Leviathan: the great demon of the Bible

Leviathan: the great demon of the Bible.

Leviathan, whose name in Hebrew means something like “wrapped, coiled, tortuous”, is one of the most cited demons not only in grimoires and forbidden books, but in the Bible itself, almost always as a colossal manifestation of Chaos.

Let’s review some of his biblical interventions:

“This is the sea, great, immense; there reptiles without number, animals small and large. There the ships walk, and that Leviathan that you made to frolic there.”

(Psalms, 104-25/26)

“Those who know how to curse the day, those who know how to awaken the Leviathan…”

(Job, 3-8)

Biblical quotes from Leviathan could be considerably prolonged. He appears on numerous occasions, especially in Psalms, Job and Isaiah.

Recent archaeological discoveries made in the port ruins of Ugarit, Ras Shamra promontory, starting in 1929, relate Leviathan to remote cursed books of Akkadian, Sumerian and Canaanite origin.

In all of them Leviathan appears as a huge sea monster, in which exegetes have believed they see the devil as the incessant destroyer of divine creation.

These texts allude to a mythical seven-headed serpent, elusive and tortuous, similar to the one described in The Book of Revelations.

The prophet Isaiah uses Leviathan to announce the horrible punishment that Providence will impose on the enemies of Israel:

“On that day Yahweh will punish with his heavy sword, great and powerful, the Leviathan, the fleeing serpent; the Leviathan, the crooked serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea…”

(Isaiah, 27-1)

Leviathan also appears in the Talmud.

In a rather curious passage it is described what things God does during his days, that is, how he spends his time; if “time” is a word that we can associate with the idea of ​​God.

“Rav Yehuda says, there are twelve hours in a day. In the first three hours God sits and learns the Torah, the second three hours he sits and judges the world. The third three hours God feeds the whole world… the fourth period of three hours God plays with Leviathan.”

In another passage of the Talmud the following anecdote is noted:

“Rav Ashi said to Bar Kipok: ‘What will be said at my funeral?’ And he replied: ‘If a flame can topple a cedar, what hope does a small tree have?’ If a Leviathan can be hooked and hauled to land, what hope does a fish have in a pond?”

The Talmud also announces what fate God has in store for Leviathan. There it is said that the Leviathan will be annihilated, and that its flesh will be the banquet of the Honored One.

In other versions, Behemoth, the demon of gluttony, is included, causing both to maintain an epic, colossal contest, until finally God annihilates them and feeds the Honored Ones with their bodies.

Hebrew myths maintain that God, at the beginning of the universe, deprived Leviathan of his female, since he feared that his offspring would occupy a predominant role in Creation.

In The Book of Enoch things change slightly, since Leviathan is described there as a woman.

Demonologists, on the other hand, mainly Johann Weyer in two fundamental treatises: De Praestigiis Daemonum et Incantationibus ac Venificiis and Pseudomonarchia Daemonum; They turned Leviathan into “the great liar.”

This accusation, tinged with levity, is supported by the legendary ease with which Leviathan manages to take advantage of political movements, commercial deals and agreements, as well as palace intrigues.

Other demonologists maintain that Leviathan is also a powerful incubus specialized in seducing famous women.

Astrology has also dealt with Leviathan. Some astrologers, in fact, relate it to the sign of Aquarius, to the ephebe Ganymede, and above all to Prometheus, that thief of fire who stole the secrets of Olympus for the benefit of humanity.

Perhaps the last and most disturbing metaphor related to Leviathan is that cyclopean book by Thomas Hobbes, published in 1651; whose pages irritated both supporters and detractors of absolutism, because the English philosopher was the first to suggest unacceptable characteristics of the human condition: the tendency to submission, the blind acceptance of power and its doctrines, and the perpetual and unspeakable fear of freedom.

More demonological dictionary. I Dictionary of female demons.

More demonological dictionary:

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