In this episode Dr Andrew Ollerton is joined by the Revd Dr Helen Paynter to look at horror and violence in the Old Testament. Helen walks us through one of the Old Testament’s “Texts of Terror”—the notorious 19th chapter of the book of Judges and explores how we can bring humility and empathy to the way we read the Bible. 

Content note: Please note this episode contains extended discussion about sexual violence in the Old Testament narrative.

Reading list: 

• God of Violence Yesterday, God of Love Today?  by Helen Paynter (The Bible Reading Fellowship, 2019)
• The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest: Covenant, Retribution, and the Fate of the Canaanites by John H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton (IVP US , 2017)
• Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God by Paul Copan and Matt Flannagan (Baker Books, 2014)
• Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric? Wrestling with Troubling War Texts by William J. Webb and Gordon K. Oeste (IVP US, 2019)
• Telling Terror in Judges 19: Rape and Reparation for the Levite’s wife by Helen Paynter (Routledge, 2020)

The Revd Dr Helen Paynter is a Baptist Minister and the Director of Bristol Baptist College’s Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence. Helen has a Masters in Missional Church Leadership, another Masters in Biblical Studies, and a PhD in Old Testament. Her main research interests are in the narrative portions of the Hebrew Bible. 

This episode is a re-release from the Trusting the Bible podcast which was a collaboration between Tyndale House, Cambridge @Tyndale_House and the Bible Society @biblesociety in 2022.

Edited by Tyndale House 

Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.

Support the show

Edited by Tyndale House

Music – Acoustic Happy Background used with a standard license from Adobe Stock.

Follow us on: X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube