THE CONSTITUTIONAL MILITIA AND THE BIBLICAL MODEL:

A FAVORABLE COMPARISON

The Militia fulfilled the important Government function of

community defense in early America.1 The tradition of the Militia

came from Great Britain.2 Though each colony established its own

Militia by local statute, these various colonial Militias had

many similar features.3 A Militia comprised every armed and able-

bodied free male within a certain, broad age range.4 Put simply,

the Militia was the people -- armed, and organized for combat.

These colonial statutory Militias were preserved as government

1
Meyer Kestnbaum, “Citizenship and Compulsory Military Service:
The Revolutionary Origins of Conscription in the United States,”
Armed Forces and Society 27, no. 1 (Fall, 2000): 11.
2
William Blackstone, “Book the First. of the Rights of Persons.
CHAPTER XIII.: OF THE MILITARY AND MARITIME STATES,” in Books I
and II, Vol. 1 of Commentaries On the Laws of England in Four
Books. Notes Selected from the Editions of Archibold, Christian,
Coleridge, Chitty, Stewart, Kerr, and Others, Barron Field’s
Analysis, and Additional Notes, and a Life of the Author by
George Sharswood. in Two Volumes, ed. George Sharswood (1753;
repr., Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1893), 409,
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.
php%3Ftitle=2140&chapter=198677&layout=html&Itemid=27 (accessed
October 27, 2012).
3
Edwin Vieira Jr., The Nation in Arms, rev. ed., vol. 1 of
Constitutional Homeland Security: A Call for Americans to
Revitalize the Militia of the Several States (Ashland, Ohio:
Bookmasters, 2007), 48.
4
Margeurite Driessen, “Private Organizations and the Militia
Status: They Don't Make Militias Like They Used To,” Brigham
Young University Law Review 1998, no. 1 (March 1998): 1-33,
http://ezproxy.pcci.edu:2054/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=54
9105&site=ehost-live (accessed October 27, 2012).

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institutions in the new Republic under the Constitution.5 The

Constitutional Militia complied with relevant Biblical

guidelines from both the Old and the New Testaments.

The first and foremost feature of the Constitutional

Militia was that every man had to be armed.6 Biblical guidelines

throughout the Scriptures support this mandate. Psalm 149:6

says, “Let the high praises of God be in [the saints'] mouth,

and a twoedged sword in their hand.” This was probably not

considered Law in Israel, but it is a Biblical guideline similar

to the Constitutional Militia requirement that every man be

armed. In Luke 22:36, Christ said, “he that hath no sword, let

him sell his garment, and buy one.” Our Lord commands us to be

armed, as did Militia statutes. In Exodus 32:27, Moses said,

“Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by

his side.” Strongly implicit in this command is the assumption

that every man already had a sword to put by his side. Both

Militia statutes and Biblical guidelines required that every man

be armed.

The second feature of the Constitutional Militia was that

it included every able-bodied man within a certain prescribed

5
U.S. Constitution, art. 2, sec. 8, cl. 15.
6
Frederick Bernays Wiener, The Militia Clause of the
Constitution, 54 HARV. L. REV. supra note 4, at 194 (1940) cited
in John F. Romano, “State Militias and the United States:
Changed Responsibilities for a New Era,” The Air Force Law
Review 56 (2005): 242.
 3

age range, typically sixteen years to sixty years.7 This is

similar to the ancient Israelite system as recorded in the

Bible. In Numbers 1:2 God says to Moses, “Take ye the sum of all

the congregation of the children of Israel . . . every male

. . . From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go

forth to war in Israel.” Those that God wanted to be numbered

were those able-bodied men within a certain age range, the ones

He deemed able to go to war. The difference in the prescribed

age ranges of the typical Militia statutes and that of God’s

directive is probably due to the difference in warfare

technologies between the two periods: at sixteen a man’s body is

not fully developed, but he is certainly capable of handling a

firearm (as he would in 18th century combat); to put an under-

developed man into a sword-fight with full-grown men (as in

circa 1500 BC combat) would be a cruel waste of potential

martial prowess. David’s unlawful census has another clue

concerning the Biblical model. In I Chronicles 21:5, Joab tells

David that “all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an

hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred

threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.” In II Samuel

24:9, Joab tells David that “there were in Israel eight hundred

thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah

7
Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, “The American Militia and the Origin of
Conscription: A Reassessment,” Journal of Libertarian Studies
15, no. 4 (Fall, 2001): 32.
 4

were five hundred thousand men.” So, Israel had 1.1 million

warriors, including 0.8 million who were considered valiant, and

Judah had 0.5 million men, including 0.47 million warriors.

Judah has the relevant point in this example: of the five

hundred thousand males old enough to be counted as men, only

thirty thousand were disabled, out of shape, or too old to be

counted as warriors. The vast majority (ninety-four percent) of

the men of Judah were in the community fighting force.

The third feature of the Constitutional Militia was that it

trained for war.8 Militiamen would periodically muster for

training with their respective units, typically several times

per year.9 This echoes the situation of ancient Israel. Ninety-

four percent of adult males in Judah were considered warriors; a

man cannot rightly be considered a warrior if he never trains

for war. In Judges 3:1b-2 the Holy Spirit recorded that

The LORD left [enemy nations around Israel], to prove

Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not
known all the wars of Canaan; 2 Only that the
generations of the children of Israel might know, to
teach them war, at the least such as before knew
nothing thereof.

“Part of God's reason for leaving enemies on Israel's borders

8
Ibid.
9
Virginia, Act of the Commonwealth of Virginia, for regulating
the militia; together with the acts of the Congress of the
United States, more effectually to provide for the national
defence by establishing an uniform militia throughout the United
States--and for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of
the union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.
(Richmond: Augustine Davis, 1796), microfiche, pp. 10-11, Evans
collection, 31498B14.
 5

was that He wanted them to know war . . . . The knowledge of the

art of war was an end in itself, in God's eyes.”10 The

Constitutional Militia institutionalized general training in the

art of war, thus conforming to God's expressed desire that His

people know war.

The fourth feature of the Constitutional Militia is the

purposes thereof, as recorded in Article I, Section 8, Clause 15

of the United States Constitution: “The Congress shall have

Power . . . To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute

the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel

Invasions.” Like colonial America, ancient Israel used its

community of warriors for these purposes. In Nehemiah 4,

Nehemiah calls forth the equivalent of the Militia to repel

invasions.

8 And [many men] conspired . . . to come and to

fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder [the repair
work]. 9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God,
and set a watch against them day and night . . . . 13
Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall,
and on the higher places, I even set the people after
their families with their swords, their spears, and
their bows. 17 . . . every one with one of his hands
wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a
weapon. 21 So we laboured in the work: and half of
them held the spears from the rising of the morning
till the stars appeared.

In Exodus 32, Moses calls forth the Levite equivalent of the

Constitutional Militia for the dual purpose of enforcing the

10
Elijah J. Henry, “Biblical Reasons That I Have an Assault
Rifle.” (Personal unpublished non-academic essay, 2011), 3-4.
 6

laws and suppressing insurrections. While Moses was on Mount

Sinai, the people rebelled against God, and violated His Law.

26 Then Moses . . . said, Who is on the LORD'S side?

let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi
gathered themselves together unto him. 27 And he said
unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put
every man his sword by his side, and go in and out
from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every
man his brother, and every man his companion, and
every man his neighbour. 28 And the children of Levi
did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of
the people that day about three thousand men.

These examples from Exodus and Nehemiah demonstrate that the

purposes of the Constitutional Militia (as recorded in Article

I, Section 8, Clause 15) conform to the Biblical model of how

God's men utilized the people of God, armed, and organized for

combat.

In its requirements regarding being armed, being part of a

community fighting force, and training for war, as well as its

expressed purposes, the Constitutional Militia conformed to

relevant Biblical guidelines from both the Old and the New

Testaments.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blackstone, William. “Book the First. of the Rights of Persons.

CHAPTER XIII: OF THE MILITARY AND MARITIME STATES.” In
Books I and II. Vol. 1 of Commentaries On the Laws of
England in Four Books. Notes Selected from the Editions of
Archibold, Christian, Coleridge, Chitty, Stewart, Kerr, and
Others, Barron Field’s Analysis, and Additional Notes, and
a Life of the Author by George Sharswood. in Two Volumes.
1753, edited by George Sharswood, 409. 2 vols. Edited by
George Sharswood. Reprint, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott
Co., 1893.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=
show.php%3Ftitle=2140&chapter=198677&layout=html&Itemid=27(
accessed October 27, 2012).

Driessen, Margeurite A. “Private Organizations and the Militia

Status: They Don't Make Militias Like They Used To.”
Brigham Young University Law Review 1998, no. 1 (March
1998): 1-33.
http://ezproxy.pcci.edu:2054/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&
AN=549105&site=ehost-live (accessed October 27, 2012).

Henry, Elijah J. “Biblical Reasons That I Have an Assault

Rifle.” Personal, unpublished, non-academic essay, 2011.

Hummel, Jeffrey Rogers. “The American Militia and the Origin of

Conscription: A Reassessment.”Journal of Libertarian
Studies 15, no. 4 (Fall, 2001): 29-77.

Kestnbaum, Meyer “Citizenship and Compulsory Military Service:

The Revolutionary Origins of Conscription in the United
States.” Armed Forces and Society 27, no. 1 (Fall, 2000):
7-36.

Romano, John F. “State Militias and the United States: Changed

Responsibilities for a New Era.” The Air Force Law Review
56 (2005): 233-47.

Vieira, Edwin Jr. The Nation in Arms. Sixth. Rev. ed. Vol. 1 of
Constitutional Homeland Security: A Call for Americans to
Revitalize the Militia of the Several States. Ashland,
Ohio: Bookmasters, 2007.

Virginia. Act of the Commonwealth of Virginia, for regulating

the militia; together with the acts of the Congress of the
United States, more effectually to provide for the national
defence by establishing an uniform militia throughout the
 8

United States--and for calling forth the militia to execute

the laws of the union, suppress insurrections, and repel
invasions. Richmond: Augustine Davis, 1796. Microfiche.

© 2012 Elijah J. Henry

All rights reserved.