On Slaying the Amalekites:
Hi, all,
I'v been gone for the week to attend the Ecumenical Round Table on
Science, Technology and the Church annual meeting in Louisville, Ky. I was
relieved not to find 150 messages in my box on return. But, some good
threads of conversation in the meantime I'm finding interesting.
One point I should like to pick up on--how we are to read passages in
the Bible, especially in the OT, that violate what we consider ethical norms
today. The problem was addressed early on in the Christian tradition by St.
Augustine. Neither my wife or I are able to put our hands on our copies of
Augstine's _On Christian Teaching_ (_De doctrina christiana_), but there is
a key section in that treatise that addresses the problem. I hope my memory
on this is accurate, and would be glad to get clarifiation from anyone who
has a copy of the treatise handy.
Augustine applied what he called "the rule of charity" to the reading of
a text. If the literal sense of the text seemed to violate that rule, he
asserted that the text was to be read allegorically. I believe his example
was God ordering Saul to totally wipe out the Amalekites, every man, woman,
child, ox and ass. Augustine said that this and like incidents recorded in
Scripture enjoin behavior that is contrary to this rule of charity, and
therefore should not be interpreted literally as a guide to Christian life.
Rather, they are to be pondered and interpreted allegorically: the truth of
these passages for the Christian lay there rather than in the literal.
Whatever one thinks of Augustine's hermeneutic on these matters, it is
clear that he is wrestling with a real problem, the same problem many of us
wrestle with on such passages, and he recognizes that there is some behavior
described in the Bible that is not to be taken literally as prescriptions
for Christian life.
Bob Schneider
----- Original Message -----
From: "bivalve" <bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 4:34 PM
Subject: Re: cosmology & polygamy
> A couple of additional aspects of the holy wars in the Old Testament:
> The analogy of capital punishment may be helpful. While similar
objections may be raised to capital punishment, the reasons in its favor are
perhaps more familiar. It's important to keep in mind that death is not the
worst thing that can happen to someone. God evidently deemed it better for
these individuals to die than to continue in their sin. Similar problems
with our judgement of what is best may relate to the issue of animal death
before the Fall.
>
> The example of Rahab, and possibly the Gibeonites, indicates that
surrender was an option available to the Canaanites. Although we are not
told what would have happened if they had consulted God before making an
agreement with the Gibeonites, the net result was that their efforts at
making peace were accepted.
>
> Returning to George's original point, the pattern by which God allowed
people to figure out that polygamy was a bad idea, rather than giving full
revelation on the issue, does seem to me to be a good analogy for His
leaving the physical processes of creation a matter of scientific
investigation. Just as study of cosmology lets us learn about how God
created, study of polygamy reveals that it frequently produces conflicts,
allowing the development of a bigamy bang theory.
>
> Dr. David Campbell
> Old Seashells
> University of Alabama
> Biodiversity & Systematics
> Dept. Biological Sciences
> Box 870345
> Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 USA
> bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
>
> That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted
Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droigate
Spa
>
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