Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide: Christian Interpretations of Herem Passages, by Christian Hofreiter

Abstract

In this comprehensive study, Austrian scholar Christian Hofreiter offers an excellent survey of the Christian reception of the highly problematic Old Testament passages (in Deuteronomy, Joshua, and 1 Samuel 15) which demand the extinction of people. The Jewish reception of these passages is not in view.1 In this review, I focus on the sections of the study in which Hofreiter describes and analyses the reception by early Christian and late ancient authors. Hofreiter seeks to address the following questions: