Hunting

The Bible on hunting--

There are four hunters mentioned in the Bible: three in Genesis and one in Revelation. The first hunter is named Nimrod in Genesis 10:8-9. He is the son of Cush and founder of the Babylonian Empire, the empire that opposes God throughout Scripture and is destroyed in the Book of Revelation. In Micah 5:6, God's enemies are said to dwell in the land of Nimrod. Many highly reputable evangelical scholars such as Barnhouse, Pink and Scofield regard Nimrod as a prototype of the anti-Christ.

The second hunter is Ishamel, Abraham's "son of the flesh" by the handmaiden, Hagar. His birth is covered in Genesis 16 and his occupation in 21:20. Ishamel's unfavorable standing in Scripture is amplified by Paul in Galatians 4:22-31.

The third hunter, Esau, is also mentioned in the New Testament. His occupation is contrasted with his brother (Jacob) in Genesis 25:27. In Hebrews 12:16 he is equated with a "profane person" (KJV). He is a model of a person without faith in God. Again, Paul elucidates upon this model unfavorably in Romans 9:8-13, ending with the paraphrase of Malachi 1:2-3: "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

The fourth hunter is found in Revelation 6:2, the rider of the white horse with the hunting bow. Scholars have also identified him as the so-called anti-Christ. Taken as a group, then, hunters fare poorly in the Bible. Two model God's adversary and two model the person who lives his life without God.

"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: In their behavior toward creatures, all men were Nazis."

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), author, 1978 Nobel Prize for literature