God and Violence in the Old Testament TERENCE E. FRETHEIM he Old Testament has a reputation: it is a book filled with violence, including the violence of God. The New Testament commonly avoids such a charge; but it, too, is filled with violent words and deeds, and Jesus and the God of the New Testament are complicit in this violence. 1 Yes, the Bible does often promote nonvi- olence; indeed, the basic eschatological reflections of the Old Testament are marked by visions of peace and nonviolence, extending even to the animal world (e.g., Isa 2:2–4; 65:17–25)—these texts constitute a fundamental witness that vio- lence is an unwanted intruder in God’s world. At the same time, the Bible also— and often—defends the use of violence, including capital punishment, war, and self-defense. The New Testament especially, with its talk about hell, even envisions an eternal violence, in which God is very much involved (e.g., Matt 13:36–50; Rev 18 Copyright © 2004 by Word & World, Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota. All rights reserved. Word & World Volume 24, Number 1 Winter 2004 The Bible, in both Old Testament and New, speaks candidly about vio- lence—both human violence and divine violence. We must take the reports of God’s violence seriously, over against ourselves, while also exercising the appro- priate critique already begun by people within the Bible itself. Finally, we will see that, in everything, including violence, God seeks to accomplish loving purposes. 1 On the much neglected theme of violence in the New Testament, see, e.g., Michel Desjardins, Peace, Vio- lence, and the New Testament (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997); George Aichele, “Jesus’ Violence,” in Violence, Utopia, and the Kingdom of God: Fantasy and Ideology in the Bible, ed. George Aichele and Tina Pippin (New York: Routledge, 1998) 72–91. Jesus’ violent language and predictions in, e.g., Luke 19:41–44 and Matthew 13:23 are illus- trative. The violence of God is evident in texts such as Acts 5:1–11 and Rev 14. On the “anti-Judaism” of the New Testament, certainly a form of violence with long-term and recent violent effects, see Gerd Lüdemann, The Unholy in Holy Scripture: The Dark Side of the Bible, trans. J. Bowden (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1997) 76–127. That this issue of Word & World has no article on violence in the New Testament might reflect a common opinion.