You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.ĭeut. 7:2 (emphasis mine) – when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them.
Deuteronomy 7įirst of all, Copan points out that in Deuteronomy 7 there are indications in the text that “utterly destroy” refers to the false religion of the Canaanites.
Since I think his ideas are relevant to our understanding of the ban I have summarized the pertinent portions of it along with my own commentary and conclusions. Copan argues that the language of the ban may be “ancient Near Eastern exaggeration rhetoric.”Īt first I was skeptical, but found myself more open to his position as he argued his case from clues within the text itself. Many Christian authors have tried to put the ban into perspective for modern readers, but Paul Copan sheds new light on the subject in his book Is God A Moral Monster. Dawkins asks “Would you shake hands with a man who could write stuff like that? Would you share a platform with him? I wouldn’t, and I won’t.”
Richard Dawkins, for example, refuses to debate William Lane Craig until Craig abandons his belief in the ban. This command, known as “the ban,” is a major objection cited by critics of the Bible. In the book of Deuteronomy God orders the Israelites to “utterly destroy” the people living in the land of Canaan.
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