the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

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sacral institution, the monarchy under David and Solomon already practiced
warfare as an essentially secular arm of royal diplomacy, using hired
mercenaries and a royal corps. Thereafter, the idea of a cultic war persisted
only as a theological doctrine. Traces of older holy war ideas and
practices are still, according to von Rad, visible in the prophetic books,
notably the “Fear not!” oracle, derived from a speech of encouragement
and assurance of divine help before battle, and references to a “day of
Yahweh” in prophetic oracles. For him, this “day of Yahweh” was originally
a day of battle, in which the Deity acted mightily in defeat of his
enemies. But von Rad regarded the fully elaborated “holy war” as an ideological
construction of the book of Deuteronomy, followed by the
Deuteronomists, who applied it to narratives of Israel’s early conflicts in
the land of Canaan. The inspiration for the resurgence and development
of such an ideology lies, according to von Rad’s theory, in the reign of
Josiah (late seventh century B.C.E.), at a time when the Judean militia
was, he argued, reconstituted and policies of national expansion formulated
and pursued. After the failure of Josiah’s attempt to restore a greater
Israel, however, there ceased to be any connection between the practice
of war and the ideology of “holy war,” at least within the time frame of
the Old Testament.
This thesis, though elegant and in harmony with von Rad’s general
separation of Old Testament theology and Israelite history, has met criticism
from several quarters. The idea that in the ancient Near East generally,
cultic and secular warfare are distinguishable is improbable, and
even if a practical “secularization” of warfare under the monarchy took
place, divine legitimization will have remained fundamental to the royal
ideology of warfare. The theory of an ancient tribal league has also been
abandoned (as has von Rad’s thesis that there was a “Solomonic enlightenment,”
a key element in his entire tradition history of the Old
Testament). Scholars have also sharply questioned von Rad’s suggestion
that holy wars (even in theory) were purely defensive; and they have
always disputed whether the “day of the Lord” found in the prophetic
literature really has its basis in divine military victory rather than, for
example, a cultic theophany. 8
Millard Lind has attacked both von Rad’s thesis of a relatively late theological
concept of holy war and also the suggestion that its roots are found
in early mythological conceptions. 9 Instead, he argues that the Exodus
8. Gerhard von Rad, “The Origin of the Concept of the Day of Yahweh,” JSS 4
(1959): 97–108.
9. Millard C. Lind, Yahweh Is a Warrior: The Theology of Warfare in Ancient Israel
(Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1980).