses’). However, this interpretation does not have to be an
alternative. It may be seen simply as supplementing and specifying more precisely
the version in which Abraham is perceived as the addressee. In the logic of the dramaturgy of the narrative, after all, the implicit addressees (or silent ‘witnesses’) of
the Lord’s second monologue are both Abraham and the ‘two messengers’; from
verses 16a–c and 22a it follows that at the time the monologue is pronounced all
of these characters are ‘on stage’ concurrently and thus hear ‘the Lord speaking’
‘Shall not the Judge of all the Earth Do What is Just?’ (Gen 18:25)
33
together (and in common with the listeners to the narrative). It is only after the end
of the second speech that the actors on the stage go their separate ways (v. 22), and
in the following scenes they appear separately or alternate their appearances.
Transition, a change of scene (Gen 18:22)
For the subsequent conversation between Abraham and the Lord (18:23–32),
verse 22 constitutes an important transition and the introduction of a new scene.
It focuses the listeners’ attention on a stage on which only the Lord and Abraham are now present. A conversation on a delicate issue now takes place between
them, a personal intervention between two characters who are close to each other,
although completely unequal. The narrator’s attention is focused entirely on this
dialogue.
The opening formulation ‘and Abraham stepped forward and said’ (v. 23a–b ויגש
)אברהם ויאמרis a typical introduction to a scene in which a supplicant or petitioner addresses a particular authority with a suggestion, entreaty, or request (cf.
Gen 44:18; 1 Sam 9:18; 1 Kgs 20:22, 28); it thus characterises the nature of the
communication that is introduced in this way.
This scene, which consists exclusively of Abraham’s objection, repeated six times
with increasingly heightened intensity, and God’s six responses, which become
increasingly brusque, then ends with the two sentences in verse 18:33 (‘And the
Lord went his way … and Abraham returned to his place’). This sequence has the
same structure and also the same function as the passages 18:16 and 18:22. In this
way the personal conversation acquires a narrative framework and is held up for
the full attention of the listener.8
Abraham’s intervention and his main argument (Gen 18:23–25)
The question that Abraham addresses to the Lord is in fact a rhetorical question.
At the beginning and end of what he says (as an inclusio, a framework) we hear
sentences that are formally put forward as questions (in the first sentence in v. 23c,
repeated in v. 24b, and in the last sentence in v. 25d). However, these sentences
are not investigative questions, but rhetorical ones. The answer is implicitly taken
for granted. The sentences express an intervention of disagreement, pointing out a
problem and a discrepancy in the Lord’s plan of what he will do. Together with the
arguments that Abraham attaches to the questions, they express clear disagreement
and protest, a cleverly formulated ‘advocate’s objection’. Compared with the direct
formulation of opposition (‘Hey! You cannot sweep away the righteous with the
wicked! … Far be it from you!’), the objection raised in the form of a rhetorical
question is even more effective – it rhetorically creates a situation in which the
addressee himself must concede that the objection is correct; it is also assumed
that all the listeners will nod their heads in agreement.
What is important here is that Abraham’s objection aims objectively beyond what
the Lord has been explicitly talking about. Abraham is not protesting against the
8
The phrase ‘so the two of them walked on together’ ( )וילכו שׁניהם יחדוin Gen 22:6d–8c
has a similar function.
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Lord’s intention to find out whether the men of Sodom really perpetrate such
great wickedness as it seems from the outcry, nor does he object to the wicked
men in Sodom being destroyed. Abraham in no way questions whether the Lord’s
punishment should fall on those who perpetrate evil (Gen 13:13; 18:20), and does
not object to the principle that ‘the wages of sin is death’ (as the apostle Paul puts
it in a short sentence in Rom 6:23; cf. Gen 2:17; Ezek 18:4, 20; Rev 21:8).
Abraham’s argument, formulated straight away in the first sentence (v. 23c) and
then repeated in several different variations, focuses on the problem which is
referred to in contemporary military terminology as ‘collateral damage’.9 Abraham thinks through the results of the Lord’s plan and assumes that with the
total destruction of the town the righteous ( )צדקיםwill be annihilated along with
the wicked ( ;רשׁעיםv. 23c; 25a). But this is not admissible! Abraham here calls
out twice in a rhetorically very dramatic way: ‘Far it be from you!’ (v. 25a and
25c). Even God himself cannot ‘bring death upon the righteous with the wicked’
(v. 25a)! Here, we find clearly formulated the limit to ‘God’s omnipotence’, the
inappropriateness of the way this idea is generally understood. The Lord cannot
do ‘everything’.10
This protest of Abraham against a potentially unjust action is usually mentioned
as one of the passages in the Old Testament that deals with the problem of theodicy. For example, John Barton introduces his article on theodicy in the famous
encyclopaedia Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart with these words:
Abraham’s question (Gen 18:25) when he is speaking with God about the
coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah provides the terms in which
the question of theodicy is understood in the Old Testament. It is taken
for granted that God is the ruler of the world and judges both peoples
and individuals (Amos 3:6b). Problems arise when his rule appears to be
lacking in justice.11
‘Lacking in justice …’, that is the issue here. Abraham points out that God himself
cannot act so unjustly as to kill the righteous ( )צדיקalong with the sinner ()רשׁע.12
9
10
11
12
‘Collateral damage is a general term for deaths, injuries, or other damage inflicted on an unintended target. In American military terminology, it is used
for the incidental killing or wounding of non-combatants or damage to noncombatant property during an attack on a legitimate military target. In US military
terminology, the unintentional destruction of allied or neutral targets is called
friendly fire. Critics of the term see it as a euphemism that dehumanizes noncombatants killed or injured during combat, used to reduce the perception of
culpability of military leadership in failing to prevent non-combatant casualties.’
Wikipedia contributors, ‘Collateral damage’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collateral_damage&oldid=768762252
(accessed 9 April 2017).
For example, he cannot put intentionally the righteous to death; see Exod 23:7b;
Job 1:12; 2:6; Prov 17:15.
Barton 2011.
Abraham’s argument here represents a principle that is expressed in many biblical texts
that work with the terms צדיקand רשׁעas clear-cut opposites; cf. Exod 9:27; Deut 25:1;
‘Shall not the Judge of all the Earth Do What is Just?’ (Gen 18:25)
35
For that matter, already in the Lord’s first monologue (18:17–19) it was said in
anticipation that ‘the way of the Lord’ is ‘doing righteousness and justice’ (v. 19c
)עשׂות צדקה ומשׁפט – דרך יהוה. How then could the Lord, the sovereign ‘judge
of all the earth’, the universal guarantor of justice, act in a way that is contrary to
‘righteousness and justice’ (v. 25d)?13
Executive implementation of justice and/or the Last Judgement?
A major contribution to the understanding of this argument in its context is provided by the studies on the concept of ‘connective justice’ published more than
20 years ago by Jan Assmann. Thanks to his study on the concept of Ma’at in the
setting of Egyptian civilisation and its religion,14 the significance of this concept
has been recognised and appreciated in the other cultures of the ancient world,
too. While in previous research the main emphasis was on the juridical aspect of
justice and its punitive features, now – ‘post-Assmann’ – we understand ‘justice’
more as a comprehensive order of universal harmonious reality, which links the
areas of religious, social, and political institutions, integrates public, family, and
individual life, and encompasses not only the human world, but also the natural
world and the domain of gods. Acting contrary to this order is not only a particular
‘transgression of the law’, a crime which always has to be appropriately punished,
but an act contrary to the stability and harmony of the whole of creation in its
cosmic and historically universal dimension. Evil and sin are therefore perceived
as ‘ontological’ realities that threaten the proper order of the world (the cosmos).
Already towards the beginning of the Book of Genesis this view of the world and
the role of justice in it was dealt with in the Flood-narrative, the story of a world
that is completely corrupt and ends in universal and definitive annihilation. In this
story the whole earth must be destroyed, because it is ‘corrupt and full of violence’
(Gen 6:11). Only Noah must be saved, because he is ‘a righteous man, blameless
in his generation; Noah walked with God’ (Gen 6:9).
In many passages in the Bible (particularly in the prophetic writings) another variation on this concept of universal connective justice is applied – the eschatological
vision of God’s judgement, a vision of the triumph of God’s justice and salvation,
which will come as the ‘day of the Lord’ at the end of history (Joel 1:15; 2:1ff.;
Amos 5:18ff.; Zeph 1:14; Isa 13:6ff.). This vision, traditionally called ‘The Final
Judgement’ or ‘The Last Judgement’, represents a very telling imagination of the
definitive establishment of the rule of God which puts an end to evil, injustice, and
violence, that is to say, peace and justice will rule supreme and forever (Joel 1:15;
2:1ff; Isa 9:5–6; 11:1–5; 13:6–9; 35:10; Ezek 7:2ff. et al.).
Although references to the Lord as ‘judge of all the earth’ and to his ‘judgement’
or ‘doing what is just’ ( עשה משפטv. 25d) occur in Genesis 18 in the context of a
13
14
1 Kgs 8:32; Ps 1:5–6; 11:5; 37:17; Prov 3:33; 10:7 et al.; for prohibition of killing the
righteous, see also Exod 23:7b; Prov 17:15.
Cf. Ps 7:12; 94:15; 119:137; 129:4; 140:13; Job 34:17; Jer 12:1; Zeph 3:5; Lam 1:18;
Neh 9:33; 2 Chr 12:6 et al.
Assmann 1990, see also Assmann, Janowski and Welker 1998.
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specific narrative, we are dealing here with a basic postulate: the Lord is not only
the sovereign lord of history whose competences also include ‘judging’ and ‘doing
justice iustitia distributiva). The Lord is also, indeed above all, the sovereign creator and guarantor of the order of justice on which the ‘good Creation’ is founded
iustitia connectiva). The Lord’s judgement on Sodom therefore has the character of a ‘last judgement’ and its criteria are to be applied, not the criteria of our
modern or postmodern human-centred moral.15
Final considerations and conclusions
On this level and from this perspective, Abraham’s questions in 18:25d and
18:24b–c, like his arguments in 18:24a and 18:25a–c, take on a much more radical
appearance than if they had been formulated only in the immediate context or on
the autonomous level of what is right (as an issue of general rules and principles
of human moral). In biblical thought justice is not an autonomous reality, nor the
product of human culture or the result of human decision-making. Basic moral
principles are not an immanent feature of the human world, but are part of God’s
attributes; their source and guarantor is the Lord. Therefore the purpose of Abraham’s intervention is not to enter into a moral dispute with the Lord and call him
to responsibility for ‘collateral damage’ in Sodom (for example, on the level of
compassion for human suffering), but to invoke the Lord’s own attribute, his own
‘virtue’ (similarly to the intercessions of Moses or the laments in the psalms).16
Of course, the fact that Abraham can invoke God’s justice is also connected (as the
reverse side of the same thing) to his being called to follow the ‘way of the Lord’
himself and to teach his sons, his ‘house’, to keep to this way and ‘to do (that is,
to perform, to realise) righteousness and justice’. Invoking God’s justice here is
one of the forms of ‘doing righteousness and justice’. At the same time, however,
Abraham’s example shows that acting in this way serves the kerygmatic and soteriological plan of the biblical narrator – specifically, at the end of this story Abraham
saves Lot, which leads to the birth of Ammon and Moab (Gen 19:37–38).
Summing up: on the stage of human history (which is full of evil, injustice, wars,
and violence) the ‘judge of all the earth’ has his people, his ‘house’ (the sons of
Abraham, and secondarily the disciples of Christ, the Church), who are called to
act in His way, ‘marching on the way of the Lord’. In the story of this people is
revealed the Lord’s justice and in it all the nations of the earth should and will
be blessed (Gen 12:3; 22:18 et al.). This is an implicit answer to the rhetorical
question put by Abraham to God in 18:25d: ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth
do what is just?’
15
16
A New Testament parallel to the logic of Abraham’s arguments might be Jesus’ parable
of the kingdom of God as a field in which wheat and weeds are growing at the same
time (Matt 13:24–30).
For example, Exod 32:12–14; Num 14:17–19; Deut 9:25–29; Ps 5:5ff.; 22:10–12.23ff.;
25:5; 61:1–5; 74; 79:9–10; 86; 130:1–4 et al.
List of Abbreviations
ACEBT Sup Amsterdamse Cahiers voor Exegese van de Bijbel en zijn Tradities,
Supplement Series (series)
Ant.
Jewish Antiquities by Josephus Flavius (Josephus, 1895)
ARAB
Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia (Luckenbill 1927)
ASV
American Standard Version
ATD
Das Alte Testament Deutsch (series)
AThANT
Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments (series)
AV
Authorised Version = KJV
AYB
The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries (series)
BHS
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia 1997
BKAT
Biblischer Kommentar Altes Testament (series)
BN
Biblische Notizen (journal)
BVB
Beiträge zum Verstehen der Bibel (series)
BWANT
Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament (series)
BZAW
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (series)
CBR
Currents in Biblical Research (journal)
CHANE
Culture and History of the Ancient Near East (series)
CV
Communio viatorum (journal)
DBAT
Dielheimer Blätter zum Alten Testament (journal)
ESV
English Standard Version 2001
FAT
Forschungen zum Alten Testament (series)
FOTL
The Forms of the Old Testament Literature (series)
HBS
Herders biblische Studien
HCOT
Historical Commentary on the Old Testament (series)
hi
hiphil (Hebrew verbal stem)
HThKAT
Herders Theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament (series)
IEKAT
Internationaler Exegetischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament (series)
JBL
Journal of Biblical Literature (journal)
x
JETS
JPT
JSOT
JSOT Sup
JSR
KJV
LHBOTS
LW
MT
NBG’51
NBV
NEB.AT
ni
NoFo
NRSV
NSKAT
OBT
OTL
pi
PMLA
QD
Qu.
REB
RHR
RSV
Sam. Tg.
SBB
SBS
SJOT
SV
Tg. Neof.
Tg. Onq.
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (journal)
Journal of Pentecostal Theology (journal)
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament (journal)
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series (series)
The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning (journal)
King James Version of the Bible
Library of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Studies (series)
Luther’s Works: Pelikan et al. (eds.) 1955
Massoretic text
Bijbel, Vertaling 1951
Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling 2014
Neue Echter Bibel – Altes Testament (series)
niphal (Hebrew verbal stem)
No Foundation: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Law and Justice
(journal)
New Revised Standard Version of the Bible 1989
Neuer Stuttgarter Kommentar, Altes Testament (series)
Overtures to Biblical Theology (series)
Old Testament Library (series)
piel (Hebrew verbal stem)
Publications of the Modern Language Association of America
(journal)
Quaestiones disputatae (series)
Augustine, Questions on Joshua, quoted from translation in Franke
2005
Revised English Bible
Revue de l’histoire des religions (journal)
Revised Standard Version
Samaritan Targum
Stuttgarter Biblische Beiträge (series)
Stuttgarter Bibelstudien (series)
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament (journal)
Statenvertaling, Dutch translation of the Bible
Targum Neofiti
Targum Onqelos
xi
Tg. Ps.-J.
ThPQ
ThZ
UCOP
ULR
VT
WTJ
WV
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
Theologisch-praktische Quartalschrift (journal)
Theologische Zeitschrift (journal)
University of Cambridge Oriental Publications (series)
Utah Law Review (journal)
Vetus Testamentum (journal)
Westminster theological Journal
De Bijbel – Willibrordvertaling 1995
Contents
List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ix
Viktor Ber
Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
Introducing ‘nomos and violence’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
Asking some tough questions with Bernd Diebner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2
Overview of the Nomos and Violence volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2
The dimensions of violence in the Bible and its reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5
Bernd Jørg Diebner
Gottes Gesetz und Gottes Gewalt: Zwei untrennbare Aspekte und
Probleme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
Einleitende Bemerkungen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
Gottes Wort und Weisung als theologisches Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
A. Jhwhs Wort in der Tora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
B. Allahs Wort im Koran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
C. Gottes Wort in der Bibel der Christen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
D. Wenn Gott sich nun doch aktuell offenbart… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
E. Kurze Summe und Folgerung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
Die von Gott befohlene und (mit)bewirkte Gewalt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
A. Gottes Gewalt gegen Seine eigene Schöpfung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
B. Theologische Beurteilung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
C. Gottes Nomos und Gottes Gewalt: Fortführende Summe . . . . . . . . . . . .
14
Nachsatz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
John Barton
Christian Approaches to the Problem of Violence in the Old Testament
17
Allegorical readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
Divine command theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21
Violent theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
Possibilities today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
xiv
Contents
Martin Prudký
‘Shall not the Judge of all the Earth Do What is Just? (Gen 18:25) God’s
Mighty Acts and Basic Moral Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The literary context – the Abrahamic narrative cycle (Gen 11:27–25:11) . .
The compound unit of Genesis 18:1–19:38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Narrated epiphany – audible reflections of the Lord (Gen 18:16, 17–19) . .
Revealing the Lord’s plan: visiting Sodom (Gen 18:20–21) . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transition, a change of scene (Gen 18:22) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Abraham’s intervention and his main argument (Gen 18:23–25) . . . . . . . . . .
Executive implementation of justice and/or the Last Judgement? . . . . . . . . . .
Final considerations and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
27
27
28
29
32
33
33
35
36
Petr Sláma
‘Thus they despoiled the Egyptians’ (Exod 12:36 and parallels):
On the scandal of asking silver and gold from innocent neighbours . . . .
Traditional solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Modern debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Plundering and taking loot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Victorious template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
37
39
40
41
42
43
Joep Dubbink
‘Don’t Stop Me Now!’ – Exod 32:10 and Yhwh’s Intention to Destroy
His Own People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
On Exodus 32–34. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Exodus 32:10–14 in close-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The ‘classical approach’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
‘Traditional’ versus ‘open’ theism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A new approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
My contribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
45
45
45
48
49
51
51
52
Edgar Kellenberger
Violence and the Sense of Justice at the Exodus of Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pharaoh refusing for the first time (Exod 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The hardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Ten Plagues – punishment or ‘signs and wonders’? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
55
55
56
57
Contents
xv
Yhwh’s intentions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A shift of interest in interpretation history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sense enrichment by wordplay? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
58
58
59
60
Viktor Ber
Violence in Legal Procedures (Deut 16:18–17:13) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Deuteronomy’s violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nomos and narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
What is Deuteronomy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The problem of nomos and violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nomos and violence in Deuteronomy 16:18–17:13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The violent nomos of Deuteronomy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
63
63
65
67
68
73
Manfred Oeming
Das alttestamentliche Kriegsrecht als Mittel zur Überwindung des
Kriege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Das Problem: Die enge Verbindung von Gott und Krieg2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Das alttestamentliche Kriegsrecht – paradoxe Ansätze zur Überwindung der
Gewalt? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A) Amos 1f. als eines der ältesten Zeugnisse für ein internationales
Kriegsrecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B) Das deuteronomisch-deuteronomistische Kriegsrecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Der Bann als paradoxer Friedensmotor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Die Bewertungen des Krieges im Spiegel der Religionsgeschichte Israels . .
77
77
81
81
82
84
89
Klass Spronk
Nomos and Violence in the Story of Samson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Judges and the Torah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Samson and the Torah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Adam Mackerle
The Dynamics of Violence in Micah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Step 1: The violence perpetrated by Judah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A) General expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B) Where the description seems to be concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
107
107
108
108
109
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Contents
C) The aspects stressed instead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
110
Step 2: The violent consequences of the violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
113
A) War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
B) Other aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
114
Step 3: The violence continues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Conclusion: The only way out, or using violence against violence . . . . . . . .
119
Bohdan Hroboň
Imprecatory Psalms Acceptable and Profitable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Introducing the problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Making Imprecatory Psalms acceptable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Making Imprecatory Psalms profitable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
What seemed to be the problem may actually be the solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Filip Čapek
Is Violence Part of the Natural Order? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
137
Texts on violence in the book of Qohelet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Everyone is oppressed (Eccl 4:1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Violence is a part of structural evil (Eccl 5:7–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
138
There is evil but there also exists a way of coming to terms with it
(Eccl 10:4 –7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Petr Chalupa
Nomos and Violence in the Book of Esther . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Semantic problems: between ‘ ’דתand ‘νόμος’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
147
Different contexts in which violence works in connection with law . . . . . . . . 148
A) The court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
B) The king’s relations to women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
148
C) The law protecting the king’s privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
D) A law prohibiting violence while drinking wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
149
Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
A) Subversive Jewish laws caused the violent extermination of the Jews . 150
B) Semantic reversal: the real quality of the Jewish laws and their
consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Outcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
152
Contents
xvii
Joel S. Kaminsky
Israel’s Election Theology and Violence against Outsiders . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
165
Abstracts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
The Authors of Nomos and Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
183
Index of Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Bibliography
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München: Droemer Knaur, 2016.
Achtemeier, Elizabeth 2012, Minor Prophets I, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012.
Albertz, Rainer 1990, ‘Konfliktschlichtung durch Machtverzicht – Jesaja 2,2–5 auf dem
Hintergrund der alttestamentlichen Kriegs- und Friedenstraditionen’, in: Albertz,
Rainer, Der Mensch als Hüter seiner Welt, Stuttgart: Calwer, 1990, 114–131.
Albertz, Rainer 1992, Religionsgeschichte Israels in alttestamentlicher Zeit, Teil 2: Vom
Exil bis zu den Makkabäern, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992.
Albertz, Rainer 2012, Exodus. Band I, Ex 1–18, Zürcher Bibelkommentare 2.1, Zürich:
TVZ Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 2012.
Allen, Leslie C. 1983, Psalms 101–150, Word Biblical Commentary 21, Waco, TX: Word
Books, 1983.
Alt, Albrecht 1959, ‘Micha 2,1–5’, in: Noth, Martin (ed.), Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte
des Volkes Israel von Albrecht Alt, München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung,
1959, 373–381.
Amit, Yairah 2012, ‘The Nazirism Motif and the Editorial Work’, in: Amit, Yairah, In
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Abstracts
1. Viktor Ber, Prologue
The violence reflected in the Bible provokes some difficult questions. These are of
a literary, historical, hermeneutical, and theological nature. An international group
of scholars offers their studies on the Bible and violence from various perspectives,
interpreting texts of various genres from the Pentateuch and other parts of the
biblical canon.
2. Bernd Jørg Diebner, Gottes Gesetz und Gottes Gewalt: Zwei untrennbare
Aspekte und Probleme
This chapter in the form of a ‘scholarly sermon’ asks provocative questions about
God in the sacred texts of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It more closely deals
with Yhwh of the Tanak, and presents him as a God who kills larger parts of his
own creation because of cultural, ethnic, and ideological reasons.
3. John Barton, Christian Approaches to the Problem of Violence in the Old
Testament
This chapter examines recent attempts to deal with the problem of divinelymandated violence in the Old Testament (especially in Deuteronomy and Joshua),
in the light of traditional Christian approaches to this problem since antiquity. It
reviews several models for dealing with it, and suggests that none are really satisfactory, finally suggesting that a better doctrine of scriptural authority is needed
to handle this issue.
4. Martin Prudký, ‘Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do What is Just?’
(Gen 18:25): God’s Mighty Acts and Basic Moral Rules
In this chapter, one of the biblical stories is examined in which explicit limits
are expressed to God’s sovereign use of violence – the story in which Abraham
intervenes with the Lord in front of ‘the wicked city’ on behalf of the ‘righteous’ (Gen 18:16–33 in the context of Gen 18–19). According to this story, God’s
‘violent’ behaviour is to be governed by the basic principles of righteousness
and justice. Specifically, the guaranteeing of justice is assumed to be one of the
basic attributes of God himself. Invoking this virtue of God, Abraham, his blessed
180
Abstracts
servant, is able to prevent God from using inappropriate violence, namely to sweep
away the righteous with the wicked. Even for the absolutely sovereign Lord of all
the Earth, unjust behaviour is not permitted.
5. Petr Sláma, ‘Thus They Despoiled the Egyptians’ (Exod 12:36 and
Parallels): On the Scandal of Asking for Silver and Gold from Innocent
Neighbours
In this exegetical survey the literary function and theological consequences of
Israel’s successful request for the Egyptians’ jewellery in connection with the Exodus is placed under scrutiny.
6. Joep Dubbink, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now!’ – Exod 32:10 and Yhwh’s Intention
to Destroy His Own People
This chapter deals with the words of Yhwh in Exod 32:10: ‘Now therefore let me
alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order
that I may make a great nation of you.’ (ESV) Moses does not obey this order, but
does exactly the opposite; he does not leave Yhwh alone and makes a most daring
attempt to change his fatal intentions. Yhwh allows him to do so. In this chapter it
is argued that the violence within God is thus acknowledged, but at the same time it
is counteracted by a human agent who is provoked by God himself. Although this
mechanism is only found in a single text, with perhaps some parallels in Tanak,
it should have important consequences for biblical theology concerning violence
and God.
7. Edgar Kellenberger, Violence and the Sense of Justice at the Exodus of
Israel
This chapter examines Exod 3–11 concerning the topic of violence as an interaction of narrative and law. Yhwh’s violence against Pharaoh and the Egyptians
contradicts the sense of justice not only of our modern time but also of Jewish and
Christian interpreters since Hellenistic times. This aporia arose through a shift of
interest from a theocentric text to anthropocentric and moralistic interpretations.
In addition to a doxological understanding, this contribution demonstrates some
sense enrichments through Hebrew word play.
8. Viktor Ber, Violence in Legal Procedures (Deut 16:18–17:13)
This chapter analyses the violence in Deut 16:18–17:13 in the context of Robert
Cover’s concept of nomos. It argues that the broader context of the Pentateuch
is necessary for understanding the legal violence in this text. Also, it discovers
various elements in this text that serve to limit the necessary legal violence.
Abstracts
181
9. Manfred Oeming, Das alttestamentliche Kriegsrecht als Mittel zur
Überwindung des Krieges
War and its violence belongs to the reality of Ancient Israel’s world. Therefore,
the God of the Old Testament is naturally depicted as the Warrior, while also being
the God of Justice. This chapter focuses mainly on the legal instructions for war
in Deuteronomy 20–21 and on the idea of a ban. The analysis of these chapters
and ideas reveals a certain paradox in biblical traditions: the intention of some
of the legal instructions about war subsume is to remove the main motivations
for warfare: spoils, glory, sex. In this subversive way the law of war contributes
to peace, including even the difficult law of herem (this means the conveyance
of booty to God and/or the total destruction of the spoils). One thousand years
of tradition history are very complex but this shows a theological tendency to
overcome war by law and peace.
10. Klaas Spronk, Nomos and Violence in the Story of Samson
Samson can be seen as prefiguration of the most important persons in the books
of Samuel and Kings: in his birth he resembles Samuel, in his death he resembles
Zedekiah, and in his deeds he resembles David and Solomon. In this paper Klaas
Spronk considers the consequences of this insight for the view on the theology of
the book of Judges in general and on violence in particular.
11. Adam Mackerle, The Dynamics of Violence in Micah
The vocabulary of violence in the Book of Micah is virtually ubiquitous. This
makes violence one of the dominant themes of this book and raises the question
of its role within it. The present study analyses the vocabulary of violence and finds
three ways in which it is referred to. The first group of texts describes the violence
of the Israelites against their neighbours, consisting mainly in social injustice. As
a consequence of this internal violence, the second group talks of the violence of
foreign nations against Israel. Finally – as revenge for the previous, second type of
violence – the third group of texts presents the violence of Israel against the foreign
nations. Thus, the Book of Micah describes a chain of violence, where one case of
violence inexorably produces another. This might be a gloomy, albeit realistic and
sober scenario of the human condition. However, the Book of Micah offers also
a way out of this sad situation. It is hinted at in two passages, where Micah talks
about divine violence against the violence itself, thereby being a kind of fourth
type of violence. In this way, Micah’s thought resembles the Pauline theology of
human sin and divine grace.
12. Bohdan Hroboň, Imprecatory Psalms Acceptable and Profitable
By surveying a variety of existing hermeneutical approaches to the so-called
Imprecatory Psalms and by considering some critical differences between their
182
Abstracts
world and ours, this chapter attempts to make them more acceptable to the modern reader. Furthermore, this study suggests some ways in which reading, praying,
and studying these psalms could be profitable and beneficial for contemporary
Western Christianity.
13. Filip Čapek, Is Violence Part of the Natural Order?
In the Book of Qohelet, it seems in some texts that injustice, oppression, and violence are perceived as parts of the natural order of human beings ‘under the sun’
and one should not be surprised that this is the case. However, to state this experienced ‘reality’ adequately means to analyse in possible detail the philosophical
and theological background of the respective texts (specifically Qoh 5:2–7 and
10:4–11) to delineate Qohelet’s dealing with the wisdom tradition of his time and
his particular understanding of evil.
14. Petr Chalupa, Nomos and Violence in the Book of Esther
Manifestations of violence in the Book of Esther belong to the most difficult questions within the interpretation of the biblical texts. The Greek word ‘nomos’ infers
violence in the Greek translation (Septuagint) of the originally Hebrew or Aramaic biblical texts. Searching for the relations between law (nomos) and violence
in the Greek Book of Esther (in comparison with the masoretic text), we can better
understand the main topic of the Book of Esther, that is, violence against the Jews
and violence in their self-defence.
15. Joel S. Kaminsky, Israel’s Election Theology and Violence against
Outsiders
In recent decades, some critics have argued that God’s election of Israel, a central
feature of the Hebrew Bible’s theology, inevitably produces violence and intolerance toward non-Israelites. This essay briefly surveys the evidence to demonstrate
that election theology and Israelite monotheism more generally produce a wide
variety of responses towards various others. Even the most troubling of these texts,
which concern the call to annihilate the Canaanites and the Amalekites, may be
more metaphorical than literal. In any case, a vast array of Hebrew Bible texts that
affirm Israel’s divine election have a neutral and at times a surprisingly positive
view of various others with whom Israel interacted. Thus, election does not in
itself breed intolerance and violence towards most non-Israelites.
The Authors of Nomos and Violence
John Barton, University of Oxford
john.barton@oriel.ox.ac.uk
Viktor Ber, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice; Evangelical
Theological Seminary in Prague
vber@tf.jcu.cz
Filip Čapek, Charles University
capek@etf.cuni.cz
Petr Chalupa, Palacky University in Olomouc
petr.chalupa@upol.cz
Bernd Jørg Diebner, Heidelberg University
bjd@junior-net.de
Joep Dubbink, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
j.dubbink@vu.nl
Bohdan Hroboň, University of Trnava
bhrobon@gmail.com
Joel S. Kaminsky, Smith College
jkaminsk@smith.edu
Edgar Kellenberger, independent scholar and retired pastor in Switzerland
kellenberger-sassi@bluewin.ch
Adam Mackerle, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
mackerle@tf.jcu.cz
Manfred Oeming, Heidelberg University
manfred.oeming@ts.uni-heidelberg.de
Martin Prudký, Charles University
prudky@etf.cuni.cz
Petr Sláma, Charles University
slama@etf.cuni.cz
Klaas Spronk, Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam
k.spronk@pthu.nl