Herem (war or property)
Herem or cherem (
There is a related verb, heḥərîm (החרים), meaning "to treat as ḥērem", or "destroy utterly".
Etymology
The word comes from the
Sources
The word is often used in the 6th and 7th chapters of the
In the Book of Judges, chapters 19–21, the Israelite town of Jabesh-Gilead was put under herem for not joining in battle against the Tribe of Benjamin.
King Saul put the priestly town of Nob under herem, nearly wiping out the priestly House of Eli.
The concept of herem also appears in
The word herem is the last word of the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible: "… lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction" (Malachi 4:6, ESV).
Most scholars conclude that the biblical accounts of extermination are exaggerated, fictional, or metaphorical.[10] In the archaeological community, the consensus of modern scholars is that the story of battle and the associated extermination are a pious fiction and did not happen as described in the Book of Joshua.[11] For example, the Book of Joshua arguably describes the extermination of the Canaanite tribes, yet Joshua 16:10 and Judges 1:1–2:5 both say that the extermination was not complete.[12]
Meaning and significance
William Dumbrell suggests that "the ban appears to have been conceived as an acknowledgment of Yahweh's help."[13] He also notes that "everything likely to contaminate Israel religiously" was destroyed, and thus the institution of the ban was "designed not to counter a military threat but to counter a religious threat."[14] Similarly, Balchin argues that "drastic action was required to keep Israel in holy existence."[15] But Lilley argues that "Israel, like other contemporary societies, did not recognise any distinction between sacred and secular war," and that "holy war" is not a biblical term, "but one invented or at least appropriated by commentators."[3] Lilley goes on to suggest that essence of the idea of herem is an "irrevocable renunciation of any interest" in the object 'devoted', and thus "so far as persons are concerned, the options of enslavement and treaty are not available." He contests the idea that it always involved things imperilling the religious life of the nation, arguing that these things "were to be destroyed out of hand, not given to the sanctuary."[16]
Ethical issues
Theologians and other scholars have commented on the ethical and moral dilemmas posed by the wars of extermination, particularly the killing of women and children.[19]
Maimonides applies the rules from Deuteronomy 20:10 (the rules governing discretionary wars) to the war on the Canaanite nation, and suggests that the commandment to exterminate the Canaanites was not absolute. He writes that Joshua gave the Canaanites three options: to flee, to remain and make peace with the Israelites, or to fight.[20]
Rabbi Gunther Plaut asserted that the Torah, itself, never addresses the morality of the wars of extermination.[21] Biblical scholar Sidney Hoenig discussed the "brutality" in the book of Joshua, but concluded that the "battle is only in honor of God".[22] The
Some scholars claim that collective punishment, particularly punishment of descendants for transgressions committed by ancestors, is common in the Hebrew Bible—a view based primarily on repeated descriptions (with slightly varied wording) of God as "a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation … but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments."[25]
As genocide
Several scholars and commentators have characterized the wars of extermination as genocide.[10][26][27]
Scholar Pekka Pitkanen asserts that Deuteronomy involves "demonization of the opponent", which is typical of genocide, and he asserts that the genocide of the Canaanites was due to unique circumstances, and that "the biblical material should not be read as giving license for repeating it."[28]
Scholar Philip Jenkins characterizes the warfare of the Bible as genocidal, and considers the laws of warfare in the Quran to be more humane than the Biblical rules.[29]
Scholar M. I. Rey notes that Deut 21:10–14 constitutes a form of genocidal rape and the gravity of the practice should not be minimized solely because it does not display the totalizing destruction and annihilation seen in herem (despite being labeled "herem-like").
Justifications and rationalizations
Several justifications and explanations for the extreme violence associated with the wars of extermination have been offered, some found in the Hebrew Bible, others provided by Rabbinic commentators, and others hypothesized by scholars. These include:
- Punishment: the Canaanites were considered sinful, depraved people, and their deaths were punishments;[30] the Bible promises a similar fate for the Israelites if they engaged in the same behavior.[31]
- Prevention: In Deut 20:16–18 God tells the Israelites to exterminate the Canaanite nations, "otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God".
- Revenge: the war against the Midianites was revenge for Midian's role in Israel's apostate behavior during the Joseph into slavery in Egypt (Genesis 37:28–36).[33]
- To make room for the returning Israelites: the Canaanite nations were living in the land of Israel, but when the Israelites returned, the Canaanites were expected to leave the land.[10]
According to the Talmud, the Canaanite nations were first given the opportunity to avoid extermination by voluntarily leaving the land, and in fact one Canaanite nation (the Girgashites) did so.[34] Another Talmudic explanation suggested God gave the land to the Canaanites only temporarily, until the Israelites would arrive, and the Canaanites' extermination was punishment for their refusal to obey God's desire that they leave.[34] Another explanation proposed that wars in the Book of Joshua were a diversionary tactic, so that Israelites would not kill Joshua after discovering that he had forgotten certain laws.[34]
Michael S. Heiser notes that the herem in the Book of Joshua predominately targets the Anakim, descendants of the Nephilim (Deuteronomy 9:2, Numbers 13:32-33, Joshua 11:21-22). The Nephilim are believed to be the offspring of fallen angels and mankind[35][36] so thus, Heiser argues that the purpose of the herem is to also prevent the physical corruption of the Israelites.[37]
Association with violent attitudes in the modern era
Some analysts have associated the biblical commandments of extermination with violent attitudes in modern era.
According to Ian Lustick, in the 1980s, leaders of the now defunct Israeli messianic and political movement Gush Emunim, such as Hanan Porat, considered the Palestinians to be like Canaanites or Amalekites, and suggested that implied a duty to make merciless war against Arabs who reject Jewish sovereignty.[38]
Biblical scholar
Nur Masalha, a Palestinian writer and academic, writes that the genocide of the extermination commandments has been "kept before subsequent generations" and served as inspirational examples of divine support for slaughtering enemies.[41] Ra'anan S. Boustan, an associate professor of ancient Mediterranean religions at UCLA, has said that militant Zionists have identified modern Palestinians with Canaanites, and hence as targets of violence mandated in Deut 20:15-18.[42] Scholar Leonard B. Glick states that Jewish fundamentalists in Israel, such as Shlomo Aviner, consider the Palestinians to be like biblical Canaanites, and that some fundamentalist leaders suggest that they "must be prepared to destroy" the Palestinians if the Palestinians do not leave the land.[43] Keith Whitelam, Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield, asserts that the Zionist movement has drawn inspiration from the biblical conquest tradition, and Whitelam draws parallels between the "genocidal Israelites" of Joshua and modern Zionists.[44]
Contrary views
Wars of extermination are of historical interest only, and do not serve as a model within Judaism.[45] A formal declaration that the “seven nations” are no longer identifiable was made by Joshua ben Hananiah, around the year 100 CE.[45]
Scholar Moshe Greenberg asserts that the laws of extermination applied only to the extinct tribes, and only to their contemporary generations of Israelites.[46] Carl Ehrlich states the biblical rules of extermination provide guidance to modern Israelis not for genocidal purposes, but rather simply as models for reclaiming the land of Israel.[47]
Christian views
According to Christian Hofreiter, historically almost all Christian authorities and theologians have interpreted the herem passages as referring to real, historical events when God commanded the Israelites to exterminate all the members of particular nations. He states that "there is practically no historical evidence that anyone in the Great Church" viewed them as being purely an allegory. In particular,
See also
- Anathema
- Consecration
- Judaism and violence
- Judaism and war
- War of annihilation
References
- ^ a b Israel Drazin, Maimonides and the Biblical Prophets, Gefen Publishing House, 2009, p. 64.
- ^ a b c Leon J. Wood, "חרם," in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Moody, 1980, pp. 324-325.
- ^ a b c J. P. U. Lilley, "Understanding the herem," in Tyndale Bulletin 44, 1993, p. 171-173.
- ^ S.R. Driver (1896), A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Deuteronomy, Second Edition, T&T Clark, p. 98.
- ^ J. Soggin, Joshua (London, SCM 1972), p. 97.
- ^ Livy 8.9; for a brief introduction and English translation of the passage, see Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 157 online.
- ^ "Anathema | religion | Britannica".
- ^ a b Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 1960.
- ^ Strong's Concordance.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-161361-6.
- ISBN 9004115544– via Google Books.
- ISBN 9004115544– via Google Books.
- ^ William J. Dumbrell, The Faith of Israel (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 66.
- ^ Dumbrell, The Faith of Israel, 73.
- ^ J. A. Balchin, "War," in The New Bible Dictionary, IVF, 1963, p. 1316.
- ^ Lilley, "Understanding the herem," in Tyndale Bulletin 44, 1993, p. 176-177.
- ^ Tremper Longman III and Daniel G. Reid, God is a Warrior, Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1995, p. 131.
- ^ James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd edition, 1969, p. 320.
- ^ For an early example, see: Horne, Thomas Hartwell, An introduction to the critical study and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, Volume 2, T. Cadell, 1828, pp. 523-525.
- ^ Drazin, Israel, Maimonides and the Biblical Prophets, Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 2009 p. 79.
- ^ Carl S. Ehrlich, "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide," in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Brill, 1999, p. 118:
- "In his Torah commentary Plaut (1981: 114) grapples with the 'Morality of Conquest,' only to conclude that '[t]he morality of the forcible displacement of the Canaanites was never raised by the Torah, and neither was the morality of war as such.'" (Quoting Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1981, p. 114 (Revised edition, Union for Reform Judaism, 2005, p. 991)).
- ^ Carl S. Ehrlich, "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide," in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Brill, 1999, p. 118:
- "Sidney Hoenig is one of the few relatively modern commentators … who has raised the issue of violence in respect to Joshua, only to justify it as a divinely ordained holy war …" (Quoting Hoenig:) "Sensitive readers are concerned about the brutality shown in Joshua, but one should not forget that it is a story of a war – of a holy war. The theme is the obliteration of historically hated pagans and the battle is only in honor of God." (Sidney Hoenig, The Book of Joshua: A New English Translation of the Text and Rashi with a Commentary Digest, Judaica Press, 1969, p. VIII).
- ^ John Howard Yoder, "If Abraham Is Our Father," in The Original Revolution: Essays on Christian Pacifism, Wipf and Stock, 1971, p. 105.
- ^ Lustick, p. 76. Quoting Shlomo Aviner, Messianic Realism, pp. 115-116.
- ^ Krašovec, Jože, Reward, Punishment, and Forgiveness: The Thinking and Beliefs of Ancient Israel in the Light of Greek and Modern Views, Brill, 1999, p. 113. He cites the following examples of collective punishment (of descendants) in the Bible: Exodus 20:5–6, 34:6–7; Deuteronomy 5:9–10, 7:9–10; Jeremiah 32:18
- ^ Kravitz, Leonard, "What is Crime?", in Walter Jacob, Moshe Zemer (eds.), Crime and punishment in Jewish law: essays and responsa, Berghahn Books, 1999, p. 31; Shaul Magid, "Subversion as Return: Scripture, Dissent, and Renewal in Contemporary Judaism, in Beth Hawkins Benedix (ed.), Subverting Scriptures: Critical Reflections on the Use of the Bible, Palgrave, 2009, pp. 217-236; Timothy Kandler Beal, Reading Bibles, Writing Bodies: Identity and the Book, Publisher Psychology Press, 1997, pp. 153-163; Cohn, Robert L., "Before Israel: The Canaanites as Other in Biblical Tradition", in Laurence Jay Silberstein (ed.), The Other in Jewish Thought and History: Constructions of Jewish Culture and Identity, NYU Press, 1994, pp. 76-77; Boustan, Ra'anan S., Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity, Brill, 2010, pp. 3-5; Carl S. Ehrlich, "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide," in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Brill, 1999, pp. 121-122; Zev Garber, "Deconstructing Theodicy and Amalekut", in James F. Moore (ed.), Post-Shoah dialogues: re-thinking our texts together, University Press of America, 2004, pp. 241-243.
- ^ Ra'anan S. Boustan, Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity, (Brill, 2010), 3-5.
- ^ Pitkanen, Pekka, "Memory, Witnesses, and Genocide in the Book of Joshua", in J. Gordon McConville, Karl Möller (eds.), Reading the law: studies in honour of Gordon J. Wenham, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007, pp. 267–282.
- Barbara Hagerty, "Is The Bible More Violent Than The Quran?"NPR, 18 March 2010.
- ^ Deuteronomy 9:5; Genesis 15:16
- ^ Leviticus 18:24–28; see also Numbers 33:55–56
- ^ Walvoord, John F., The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, David C. Cook, 1985, pp. 250-251.
- ^ Shaul Magid, "Subversion as Return: Scripture, Dissent, and Renewal in Contemporary Judaism", in Beth Hawkins Benedix (ed.), Subverting Scriptures: Critical Reflections on the Use of the Bible, Palgrave, 2009, p. 234: "The rabbinic tradition connects the commandment to destroy Midian in Numbers 31 to Genesis 37:36, The Midianites, meanwhile, sold him [Joseph] to Potiphar..."
- ^ a b c Carl S. Ehrlich, "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide," in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Volume 1, Brill, 1999, pp. 119-120.
- ^ Kosior, Wojciech (2010). "Synowie bogów i córki człowieka. Kosmiczny "mezalians" i jego efekty w Księdze Rodzaju 6:1–6". Ex Nihilo. Periodyk Młodych Religioznawców (in Polish). 1 (3) 2010: 73–74. See also English translation
- ^ Swete, Henry Barclay (1901). The Old Testament in Greek according to the Septuagint (Volume 1). Cambridge University Press. p. 9. Greek text: 'οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ'
- Lexham Press. pp. 204–211.
- ^ Ian Lustick, For the land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel, Council on Foreign Relations, 1988, pages 3, 78, 131.
- ^ Lemche, Niels Peter, The Old Testament between theology and history: a critical survey, Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, pp. 315–316.
- ^ Grenke, Arthur, God, greed, and genocide: the Holocaust through the centuries, New Academia Publishing, 2005, pp. 17-18.
- ^ Masalha, Nur, The Bible and Zionism: invented traditions, archaeology and post-colonialism in Palestine-Israel, Volume 1, Zed Books, 2007, pp. 273-276; Prior, Michael P. The Bible and colonialism: a moral critique, Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.
- ^ Boustan, Ra'anan S., Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity, Brill, 2010, pages 4-5.
- ^ Glick, Leonard B., "Religion and Genocide", in Alan L. Berger (ed.), The Widening circle of genocide, Transaction Publishers, 1994, p. 46.
- ^ Whitelam, Keith W., The invention of ancient Israel: the silencing of Palestinian history, Routledge, 1996, especially pp. 71–121; cited by Carl S. Ehrlich, "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide," in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Brill, 1999 p. 117.
- ^ a b Judaism and the ethics of war, Norman Solomon. International Review of the Red Cross. Volume 87 Number 858 June 2005.
- ^ Greenberg, Moshe, "On the Political User of the Bible in Modern Israel: An Engaged Critique", in Pomegranates and golden bells: studies in biblical, Jewish, and Near Eastern ritual, law, and literature, EISENBRAUNS, 1995, pp. 467-469
- ^ Carl S. Ehrlich, "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide," in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Brill, 1999, p. 121.
- ISBN 978-0-19-253900-7.