Is God cruel? The hard passages in scripture

Judaism

“When thou drawest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.”

Deuteronomy 20:10 · JPS 1917

Jewish tradition does not skip the hard pages. It argues with them. On the Flood, the rabbis taught that Noah spent many years building the ark in public, so that people would ask why and have time to change their ways (Sanhedrin 108b). In their reading, the story is about how long God waits. Genesis itself says the wickedness of people “grieved Him at His heart” (6:6).

On Canaan, the Jerusalem Talmud says that Joshua sent word ahead: anyone who wished could leave, anyone who wished could make peace, and only those who chose war would face war (Shevi’it 6:1). Maimonides wrote it into law: no war may be fought against anyone in the world until peace has first been offered (Laws of Kings 6:1). The rabbis also ruled that the ancient nations named in these commands no longer exist, because the Assyrian king Sennacherib had “mingled all the nations” (Mishnah Yadayim 4:4). In practice, the commands were closed.

When the Egyptians drowned in the sea, a well-known Talmud teaching says the angels wanted to sing. God stopped them: the work of His hands was drowning (Megillah 10b). At the Passover meal, many families still spill a drop of wine for each plague, so that their cup of joy is a little less full.

Christianity

“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”

Matthew 5:44–45 · World English Bible (British Edition), public domain

Christians read the Hebrew Bible through Jesus, who told his followers to love their enemies. Early Christian teachers felt the strain at once. In the second century a teacher called Marcion decided that the God of the Hebrew Bible must be a different, harsher god. The church rejected him and kept both parts of its Bible, insisting there is one God throughout.

So readers looked for other keys. Origen of Alexandria, in the third century, read Joshua’s battles as a picture of the soul’s fight against its own faults: the enemies to be driven out are pride, greed and anger. Paul told Christians never to take revenge themselves (Romans 12:19). Today many Christian scholars point to the exaggerated style of ancient war writing. Many also say plainly that some passages remain troubling, and should be read with sorrow, not pride.

Islam

“And if anyone of the idolaters seeketh thy protection (O Muhammad), then protect him so that he may hear the Word of Allah, and afterward convey him to his place of safety. That is because they are a folk who know not.”

Qur’an 9:6 · Pickthall (1930)

The Qur’an verse most often quoted out of context is 9:5, sometimes called the “sword verse”. It speaks of fighting idol-worshippers once the sacred months are over. In place, it concerns particular Arabian tribes who had broken a treaty. The verse before it exempts those who kept their word (9:4). The verse after it says that if one of them asks for protection, he must be given it, allowed to hear God’s word, and escorted somewhere safe (9:6).

The first verses on fighting set limits from the start. “Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors.” (2:190, Pickthall). The passage goes on: if they stop, God is forgiving and merciful, and there is to be no hostility except against wrongdoers (2:192–193). Classical scholars read this as permission to defend the early community against the Meccans who had driven it from its homes. It was never a licence for any war.

Even 5:32, the verse that says killing one innocent person is like killing all humanity, is often quoted without its setting. It follows the story of Adam’s two sons and the first murder. The Qur’an presents it as a law given earlier to the Children of Israel, and the Mishnah has the same teaching (Sanhedrin 4:5). It is shared moral ground.

Without religion

Many humanists say that, whatever the context, a text that orders the death of whole peoples cannot come from a good God. They argue that we should judge scripture by our conscience, not the other way round. They add that “context” can become a way of excusing anything. Many believers agree with half of this. Conscience, they say, is itself a gift from God, and it is meant to be used when reading.

Sikhi

The Guru Granth Sahib has no conquest stories. Its hardest words are aimed at pride, hypocrisy and empty ritual. It also gathers the voices of Hindu and Muslim saints. Among them is Sheikh Farid, a Muslim Sufi of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, whose verses tell the reader not to strike back at those who strike you, but to kiss their feet and go home (ang 1378). Sikhs read their scripture as one long call to love God and serve people, and they read the hard moments of their own history in that light.

Hindu traditions

The Bhagavad Gita is set on a battlefield. Krishna urges the warrior Arjuna, who does not want to fight his own relatives, to do his duty. Readers have long asked what that means. Mahatma Gandhi, who turned to the Gita daily, read the battle as the one inside every human heart, between selfishness and duty, and drew from it a life of non-violence. Other Hindu teachers read it as about a just war fought without hatred. The tradition holds both readings side by side.

Beyond the Abrahamic faiths

Many traditions outside Abraham’s family have their own hard stories, and long habits of reading them wisely. In the Indian epic the Mahabharata, the great war ends with almost everyone dead, and the winners weep over the bodies; the story itself asks whether victory was worth it. Jain teachers, whose whole path rests on ahimsa, non-harm, retell old tales of kings and battles as warnings about the cost of anger.