In the Beginning Was the State: Divine Violence in the Hebrew Bible

The book explores God's use of violence in the Hebrew Bible, drawing from contemporary biblical scholarship and political theory to critique the modern state's deification. It identifies three distinct theocratic formations: the rule of disaster, the biopolitical rule of the holy, and the rule of law.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 08 November 2022
Publisher: Fordham University Press

This book delves into the portrayal of violence in the Hebrew Bible, specifically focusing on the Pentateuch. It examines biblical narratives and legal codes as reflections of theopolitical imagination. Ophir analyzes the logic of divine rule within these documents, with a particular emphasis on the role of violence. Drawing from contemporary biblical scholarship, the book engages critically with contemporary political theory and political theology, including the works of Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, Jan Assmann, Regina Schwartz, and Michael Walzer. Ophir identifies three distinct theocratic formations: the rule of disaster, where catastrophes are employed as means of governance; the biopolitical rule of the holy, where divine violence is spatially demarcated and personally targeted; and the rule of law, where divine violence is vividly remembered and its return is projected, anticipated, and yet postponed, creating a prolonged lull for the text's present. While these formations differ, Ophir highlights their shared urform, which anticipates the main outlines of the modern European state, which has monopolized the entire globe. The book argues that a critique of the modern state must begin with a reexamination of the deification of the state, unpacking its theological dimension, which is often repressed.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781531501402