When Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, he was told to destroy the Canaanites as well as their culture. Yet, how can a good God command genocide, and how are we to make sense of one of the Bible’s most difficult ethical problems? In The Destruction of the Canaanites, Charlie Trimm evaluates this topic from every conceivable angle: Who were the Canaanites, and what do we know about them? How should one understand the nature of warfare in the ancient world? When is an event considered genocide? He then provides four possible approaches to reconciling biblical violence.
