The Origins of the Just War

A host of psychologists and moral philosophers have explored the ways in which all human societies express concern with moral choice, although cultures will differ in delineating the right from the wrong and in defining what makes for positive and proper interactions between people.1 The same applies to questions concerning what constitutes just war, both causes and conduct, in one or another culture. Cox’s book grapples deeply with such questions about war as represented in ancient Near Eastern sources.Carefully crafted and informed by interdisciplinary and cross-cultural interests, this book is a thoughtful contribution to the study of comparative ethics and the material culture of war, Cox’s specific focus being attitudes to military engagement in the ancient Levant. He considers an array of evidence—literary, visual, and archaeological—and approaches this material with methodological sophistication and depth, focusing on evidence from three ancient cultures—Egyptian, Hittite, and Israelite.Cox considers an array of material, and his study is characterized by methodological sophistication and depth. Employing traditional definitions of jus in bello (conduct in war) and jus ad bellum (justifications for going to war), Cox tries to avoid “intrinsically Christian doctrine” and allows the evidence to speak for itself, recognizing throughout the value of comparison in a way that evokes work in comparative religious ethics by scholars such as David Little and Sumner B. Twiss (15). He wisely points to the difficulty of dealing with this material, the challenges of dating and situating sources, the realization that art and literature are produced by cultural elites, and that the views of ordinary people and women are absent.Approaching this varied material as an intellectual historian rather than as a scholar of ancient Near Eastern studies has its advantages. Cox beautifully and objectively assesses, for example, current debates about the dating of biblical sources, questions that are ultimately about who wrote the Bible, while recognizing that the Hebrew Bible is “an intricate and intertwined literary web” (282). He tries to be up to date, for example in historical assessments of Solomon (277). He wisely notes that the Hebrew Bible is “a goldmine and minefield for the intellectual historian” (270). His interest in the nuts-and-bolts realities of the material cultures of war is welcome, as is his work with pictorial evidence (although it might have been helpful to engage with the work of art historians of the ancient Levant, for example Winter or Russell).2Cox beautifully exegetes certain key passages, for example Jephthah’s address to details concerning just cause in his message to the king of Ammon (320). Other cases might be explored in more detail, for example, those that suggest a critique of extreme violence in war such as Hosea’s description of Jehu’s excesses (Hosea 1:4). Cox does mention Jacob’s condemnation of his sons’ warring behavior (Genesis 49:5–7) and Amos’ oracles (Amos 1–2), but more might be said about this recurring thread in biblical war views. His conclusion that “tactics were not subject to normative moralizing” and that jus in bello was “extremely limited in scope” may be generalizations based on the small sample of material that has been preserved (416, 419). That some nuances of jus in bello are represented at all seems potentially significant for understanding the range of Israelite worldviews.The volume might be criticized for oversimplification or inadequacy in some areas. For example, Cox wisely emphasizes the authority of the deity Yhwh in portrayals of just war in the Hebrew Bible, the role of divine permission, and causality in victory or defeat, but what about questions concerning the deity’s justness? Are portrayals of the deity’s views a form of human self-justification, a revealer of self-doubt, and an excuse to exercise violence (an emotional orientation deeply rooted in the human drive that Freud called Thanatos)?3Despite such criticisms, Origins of the Just War is an extraordinarily ambitious work, a rich and valuable resource, and a major contribution to the study of war from the perspectives of comparative ethics

Global Peace and Security Dynamics · History · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence · War, Ethics, and Justification