Overcoming Tribal Violence: A Challenge for Contemporary Christianity

Abstract

From a selected survey of some recent scientific findings from archaeology and ancient history, the paper draws two main conclusions. First, we who now know enough to follow the Bible story back from Roman Palestine into prehistory can see humanity’s most obvious and tragic fault: tribal violence. Second, studying the Old Testament from this (new) perspective provides a lens to see inside one particular tribe how each tribe’s hand has always turned against its neighbours. Against this background, the New Testament prophetically projects the only remedy – the Gospel of Jesus - and presents a challenge to contemporary Christianity to find non-violent ways to meet the future.