Two strange beasts : Leviathan and Behemoth in Second Temple and early rabbinic Judaism / K. William Whitney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Whitney, K. William, Jr.

Series:

Harvard Semitic monographs ; no. 63.

Harvard Semitic monographs ; no. 63

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Leviathan.

Behemoth.

Theomachy in the Bible.

Apocryphal books (Old Testament)--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Apocryphal books (Old Testament).

Apocalyptic literature--History and criticism.

Apocalyptic literature.

Rabbinical literature--History and criticism.

Rabbinical literature.

Judaism--History--Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D.

Judaism.

History.

Judaism--Post-exilic period (Judaism).

Physical Description:

xiv, 213 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Winona Lake, Ind. : Eisenbrauns, 2006.

Summary:

The ancient myth of a battle between a Divine Warrior and a primordial monster undergoes significant development in postbiblical and rabbinic literatures. This development is the focus of the present study. In particular, it examines the monsters Leviathan and Behemoth, showing that the postbiblical and rabbinic traditions about them are derived from ancient sources that are not all preserved in the biblical texts. In the Apocalypse of Abraham and the Ladder of Jacob, the monster Leviathan is placed at the juncture of heaven and the underworld. This cosmological focus appears in rabbinic literature in traditions concerning Behemoth, Leviathan, and the world rivers, and concerning Leviathan as the foundation of the axis mundi. These originate in the Divine Warrior's enthronement upon the vanquished chaos dragon. A second role in which Leviathan and Behemoth appear in postbiblical literature is as food for the eschatological banquet. Whitney studies this in a variety of sources, among them 4 Ezra 6:47-52, 2 Apocalypse of Baruch 29:4, and 1 Enoch 60:7-9, 24, and a number of rabbinic texts. In one tradition, the battle between God and monster becomes an angelic hunt, described by the Greek word kynegesia. This sometimes referred to battles between beasts in the arena, and in a variant tradition Leviathan battles Behemoth in a fight to the death before the banquet. The "food for the righteous" motif possibly stems from the introduction of hunting imagery into the combat myth: the prevalence of hunting banquets gave rise to the expectation that these monsters, the prey in a divine hunt, would feed the righteous at the end of time.

Contents:

The chaoskampf in modern scholarship

Leviathan and Behemoth in Second Temple Judaism

Leviathan and Behemoth in rabbinic Judaism

The roots of the Leviathan and Behemoth traditions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [181]-197) and indexes.

ISBN:

1575069148

OCLC:

63164840

Publisher Number:

9781575069142