The Return of the Chaos Monsters: And other backstories
of the Bible
Gregory Mobley
Eerdmans £10.99
(978-0-8028-3746-2)
Church Times
Bookshop £9.90 (Use code CT895 )
THIS is an imaginative and unusual introduction to the Bible,
based on the conviction that underlying all narratives are a number
of basic stories, called by the author "backstories". In the case
of the Bible, there are seven, corresponding to seven divisions of
its literature: creation stories, Pentateuchal narratives,
didactic stories in the Former Prophets (i.e. Joshua, Judges,
Samuel, and Kings), the Latter Prophets (i.e. Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets), the Psalter, wisdom literature,
and apocalyptic.
The seven corresponding stories are summarised as follows:
return of the chaos monsters; it's love that makes the world go
round; poetic justice; anger management; God needs us; the
Blueprint; and conspiracy theory.
It will be noticed that the concentration is on the Old
Testament. Although the author writes as a Christian, he is heavily
influenced by his former Jewish teachers. The chapter on creation
stories uses the well-known theory that Babylonian creation stories
underlie the biblical account; and the chapter on the Pentateuch
argues that the laws of the Pentateuch enable people to live in
harmony with God's universe (in which case, one wonders what to
make, for example, of the law in Numbers 5 which prescribes an
ordeal to be imposed by a husband on a wife he suspects of
unfaithfulness).
The chapter on Former Prophets elaborates the deed-consequence
theory.
"Anger management" contains an interesting section on divine
anger, and emphasises the part played by prophets as intercessors
on behalf of Israel before God. "God needs us" means that worship
unlocks things inside us that belong to God, while "Blueprint"
explores the dilemmas of belief in an ordered world that is clearly
not ordered. The final chapter sees in apoca-lyptic the return of
the chaos monsters.
The book covers much ground, and assumes little prior expert
knowledge on the part of readers. While not everything that it
claims can or should be accepted uncritically, and while a
Reformed Christian position clearly underlies it, it should serve
as a useful introduction to the study of the Old Testament for
beginners.
Canon John Rogerson is Emeritus Professor of Biblical
Studies at Sheffield University.