>Guillermo del Toro, the film director who directed the Academy Award movie “Pan’s Labyrinth” has agreed to collaborate with crime author Chuck Hogan to write a trilogy of vampire novels. According to a press release published by the Associated Press, the novels will trace the history of vampires back to the Old Testament:

“The trilogy advances in unexpected ways and each book contains unique and surprising revelations about the history, physiology and lore of the vampiric race, tracing its roots all the way back to its Old Testament origins.”

Now, let me name all the vampires of the Old Testament: there is none.

Vampires are mythological creatures who live “by feeding on the blood of the living.” This means that if the authors are using the Old Testament to explain the origin of vampires, they have to remember the biblical prohibition against eating (or drinking) blood: “If anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut that person off from the people” (Leviticus 17:10).

Only someone who does not know the Old Testament can speak of vampires in the Bible.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Chuck Hogan, Guillermo del Toro, Vampires

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