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In Enuma Elish, the goddess Tiamat makes monsters so terrifying that anyone who sees them dies of fear and no one can fight them off. Job describes Leviathan the same way, a creature so frightening that even warriors back away when it rises.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Enuma Elish I
The Seven Tablets of Creation
Ancient Near East
With poison instead of blood she filled their bodies. She clothed the fearful monsters with dread, She loaded them with an aura and made them godlike. She said, 'Let their onlooker feebly perish, May they constantly leap forward and never retire.' She created the Hydra, the Dragon, the Hairy Hero The Great Demon, the Savage Dog, and the Scorpion-man, Fierce demons, the Fish-man, and the Bull-man, Carriers of merciless weapons, fearless in the face of battle. Her commands were tremendous, not to be resisted.
Date: 1800 - 1750 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Job 41:25
Hebrew Bible
24 Its heart is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. 25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; at its thrashing about they withdraw. 26 Whoever strikes it with a sword will have no effect, nor with the spear, arrow, or dart. 27 It regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood. 28 Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones become like chaff to it. 29 A club is counted as a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance. 30 Its underparts are the sharp points of potsherds; it leaves its mark in the mud like a threshing sledge. 31 It makes the deep boil like a cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment, 32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had a head of white hair. 33 The likes of it is not on earth, a creature without fear. 34 It looks on every haughty being; it is king over all that are proud.”
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Notes and References
“... representing a very ancient understanding of God’s sovereign role in maintaining order in the universe. In Psalm 77:17-20 the waters writhe and shudder when they see the LORD (compare Psalm 114:1-8). Psalm 89:9-10 recounts God’s rule and conquest over the chaotic waters, stilling the “raging sea,” here called “Rahab” (compare Psalm 65:7). Isaiah 51:9 recounts that God had pierced and cut Rahab, here clearly a serpentine sea monster, to pieces, like Marduk did to Tiamat. The serpentine monster also appears as the Leviathan, which God must control or destroy. Psalm 74:14 depicts God crushing the Leviathan. Job 41 presents the Leviathan as a fierce fire-breathing dragon, which only God can control (compare Job 3:8). Isaiah 27:1 states that God will defeat the sea monster to create and maintain lawful order. ...”
Calaway, Jared C.
Heavenly Sabbath, Heavenly Sanctuary: The Transformation of Priestly Sacred Space and Sacred Time in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and the Epistle to the Hebrews
(p. 81) Columbia University, 2010
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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