ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to give a brief overview of some of the striking contrasts between the biblical approach to the hero/villain issue and representative modern approaches. Certain patriarchal procedures in the Hebrew Bible (HB) are deeply disturbing to modern commentators. While the biblical story-tellers present their patriarchal protagonists as suffering heroes as opposed to the groups, cities, tribes or peoples depicted as villains, modern scholars tend to bring a different focus to the text, often including the patriarchal heroes among the villains. This is so much the case that one might well speak of the encounter between the biblical narrators and their modern interpreters as an authentic culture clash. To take the villains first, Sodom is the first noteworthy example in HB of a city being described as 'evil'. In 10:19 the name of Sodom is introduced alongside Gomorrah; both cities being founded by the early Canaanites.
