Subject:
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Re: The Brick Testament: Joshua and the Israelites Massacre Twenty-Nine Kingdoms
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:43:06 GMT
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Viewed:
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1903 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Brendan Powell Smith wrote:
> Hi, Mark.
>
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Mark Assi wrote:
> > Great insight and answers to these
> > questions that are raised due to the Brick Testament’s missing context and
> > background of the events.
>
> I also appreciate Matthew's attempts to provide a justification for the genocide
> depicted in my recent illustrated stories--even if I myself am of the belief
> that genocide can never be "justified".
And that is a very valid belief. Certainly many genocides have attempted to be
justified by "what God wants" since the time of Joshua, including genocides in
the name of Jesus by people who claim to be Christians. I can't think of any
genocides I would justify personally, including probably the Canaanite one.
There I was attempting to present God's justification in the Bible which I want
to accept. I had a professor in college who did his dissertation on "The
Canaanite Genocide and the God of Love", and as I recall he found they were
mutually exclusive. There is certainly room for a variety of opinions on that
paticular genocide.
> But I'm not sure how to take your comment about "the Brick Testament’s missing
> context and background". It seems as though you are criticizing The Brick
> Testament (though perhaps I read you wrong).
>
> In defense of The Brick Testament, I did want to point out that the Bible itself
> suffers from the same criticism. That is, these genocide stories are presented
> very matter-of-factly, with no "backround and context" to provide
> "justifictaion" anywhere near them. Please note that in Matthew's supplied list
> of parts of the Bible that provide "backround and context", it's all pointing to
> *other* books of the Bible (save for Joshua 1:1-9, which I did illustrate, and
> in which Yahweh simply tells Joshua to go and take the land [i.e. commit
> genocide].).
Sorry, Brendan, I really don't mean to criticize the Brick Testament, especially
considering it is a work that is continually in progress. And I now definately
see where my comment on "the Brick Testament's missing background and context"
could be taken wrong and do humbly withdraw it.
My goal was to present various other texts to portray why Yawheh did what He
did, in answer to the previous question about it. And as you note, Joshua
doesn't have much background or context within it. The difficulty of any
partial translation, or of reading any portion of the Bible out of context of
the entire work is that since it is not "complete" as compared to the rest of
the Bible there is a danger in not seeing the whole big picture.
For centuries people have justified all sorts of atrocities by taking some
passage out of the Bible while ignoring the context and/or ignoring the greater
teachings of the work as a whole.
> I do illustrate Yahweh promising the land to Abraham in Genesis (even if Abraham
> never gets the land promised to him), and also Moses in Deuteronomy ("The
> Wilderness" section of my site) speaking against intermingling with the people
> the Israelites are charged with exterminating from Canaan.
An excellent point. I have not yet reviewed the entire Brick Testament myself -
it does have a phenomenal amount of material (I was using it again in Sunday
School a few weeks ago when we were studing Moses and the Exodus).
> What Matthew labels the "sins of the Canaanites" are part of the larger Mosaic
> Law from Leviticus, which I illustrated under the section of my website called
> "The Law" (though I present them as general prohibitions, not as a list of the
> "sins of the Canaanites", which I think is closer to how they are presented in
> the Bible).
That is true, though the point must not be missed that these laws were also
specifically noted as sins of the Canaanites.
> So, anyhow, I just wanted to point out that I do about as good a job of The
> Bible itself in terms of putting these genocide stories "in context".
And I think I can agree with you there. Please consider my earlier post as a
summary and background compliation for Joshua, designed to put events there in
context. And please accept my apology for not cross referencing to the Brick
Testament (which is an excellent reference), and for appearing to criticize the
Brick Testament where none was due.
-Matt :)
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