Within the world history of violence the Bible is relevant for our reconstructions of the lived experience of violence among ancient Israelites and Judeans;
our understanding of the literary representations and constructions of violence in biblical stories produced and preserved by Judean authors and scribes; our analysis of the interpretation of biblical representations of violence in subsequent historical periods, mainly within Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, from late antiquity to the present, as discussed by other contributors to these volumes; and for addressing the many modern assumptions about how the Bible may or may not justify ‘religious violence' in particular.
Unlike data sets discussed in other chapters, we lack visual representations of violence from Israelite and Judean material culture, such as monumental art. This chapter focuses on biblical representations of violence, providing an analytical overview rather than an historiographical essay.The Bible is an anthology of texts that were, on the one hand, produced in particular socio-political circumstances over the span of about 1,200 years and, on the other hand, collected and transmitted among Judeans who continually reinterpreted and emphasised particular themes. Historical Judean individuals were agents and victims of violence at various historical moments, and experience of various types of violence shaped the telling of biblical stories. The Bible is a product of its ancient cultural milieu, so the types of violence featured in biblical stories are the sorts that existed throughout ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean societies: state violence in war; ritual violence within cultic institutions; violence between individuals, some of which was deemed criminal in civil legal codes, and some of which appears as normalised, systemic violence.1 Biblical stories depict the full range of what [1158] Johan Galtung has categorised as direct, structural and cultural violence.[1159] These biblical depictions were generated from interested points of view, such that we may identify rhetorical features that serve to code examples of violence in various ways. As literary data with a complex transmission history, the study of the Bible with a special focus on violence necessitates questions that foreground the nature of the evidence. How does the Bible represent violence? How does the literary nature of the Bible shape these representations? How is violence a central feature of biblical theologies featured in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament?
More on the topic Within the world history of violence the Bible is relevant for our reconstructions of the lived experience of violence among ancient Israelites and Judeans;:
- Violence as Lived Experience
- Fagan Garrett G., Fibiger Linda, Hudson Mark, Trundle Matthew (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Violence. Volume 1: The Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Cambridge University Press,2020. — 756 p., 2020
- Warfare and violence were central to the identity and experience of early states in the ancient Near East.
- General Introduction: Violence in World History
- Violence and representations of violence abound in the literature of ancient and late antique Judaism and Christianity.
- Violence and the Bible
- Gordon Matthew, Kaeuper Richard, Zurndorfer Harriet (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Violence. Volume 2: AD 500-AD 1500. Cambridge University Press,2020. — 696 p., 2020
- Edwards Louise, Penn Nigel, Winter Jay (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Violence. Volume 4: 1800 to the Present. Cambridge University Press,2020. — 676 p., 2020
- Antony Robert, Carroll Stuart, Pennock Caroline D. (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Violence. Volume 3: AD 1500-AD 1800. Cambridge University Press,2020. — 710 p., 2020
- Bang Peter F., Bayly C.A., Scheidel Walter (eds.). The Oxford World History of Empire. Volume One: The Imperial Experience. Oxford University Press,2020. — 584 p., 2020
- Werner Reiss, author of the most detailed recent discussion on the subject of violence in the Greek world, defined violence as ‘a physical act', stating further that it is a ‘process in which a human being inflicts harm on another human being via physical strength’.1
- The History of Structural Violence
- Violence and Crime in the Private World