Louis Vigo’s Reviews > The Return of the Chaos Monsters and Other Backstories of the Bible > Status Update

The window stories remind Jews and Christians that somethings are out of our control, that sometimes all we can do is to let go and drop to the ground. These window stories are one of the many places where the West opens its orderly, busy house to allow the breezy truth of nonattachment of letting go, to below where it listeth

The habits of mind characteristic of cultures shaped by Judaism and Christianity inspire a work ethic and hyper-achievement. They build off the truths of the seven back stories, that God calls him humans to actively partner in the struggle against chaos. This emphasis on virtuous good works also, at the same time, breeds the seductive illusion of control.

The special mark of biblical heroes is not the time when they are strong, but the time when they are weak.

But there are times when the chaos is, or seems to be, overwhelming. Apocalyptic was born in such a time. According to its story, the only hope the faithful have during such tribulation is that God, as in the beginning, as in the old stories about divine heroes and dragons, can subdue chaos. The backstories have come full circle and the canon ends where it began, with creation

Through good works and worship, through vigilant maintenance of the firmament of justice and peace that restrains the chaotic violence ever ready to irrupt, the faithful servant as helpers corresponding to their Creator.

Both Persian & Israelite prophets had already made innovations, merging myth and history, those early attempts in the 7th to 5th century BCE that fuse Morning Stars with the King of Babylon, as thus spoke Zarathustra, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Zachariah.

The apocalyptic epic took its protagonist from the spate of ancient divine combat stories about hero versus monster, shoreline versus sea, and levee versus river—all variations on the theme of order vs chaos.

In Envy of Adam, Satan did not fall at the time of the flood, but back around DAY6 of creation week, after the Lord God created Adam. Satan refuses to cater to the new member of the family

Satan, also called Semihazah in Enoch, Azazel in Apocalypse of Abraham, Belial in Qumran, Mastima in Jubilees, Beelzebul in the Gospels, and Lucifer in early Christian literature

Satan is the personification of evil, the supreme opponent Of God in the almost eternal battle between order and chaos that takes place in chronological time.