Leviathan

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Monster also claimed who in the xian O. T. Phoenicia
Gods and Goddess Reference


LEVIATHAN.—In four of the five passages where this word appears, the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] have dragon, and their belief that a creature of serpentine form was meant is coo-firmed by the derivation of Heb. lavâh, which signifies ‘to twist or wind.’ The leviathan of Job_41:1-34 is the crocodile, with added traits drawn from the ancient Creation myths. On the assumption that Psa_74:2-17 refers to the Exodus, we should again find the crocodile in Psa_74:14. But it is at least equally probable that the allusion is to the creation of the world (Psa_74:16-17), and to the mythological sea-monsters then vanquished. Leviathan here has several heads; the great serpent of Babylonian tradition had seven. Isa_27:1 distinguishes between two leviathans, the flying serpent, and the crooked or coiled serpent—symbols of two heathen kingdoms. The identification of the kingdoms depends on the date of the prophecy: Assyria and Babylon, Persia and Greece, Syria and Parthia, are rival suggestions. The species of sea-monster pointed to in Psa_104:26 is left indefinite. The leviathan (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ; AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘their mourning’) aroused by magicians (Job_3:8) is most likely a denizen of the abyss which threatens the world with destruction. Many, however, take him to be the mythical sky-dragon which was supposed to cause eclipses. It will be noted that there is a close connexion between leviathan and the watery world. Robertson Smith held that it is a personification of the water-spout (RS [Note: S Religion of the Semites.] 2, p. 176). The Apocalyptic and Rabbinical writers gave full scope to their fancy in dealing with this theme. Leviathan and Behemoth were created on the fifth day, and the depths of the sea were assigned to the former as his abode; during the last quarter of each day God plays with him (as the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] and some recent expositors interpret Psa_104:26); the Jordan empties itself into his mouth; his flesh will be for food to the godly in the days of the Messiah; part of his skin will be made into a tent for them, whilst the rest is spread on the walls of Jerusalem, and its brightness is visible to the ends of the earth (En 60.7ff., 2Es_6:40, Apoc. [Note: Apocalypse, Apocalyptic.] Bar 29:4; Aboda zara, 3b; Baba bathra, 74b; Targ. on Num_11:26 f.). Cf. art. Behemoth.
J. Taylor.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

From lewy "joined" (referring to its joined, plate armour like scales) and than a monster drawn out, i.e. long; or else Arabic lavah "to twist." So Job_41:15-17. The crocodile. The whale having a smooth skin and no scales cannot be meant. The crocodile's teeth, 30 on each side of each jaw, lock into each other. Lips are wanting, so that the teeth are seen even when the mouth is closed, illustrating Job_41:14, "who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about." As behemoth is the hippopotamus, so leviathan is the crocodile, both found in Egypt along the Nile. The term elsewhere is used for any large monster of the "sea" or water. Psa_104:26; Psa_74:13-14; "Thou breakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness." The king of Egypt is symbolized by the "dragons" and "leviathan" (compare Eze_32:2; Eze_29:3); he and his host at their overthrow in the Red Sea became a spoil to Israel (compare "bread for us," Num_14:9) "in the wilderness."
The context shows that it is the benefits of God to Israel that are here recounted. In Job_3:8 translated "let them curse it (my day of birth) ... who are ready to raise up a leviathan," i.e. necromancers who rouse and control wild beasts at will (compare Psa_58:5). In Isa_27:1, "leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked (wriggling) serpent," "the dragon in the sea," literally refers to the crocodile in the sea or Nile, or else to the great rock snakes. Spiritually every foe of Israel and the church. Antitypically and finally Satan "the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil" (Rev_20:2; Rev_20:10), whom finally "Jehovah with His sore, great, and strong sword shall punish." For" piercing" (bariach) translated "darting from side to side." Foiled on one side he tries to gain on the other side (Job_26:13; 2Co_11:14; 2Co_2:11). Typhon, the destroyer, was worshipped in Egypt under the form of a crocodile.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Leviathan. (jointed monster). Leviathan occurs five times in the text of the Authorized Version, and once in the margin of Job_3:8 where the text has "mourning." In the Hebrew Bible, the word livyathan, which is, with the foregoing exception, always left untranslated in the Authorized Version, is found only in the following passages: Job_3:8; Job_41:1; Psa_74:14; Psa_104:26; Isa_27:1.
In the margin of Job_3:8 and text of Job_41:1, the crocodile is most clearly the animal denoted by the Hebrew word. Psa_74:14 also clearly points to this same saurian. The context of Psa_104:26 seems to show that, in this passage, the name represents some animal of the whale tribe, which is common in the Mediterranean; but it is somewhat uncertain what animal is denoted in Isa_27:1.
As the term leviathan is evidently used in no limited sense, it is not improbable that the "leviathan the piercing serpent," or "leviathan the crooked serpent," may denote some species of the great rock-snakes which are common in south and west Africa.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

לויתן , Job_3:8; Job_41:1; Psa_74:14; Psa_104:26; Isa_27:1. The old commentators concurred in regarding the whale as the animal here intended. Beza and Diodati were among the first to interpret it the crocodile: and Bochart has since supported this last rendering with a train of argument which has nearly overwhelmed all opposition, and brought almost every commentator over to his opinion. It is very certain that it could not be the whale, which does not inhabit the Mediterranean, much less the rivers that empty themselves into it; nor will the characteristics at all apply to the whale. The crocodile, on the contrary, is a natural inhabitant of the Nile, and other Asiatic and African rivers; of enormous voracity and strength, as well as fleetness in swimming; attacks mankind and the largest animals with most daring impetuosity; when taken by means of a powerful net, will often overturn the boats that surround it; has, proportionally, the largest mouth of all monsters whatever; moves both its jaws equally, the upper of which has not less than forty, and the lower than thirty-eight sharp, but strong and massy, teeth; and is furnished with a coat of mail, so scaly and callous as to resist the force of a musket ball in every part, except under the belly. Indeed, to this animal, the general character of the leviathan seems so well to apply, that it is unnecessary to seek farther.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

lḗ-vi?a-than (לויתן, liwyāthān (Job 41:1-34), from לוה, lāwāh, ?to fold?; compare Arabic name of the wry neck, Iynx torq̱uilla, abū-luwā, from kindred , lawā, ?to bend?):
(1) The word ?leviathan? also occurs in Isa_27:1, where it is characterized as ?the swift serpent ... the crooked serpent?; in Psa_104:26, where a marine monster is indicated; also in Psa_74:14 and Job_3:8. The description in Job 41 has been thought by some to refer to the whale, but while the whale suits better the expressions denoting great strength, the words apply best on the whole to the crocodile. Moreover, the whale is very seldom found in the Mediterranean, while the crocodile is abundant in the Nile, and has been known to occur in at least one river of Palestine, the Zarḳa, North of Jaffa. For a discussion of the behemoth and leviathan as mythical creatures, see EB, under the word ?Behemoth? and ?Leviathan.? The points in the description which may well apply to the crocodile are the great invulnerability, the strong and close scales, the limbs and the teeth. It must be admitted that there are many expressions which a modern scientist would not use with reference to the crocodile, but the Book of Job is neither modern nor scientific, but poetical and ancient.
(2) See ASTRONOMY, II, 2, 5.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Levi?athan (Job_3:8 [mourning?A.V.]; 41:1; Psa_74:14; Psa_104:26; Isa_27:1) [BEHEMOTH, CROCODILE, DRAGON]. Gesenius very justly remarks that this word, which denotes any twisted animal, is especially applicable to every great tenant of the waters, such as the great marine serpents and crocodiles, and, it may be added, the colossal serpents and great monitors of the desert. In general it points to the crocodile, and Job 41 is unequivocally descriptive of that Saurian. Probably the Egyptian crocodile is therein depicted in all its magnitude, ferocity, and indolence, such as it was in early days, when as yet unconscious of the power of man, and only individually tamed for the purposes of an imposture, which had sufficient authority to intimidate the public and protect the species, under the sanctified pretext that it was a type of pure water, and an emblem of the importance of irrigation; though the people in general seem ever to have been disposed to consider it a personification of the destructive principle. At a later period the Egyptians, probably of such places as Tentyris, where crocodiles were not held in veneration, not only hunted and slew them, but it appears from a statue that a sort of Bestiarii could tame them sufficiently to perform certain exhibitions mounted on their backs. The intense musky odor of its flesh must have rendered the crocodile, at all times, very unpalatable food, but breast-armor was made of the horny and ridged parts of its back. We have ourselves witnessed a periodical abstinence in the great Saurians, and have known negro women, while bathing, play with young alligators; which, they asserted, they could do without danger, unless they hurt them and thereby attracted the vengeance of the mother; but the impunity most likely resulted from the period of inactivity coinciding with the then state of the young animals, or from the negro women being many in the water at the same time. The occurrence took place at Old Harbor, Jamaica.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Leviathan
(Heb. לוְיָתָן, usually derived from לַוְיָה, a wreath, with adject. ending ןָ but perhaps compounded of לַוי, wreathed, and תִּן, a sea-monster; occurs Job_3:8; Job 41, I [Hebrew xl, 25], Psa_74:14; Psa_104:26; Isa_27:1; Sept. δράκων, but τὸμέγα κῆτος in Job_3:8; Vulg. Leviathan, but draco in Psa.; Auth. Vers. “Leviathan,” but ‘“their mourning” in Job_3:8) probably has different significations, e.g.:
(1.) A serpent, especially a large one (Job_3:8), hence as the symbol of the hostile kingdom of Babylon (Isa_27:1).
(2.) Specially, the crocodile (Job_41:1).
(3.) A sea-monster (Psa_104:26); tropically, for a cruel enemy (Psa_74:14; compare Isa_51:9; Eze_29:3).
This Heb. word, which denotes any twisted animal, is especially applicable to every great tenant of the waters, such as the great marine serpents and crocodiles, and, it may be added, the colossal serpents and great monitors of the desert. SEE BEHEMOTH; SEE DRAGON.
In general it points to the crocodile, and Job 41 is unequivocally descriptive of that saurian. But in Isaiah and the Psalms foreign kings are evidently apostrophized under the name of Leviathan, though other texts more naturally apply to the whale, notwithstanding the objections that have been made to that interpretation of the term. “It is quite an error to assert, as Dr. Harris (Dict. Nat. Hist. Bib.), Mason Good (Book of Job translated), Michaelis (Supp. 1297), and Rosenmüller (quoting Michaelis in not. ad Bsochart Wie roz. 3:738) have done, that the whale is not found in the Mediterranean. The Orca gladiator (Gray) — the grampus mentioned by Lee — the Physalus antiquorumn (Gray), or the Rorqual de la Mediterranee (Cuvier), are not uncommon in the Mediterranean (Fischer, Synops. Mamm. p. 525, and Lacepede, H. N. des Cetac. p. 115), and in ancient times the species may have been more numerous.” SEE WHALE.
The word crocodile does not occur in the Auth.Vers., although its Greek form κροκόδειλος 'is found in the Sept. (Lev_11:29, where for the “tortoise, צָב, it has κροκόδειλος χερσαῖος, Vulg. crocodilus); but there is no specific word in the Hebrew of which it is the acknowledged representative.” Bochart (3:769, edit. Rosenmüller) says that the Talmudists use the word livyathân to denote the crocodile; this, however, is denied by Lewysohn (Zool. des Talm. p. 155, 355), who says that in the Talmud it always denotes a wchale, and never a crocodile. For the Talmudical fables about the leviathan, see Lewysohn (Zool. des Talm.), in passages referred to above, and Buxtorf, Lexicon Chald. Talm. s.v. לויתן(Smith). Some of these seem to be alluded to in 2Es_6:49; 2Es_6:52. The Egyptians called it tsmok (see Biunsen's AEgyptens Stellung, 1:581), the Arabs name it tamse (compare χάμψη, Herod. 2:69); but Strabo says that the Egyptian crocodile was knolwn by the name stuchus, σοῦχος, probably referring to the sacred species). It is not only denoted by the leviathan of Job_41:1, but probably also by the tannin of Eze_29:3; Eze_32:2 (compare Isa_27:1; Isa_51:9); and perhaps by the reedbeast ( חִיִּת קָנֶה“spearmen”) of Psa_68:30. Others confound the leviathan with the orca of Pliny (9:5), i.e. probably the Physter macrocephalus of Linn. (see Th. Hase, De Leviacthan Jobi, Brem. 1723); Schultens understands the fabulous dragons (Comment. in Job. p. 1174 sq.; compare Oedmann, Satnmml. 3:1. sq.); not to dwell upon the supposed identification with fossil species of lizards (Koch, in Lidde's Zeitschrift verygleich Erdk. Magdleb. 1844). In the detailed description of Job (ch. 41), probably; the Egyptian crocodile is depicted in all its magnitude, ferocity, and indolence, such as it was in early days, when as yet unconscious of the power of man, and only individually tamed for the purposes of an imposture, which had sufficient authority to intimidate the public and protect the species, under the sanctified pretext that it was a type of pure water, and an emblem of the importance of irrigation; though the people in general seem ever to have been disposed to consider it a personification of the destructive principle. At a later period the Egyptians, probably of such places as Tentyris, where crocodiles were not held in veneration, not only hunted and slew them, but it appears from a statue that a sort of Bestiarii could tame them sufficiently to perform certain exhibitions mounted on their backs. The intense musky odor of its flesh must have rendered the crocodile at all times very unpalatable food, but breast-armor was made of the horny and ridged parts of its back. Viewed as the crocodile of the Thebaid, it is not clear that the leviathan symbolized the Pharaoh, or was a type of Egypt, any more than of several Roman colonies (even where it was not indigenous, as at Nismcs, in Gaul, on the ancient coins of which the figure of one chained occurs), and of cities in Phoenicia, Egypt, and other parts of the coast of Africa. During the Roman sway in Egypt, crocodiles had not disappeared in the Lower Nile, for Seneca and others allude to a great battle fought by them and a school of dolphins in the Heracleotic branch of the Delta. During the decline of the state even the hippopotamus reappeared about Pelusium, and was shot at in the 17th century (Radzivil). In the time of the Crusades crocodiles were found in the Crocodilon river of early writers, and in the Crocodilorum lacus, still called Moiat el-Temsah, which appear to be the Kerseos river and marsh, three miles south of Casarea, though the nature of the locality is most appropri ta at Nahr-el Arsuf or el-Haddar” (For a full account of the treatment of the crocodile and its worship in Egypt, see Wilkinson's Anc. Agypt. 1:243 sq.). SEE RAHAB.
Most of the popular accounts of the crocodile have been taken from the American alligator, a smaller animal, but very similar in its habits to the true crocodile. See generally Herod. 2:68 sq.; Diod. Sic. 1:35, AElian, Hist. Anim. 5:23; 17; 1:6; 2, Ammianus Marcell. 22:15; Hasselquist, Trav. p. 344 sq., Pococke, East, 1:301 sq.; Oken, Naturgeschichte , I, 2:329 sq.; Cuvier, Anim. Kingd. 2:21; Thom, in the Halle Encyklop. 21:456 sq.; Bochart, Hieroz. 3:737 sq., Oedmann, 3:1 sq.; 6:53 sq.; Annales du Museum d'histoire nattu. vol. 9, 10; Minutoli, Trav. p. 246 Rosenmüller, Altertshum, sk. IV, 2:244 sq. Denon, Trav. p. 291; Norden, Reise, p. 302. SEE CROCODILE.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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