Leviathan is a mythological creature that is related in the Holy Bible, especially in the Old Testament. It is, roughly speaking, a marine creature that represents chaos and evil before the creation of the whole world. This creature would have been built by God.
Since time immemorial, sailors who crossed the seas thought that in the depths of the seas there was an enormous dragon with the facade of a sea serpent that had the power to eat entire ships outrageously. It would seem that he was popular under the name of Leviathan. The origins of this creature are in the Old Testament scriptures, to be much more specific in Genesis and the book of Isaiah. According to the story, this beast appeared on the fifth day of Creation, from the moment God gave life to each and every one of the creatures of the sea. According to opinions, this serpent dragon was developed with the sole purpose of being responsible for ruling the vast marine kingdom.
Leviathan as a metaphor
According to others, the figure of Leviathan is taken from Sobek, the Egyptian crocodile god, lord of the waters. The English thinker Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) dedicated his much more famous political work to the figure of Leviathan, drawn up in 1651, where he turned from a sea monster into a symbol of the State.
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
The name Leviathan was also used in the work Leviathan or The Matter, Manner and Power of an Ecclesiastical and Civil State (1651), written by the English thinker Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and considered a key player in the advancement of the modern political thought.
Written during the English Civil War, this book uses Leviathan as a metaphor for the State, based on its colossal power and pride. It teaches the origin of the State and of law in the pact of popular organization, that is, in the popular contract that the French thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) will talk about later.
Exactly in which biblical passages is Leviathan related in the Bible?
In the book of Job, among the first books written in the Bible, Leviathan is described as a huge monster that lives in the sea, its strength and power do not allow it to be hunted or tamed with spears and harpoons. He is so huge, strong and has so much strength that everyone gets discouraged in front of him. He has horrible fangs, spits fire from his mouth and smoke comes out of his nose. Wherever he passes, he leaves a trail and stirs the water like no other.
In the Bible leviathan is related in 6 biblical passages like this:
If there is a sea monster whose legendary history extends practically to the beginning of time, it is that of Leviathan. A beast that, as we will observe now, is a mixture between a celestial being that, by chance, came to be useful to the evil forces of Satan.
Index
- 1 Description of Leviathan
- 2 The origin of Leviathan
- 3 For what reason did Leviathan eat human flesh?
- 4 Leviathan throughout history