There’s a new game in town. Finally, a video game based on biblical, or sort-of-biblical, stories. 
Bible-reading folks frequently say that there are really great stories in the Bible; but what they usually mean is that its stories instruct, correct, or otherwise inform the ways that people should live. Sure, there are such didactic texts; but there are also a lot of others — stories whose “heroes” hardly qualify, and the texts don’t explain away misbehavior. Take Abraham, as heroic as they come in the Bible. Yet to save his skin, he allows his wife to be taken by a foreign king… twice (Gen 12:10-13:1; 20:1-18). David, the greatest of Israel’s kings and the one with whom God makes an unconditional and unending promise, actually works as a Philistine mercenary for a while (1 Sam chaps 27-29, see esp. 29:3); and the disciples in Mark’s gospel, despite their status as Jesus’ select and primary followers, routinely misunderstand or otherwise fail in the message. Truth is, some of these stories, and others that shock , titillate, or surprise are some of the most interesting and provocative.
In a CNN interview, Ignition (who produced the game)’s director of business Shane Bettenhausen explains that traditionally doing anything with the Bible except what explicitly instructs has traditionally been off-limits. In as much as its creators didn’t want to take the religious route, Bettenhausen nevertheless makes the game sound palatable to those who may be nervous about using biblical texts in such a manner. “We felt there was some value in presenting this story… hunting down these fallen angels, bringing them back to face justice in heaven.”
El Shaddai, a biblical Hebrew name for God that is frequently translated as “the Almighty” (for lack of anyone’s really knowing what it means — options noted in Bible Babel), is now the title of a video game based on an ancient book based on a biblical character — Enoch. Enoch gets scant mention in the Bible, but it’s enough to fire the imagination. Except for the prophet Elijah, Enoch is the only one said not to have died a natural human death. Instead, he “walked with God” (Gen 5:22). Well, take this along with the crazy supernatural goings-on in that book (to include the half-human, half-angel Nephilim), and you’ve got the makings of a wild and wooly story, even for twenty-first century techies (not so much for others). The book(s) of Enoch (considered “Bible” by a tiny minority of Christians) were probably composed centuries after those stories in Genesis, but they gained a religious following of their own. And now, a video game of divine beings at war. For someone who can count on one hand the number of video games she’s played, it sounds like rollicking fun.
