War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence

by Susan Niditch

Texts about war pervade the Hebrew Bible, raising challenging questions in religious and political ethics. The war passages that readers find most disquieting are those in which God demands the total annihilation of the enemy without regard to gender, age, or military status. The ideology of the "ban," however, is only one among a range of attitudes towards war preserved in the ancient Israelite literary tradition. Applying insights from anthropology, comparative literature, and feminist studies, Niditch considers a wide spectrum of war ideologies in the Hebrew Bible, seeking in each case to discover why and how these views might have made sense to biblical writers, who themselves can be seen to wrestle with the ethics of violence. The study of war thus also illuminates the social and cultural history of Israel, as war texts are found to map the world views of biblical writers from various periods and settings. Reviewing ways in which modern scholars have interpreted this
controversial material, Niditch sheds further light on the normative assumptions that shape our understanding of ancient Israel. More widely, this work explores how human beings attempt to justify killing and violence while concentrating on the tones, textures, meanings, and messages of a particular corpus in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Genres: Christianity, Religion, Biblical Studies, Judaism, History, Old Testament, Theology

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Tristan Sherwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Within the *War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence*, Susan Niditch, a scholar in Hebrew Biblical Studies, turns her attention to analysing the ethics of war which appear to be on display within the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament).

What I have loved most from Niditch’s study is the way in which she highlights the multi-vocal dialogue of the Hebrew Canon. There isn’t just “a” view of war, but an overlapping of ideologies in some places and a conflict (pardon the pun) in others. Examples of which are the Deuteronomist editing of the “Ban” (Hebrew “hrm”), which attempted to recast killing in war as enacting the justice of God and away from being seen as a means of human sacrifice to God, as well as the pro-Davidic writers of *Chronicles* who, unlike the writers of *Samuel* and *Kings*, clearly display a discomfort with the blood-stained hands of Israel’s famous monarch, positing this as the reason why David wasn’t allowed to construct God a scared space on earth (the Temple).

Niditch extracts seven *Israelite* ideologies altogether within the main chapters of the book;

• The Ban as God’s Portion
• The Ban as God’s Justice
• The Priestly Ideology of War
• The Bardic Tradition of War
• The Ideology of Tricksterism
• The Ideology of Expediency and Biblical Critique
• The Ideology of Nonparticipation

Each chapter meticulously unearths the thinking behind such ideologies and shows were they occur within the corpus of scripture. And the conclusion of the book neatly summarizes these differing views.

The scope of the work is magnificent. Mainly keeping within the Torah and History books of the Hebrew Canon (Genesis, Exodus, Number, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Esther, Chronicles et al.), Niditch explores how these ideologies are revealed in stories such as the infamous “Canaanite Extermination” and the tale of Jael’s famous “Tent Peg”. Looking through the lens of each ideology, Niditch also helps us to grasp the authors’ perceptions of the enemy; whether they are cast in an “us and them” relationship, or seen as a scapegoat, an equal, or even as a sacred vessel to be offered.

Although I would have liked to have heard more from the Prophetic writers, Wisdom texts and Psalms, doing so would have only made this volume much bigger. And in this case, I don’t believe bigger would have been better. For a slim volume (only 155 pages) I don’t think you could do much better than this. The dissection of ideas on display in Niditch’s writing is exceptional and illuminating, and a demonstration of her masterful knowledge of the construct of the Hebrew Canon.

For those looking to study Biblical Ethics, or War ideologies in particular, (or even those who are studying the Old Testament in general) I would say that this book is a must read!

If, like me, you are someone who believes in Non-violence, and also believes that this is God’s way--God’s ideal for humanity--but wonder what all the blood-shed is about in the scriptures, then this is also a great resource.

That doesn’t mean that this study is full of easy answers or comforters to make the war scenes of scripture more palatable. These questions are complex and broad, and we should never hope to get “comfortable” with some of these barbaric episodes. However, to understand an ethic of Non-violence we must also grapple with the ethics of war and the reasons people use to justify killing each other. As Niditch says, within her introduction:

“…most scholars of war agree that it is extremely difficult psychologically for a human to kill another and that killing and placing oneself in the position of being killed require considerable self-justification, rationalization, psychological and social sanction. And even so, rituals in primitive cultures marking the exit from war frequently emphasize not the jubilance of victory but guilt and ambivalence over those one has killed. It is even more difficult to kill those “of the group” than those outside the group (p20-21)… Extremely relevant, however, to an understanding of some of the war ideologies of the Hebrew Bible are their emphases on the subconscious guilt that killing can induce and on the human need to sacralise or otherwise rationalize the killing (p25)”

For those, like myself, who believe the redemptive trajectory of scripture is leading us towards an ethic of Non-violence, along with the corresponding theology of a God who condemns war, this work will prove extremely helpful. Niditch’s work doesn’t lead to an ideology of Non-violence--as it seeks to understand the ancient Israelite’s reasoning behind war-- it does however, I feel, help to emphasize the evolution of ideas about acts of war and God’s opinion of it.

Again, *War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence* is a highly recommended study.

--Tristan Sherwin, author of *Love Expressed*

[Michael Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first several chapters on the ban as sacrifice or just judgment are especially intriguing. Fascinating look at a multitude of war texts, their rationales, and its function within Israelite history.

[Laura S]

*****Updated since my earlier post now that i have had time to process: I have focused on understanding the Old Testament for a long while, but without studying the nature of warfare in Israel’s history, I’m not sure what I have been doing with my time. I read through this book and it has generated more questions for me than it has answered. I cannot give it a star rating because it would reflect my strong, negative feelings towards the information rather than the author’s accuracy in collecting the work of other scholars who have identified various war-ideologies held by ancient Hebrews.
*****The update: I questioned what is it i have been focused on in my previous readings of the OT if i have bypassed a serious study of warfare which is so pervasive? What I have been focused on is reading the OT as metaphor for my own life. I have considered the desert wanderings as my own wandering with God as my pillar of cloud and fire. I have thought of the attributes of some of the “main characters” in the text as qualities to emulate or avoid. My understanding of warfare has been symbolic of the many battles I have been engaged in throughout my life. Looking back through my years, it is easy for me to imagine a literal Enemy who has been trying to destroy me from an early age. My battles have not been against flesh and blood (although humans were the agents of the fury at times), but spiritual at their root. I do not know that I have spent a great deal of time thinking about warfare in the OT as involving “real” people. Of course, this may literally be true of battles such as Jerhico (of which we have no archaeological proof), but certainly history supports the capture of land and changes in monarchs…for which real battles with real people would have been fought and innocent victims would have ended up as booty and sacrifices. The ideologies presented in this book are disturbing for a people under the banner of Yahweh to practice. Perhaps it is now that I am more spiritually able to face the battles that come at me that I am able to study the OT with a more critical eye. I have evolved to become a different audience.

[Aaron C · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweeping look at war and violence in the Old Testament, sorting the brawling and bloodshed into seven ideologies of war as the author reconstructs them for the ancient Israelites. A fun exercise, but one that relies on sociology, presupposing the Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis while often slipping into feminist readings. The study begins with a fine treatment of Deuteronomy’s herem law (often translated as “the ban”), the wartime slaughter of enemies regarded as a kind of sacrificial offering to God (see Deut. 12–26).

This serves as her reference point, from which she argues that elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures you can find various, even contradictory, doctrines of military conflict at odds with the ethos of the ban. But moving from one category to the next—1 Samuel, where war functions as a vehicle for God’s dispensing of justice, to also in 1 Samuel, which is supposedly concerned with heroic storytelling—feels convoluted, making transitions muddy and distinctions between any of the seven ideologies either blur, or raise questions about how much they warrant their own designation.