Prologue – A Time for Every Purpose:
For everything there is a season,
and a time for every purpose under heaven;
a time to be born, a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what has been planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
… a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-9.
Andrew James looks at war and peace in three writings:
- War, Peace & Justice in Judaism: Part One – The Hebrew Bible.
- War, Peace & Justice in Judaism: Part Two – ‘Shalom’ & Resistance:
- War, Peace & Justice in Judaism: Epilogue – Three Faiths, Two States & Universal Human Rights.
and places on this platform an
Before the first Israeli counter-offence began in the week following the Hamas-led pogrom against the kibbutzim and villages of southern Israel on 7th October, the beleaguered Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, quoted the passage in a press conference. The bombardment which followed certainly represented Israel’s ‘time for war’, but was criticised for its lack of proportion by some of Israel’s ‘Western’ allies, not to mention its regional Arab neighbours.
Andrew James tells us that the Bible contains material that gives advice or even instructions on how people should live moral lives.
Two of its other genres can be seen to do this: wisdom and law. It has long been traditional to group certain books in the ‘OT’ under the heading ‘wisdom’: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job, as well as those in the Apocrypha like the Wisdom of Solomon. These, like the passage quoted above, contain many short sayings or aphorisms, summing up the Hebrew experience or giving explicit advice on how to behave. Many seem to reflect life in a village community and draw ‘morals’ from its daily activities. But some sayings seem better suited to the royal court than the Israelite village:
Wise warriors are mightier than strong ones,
and those who have knowledge than those who have strength;
for by wise guidance you can wage war,
and in abundance of counsellors there is victory.
Proverbs 24: 5-6.
This has led to a consensus among biblical scholars that the collection of proverbs into books probably occurred at the king’s court in Jerusalem, rather than in rural communities, and the books were most likely the work of scribes who made a living in royal employment.
He notes:
Even before the Hamas attacks on Israel on the 7th of October, the massive demonstrations in Israel and the seeming breakdown of national cohesion had captured headlines in Israel and around the world. What began as protests against the Judicial Reform legislation evolved into broader confrontations between religious and secular Israeli Jews as well as a wave of attacks on minority communities.
He also correctly reminds us that, in seeking a resolution to the current conflict, that – in religious terms – there are three faiths involved.
Besides Islam and Judaism, there are also significant minority groups of both Israeli and Palestinian Christians. In addition to the innocent civilian victims of the bombing, missile and mortar fire, mosques, churches, schools and hospitals run by Christian charities operating in Gaza, have been destroyed or damaged. Some of this destruction, resulting from IDF’s indiscriminate actions, clearly falls outside what is permissible in the Torah and Talmud, never mind in international humanitarian law.
For him
Hamas’s attack on Israel was completely outside any religion’s teaching on war. It was unjustifiable in any terms, religious or secular. It was nothing more than an act of terrorism, and as such beyond the bounds of any concept of humanity. In response, Israel’s leaders referred to its bestiality and were criticised for doing so. It was the critics who were wrong, however, since no species of animal kills its own by inflicting pain and suffering or seeks to gain pleasure from doing so.
Continue reading the above mentioned articles and find more on:
- Deliverance – The People of the Lord & their Laws
- Hebrew ‘War Poetry’ & The Psalms
- value of the Psalms
- primary relationship of God
- Traditions of Shalom
- Allegorical Interpretations of the ‘Old Testament’
- Peace, Justice & Prophetic Visions
- Resistance to Greece & Rome – Model ‘Freedom Fighters’?
- Pharisees ‘quietists’ and advocates of non-resistance to Rome
- Gospels church books, written for the guidance of the early Christian communities and concerned with their religious life
- Issue at Stake
- Freedom Fighters
- Jesus a different kind of Messiah
- The Rabbinic Tradition – Temple, Torah & Talmud
- Maimonides’ Principles of War
- The Vocation to Suffering
- Hope for a Future without Children Dying
- Israel, Gaza, and the Christian Communities in Crisis
- Conclusion – Restoring Religion & Humanity
Some View on the World 
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