Thank you for your reply, Joshua. It seems to me that you were indeed making a moral judgement. You said, "Is it okay that the Israelites simply killed a LOT of people? Is it moral that they drove a large number of people from their homes as they displaced them from their cities? Is there no ethical issue that Saul and the Israelite army only killed a LOT of the Amalekites?"
Your answer, presumably, would be No. I'm not exactly sure what your aim is, but you say, "Rather, I am addressing divine commands of violence and genocide in the Hebrew Bible because of the all-too-common use of biblical texts by Evangelicals in establishing and supporting their own moral system." Does this mean that the Bible should not be appealed to as authoritative because it contains commands that are no longer applicable? If people were using the Bible to justify the violent capture of land then I would agree with you. But what if someone appeals to the authority of the Bible on marriage, for example? Would you object to that on the grounds that the Bible also commands violent conquest? That would be very misguided.
Thank you for your reply, Joshua. It seems to me that you were indeed making a moral judgement. You said, "Is it okay that the Israelites simply killed a LOT of people? Is it moral that they drove a large number of people from their homes as they displaced them from their cities? Is there no ethical issue that Saul and the Israelite army only killed a LOT of the Amalekites?"
Your answer, presumably, would be No. I'm not exactly sure what your aim is, but you say, "Rather, I am addressing divine commands of violence and genocide in the Hebrew Bible because of the all-too-common use of biblical texts by Evangelicals in establishing and supporting their own moral system." Does this mean that the Bible should not be appealed to as authoritative because it contains commands that are no longer applicable? If people were using the Bible to justify the violent capture of land then I would agree with you. But what if someone appeals to the authority of the Bible on marriage, for example? Would you object to that on the grounds that the Bible also commands violent conquest? That would be very misguided.