Extracts from Bart Ehrman’s post here.
- In Joshua 6, God orders the soldiers of Israel to attack the city of Jericho and to slaughter every man, woman, and child in the city.
- Psalm 137, one of the most beautiful Psalms, which starts with the memorable lines “By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept, when we remembered Zion.” Here is a powerful reflection by a faithful Israelite who longs to return to Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. But his praise of God, and of his holy city, takes a vicious turn at the end, when he plots his revenge on God’s enemies: “Happy shall they be who take your [Babylonian] little ones, and dash them against the rock.”
I [Bart] should stress that scholars and students who question such passages are not questioning God himself. They are questioning what the Bible has to say about God. Some such scholars continue to think that the Bible is in some sense inspired—other scholars, of course, do not. But even if the authors of the Bible were in some sense inspired, they were not completely infallible; in fact, they made mistakes. These mistakes involved discrepancies and contradictions, but they also involved mistaken notions about God, who he really was and what he really wanted. Does he really want his followers to splash the brains of their enemies’ infants against the rocks? Does he really plan to torment unbelievers for trillions of years?
“you must utterly destroy them”
When Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you… then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. (Deut. 7:1–2)
Joshua said, “By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites. (Josh. 3:10)
Kill “man and woman, both young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword” but spare the prostitute and save the gold, silver, and brass vessels.
Joshua 6:20-25
20 So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. 21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.
22 And Joshua said unto the two men that had spied out the land, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. 23 And the young men the spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; all her kindred also they brought out; and they set them without the camp of Israel. 24 And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein; only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of Jehovah. 25 But Rahab the harlot, and her father’s household, and all that she had, did Joshua save alive; and she dwelt in the midst of Israel unto this day, because she hid the messengers, whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. (ASV)
Death by Stoning from The 613 Commandments
If the law codes of the Pentateuch were suddenly imposed on today’s society, we would all be in a lot of trouble. Exodus 35:2 and Numbers 15:32-6 are both quite clear about subjecting those who break the Sabbath to the death penalty. An anecdote in the fifteenth chapter of Numbers tells of “a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day” (Num 15:32). After capturing this menace to society and deliberating about what’s to be done with him, Moses and others hear God’s divine instructions: “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp” (Num 15:35). And thereafter “The whole congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the LORD had commanded Moses” (Num 15:36).
Stoning to death is also the punishment of choice for rebellious sons. “If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother. . .then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town. . .Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death” (Deut 21:18,19,21). Elsewhere, cursing one’s parents, or striking one’s parents, is punishable by death (Ex 21:1,17, Lev 20:9). And in fact capital punishment is the preferred solution for a wide variety of crimes. Blaspheming the name of God mandates execution for a young man who takes Yahweh’s name in vain in a fight (Lev 24:10-23). Ignoring a court order is punishable by death (Deut 17:12). Offering meat to other priests besides Yahweh’s is punishable by death (Ex 22:20). Making predictions or prophecies from dreams is punishable by death (Deut 13:1-5). Female sorcerers are to be killed (Ex 22:18).
