https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993X17699548 Currents in Biblical Research 2017, Vol. 16(1) 34–49 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1476993X17699548 journals.sagepub.com/home/cbi Text and Terror: Monster Theory and the Hebrew Bible Brandon R. Grafius Ecumenical Theological Seminary, USA Abstract While biblical scholars have long been interested in the monsters of the Hebrew Bible, it is only in the last several decades that theoretical approaches to monsters have made their way into biblical studies. Originating in the fields of psychoanalysis and anthropology, monster theory looks at the construction of various monsters, arguing that the way a culture creates its monsters reveals the anxieties held by that culture. This article will explore the uses of monster theory in recent works of biblical scholarship, demonstrating that monster theory has been used to read the figure of the monster as a representation of chaos, identify monstrous imagery as a rhetoric of trauma, and explore how the boundaries between the monster and the self are shifting and unstable. Keywords Anthropology, Chaoskampf, deconstruction, grotesque, Hebrew Bible, horror, identity, Leviathan, monster theory, posthumanism, psychoanalytic theory, trauma Introduction In his essay exploring the attraction of horror narratives, Noël Carroll suggests that audiences are drawn to the genre’s play of concealing and discovery, liken- ing the horror narrative to a detective story. He remarks, ‘[A horror narrative] engages the audience by being involved in the process of disclosure, discov- ery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation’, finally resulting in ‘the revelation (to the audience or to the characters or both) of the existence of the monster’ (2003: 4). While Carroll is clearly not using the word ‘revelation’ in a religious sense, the importance of revealing secrets serves as an interesting con- nection between the genres of horror and narratives from the Hebrew Bible that feature monstrous figures, such as Job 40–41 or Daniel 7. Timothy Beal points Corresponding author: Brandon R. Grafius, Ecumenical Theological Seminary, 2930 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48201, USA. Email: bgrafius@etseminary.edu 10.1177/1476993X17699548 Article