Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PEACE

The Hebrew term for peace (šālôm) is derived from the verb “to complete, make sound.” This verb is often used to express the finish of major buildings (e.g., the temple, 1 Kgs. 7:51 = 2 Chr. 5:1; or walls of Jerusalem, Neh. 6:15). The term is used in the sense of restoration in Lev. 6:5ff.(MT 5:24ff.) or repaying debts in Jer. 16:18; Lev. 24:18-21. The noun has an even broader use. As a greeting, the root šlm is used to inquire of the welfare of individuals or groups (Gen. 29:6; 43:27; Exod. 18:7; 1 Sam. 17:18; cf. Ezek. 13:16, “visions of peace”; similarly Isa. 38:17). There is further the sense of šālôm as state of being, as in contentment or tranquility. Isa. 32:17 draws a parallel between “peace” and “quietness and trust forever” as the results of righteousness. The idea of peacefulness at death is a common theme (Gen. 15:15; 1 Kgs. 2:6). The sense of friendship, or even a contractually arranged “friendship” (implied in “covenants of peace,” Num. 25:12), can also be noted (Isa. 54:10; Ps. 28:3; Prov. 12:20). Justice is frequently combined with “peace” (Isa. 32:16-17, cf. Jas. 3:18).

In the Bible “peace” is quintessentially the absence of war. Judg. 4:17; 1 Sam. 7:14; 1 Kgs. 5:12(26) imply treaty relations as times of peace as opposed to warfare. Times of šālôm are contrasted with war in 1 Kgs. 2:5-6; Josh. 9:15. The term is also used of a desired state of permanent šālôm (cf. Lev. 26:6, where peace is a part of tranquility, absence of war and enemies). In the prophets (esp. later prophets, Deutero-Isaiah, Zechariah) peace becomes an ethical standard and characteristic of the messianic age (cf. Mic. 5:4-5[3-4]). In Isa. 2:2-4; 9:2-7, and profoundly in 19:24-25 these postexilic insertions contain themes of peace that are interwoven with the theme of destruction of weapons and reconciliation of former enemies (cf. Zech. 9:9-10; Jonah). Although there is often debate as to whether some forms of “peace” result from God’s annihilation of enemies (an Israelite version of Pax Romana), this is not universally the case in all texts that deal with release from enemies. Indeed, not only are Israel’s own weapons included in an envisioned destruction (Isa. 2), enemies are as often converted rather than annihilated (Jonah; Isa. 19:24-25).

NT use of forms of Gk. eirḗnē, as well as in the intertestamental literature (cf. Tob. 7:11-12; 10:12), is only somewhat more limited in its range of meaning than šālôm. The typical use of “peace” is a reference to a personal state of being (1 Tim. 2:2), thus equivalent to the use of “well-being” or “welfare.” An individual can be told to “Go in peace” (e.g., Mark 5:34; Luke 7:50; 8:48; Acts 16:36) or to “be at peace” (Luke 24:36; John 20:19, 21, 26). Paul frequently enjoins “peace” in opening greetings (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; cf. 1 Pet. 1:2). “Peace” can also refer to an attribute of a relationship with God (Acts 10:36; Rom. 5:1; 8:6; 15:13; Phil. 4:7; cf. Eph. 6:15). The Greek terms also include the absence of, or contrast with, war and interpersonal violence (Matt. 5:9; Luke 14:32; Rom. 12:18; Jas. 3:18). If the proclamation of “peace” in early Christian preaching is taken, on occasion, to refer to the messianic age of peacefulness as opposed to present realities of warfare and suffering, then the connection to Hebraic notions of peace as “absence of war” is even clearer (Acts 10:36; Rom. 10:15; Col. 3:15). Thus, the somewhat limited meaning of the Greek terms should not suggest that the late Hebrew notion of nonviolence is absent from NT ethical discourse. NT conceptions must also take into consideration the entire ethical context of peacefulness and peacemaking in the teachings of Jesus and the practice of the early Church. For this reason, any discussion of peace that is exclusively based on a lexical analysis, particularly in the NT, is inadequate to a full appreciation of either the biblical concept or the ethic of peace.

Whether resulting from the impossibility of a Hebrew military presence in the sociopolitical circumstance of subordination under the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenistic rulers, or whether to be attributed to the increasingly ironic visions of the messianic age, late biblical teaching tends toward the praise of a wise restraint (Sir. 41:14; 44:6) and nonviolent piety (Daniel, esp. 11:33-34, against the Maccabean uprising; Joseph in Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs; Taxo in T. Moses 9, cf. antiwar ethos in classical Greek sources) in studied contrast to the period of the Monarchy. Early Christianity thus combines the Davidic royal themes with the equally messianic expectations of an age of peace where swords are made into plowshares. The resulting image in Matthew and Luke, particularly, is a “militant nonviolent” Messiah — both Davidic and unarmed, and thus consistent with Jesus’ teaching to “love enemies” (Matt. 5:44) and “put away swords” (26:52). This ironic combination results further in Pauline imagery of “weapons” of the spirit, where the “war” is “not against blood and flesh” (Eph. 6:10-17; drawing on Isa. 59:17; cf. spiritual battle in Rev. 19, , etc.). The apocalyptic context of early Christian nonviolence is unmistakable, and clearly relates to themes such as the angelic battles in Dan. 7–12 and at Qumran. Prohibitions against even killing in the military are widely documented in the first three centuries of Christianity, and these prohibitions also draw from this Hebraic and early Christian interpretive tradition. Such Hebraic traditions of peacefulness and nonviolence are also discernible in early rabbinic teaching as well, most notably in the teachings of the 1st-century c.e. rabbinic teacher Yohanan ben Zakkai.

Bibliography. S. S. Schwarzschild, “Shalom,” in The Challenge of Shalom, ed. M. Polner and N. Goodman (Philadelphia, 1994), 16-25; J. H. Yoder, The Politics of Jesus, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, 1994).

Daniel L. Smith-Christopher

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PEACE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)