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Here's my take on the Leviathan, which is the largest and most terrible of sea animals created by God, in the Bible ! Its Hebrew name, "liwyathan", is said to be derived from terms that can be translated as "twisted", or "coiled", and only its creator Yahweh has the power to domesticate it

Although the etymology of its name and its "spiritual ancestors" (to which we will return) give it the general appearance of a colossal sea serpent, the Scriptures describe him cryptically, although the Book of Job is rich in information (41:3-25). The emphasis is placed on its scales, compared to a myriad of shields welded together, which does not allow air or any human weapon to pass through it. This same passage indicates that the Leviathan can spit fire, that smoke escapes from its nostrils, and that, even when it evolves under the sea, its exhalations cause the waters which surround it to boil. It is said that "around his teeth dwells terror", that his strength is in his neck (it can be conjectured that the term "neck" may refer to the whole of an ophidian body), and it is implied that no one can force its powerful jaws to open or close. There is also mention of unspecified "limbs" (fins ? Legs making it able to move better in shallow water ?). The Book of Isaiah (27:1), on the other hand, clearly refers to the monster as a "tortuous serpent". Rabbi Johanan bar Nappaha (180-279) says that the Leviathan's head is horned, and a Jewish legend recorded in the Midrash (a compilation of rabbinic commentaries on biblical texts) tells that the whale that engulfed Jonah had previously narrowly escaped the monster, which devoured a whale each day.

But the Book of Job also assures that “In the earth no man is its master ; It was created to fear nothing”, and, as it did with the Behemoth, it accumulates many rhetorical questions in an effort to dissuade any human from seeking to subjugate the indomitable creature.

If the Leviathan is associated with the sea, the Behemoth is its terrestrial counterpart, and the Ziz its aerial counterpart. According to a Jewish legend, it and the Behemoth will engage in a terrible fight at the end of time, one using its sharp fins and the other its horns, until their creator intervenes to slaughter them both, and serve their meat to the righteous who will have survived the Last Judgment. Part of the gleaming cuirass of the sea monster will shelter the guests, another will be stretched over the walls of Jerusalem.

If this creature had its origins in a real animal, scholars of the 19th century thought of the Nile crocodile, whose jaws and cuirass probably impressed the authors of the biblical texts speaking of it. But it is all the more likely that the Leviathan was inspired by other similar and older sea monsters : Lotan, the sea serpent who served as "pet" of Yam, the Canaanite god of the seas, Illuyanka, the giant snake of Hittite mythology, and even Tiamat, the monstrous Mesopotamian sea mother-goddess. All of these creatures were forces of chaos associated with the sea, and were defeated by deities of thunder and order (Baal, Tahru, and Marduk, respectively). However, following its vain struggle with the Behemoth, the Leviathan is condemned to perish struck down by its creator, so it is difficult not to draw the parallel.

Christians, however, more clearly associated Leviathan with the forces of evil, identifying it, for example, with one of the seven-headed Beasts of the Apocalypse, the one that came from the sea. Also, Saint Thomas Aquinas and the theologian Peter Binsfeld saw him as the Demon of Envy, and one of the Seven Princes of Hell

Here's some fitting music ! youtu.be/SWcv8S3-OK8

Description

Here's my take on the Leviathan, which is the largest and most terrible of sea animals created by God, in the Bible ! Its Hebrew name, "liwyathan", is said to be derived from terms that can be translated as "twisted", or "coiled", and only its creator Yahweh has the power to domesticate it

Although the etymology of its name and its "spiritual ancestors" (to which we will return) give it the general appearance of a colossal sea serpent, the Scriptures describe him cryptically, although the Book of Job is rich in information (41:3-25). The emphasis is placed on its scales, compared to a myriad of shields welded together, which does not allow air or any human weapon to pass through it. This same passage indicates that the Leviathan can spit fire, that smoke escapes from its nostrils, and that, even when it evolves under the sea, its exhalations cause the waters which surround it to boil. It is said that "around his teeth dwells terror", that his strength is in his neck (it can be conjectured that the term "neck" may refer to the whole of an ophidian body), and it is implied that no one can force its powerful jaws to open or close. There is also mention of unspecified "limbs" (fins ? Legs making it able to move better in shallow water ?). The Book of Isaiah (27:1), on the other hand, clearly refers to the monster as a "tortuous serpent". Rabbi Johanan bar Nappaha (180-279) says that the Leviathan's head is horned, and a Jewish legend recorded in the Midrash (a compilation of rabbinic commentaries on biblical texts) tells that the whale that engulfed Jonah had previously narrowly escaped the monster, which devoured a whale each day.

But the Book of Job also assures that “In the earth no man is its master ; It was created to fear nothing”, and, as it did with the Behemoth, it accumulates many rhetorical questions in an effort to dissuade any human from seeking to subjugate the indomitable creature.

If the Leviathan is associated with the sea, the Behemoth is its terrestrial counterpart, and the Ziz its aerial counterpart. According to a Jewish legend, it and the Behemoth will engage in a terrible fight at the end of time, one using its sharp fins and the other its horns, until their creator intervenes to slaughter them both, and serve their meat to the righteous who will have survived the Last Judgment. Part of the gleaming cuirass of the sea monster will shelter the guests, another will be stretched over the walls of Jerusalem.

If this creature had its origins in a real animal, scholars of the 19th century thought of the Nile crocodile, whose jaws and cuirass probably impressed the authors of the biblical texts speaking of it. But it is all the more likely that the Leviathan was inspired by other similar and older sea monsters : Lotan, the sea serpent who served as "pet" of Yam, the Canaanite god of the seas, Illuyanka, the giant snake of Hittite mythology, and even Tiamat, the monstrous Mesopotamian sea mother-goddess. All of these creatures were forces of chaos associated with the sea, and were defeated by deities of thunder and order (Baal, Tahru, and Marduk, respectively). However, following its vain struggle with the Behemoth, the Leviathan is condemned to perish struck down by its creator, so it is difficult not to draw the parallel.

Christians, however, more clearly associated Leviathan with the forces of evil, identifying it, for example, with one of the seven-headed Beasts of the Apocalypse, the one that came from the sea. Also, Saint Thomas Aquinas and the theologian Peter Binsfeld saw him as the Demon of Envy, and one of the Seven Princes of Hell

Here's some fitting music ! youtu.be/SWcv8S3-OK8