The Sea Monster
 

No doubt this is old hat for some of you, but I thought it would be excellent material for conversation. Please don't let Keith Norman's use of "P" from the documentary hypothesis get us off on a side track. Let's discuss the documentary hypothesis another day.

From Keith Norman's "Adam's Naval" article:

"One of the most widespread mythic motifs refers to the dark and chaotic watery element out of which the world was formed. The battle between the life-giving god and the serpent monster of the deep was the principal feature of the annual or seasonal renewal/fertility festivals that dramatized and revalidated the original creation: in Canaan, Baal fought the sea serpent Lotan; in Babylon, Marduk slew Tiamat. Tiamat is thought to be a cognate with the Hebrew tehom, translated as "the deep" in Genesis 1:2. P sees creation out of chaos (formless and void) as a process of separation: light is separated from darkness, land from water, and plants and animals from the earth. Chaos and darkness are pushed back but not destroyed, and the chaotic floods surround the earth above and below as well as on all sides. In the Old Testament conception of the world exemplified in P, the sun, moon, and stars are suspended under the firmament, a solid barrier resting on the pillars of the sky to hold back the waters above. Sheol, where shades of former mortals dwell, is encased in a kind of underground island. The whole cosmic structure is designed to protect against the breakout of the chaos represented in the surrounding waters.


The mythic personification of chaos as a sea monster, although only hinted at by P, is perhaps the most widespread creation motif in the Bible. It is variously referred to as Rahab, Leviathan, Tehom, or Yam in the Psalms (18:5; 74:12-14; 77:16-19; 89:9-10; 104:5-9), Isaiah (44:27; 50:2; 51:9-11), Job (9:8; 26:11-13; 38:8-11), and elsewhere (Nahum 1:4; Habbakuk 3:8, 10). This formless monster from the deep is capable of breaking out in a destructive rampage at any time. When God loses patience with his creatures, he need only step back to loosen the floods from above and below (Gen. 7:11). Israel celebrates its victory over Pharaoh in the "Song of the Sea" (Ex. 15:1-18) after tehomot (compare with Tiamat), the floods, covers the Egyptian army. Jesus Christ affirms his creative power in calming the raging sea (Mark 4:39-41) and compares his coming death to Jonah being swallowed by the monster of the sea (Matt. 12:40). When God's work is finally complete, the sea will be no more (Rev. 21:1); the dragon will be slain at last (Isa. 27;1). It is significant that in the creation cycle of the opening chapters of Genesis, the forces of disorder or chaos return in the form of a serpent to undermine the Creator's work. This animal was considered particularly cunning because of its seemingly effortless mobility. The snake's ability to shed its skin and perpetually renew itself appeared to give it the secret of immortality. Casting the serpent as villain may also reflect a polemic against the Canaanite fertility cult, in which the snake as a phallic symbol represented life, death, and wisdom. The cult long held a certain fascination and temptation for Israel."

Quetzalcoatl = Serpent?

Winged serpent I thought.

Could there be connections to the breaking of water, amniotic fluid; the struggle and perril of child birth; the threat to mother and child?

Conjuring up imagery here ... the ambilcal cord could be perceived as a snake, sever the connection--independance, awareness.

Excellent. This is tremendous stuff. The ANE mythic tradition is very rich, and it's silly to think it somehow avoided the Hebrews. I love it when someone peels back a layer or two to provide a glimpse of a richer, older tradition. FWIW, a single Greek word means both "dragon" and "snake" in English. [draco]

seems like one could even argue that this has made its way into mormonism through the d&c bit on the devil riding on the water and the forbidding of missionaries going into the water.

I also was thinking of this (and of baptism too).

Feathered serpent