Leviathan
Leviathan,
in the Bible, one of the names of the primeval dragon
subdued by Yahweh at the outset of creation: "You
crushed Leviathan's heads, gave him as food to the
wild animals" (Psalm 74:14; see also Isaiah 27:1;
Job 3:8; Amos 9:3). Biblical writers also refer
to the dragon as Rahab (Job 9:13; Psalm 89:10)
or simply as the Abyss (Habakkuk 3:10).
The
biblical references to the battle between Yahweh
and Leviathan reflect the Syro-Palestinian version
of a myth found throughout the ancient Near East.
In this myth, creation is represented as the victory
of the creator-god over a monster of chaos. The
closest parallel to the biblical versions of the
story appears in the Canaanite texts from Ra's Shamrah
(14th century BC), in which Baal
defeats a dragonlike monster: "You will crush Leviathan
the fleeing serpent, you will consume the twisting
serpent, the mighty one with seven heads." (The
wording of Isaiah 27:1 draws directly on this text.)
A
more ancient version of the myth occurs in the Babylonian
Creation Epic, in which the storm god Marduk defeats
the sea monster Tiamat and creates the earth and
sky by cleaving her corpse in two (Assyro-Babylonian
Literature). The latter motif is reflected in a
few biblical passages that extol Yahweh's military
valor: "Was it not you who split Rahab in half,
who pierced the dragon through?" (Isaiah 51:9; see
also Job 26:12; Psalm 74:13, 89:10). The basic pattern
of the Leviathan myth recurs in the Greek story
of the battle between Zeus
and the many-headed dragon Typhon, recounted by
Hesiod in the Theogony. It may also lie behind the
much later legend of Saint
George and the dragon, which is set in northern
Syria.
In
the Jewish apocalyptic writings
it is foretold that Leviathan will break out of captivity
at the end of the present era but will suffer a second and
final defeat at the hands of God (2 Esdras 6:52; 2 Baruch
29:3-8). The apocalyptic version was probably influenced by
parallel Iranian beliefs. In the New Testament, the many-headed
dragon of Revelation chapter 12 shares a number of characteristics
with Leviathan—in particular, it functions as an embodiment
of forces hostile to God. In later Christian lore, Leviathan
came to be identified with the "great fish" in which Jonah
spent three days and three nights (Jonah 2:1), and subsequently
with hell.
"Leviathan,"
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com
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