The Return of the Chaos Monsters—and Other Backstories of the Bible

by Gregory Mobley

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2012

Overview

In The Return of the Chaos Monsters—and Other Backstories of the Bible, Gregory Mobley plunges beneath the Bible’s surface to reveal its “backstories”—the tales that constitute the backbone of the people of Israel and of the body of Christ. Viewing the Bible as “essentially, relentlessly story,” Mobley provides an easy-to-understand seven-part thematic overview of the Bible that guides readers through the drama of the Hebrew Bible, highlighting the interconnectedness of biblical stories. Each story is a variation on a single theme—the dynamic interplay between order and chaos.

Contents

• The Return of the Chaos Monsters: The Backstory of Creation
• It’s Love ThatMakes the World Go ’Round: The Backstory of Torah
• Poetic Justice: The Backstory of the Former Prophets
• Anger Management: The Backstory of the Latter Prophets
• God Needs Us: The Backstory of the Psalms
• The Blueprint: The Backstory of Wisdom
• Conspiracy Theory: The Backstory of Apocalyptic
• Windows

Top Highlights

“It is significant that the most prominent biblical book utilized in the African American songbook is Daniel; Daniel is about living in Diaspora, staying faithful in the day, hoping that one will be delivered from lions’ dens, and feverishly, ecstatically hoping in the night for salvation from the principalities and powers of the present.” (Page 136)

“The Lord does not simply free-associate (‘Where were you when I did this? What do you know about ostriches or snowfall or the constellations?’). Virtually every topic that God introduces is something that Job and his friends had alluded to in their earlier dialogues. It is as if God had been listening as they spouted their ‘wisdom,’ finally had had enough, and now was correcting all their misunderstandings.” (Pages 121–122)

“The logic of this archetypal story is that sin awakens the chaos monsters and leads to the undoing of creation. Ethical structures and liturgical disciplines are among our defenses against chaos. By keeping the mitzvot, by doing mishpaṭ and loving ḥesed, humans act as co-managers with God of chaos. Virtue keeps the cosmos structured. Virtue keeps the chaos monsters at bay.” (Pages 22–23)

“What do humans have to say to God? Humans say, ‘Thanks, merci, todâ, gracias, danke.’ ‘The world works, life is a gift, we exhale in gratitude.’ Humans also say, ‘What the hell?’ ‘The world does not work the way that the Torah promised and the prophets declared.’ We sigh in lament for all the broken things we know not how to repair.” (Page 98)

“Creation in Genesis 1 is not so much about making things out of nothing as it is about bringing definition and identity and differentiation to nothingness. The chaos was not obliterated; rather, it was controlled, fenced in, held behind a firmament. Chaos was organized into orderly structures; ‘everything according to its kind.’” (Page 34)

Praise for the Print Edition

In lively prose Greg Mobley combines the work of teacher and preacher, scholar and poet to explore the dominant story line undergirding the Bible. His passion for the subject guides the reader into mystery and mayhem, law and love, nature and nourishment. A book worthy of the informed faith it espouses.

—Phyllis Trible, university professor, School of Divinity, Wake Forest University

Mobley has written a thick narrative account of Israel’s thick narrative. He does so with freedom and imagination while remaining faithful to the plotline of the old narrative. His book defies genre classification; it is part introduction, part theology, but mostly a playful tease that invites the reader into the indeterminate wisdom of the biblical text. Mobley’s shrewd reflection on ‘God’s anger’ is itself well worth the price of the book. But there is much more here that invites fresh thinking about texts we thought we already knew. This welcome and suggestive probe of biblical imagination ranges all the way from the stories of the ancient Near East to quite personal narrative memories.

—Walter Brueggemann, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary

The Bible was composed by storytellers, and, nearly alone among commentators, Mobley brings the Bible’s narrative world, often an oral narrative world, to life.

—Lawrence M. Wills, Ethelbert Talbot Professor of Biblical Studies, Episcopal Divinity School

Product Details

• Title: The Return of the Chaos Monsters—and Other Backstories of the Bible
• Author: Gregory Mobley
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2012
• Pages: 167
• Christian Group: Evangelicals
• Resource Type: Topical
• Topic: Biblical Studies

About Gregory Mobley

Greg Mobley came to Andover Newton in 1997. He previously taught at Union Theological Seminary (New York), Harvard Divinity School, and, for two years following college, at a high school in Jos, Nigeria. He is the author of The Empty Men: The Heroic Tradition of Ancient Israel (2005), Samson and the Liminal Hero in the Ancient Near East (2006), and with co-author T.J. Wray, The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil’s Biblical Roots (2005). Mobley has contributed to the Journal of Biblical Literature, the Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation, Eerdman’s Dictionary of the Bible, Perspectives in Religious Studies, and he wrote the introductions to and annotations for the books of the Minor Prophets in the 3rd edition of the New Oxford Annotated Bible. He has done archaeological fieldwork in Israel and editorial work for the Dead Sea Scrolls project. In 2000 he received the Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar award. Mobley is an ordained American Baptist minister. Mobley is active in Christian-Jewish relations both in Massachusetts and, especially, through our partnership with Hebrew College here on campus.