Fraternal Strife in the Bible
Identifies eleven major episodes of internal Israelite bloodshed recorded in Scripture, from the Golden Calf to the war of Pekah and Ahaz, and argues that the widespread assumption that no such civil conflict appears in the Bible reflects psychological defenses against anxiety and collective guilt rather than any real absence of evidence in the text.
Birnbaum, a clinical psychologist, begins from survey data showing that Israeli students asked about civil war in the Bible usually recall none, and tests that impression by combing the Tanakh for internal conflicts costing thousands of lives. He finds eleven, spread across the wilderness years, the era of the Judges, the early monarchy and the divided kingdom, with causes running from religious zealotry to tribal jealousy, dynastic rivalry and inter-kingdom warfare that repeatedly invited foreign intervention. Reading the gap between record and memory as repression, he closes by urging education, communal dialogue and standing mechanisms for defusing conflict early.
Aiton Birnbaum, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist practicing in Kfar Yona, Israel.
Cite this article
Aiton Birnbaum. "Fraternal Strife in the Bible." Jewish Bible Quarterly 36, no. 2 (April – June 2008): 109–118.
Aiton Birnbaum. "Fraternal Strife in the Bible." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 2, 2008, pp. 109–118.