Motivating Violence in Ancient Judaism

The battle is about to begin. The odds are against our heroes. But a rousing exhortation can secure victory. In war, leaders call their soldiers to violence. Joseph Scales collects and analyses every known pre-battle exhortation in Second Temple Jewish sources and earlier.

The battle is about to begin. The commander takes their place in front of their troops and surveys the opposing horde. The odds seem stacked against them. Fear strikes the hearts of the soldiers. There is only one thing to be done: to fight by sheer force of will. This is the moment in which a rousing exhortation can secure victory. In the face of overwhelming odds, a heroic speaker calls upon their audience not to fear but to take courage.
In warfare, commanders incite combatants to violence by centring the oppositional identity of their enemies, the historic value of their fight, and the divine support for their cause. These incitements were often delivered in the immediate moments before combat – in other words, as a pre-battle speech. Joseph Scales collects and analyses every known pre-battle exhortation in Second Temple Jewish sources and earlier. These literary examples can shed light on aspects of identity creation for in-text audiences and their enemies. Their narrative arcs reveal and promote the deeply held convictions of the author channeled into a context of urgency and heightened emotion, making them all the more impactful. For this reason, these texts continue to provide a framework for self-understanding and perception of one’s enemies, motivating violence throughout history.

Chapter 1: "Fighting Talk" - Introduction
A. Pre-battle speeches between oration and narrative
B. Jewish sources as narratives
C. Criteria for selection in this study
D. Success criteria
E. Pre-battle speech corpus overview
F. Chapter layout
Chapter 2: "Listen to me" - Who gives a Jewish pre-battle speech?
A. Speeches in character
B. The principal speech-givers
C. Who gives a pre-battle speech?
Chapter 3: "Do not fear, but take courage" - Assuring the audience
A. Injunctions against fear
B. Injunctions towards courage
C. Fear amongst the enemies
D. The role of fear and courage in assuring the audience
Chapter 4: "For they are..." - Creating an enemy
A. Enemy characterisation
B. Creating an other
C. Out-group conceptions
D. Recollection and "memory" deployment
Chapter 5: "For we are..." - Binding an audience
A. Audience characterisation
B. Means of cohesion
C. In-group framing and conceptions
D. Us and them
Chapter 6: "If we fail... if we succeed" - Outlining consequences
A. Reasons for battle and results from violence
B. The consequences of failure
C. The rewards of success
D. Realisation
Chapter 7: Conclusions
A. Summary of the above findings
B. Points of contact and a varied development
C. Effects upon readers and hearers
D. Legitimate applications of violence
E. What is an ancient Jewish pre-battle speech?

• By (author) Joseph Scales