Portraying Violence in the Hebrew Bible: A Literary and Cultural Study

by Matthew J. Lynch

Most studies on violence in the Hebrew Bible focus on the question of how modern readers should approach the problem. But they fail to ask how the Hebrew Bible thinks about that problem in the first place. In this work, Matthew J. Lynch examines four key ways that writers of the Hebrew Bible conceptualize and critique acts of violence as an ecological problem; violence as a moral problem; violence as a judicial problem; violence as a purity problem. These four 'grammars of violence' help us interpret crucial biblical texts where violence plays a lead role, like Genesis 4-9. Lynch's volume also offers readers ways to examine cultural continuity and the distinctiveness of biblical conceptions of violence.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies, Christianity, Nonfiction, Old Testament

300 pages, Hardcover

Published June 18, 2020

Reviews

[Darcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthew Lynch’s Portraying Violence in the Hebrew Bible provides the raster with an introductory analysis of the various ways the Biblical authors critiqued the issues of violence in ways reflective of their culture and time. Lynch shapes the book around four “grammars” of violence: ecology, moral speech, justice and impurity. His analysis helps pull back the cover of cultural distance, helping the student of Scripture to better understand how violence portrayed in Scripture is best engaged. The work is both academically rigorous and profoundly readable (Matthew Lynch is an able and engaging communicator). It provides a solid foundation for any person wrestling with the violence we encounter in the pages of Scripture. Highly recommended. (And, as noted in another review, it stands as a precursor to his magisterial work, Flood and Fury.)

[Jared Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is something of an academic precursor to Lynch’s newer, more popular-level book on OT violence, “Flood and Fury.” Both books are excellent. In this study, Lynch largely circumvents questions about how *we* should interpret OT violence, and focuses instead on “how various biblical writers conceptualized and represented acts that they deemed problematically violent within their own varied cultural linguistic milieux” (p. 2). In other words, he’s interested in how the Hebrew Bible critiques its own violence. He proffers a “conceptual taxonomy of violence,” consisting of four “‘grammars’ within which biblical rhetoric about the problem of violence operated” (p. 9). These four ‘grammars’ are: ecology, moral speech, justice, and impurity. The rest of the book focuses on each of these grammars in turn. His survey offers incredible insight into how the problem of violence was conceived by the biblical authors; and he helpfully observes “cross-currents that run through each [of the four grammars]. These include an emphasis on speech-as-violence, a central role for the land, and a concern for the collapse of a given order that violence precipitates” (p. 268). Lynch’s book is an invaluable contribution to the study of OT violence; and it has been an incredible resource for me as I‘ve sought to develop my research on the function and significance of blood in the Pentateuch. I would highly recommend this volume to anyone interested in OT studies and/or biblical ethics. It might be helpful to have at least a basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew going into it.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent read, both in terms of scholarship and readability (a rare quality!). If you are interested in violence, eco theology, or God’s relationship to injustice, then this book is for you. This is very different than Creach’s study on violence. I would say it is complementary to it (Creach is more biblical theological tracing it throughout the bible, and Lynch is more of crucial studies that have been neglected and unstudied). Lynch is essential reading!

[Nathan Bozeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredibly academic, making it a dry read, but it is also quite substantive. It gives insight into how the ancient Israelites viewed violence - as ecological, judicial, defiling, and spreadable through speech. Lynch provides insight into each category, leaving one with lots of new information to chew on. I especially enjoyed the last couple of chapters on purity.