Although seldom studied by biblical scholars as a discrete phenomenon, ritual violence is mentioned frequently in biblical texts. Violent Rituals of the Hebrew Bible is the first book to investigate violent rites, the ritual settings in which they occur, their various literary contexts, and the identity and aims of their agents in order to speak in an informed way about the contours and social aspects of ritual violence as it is represented in the HebrewBible.

• Acknowledgments


• Abbreviations


• Introduction


• Chapter 1: Ritual Violence Prescribed


• Chapter 2: Violent Rites Narrated


• Chapter 3: Ritual Violence Envisioned


• Chapter 4: Ritual Inversion and Mitigating Rites


• Chapter 5: The Role of Circumstantially Dependent Rites in Ritual Violence


• Chapter 6: The Social Dimensions of Ritual Violence


• Conclusion


• Notes


• Indexes

Saul M. Olyan is the Samuel Ungerleider Jr. Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. He is the author, most recently, of Friendship in the Hebrew Bible.