Violence, Power, and Goals in the Hebrew Bible and The...

Violence is a means to an end. Violence is not something most humans resort to for enjoyment. Violence is, however, the right thing to be done in certain situations. With violence, comes great power. Power and violence walk together, hand in hand. When violence is exhibited, the power of the individual is shown to those around him. In both the Hebrew Bible and The Iliad, violence is depicted as a mode to reach goals. The reason for this is that violence allows an individual or a deity to flaunt their powers, while they simultaneously achieve their personal and communal ambitions. Just like how mortals have their own goals, deities also have an agenda. God, in the Hebrew Bible, has only two goals: to have humans obey Him blindly and to†¦show more content†¦Sacrifices are, in nature, very violent. Innocent blood is spilled to please the vengeful God. In Exodus 12, the Lord struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle (Exodus 12:29). God did all that just because the Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let the Israelites leave his country. The immense sacrifice of the first-borns of man and beast was an act of violence that led the exodus of the Israelites. The mass murder of the Egyptian people and livestock also proves to the Pharaoh the great power of God, a power that would have remained unseen if not for the plagues and the executions. For after the Pharaoh witnessed the death of at least one man or one beast in each Egyptians household, he said, Up, depart from among my people...Go, worship the Lord as you said (Exodus 12:31). With this final act of violence, God helped reach the Israelites communal goal: to leave the oppressive Egypt and to enter the liberal Promise Land of Canaan. Because humans were created in Gods image, it makes perfect sense that humans will use violence as a way to achieve their own goals, just like what God does. In I Samuel, David had one goal during the Goliath episode: to let this whole assembly (the soldiers) know that the Lord can give victory without sword or spear. For