My Survey of the Lost World of the Israelite Conquest

Below I discuss my key takeaways, themes, and ideas drawn from the book.

<aside> 📌 In an attempt to defend the goodness of God, many interpreters have gone beyond what the biblical text actually says regarding the reason for the Canaanite conquest. The Bible does not say the Canaanites deserved to be driven out of the land because of their sin, wickedness, or uncleanness. Rather, it was a matter of covenant faithfulness and community preservation. Our inaccurate assertions are a result of a misunderstanding of what the Bible is, mistranslating what the Hebrew says, and ignoring the ANE context.

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Respecting the Bible for What It Is

• We must first understand and respect that the Bible is an ancient document. It is not a rule book or a story dictionary trying to define for us what is good. Misunderstanding what the Bible is leads to misinterpretation.

<aside> ⚔️ The Bible is a record of God's actions that we are supposed to understand, not a compilation of rules that we are supposed to obey (20).

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• The Bible is not describing what is good when it is telling a story. It is describing history through a prophetic lens at a time when the culture was very different than our own.

<aside> ⚔️ The Bible exists to tell us what God is doing, and it describes what God is doing in terms of the language, logic, and values of the culture to which it was originally written (23).

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Re-evaluating Our Explanations

The Bible does not say the Canaanites were wicked and deserving of destruction.

When we claim the Canaanites were wicked and deserved their destruction we are going beyond what the Biblical text says; usurping the authority of the Bible to say what we want it to say. To respect the authority of the Bible, we should look at what the text actually says (or doesn’t say) about the Canaanites and make our conclusion based on the text. Below are some key points Walton establishes before getting into detailed arguments.

<aside> ⚔️ Importantly, the Bible gives only two reasons for the conquest:

1. YHWH is powerful and faithful to fulfill his covenant with Israel by giving them the land.
2. If the Canaanites remain in the land, the Israelites will be corrupted and the covenant broken.

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• Divine retribution is not a universal principle.
• The Bible does not condemn the Canaanites for horrendous practices.
• The Canaanites do not interpret their defeat as divine judgment from God.
• The Israelites do not own the land.
• The ANE mindset saw the rise and fall of kingdoms as part of a normal ordered universe.
• The Israelite covenant & expectation of fidelity was a unique relationship with God.
• Laws in ancient Israel are a part of legal wisdom literature.

Re-examining Mistranslated Hebrew Texts and Accusations Against the Canaanites

“Their sin stored up judgment” | Gen 15:16