Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
So today we continue our series about the violence in the Old Testament. Well, we saw a summary of the answer in our previous video that explained that God did not change from the Old to the New Testament. However, humanity changed. Humanity after the fall sank at a deep level of sin and as it was growing, God dealt with us differently based on our respective state. So we need to reaffirm these thoughts because they are very foundational for us to answer these seemingly big questions about the Old Testament.
So today, we're doing three things:
Number one, we are looking at supporting evidence from outside the Bible that demonstrates that mankind truly was different at the time of the Old Testament. Secondly, we'll look at a very quick example of God’s mercy in the Old Testament. And thirdly and most importantly, we will ask our Psalms and answer the question: Why is the story of love, the story of salvation in the Old Testament full of violence?
So, is there supporting or corroborating evidence that demonstrates the level of violence humanity was in at the time of the Old Testament? Absolutely! So we see from eighth century BC going forward, we find a series of empires: the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Greeks and Romans that extended to the New Testament, and the purpose of these empires was one thing: take over the world through war and violence.
So I'll give you a few examples quickly. So we have the Greek author and historian Herodotus; he speaks about King Darius and he says the following:
''Thus as Babylon [was] taken for the second time. Darius having become master of the place [so he owned the place; it became his], destroyed the wall, and tore down all the gates; for Cyrus had done neither the one nor the other [Cyrus was the King prior to him] when he took Babylon. He then chose out near three thousand of the leading citizens, and caused them to be crucified.'' (Herodotus, Greek Author & Historian)
Darius took over three thousand people and crucified them in one event. Again, history speaks about Alexander the Great... So the first century historian, Curtius Rufus, says that Alexander the Great took over two thousand people and crucified them, again, in one event.
So the history of humanity is full of violence. This violence is not specific to Christianity or Judaism, but it is general to humanity at that time.
So in the midst of the violence and the disobedience of God’s commandments, we find many instances in the Old Testament where God shows mercy and shows compassion. So we saw how God saved the Ninevites, the Gentiles, through Jonah. Another example is Cain where Cain killed his brother Abel, yet Cain was afraid others would kill him so God protected him and put a mark on him. Another beautiful example that many people do not know about is in Ezekiel 16 where God talks to the Jews and tells them: Your father is an Amorite and your mother a Hittite, meaning these are Gentile people. So what that means is that God had the Jews as their sons and daughters, but they rejected Him and they became the sons and daughters of the Amorites and Hittites, an example of the devil. And of course, if you become the son or daughter of the devil, the devil completely lacks any care, so he left them in their blood; he left the navel cord uncut, and he just left them dry like that. But then, it says in Ezekiel 16, verse 8, says... God says:
'' 8 When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine...'' (Ezekiel 16:8)
God, out of mercy and compassion, took them over again, and then he continues, he says how God took them, washed them, fed them, gave them silk as clothes, gave them bracelets, gave them a crown of gold and he says at the end:
'' 13 ...You were exceedingly beautiful and succeeded to royalty.'' (Ezekiel 16:13)
So, this is imagery from the Old Testament that discusses how as we, humanity, or sons and daughters of the devil, God won us over again; it's the entire story of salvation. So God indeed was merciful in the Old Testament. So, why are there so many stories of violence in the Old Testament? The answer's actually quite simple: we have to understand what the Bible is.
So for our brothers, the Muslims, the Quran, to them, is a direct revelation from God to humanity where you cannot change a syllable or even translate it. But to us Christians, the Bible is not like that at all. The Bible is a shared work between God and humanity where God allows men and women of God to write down what He wills. But whatever they write down, especially in the historical section, is according to the reality they lived in and that was a very ugly and violent one. And that is why the Old Testament is simply full of violence: because humanity lived in this fallen state of sin.
But we have to understand something: that not everything is written in the Old Testament, or the New for that matter. But look at the Old Testament: Abraham is 2 000 years before Christ; Malachi, the last prophet, is 400 years before Christ, approximately, so we have a span of
1 600 years. Now, if I take the 929 chapters of the Old Testament, which exclude the second canonical books for the sake of simplicity, and I remove the 11 chapters prior to Abraham, we have 918 chapters, divided by 1 600 years, it gives us 0.57 chapters per year. Now we can tell very easily that this is almost nothing.
Most of the things that happened in the Old Testament were not written. What was written? The things that really affected the Jews at the time, what made their history, at least for the historical section. And this is where it comes, this saying where no news is good news, because I'd rather have no news because usually news is bad. Now although the Old Testament is not all about violence, but we can assume the many things that were written were the ones that really impacted and the other ones, the day-to-day where God was merciful and compassionate, these things were not written down. And that's why we see the Old Testament is compiled in that way; it's because that's the reality that they lived in.
Now, as we go in this series, we'll see event by event and we'll try to adjust as much as we possibly can, including the wars, but for now...
Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever. Amen.