Killing in the Name
Contemporary Evangelical Christian Interpretations of the Jericho Massacre in the Context of Anti-Immigration and Anti-Muslim Trends
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/post.36984Keywords:
Bible, Evangelical Christian, hermeneutics, interpretationAbstract
While there has been an increase in the popularity of featuring negative portrayals of Islam and justifications of violence using the Qur'an, similar prominent contemporary interpretations of Biblical passages advocating and justifying violence have been largely ignored in Western discourse about religion and violence. This article focuses on justifications of the use of violence in the account of the fall of Jericho in Joshua chapter six, in which non-combatant adults and children are killed. Using Bamberg's (1997) framework for analysing how narratives position their characters, readers, and authors, it examines two contemporary interpretations from prominent Christians, William Lane Craig (2013, 2007) and John Lennox (2011). Findings show that both writers view the violence as just and necessary in the context provided by the Bible. However, the article also shows how such action could once again be perceived as right if believers combined these justifications with particular interpretations of New Testament texts while viewing themselves as entering a specific set of special circumstances.
References
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Collins, J. J. 2003. “The zeal of Phinehas: The Bible and the legitimation of violence.” Journal of Biblical Literature 122: 3–21. https://doi.org/10.2307/3268089
Copan, P. 2014. Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. Michigan: Baker Books.
———. 2011. Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God. Michigan: Baker Books.
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———. 2013. “Once More: The Slaughter of the Canaanites.” http://www.reasonablefaith.org/Once-More-The-Slaughter-of-the-Canaanites
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Jones, C. 2010. “Killing the Canaanites, a response to the New Atheism’s ‘Divine Genocide’ claims.” Christian Research Journal 33(4): 1–9.
Koukl, G. 2013. “The Canaanites: Genocide or judgement?” https://bible.org/article/canaanites-genocide-or-judgment
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Merrill, E. H. 2003. “The case for moderate discontinuity.” In Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide: Show Them no Mercy, edited by C. S. Cowles, E. H. Merrill, D. L. Gard and T. Longman III, 63–94. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Musolff, A. 2010. Metaphor, Nation and the Holocaust: The Concept of the Body Politic. London: Routledge.
Niditch, S. 1995. War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pihlaja, S. 2013. “‘It’s all red ink’: The interpretation of biblical metaphor among Evangelical Christian YouTube users.” Language and Literature 22(2): 103–117.
———. 2014. Antagonism on YouTube: Metaphor in Online Discourse. London: Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947013483996
Piper, J. 2010. “What made it okay for God to kill women and children in the Old Testament?” http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-made-it-ok-for-god-to-kill-women-and-children-in-the-old-testament.
Porter, S. E. and J. C. Robinson. 2011. Hermeneutics: An Introduction to Interpretive Theory. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Rapture Watch. 2016. “Rapture watch: A global end times prophecy resource.” http://www.rapturewatch.net/
Spector, S. 2008. Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The Master’s University. 2016. “What God expects from a nations’ leaders—John MacArthur.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8GLAIoN_FQ
Thiselton, A. C. 2009. Hermeneutics: An Introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Van Dijk, T. A. 2014. Discourse and Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107775404
Venkatraman, A. 2007. “Religious basis for Islamic terrorism: The Quran and its interpretations.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 30: 229–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100600781612
Wade, R. 2011. “Yahweh war and the conquest of Canaan.” https://bible.org/article/yahweh-war-and-conquest-canaan
Williams, J. G. 2007. The Bible, Violence, and the Sacred: Liberation from the Myth of Sanctioned Violence. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.
Wright, S. A., ed. 1995. Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict. 2nd Edition. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
Young, S. L. 2015. “Protective strategies and the prestige of the “academic”: A Religious Studies and Practice Theory redescription of Evangelical inerrantist scholarship.” Biblical Interpretation 23: 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-00231p01
Allington, D. 2007. “‘How come most people don’t see it?’ Slashing the Lord of the Rings.” Social Semiotics 17(1): 43–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330601124650
Baker, P., C. Gabrielatos and T. McEnery. 2013. Discourse Analysis and Media Attitudes: The Representation of Islam in the British Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511920103
Bamberg, M. 1997. “Positioning between structure and performance.” Journal of Narrative and Life History 7: 335–342. https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.7.42pos
Barkun, M. 1996. Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Berthelot, K., J. E. David and M. Hirshman, eds. 2014. The Gift of the Land and the Fate of the Canaanites in Jewish Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199959808.001.0001
Cameron, L. and R. Maslen. 2010. Metaphor Analysis: Research Practice in Applied Linguistics, Social Sciences and the Humanities. London: Equinox.
Collins, J. J. 2003. “The zeal of Phinehas: The Bible and the legitimation of violence.” Journal of Biblical Literature 122: 3–21. https://doi.org/10.2307/3268089
Copan, P. 2014. Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. Michigan: Baker Books.
———. 2011. Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God. Michigan: Baker Books.
Cowles, C. S. 2003a. “The case for radical discontinuity.” In Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide: Show Them no Mercy, edited by C. S. Cowles, E. H. Merrill, D. L. Gard and T. Longman III, 13–44. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Cowles, C. S. 2003b. “A response to E. H. Merrill.” In “The case for moderate discontinuity,” by E.H. Merril, Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide: Show Them no Mercy, edited by C. S. Cowles, E. H. Merrill, D. L. Gard and T. Longman III, 97–101. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Cowles, C. S., E. H. Merrill, D. L. Gard and T. Longman III. 2003. Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide: Show Them No Mercy. Michigan: Zondervan.
Craig, W. L. 2007. “Slaughter of the Canaanites.” http://www.reasonablefaith.org/slaughter-of-the-canaanites
———. 2013. “Once More: The Slaughter of the Canaanites.” http://www.reasonablefaith.org/Once-More-The-Slaughter-of-the-Canaanites
Eaton B. 2012. “John MacArthur Islam and the Antichrist.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sci_WFp8ec
Earl, D. 2010. The Joshua Delusion? Rethinking Genocide in the Bible. Oregon: Cascade Books.
Fairclough, N. 2015. Language and Power. Third edition. New York: Routledge.
Foucault, M. 1981. “The orders of discourse.” In Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader, edited by R. Young, 48–78. London: Routledge.
Frykholm, A. J. 2004. Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195159837.001.0001
Gard, D. L. 2003. “The case for radical discontinuity: A response to C. S. Cowles.” In Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide: Show Them no Mercy, edited by C. S. Cowles, E. H. Merrill, D. L. Gard and T. Longman III, 53–56. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Gorenberg, G. 2002. The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. Revised Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Guidugli, M. 2013. “Fatwa on terrorism and suicide bombings.” Politics, Religion & Ideology 14: 159–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2013.768815
Hall, J. R. 2004. “Apocalypse 9/11.” In New Religious Movements in the Twenty-First Century: Legal, Political, and Social Challenges in Global Perspective., edited by P. Lucas and T. Robbins, 265–282. London: Routledge.
Hall, J. R., P. D. Schuyler and S. Trinh. 2000. Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe and Japan. London: Routledge.
Harré, R. and L. van Langenhove 1998. Positioning Theory: Moral Contexts of Intentional Action. London: Blackwell Publishers.
Holbrook, D. 2010. “Using the Qur’an to justify terrorist violence: Analysing selective application of the Qur’an in English-language militant Islamist discourse.” Perspectives on Terrorism 4: 15–28.
ICA. 2011. “Dr. John MacArthur Now Teaches the ‘Islamic End-Time Paradigm’, not the ‘Revived Roman Empire’.” Midnight Watcher’s Blogspot. https://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/dr-john-macarthur-now-teaches-the-islamic-end-time-paradigm-not-the-revived-roman-empire/
Jacobson, Y. 2014. “The Land of Israel and Canaan.” In The Gift of the Land and the Fate of the Canaanites in Jewish Thought., edited by K. Berthelot, J. E. David and M. Hirshman, 202–229. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199959808.003.0009
Jones, C. 2010. “Killing the Canaanites, a response to the New Atheism’s ‘Divine Genocide’ claims.” Christian Research Journal 33(4): 1–9.
Koukl, G. 2013. “The Canaanites: Genocide or judgement?” https://bible.org/article/canaanites-genocide-or-judgment
LaHaye, T. and J. B. Jenkins. 2011. Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
Lennox, J. C. 2011. Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target. Oxford: Lion Books.
MacArthur, J. 2016. Joshua, Judges, and Ruth: Finally in the Land. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Malley, B. 2004. How the Bible Works: An Anthropological Study of Evangelical Biblicism. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Merrill, E. H. 2003. “The case for moderate discontinuity.” In Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide: Show Them no Mercy, edited by C. S. Cowles, E. H. Merrill, D. L. Gard and T. Longman III, 63–94. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Musolff, A. 2010. Metaphor, Nation and the Holocaust: The Concept of the Body Politic. London: Routledge.
Niditch, S. 1995. War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pihlaja, S. 2013. “‘It’s all red ink’: The interpretation of biblical metaphor among Evangelical Christian YouTube users.” Language and Literature 22(2): 103–117.
———. 2014. Antagonism on YouTube: Metaphor in Online Discourse. London: Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947013483996
Piper, J. 2010. “What made it okay for God to kill women and children in the Old Testament?” http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-made-it-ok-for-god-to-kill-women-and-children-in-the-old-testament.
Porter, S. E. and J. C. Robinson. 2011. Hermeneutics: An Introduction to Interpretive Theory. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Rapture Watch. 2016. “Rapture watch: A global end times prophecy resource.” http://www.rapturewatch.net/
Spector, S. 2008. Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The Master’s University. 2016. “What God expects from a nations’ leaders—John MacArthur.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8GLAIoN_FQ
Thiselton, A. C. 2009. Hermeneutics: An Introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Van Dijk, T. A. 2014. Discourse and Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107775404
Venkatraman, A. 2007. “Religious basis for Islamic terrorism: The Quran and its interpretations.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 30: 229–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100600781612
Wade, R. 2011. “Yahweh war and the conquest of Canaan.” https://bible.org/article/yahweh-war-and-conquest-canaan
Williams, J. G. 2007. The Bible, Violence, and the Sacred: Liberation from the Myth of Sanctioned Violence. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.
Wright, S. A., ed. 1995. Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict. 2nd Edition. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
Young, S. L. 2015. “Protective strategies and the prestige of the “academic”: A Religious Studies and Practice Theory redescription of Evangelical inerrantist scholarship.” Biblical Interpretation 23: 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-00231p01
Published
2018-08-21
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Richardson, P., & Pihlaja, S. (2018). Killing in the Name: Contemporary Evangelical Christian Interpretations of the Jericho Massacre in the Context of Anti-Immigration and Anti-Muslim Trends. Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 9(1), 27-49. https://doi.org/10.1558/post.36984
