Definition

The definition of what constitutes violence has changed over time.^[4]: 1  In the twenty-first century, the definition has broadened considerably to include acts that used to be seen as acceptable.^[4]: 1–2  Modern scholarship on violence in the Bible tends to fall into two categories: those who use modern ethics to critique what they see as the violent legacy of monotheism, and those who approach the topic from a historical and cultural perspective.^[4]: 10–12  The Bible reflects how perceptions of violence changed over time for its authors and its readers.^[4]: 261 

Biblical writers defined and interpreted violence in culturally specific terms based upon the values of the age in which they lived using their own themes, cultural explanations, and theological logic.^{[4]: 3, 6 [5}] They defined anything that destroys the ecological environment as a form of violence.^{[4]: 10, 17–18, 21}–22  They depict scheming, arrogant and dishonest speech, especially speech aimed at oppressing the poor, as violent in both cause and effect.^{[4]: 118–119}, 121  Violations of justice are defined as particularly egregious forms of violence.^{[4]: 6, 11–12 [6]}: 3  Violations of purity and sanctity are seen as a kind of violence that defiles the land, its people, and the sanctuary. It is accompanied by disgust on the part of the biblical writers.[