Trends in the history of research on the problem of violence in the Old Testament

Abstract

Violence as theological problem is a relative newcomer to the scene of Old Testament studies. It was only during the 1970's that violence was given major attention by Old Testament scholars. In a number of studies the main focus was on Yahweh and his relation to violence. By the late 1970's the theories of Rene Girard on violence were applied to the Old Testament and played an important role in the thinking of Old Testament scholars on violence. In the last part of the article proposed solutions to the problem of violence in the Old Testament are discussed.