JEWISH INFLUENCE ON MILITARISM GROUNDED IN THE TORAH

Abstract

The present study investigates the foundations of militarism underlying the Torah (Pentateuch), analyzing how legal and narrative strata systematize the phenomenology of war, the deontology of combat, and the theological construction of the ‘Divine Warrior’ figure. The primary scope lies in analyzing the mechanisms through which Mosaic legislation and Israel’s formative traditions regulate the use of force, establishing a normative distinction between legitimate armed violence and arbitrariness. Methodologically, the research is grounded in a qualitative hermeneutical approach, anchored in textual and theological-legal exegesis of passages concerning tribal organization, the sacralization of conflict, and the moral imperatives applied to the warfare scenario. The evidence indicates that the Torah does not conceive of war as a teleological end, but as a praxis strictly subject to covenantal fidelity, the safeguarding of collective sovereignty, and the observance of divine precepts. Ultimately, it is inferred that militarism in the Pentateuch configures a singular paradigm, in which military activity is circumscribed by rigorous ethical, ritual, and legal boundaries, revealing a conception of violence intrinsically subordinated to the theonomic and legal dimensions.