Book Write-Up: Including the Stranger, by David G. Firth

David G. Firth. Including the Stranger: Foreigners in the Former Prophets. IVP Academic, 2019. See here to purchase the book.

The Former Prophets refers to the biblical books from Joshua through II Kings, with the exception of Ruth. There are plenty of cases in which these books appear to be anti-foreigner. There is the biblical Conquest, which entails the slaughter of the Canaanites, as well as the frequent warning that the Israelites are to avoid foreign religion. But, as David G. Firth points out, there are also many places in which the Former Prophets are inclusive towards foreigners. Rahab, the Gibeonites, and Naaman come to mind as non-Israelites who were either accepted in the community of Israel or who embraced the God of Israel. There were the foreigners who guarded David. And Firth highlights examples that may not be immediately evident. Shamgar, the non-Israelite judge and devotee of the goddess Anath, was used by God to deliver Israel from her oppressors. Elijah is calls a Tishbite, or inhabitant, possibly a resident alien. Does that mean that Elijah, the renowned prophet of Israel, was not actually an Israelite?

The back cover of the book states that “the Former Prophets subvert the exclusivist approach in order to show that the people of God are not defined by ethnicity, but rather by their willingness to commit themselves to God’s purposes.”

On the one hand, Firth believes this is evident in the inclusion of non-Israelites in Israel. They become part of the covenant people of God. The extent of their commitment to God is not exactly defined: are they converts, or are they like God-fearers, worshipers of God who do not embrace all of the laws that the Israelites observe? Uriah comes to mind: he is called a “Hittite,” yet the “Jah” at the end of his name indicates that he is a worshiper of the Israelite God. The book perhaps would have been stronger had it addressed the extent of the non-Israelites’ integration into Israel. The challenge is doing that in a manner that does not allow the author to become sidetracked, or trapped in technical weeds.

On the other hand, Firth believes that the principle that the people of God is spiritual rather than ethnic is evident in the exclusion of certain Israelites from Israel. Some ethnic Israelites are treated as Canaanites, not as Israelites. Due to his sin, the Israelite Achan was subject to the cherem, just like the Canaanites. Israelites in the latter part of the Book of Judges are behaving like the Canaanites, specifically the Sodomites whom God destroyed. Perhaps, but do not the other Israelites embrace those sinners as their brothers, showing that Israelite identity is also ethnic?

The back cover of the book also states that the Former Prophets have “frequently been regarded as having a negative attitude towards foreigners.” The book does not really engage biblical scholars who think this, but rather people like Richard Dawkins, who contend that the God of the Old Testament is a xenophobic, genocidal maniac. Firth does well to highlight the numerous examples to the contrary: the times when God in the Former Prophets is benevolent towards non-Israelites, even going so far as to welcome them into the community of Israel. In focusing on the Former Prophets, however, Firth dodges some particularly troubling texts: the foreigners in Deuteronomy 23 who are excluded from the Israelite qahal due to the sins of their ancestors, for example.

This book is helpful to me in terms of my current Bible reading. Over the past few months, I have been reading Joshua through II Samuel. Firth addresses questions that I have had. Suppose that the Israelites in Joshua 9 had asked God whether the Gibeonites were who they said they were. Would God have told the Israelites to spare the Gibeonites, or to slaughter them, like the other Canaanites? Firth raises a consideration that indicates God would have spared them: did not God, in God’s grace, spare them from the hardening that the other Canaanites experienced, indicating God intended to show the Gibeonites mercy (Joshua 11:19-20)?

Another interesting point Firth makes is that God opposed Saul because Saul sought to absorb Canaanite conceptions of the monarchy.

Where the book falls short is that it fails to engage the Former Prophets’ contempt for the Amalekites. Firth examines the relevant passages, but why are the Amalekites depicted as consistently bad? Is this racism: thinking that some ethnic groups are simply inherently evil?
Much of what the book says is pretty obvious, but it has some interesting observations.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My review is honest.