The Canaanites, Hebrews and Peace

by Letters Editor · July 27, 2016

From Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg – The Gospel stories fall into a timeframe when extreme animosity existed between the Jewish community of Jerusalem and their northern countrymen from Samaria (the Samaritans) and Galilee.

One still needs to question the overall purpose of Matthew’s continuous narrative of Jesus criticising the Pharisees. Today, this could very well be seen as hate speech.

Jewish historians record that the Pharisees were the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism. They were a sect who struggled, and succeeded, in retaining their authentic Jewish faith in a post-Alexander the Great era which saw Greek influence spreading throughout the region.

The Sadducees had fallen under Greek influence which, in about 88BC, eventually led to internal civil war among the Jews.

The culmination of the three-year civil war led to the Sadducees’ influence in religious matters being curtailed and the Pharisees gaining the upper hand and retaining their Jewish religious heritage.

Another contentious incidence in the Old Testament is God leading the Hebrews to the “Promised Land”. This particular land was inhabited by the Canaanites who, one would assume, were living quite happily there.

When the Hebrews arrived, the Canaanites were given an ultimatum: “Live peacefully with us, or face the might of our army.”

History records that the Hebrews eventually conquered all the Canaanite tribes, thus securing for themselves their land.

Elie Wiesel, the well-known Holocaust survivor, has died (July 13) and we Catholics have to be thankful that St John Paul II played such a huge role in restoring trust between us and the Jewish fraternity.

Witnessing what is happening in Israel and the West Bank today, one can understand why the Canaanites refused the offer of peaceful co-existence, because their reasoning told them the Hebrews’ intentions were not peaceful at all.

We all know that peace is a fragile commodity, and we in South Africa have to begin working a little bit harder to maintain our peaceful coexistence because racial comments that are becoming more common indicate an “us” and “them” mentality, just as what happened in Israel 2000 years ago and is continuing today.