舊約聖經和新約聖經有許多對暴力行為的敘述，詩歌和說明，描述、鼓勵、命令、譴責、獎勵、懲罰、約束和管制，涉及上帝、個人、團體、政府和民族國家。這些暴力行為包括戰爭、人類犧牲、動物犧牲、謀殺、強姦、種族滅絕和刑事處罰。這些在亞伯拉罕宗教和西方文化中都有歷史性的解釋，其中包括對行為的辯護和反對。聖經記載中的許多古代以色列民族倫理觀念和道德倫理，特別是其中關於大量血腥暴力教義和範例等，與現代社會道德倫理觀念已經不相容。聖經與暴力的研究試圖提供有關的可靠信息。 [1][2][3]
同態復仇（拉丁語：lex talionis）理念在《希伯來聖經》即基督教所謂《舊約》中頻繁出現，這種復仇法是指被傷害者應以同樣的傷害對待施加傷害者， 和現代社會已經不相容。
耶穌會會士Ian Guthridge博士援引了舊約中的大量的種族滅絕事例表示[4]:319-320：
聖經中也包含只能稱之為「聖經屠殺」的恐怖描述。為了保證被揀選者遠離異教和原著民習俗的影響，當上帝命令被揀選者征服應許之地的時候置目標城市於其屠城令下：每個男人、女人和兒童當被屠於劍下。
僅僅再提幾個其他舊約中暴力例子如下：
- 上帝用洪水毀滅除了諾亞一家外的整個人類和所有動物（創世紀6-9），
- 耶和華將硫磺與火降下毀滅所多瑪和蛾摩拉城裏所有的居民（創世紀19）,
- 個人的錯誤以屠城來報復（創世紀34）,
- 耶和華要求立典章：以命償命以眼還眼以牙還牙（出埃及記21）,
如此等等。
在《申命記》，特別是第十三章中，對於此類行為的滅絕程度有如下描述：以色列人被命令「不要留下任何活口……徹底毀滅他們」[5]，這使得大量學者認為這種無差別滅殺行為屬於種族滅絕[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]。Niels Peter Lemche，認為歐洲19世紀的殖民主義意識形態是基於舊約中對征服和滅族的敘述[16]。Arthur Grenke認為申命記中表述的戰爭觀助長了對美洲土著和歐洲猶太人的滅絕[17]。
《馬太福音》中，耶穌教導：你們聽過有這樣的教訓說：「以眼還眼，以牙還牙。」但是我告訴你們，不可向欺負你們的人報復。有人打你的右臉，連左臉也讓他打吧！⋯⋯要愛你們的仇敵，為迫害你們的禱告（《馬太福音》5:38-39,44）。這被廣泛認為是反律法論觀點，是對舊約教義的批評。對此希波的奧古斯丁在其著作《反福斯圖斯》（Contra Faustum Book XIX）中有所討論，認為這是希伯來律法的終結[18]。
但從下面例子可以看出，新約中的暴力使用程度， 也是使人非常震驚的。
其中一些例子如下：
- 凡說話干犯人子的，還可得赦免，惟獨說話干犯聖靈的，今世來世總不得赦免（馬太福音12:32）,
- 世界的末了也要這樣，天使從義人中出來，把惡人分別出來、丟在火爐裏，在那裏必要哀哭切齒了（馬太福音13:49-50）,
- 不要我作他們的王的那些敵人，把他們帶來，在我面前殺掉吧！（路加福音19:27）,
- 信子的人有永生；不信子的人得不着永生，神的震怒常在他身上（約翰福音3:36）,
等等[19][20]。
英國哲學家伯特蘭·羅素認為聖經描述的基督在道德品性中存在着非常嚴重的缺點[21]，他還認為「只要宗教信仰越狂熱，對教條越迷信，殘忍的行為就越猖狂」，並且慎重地說：「基督教作為有組織的教會，過去是，現在也依然是世界道德進步的主要敵人。」
Ian Guthridge. The Rise and Decline of the Christian Empire. Medici School Publications,Australia. 1999. ISBN 0-9588645-4-3. Ruttenberg, Danya, Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: War and National Security Danya Ruttenberg (Ed.)
page 54 (citing Reuven Kimelman, "The Ethics of National Power: Government and War from the Sources of Judaism", in Perspectives, Feb 1987, pp 10-11)
Grenke, Arthur, God, greed, and genocide: the Holocaust through the centuries, pp 17-30
Philip Jenkins - quoted in NPR article "Is The Bible More Violent Than The Quran?" by Barbara Hagerty. Online at [1] （頁面存檔備份，存於互聯網檔案館）. Kravitz, Leonard, "What is Crime?", in Crime and punishment in Jewish law: essays and responsa, EditorsWalter Jacob, Moshe Zemer, Berghahn Books, 1999, p 31.
Magid, Shaul, "Subversion as Return: Scripture, Dissent, and Renewal in Contemporary Judaism, in Subverting Scriptures: Critical Reflections on the Use of the Bible Beth Hawkins Benedix (Ed), pp 217-236, p 234.
Cohn, Robert L, "Before Israel: The Canaanites as Other in Biblical Tradition", in The Other in Jewish thought and history: constructions of Jewish culture and identity, Laurence Jay Silberstein, (Ed.), NYU Press, 1994, pp 76-77
Boustan, Ra'anan S., Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity, BRILL, 2010, pp 3-5
Firestone, Reuven, "Judaism on Violence and Reconciliation: An Examination of Key Sources", in Beyond violence: religious sources of social transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, James Heft (Ed.), Fordham Univ Press, 2004, p 75
Ehrlich, Carl S., "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide" in Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,BRILL, 1999, pp 121-122
Garber, Zev, "Deconstructing Theodicy and Amalekut", in Post-Shoah dialogues: re-thinking our texts together, James F. Moore (Ed.), University Press of America, 2004, pp 241-243.
Van Wees, Hans, "Genocide in the Ancient World", in The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies, Donald Bloxham, A. Dirk Moses (Eds), p 242.
Niels Peter Lemche, The Old Testament between theology and history: a critical survey, Westminster John Knox Press, 2008,
pp 315–316:
- "The [Biblical] story of the 'morally supreme people' that defeats and exterminates another, inferior, nation was part of the ideological baggage of European imperialists and colonizers throughout the nineteenth century. It was also carried by European Jews who,.. migrated to Palestine to inherit their ancestral country … In this modern version of the biblical narrative, the Palestinian population turned into 'Canaanites', supposed to be morally inferior to the Jews, and of course the Arabs were never considered their equals … The Bible was the instrument used to suppress the enemy".
Grenke, Arthur, God, greed, and genocide: the Holocaust through the centuries, New Academia Publishing, LLC, 2005, pp 17-18:
- "Discussing the influence of Christian beliefs on the destruction of the Native peoples in the Americas, Stannard argues that while the New Testament view of war is ambiguous, there is little such ambiguity in the Old Testament. He points to sections in Deuteronomy in which the Israelite God, Yahweh, commanded that the Israelites utterly destroy idolaters whose land they sought to reserve for the worship of their deity (Deut 7:2, 16, and 20:16-17). … According to Stannard, this view of war contributed to the .. destruction of the Native peoples in the Americas. It was this view that also led to the destruction of European Jewry. Accordingly, it is important to look at this particular segment of the Old Testament: it not only describes a situation where a group undertakes to totally destroy other groups, but it also had a major influence on shaping thought and belief systems that permitted, and even inspired, genocide."
