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Biblical perspective on violence and bullying

We can see these two issues, violence and bullying, in the Bible as well if we read it from its perspective. The Bible is full of violence and bullying. I want to mention here some examples of violence and bullying that make our point clear. For violence, Cain killed Abel (Gen. 4), and Moses killed one Egyptian (Exodus 2:14). David raped Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). Ammon, son of King David, raped or violated his sister Tamar (2 Samuel 131:12). Murder and having sex, raped are the direct violence. Patriarchal violence like In the time of Jesus, children and women were considered inferior to men. Family violence like in the family of Elkanah, the father of Samuel, had family violence because Elkanah's first wife, Peninah, bent on provoking, teasing, and irritating her (1 Samuel:6). A man has his father’s wife (1 Corinthians 5:1).

For bullying, we can read in 1 Samuel, chapter 17, the story of young David and Goliath. Goliath bent on bullying the king Saul and his people before coming to David (8:19; 9:19). In the new testament, we see the bullying, like in the gospel of John, chapter 8, where one adulteress was bullied by the Jews. Our Lord Jesus Christ was also bullied by his own people (Luke 19:7; 1 Peter 2:22–24). Nehemiah also was bullied while building the walls of Jerusalem by some people, Sanballat and Tobia. Nehemiah4:1ff .These two issues are very clearly mentioned in the Bible in order to teach us something. Some of the violence is awful, but it has a purpose. Violence is there for two reasons: one is prescriptive, and the other is descriptive. Prescriptive means to tell us how to live a life. And descriptive is to describe the story. Jesus was the one who was bullied so much, but he didn’t revenge himself, just as we are called to bless and love others. The Bible doesn’t allow us to do violence or bullying. The Bible says in Mark 12:31 that we should love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

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