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Ethics of War in the Hebrew Bible

The research project "Ethics of War in the Hebrew Bible" deals with the war texts of the Old Testament, which describe the motivations and causes that lead to war.

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The question of perspectives on the law of war in the texts of the Hebrew Bible

The research project "Ethics of War in the Hebrew Bible" deals with the war texts of the Old Testament, which describe the motivations and causes that lead to war. It also includes those texts in which concrete actions during the war - for example, the treatment of refugees, women and children - are evaluated in some way. These texts will be organized and analyzed within the framework of the questions posed by the philosophical discussion on just wars (the criteria of bellum iustum) in order to come as close as possible to the perspectives of the respective biblical authors on just motivations and appropriate action in the event of war. The aim of the project is to compare the statements of different texts with each other within this framework and thus to ask about a possible perspective development from older texts or text layers to the more recent ones.

Everything at a glance

  • Icon Kalender

    Duration
    01.09.2024 - 30.09.2028 (Ongoing)

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    Research area
    Media and culture

  • Icon Abzeichen Euro

    Funding
    Currently no external funding

 

Research objectives

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Aim of the project

The aim of the project is to compare the statements of different texts with each other in this context and thus to ask about a possible perspective development from older texts or text layers to the more recent ones.

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Significance of the project

The question of how to interpret and deal with the violent war texts of the Old Testament today is widely known. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the project aims to pose questions to these texts that are still relevant in war research today: What is held to be a just cause for war? Which actions are permitted and which are condemned? How is peace restored? The importance of the project lies not in a harmonization with modern ethical values, but in the attempt to better understand the values of a particular population group at different points in time.

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Publication on the project

The following essay has been accepted for publication as part of the project:

"Justice for the (Moabite) Fugitive: Foreign Politics and Scribal Theology in Isaiah 15-16," in Prophecy concerning the Nations between Foreign Politics and Scribal Theology, ed. Anselm C. Hagedorn and Meike J. Röhrig, HeBAI (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming).

The project team