A Study for Reading the Old Testament as the Ethical Book: Focusing on Herem in the Book of Joshua (윤리적 책으로 구약 읽기를 위한 한 모색-여호수아서에 나타나는 헤렘을 중심으로)

Sa-Ya Lee (이사야)

A Study for Reading the Old Testament as the Ethical Book: Focusing on Herem in the Book of Joshua

The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics
Abbr : 기사윤
2023, (55), pp.237-264
Publisher : The Society Of Korean Christian Social Ethics
Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
Received : March 15, 2023
Accepted : March 29, 2023
Published : April 30, 2023

Sa-Ya Lee ¹

¹남서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study attempts an ethical reading of the Old Testament, focusing on Herem in the Book of Joshua. In the Old Testament, there are scattered stories that are difficult for modern people to accept. Among them, the Herem means destroying the enemy’s city and annihilating its inhabitants. If so, is it ethically reasonable to exterminate all life and the inhabitants of Jericho, regardless of age or gender? Indeed, we cannot rejoice in the declaration that Israel annihilated the gentiles and destroyed the city. The text demands to be read from an ethical point of view besides God’s judgment and salvation. It contrasts Rahab, a gentile prostitute, with Achan, an Israelite, and tells us that gentiles can be saved by being excluded from the objects of Herem, and that Israelis can also become objects of Herem. Also, through the story of Achan, it is said that individual ethics are community ethics. Above all, the text demands to be read from the perspective that life and worship cannot be separated.

KEYWORDS

Ethics, Old Testament, Herem, Jericho, Ai, Gentile, Human Sacrifice

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.

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