The trouble with the Canaanite hyperbole explanation for troubling passages regarding God’s commands to kill every man, woman, and child, is that it is inconsistent with the fact that God wasn’t using hyperbole when he warned Israel that they was suffer a similar fate.
Arguably the most difficult story in the Old Testament is the killing of the Canaanites. Some have attempted to soften this hard story by saying that certain passages are hyperbole. Perhaps the most prolific purveyors of this theory are Paul Copan and Matthew Flanagan in their book, Did God Really Command Genocide?: Coming to Terms …
Hyperbole Interpretation Not Helpful for Canaanite Conquest Read More »
How could it be fair to kill Canaanite children? Here’s some important background. In a prior post we saw that the Canaanite childhood was full of terror and loathing. How could it not be when some friends and siblings were burnt to death in the arms of the bull-headed god Molech, family members raped them, …
How Could It Be Fair to Kill Canaanite Children? Read More »
Probably the thorniest question of all when it comes to the Canaanite conquest is why couldn’t Israel adopt Canaanite children? In ancient wars where parents died, soldiers faced three alternatives for the children: (1) take their lives; (2) leave them to starve and be eaten by animals in the desert; or (3) adopt them. Obviously leaving …
Although this post neither addresses the Lord’s motive for taking the life of the Canaanite children nor the fairness of it, before we get into those things, we need to understand the context. This, too, is sad to read, but we must not imagine Canaanite children as being in any kind of a normal home …
The Horror of Canaanite Children’s “Family” Life Read More »
God Ordered the Canaanite Destruction Because of Their Sins In my introductory post I wrote that what God ordered Israel to do to the Canaanites wasn’t genocide but capital punishment. I say this was capital punishment for four reasons. First, the Lord clearly explains that He ordered the Canaanite destruction because of their sinfulness. In …
Canaanite Destruction Not Genocide but Capital Punishment Read More »
My first two posts on Ehrman’s discussion of the “classical view” of suffering—that God punishes people for their sins—were mostly about clearing up ambiguities and misapplications. In this blog we come to some unambiguous examples of God punishing people for their sins which Ehrman protests. For example, Ehrman is dismayed about the destruction of the …
Ehrman’s Problem 9: He Minimizes the Horror of Sin Read More »
