Gott und Gewalt gegen Kinder im Alten Testament

Children are often the victims of violence in the Old Testament, and in most instances God bears the responsibility for these acts of violence. In this work, Andreas Michel demonstrates that there are parallels between today's attitude regarding these acts and the attitude of the Greek translators of the Old Testament who, because they could not bear the thought of God permitting these acts of violence, simply omitted some of these incidents from their bible. In order to present proof of this, the author evaluates for the first time all those negative verbs which are related to violence and which have God as their subject. In doing so, he is guided by the presentation of the so-called countertestimony in Walter Brueggemann's »Theology of the Old Testament« from 1997. In a discussion of Psalm 137 and Genesis 22, two texts which pertain particularly to violence against children, and of texts concerning cannibalism of children, the author reaches the conclusion that the biblical image of God, as repulsive as it may seem, must be taken seriously.