Any Ot Scholars Around?

[sandyRoe]

Are there any passages in the bible where entire communities of Caaninites or Samaritans, or other lesser tribes, were put to the sword by The Chosen People at Gods direction?

If there are they might come in useful for the apologists for Israel when they try to excuse what's going on at the moment.

[naomi24]

You're at it again, sandyRoe. ;o)

[Hypognosis]

Sandy,

There's a good selection of sites to choose from just googling the phrase
"canaanites genocide"
This is only one of them
http://atheism.about.com/od/biblestudyoldtestament1/a/Joshua-Genocide-yahweh.htm

hth

naomi quick off the mark as usual ;-)

[naomi24]

Hypognosis, sandyRoe, the master of the wooden spoon. I wonder if he's ever considered applying for Masterchef? :o)

[scorpiojo]

Lol

[sandyRoe]

am I really so transparent?

[naomi24]

'Fraid so.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Two questions, Sandy. I'm about to repeat some assertions made by apologists for Israel. First question is this: IF any of these assertions are true then might this not explain in part the actions of the Israelis? Second question: IF any of these assertions are true does this not make Hamas to SOME degree responsible for the sufferings being inflicted on the Gazans?

Assertions:

Hamas preaches hatred of all Jews
Hamas fires rockets at Israeli civilians.
Hamas solicits suicide bombers to to kill people in Israeli supermarkets.
Hamas caches weapons in or near some schools and hospitals.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Ah, I almost forgot. Do you follow University Challenge, Mr. Roe? If so you will have noticed that in the first of the new series Mr. Paxman repeated the "...and still the wonder grew" quotation from The Deserted Village.

[sandyRoe]

Hamas is a puny David confronting a murderous Goliath of gigantic size. Their rockets seem, to me at least, to be a reminder to the Israeli settlers that they're on stolen land.
Martyrs who carry bombs to the enemy act with great courage. Their actions might serve as another reminder to the occupiers that nowhere in public is safe.
I don't know if Hamas preaches hatred of all Jews. Nor do I know if the store weapons near schools or hospitals. But if they do and hope Israeli humanitarian feelings would inhibit attacks on their arsenals events have shown they were sadly mistaken.
Israel stole the land and act like murderous thugs in the defence of their stolen property. That's the heart of this. It's a bit strong to suggest that Israeli violence is a justifiable reaction to the legitimate protests of the true victims here.

[sandyRoe]

Yes. I watch it regularly. A good line will be used and reused, as it should be.

[goodlife]

You know Caananite armies that opposed Gods people. Toward the end of his life, Joshua told the older men of the nation of Israel: “You well know with all your hearts and with all your souls that not one word out of all the good words that Jehovah your God has spoken to you has failed. They have all come true for you. Not one word of them has failed.” (Joshua 23:14) Though you have not witnessed the miracles Joshua did, have you experienced the truthfulness of God’s promises in your lifetime, if not you can’t know your Bible.

Now the Samaritans were different, Jews have no dealings with Samaritans, said Gospel writer John. (John 4:9) And a study of Jewish writings bears this truth out, as Bible scholar A. Edersheim writes: Matters proceeded so far, that they were entirely excluded from fellowship. Yet we might call them an “in-between” people, for Jews did not view them “as Gentiles, but placed them on the same level as an ignorant Jew . . . they were not treated as heathens, and their land, their springs, baths, houses, and roads were declared clean. Samaritans being socially despised yet viewed by the Jews as having certain legal and moral privileges, we can see how Jesus could drink water at a Samaritan woman’s hand, his disciples could buy food in their city and Jesus could spend two days with them.—John 4:7, 8, 40.

[sandyRoe]

Goodlife, so Joshua would have condoned this smiting, 'hip and thigh' of the hapless women and children in Gaza?

[goodlife]

sandyroe@ Theres no comparison.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Another oracular utterance by Goodlife. Do you think s/he's been on the laurel leaves again, Sandy?

[sandyRoe]

The prophecies of the Pythia at Delphi were fuelled by fumes coming up from the ground. Ambiguous and gnomic utterances are never much help. Then or now.

[goodlife]

sandyRoe Briefly, just what did Jesus teach?... . Teaching is primarily a matter of love. Of course, his perspective was that of a secular teacher. Still, his point may be even more applicable to the teaching we do as true Christians today, You do make hard for youself and get no where.

[Mosaic]

I can't give you chapter and verse Sandy but there's the bit about the 'shibboleth' (harvest)
The Israelites had got into it with the others (anyone else eg Moabites, etc) and they won the scrap, however the opposition on realising they were defeated chucked away their weapons, stuck their hands in their pockets and mingled with the melee whistling nonchalantly and looking innocent. They were indistinguishable from the Israelites.
So the Israelites set up roadblocks and commanded those who passed through to say 'harvest' (shibboleth). Hebrew pronounces this word with a 'sh' but in adjacent dialects this was 'sss', much like the difference between shalom and salaam today - same word, dialect difference.
And they that spake sibboleth were slewn, apparently. Sounds like a bit of ethnic cleansing to me.

[naomi24]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth

[Mosaic]

Then there's the little outbreak of frightfulness with the people of Midian. Despite being close rellies eg Abraham's wife was a Midianite, the Israelites were seemingly commanded by God (or was it Dog?) to kill the lot, which they dutifully did, and also any woman who was not a virgin.
Apparently Dog was furious that the Midianites had made some Hebrews worship Bull - sorry, Ba'al.
Again, a good old blood-fest apparently commanded from on high.

[Mosaic]

Thing is, in this relatively crowded geographical intersection of the world, there have been all sorts of scraps breaking out some of which are half or completely recorded, many of which occurred and were lost in the mists of time. At Tell Brak in Syria, archaeologists have found one of the earliest examples of an apparent massacre from about 3800 BC (or BCE, if one wishes to be politically correct)

http://anthropology.net/2007/09/09/5800-year-old-mass-graves-from-tell-brak-syria/