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June 29, 2019How should we understand the dark passages of scripture? The passages and stories in scripture that are violent or immoral? Pope Benedict XVI called them “the dark passages of scripture.” God commands his people to wipe out a whole city and kill every living thing. God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son. God immolates the enemies of his prophets. The immorality and violence of scripture is presented in the first reading implicitly and the gospel explicitly.
Elijah, Elisha and violence
Elisha follows Elijah because Elijah is a great prophet. Why is Elijah considered a great prophet? He opposed Ahab and Jezebel who worshipped Baal and lead God’s people astray. He fed a widow and her son. Clearly he spoke for God and cared for God’s people, especially the widow. So far so good. There is, however, a violent streak in Elijah’s story.Elijah challenged the priests of Baal to a contest. The premise of the contest was a sacrifice that could only be immolated by God’s action, not a human hand. In the contest, the priests of Baal and Elijah must pray to their respective Gods who would send lightning from heaven to burn up the sacrifice. Elijah wins the contest when Yahweh sends down a lightning bolt from the clear blue sky to incinerate Elijah’s water drenched sacrifice. After his victory, he slits the throats of all the priests of Baal. 1 Kings 18. Not a good sportsman!
After this contest, you would think that King Ahab would be leery of Elijah and Yahweh, but Ahab is a slow learner. In 2 Kings 1, he sent his captain of the guard up the hill to arrest Elijah.
Ahab sends a second detail; same result. See, a slow learner. The third group politely invites Elijah and is politely received. Elisha is also no stranger to violence.Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!’” Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men. 2 Kings 1:9-10.
The violence continues in the story of Elisha.
The criticism of the God of the Old Testament is that he is violent. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his own son Isaac. Gen. 22. Joshua is told by God to destroy Jericho completely and kill all its inhabitants. [i] Joshua 6. God is angered when Saul does not enforce herem [ii] on the Amalekites, the ancient enemies of Israel. 1 Sam. 15. Because Saul refused to kill King Agag, the Prophet Samuel had to do the dirty work himself in obedience to God. 1 Sam. 15:33. Jesus, unlike Abraham, Elijah, Elisha, Joshua and Samuel refuses to use violence.“From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.” 2 Kings 2:23-24
Jesus and Violence
Jesus has asked, “who do people say that I am?” Mt 16:13; Mk. 8:27. One answer that always is remembered, “You are Elijah, or one of the prophets.” Mt. 16:14; Mk. 8:28. In the Gospel, Jesus offers his commentary on violence and God. He is not Elijah.
Jesus is rejected by Israel’s enemies, the Samaritans, but does not destroy them. The Acts of the Apostles tells what happened after Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension.“When the days for Jesus' being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John [iii] saw this they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?" Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.” Lk. 9:51-55.
Very different from the violent past of the prophets.“Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.” Act. 8:4-8
The “dark” passages of the Bible
We read the Old Testament through the eyes of Jesus. God speaks to people within a culture and a context. Jesus himself said this when he was asked why divorce was allowed by Moses but he said that divorce was not God’s plan in the beginning. Jesus explained,
Jesus recognizes that the Mosaic law was a step towards the New Covenant that he taught. Violence and divorce are part of the Old Testament world because of the hard-heartedness of man.“Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.” Mt. 19:8.
Just as importantly is for us to recognize that when we are listening to scripture, we are hearing God’s word “cloaked in human words.” (St. Ephrem) Pope Benedict XVI in his Apostolic Exhortation, Verbum Domini, wrote about the “dark passages of scripture”
During the entrance procession in the mass, the deacon carries only the Gospels in the procession to the altar. That is because we read all of scripture through the person and spirit of Jesus Christ. We call it the canon [iv] within the canon. There is someone greater than Elijah here!In discussing the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments, the Synod also considered those passages in the Bible which, due to the violence and immorality they occasionally contain, prove obscure and difficult. Here it must be remembered first and foremost that biblical revelation is deeply rooted in history. God’s plan is manifested progressively and it is accomplished slowly, in successive stages and despite human resistance. God chose a people and patiently worked to guide and educate them. Revelation is suited to the cultural and moral level of distant times and thus describes facts and customs, such as cheating and trickery, and acts of violence and massacre, without explicitly denouncing the immorality of such things. This can be explained by the historical context, yet it can cause the modern reader to be taken aback, especially if he or she fails to take account of the many “dark” deeds carried out down the centuries, and also in our own day. In the Old Testament, the preaching of the prophets vigorously challenged every kind of injustice and violence, whether collective or individual, and thus became God’s way of training his people in preparation for the Gospel. So it would be a mistake to neglect those passages of Scripture that strike us as problematic. Rather, we should be aware that the correct interpretation of these passages requires a degree of expertise, acquired through a training that interprets the texts in their historical-literary context and within the Christian perspective which has as its ultimate hermeneutical key “the Gospel and the new commandment of Jesus Christ brought about in the paschal mystery”.[140] I encourage scholars and pastors to help all the faithful to approach these passages through an interpretation which enables their meaning to emerge in the light of the mystery of Christ. Par. 42
[i] Archaeologist have been unable to confirm the complete destruction of Jericho in biblical times. After Joshua’s death, the Israelites again attack Jericho and destroy it. 1 Judges 16. These two accounts are most probably incompatible. Joshua says Canaan was completely subdued.("He left not a single survivor" (Joshua 11:8) and, "the land was now at peace," (Joshua 14:15) for, "the country now lay subdued at their feet." (Joshua 18:1)) In Judges, however, the conquest of Canaan is also described: "After the death of Joshua the Israelites enquired of YAHWEH, 'which tribe should be the first to attack the Canaanites?'" (Judges 1:1) The obvious question is did Joshua conquer all of Canaan or did it happen over a period of time through various Judges? The same conquest is told in two incompatible stories. The Old Testament is not a first-hand account of the history of Israel, it is instead, a theological retelling of Israel’s history.
[ii] In the Old Testament, when its say something should be “herem” or put under the “ban” it means that person or object should utterly destroyed. It is applied to a person who sacrifices to idols. Exodus 22:19. It is also applied in warfare to the compete destruction of the enemy. “And Israel made a vow to the LORD, and said, ‘If You deliver this people into our hand, we will proscribe their towns.’” Num. 21:2. It can also mean something devoted to God. In Leviticus 27:28-29, if a person proscribes any of their property to God, whether a person (slave) or animal, that property cannot be sold or redeemed. That is brought up again in the New Testament in Mark 7:11-13 )” Yet you say, ‘If a person says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’ * (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.”
[iii] Jesus called James and John, “Boanerges” the “sons of thunder.” Mk. 3:17. It is an example of Jesus’ sense of humor. James and John are all noise and no flash.
[iv] The ‘canon’ (as in canon law) is defined as:- a general law, rule, principle, or criterion by which something is judged. "the appointment violated the canons of fair play and equal opportunity"
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a collection or list of sacred books accepted as genuine. "the formation of the biblical canon"
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