Leviathan
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[edit] Definition
The name Leviathan comes from a Hebrew word meaning "twisted" or "coiled".
[edit] Texts
- In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isaiah 27:1 [1])
- Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. (Psalms 74:14 [2])
- So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. (Psalms 104:25 - 26 [3])
- Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about. His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him. The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved. His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone. When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon. He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear. Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary. Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride. (Job 41:1 - 34 [4])
Leviathan also appears in Ugaritic mythology under the name "Litan" or "Lotan" (Ugaritic script does not mark vowels):
- Because you [i.e. Baal] smote Litan the twisting serpent, [and] made an end of the crooked serpent, the tyrant with seven heads, the skies will become hot [and] will shine. [5]
This description clearly matches those given in Isaiah 27 and Psalms 24.
According to the Talmud, God spends a quarter of his time playing with the Leviathan.
- But did not R. Jehudah say in the name of Rabh: There are twelve hours in a day, three hours of which the Holy One, blessed be He, is occupied with the Torah. The next three hours, He judges the whole world, and seeing that it is liable to be destroyed, He rises from the chair of judgment and sits down on the chair of mercy. The third three hours, He supports the whole world with food, from the very largest creature to the smallest one. And the last three hours, He plays with the leviathan, as it reads [Psalm civ. 26]: "Leviathan, whom thou hast made to sport therein. (Avoda Zara [6])
[edit] Identifying Leviathan
To summarize the texts, then, Leviathan appears to be a many-headed fire-breathing sea-serpent; and there seems (mercifully) to be only one of it. Indeed, rabbinical writings state that God killed the female Leviathan shortly after creating it, so that the species would not multiply. Commenting on the creation of sea-monsters ("tananim") in Genesis 1:21, Rashi writes:
- According to legend this refers to the Leviathan and its mate. God created a male and female Leviathan, then killed the female and salted it for the righteous, for if the Leviathans were to procreate the world could not stand before them.
The statement about the female Leviathan being "salted [...] for the righteous", refers to a Jewish tradition that the righteous will dine on Leviathan when Judgement Day comes.
This has not prevented creationists from attempting to identify Leviathan with dinosaurs [7] or with extinct aquatic reptiles in an ill-thought out attempt to bolster their fantasy of a Young Earth. Creationists have tried to get around the detail of Leviathan breathing fire by claiming that (a) it was a dinosaur (b) dinosaurs breathed fire. All dinosaurs were, of course, terrestrial in habit, and there is no evidence that any of them could breathe fire. Nor could any of them be reasonably described as a "serpent"; nor did any of them have more than one head.
More sensible scholars have tried to identify the Leviathan as some living creature inaccurately described, such as a whale (in modern Hebrew, "leviathan" is the word for "whale"). The points in favor of the "whale" hypothesis are that it is a large aquatic creature and that the vapor from its blowhole when it exhales might have the appearance of smoke. If the Leviathan is an ill-described whale, then the description must have become garbled indeed. Whales don't breathe fire, they have one head apiece, and are not serpentine in form; moreover, they do not have scales. The crocodile has also been proposed; it is serpentine in form and scaly; but it does not breathe fire and has only one head. Moreover, the crocodiles in the Middle East, though aquatic, are not sea creatures; they do not play in "this great and wide sea" as described in Psalms 104:26.
It has been suggested that Leviathan is a generic name for sea-monsters, and that the many-headed creature in Psalms 74:14 is distinct from the Leviathan described in Job. This does not remove the other difficulties in assigning it to a species.
