Second Thoughts on Biblical Violence with Jared Neusch

Dr Jared Neusch is a Bible scholar who earned his PhD in New Testament from King’s College London. With years of experience teaching in both university and local church settings, Jared is passionate about equipping others with a deeper understanding of Scripture. His recent contribution, “Nonviolent Hermeneutics”, featured in the Handbook on Postconservative Theological Interpretation, was the topic of our conversation.

This was a deep conversation about biblical violence and how our interpretation of these texts impacts our lives today. After establishing some terms and laying out a couple of reading approaches from two prominent contemporary scholars, we attempted to see how these approaches translate into specific texts. I went first, offering my reading of Exodus 32, where Moses commands the slaughter of three thousand people. From there, I asked Jared to offer an interpretation on Acts 5 and the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira.

Links below for the key references discussed:

Cross Vision (Greg Boyd)

Flood and Fury (Matt Lynch)

For some basic background on a couple of things mentioned in the interview, you may want to check out the Wikipedia articles for Marcionism and the Phinehas Priesthood.