Genocide, the Bible, and biblical scholarship / / by Shawn Kelley.

• Author: Kelley, Shawn, 1961-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden : : Brill.; c2016.
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Brill Research Perspectives.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (71 pages)
• Notes: "Originally published as Volume 1(3) 2016, in Brill Research Perspectives in Biblical Interpretation."

Scholarship is currently engaged in a rich debate around the historical, hermeneutical and theological problems posed by the Bible's occasional yet enthusiastic endorsement of mass extermination. The article engages this ongoing scholarly conversation by way of a dialogue with the emerging field of genocide studies. Part I analyzes the scholarly debates that swirl around definitional and theoretical issues. Far from being an atavistic or irrational irruption into the ordered world of civilization, scholarship sees genocide as woven into the very structure of modern civilization. Part II and III look closely at specific biblical examples of mass extermination. Attention is paid to both ancient extermination campaigns and to textual moments where the Bible appears to endorse mass violence. The article concludes by challenging the widely held view that genocide arises out of ancient hatred and briefly sketches the wide range of ideological elements that inform genocidal thinking and practice.

Table of Contents

Genocide studies -- Genocide and the Hebrew Bible: "You shall annihilate them ... just as the Lord has commanded" -- Genocide and the New Testament: "His blood be on us and our children" -- Roots, seeds, and the organic: understanding the link and gap between ideology and genocide.