Feldman on Biblical Violence

Louis H. Feldman has analysed biblical violence according to Philo, Pseudo-Philo and Josephus.

Feldman’s book is reviewed by Zev Garber in the latest RBL http:www.bookreviews.org/subscribe.asp

According to Garber Feldman’s says that:
"Philo...labored in the vineyeard of Socrates and Plato, raised questions of theodicy and resolved seeming paradoxes between the yoke of the Torah and Hellenistic thought by his creative and innovative method of allegory."

"For Philo and Josephus, the preoccupation of Israel and Gentiles is not essentially a problem of history but attitude."

The reviewer thinks Feldman’s interpretations of nonrabbinic exegetes are novel, but he questions Feldman’s approach in relation to some essential hermeneutical issues: "There is little attempt to show how divinely sanctioned criteria relates to modern religious radicalism".


Cf. the monograph by the editor of this blog, Torrey Seland Seland: Establishment Violence in Philo and Luke. A Study of Non–Conformity to the Torah and Jewish Vigilante Reactions. Leiden, Brill 1995.

Feldman, Louis H.
"Remember Amalek!": Vengeance, Zealotry, and Group Destruction in the Bible, According to Philo, Pseudo-Philo, and Josephus http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=4241