Violence, Chaos and Theophany in Habakkuk 3

Divine violence often causes scandal, since the current image of divinity is one-dimensional, focused on features such as mercy, justice, forgiveness, etc. In reality, the Bible – First and New Testaments – is not afraid to present many faces of God, even those that are scandalous to us. The aim of this paper is to show the role of divine vio- lence in restoring order in the cosmos through the analysis of one of the most complex texts of the First Testament: Abakkuk 3. The restoration of the cosmic order is also the restoration of good and earthly justice. It is evident, however, that the world of the con- temporary reader is different from that of the author and his readers: textual analysis shows the distance that separates them and, at the same time, opens up a space of issues that solicits numerous questions about our way of place ourselves in front of religion and the divine, on our presuppositions and our expectations.