The Violence of Scripture

Eric Seibert's The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the Old Testament's Troubling Legacy is a perceptive volume that asks readers to wrestle with the violence found in some of the texts of the Hebrew Bible (for Seibert, the Old Testament). Seibert is especially interested in the moral/theological challenges presented by these biblical texts and how various communities have used such passages to sanction their own violent acts throughout time. His volume offers an approach for reading, interpreting, and using violent texts from a nonviolent perspective. In the introduction, Seibert clearly spells out the premise of his book: “the Bible should never be used to inspire, promote, or justify acts of violence” (2). From the outset, readers know that Seibert is writing from a particular religious tradition; he is a member of the Brethren in Christ Church and comes “to the Bible with a strong presumption against violence” (6). The introduction also immediately addresses why Seibert focuses only on the violent texts of the Old Testament—it is not because Seibert thinks the New Testament lacks similar material (3). Rather, Seibert explains that he chose to focus on the Old Testament because of the “scope and magnitude” of the presence of violence across the two canons and because the Old Testament is his own area of expertise (3). The objective of the book is two-fold: first, the book “advocate[s] reading the Old Testament nonviolently in an effort to overcome the Old Testament's troubling legacy” (3); second, the volume is written “to offer some guidance for dealing with violent Old Testament texts that sanction, and sometimes even celebrate, certain acts of violence” (4). The following pages suggest an alternative way of reading that both critiques the violence but finds ways to use the texts constructively (4).

Art · Biblical studies · Citation · Epistemology · Hebrew Bible · Literature · New Testament · Old Testament · Political science · Premise · Presumption · Reading (process) · Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Christian Theology and Mission · Contemporary Christian Leadership and Education · Law · Philosophy