Leviathan

This article is about the biblical creature. For other uses of the term, see Leviathan (disambiguation). For the prehistoric whale, see Livyatan. For the book by Thomas Hobbes, see Leviathan (Hobbes book).

Leviathan (/lɪˈvaɪ.əθən/ ⓘ le-VIE-ə-thən; Hebrew: לִוְיָתָן, romanized: Līvyāṯān; Greek: Λεβιάθαν) is a sea serpent demon noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in the Hebrew Bible, as a metaphor for a powerful enemy, notably Babylon. It is referred to in Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, and the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch.[1] Leviathan is often an embodiment of chaos, threatening to eat the damned when their lives are over. In the end, it is annihilated. Christian theologians identified Leviathan with the demon of the deadly sin envy. According to Ophite Diagrams, Leviathan encapsulates the space of the material world.

In Gnosis, it encompasses the world like a sphere and incorporates the souls of those who are too attached to material things, so they cannot reach the realm of God's fullness beyond, from which all good emanates. In Hobbes, Leviathan becomes a metaphor for the omnipotence of the state, which maintains itself by educating children in its favour, generation after generation.[2] This idea of eternal power that 'feeds' on its constantly self-produced citizens is based on a concept of conditioning that imprints the human's conscience in a mechanical manner. It deals in a good and evil dualism: a speculative natural law according to which man should behave towards man like a ravenous wolf, and the pedagogically transmitted laws of the state as Leviathan, whose justification for existence is seen in containing such frightening conditions.[3]

Leviathan in the Book of Job is a reflection of the older Canaanite Lotan, a primeval monster defeated by the god Baal Hadad.[4][5] Parallels to the role the primeval Sumerian sea goddess Tiamat, who was defeated by Marduk, have long been drawn in comparative mythology, as have been comparisons to dragon and world serpent narratives, such as Indra slaying Vritra or Thor slaying Jörmungandr.[6] Some 19th-century scholars pragmatically interpreted it as referring to large aquatic creatures, such as the crocodile.[7] The word later came to be used as a term for great whale and for sea monsters in general.

  1. ^ Miller, Robert D. (2025). "Leviathan". In Grafius, Brandon R.; Morehead, John W. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 174–185. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197565056.013.0009. ISBN 9780197565087.
  2. ^ Goff, Graham (1 April 2022). "Transforming Leviathan: Job, Hobbes, Zvyagintsev and Philosophical Progression". Journal of Religion & Film. 26 (1). doi:10.32873/uno.dc.jrf.26.01.53. ISSN 1092-1311.
  3. ^ Hobbes. "30". Leviathan.
  4. ^ Charles F. Pfeiffer "Lotan and Leviathan"
  5. ^ Mark R. Sneed "The Israelite Reconfiguration of the Canaanite Combat Myth: Leviathan" in: "Taming the beast : a reception history of Behemoth and Leviathan", De Gruyter, Berlin, 2022.
  6. ^ Cirlot, Juan Eduardo (1971). A Dictionary of Symbols (2nd ed.). Dorset Press. p. 186.
  7. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm (1879). Hebrew and Chaldee lexicon to the Old Testament. Translated by Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux.
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