Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric? Wrestling with Troubling War Texts.

Abstract

The violent texts that can be found in the Bible are not few and understandably receive considerable criticism in the popular public and ethicists alike. For the modern humanistic moral sense, these texts are an affront to humanity. For a Bible-believing Christian, however, dealing with such criticism is not the only challenge. Typical conservative Christian criticism, with its obvious argumentative flaws, is also problematic and should be made subject to critical scrutiny. Into this field of tension, Webb and Oeste’s work blows a surprisingly fresh breeze. The authors manage to reevaluate even the most difficult texts on violence in an unapologetic way, with ethical sensitivity, biblical-theological astuteness, and in dialogue with the current state of research. The fact that the two colleagues from Tyndale Seminary succeed in this is due to their ability—which they have already demonstrated on several occasions—to deal with difficult topics in an appropriate and, where necessary, open-ended manner. Webb, as adjunct professor at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, has demonstrated this in his two IVP publications (Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis, 2001; Corporal Punishment in the Bible: A Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic for Troubling Texts, 2011). Similarly, Oeste has gained respect among biblical scholars with his dissertation published in the Old Testament Studies series of T&T Clark (Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and the Right to Rule: Windows on Abimelech’s Rise and Demise in Judges 9).The book itself consists of three parts (“Part 1. Hard Questions: Genocide and War Rape,” “Part 2. Traditional Answers: Good for Big-Picture, Story-Line Questions,” and “Part 3. Better Answers: Better for Questions about Genocide and War Rape”). Each part is again divided into subchapters. With the first part, the authors stake out the complex field of discussion. In doing so, they describe with sympathy and understanding the typical charges against biblical texts of violence and their apparent violence-oriented theology of an irascible God. In a sense, Webb and Oeste here introduce their first interlocutor: the (post)modern humanist whose ethical understanding has been purified in critical reflection primarily by the inhumane outbursts of the Western (and non-Western) world in the now two-decade-long War on Terror. The second part introduces the second interlocutor: the traditional conservative Christian as apologist. The reader gets the impression that the authors are more critical of this second interlocutor. This, however, does not do any harm to the book but rather speaks to its honesty. The first chapter (“Where Traditional Answers Do Not Work”) of this part discusses where, how, and why traditional Christian apologetics fail to address the actual question. Either it treats the biblical textual evidence flippantly, or it does not really address the scope of the critique of the biblical violent texts. But Webb and Oeste do not throw the baby out with the bathwater; in the second chapter of this part (“Where Traditional Answers Do Work”) they point out that several elements of traditional apologetics can point the way to working on a new biblical-theological interpretation.The third and final part of the book, with its 13 chapters, is by far the longest and most crucial. In almost 200 pages, the third and most important interlocutor is now introduced: the biblical text. Rape texts, genocide texts, and apocalyptic texts of violence are analyzed inductively. In doing so, Webb and Oeste strive above all to make their methodological approach as transparent as possible. In the crucial first chapter (“Reading the Bible Redemptively”), they argue that a meaningful and textual reading becomes possible where the biblical text is read “redemptively.” This means that, for the ethical evaluation of these texts one should not measure the moral distance between the biblical text and the Geneva Conventions, but the moral distance that opens up between the general ancient ANE culture and practice and the biblical text. Where the latter is done, the moral advance of the prophetic witness relative to its time can be established. When such an approach is consistently carried out, it can be observed that the biblical text evolves in its ethical prescriptions over time. The task of the Christian, then, is to continue this development in the spirit of the Bible for a better life in the here and now. To understand better both the biblical text and its moral distance from the cultures surrounding it at the time, Webb and Oeste conduct word studies, literary analyses, and especially comparative studies with other ANE literature and archaeological finds. In this way, the reader comes to a convincing reassessment of biblical texts. Besides establishing the moral advance of the biblical text, the authors argue convincingly that the violent language found in biblical texts is composed by the typical rhetoric of hyperbole, a common technique in ANE times. The latter insight is, however, not uncritically reflected. All serious objections to the hyperbole thesis are explained and weighed.After a good 350 pages, the book offers a conclusion. The conclusion is followed by an appendix, a helpful and comprehensive bibliography, an author index, and an index of places, which makes this book also useful as a reference work for text interpretation. The extensive content of the appendix (85 pages) has been outsourced by the publisher to their website. The reader should download the appendix from the IVP website, as it is a good supplement to the book, with 9 additional chapters.While I consider this book to offer a comprehensive and nuanced discussion of biblical texts on violence, I should also point out some weaknesses. The authors could have completed the discussion by making literary criticism—as it is instrumentalized by both biblical scholars (e.g., Eric Seibert) and neo-atheistic critics of religion (e.g., John Heath)—an interlocutor as well. For example, anyone who compares Webb and Oeste’s work with John Heath’s recent publication (“The Bible, Homer, and the Search for Meaning in Ancient Myths: Why We Would Be Better Off with Homer’s Gods,” 2019) will quickly find that a historical-critical interpretation of biblical texts on the history of religion poses new challenges to Webb and Oeste’s approach. Webb and Oeste, however, decided to “not address approaches to the biblical war texts that stress dating texts, authorship, and/or archeology” (p. 21). They regard this themselves as a “grand omission”. However, a friendly adoption of the redemptive reading and hyperbole strategy really depends on how one is to navigate through the work of historical critical findings.Furthermore, a critical reflection of the concept of moral development would have been useful. The question why a slow ethical reformation process in the Bible is generally preferred over a rapid ethical revolutionary act needs to be explained. This is especially necessary where one argues for the kind of redemptive reading that Webb and Oeste propose.These critical notes, however, do not detract from the fact that Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric is currently one of the best books for addressing biblical texts of violence and should not be absent from the library of both the theology student and committed layperson.