In his introduction to the catchily titled and vividly jacketed Bible Baddies (Lion pound;8.99), Bob Hartman says, “I hope you will cheer when they get their comeuppance or are haunted by the evil they have set in motion”.
Hartman is interested in those whose badness sits alongside their goodness (David) as well as those whose disregard for right and wrong makes them the biggest baddies of them all (Pilate). And in “The Conman’s Tale” he shows how evil can be done without committing any high crime when Gehazi, the belittler, makes cheap insinuations about the prophet Elisha.
