Does the Old Testament God Have a Grim Face? The Hebrew Bible and Violence

Ks. Dariusz DZIADOSZ

Abstract

The problem of violence in the Old Testament belongs among the most difficult and most vital issues of theology which have occupied not only professional exegetes, but generally believers of Judaism and Christianity, the faith of the latter based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed some Biblical texts are a source of numerous controversies due to the drastic scenes of violence and cruelty they include. Even more dubious and problematic are the Old Testament strict laws which command Israelites to do violence against other peoples and believers of other religions. The most acute problem, however, is that of the interpretation of the traditions which, directly or indirectly, associate violence with the God YHWH.
In the succeeding sections of the article, the author focuses on giving the interpretation key to these difficult traditions. He discusses the origin of violence and cruelty according to the Bible and describes their most important forms and manifestations, as well as the Old Testament image of the YHWH God seen through the prism of the violent acts present in the Biblical narration.

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska