Exegesis at the limits of meaning: historical-critical methods and the forms of the monstrous

Based on the monster aesthetic theory, this article discusses the narrative involving the fifth trumpet locusts in the Revelation of John (Rev 9.1-12). It intends to point out that certain texts, precisely because they cannot be stripped of their myths and / or the mythological language in which they have been written, present limits to the demitizing movements in historical-critical interpretations. Thus, narratives such as those in Revelation can benefit from less traditional hermeneutics that are more willing to engage with their images, symbols and contradictions, since the monsters found in a text, as well as the way they are articulated in it, can be a key for its reading.