Warfare in the NT

Christian Alexander

I am looking to begin a study on warfare in the New Testament. I want to study the organization, weapons, and tactics of this time period and the wars around the New Testament era. I have read basic dictionaries on the topic. See below what I did read. None of these are new in nature. A few years ago, I read a book on the Old Testament forms of warfare called Warfare in the Old Testament: The Organization, Weapons, and Tactics of Ancient Near Eastern Armies by Boyd Seevers. Do you all on the forum have any suggestions for further readings? I tried accessing Lexham Bible Dictionary but it did not have any good resources or entries. I also read Factbook but it was very brief. 

Bauernfeind, Otto. “πóλεμος, πολεμέω.” In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Vol. 6. Edited by Gerhard Friedrich; translator and editor, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, 502–515. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1968.

Böcher, Otto. “πóλεμος, πολεμέω.” In The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. Vol. 3. Edited by Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider, 128–129. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993.

Klassen, William. “War in the NT.” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Vol. 6. Edited by David Noel Freedman, 867–875. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

LaSor, William Sanford. “War.” In The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Edited by Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, 791–792. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

I am waiting on the interlibrary loan for this chapter. 

Swartley, Willard M. “Peace and Violence in the New Testament: Definition and Methodology.” In Struggles for Shalom: Peace and Violence across the Testaments. Edited by Laura L. Brenneman and Brad D. Schantz, 141–154. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2014.

Rosie Perera

Christian Alexander said:

I am looking to begin a study on warfare in the New Testament.

Wait a minute. You've already read and internalized and understood all of Neusner? And Jewish background of John? You jump around from topic to topic so much. What is your ultimate goal here? It feels like you are leading us on a ride on a wild horse that cannot be slowed down or steered.

Do you truly read and assimilate material so fast? Have you produced something written from your studies of this past week? You should be writing a lot for all the reading you're doing, and if you are not, you are moving on to new topics too quickly. You have in the past said that you have problems with your memory. If you don't write something about what you've read/learned, you are going to forget it and it will have been a waste of all your effort.

I could give you a long bibliography of books to read on warfare in the NT, but if you don't have them in your Logos library, what would be the point? Yes, I see you can get some books via interlibrary loan. But do you have the basic skills for coming up with a research bibliography? Even going onto Amazon and typing in some search terms will help you find a bunch of books related to a topic of interest, whether they are available in Logos or not. (And of course, since you're wanting to use Logos as much as possible, you should do that search in your Library (both in the main Library tab and in the "Add to Library" tab).

Also you need to work on doing better at constructing searches. Rather than searching for "warfare in the NT" for example, search for war "new testament". If you do that on Amazon, you'll find a lot of titles. If you restrict it to a Title search (on Amazon Advanced Books Search), it will narrow it down considerably, but you might miss out on some interesting ones.

Then, do you have a tool to use for building up bibliographies as you're researching? Zotero would be very useful for you if you don't have it (or something similar such as Endnote or Citavi) already. It's free. You can create all the bibliographies you want, for whatever topic you're researching, and add books you come across in your searches that you would like to read if you can get hold of them.

Yes, you definitely need to go beyond reading dictionary entries like TDNT, EDNT, ABD, OCB. But start by looking at the bibliographies at the ends of those entries to build up your wider bibliography of books and articles to read. (BTW, I wish I had the Oxford Companion to the Bible myself. Logos doesn't carry it, so you must have it in hard cover. I've put in a suggestion for it. PLEASE VOTE.)

The Bibliography at the end of the TDNT article, for starters, is massive. Have you looked into getting access to and reading as many of these as pique your interest?

Bibliography
Bainton, R. H. 1960. Christian Attitudes toward War and Peace. Nashville.
Baldry, H. C. 1965. The Unity of Mankind in Greek Thought. Cambridge.
Bauer, W. 1917. Das Gebot der Feindesliebe und die alten Christen. ZTK 27: 37–54.
Betz, O. 1956. Jesu Heiliger Krieg. NovT 1: 116–37.
Bienert, W. 1952. Krieg, Kriegsdienst und Kriegsdienstverweigerung nach der Botschaft des NT. Stuttgart.
Bigelmair, A. 1902. Die Beteiligung der Christen am öffentlichen Leben in vorkonstantinischer Zeit. Munich.
Bonk, J. 1988. The World at War, The Church at Peace: A Biblical Perspective. Winnipeg, MB.
Borg, M. J. 1984. Conflict, Holiness and Politics in the Teachings of Jesus. Lewiston, NY.
Brock, P. 1988. The Military Question in the Early Church. Toronto.
Brown, J. P. 1971. Peace Symbolism in Ancient Military Vocabulary. VT 21: 1–23.
Brownlee, W. H. 1983. From Holy War to Holy Martyrdom. Pp. 281–292 in The Quest for the Kingdom of God, ed. H. B. Huffmon, F. A. Spina and A. R. W. Green. Winona Lake, IN.
Cadbury, H. J. 1918. The Basis of Early Christian Antimilitarism. JBL 37: 66–94.
Cadoux, C. J. 1919. The Early Christian Attitude to War. London.
Caird, G. B. 1966. The Revelation of St. John the Divine. HNTC. New York.
Campenhausen, H. von. 1968. Tradition and Life in the Early Church. London.
Childress, J. F. 1986. Moral Discourse about War in the Early Church. Pp. 117–33 in Peace, Politics and the People of God, ed. P. Peachey. Philadelphia.
Chilton, B. D. 1987. The Isaiah Targum. Aramaic Bible 11. Wilmington, DE.
Clausewitz, K. von. 1968. On War, ed. A. Rapoport; trans. J. J. Graham. Harmondsworth.
Collins, A. Y. 1977. The Political Perspective of the Revelation of John. JBL 96: 241–56.
Collins, J. J. 1975. The Mythology of Holy War in Daniel and the Qumran War Scroll. VT 25: 596–612.
Daly, R. J. 1982. The New Testament and Early Church. Pp. 33–62 in Non-violence—Central to Christian Spirituality, ed. J. Culliton. Lewiston, NY.
Dodd, C. H. 1939. The Theology of Christian Pacifism. Pp. 5–15 in The Bases of Christian Pacifism. London.
Edmonds, H. 1938. Geistlicher Kriegsdienst: Der Topos der militia spiritualis in der antiken Philosophie. Pp. 21–50 in Heilige Überlieferung, Ausschnitte aus der Geschichte des Mönchtums und des heiligen Kultes. I Herwegen, ed. Beiträge der Geschichte des Alten Mönchtums in der Kirche Sup. Münster. = Pp. 133–162 in A. von Harnack, Militia Christi: Die Christliche Religion und der Soldatenstand in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten. Repr. Darmstadt, 1963.
Elster, W. L. 1986. The New Law of Christ and Early Christian Pacifism. Pp. 108–29 in Essays on War and Peace, ed. W. M. Swartley. Elkhart, IN.
Fast, H. 1959. Jesus and Human Conflict. Scottdale, PA.
Gero, S. 1970. Miles Gloriosus: The Christian and Military Service according to Tertullian. CH 39: 285–98.
Grant, R. M. 1970. The Thrust of the Christian Movement into the Roman World. New York.
Grossfeld, B. 1988. The Targum Onqelus to Genesis. Aramaic Bible 6. Wilmington, DE.
Gunkel, H. 1916. Israelitisches Heldentum und Kriegsfrömmigkeit im Alten Testament. Göttingen.
Harnack, A. von. 1981. Militia Christi. Trans. D. M. Gracie. Philadelphia.
Heering, G. J. 1930. The Fall of Christianity. Trans. J. W. Thompson. London.
Helgeland, J. 1974. Christians and the Roman Army A.D. 173–337. CH 43: 149–63; 200.
Helgeland, J.; Daly, R. J.; and Burns, J. P. 1985. Christians and the Military. Philadelphia.
Hornus, J.-M. 1980. It Is Not Lawful for Me to Fight. Trans. A. Kreider and O. Coburn. Rev. ed. Scottdale, PA.
Klassen, W. 1966. Vengeance in the Apocalypse. CBQ 28: 300–11.
———. 1986. Jesus and Phineas: A Rejected Role Model. SBLSP, pp. 490–500.
———. 1987. Jesus and the Messianic War. Pp. 155–75 in Early Jewish and Christian Exegesis, ed. C. A. Evans and W. F. Stinespring. Atlanta.
Kocis, E. 1971. Apokalyptik und politisches Interesse im Spätjudentum. Judaica 27: 71–89.
Lasserre, J. 1962. War and the Gospel. Trans. O. Coburn. Scottdale, PA.
Lauterbach, J. Z. 1976. Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael. 3 vols. Philadelphia.
Leeuwen, W. S. van. 1940. Eirene in het Nieuwe Testament. Wageningen.
Leipoldt, J. 1958. Das Bild vom Kriege in der griechischen Welt. Pp. 282–302 in Von den Mysterien zur Kirche. Leipzig.
Leivestad, R. 1954. Christ the Conqueror. London.
Levey, S. H. 1974. The Messiah: An Aramaic Interpretation, The Messianic Exegesis of the Targum. Cincinnati.
Levin, S., ed. and trans. 1950. EIS ROME, To Rome, by Aelius Aristides. Glencoe, IL.
Longman, T., III. 1982. The Divine Warrior. WTJ 44: 290–307.
Malherbe, A. J. 1983. Antithenes and Odysseus and Paul at War. HTR 76: 43–73.
Megivern, J. J. 1985. Early Christianity and Military Service. Pp. 175–83 in Perspectives in Religious Studies. Macon, GA.
Miller, L. J. 1941. Military Service in the Infant Church. Jurist 1: 255–64.
Minn, H. R. 1941. Tertullian and War: Voices from the Early Church. EvQ 13: 202–13.
Murray, R. 1975. The Exhortation to Candidates for Ascetical Vows at Baptism in the Ancient Syriac Church. NTS 21: 59–80.
Musto, R. G. 1986. The Catholic Peace Tradition. Maryknoll, NY.
Musto, R. G., ed. 1987. The Peace Tradition in the Catholic Church: An Annotated Bibliography. New York.
Nestle, W. 1938. Der Friedensgedanke in der antiken Welt. Leipzig.
Neufeld Yoder, T. R. 1989. God and Saints at War. Th.D. thesis, Harvard.
Nuttall, G. F. 1958. Christian Pacifism in History. Oxford.
Rendtorff, H. 1937. Soldatentum und Gottesglaube. Berlin.
Rogers, B. B. 1955. Five Comedies of Aristophanes. Garden City.
Rordorf, W. 1969. Tertullians Beurteilung des Soldatenstandes. VC 23: 105–41.
Ruyter, K. W. 1982. Pacifism and Military Service in the Early Church. CC 32: 54–70.
Ryan, E. A. 1952. The Rejection of Military Service by the Early Christians. TS 13: 1–32.
Schilling, R. 1969. The Roman Religion. Pp. 442–94 in Religions of the Past, ed. J. C. Bleeker and G. Widengren. Historia Religionum 1. Leiden.
Secretan, H.-F. 1914. Le christianisme des premiers siecles et le service militaire. RTP n.s. 2: 345–65.
Stauffer, E. 1955. Christ and the Caesars. London.
Swift, L. J. 1983. The Early Fathers on War and Military Service. Wilmington, DE.
———. 1986. Search the Scriptures: Patristic Exegesis and the Ius Belli. Pp. 48–68 in Peace in a Nuclear Age, ed. C. J. Reid, Jr. Washington, DC.
Volz, P. 1934. Die Eschatologie der jüdischen Gemeinde im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter. Tübingen.
Wengst, K. 1987. Pax Romana and the Peace of Jesus Christ. Trans. J. Bowden. Philadelphia.
Windass, G. S. 1962. The Early Christian Attitude to War. ITQ 24: 235–45.
Windisch, H. 1909. Der messianische Krieg und das Urchristentum. Tübingen.
Yoder, J. H. 1979. The Politics of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI.

It would be a waste of time for me or anyone else to give you suggestions of more resources to read if you haven't done this basic homework yourself. This is seriously beginner master's degree level homework, creating a bibliography of books you want to read. Do it yourself.

I like Willard Swartley on war & peace, because he's a fellow Mennonite/Anabaptist. Good on you for finding his chapter. Keep using whatever techniques you used to locate that one to find more stuff to read, and try to lean on us less and less to find you the things you need/want to read. Follow your nose.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1297944#Comment_1297944

Reading Rosie's post reminded me of a professor in Central Asian Turkic languages. Professor Cirtautas' career spanned 1960-2010's (she retired at 88). Her classes were small and usually met in her office which had many wooden boxes filled with note cards. She would point out that the cards dated back to her student days in Lithuania up to the current date. They included references to every interesting piece of information that she thought she might want to find again. She would then remind us that as graduate students, we should already be building our personal databank of information - it whatever form worked best for us. If we weren't we were dilettantes or amateurs who shouldn't waste our (or others') time.

Rosie gave you similar advice regarding bibliographies.  Please put some real effort into the distasteful (for some) task of getting organized to the point that you can make use of the extensive reading that you do.