Normalizing Violence, Part 1

  Genesis 6:11-13: ¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. ¹³ And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. [NRSV]

 

[From the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. The earliest writing in the region, 7th C BCE. The pottery handle is inscribed: 'Mine']

This is a story about violence. How one understands its meaning depends on where one starts. It is common in recent times to see the violence and condemn God for bringing about the genocide of humans and animals. This, unfortunately, is not only to miss the point but to ascribe to it quite the opposite of the story’s purpose.

The starting point for hearing the Flood Account is not from our modern, liberal and sceptical rationalism; nor is it from a simplistic literalist approach that considers this a historical account. To appreciate the genius and subtlety of this ancient story we need to place ourselves in the room with those who seek to explain theologically ‘how we got to the mess we are in’. This starting point has to look back from the end of the long ‘historical’ narrative of the people of Israel found in 2 Kings 25—following the destruction of Jerusalem and Temple and the deportation of the population except for the lowly ‘people of the land’. The position we need to take is that of the Wise Men of Judah, in Babylon, seeking to make sense of what had just happened. Was everything they had believed in false? Or, had they missed the point of God’s engagement with them completely?

‘How did we get to the mess we are in?’ Looking at the story of humanity, grasping that ‘every inclination of the human heart was only evil continually’ (Gen 6:6), the theologians came to the rational conclusion that the basic human state is a violent one. And violence leads to destruction.

At the heart of the Hebrew account of how things came to be the way they are, and of how God is involved in it all, is the acknowledgement of the normality of violence in human life. The ‘rest of the story’ in the Bible is about how God deals with this basic reality.

Of course, this part of the story is not the beginning. The earlier narrative describes, without any attempt to gloss over it, how the first human family was torn apart by murder, when Cain slayed his brother. And this is shown to flow directly from the violent decision of the first couple to choose their own way in life, saying of the fruit of the tree, ‘Mine’.

Those early theologians looked past this first ‘sin’ and saw a world of lost potential for human well-being in relation to God. There was a better way of being, but it was lost in what we now call ‘The Fall’.

What does this mean for our troubled present? It means the strong will use violence against those deemed weak. As we read through the story of humanity we see that power is in the hands of the physically strongest, with the best weapons; the bullies. Such has it been, such it is, and such—it seems—it will ever be. This is where we are. Why are we surprised?

The rest of the story? ‘Noah found grace’. That is for another time.