Holy War in Ancient Israel, by Gerhard von Rad > > Home

God is a Warrior

Posted Tuesday, October 23, 2007 by Charlie Trimm
Categories: Military Issues  

This book by Longman and Reid is a helpful overview to the specific topic of the divine warrior. The great strength of the book is its descriptive ability of how war plays a role in how God interacts wit his people and how his people are to live. After a short overview of the history of research, the book is divided into two section: OT and NT. The OT contains chapters on the wars of faithful Israel, the war against unfaithful Israel, the day of the Lord, the war of God against chaos, and the comparison of battle in the Bible to the ANE. The NT contains the new Exodus as the new conquest, Jesus as the slain but triumpant warrior, Paul's discussion of the powers, Paul' talk of holy warriors, and Revelation and divine warfare.

The detriments of the book are twofold. Longman makes too many generalizations. For example, he claims that the ark was always present, even when the text does not mention it. He says that the early loss of the ark and selective historiography cut out the ark. (41) He also says that the plunder always belonged to the Lord, recognizing that some narratives do not match this reality. (46) He does recognize that some diachronic factors are at work, but doesn't detail what they might be. (47)
Second, he seems to find what he is looking for, particularly in the NT. While he does highlight some important points, some of them are stretched.

While the book is quite good in describing the motif, it does not do anything with the motif, sadly. What does this mean for a biblical view of war? Some concluding thoughts would have been nice.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 12:30 PM

Brian wrote: Just what Sam needed If you need some satisfaction for “he didn’t do anything with this motif” you could pick up just about anything by John Eldredge. He has been tackling this theme for years - ever since “Wild At Heart” hit the shelves.

Thursday, October 25, 2007 12:44 PM

Charlie wrote:  Good point, Brian, I hadn't thought about that. Also interesting becaue Millard Lind takes the idea of the divine warrior and runs with it just as strongly in the opposite direction. I'll be posting a review on his book soon.

Login to add comments