ABSTRACT
This chapter includes interviews with three early and pivotal writers on sexual violence in the Bible: Harold Washington, Caroline Blyth, and Mitzi Smith. In 1998, Harold Washington wrote that violence in the Hebrew Bible was central to the consolidation of masculine identity. Washington’s research, which exposes how integral violence is to the Hebrew Bible, defines terms of inquiry that scholars continue to rely on today. Caroline Blyth’s work pioneered the interfacing of academic textual analysis with survivor voices. Blyth was also part of the inauguration of a sub-genre in biblical studies: trauma-informed scholarship. Mitzi Smith has written both on being a survivor and on intersectional perspectives on violent biblical texts. Her work on postcolonial feminist perspectives continues to influence the field.
