Leviathan, first mentioned in the book of Job chapter 40 is a sea monster or dragon of biblical proportions. Dragons were considered to be “sea monsters” in ancient times, as they were not seen to live very far inland. Leviathan is also mentioned in several other places in the bible, but more on that later.
This post will explore some interesting facts about leviathan in the Bible and how this word has changed over time.
The most powerful and dangerous creature in the sea that is known to inspire fear. In this blog, we will explore Leviathan in the Bible as well as its origins and meaning today. When you finish reading this post, you should have a better understanding of this mythical sea monster’s place within biblical history.
Leviathan is a sea monster who appears in the Bible, the Talmud and some other religious texts, but is never described in detail. Many believe it to be a mythological creature, much like dragons or unicorns. In Job 41 God uses it as an example of how strong He is by saying he created Leviathan with his power.’
The leviathan is a huge sea creature that appears in the Bible. It’s described as a “great fish” or “dragon” with scales, teeth, and fins. The Bible says that God created the leviathan on the fifth day of creation and that he only created one so that there would be no competition for food.
In the book of Job, God challenges Job to name all of his creations. In response to Job’s question about what creature could possibly defeat him, God threatens to send one of his leviathans after him if he doesn’t obey God’s commands.
The word leviathan has come to mean any large sea monster, but it was originally used to describe a specific creature in the Bible.
The biblical Leviathan is a sea monster, sometimes translated as “whale.” It is described in the Bible as an enormous sea creature that God created on the fifth day of Creation. The Leviathan is described as a giant fish with formidable strength, but its exact appearance is not specified.
Leviathan’s most famous appearance in the Bible is in Job 41:1-34, where God describes its impressive power and invulnerability to Job. The verses describe how Leviathan’s body can not be pierced by any weapon, including swords or spears.
In addition to its power, it is also noteworthy that the biblical Leviathan is described as having seven heads and seven crowns on those heads. Some interpretations of this passage suggest that this refers to seven different species of sea monsters created by God at creation (as opposed to just one).
The word “Leviathan” comes from the Hebrew word meaning “to twist or writhe,” which may refer to how difficult it would be for anyone to catch such a powerful creature.
The Bible is a collection of writings that cover a wide range of topics, including the history of the Israelites and the life of Jesus. It also includes religious texts that are still used today by many Christians. One such text is the book of Job, which tells the story of a man who loses his wealth and children, but is still blessed with more than he had before. This story is often compared to the tale of Job from Greek mythology.
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leviathan in the bible
Leviathan (/lɪˈvaɪ.əθən/; לִוְיָתָן, Līvəyāṯān,
or Līwəyāṯān) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology.
It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms,
the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and,
according to some translations, in the Book of Jonah;[citation
needed] it is also mentioned in the Book of Enoch. The
Leviathan is often an embodiment of chaos and threatening to eat the damned
after their life. In the end, it is annihilated. Christian theologians
identified Leviathan with the demon of the deadly sin envy. According
to Ophite diagrams, the Leviathan encapsulates the space of the material
world.
The Leviathan of the Book of Job is a reflection of the older Canaanite Lotan,
a primeval monster defeated by the god Baal Hadad. Parallels to the role
of Mesopotamian Tiamat defeated by Marduk have long been
drawn in comparative mythology, as have been wider comparisons to dragon and world
serpent narratives such as Indra slaying Vrtra or Thor slaying Jörmungandr.[1] Leviathan
also figures in the Hebrew Bible as a metaphor for a powerful enemy,
notably Babylon (Isaiah 27:1). Some 19th-century scholars
pragmatically interpreted it as referring to large aquatic creatures, such as
the crocodile.[2] The word later came to be used as a term
for great whale, and for sea monsters in general.
Contents
Etymology and origins
See also: Lotan, Tannin (monster), Tiamat, Tehom,
and Chaoskampf
Antichrist on
Leviathan, Liber floridus, 1120
Gesenius (among others) argued the name לִוְיָתָן was derived
from the root לוה lwh “to twine; to join”,
with an adjectival suffix ן-, for a literal meaning of “wreathed,
twisted in folds”.[2] If it exists, the adjectival
suffix ן- (as opposed to -ון) is otherwise unattested except perhaps
in Nehushtan, whose etymology is unknown; the ת would also require
explanation, as Nechushtan is formed from neḥšoeṯ and
Leviathan from liveyah; the normal-pattern f.s. adjective would
be לויון, liveyon. Other philologists, including Leskien,
thought it a foreign loanword.[3] A third school considers it a
proper noun.[4] Bauer proposed לוית+תן, for “wreath
of serpent.”[5]
Both the name and the mythological figure are a direct continuation of the Ugaritic sea
monster Lôtān, one of the servants of the sea god Yammu defeated
by Hadad in the Baal Cycle.[6][7] The
Ugaritic account has gaps, making it unclear whether some phrases describe
him or other monsters at Yammu’s disposal such as Tunannu (the biblical Tannin).[8] Most
scholars agree on describing Lôtān as “the fugitive serpent” (bṯn
brḥ)[7] but he may or may not be “the wriggling
serpent” (bṯn ʿqltn) or “the mighty one with seven
heads” (šlyṭ d.šbʿt rašm).[9] His role seems to
have been prefigured by the earlier serpent Têmtum whose
death at the hands of Hadad is depicted in Syrian seals of the 18th–16th
century BC.[9]
Sea serpents feature prominently in the mythology of the ancient
Near East.[10] They are attested by the 3rd millennium BC
in Sumerian iconography depicting the god Ninurta overcoming
a seven-headed serpent. It was common for Near Eastern religions to
include a Chaoskampf: a cosmic battle between a sea monster representing
the forces of chaos and a creator god or culture hero who
imposes order by force.[11] The Babylonian creation
myth describes Marduk’s defeat of the serpent goddess Tiamat,
whose body was used to create the heavens and the earth.[12]
Tanakh
The Leviathan specifically is mentioned six times in the Tanakh,
in Job 3:8, Job 40:15–41:26, Psalm 74:14, Psalm 104:26 and
twice in Isaiah 27:1.
Job 41:1–34 is dedicated to describing him in detail: “Behold, the
hope of him is in vain; shall not one be cast down even at the sight of
him?”[13] Included in God’s lengthy description of his
indomitable creation is Leviathan’s fire-breathing ability, his impenetrable
scales, and his overall indomitability in Job 41.In Psalm 104, God is
praised for having made all things, including Leviathan, and in Isaiah
27:1, he is called the “tortuous serpent” who will be killed at the
end of time.[10]
The mention of the Tannins in the Genesis creation narrative[14] (translated
as “great whales” in the King James Version),[15] in
Job, and in the Psalm[16] do not describe them as harmful
but as ocean creatures who are part of God’s creation. The element of
competition between God and the sea monster and the use of Leviathan to
describe the powerful enemies of Israel[17] may reflect the
influence of the Mesopotamian and Canaanite legends or the contest in Egyptian
mythology between the Apep snake and the sun god Ra.
Alternatively, the removal of such competition may have reflected an attempt to
naturalize Leviathan in a process that demoted it from deity to demon to
monster.[18][19][page needed]
Judaism
Leviathan
the sea-monster, with Behemoth the land-monster and Ziz the
air-monster. “And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster
named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the
waters. But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste
wilderness named Duidain.” (1 Enoch 60:7–8)
Later Jewish sources describe Leviathan as a dragon who lives over
the sources of the Deep and who, along with the male
land-monster Behemoth, will be served up to the righteous at the end of
time. The Book of Enoch (60:7–9) describes Leviathan as a female
monster dwelling in the watery abyss (as Tiamat), while Behemoth is
a male monster living in the desert of Dunaydin (“east of Eden”).[10]
When the Jewish midrash (explanations of the Tanakh) were being
composed, it was held that God originally produced a male and a female
leviathan, but lest in multiplying the species should destroy the world, he
slew the female, reserving her flesh for the banquet that will be given to the
righteous on the advent of the Messiah.[20][21] A similar
description appears in Book of Enoch (60:24), which describes how the
Behemoth and Leviathan will be prepared as part of an eschatological meal.
Rashi’s commentary on Genesis 1:21 repeats the tradition:
“Leviathan”
(1983) a painting by Michael Sgan-Cohen, the Israel Museum Collection,
Jerusalem
the…sea monsters: The great fish in the sea, and in the
words of the Aggadah (B.B. 74b), this refers to the Leviathan and its mate, for
He created them male and female, and He slew the female and salted her away for
the righteous in the future, for if they would propagate, the world could not
exist because of them. הַתַּנִינִם is written. [I.e., the final
“yud”, which denotes the plural, is missing, hence the implication
that the Leviathan did not remain two, but that its number was reduced to one.]
– [from Gen. Rabbah 7:4, Midrash Chaseroth V’Yetheroth, Batei Midrashoth, vol
2, p. 225].[22]
In the Talmud Baba Bathra 75 it is told that
the Leviathan will be slain and its flesh served as a feast to the righteous in
[the] Time to Come and its skin used to cover the tent where the banquet will
take place. Those who do not deserve to consume its flesh beneath the tent may
receive various vestments of the Leviathan varying from coverings (for the
somewhat deserving) to amulets (for the least deserving). The remaining skin of
the Leviathan will be spread onto the walls of Jerusalem, thereby illuminating
the world with its brightness. The festival of Sukkot (Festival of
Booths) therefore concludes with a prayer recited upon leaving the sukkah (booth):
“May it be your will, Lord our God and God of our forefathers, that just
as I have fulfilled and dwelt in this sukkah, so may I merit in the coming year
to dwell in the sukkah of the skin of Leviathan. Next year in
Jerusalem.”[23]
The enormous size of the Leviathan is described by Johanan bar Nappaha,
from whom proceeded nearly all the aggadot concerning this monster:
“Once we went in a ship and saw a fish which put his head out of the
water. He had horns upon which was written: ‘I am one of the meanest creatures
that inhabit the sea. I am three hundred miles in length, and enter this day
into the jaws of the Leviathan'”.[24][21]
When the Leviathan is hungry, reports Rabbi Dimi in the name of Rabbi
Johanan, he sends forth from his mouth a heat so great as to make all the
waters of the deep boil, and if he would put his head into Paradise no
living creature could endure the odor of him.[24] His abode is
the Mediterranean Sea; and the waters of the Jordan fall into
his mouth.[25][21]
In a legend recorded in the Midrash called Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer it
is stated that the fish which swallowed Jonah narrowly avoided being
eaten by the Leviathan, which eats one whale each day.[26]
The body of the Leviathan, especially his eyes, possesses great illuminating
power. This was the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer, who, in the course of a voyage in
company with Rabbi Joshua, explained to the latter, when frightened by the
sudden appearance of a brilliant light, that it probably proceeded from the
eyes of the Leviathan. He referred his companion to the words of Job 41:18:
“By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of
the morning”.[27] However, in spite of his supernatural
strength, the leviathan is afraid of a small worm called “kilbit”,
which clings to the gills of large fish and kills them.[28][21]
In the eleventh-century piyyut (religious poem), Akdamut,
recited on Shavuot (Pentecost), it is envisioned that,
ultimately, God will slaughter the Leviathan, which is described as having
“mighty fins” (and, therefore, a kosher fish, not an inedible snake
or crocodile), and it will be served as a sumptuous banquet for all the
righteous in Heaven.
In the Zohar, the Leviathan is a metaphor for enlightenment. The Zohar
remarks that the legend of the righteous eating the skin of the leviathan at
the end of the days is not literal, and merely a metaphor for enlightenment.[29] The
Zohar also specifies in detail that the Leviathan has a mate.[30] The
Zohar also associates the metaphor of the leviathan with the
“tzaddik” or righteous in Zohar 2:11b and 3:58a. The Zohar associates
it with the “briach” the pole in the middle of the boards of the
tabernacle in Zohar 2:20a. Both, are associated with the Sefira of
Yesod.[31]
According to Abraham Isaac Kook, the Leviathan – a singular creature
with no mate, “its tail is placed in its mouth” (Zohar)
“twisting around and encompassing the entire world” (Rashi on Baba
Batra 74b) – projects a vivid metaphor for the universe’s underlying
unity. This unity will only be revealed in the future, when the righteous will
feast on the Leviathan.[32]
Christianity
Hellmouth The life of St John and Apocalypse, circa 1400
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Saint John sees the devil, vanquished forever, cast into hell
with the Beast and False Prophet
Leviathan can also be used as an image of the devil, endangering both
God’s creatures—by attempting to eat them—and God’s creation—by threatening it
with upheaval in the waters of Chaos.[33] A “Dragon”
(Drakon), being the usual translation for the Leviathan in the Septuaginta,
appears in the Book of Revelation. Although the Old Testament nowhere
identifies the Leviathan with the devil, the seven-headed dragon in the Book
of Revelation, is.[34] By this the battle between God and the
primordial chaos monsters shifts to a battle between God and the devil.[35] Only
once, in the Book of Job, the Leviathan is translated as Sea-Monster (ketos).[36]
In the following chapter, a seven-headed beast, described with the same
features as the dragon before, rises from the waters endowing a Beast of the
Earth with power. Dividing the beasts into monster of water and one of dry earth
is probably a recalling of the monstrous pair Leviathan and Behemoth.[37] In
accordance with Isaiah 27:1, the dragon will be slain by God on the last
day and cast into the abyss.[38][39] The annihilation of the chaos-monster
results in a new world of peace, without any trace of evil.[40]
Jerome comments on Psalm 104:26 that “that this is the dragon that
was cast out of Paradise, that beguiled Eve, and is permitted in this world to
make sport of us. How many monks and clerics has it dashed headlong! “They all
look to you to give them food in due time,” for all the creatures of God live
at His bidding.”[41]
St. Thomas Aquinas described Leviathan as the demon of envy, first
in punishing the corresponding sinners (Expositio super Iob ad litteram). Peter
Binsfeld likewise classified Leviathan as the demon of envy, as one of
the seven Princes of Hell corresponding to the seven deadly sins.
Leviathan became associated with, and may originally have been referred to by,
the visual motif of the Hellmouth, a monstrous animal into whose mouth the
damned disappear at the Last Judgement, found in Anglo-Saxon art from
about 800, and later all over Europe.[42][43]
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible suggests in a footnote
to Job 41:1 that Leviathan may be a name for the crocodile, and in a
footnote to Job 40:15, that Behemoth may be a name for the hippopotamus.[44]
Satanism[edit]
Anton LaVey in The Satanic Bible (1969) has
Leviathan representing the element of Water and the direction of
west, listing it as one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell. This
association was inspired by the demonic hierarchy from The Book of the
Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage. The Church of Satan uses
the Hebrew letters at each of the points of the Sigil of Baphomet to
represent Leviathan. Starting from the lowest point of the pentagram, and
reading counter-clockwise, the word reads “לויתן”: (Nun, Tav, Yod,
Vav, Lamed) Hebrew for “Leviathan”.[45]
Gnosticism[edit]
Hellmouth in
the fresco Last Judgment, by Giacomo Rossignolo, c. 1555
The Church Father Origen accused a Gnostic sect of
venerating the biblical serpent of the Garden of Eden.
Therefore, he calls them Ophites, naming after the serpent they are
supposed to worship.[46] In this belief system, the Leviathan
appears as an Ouroboros, separating the divine realm from
humanity by enveloping or permeating the material world.[47][46][48] It
is unknown whether or not the Ophites actually identified the serpent of the
Garden of Eden with the Leviathan.[46] However, since the
Leviathan is basically connoted negatively in this Gnostic cosmology, if they
identified him with the serpent of the Book of Genesis, he was probably indeed
considered evil and just its advice was good.[49]
According to the cosmology of this Gnostic sect, the world is encapsulated
by the Leviathan, in form of a dragon-shaped archon, biting its own tail (ouroboros).
Generating the intrinsic evil in the entire universe, the
Leviathan separates the lower world, governed by the Archons, from
the realm of God.[50] After death, a soul must pass
through the seven spheres of the heavens. If the soul does not
succeed, it will be swallowed by the Leviathan, who holds the world captive and
returns the soul into an animal body.[51]
In Mandaeism, Leviathan is regarded as being coessential with a demon
called Ur.[52]
In Manichaeism, an ancient religion influenced by Gnostic ideas, the
Leviathan is killed by the sons of the fallen angel Shemyaza. This
act is not portrayed as heroic, but as foolish, symbolizing the greatest
triumphs as transient, since both are killed by archangels in turn after
boasting about their victory. This reflects Manichaean criticism on royal power
and advocates asceticism.[53
Secularity[edit]
See also: Leviathan in popular culture
The Sigil
of Baphomet, which features the Hebrew name for Leviathan, לויתן
The word Leviathan has come to refer to any sea
monster, and from the early 17th century has also been used to refer to
overwhelmingly powerful people or things (comparable to Behemoth ,
also a biblical term), influentially so by Hobbes’ book (1651).[citation
needed]
As a term for sea monster, it has also been used of great whales in
particular, e.g. in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick –
Although in the first Hebrew translation of the novel, translator Elyahu
Burtinker chose to translate “Whale” to “Tanin” (intending
to refer to another sea monster although in Modern Hebrew usage Tanin more
commonly translates to “crocodile”), and leave the word
“Leviathan” as it is, nodding to the ambiguity of the word
“לויתן” in modern Hebrew – in which the word now simply means
“whale”.[54]
The extinct genus Livyatan bears its name.