WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY SAYS
By: J. R. Hyland
Before he was arrested and sentenced to die,
Jesus had been praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking for the courage to
face whatever he needed to face and wrestling with the temptation to flee from
what might be in store for him.
Even before he came to Jerusalem for Passover,
he knew it had become dangerous for him to be there. During the three years of
his public ministry he had become increas- ingly well known and was a target of
those who said he was a danger to the established order.
Because he was committed to nonviolence, Jesus
did not have the support of the various Jewish groups that were also considered
dangerous by the authority of the religious leaders. Not only did he refuse to
take part in the kind of violence that the Zealots and other religious patriots
were endorsing, he refused to resort to violence even to safeguard his own mission.
After he prayed in Gethsemane he rejoined
Peter, James and John, who had gone there with him. He told them he was about to
be betrayed and even as he was speak-ing Judas arrived with “a large crowd
armed with swords and clubs and sent by the priests and the elders of the
people”[1] to arrest him.
The Apostle Peter drew his sword to try and
protect him and prevent his arrest. But the man he attacked managed to sidestep
the blade and Peter succeeded only in slicing off his ear. Before he could
strike again, Jesus told him to put his sword away saying “all who draw the
sword will die by the sword”[2]
This was the ultimate repudiation of deadly
force. A moral law was in effect and it could not be broken without
repercussions; not even if the claim was made that violence was necessary in the
service of a higher good. Knowing that violence always begot violence was not
some kind of esoteric knowledge, known only to Jesus because he was such a
highly developed soul. It was fact-based knowledge available to anyone willing
to accept the historical record.
The history of the Jewish people, like the
history of all people, witnessed to the fact that war did not bring peace and
that violence against a person or a group insured that sooner or later there
would be retaliation and more killing.
But with the introduction of Mosaic Law, an
attempt had been made to set limits on the level of violence that would be
tolerated. The Law of Moses included the concept of the lex talionis: it
demanded that violence and retaliation be proportionate: “an eye for an eye,
tooth for a tooth.”[3]
This law had been given to counteract the kind of open-ended violence that
had been acceptable at an earlier time.
This claim of a right to unlimited violence
was exemplified by a man named Lamech, who lived a long time before the birth of
Moses. His story is told in the Book of Genesis, in which he boasted of his
ruthlessness: “Listen to what I say: for I have slain a man (merely) for
wounding me, and a young man (only) for striking and bruising me.”[4]
Lamech warned that if any one dared try and punish him for his violence
they and all those close to them, would suffer endless reprisals.
The lex talionis was instituted to
place limits on that kind of open-ended revenge. It had been given to the Hebrew
people while they were still wandering in the wilder-ness, after escaping
Egyptian slavery. It had the practical effect of insuring that a particular
group of people did not self-destruct through their own internal violence.
But that law showed its limitations the moment
the people entered Canaan because the limits on violence and retaliation were
not applied to war. From the time they attacked Jericho and exterminated every
man, woman, child and animal in that city, warriors were exempted from
restrictions on violence.
For many centuries, there were endless
bloodbaths. The Jews and the Philistines killed each other as they battled for
possession of Canaan. And both groups made war on the native Canaanites who
stood in the way of their territorial expansion.
The wars between various groups continued and
ultimately led to civil war in 931 B.C. that split the twelve tribes of Israel
into the two separate nations of Israel and Judah. This was the record of war
and violence that faced the Latter Prophets as they began their prophetic
ministry in 792 B.C. The lex talionis that had worked as an adequate
restriction on mayhem for tribes of people wandering in the wilderness did not
work for a people who had become a nation and who had exempted war from its
restrictions.
For hundreds of years the mass murders of war
and the destruction of enemy homes and lands had been sanctioned by the state
and supported by the nationalism that claimed God’s blessing. But the great
Prophets of Israel intruded on this sanctification of violence. Not only did
they demand an end to war, they said if it did not stop, the people would bring
about the destruction of their own nation.
Prophets like Amos, Isaiah and Micah had dire
warning for those who thought they could build a just society on the spoils of
war. “Now hear this heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of
Israel, who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight, who build Zion
with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. . .on account of you, Zion
will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins.”[5]
And there were also warnings for the soldier
who came home from battle, thinking he had left the violence and injustice of
war behind him. “Men return from battle think-ing they are safe at home, but
there you are, waiting to steal the coats off their backs.”[6]
When he came home he would find his wife and children suffering from
in-justice and abuse at the hands of those whose power and wealth had increased
because of wartime profit taking- -those who were building Zion with bloodshed
while he was gone.
“(They) drive the women of my people out of
homes they love, and have robbed their children of my blessings forever. Get up
and go; there is no safety here any more. Your sins have doomed this place to
destruction.”[7]
The Prophets said the people must renounce
their domestic culture of greed and injustice, as well as the wars that they
fueled. The abuses of domestic injustice and the abuses of war were integral
parts of the same problem. Only when they focused their energies on the pursuit
of justice and peace would everyone be able to enjoy the blessings of prosperity
and freedom from fear.
“They will beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against
nation, nor will they train for war any more. (Then) every man will sit under
his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.”[8]
But in spite of the prophetic oracles and their promise of the blessings of
peace, many people continued to believe in the blessings of war; in territories
gained; trade routes gained and slave labor acquired. The horrors of war were
banished from consciousness. Forgotten were
the death of friends and family, the loss of lands and the loss of economic
stability. It was the stories of successful battles, the spoils of war and the
ungodliness of other nations that were passed on to succeeding generations. This
process was nourished by the professional prophets who served as spokesmen for
the interests of kings and priests.
They were the product of a School for Prophets
that had been in existence for many centuries and at any given time there were
dozens of those men who were attached to the royal court or the Temple. They
were upholders of the status quo and quick to oppose anything that
threatened the established order. And to them, the prophetic oracles that
insisted on nonviolence were seen as a major threat.
Joel, son of Pethuel, was one of those
professional prophets. His pronouncements were diametrically opposed to the
oracles of men like Amos, Hosea, Micah and Isaiah, who told their people that
their domestic problems were spawned by the social and moral injustices rampant
among them. Forget about sackcloth and ashes and religious rituals, they said:
“ When you fast you spread out sackcloth and ashes. Is that what you
call fasting? Do you think I will be pleased with that? The kind of fasting I
want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let
the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to
the homeless poor.”[9]
The solution to the nation’s problems was to treat the least power-ful
among their people with justice, mercy and compassion.
But Joel had a different message: “Put on
sackcloth, O priest, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come
spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God...Declare a holy
feast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land,
to the Temple of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord... Perhaps the Lord
your God will change his mind and bless you with abun-dant crops.”[10]
Instead of presenting environmental and social
problems in the way that Isaiah did, as being caused by the greed of men, Joel
said they were disasters engineered by an angry God. The only solution needed
was to placate that God by fasting, praying and begging Him to restore their
land to productivity. And Joel’s prayers included a not-so-subtle reminder to
God that when other nations saw how badly the Chosen people were faring, God
himself would lose face with them: “Spare your people Yahweh! Do not make
your heritage a thing of shame, a byword for the nations. Why should it be said
among the nations, ‘Where is their God?’ ”[11]
Joel’s message was the antithesis of the oracles of Micah and Isaiah. In a
scornful rejection of their teachings, Joel
demanded that the people “Sanctify war!”[12]
And in the name of God, Joel issued a directive: all nations were to abandon
peaceful pursuits and equip themselves for war. “Proclaim this among the
nations: Rouse the warriors!. . .Beat your plowshares into swords and your
pruning hooks into spears.”[13]
And what would be the result of such violence?
Joel prophesied that it would ultimately bring peace, prosperity and the favor
of God. He said that because the enemies of the Israelites were also the enemies
of God, “The Lord will judge all the surround-ing nations. They are very
wicked; cut them down like grain at harvest time; crush them as grapes are
crushed in a full wine press.”[14]
Joel also predicted that after the bloodshed
of battle, nations like Egypt and Edom would forever lie desolate. But for
Jerusalem, the aftermath of that violence would be God’s continuous blessing.
“Jerusalem will be a sacred city; foreigners will never conquer it again. . .the
mountains will be covered with vineyards. . .there will be plenty of water for
all of Judah. A stream will flow from the Temple of the Lord.”[15]
The people accepted Joel’s guarantee that the
violence of war was the way to obtain the blessings of peace. And they rejected
the oracles of prophets like Micah who warned that the brutality of war would
only bring destruction and “Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins.”[16]
But the people chose Joel’s way of war. The
outcome was just as Micah had predicted: in 586 B.C. the southern kingdom of
Judah was overrun by the Babylonian army. Jerusalem and the Temple were razed to
the ground and the Hebrew people were deported to the land of their conquerors.
Fifty years passed and the ruins of Jerusalem were still overgrown with weeds
and strewn with the rubble of its former glory. Then, the Babylonians were
defeated by the Persians, whose king issued an edict allowing those who wanted
to go to return to their homeland. The majority of the Jewish people wanted to
stay in Babylon where they had become assimilated and prosperous. But a remnant
of the exiles did return to Jerusalem. They increased in numbers and once again
became a strong and prosperous nation. And once
again the people became embroiled in covert activities and alliances, in power
plays and ultimately in a war against the Seleucid Greeks.
In 323 B.C., Alexander the Great had conquered
both Egypt and Palestine. When he died, the conquered lands were divided between
two of his generals, Ptolemy and Seleucus. Eventually those men warred over
rulership of the conquered territories. In this conflict the Jewish people
took the part of the Seleucid King, Antiochus. The Ptolemies were defeated and
in 198 B.C., Antiochus was welcomed to Jerusalem with great joy and jubilant celebrations.
The joy did not last very long. In just 30
years the alliance had deteriorated and by 164 B.C. the Jewish people had gone
to war against the Seleucids. They were successful and then they set off to
conquer nearby territories. The people in those territories had to convert to
Judaism or be put to death.
The greed and brutality of war was also
manifested in a civil war in which Pharisees and Sadducees tortured and murdered
each other as mercilessly as any outsider could have done. This internal
violence was the prime factor that led to the Roman occupation of Jerusalem in
63 B.C.[17]
That world of Roman occupation and religious
factionalism was the world into which Jesus was born. The history of his
native land clearly demonstrated that war never brought lasting peace and
violence always insured eventual retaliation and on-going destruction. Jesus
knew that the endless claims that violence was God-ordained or justified by
circumstances or the righteous cause it was supposed to serve, were only excuses
to indulge the greed and power-seeking of fallen human beings.
The record of his own people showed that no
matter how many times war proved to be a disaster for all those caught up in its
brutality, the call-to-arms against those portrayed as the enemies of a people,
a nation or their god(s), continued to be met with enthusiasm and a
self-righteous determination to rid the earth of their presence.
The refusal of Christ, in the Garden of
Gethsemane, to allow violence even in the effort to save his own life and the
mission to which he had been called, is often por-trayed as some kind of
ultra-holy, irrational and utterly impractical way to live; a way that can only
end in disaster. But history clearly demonstrates that it is the ongoing
violence of war that is irrational and impractical and disastrous.
But, just as the Jewish people rejected the
call to nonviolence by the great prophets of Israel, so also did those who came
to call themselves Christians, reject the same call of Jesus.
[1] Matthew 26:47 NIV
[2] Matthew 26:52 JB
[3] Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Deuteronomy 19:21 NIV
[4] Genesis 4:23 AMP
[5] Micah 3:9-10, 12 NAS
[6] Micah 2:8 TEV
[7] Micah 2:9-10 TEV
[8] Micah 4:3-4; Isaiah 2:4 NIV
[9] Isaiah 58:5-7 TEV
[10] Joel 1:13-14 NIV; 2:14 TEV
[11] Joel 2:17 JB
[12]
Most translations use the less jarring work “prepare” for war. But the
correct translation is a call to “sanctify” war. And the word is
correctly translated as “sanctify” in four other places that it is used
in the Book of Joel. (Joel 1:14, 2:15-16)
[13] Joel 3:9-10 NIV
[14] Joel 3:12-13 TEV
[15] Joel 3:17-18 TEV
[16] Micah 3:9-10, 12 NAS
[17] See Chapter 14, the Roman Occupation of Rome
Go on to: JUST WARS
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