While reading my trusty NIV Bible, whenever I come across the term ‘Leviathan’ in the text, there is inevitably a little number beside it indicating a reference at the bottom. Without fail, it explains that the Leviathan was likely a crocodile (or the more ‘progressive’ souces will say a whale or even *gasp* a dinosaur. However, in order to subscribe to the dinosaur view, one must believe that humans with the ability to record and pass on knowledge would have to have been contemporaries with those beasts which we know is not possible, unless you are a creation scientist, which I clearly am not). In the past, with an innocent naivety, I accepted this explanation without question. Recently, however, I have taken a look at the Leviathan with a little more scrutiny and have found that the explanation of the crocodile is somewhat suspect. What follows are a few passages which describe this creature and Yahweh’s relationship to it.
Psalm 74
12 But you, O God, are my king from of old; you bring salvation upon the earth.
13 It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.
15 It was you who opened up springs and streams; you dried up the ever flowing rivers.
In this passage, we can see that the monster resides in the sea and has more than one head. It also denotes a battle between God and the sea with the sea possibly being represented by the Leviathan. The personification of the sea or ocean into a monster or malevolent god/goddess is not uncommon amongst the ancient near eastern documents as we shall see.
Psalm 104
25 There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number—living things both large and small.
26 There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
This text demonstrates that the leviathan was formed by God. Even though it was formed by God, at some point God has done battle with the beast. This is a classic motif of the creation rebelling against the creator.
Perhaps the most verbose and complete description we have of this mystery creature can be found in Job 41. Here is the text in full. Read this again for the first time and try to draw a mental picture of the beast as it is being described.
1 "Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will he make an agreement with you for you to take him as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls?
6 Will traders barter for him? Will they divide him up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12 "I will not fail to speak of his limbs, his strength and his graceful form.
13 Who can strip off his outer coat? Who would approach him with a bridle?
14 Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth?
15 His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth.
22 Strength resides in his neck; dismay goes before him.
23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
24 His chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.
25 When he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make him flee; sling stones are like chaff to him.
29 A club seems to him but a piece of straw; he laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 He makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is his equal— a creature without fear.
34 He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over all that are proud."
Does this sound like a crocodile to you? No? Perhaps a dragon you say? Hmmmm. It is clear from this passage again that Leviathan lives in the sea. Some of the more notable physicalities are smoke pouring from his nostrils, flames coming from his mouth, chest hard as rock (perhaps he is a distant relative of Smaug from “The Hobbit”), his back made up of shields, and his mouth full of sharp nasty pointy teeth. This sounds even more fearsome than a dinosaur let alone a crocodile. This passage again alludes to the fact that even this creature, although fearsome and with no equal on earth, cannot stand against Yahweh. “ 10 No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me (Yahweh)? 11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.”
The explanation of the Leviathan as a crocodile or dinosaur is an attempt by Christian theologians to explain this creature in terms that are believable to the modern reader. If this creature was not a creature that really existed, it would undermine the credibility of the Bible as an historical, literal book and the ultimate authority containing ultimate truth. As such, when faced with uncomfortable passages such as this one with a fantastical creature, they must put a real face to the beast in order to maintain the foundation upon which they have built their belief system. Thus, the leviathan is a crocodile. However, any quick read, especially of the above passage, quickly reveals that the writer could not have been speaking about a crocodile, or even a dinosaur. Although one could argue that the author is using comparison while describing the creature, this does not stand up. For instance, in the passage above simile is used in a verse like the following. “18 His snorting throws out flashes of light(descriptive); his eyes are like the rays of dawn(comparative). 19 Firebrands stream from his mouth(descriptive); sparks of fire shoot out. 20 Smoke pours from his nostrils(descriptive) as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds(comparison). 20” Clearly the author made a distinction between an accurate description of the beast and simile. It would seem to be a stretch of the imagination (and an insult to the power of God) to say that this is a crocodile. To compare the power of God to a little croc in the Nile is insulting at the least, and sarcastic at best. No, the author was comparing the power of God with a beast far more powerful and imposing than the crocodile. This theme of the deity versus the dragon is one that can be followed and traced throughout almost all of the Ancient Near Eastern literature of which we will take a look at a few.
To begin with, there are two Akkadian texts dating in the range of 1500-1000 BCE which describe two similar monsters. The first is regarding a monster serpent, and the second text a dual creature known as a lion-serpent. Here is the first, somewhat fragmentary, text.
[ ] there is no …[ ]
It was lying in the water, and I [ ].
[ ] made ready to speak,
And said to [ ] his [ ] these words,
Bring hither Aruru, let Aruru come here.
Listen to me, Aruru, pay attention to me.
O…..Arurur, you are now Mistress of the Gods,
Among the sixty-six sons and brothers of yours,
To which one did you grant strength?
To which one did you give the fullest [ ]?
I granted strength to Nerfal,
To Nergal did I give the fullest [ ].
Bring hither the Vanguard,… [ ] the Vanguard,
I myself will tell the Vanguard about it….
Listen to me, O Vanguard, O Vanguard… [ ]
O Vanguard, listen carefully to what I have to say.
In the ocean a dragon-snake was created,
Its back reached sixty leagues,
Its head is thirty leagues high.
Its blink is half a league,
Its feet can go twenty leagues at a step.
It ate the fish, creatures of the sky,
It ate donkeys, creatures of the steppe,
It ate the people of this land. Go help the people.
The Vanguard, tamer of serpents, heeded the [ ].
Nergal made ready to speak,
And said to [ ] these words,
(five fragmentary lines, then breaks off)
This text bears reference to a giant serpent like creature which dwells in the ocean whose resemblance to the leviathan cannot be overlooked. This text was part of a larger tablet of which we unfortunately do not have the rest. It is a myth that bears many resemblances to the Babylonian Epic of Creation as well as to the Epic of Anzu although in this text, the hero is Nergal as opposed to Marduk and Ninurta respectively. (I will not be looking at the Anzu epic, but as a quick summary, there is an eagle type creature/monster which appears on a mountain ex nihilo. The creature then takes the tablets of destiny from Enlil. Since Anzu is now a threat to the gods, they must find a hero to defeat the monster. Ninurta is voluntold who then goes and does battle with Anzu, eventually defeating him and retrieving the tablets of destiny. This theme of the hero god defeating a monster creature is as we will see, a theme which repeats itself throughout the Ancient Near Eastern mythologies.) The next text, which was found in Assurbanipal’s library, is very similar to the previous one as far as the chain of events goes.
The cities have fallen into ruins, the people [ ]
The people have diminished, [ ].
No one [ ] to their lamentations,
No one pities their cries of woe.
Who produced the serpent?
The sea produced the serpent!
Enlil has drawn the image of the serpent in heaven:
Its length was fifty leagues, its height was one league,
Its mouth was six cubits, its tongue twelve cubits,
Its ear flaps twelve cubits,
At sixty cubits it snatches birds,
It draws nine cubits water [ ]
It it raises its tail, it [ ].
All the gods of heaven [ ]
The gods knelt before Sin in heaven,
And seized the hem of Sin in haste,
Who will go to kill the Lion-Serpent?
Who will save the vast land,
And exercise kingship in the land?
Go, Tishpak, kill the lion-serpent,
Save the vast land [ ].
And exercise kingship in the land.
You sent me, lord of the offspring of the river [ ],
I do not know the ways of the Lion-Serpent,
[ ]before [ ].
[ ] the people [ ]
(Fragmentary lines, then gap)
Ea made ready to speak, saying to Tishpak
Fling up a cloud, [ ] a storm,
Grasp the cylinder seal at your throat, before you,
Shoot an arrow, kill the Lion-serpent.
He flung up a cloud, [ ]a whirlwind,
He grasped the cylinder seal at his throat before himself,
He shot an arrow and killed the Lion-serpent.
Three years, three months, one day and night,
The blood of the Lion-serpent [ ].
(End of tablet)
At the risk of being redundant, please notice again the theme of the deity doing battle and killing the dread monster who is wreaking havoc. We will continue our examination of these Ancient Near Eastern mythical monsters with another Akkadian text that is well known to most who are familiar at all with the subject, namely, Enuma Elish (the Babylonian Epic of Creation) in which Marduk does battle with Tiamat who is causing problems for the gods. Marduk bravely steps forward to kill Tiamat and save the gods. What is interesting is Tiamat herself is associated with the ocean or sea (she is in fact the ocean personified). In tablet one, we read that Tiamat spawned a breed of serpent monsters.
Ummu-Hubur [Tiamat] who formed all things, Made in addition weapons invincible; she spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang; With poison, instead of blood, she filled their bodies.Fierce monster-vipers she clothed with terror, With splendor she decked them, she made them of lofty stature. Whoever beheld them, terror overcame him, Their bodies reared up and none could withstand their attack.
Tiamat, who is the ocean or the waters, spawns these monsters. We read in the earlier Akkadian tablet as well, that the serpent monsters were created in the waters. The Leviathan was also said to be formed in the waters. This theme was well known and ran down through centuries of traditions. The first tablet we looked at being as old as 1500 BCE and the Enuma Elish being written in the 6th century BCE.
In the Enuma Elish, Marduk battles Tiamat who is the personification of the sea. There are parallel imageries in the Psalms of Yahweh performing the same task of battling the sea or primeval chaos represented by the sea.
Psalm 18:15
15 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
Psalm 65
5 You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas,
6 who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength,
7 who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations.
The following reference is particularly startling in its resemblance to the battle with Tiamat.
Psalm 74
13 It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.
Here we have, side by side, the battle with the sea (compare to Tiamat) and the battle with Leviathan (compare to the serpent monsters spawned by Tiamat). It is difficult to explain away this obvious parallel theme. Also of note is the etymology of the Hebrew word ‘tehom’ or deep, representing the watery chaos. It is possible that the two words ‘tehom’ and ‘tiamat’ are related.
There are also sources of the deity versus the dragon in Ugaritic literature. The following excerpt dating to around 1500 BCE from Ras Shamra, documents a battle between Anat and the dragon on behalf of Baal. The dragon was created by El in an attempt to destroy Baal. However, Anat, the sister of Baal, comes to his rescue.
She raised her voice and cried,
"(See) what 1 hath become,
0 Vine- yard-and-Field,
Of whatever enmity is shown to Baal (or) hostility to the Cloud-rider!
I have destroyed the Sea-dragon, beloved of El,
I have slain River-of-El, the chief;
I muzzled Tannin, I muzzled him (?)!
I have destroyed the winding serpent,
Shalyat of the seven heads;
I have destroyed the Underworld- dragon, beloved of El,
I have smitten the bullock of El.”
The monster has several names and descriptions in this text. It is called a sea-dragon, it is associated with the waters, and it is called a serpent. All of these descriptions are again consistent with the overall motif of the dragon serpent battle throughout the Ancient Near East. It should be mentioned as well that the Ugaritic (Caananite) word ltn (dragon) is thought by scholars to be etymologically related to the hebrew word lwytn (leviathan). As such, it is apparent that the two cultures had a common motif and word for this creature.
The idea of the god versus the serpent monster is not limited only to Semitic cultures, but is attested as well in the literature of Greece. Joseph Campbell refers to the battle between Zeus and Typhon as the equivalent to the Hebrew tradition of Leviathan.
“The counterpart for the Greeks was the victory of Zeus over Typhon, the youngest child of Gaea, the goddess Earth—by which deed the reign of the patriarchal gods of Mount Olympus was secured over the earlier Titan broods of the great goddess mother. The Titan’s form, half man, half snake, we are told, was enormous. He was so large that his head often knocked against the stars and his arms could extend from sunrise to sunset. From his shoulders, according to Hesiod’s account, there reared a hundred serpent heads, all flashing fiery tongues, while flames darted from the many eyes.” (Campbell, pg. 22)
The parallels here are the god battling the monster, the many headed serpent, and the eyes flashing fire. As well we can look at the famous episode of the labours of Hercules and the second labour in particular. Here we meet the famous Hydra. The following text is from the Library of Apollodorus, a 2nd century BCE Greek scholar.
[2.5.2]As a second labour he ordered him to kill the Lernaean hydra. That creature, bred in the swamp of Lerna, used to go forth into the plain and ravage both the cattle and the country. Now the hydra had a huge body, with nine heads, eight mortal, but the middle one immortal. So mounting a chariot driven by Iolaus, he came to Lerna, and having halted his horses, he discovered the hydra on a hill beside the springs of the Amymone, where was its den. By pelting it with fiery shafts he forced it to come out, and in the act of doing so he seized and held it fast. But the hydra wound itself about one of his feet and clung to him. Nor could he effect anything by smashing its heads with his club, for as fast as one head came to the help of the hydra by biting his foot. So he killed it, and in his turn called for help on Iolaus who, by setting fire to a piece of the neighbouring wood and burning the roots of the heads with the brands, prevented them from sprouting. Having thus got the better of the sprouting heads, he chopped off the immortal head, and buried it, and put a heavy rock on it, beside the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus. But the body of the hydra he slit up and dipped his arrows in the gall. However, Eurystheus said that this labour should not be reckoned among the ten because he had not got the better of the hydra by himself, but with the help of Iolaus.
Although in this case, it is not a god battling the monster, but the hero (akin to the Judges of the Bible and Gilgamesh from Akkadian literature), the image of the serpent dragon is portrayed quite vividly, and it is difficult not to notice the relationship to the Leviathan of the Hebrew text.
Having waded through the murky swamps of the elusive Leviathan and seen how this same motif plays out over and over again amongst nearly all the cultures of the Ancient Near East, it is easy to conclude that my NIV Bible is likely wrong in its assessment of the beast being a simple crocodile. The Leviathan was not a real creature, but rather a mythical monster. Although the Hebrew literature lacks a specific epic of the battle between Yahweh and the Leviathan, it is evident that such a tradition did exist as is alluded to in nearly all of the references to Leviathan found in the Old Testament. For some reason unbeknownst to us, yet known to the editor and compiler of the books of the Old Testament in the post-exilic period, the epic battle was not included in the final cut. Yet this much can be certain, the Leviathan was no mere crocodile, but a fanciful creature from primeval times which was commonly used in all of the literature of the Ancient Near East.
Sources:
Loeb Apollodorus, translated by Sir James G. Frazer, 1921.
Ugaritic Studies and the Bible Author(s): H. L. Ginsberg Source: The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 8, No. 2 (May, 1945), pp. 41-58 Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research
The Book of the Giants Author(s): W. B. Henning Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1943), pp. 52-74 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies
The Nimrud Ivories and the Art of the Phoenicians Author(s): R. D. Barnett Source: Iraq, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1935), pp. 179-210 Published by: British Institute for the Study of Iraq
Leviathan and Job in Job 41:2-3 Author(s): Henry Rowold Source: Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 105, No. 1 (Mar., 1986), pp. 104-109 Published by: The Society of Biblical Literature
Bel and the Dragon Author(s): William Hayes Ward Source: The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jan., 1898), pp. 94-105 Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Ugaritic Mythology Author(s): Theodor H. Gaster Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Jul., 1948), pp. 184-193 Published by: The University of Chicago Press
The Biblical Lexicon in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls Author(s): Elisha Qimron Source: Dead Sea Discoveries, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Nov., 1995), pp. 295-329 Published by: BRILL
Leviathan and the Beast in Revelation Author(s): Howard Wallace Source: The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Sep., 1948), pp. 61-68 Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research
CT 13.33-34 and Ezekiel 32: Lion-Dragon Myths Author(s): Theodore J. Lewis Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 116, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1996), pp. 28- 47 Published by: American Oriental Society
'Ba'al Is Risen...': An Ancient Hebrew Passion-Play from Ras Shamra-Ugarit Author(s): Theodor H. Gaster Source: Iraq, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Autumn, 1939), pp. 109-143 Published by: British Institute for the Study of Iraq
Tiamat Author(s): George A. Barton Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 15 (1893), pp. 1-27 Published by: American Oriental Society
Ships, Monsters and Jonah Author(s): Marion Lawrence Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Jul., 1962), pp. 289-296 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
Divine Conflict in the Pyramid Texts Author(s): Vincent Arieh Tobin Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 30 (1993), pp. 93-110 Published by: American Research Center in Egypt
Anath and the Dragon Author(s): W. F. Albright Source: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 84 (Dec., 1941), pp. 14-17 Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research
A Return to the Problems of Behemoth and Leviathan Author(s): J. V. Kinnier Wilson Source: Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 25, Fasc. 1 (Jan., 1975), pp. 1-14 Published by: BRILL
The Psalm of Habakkuk Author(s): William A. Irwin Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan., 1942), pp. 10-40 Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Leviathan and ltn: The Vocalization of the Ugaritic Word for the Dragon Author(s): J. A. Emerton Source: Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 32, Fasc. 3 (Jul., 1982), pp. 327-331 Published by: BRILL
Albright and the Gods of Mesopotamia Author(s): William W. Hallo Source: The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 56, No. 1, Celebrating and Examining W. F. Albright (Mar., 1993), pp. 18-24 Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research
Biblical Motives and Sources Author(s): Shammai Feldman Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Apr., 1963), pp. 73-103 Published by: The University of Chicago Press
