why does the bible resort to violence ?

Question

KILL WOMEN, CHILDREN, ANIMALS !!

[Ezek. 9:5]
And the Lord said, "Go through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have you pity. SLAY UTTERLY OLD AND YOUNG, BOTH MAIDS AND LITTLE CHILDREN, AND WOMEN

Answer 1

Because men have never done so much evil with such enthusiasm as when it's done in the name of religion.

Answer 2

Yes and this was Old testament writing which we do not practice anymore. Every religion has had their share of bloodshed, let me not leave that as a belief. However, many of the laws God passed down and slayings he accepted and even asked for were in direct response to disobedience to His laws. And once Jesus came, those particular aspects of the law were no longer in effect as He came to take away sins from man so that man was not under the same sacrificial laws of sinners in the times before.

Answer 3

This is not an isolated incident of violence in the Bible... there are many. Some much more graphic than this.

However, the Bible is supposedly an account of TRUE events.... if there weren't any violence, it certainly would be hard to believe, wouldn't it?

Truthfully, violence is the nature of man... if man is made in God's image, wouldn't it be a fair assumption that maybe God is a bit violent as well?

Answer 4

Desperate times called for desperate measures?

Kill them all and let g-d sort them out?

Kill an Elamite for Elohim?

Bad press?

Violence is like a box of chocolates, you never know who your'e going to kill?

Just for the fun of it?

G-d never said that the promised land would come free and easy

Revisionist history to show how much they were to be feared?

OT fun and games were a LOT different then
OT negotiations were NOT a lot different then

sad, but true...violence was an accepted way of life then; witness the destruction of the "lost" 10 tribes of Israel that were conquered and never re emerged into Judaism....

Answer 5

The most important thing to note between Biblical violence, in comparison to violence in the Qu’ran (Koran), is that the violent passages contained within in the Bible are worded in such a way that they can only be applied to that time and those people who were contemporary enemies to the Jewish people before the birth of Christ.

Secondly, Judaism, and its offshoot Christianity, developed to be peaceful religions. Christ’s teachings and those of his Apostles’ nullified the use of violence to resolve problems. While Muhammad’s latter teachings reinforced the notion that violence must be employed to promote religious ends. Hence, you have two diametrically opposing views of faith, and two contrasting opinions as to the dignity and sanctity of human life. One view, the Judeo Christian perspective, upholds the sanctity of human life, while Islam sees it as a means to end that can quickly be destroyed if deemed necessary.

Answer 6

I guess because it goes hand-in-hand with the Commandmnet, "Thou shall not kill" but they also forget...

"1Then God spoke all these words: 2I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments)

In other words, it forbids images such as photos or paintings, statues, dolls, etc, of anything that resembles that which is in the sky, the ground or below the oceans... yeah, no photosof your dear ones! But... thou shalt kill... who about the death penalty...? It applies to abortions and not the death penalty where there is an air of revenge, rather than forgiveness? Hmmm!

Answer 7

Truthfully, this comes from a time when the Hebrews had to win the Holy Land from those who were already living there. It comes from a neolithic mindset where killing off entire tribes was alright because they didn't belong to your tribe.
Notice how morality has changed....

Answer 8

It gives us some idea of how much God hates sin. People need to stop stereotyping God and accept what the Bible teaches about Him. One day He will return with much much greater devastation on people who reject His ways.

Answer 9

This was done at the direct command of God to mete out justice to those who were in long rebellion against him. It wasn't just at the whim of people, or because people were prejudiced against them.

Answer 10

This is referring only to the Amalekites.Jews were told to destroy them and no one else. They attacked the Jews first and we were commanded to wipe em out. Unfortunately, we left their king alive and few sheep who were magicians transformed.