God's Monsters

Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible

De: Esther Hamori

Narrado por: Lisa Larsen

The Bible is teeming with monsters. Giants tromp through the land of milk and honey; Leviathan swims through the wine-dark sea. A stunning array of peculiar creatures, mind-altering spirits, and supernatural hitmen fill the biblical heavens.

Traditional interpretations of the creatures of the Bible have sanded down their sharp, unsavory edges, transforming them into celestial beings of glory and light—or chubby, happy cherubs. Those cherubs? They're actually hybrid guardian monsters, more closely associated with the Egyptian sphinx than with flying babies. And the seraphim? Winged serpents sent to mete out God's vengeance. Demons aren't at war with angels; they're a distinct supernatural species used by Satan and by God. The pattern is chilling. Most of these monsters aren't God's opponents—they're God's entourage.

Killer angels, plague demons, manipulative spirits, creatures with an alarming number of wings (and eyes all over)—these shapeshifters and realm-crossers act with stunning brutality, each reflecting a facet of God's own monstrosity. Confronting God's monsters—and the God-monster—may be uncomfortable, but the Bible is richer for their presence. For anyone interested in monsters, myths, folklore, demons, and more, God's Monsters is an entertaining deep dive into the creaturely strangeness of the Bible.

©2023 Esther J. Hamori (P)2023 eChristian

The Dark Side of God

This is a wonderful examination of the darker nature of God as evidenced by the Bible.

God’s Monsters

I had no idea how god is viewed in the Bible. I was always taught that it was our fault when something bad happened. God’s punishment. This is the god that I’ve come to see in my own misery and I hated him for it. I was raised as a fundamentalist. Everything god did was for our benefit. He is kinda human, only he can do awful things to good people just because. We are created in his image. This book was phenomenal. I first learned of it on Bart Ehrman’s blog. On of the best books I’ve read in a long, long time.

intuitive observations

The story highlights what the Bible actually says!
Bringing to light things people don't like to think about or haven't taken the time to actually understand.

Great book

Great incite from analyzing the biblical stories in context of cultural norms and terminology when written. So many passages of the Bible are completely misunderstood today because readers don’t take time to investigate original texts and translation effects.

The vivid descriptions in detail were perfect. 

This book desperately provided the insight needed into the dualistic nature of God in this earthly realm. There is no all good, all loving entity within the Bible. It is a book of highs and lows, death and rebirth, creation, and destruction. 

Loved it

Dr. Hamori leads a fascinating, and easy to understand, journey through some of the mythical figures appearing in the Bible. I loved the descriptions, accompanied by details revealed about the same (if not similar) characters in other Semitic literature of the time. Highly recommended for anyone curious about ancient writings and some of the figures that appear. And also how history was told through “monstering” other groups of people

Very Difficult to Respect Author

For all that the author makes pointed presentation in the very first chapter of this book that she is making things like the “genderization of God” and the tracking of words and imagery through the interpretations of history “Biblically accurate,” and seems to proclaim intent to treat everything historically, she spends an awful lot of time making theological “arguments” and “interpretations” of her own. She makes full disclosure that this study emerged from the time of religious exploration after the death of her brother (completely relatable, for those of us in that unfortunate club), but as a result, this whole text seems to have turned into her argument with God about death, trying to hold God to her own standards of propriety and her own decisions about what could have or should have happened at any given point in the Bible. As a result, the study that this book is supposed to be comes across as immature, some sort of idealist child with an extensive collection of facts insisting on a single way to see them, with mere hand-waving acknowledgment that (the somehow academically less worthy) people arrange them differently.

Off-putting. Disappointing. I had been looking forward to listening to this work because it was described as a far-reaching survey of biblical creatures, both as they appear in the Bible and where they also appear in a few disparate cultures. Instead, I find it difficult to accord the author much respect as she gets in the way of her own research and academic product.

Will leave you wondering if Christian Media was Dooped

I fear some people may delete this, and ask for their credit back before the author gets to her point. Interesting though

A Monster Task

It's not easy trying to illuminate the dark side of God. I can fully say, this book didn't disappoint. The oldest interpretation's and manuscript's concerning the Bible tell a slightly different story. Believer's beware, this is a book medieval Christians would have burned without a second thought.

Really an Amazing Book

Entertaining, smart, and funny, but serious and well-cited as well. The conclusion is really deep and insightful, and a little unexpected, but it makes perfect sense and is inescapable once you reach it. And I enjoyed every step along the way!