Violent Biblical Texts: New Approaches ed. by Trevor Laurence and Helen Paynter (review)

Reviewed by: Violent Biblical Texts: New Approaches ed. by Trevor Laurence and Helen Paynter Charlie Trimm trevor laurence and helen paynter (eds. ), Violent Biblical Texts: New Approaches (Bible in the Modern World 80; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2022). Pp. x + 310. £70/97. 50/€80. As Trevor Laurence describes in the opening of the volume, "Introduction: The Conditions of Interpretation and the Tools of the Trade" (pp. 1–13), the core of this book arose from a symposium put on by the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence in 2019, and various other essays were added to focus attention on "potential new interpretive approaches to the violent texts of Scripture" (p. 9). The editors desired that each essay contribute something innovative to a specific biblical text that could also be applied to other biblical texts. The first essay in the book, "The Conquest of Canaan: Round-Table Discussion" (pp. 14–33), is a unique format consisting of Helen Paynter asking three panelists—Paul Copan, David Firth, and William Ford—questions about the topic. This was originally intended to be a live event, but since it was canceled due to COVID-19, the participants sought to replicate a panel-type atmosphere for this essay. The project works remarkably well, as it provides space for the panelists to present their answers in a succinct way to questions asked by the moderator, especially in relation to recent work on the topic by John H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton (The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest: Covenant, Retribution, and the Fate of the Canaanites Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017). In the next essay, "An Old Testament Critique of Modern Violence" (pp. 34–47), Matthew Lynch examines how human violence in the early chapters of Genesis has ecological consequences: human violence does not affect only humans. "Light and Shadow: Intertextual Insights into Conquest, Deliverance, and Covenant Faithfulness, " by Ashley Hibbard (pp. 48–67), compares Genesis 14 with Joshua 10, showing how reading the stories together "leads us to conclude that conquest narratives are told with a variety of purposes that include positive depictions, such as the conquest for the purposes of protection and rescue of the vulnerable from oppression" (p. 66). In both texts, covenant faithfulness leads to rescue of someone threatened. In "Land, Seed, and Promise: Jacob as mise en abyme to Israel" (pp. 68–90), Helen Paynter shows how the story of Jacob is a mise en abyme of the conquest narrative, or a "sort of literary mirror whereby the whole of a narrative is reflected within one distinct portion of it" (p. 69). If this is the case, then she notes how Jacob is viewed negatively at points, and military events are either avoided (Jacob's encounter with Esau), condemned (the attack on Shechem), or prevented (the terror that goes ahead of Jacob). Her conclusion is that perhaps the redactor of Genesis "wishes to subvert or downplay the narrative of totalizing conquest" (p. 90). End Page 403 Brandon Hurlbert ("Taking the Absurdity Seriously: Questioning the Complicity of YHWH in Judges 20–21, " pp. 91–111) argues that, despite indications to the contrary, Yhwh is absent in Judges 20–21. The absurdity of the story—seen in the rhetoric of the tribes, the action of the story, and the role of the cult—demonstrates that we should not take the statements about Yhwh's presence literally. Instead, Israel is conducting this "holy war" on its own initiative. He ends the essay with a brief survey of recent violent events that display similar absurdity, such as the involvement of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan that has led to cycles of violence. In a pair of essays, Trevor Laurence looks at the topic of imprecatory psalms. In the first, "Violent Prayers of Love: An Ethical (Re) assessment of the Imprecatory Psalms" (pp. 112–40), he provides an overview of how the cursing psalms can fit with a God of love. These prayers not only call for justice and resistance to oppression, but also demonstrate love for enemy because their "descent into violence is detrimental not only to the innocents he assaults, but to himself as well" (p. 133). In the. . .