Walton’s theses on Canaanite Genocide

This should suffice for a teaser of what the book is about before I do a full-scale review.  I don’t agree with every one of them, but as a whole he made a strong case.

Walton’s theses:

 

1. Reading the Bible consistently means reading it as an ancient document.
2. We should approach the problem of the conquest by adjusting our expectations about what the Bible is.
3. The Bible does not define Goodness for us or tell us how to produce goodness, but instead tells us about the goodness God is producing.
4. The bible teaches clearly and consistently that affliction by God cannot be automatically attributed to the wrongdoing of the victim.
5. None of the usual textual indicators for divine retribution occur in the case of the Canaanites.
6. Genesis 15:16 does not indicate that the Canaanites were committing sin.
7. Neither the Israelites nor the Canaanites are depicted as stealing each other’s rightful property.
8. The people of the land are not indicted for not following the stipulations of the covenant, and neither is Israel expected to bring them into the covenant.
9. Ancient law codes such as Lev. 18-20 are not lists of rules to be obeyed, and therefore the Canaanites cannot be guilty of violating them.
10. Holiness is a status granted by God; it is not earned through moral performance, and failing to have it does not subject one to judgment.
11. You can’t make a comparison between the Canaanites expulsion from the land and the Israelites’ exile.
12. The depiction of the Canaanites In Leviticus and Deuteronomy is a sophisticated appropriation of a common ANE literary device.
13. Behaviors that are described as detestable are to be contrasted with ideal behavior under the Israelite covenant.
14. The imagery of the conquest account recapitulates creation.
15. Herem does not mean utterly to destroy.
16. Herem against communities focuses only destroying identity, not killing people of certain ethnicities.
17. The wars of the Israelite conquest were fought in the same manner as all ancient wars.
18. Rahab and the Gideonites are not exceptions to the Herem.
19. The logic of the Herem in the event of the conquest operates in the context of Israel’s vassal treaty.
20. The OT, including the conquest account, provides a template for interpreting the NT, which in turn gives insight into God’s purposes for today.
21. The application of Herem in the New Covenant is found in putting off our former identity.

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