Conclusion

The Bible depicts violence carried out by a variety of agents who represent the range of character types featured in the biblical anthology more generally. Violence attributed to patriarchs, prophets, priests, Israelites and Judeans, ‘foreigners' and royals may be presented as legitimate or illegitimate, depending on the social and political context within the narrative.

Analysis of representations and constructions of violence that bib­lical literature features indicates the following. Judean authors and scribes were well aware of direct violence within the lived experience of Judeans. Biblical authors utilised stories of violence and violent themes in their literary constructions of ancient Israelite and Judean origins, polity formation and destruction, and theology. Instances, types and themes of violence within the biblical anthology may be presented as legitimate or illegitimate as well as divinely ordained or solely mundane. In subsequent socio-historical contexts, from late antiquity to the present day, mainly within Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, the Bible is one source among many for rhetorical claims that agents employ to portray violence as legitimate and even divinely approved. Interestingly, Stephen Geller convincingly argues that Bible-based violence tends to be bolstered with literalist readings of biblical stories.^[1176] Scholarly theorisation of violence and religious violence in conjunction with critical study of religion and ancient literature, including the Bible, facilitates distinguishing between the claims of those who utilise the Bible to justify violence and how the biblical anthology actually represents violence of various sorts in various ways. Whether considering violence in modern or ancient times, we have the opportunity to productively investigate how vio­lence is portrayed, who benefits and who suffers from the portrayal, and to challenge claims about the Bible as we examine the social impacts of ancient ‘biblical violence' and modern ‘bible-based violence'.