Bloody Brutal and Barbaric? by Gordon K. Oeste William J. Webb & Gordon K. Oeste & William J. Webb

Author:Gordon K. Oeste, William J. Webb & Gordon K. Oeste & William J. Webb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2019-10-13T11:18:10+00:00

► No widespread impaling (primarily limited to the king).

► Display of the dead body lasted for several hours, rather than for days.

► The body was taken down and buried before sunset.

Perhaps the most dramatic difference is the absence of physical torture and a measure of dignity for the dead body. Israel’s purpose for hanging a dead enemy (a king) on a pole was to signal the taking of the city. With the death of the king, the city had fallen and been subdued. Pole hangings within the biblical war texts were not used to inflict prolonged torture on live captives for days, followed by the prospect of their bodies being eaten by vultures. Several lines of biblical evidence support understanding Israel’s pole-hanging practice as only for already-dead (not living) enemy kings. First, the most explicit text, Joshua 10:26, uses two verbs for killing/ending of life before mentioning the hanging of the body for display:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.