Flood and Fury Quotes

“The book’s battles were between Israel, whose God is king, and the Canaanite city-states, for whom kings were like gods. Battle reports in Joshua consistently focus on the defeat of kings. Table 12.1. The defeat of kings Text King(s) Depiction”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“also suggested that Israel’s beginnings were complex. They comprised groups of former slaves from Egypt but also indigenous Canaanites.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“Rather than exodus versus conquest, perhaps we should think of Joshua as the final scene in the exodus.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“By contrast, those who fail to conquer succumb to idolatry, murder, and disregard for the law (Rev 21:8).”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“At face value, this could sound like the genocide of a major urban population. But as noted in chapter ten, herem suggests comprehensive destruction, and not necessarily the killing of every single person of all categories.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“Joshua uses a more realist style to write the Minority Report. Realism portrays the world, warts and all, and seeks a “faithful representation of reality.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“it is likely that these stories are meant to be applied to the lives of Joshua’s first readers by rooting out idolatry within Israel.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“The intent is not total destruction of Canaanites but separation from Canaanite religious practices.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“He would drive out the Canaanites (remember, “little by little,” Ex 23:30).”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“This is religious vandalism, not the extermination of whole people groups! Or, if you prefer scholarly parlance, this is a “reform movement,” not a genocidal campaign.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“Deuteronomy 7:1-2. In other words, failing to utterly destroy the inhabitants of the Promised Land leaves the Canaanite temptation around. However, if herem is hyperbolic (as argued above), there would undoubtedly be Canaanites who remain, as Deuteronomy 7:22 suggests. In addition, verse 5 suggests that herem was meant to be focused on worship sites.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“22). In other words, the actual process would be slow and steady. This creates a tension between Deuteronomy 7:2 and 7:22, unless verse 2 was means to be read hyperbolically.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“My point here is that the anti-Canaanite commands in Deuteronomy are just one piece of a larger complex of commands in Deuteronomy designed to eliminate the threat of idolatry and foster undivided commitment to Yahweh.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“The herem language is supposed to shock and startle. So, a first step is to simply notice that response in ourselves. We might wonder if they don’t disturb us.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“As I suggest below, there are two different perspectives on the conquest in Joshua. The story of Jericho belonged to only one kind of storytelling in the book. It’s the Majority Report, since it’s the one most readers assume. It’s a story of utter and complete conquest. Another existed, and it needs to be heard. That second is what we might call the Minority Report.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“If read hastily, Joshua’s story may seem like a far cry from this prophetic vision. But throughout the book we see signs that so-called “outsiders” play an outsized role.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“Recognizing these Canaanite- and foreigner-including texts doesn’t undermine all other references to killing Canaanites. Those stories are still there. However, they at the very least complicate our ability to portray the conquest as a straightforward account of genocidal destruction.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“Rahab embodies Torah in word and deed.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“First, it’s safe to say that Joshua is not a straightforward tale of genocide”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“That would be Israel’s greatest weapon.21”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“Taking a page from Joshua, Hebrews then reminds those of us at the edge of that Promised Land that “the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“These verses raise the bar of discipleship, showing that Jesus-loyalty can even divide us from what we previously considered our highest priorities.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“The sword of the Lord is a terrible thing, and not just for our enemies. The sword of the Lord cuts both ways, and right through the lines that we use to delineate insiders and outsiders (cf. 1 Pet 4:17).”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“When we pan out from these stories, we see a regular pattern wherein God reminds his leaders and liberators that they are not exempt from the danger of proximity to God, or of the need to remain totally devoted to him.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“But Joshua needed to uncouple his perceptions of God from the narrow confines of nationalistic thinking.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“This would have been physically painful and symbolically disempowering. As Mark Buchanan points out, “Circumcision makes a man childlike. It makes him defenseless. It incapacitates him.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“I want to name the obvious here for a moment. This is not good military strategy (nor is it an endearing geographical name). I can just imagine Joshua addressing his officers: “Gentlemen, tomorrow at dawn we cross the Jordan. And when the enemy least expects it, we’ll attack! . . . ourselves . . . with swords, to prepare for war!”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“We’re looking at weapons because later we’ll see that Joshua is doing something subversive with them. To spoil the ending here, Joshua later tells Israel that it was “not . . . with your own sword and bow” that Yahweh gave them the land (Josh 24:12). It was Yahweh’s own action.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“God decided to let the floodwaters burst forth and rain down to return the earth to a state of useful formlessness. Then, brooding over those wild waters God “remembered” his covenant with the earth and began to recreate (Gen 8:1).”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God

“He would protect creation from ever again collapsing.”
― Matthew J. Lynch, Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God