Themes in Genesis: The Cycle of Violence in Genesis

Violence began with Cain in Genesis, and never seemed to disappear.  Even with the chosen family, violence became a way of life.

Cain

Cain killed his brother in a spiritual contest.

Noah

God destroyed the earth with fire because of wickedness in general and violence in particular.

Abraham

Abraham was about to slaughter his own son before an angel of God stopped him.  Abraham also went out against an army to rescue Sodom and his brother Lot.

Sarah

Sarah dealt harshly with her servant.  In all likelihood, she beat her servant.  Beating servants was acceptable and expected in Bible days.  In the book of Tobit another Sarah (who was a godly woman) beat her servant girl, because she was childless and her servant taunted her.  There are definite similarities between the Sarah's.

Laban

Laban could have slaughtered Jacob and taken his daughters and grandchildren.  He mentioned that to Jacob, but did not follow through with his plans because God told him in a dream not to do it.

Reuben 

The oldest of Jacob's sons had sex with Jacob's wife's servant who was also Jacob's wife.  This was an act of aggression and revenge...not an act of lust.

Simeon and Levi

Simeon and Levi slaughtered an entire village of men in order to revenge their sister Dinah's honor.

The Brothers

Joseph's brothers were quite willing to kill him, but because of Reuben's own personal interests in restoring some of his honor; and because of Judah's own leadership the brothers sold him into slavery instead.

Joseph

Joseph ended the cycle of violence in the family with forgiveness.  He acknowledged their evil and openly called his brothers on it, but he forgave them, thus ending the cycle of revenge in his family.

CONCLUSION

Violence permeates Genesis.  It suggests that the human race is violent by nature.  I believe this accurately portrays humanity - we are violent, competing for territory and for dominance.  We can hide behind names such as patriotism, love of country, protection, or whatever; it still comes down to this - we are violent as individuals, and we are more violent as groups. 

Brothers rarely get along in Genesis.  It seems that the only times they do get along are when they are gathering together to kill somebody or some village of men (Joseph's brothers).  I could push this more and suggest that most brothers in the Hebrew Bible are bound to live in competition, disagreement, hatred and killing.