The following extract is taken from Robert Sutherland’s new book “Putting God on Trial: The Biblical Book of Job” (Trafford, Victoria, 2004) It is reproduced with his permission and he retains the copyright. Mr.Sutherland is a Christian Canadian criminal defense lawyer instrumental in changing the Canadian law on aggravated assault and solicitor-client privilege. He is a Senior Fellow at the Mortimer J. Adler Centre for the Study of the Great Ideas. And he is a member of St.Stephen’s Anglican, Thunder Bay. The book has received high praise from Job scholars: David Clines, Norman Habel and Gerald Janzen. Several chapters and order information are online at http://www.bookofjob.org
God’s Second Speech
God picks up on Job’s hesitation to “proceed.further” in his Oath of Innocence to a “condemnation” of God. Having suggested a purpose in creation in his first speech, God now suggests a moral purpose in the creation and control of evil. That purpose is expressed through the cross-cultural myth of Leviathan where Leviathan is the embodiment of evil in the world. And that purpose finds its completion in the Jewish reworking of the myth.
Opening Question: Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: “Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you declare to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? (Job 40:6-8 Italics added for emphasis and clarification.)
General Comments: Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? “Deck yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on all who are proud, and abase them. Look on all who are proud, and bring them low; tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then I will also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can give you victory. (Job 40:9-14 Italics added for emphasis and clarification.)
Behemoth: “Look at Behemoth, which I made just as I made you; it eats grass like an ox. Its strength is in its loins, and its power in the muscles of its belly. It makes its tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are knit together. Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like bars of iron. “It is the first of the great acts of God– only its Maker can approach it with the sword. For the mountains yield food for it where all the wild animals play. Under the lotus plants it lies, in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh. The lotus trees cover it for shade; the willows of the wadi surround it. Even if the river is turbulent, it is not frightened; it is confident though Jordan rushes against its mouth. Can one take it with hooks or pierce its nose with a snare? (Job 40:15-24 Italics added for emphasis and clarification.)
Leviathan: “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook? Will it make many supplications to you? Will it speak soft words to you? Will it make a covenant with you to be taken as your servant forever? Will you play with it as with a bird, or will you put it on leash for your girls? Will traders bargain over it? Will they divide it up among the merchants? Can you fill its skin with harpoons, or its head with fishing spears? Lay hands on it; think of the battle; you will not do it again! Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed; were not even the gods overwhelmed at the sight of it? No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up. Who can stand before it? Who can confront it and be safe? –under the whole heaven, who? “I will not keep silence concerning its limbs, or its mighty strength, or its splendid frame. Who can strip off its outer garment? Who can penetrate its double coat of mail? Who can open the doors of its face? There is terror all around its teeth. Its back is made of shields in rows, shut up closely as with a seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated. Its sneezes flash forth light, and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. From its mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap out. Out of its nostrils comes smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. Its breath kindles coals, and a flame comes out of its mouth. In its neck abides strength, and terror dances before it. The folds of its flesh cling together; it is firmly cast and immovable. Its heart is as hard as stone, as hard as the lower millstone. When it raises itself up the gods are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail, nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin. It counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make it flee; slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff. Clubs are counted as chaff; it laughs at the rattle of javelins. Its underparts are like sharp potsherds; it spreads itself like a threshing sledge on the mire. It makes the deep boil like a pot; it makes the sea like a pot of ointment. It leaves a shining wake behind it; one would think the deep to be white-haired. On earth it has no equal, a creature without fear. It surveys everything that is lofty; it is king over all that are proud.” (Job 41:1-34 Italics added for emphasis and clarification.)
1.The mythological world: Behemoth- Leviathan
Leviathan is a cross-cultural symbol of evil incarnate. The image is found in the Babylonian myth of creation, the Canaanite myth of recreation and the Jewish myth of apocalypse.
“Leviathan” is a proper name. It means “twisting one” as befits a serpent.
Leviathan is “behemoth”, because “behemoth” is a common not a proper noun. It is not a personal name and is never mentioned anywhere else in the Old Testament or outside it. The Hebrew word “behemoth” means “the great beast”, “the beast par excellence”.
Some scholars believe Behemoth is a chaos monster separate from Leviathan. If so, then Behemoth is probably the Jewish reworking of the Canaanite chaos monster Atik. In the Canaanite myth of recreation, the high God Baal’s sister claims to have defeated both Yam and Atik.
“Surely I smote the Beloved of El, Yam?
Surely I exterminated Nahar, the mighty god?
Surely I lifted up
I overpowered him?
I smote the writhing serpent,
Encircler
I smote the Behoved of El, Arsh,
I finished off El’s calf, Atik,
I smote El’s bitch, Fire,
I exterminated El’s daughter, Flame.
I fought for the silver,
I took possession of the gold
of those who drove Baal from the heights of Saphon,
knocking him like a bird from his perch,
(who) drove him the throne of his kingship,
from the back-rest,
from the siege of his dominion.”
The chaos monster Yam is a “dragon”, a “writhing serpent”, an “Encircler with seven heads”. This seven headed dragon is the chaos water that encircles the earth. Yam is the Canaanite Leviathan. Atik is a mythological bull calf. From other Canaanite myths, Atik appears to be the chaos monster that ravages the land as a wild bull might. If Yam is Leviathan, then presumably Atik is Behemoth.
If so, Satan, Behemoth and Leviathan form a kind of unholy trinity in The Book of Job. Three persons, one chaos monster. Within a canonical perspective, they foreshadow the three chaos monsters of The Book of Revelation. There, the sky dragon is Satan. (Revelation 12:1-18) The composite monster from the sea is the Antichrist. (Revelation 13:1-10) And the composite monster from the earth is the False Prophet. (Revelation 13:11-17) Three persons, one evil.
The Ancient Near Eastern chaos monster was always pictured as a supernatural dragon.
Leviathan is clearly a primordial chaos monster, a dragon.
The fire and the armor suggest invincibility. “On earth it has no equal, a creature without fear. It surveys everything that is lofty; it is king over all that are proud.” (Job 41:33-34) This proud chaos monster is a king, a king ever ready to expand his kingdom. He continually surveys the “lofty” heavens looking for a chance to do evil and overturn the rule of God. “Its heart is as hard as stone, as hard as the lower millstone.” (Job 41:25) It will never change.
2. Creating the dragon
Leviathan is “the first of the great acts of God.” (Job 40:19) He is a created being, like Job. (Job 40:15) The evil he represents is created evil, evil created by God. Evil is “the first of the great acts of God”. In fact, the Hebrew here “re sit darke el” may very well mean this evil is “the finest demonstration of God’s power” since the Ugaritic root “drkt” can mean “dominion” or “power”.
The author of The Book of Job is rewriting both the Babylonian myth of creation and The Book of Genesis on two points. Evil is created by God. Evil is in the world before the fall of man. It is worth looking at those two other myths for similarities and differences.
In the Babylonian myth of creation, evil is pre-existent.
In that myth, the world was created out of the body of a slain chaos monster. When the high God Marduk divided Tiamat,
“Half of her he set up and made as a cover, heaven.
He stretched out the hide and assigned watchmen,
And ordered them not to let her waters escape.
He crossed heaven, he inspected (its) firmament.
He made the position(s) for the great gods,
He established (in) constellations the stars, their likenesses.
He marked the year, described its boundaries,
He set up twelve months of three stars each.
After he had patterned the days of the year,
He fixed the position of Neberu to make the (star’) relationships.
Lest any make an error or go astray,
He established the position(s) of Enlil and Ea in relation to it.
He opened up gates on both (side of her) ribs,
He made strong bolts to left and right.
In her liver he established the zenith.
He made the moon appear, entrusted (to him) the night.
..
He set down her head and piled [ ]
upon it,
He opened underground springs, a flood was let flow(?).
From her eyes he undammed the Euphr[ates] and Tigris,
He stopped up her nostrils, he left.
He heaped up high-peaked mo[unt]tains from (?) her dregs.
He drilled through her waterholes to carry off the catchwater.
He coiled up her tail and tied it as(?) ‘The Great Bond.’
.
He set her crotch as the brace of heaven,
Spreading [half of] her as a cover, he established the earth.
[After] he had completed his task inside Tiamat,
[He spre]ad his net, let all (within) escape,
He formed (/?) the.[ ] of heaven and netherworld.”
In Ancient Near Eastern thinking, the universe was tri-partite: heaven, earth and the underworld. The earth was a disk sitting on water, surrounded by water. The earth is created out of Tiamat. The remains of Tiamat are confined to three places: the heavens, the oceans surrounding and encircling the earth and the underworld below. The reference to heaven is direct here: “half of her he set up and made as a cover, heaven.” The reference to the surrounding and encircling oceans is direct as well though some readers might miss it: “He coiled up her tail and tied it as(?) ‘The Great Bond.'” The surrounding waters are the bond that holds the heavens, the earth and the underworld together.
Echoes of this creation of the world might be heard early in The Book of Genesis.
“And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the water, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and morning, the second day. And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place and it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:6-10)
And echoes of this creation of the world might even be heard in God’s first speech to Job, with its references to “establishing” the heavens and setting “boundaries” therein.
“”Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements–surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?– when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’? Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?… Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?”” (Job 38:4-13, 31-35)
Such intimations foreshadow the appearance of Leviathan in God’s second speech to Job.
The poetic point being made by the Babylonian poet is a very simple one. Chaos is evil. Evil is all around us. Evil is above us, beside us and beneath us, just as the waters of chaos are. Evil is part of the very fabric of creation. Evil is a part of the high God Marduk’s plan in the creation of the world.
In that Babylonian myth, man was created out of the blood of a slain chaos monster.
In The Book of Genesis, evil comes into the world with the fall of man. Man is created out of the “dust of the earth” and the spirit or “breath” of God. (Genesis 2:7) He is awakened to a truly human life through a kiss from God. It is God’s love that animates man. His parents are mother earth and father God. He takes his body from the earth. But he takes his mind, his intellect and free will, from God himself. That is what it is to be made in the “image” and “likeness” of God. (Genesis 1:26) Unlike any other animal, man is capable of apprehending the immaterial concepts of good and evil and choosing accordingly. Man is created neither good nor evil. His natural orientation is towards the good, for that is what makes for a truly and fully human life. But man becomes good or evil through his choices. He is evil not by nature, but by nurture.
In The Book of Genesis, the evil of the chaos monster is not put into the heart of man by God. Man takes the chaos monster into himself through his choices. In the story of Adam and Eve, the chaos monster appears in a diminutive form, a serpent in the grass. The serpent tempts man to do evil and when man falls, he acquires a second parent, that serpent. He becomes the offspring of Satan. He becomes evil by nurture. With the repeated choice of evil, he becomes less and less human, more and more bestial. And for all appearance sake, he acquires a second nature. Chaos now reigns in his being. His passions are no longer subordinate to his reason and life becomes a struggle to impose order on chaos. That is the meaning of original sin. It is the loss of the original justice that was the subordination of the passions to reason.
The moral point being made by the author of The Book of Job is similar yet different. While evil is part of the fabric of creation, man is not corrupted to the point he cannot choose good over evil. In fact, he is capable of the perfect goodness that is the completely selfless love of man for God.
The ancient Jewish poets adopted the Babylonian and Canaanite myths of a cosmic conflict between the high God and the chaos monster to a monotheistic framework. The imagery is retained but transformed. Creation ceases to be a struggle with the divine and the demonic. Creation is now understood as creation through fiat command. And in time, that creation through fiat command will deepen to be understood as creation out of nothing. In the meantime, the imagery of a primordial sea monster is retained and demythologized to various degrees. Creation is no longer a life and death struggle between a high God and a chaos monster. Creation is the creation and control of that monster and the evil it represents by an all-powerful, all-present, all-knowing and all-good God. Re-creation is the continuing control of that monster by that one true God. Any challenge to the civilized order, whether it is a force of nature or a human force, is always regarded as a re-emergence of that primordial chaos. The threat may be economic as seen in the annual death of vegetation. Or the threat may be political as seen in the frequent wars and rebellions. The defeated chaos monster is behind all these threats to civilization. The chaos monster has escaped his prison and seeks to destroy the human world.
The ancient Jewish conception of time was linear, not cyclical. God was beyond space and time and the author of both. God was not an expression of Mother Nature, as were the pagan gods of Babylonia and Canaan, and was not subject to the recurring cycles of nature. In the Canaanite myth of recreation, the high God Baal’s victories over the chaos monsters Yam, Litan and Mot are only temporary. The high God is a fertility god closely chained the cycles of the nature. As the vegetation dies every year, the high God is annually defeated by the chaos monster and descends into the underworld. But as the vegetation returns each New Year, the high God is annually reborn and overpowers that chaos monster. The pattern repeats itself for all eternity. There is no final resolution to the conflict. While a polytheistic god might be able to control a pre-existent chaos monster to a certain degree, a monotheistic God could have a purpose in creating such a thing, perfectly controlling it and ultimately destroying it.
The great Jewish genius was in the reworking of the Babylonian myth of creation and the Canaanite myth recreation into a Jewish myth of an apocalypse where God’s purpose in evil could be accomplished and explained. Redemption was pictured not only as a temporary defeat of the monster, but as its complete and utter destruction. At the end of human history, God will intervene and destroy the dragon once and for all. It and the evil it represents will never reappear to trouble the moral and natural orders.
The myth of Leviathan finds in highest development in the writings of the Jewish prophet Isaiah. In the full myth, three elements are consistently conjoined:
(1) God’s capture of the chaos dragon and his drawing it out of the water by hooks, snares or nets,
(2) a Messianic feast, and
(3) a symposium following the meal when God would answer all questions.
One follows the other sequentially in time. The presence of any one of these three elements suggests the presence of the other two and events to follow.
In Isaiah’s reworking of the myth, a Messianic banquet is thrown by God the Messiah. All the peoples of the world are invited to it. At that banquet, the body of the chaos dragon that has been captured and drawn from the water is served as the main course. All the people of the world consume the roast beast. The animals of the world feed on the scraps from the table. This Messianic banquet will mark the end of time. It will usher in a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth whether there is neither pain nor suffering. Part and parcel of that removal of all suffering is an explanation of all things by God the Teacher immediately following the meal.
It was a poetic way of saying there will come a time when the evil around us, the evil within us will be finally purged and destroyed. The dragon represents that evil, all sorts of evil. In its most horrific form, the dragon is a personification of death. The dragon is the person Death. The death of Death is the creation of new life, now and forever. The communal eating of the dragon at the Messianic feast is a kind of sacramental acceptance of the new life God offers at the end of time, an eternal life in a completely transformed world. The ancient Jews transformed the Ancient Near Eastern myths of creation and re-creation into a myth of the coming apocalypse. The communal eating of the chaos dragon by the animals and people of the world is the symbol of that new creation, that new heavens and new earth.
The author of The Book of Job expects the discerning reader to see these suggestions of a final resolution to the moral problem for they are embedded in the myth of Leviathan itself. God expects Job to see the very same suggestions with his description of Leviathan in his second speech to Job. Leviathan implies the Isaian apocalypse. And the Isaian apocalypse implies the existence of a defense through a symposium where God answers all questions, though the nature of the defense is never articulated.
This legitimacy of this interpretation requires a date of composition for The Book of Job subsequent to 1 Isaiah, probably sometime within the 7th or 5th centuries B.C. Since most conventional scholars opt for a date of final redaction within between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.,
(a) Job is presented as a non-Israelite, but not necessarily a pre-Israelite. While it is often assumed Job lives in a patriarchal age more or less contemporaneously with Abraham in the 19th-17th centuries B.C., it is important to remember that the “patriarchal world” continued well into the mid-1st millennium B.C. in lands to the east and south of Israel. Uz may have been such a land. Uz would be to Israel as a third world country would be to a first world country. Both Uz and Israel could have existed contemporaneously, but not necessarily contiguously. Thus, the real life setting of Job could be within the timeframe of the 6th-5th centuries B.C.
(b) The Book of Job is profoundly counter-cultural and the absence of any reference to Jewish ritual may merely reflect a counter-cultural preference for myth over ritual and not an early date. Similarly, the absence of any reference to the Exile may merely reflect a counter-cultural preference for myth over history and not an early date.
(c) Job is clearly aware of all the mythologies of the Ancient Near East including those of Israel, without regarding any particular mythology as special revelation for him. In that respect, Job is in the position of many a modern reader. Myth is an embodiment of the hopes and dreams of all mankind and the occasion for insight for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. God inspires all great poets. God presents Job and the reader with 1 Isaiah’s reworking of the Leviathan myth and invites both to explore the “redemptive analogies” found therein. The redemption is not merely the redemption of man, but the redemption of God. That redemption is a time for the destruction, explanation and justification of evil.
3. Capturing the dragon
The first aspect of the Jewish reworking of the Leviathan myth is the capture of the dragon.
God tells Job that he and he alone can draw Leviathan from the chaos waters. Seven times God promises he will do it: by “hooks”, “snare”, “draw”, “fishhook”, “cord”, “rope”, “hook”. “Can one take it with hooks or pierce its nose with a snare? Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook?” (Job 40:24-41:2) The number seven here has symbolic import. It is the perfection of divine power. Only God can destroy the chaos monster. Drawing the monster from the waters is the first part of its destruction.
No lesser divine being can control, let alone, destroy the evil that it represents.
“Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed; were not even the gods overwhelmed at the sight of it? No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up. Who can stand before it? Who can confront it and be safe? –under the whole heaven, who?” (Job 41:9-11) “When it raises itself up the gods are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail, nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin. It counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make it flee; slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff. Clubs are counted as chaff; it laughs at the rattle of javelins.” (Job 41:25-29)
Here, God is drawing on the Babylonian myth of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, where even the gods themselves are dumb struck.
In the Babylonian myth of creation, the god of wisdom Ea is “struck dumb with horror and sat stock still” at the rebellion of the chaos monster Tiamat.
“They are massing around her, ready at Tiamat’s side
Angry, scheming, never laying down night and day,
Making warfare, rumbling, raging,
Convening in assembly, that they might start hostilities,
Mother Huber,
Added countless invincible weapons,
gave birth to monster serpents,
Pointed of fang, with merciless incisors (?),
She filled their bodies with venom for blood.
Fierce dragons she clad with glories,
Causing them to bear auras like gods, (saying)
“Whoever see them shall collapse from weakness!
Wherever their bodies make onslaught,
they shall not turn back!”
She deployed serpents, dragons, and hairy hero-men,
Lion monsters, lion men, scorpion men,
Mighty demons, fish men, bull men,
Bearing unsparing arms, fearing no battle.
Her commands were absolute, no one opposed them.
Eleven indeed on this wise she created.”
This demonic refrain will be repeated four times in the poem to heighten the fear of the gods. Anshar orders Ea and Anu in turn to destroy Tiamat, but both:
‘.stopped, horror-stricken, then turned back..
Her strength is enormous, she is utterly terrifying,
She is reinforced with a host, none can come out against her.
Her challenge was not reduced,
it was so loud (?) against me,
I became afraid at her clamor, I turned back.”
Even the high God Marduk is dumb struck as he approaches that evil. Tiamat cast her own spell on him and “his tactic turned to confusion, His reason was overthrown, his actions panicky.”
No human being such as Job can destroy the evil Leviathan represents. “Look on all who are proud, and bring them low; tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then I will also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can give you victory.” (Job 40:12-14) Only God can destroy it.
This destruction of Leviathan by drawing it out of the water finds some interesting parallels in Psalm 74, Ezekiel 29 and 32.
(a) Psalm 74 is a lament incorporating both a myth of creation and a myth of re-creation. As in the Canaanite myth of re-creation, the emissaries of the chaos monster have occupied and devastated the holy place of God. This violent act has upset the moral order. This psalm is a plea, a petition, that God restore or recreate that moral order.
“O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture” Remember your congregation which you acquired long ago..Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there. At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes. And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work. They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground. They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land. Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth. You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams. Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun. You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.” (Psalm 74:1-2,4-8,12-16 Italics added for emphasis.)
The hope is that this “King from of old” will act as he did in the times “of old” and once again subdue the powers of chaos. They are a threat to his kingship and he needs to restore that kingship. Only God can restore the moral order. Echoes of the Babylonian myth of creation can be heard in the references to the “dividing of the sea” and “the openings for springs and torrents” which recall the splitting of Tiamat and the creation of the Tigris and Euphrates from the eyes of her body. Echoes of the Canaanite myth of re-creation can be heard in the reference to a multi-headed Leviathan which recalls the seven headed Litan.
(b) Ezekiel 29 describes the tyrannical Pharaoh, king of Egypt, as a chaos dragon living in the waters of the Nile.
“Mortal, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; speak, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon sprawling in the midst of its channels, saying, “My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.” I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the fish of your channels stick to your scales. I will draw you up from your channels, with all the fish of your channels sticking to your scales. I will fling you into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your channels; you shall fall in the open field, and not be gathered and buried. To the animals of the earth and to the birds of the air I have given you as food.” (Ezekiel 29:3-5 Italics added for emphasis.)
This chaos dragon regards himself as the lord of creation. “My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.” (Ezekiel 29:3) Herein lies a threat to the created order that recalls the Canaanite myth of re-creation. Inherent in this refusal to accept one’s created status lies a claim to deity or at least to the kingship that is God’s alone. Just as the Canaanite chaos monster Mot is flung into the wilderness, this chaos dragon will be similarly overthrown.
(c) Ezekiel 32 continues the thought as it describes the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, as both a “dragon in the seas” and a “lion among nations”. Echoes of the Canaanite myth of re-creation can be heard here. A voracious lion is how Mot, the Canaanite dragon of death, describes himself. His appetite is such that it consumes the earth and all in earth.
“Mortal, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: You consider yourself a lion among the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you thrash about in your streams, trouble the water with your feet, and foul your streams. Thus says the Lord GOD: In an assembly of many peoples I will throw my net over you; and I will haul you up in my dragnet. I will throw you on the ground, on the open field I will fling you, and will cause all the birds of the air to settle on you, and I will let the wild animals of the whole earth gorge themselves with you. I will strew your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your carcass. I will drench the land with your flowing blood up to the mountains, and the watercourses will be filled with you. When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens, and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the shining lights of the heavens I will darken above you, and put darkness on your land, says the Lord GOD. I will trouble the hearts of many peoples, as I carry you captive among the nations, into countries you have not known. I will make many peoples appalled at you; their kings shall shudder because of you. When I brandish my sword before them, they shall tremble every moment for their lives, each one of them, on the day of your downfall.” (Ezekiel 32:2-10 Italics added for emphasis.)
Once again, the imagery of drawing the chaos monster out of the waters and the feeding on the body of the monster are conjoined. The one follows the other. This time there is the suggestion that defeat may be everlasting. The dragon will be “blotted out.” The “day of his downfall” sounds like the day of the Final Judgment. The sun, moon and stars go dark. Darkness covers the land. Most of the inhabitants of the nations of the earth “tremble” and shutter at this Day of Judgment.
4. Eating the dragon at the Messianic Feast
The second aspect of the Jewish reworking of the Leviathan myth is the eating of the dragon at the Messianic banquet where God is the Messiah. The fullest expression of that is found in the writings of the prophet Isaiah.
“On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:6-9 Italics added for emphasis.)
“On that day the LORD with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1 italics added for emphasis.)
The time is the end of human history. The dead of the world are summoned to a Messianic feast. The shroud of death which is “the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations” is lifted by God himself. (Isaiah 25:7) A universal resurrection of the dead has been accomplished. This final resurrection is contemporaneous with a Final Judgment.
“Leviathan the fleeing serpent”, “Leviathan the twisting serpent”, Leviathan “the dragon that is in the sea” will be judged. He will be killed once and forever. (Isaiah 27:1) The dragon represents that evil, all sorts of evil. In its most horrific form, the dragon is a personification of death. The dragon is the person Death. The death of Death is the creation of new life, now and forever. On that day, God will “swallow up death forever.” (Isaiah 25:7) This death of Death is the creation of a new earth and a new heaven. On that day, God removes all “tears”. God wipes away all “disgrace”. (Isaiah 25:8) This is the day of salvation for which all peoples have “waited”. (Isaiah 25:9)
The communal nature of the Messianic feast strongly suggests the participants partake of the dead body of the chaos dragon. They eat what the host eats. This communal eating of the dragon is a kind of sacramental acceptance of the new life God offers at the end of time, an eternal life in a completely transformed world. This communal participation is implied but never explicitly stated. All that is required in my interpretation is that Job infer that God will “swallow up” Leviathan in a final judgment to end all human history.
Still, it may be interesting to explore later understandings of this passage to gain a more canonical perspective to communal participation. Later Jewish tradition, apocryphal, pseudo-epigraphical and rabbinic, has the body of the dragon being consumed by the participants in the Messianic banquet. It makes explicit what was merely implicit in 1 Isaiah.
(a) The apocrypha means “things that are hidden”. It refers to fifteen or so Jewish works written in Greek that were not included in the Hebrew canon of the Bible, but which were included in early Greek translations of that Hebrew canon. For the most part, Jews inside Israel did not accept those works as authentic; Jews outside Israel did. The Orthodox and Catholic
2 Esdras is one such apocryphal work, probably written in the first century A.D.
“Upon the fifth day thou saidst unto the seventh part, where the waters were gathered that it should bring forth living creatures, fowls and fishes: and so it came to pass. For the dumb water and without life brought forth living things at the commandment of God, that all people might praise thy wondrous works. Then didst thou ordain two living creatures, the one thou calledst Enoch, and the other Leviathan; And didst separate the one from the other: for the seventh part, namely, where the water was gathered together, might not hold them both. Unto Enoch thou gavest one part, which was dried up the third day, that he should dwell in the same part, wherein are a thousand hills: But unto Leviathan thou gavest the seventh part, namely, the moist; and hast kept him to be devoured of whom thou wilt, and when.” (2 Edras 6:47 Italics added for emphasis.)
It was always God’s intention to kill the dragon. The dragon was “kept” alive only for the Messianic banquet to be devoured by “whom thou wilt and when.” It makes clear what is already fairly clear in the Isaian Apocalypse; namely, that human beings consume the dead body of the chaos dragon at the same time God does.
(b) The pseduoepigrapha means “falsely written”. It refers to a large number of Jewish works written in Greek that purported to be from God, but which works were not accepted by the majority of Jews living inside or outside of Israel as either canonical or authoritative. They are not part of the Hebrew or Christian scriptures in any way.
2 Baruch is one such psedoepigraphical work, probably written early second century A.D.
For our purpose, it is important in that it reveals the common Jewish understanding of Isaiah’s apocalypse. It refers to the eating of the chaos dragon at the Messianic banquet.
“And he answered me and said to me: ‘That which will happen at that time bears upon the whole earth. Therefore, all who live will notice it. For at that time I shall only protect those found in this land at that time. And it will happen that when all that which should come to pass in these parts has been accomplished, the Anointed One will begin to be revealed. And Behemoth will reveal itself from its place, and Leviathan will come from the sea, the two great monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation and which I shall have kept until that time. And they be nourishment for all who are left. The earth will also yield fruits then thousandfold. And on one vine will be a thousand branches, and once branch will produce a thousand clusters, and one cluster will produce a thousand grapes, and one grape will produce a cor of wine. And those who are hungry will enjoy themselves and they will, moreover, see marvels every day.” (2 Baruch 29:1-7 Italics added for emphasis.)
It makes clear what is already fairly clear in the Isaian Apocalypse; namely, that “all” human beings “who are left” consume the dead body of the chaos dragon at the same time God does.
I Enoch is another such psedoepigraphical work, probably written between the second century B.C. and the first century A.D.
“On that day, two monsters will be parted- one monster, a female named Leviathan, in order to dwell in the abyss of the ocean over the fountains of water; and (the other) a male called Behemoth, which hold his chest in an invisible desert who name in Dundayin, east of the garden of Eden, wherein the elects and the righteous dwell..And the angel of peace who was with me said to me, “These two monsters are prepared for the great day of the Lord (when) they shall turn into food. So that the punishment of the Lord of the Spirits should come down upon them in order that the punishment of the Lord of the Spirits should not be issued in vain but slay the children with mothers and the children with their fathers, when the punishment of the Lord of the Spirits comes down upon everyone. After that there shall be the judgment according to his mercy and his patience.” (1 Enoch 60:7-8, 24-26 Italics added for emphasis.)
(c) The rabbis were local teachers in the synagogues of Israel following the return of the Jewish people from the captivity in Babylon in the sixth century B.C. They established an oral tradition, preserving and passing on the teaching of one generation to the next. Those teachings include common understandings of scripture. As various points in time, those oral traditions were converted to writing. The Mishnah converted some oral traditions to writing in the second century A.D.
And the Midrash Rabbah converted some oral traditions to writing in the fifth through seventh centuries A.D.
The precise dating of any oral tradition is very difficult. It may be very early or it may be very late.
The Midrash Rabba on Leviticus preserves an oral rabbinic tradition concerning the common Jewish understanding of Isaiah’s apocalypse. It refers to the eating of the chaos dragon at the Messianic banquet.
“R. Judan b. R. Simeon said: Behemoth and the Leviathan are to engage in a wild-beast contest before the righteous in the Time to Come, and whoever has not been a spectator at the wild-beast contests of the heathen nations in this world will be accorded the boon of seeing one in the World to Come. How will they be slaughtered? Behemoth will, with its horns, pull Leviathan down and rend it, and Leviathan will, with its fins, pull Behemoth down and pierce it through.R.Berekiah said in the name of R. Isaac: In the Time to Come, the Holy One, blessed be He, will make a banquet for his righteous servants, and whoever has not eaten nebelah
The rabbis were especially concerned with ceremonial law, including the proper killing and eating of food. A concern had been expressed that the slaughter of the chaos monsters Leviathan and Behemoth may not have been in accordance with proper ritual. The concern is dismissed. This passage makes clear what is already fairly clear in the Isaian Apocalypse; namely, that God’s “righteous servants” consume the dead body of the chaos dragon at the same time God does.
The Isaian Apocalypse is a new Exodus.
“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago! Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to cross over? So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. I am he who comforts you.You have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.Thus says your Sovereign, the LORD, your God who pleads the cause of his people.” (Isaiah 51:9-13, 22 Italics added for emphasis.)
God will interfere in human affairs to do in the near future what he has done in the “generations of long ago.” The old Exodus foreshadows the new and final Exodus. He will free his people from the chaos of their world. This prophecy of a future death of the chaos monster carries with it the promise of full and final destruction to that evil. The death of that dragon will inaugurate a new “redemption” that will bring “everlasting joy” and “gladness”. All “sorrow and sighing” shall fall away. God the Redeemer will finally “plead the cause” of his people and justice will be established for all to see. God the Redeemer will finally “plead the cause” of Job himself.
The Isaian development of the myth of Leviathan into a Messianic feast was a poetic way for the ancients to say three things. Evil is all around us, deep within us. But there will come a time when that evil within us will be purged and destroyed. For evil is not God’s final purpose in creation.
In God’s second speech to Job, the scholar Tur-Sinai finds a reference to this Messianic feast of 1 Isaiah. The NRSV obscures the allusion with its translation: “can you fill its skin with harpoons, or its head with fishing spears?” (Job 42:41:7) Tur-Sinai would clarify the allusion with his own translation: “couldst thou stud his body with cloves, with fish-onions his head?”
“Harpoons” have been replaced by “cloves”; “fishing spears”, by “fish-onions.”
“If Job thus appears to be questioned as to the filling of the body of Leviathan, which had been bought and divided by food-hoarders or merchants, then this inquiry would seem to refer to the preparation of Leviathan’s body for cooking. In that case, bslsl is not slsl with prepositional b, but bslsl with b as a radical, meaning a kind of seasoning (small) onions, like bslswl in the Mishna. The omission of another, prepositional b- if at all necessary- may be due to the frequent phenomenon of haplography or haplology, as byt prsh for bbyt prsh etc. The mention of small onions in connection with the cooking of the fish seems quite natural.- It follows that sbwt is likewise a condiment, probably clove, Naglein (= skwt Accadian, shikkatu “pin, nail” etc.).”
The image is that of a stuffed and roasted beast. Since Leviathan is a sea monster, the image is that of a stuffed and roasted fish.
Tur-Sinai finds additional support for his view in what he sees as an earlier reference to a stuffed and roasted fowl. “And having caught him, would you bind him and hand him to your maidservants, so that they might prepare him for your table?- spwr is here a general term for any edible fowl, as e.g. in Deuteronomy 14:11, and in Canaanite inscriptions.”
There are many good reasons to adopt Tur-Sinai’s understanding of the passage.
(a) First, the amendments are minor. It is easy to understand how the corruption of the text could have occurred.
(b) Second, his interpretation makes good sense in terms of the surrounding verses. God has been talking about the preparation of a special meal connected with Leviathan. The image of stuffing an animal for cooking is strong.
(c) Third, his interpretation accords with the common Jewish understanding that Leviathan would be served up as the main course at the Messianic banquet at the end of human history. This is especially the case when one remembers the structure of that apocalyptic myth. The capture of the chaos dragon by hooks and by net is immediately and invariably followed by a feast, a feeding on the dead body of the dragon, by the animals and peoples of the world. The verses that closely precede these focus on the capture of the chaos dragon by hooks. “Can one take it with hooks or pierce its nose with a snare? Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook?” (Job 40:24-42:2) And the verse that immediately precedes this passage focuses on food preparation in the market. “Will traders bargain over it? Will they divide it up among the merchants?” (Job 42:6) Certainly, the “dividing” up of the monster by the fish mongers of the market can mean “cut up” in preparation for a meal. (Job 41:6) The preceding verse describes an edible fowl (Job 41:5), a bird that one might play with, but a bird that is normally meant for eating.
In any event, Tur-Sinai’s insights are not necessary to this interpretation. God’s seven-fold reference to the capture of the dragon Leviathan entails its ultimate destruction and an answer to all things. This is the apocalyptic structure of the Jewish myth of Leviathan. It is a myth of purpose, God’s purpose in the creation, control, destruction and justification of evil.
This ultimate destruction of evil is a significant advance on the Babylonian myth of creation and the Canaanite myth of recreation.
In the Babylonian myth of creation, the high God Marduk’s victory over evil is temporary. The strong suggestion is the evil will re-emerge. God and man have the joint responsibility for continuing that struggle. The gods “made Marduk’s destiny highest, they prostrated themselves.They established him forever for lordship of heaven and netherworld..He shall do the same on earth as what he brought to pass in heaven.”
In the Canaanite myth of recreation, the high God Baal and the chaos monsters Yam and Mot reach a compromise, a mutual co-existence. Each will retain their separate kingdoms. “Divine
5. Explaining the dragon at the Symposium to follow
The third aspect of the Jewish myth of an apocalypse is the explanation for evil that follows in the Symposium after the Messianic banquet. This is where the justification for evil is given to all mankind. Again, the prophet Isaiah has the best exposition of that Symposium. It is a time when God the Messiah sits down and explains all things to all people.
“Whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” Truly, with stammering lip and with alien tongue he will speak to this people, to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. Therefore the word of the LORD will be to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little;” in order that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.” (Isaiah 28:9-13 Italics added for emphasis.)
“On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be; all those alert to do evil shall be cut off– those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit, who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate, and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.” (Isaiah 29:18-21 Italics added for emphasis.)
“Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”” (Isaiah 30:18-21 Italics added for emphasis.)
This is the moment for which the “weary” have “waited”. This is the moment in which God gives the explanation for why there is evil in the world. The Lord has given the “bread of adversity” and the “water of affliction”, but God the Teacher no longer hides himself or his purposes in creation. God answers all questions at this time. That is the time God will answer Job’s question as to why he created a world of undeserved and unremitted suffering.
The author of The Book of Job may have had this passage before him. For it curiously makes reference to a person much like Job. That person is “one” involved in a “lawsuit” who was “in the right” but “denied justice” at the time. (Isaiah 29:21) On the terms of God’s trial by Satan, God could not in this life answer Job and give him the reason for evil in the world. Job is denied justice in this life. But in eternity that restriction will be lifted. At that moment, the Lord will hear the sound of Job’s cry, and answer it. At that moment, God will fulfill the requirements of justice and reveal his hidden purpose (Job 10:13-14) in creation. At that moment, God will give a full and final explanation to all and to Job as to why there is evil in the world.
There is nothing in either the Babylonian myth of creation or the Canaanite myth of recreation that even remotely compares to this explanation and justification for the existence of evil.
In his appearance and his two speeches, God reveals himself and his intentions through the literary imagery of myth. It is not so much revelation as the occasion for the insight and inference.
6. Condemnation and Justification
Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? (Job 40:7-8 Italics added for emphasis and clarification.)
God has picked up on Job’s hesitation to “proceed further”. In the context of Job’s Oath of Innocence, that can only mean Job’s hesitance to proceed beyond his own vindication to a condemnation of God brought about by a curse. The mere swearing of the oath has vindicated Job. God’s appearance and the fact that God has not struck him dead has vindicated Job. Job is justified. The question is whether Job fully understands that fact. A condemnation of God for wrongdoing is neither logically nor legally necessary at this point. Job is vindicated and God has been found causally responsible for evil. As yet, God has not been found to be morally blameworthy for that evil. The question is whether Job will pass a prematurely blame and condemn God, depriving God of the chance to work out his purpose in bringing evil into the world. God expects Job to walk that razor’s edge.
God suggests a moral purpose in his review of the mythological world. The image of Leviathan carries with it two time frames: the beginning of time and the end of time. The beginning of time is the creation and control of the chaos monster. There is an efficient cause for evil in the world. The end of time is the destruction of that chaos monster and an answering of all questions. There is a final cause for evil in the world. Through the myth of Leviathan, God is subtly drawing Job’s attention to the beginning of time and the end of time. From the beginning of time symbolized by the creation of the dragon to the end of time symbolized by the destruction of that dragon, God claims to be in control of that evil and to be using it for his own purpose.
At best, these are all suggestions. The suggestion to Job is that he should infer from God’s creation and control of evil an ultimate purpose for that evil. Job should infer from God’s ability to capture the dragon and draw it out of the waters the two further Jewish developments of the myth: namely, a Messianic feast symbolizing the full and final destruction of evil and God as Teacher sitting down with mankind after that meal to answer all questions including the question of why there is evil in the world. These three elements of the Jewish apocalypse follow one after another and the presence of one suggests the presence of all three. Moreover, Job should infer that that ultimate explanation will be a rational demonstration and justification of the need for evil in the world. These are inferences that Job might reasonably draw, but they are inferences that he need not draw.
In his second speech to Job, God never mentions what that moral purpose is. He never mentions what has transpired in heaven. He never mentions a special second order good, a particular type of selfless love, which might justify a massive first order evil, this world of undeserved and unremitted suffering. He never explains how and why the one might justify the other. God rests his case, so to speak, having hinted at the existence of a defense, but having never presented it.
And in doing so, God deliberately opens himself to the condemnation that is the second default judgment in the Oath of Innocence. In doing so, God puts Job and mankind to the ultimate test. Will we condemn God so that we ourselves might be justified? Will we condemn God so that we ourselves might be vindicated?
_____
[40] ibid, p.565.
[41] Foster, B.R., Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature Volume 1: Archaic, Classical, Mature (CDL Press, Bethesda, 1996) pp. 353-400.
Discussion
Comments are disallowed for this post.
Comments are closed.