Violence In the Bible

Flood | Canaan | Isaac | Slavery | Psalms | Cross

The Bible is a violent book. This is hard for modern people to stomach, especially when the violence is understood as being sanctioned or perpetrated by God himself. What do we do with the Bible's difficult violence?

Session One — Thinking Clearly about Biblical Violence

Our first session will open up a toolkit for approaching violence in the Bible. We'll look at our posture toward biblical violence in light of what the Bible is. We'll then see how the story of Scripture helps us make sense of Biblical violence in context rather than simply as isolated incidents.

Session Two — The Flood and the Binding of Isaac

How could a "good" God send a flood to destroy the earth? Why would he command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? What clues do these passages themselves give us about God’s motivations—and where does Jesus fit into it all?

Session Three — The Conquest of Canaan

The conquest of the Canaanites in the book of Joshua is among the most challenging passages in the Bible for modern readers. Most readers imagine that God commissioned his nation to vengefully wipe out an entire nation of Canaanite men, women, and children. However, a deeper reading reveals that the reasons for the conquest were more complex, the scope of the destruction was smaller, and God’s mercy was present throughout.

Session Four — Paul and the Persistence of Slavery

Many Christians wish the apostle Paul would have put an end to the violent institution of slavery. This noble longing can keep us from grasping the revolutionary things Paul did do to slavery as he wrote to the earliest churches. In this session, Joshua Chestnut (Southborough L'Abri) will introduce us to Paul as a friend of the enslaved and historian Paul Gutacker (Baylor University) will address our questions about how antebellum Americans used Paul's writing in their debates over slaveholding.

Session Five — The Violence of the Cross

Metaphysical poet George Herbert once labeled the cross a "strange and uncouth thing". Many years before him, the Roman philosopher Cicero wrote that crucifixion was such a shameful fate that "the mere mention of it is unworthy of a Roman citizen and a free man." Why would God reconcile the world to himself through such a violent act? We’ll reflect on this question before attempting to glimpse an integrated picture of what the cross achieves.

Session Six — Should We Pray the Mean Psalms?

"The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked" (Psalm 58:10). For many Christians, such violent words seem to grind against the command of Jesus to love our enemies. Can disciples of Jesus legitimately pray the imprecatory psalms? In our final session, theologian Trevor Laurence will help us answer the question.