Biblical Studies • Difficult Questions • Advanced
Old Testament Violence
Primary question: How can a God of love command or perform the violent acts described throughout the Old Testament?
Argument map
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Common mistakes
Don't say
Treating every conquest text as straightforward, literal modern historiography.
Instead
Read the accounts against known ancient Near Eastern military-rhetoric conventions before drawing conclusions.
Don't say
Assuming any acknowledgment of textual tension amounts to abandoning biblical authority.
Instead
Recognize that description-versus-prescription and progressive revelation are standard, broadly used hermeneutical tools, not ad hoc rescues.
Don't say
Presenting a single tidy resolution as if all serious Christian scholars agree.
Instead
Note that evangelical scholarship itself is divided between hyperbole readings, judgment readings, and 'divine accommodation' readings, and present them honestly.
What would change my mind? — Christian position
Firm historical-archaeological proof that Israel carried out a literal, total, deliberate extermination of every Canaanite man, woman, and child exactly as some summary verses state, with no admixture of hyperbole, would sharpen the difficulty considerably and push more Christians toward accommodation models.
What would change my mind? — Skeptical position
Clear demonstration that the herem formulas function identically to attested non-literal ANE victory rhetoric, combined with a coherent account of progressive revelation, would remove the claim that the text requires believing God ordered literal genocide.
Why does this matter?
How Christians handle Old Testament violence shapes whether the faith can be held with intellectual integrity by people troubled by these texts, and it bears directly on the doctrine of Scripture, the character of God, and how Christians think about violence and just war today. Handling it dishonestly, either by minimizing the texts or by pretending the difficulty is fully resolved, damages credibility in both directions.
For further study
Primary and secondary sources on both sides of this question. Reading the strongest opposing case is part of the work, not a concession.
Is God a Moral Monster? — Paul Copan
A leading evangelical defense combining genre, covenant, and judgment arguments.
The Crucifixion of the Warrior God — Gregory A. Boyd
A major cruciform-hermeneutic reinterpretation of Old Testament violence.
The Bible Tells Me So — Peter Enns
An accommodation-based approach open to theologically limited Old Testament portrayals of God.
Show Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide — C. S. Cowles, Eugene Merrill, Daniel Gard, Tremper Longman III (ed. Stanley Gundry)
Presents four distinct evangelical positions side by side.
Did God Really Command Genocide? — Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan
Detailed philosophical and historical defense of the hyperbole/judgment reading.
The Violence of the Biblical God — Eric Seibert
A critical, more skeptical evangelical treatment arguing for a christocentric hermeneutic of judgment.