Universal justice across different novels?
The topic of “war ethos” has been an ongoing discussion in class, and while we have established that the Greeks were biased in their definition of “justice”, I can’t help while writing my essay but find irony in the fact that perhaps the Hebrews within the Bible were impartial of their justice too. How can a society that claims that “anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death”(Exodus 21:12) believe in “destined slaughtering”? When the Hebrews set out to claim their “Land flowing with Milk and Honey,” (3:33), surely the Amorites, Midian, and Og would not have regarded themselves as “wicked people”. Yet, while we have agreed in discussing the Peloponnesian War that it is not right to justify war through God, we seemed to have accepted the Bible’s innate bias.
I think the injustice found in the Peloponnesian War can be summarized very concisely through one of Sun Tzu's quotes in the Art of War: "To avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.” Yes, the slaughtering of the Plataians and Boeotians were wrong, but it was done as part of the “Scorched-Earth” mentality that all enemy resources must be destroyed to prevent further use. Imagine if the Athenians or Lacedaemonians justified killing through Gods - it would have been totally against the Greek paradigm of honor.
So if we have deemed this “practicality” of the Greeks to be unjust, how come we accept the Hebrew mass murders? Furthermore, is “equality” still the basis of justice when we transition from historical to religious records?
-Robert
You make a very good point. While reading Deuteronomy, I found myself immensely confused in some of the laws being established. It seems that God's codes trump any form of "justice". For instance, Moses explains to the Israelites what God wants from them when they approach a city in war. He states that " when [they] draw near to a town to fight against it, [they must] offer it terms of peace. If it accepts... then all the people in it shall serve [them] as forced labor. If it does not submit to [them] peacefully, but makes war against [them], then [they] shall besiege it...[they] shall put all its males to the sword" (Deut 20:10-13). How is either option for the city being attacked by the Israelites 'just' in any fashion?
ReplyDeleteI am stunned at how God sets laws so it is immoral and a mortal sin to murder someone, yet it is somehow justifiable to go to a city and either make them slaves or kill them all in the name of God.
In all honesty, I do not fully understand how you could be "stunned" too see God's hypocrisy at work. Yes, it is entirely immoral to establish a law that forbids killing, all while promoting the killing of others. However, none of this should come as a great surprise--seeing as God has consistently established himself as a hypocrite throughout the entire Pentateuch. For example, after having deemed his creation of humankind "good," God--in an utter display of hypocrisy--decides to destroy his own creation. In this vein, I do not understand why you are stunned to see God demonstrate hypocrisy; it is simply in his nature.
ReplyDeleteThe problem lies in the understanding of "universal justice" that is commonly held today. It's only very recently that this idea of universal rights for all, and with that a strong view that any kind of violence including war is inherently bad for whatever reason, has become widely popularized. In the time periods of the Greeks and the Israelites, their view of judgement was very different than the one we have today. The Jews viewed that since God willed them to destroy these cities, that is was therefore inherently moral and justifiable, in the same way that the Greeks felt that they cannot use the gods to justify a war, but instead they had to abide by their sense of honor. However, viewed through the modern lens of "universal justice" neither of these would seem to make sense.
ReplyDeleteI think the commandment, "Thou shall not kill" set forth by God, is forbidding killing without a cause. When God destroyed, for example, the city of Sodom, it was due to the inhabitants' wickedness. He did not kill just for the sake of killing. We can't really apply our own definition of justice to make sense of the Bible and of the PW. And we can't really know for sure what justice means in these texts.
ReplyDeleteIn the Old Testament, God directly lays out His rules to show what is expected of the people. I agree with Ali that it is confusing and hypocritical when what He sees as unjust is suddenly morally okay when it is done for Him. In PW, they also went against their own codes of justice and morals to fight to expand and imperialize. Therefore, I don't think that there is a set universal definition of justice- it depends on the time and the situation. Perhaps at the time, expansion (in both the OT and PW) was valued over everything, therefore going against their own moral codes was acceptable.
ReplyDeleteAmy Shih