Colossians 1:15 [Who] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation[?] 16 For [in] Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He [has existed prior to] all things, and in Him all things [endure]. (NASB 1995)
The following is a slightly modified excerpt from my forthcoming book entitled: Our Messiah Few REALLY Know. This represents copyrighted material; please treat it as such. On this “yom” in history — the “evening” of March 20th and the “morning” of March 21st of the pagan Gregorian calendar — the following occurred…
On the fifth day, all aquatic and avian species were created:
IGenesis 1:20 Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. (NASB 1995)
Examine the Hebrew word tannin(im) translated as “sea monsters.” According to the NAS Exhaustive Concordance, this word means serpent, dragon and sea monster. Does the Bible say anything else about sea monsters? In fact, it does using the term Leviathan in Job 3:8, 41; Psalm 74:13-14, 104:24-26; and Isaiah 27:1. The most descriptive passage is as follows:
Job 41:1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?
Or press down his tongue with a cord?
2 “Can you put a rope in his nose
Or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3 “Will he make many supplications to you,
Or will he speak to you soft words?
4 “Will he make a covenant with you?
Will you take him for a servant forever?
5 “Will you play with him as with a bird,
Or will you bind him for your maidens?
6 “Will the traders bargain over him?
Will they divide him among the merchants?
7 “Can you fill his skin with harpoons,
Or his head with fishing spears?
8 “Lay your hand on him;
Remember the battle; you will not do it again!
9 “Behold, your expectation is false;
Will you be laid low even at the sight of him?
10 “No one is so fierce that he dares to arouse him;
Who then is he that can stand before Me?
11 “Who has given to Me that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.
12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
Or his mighty strength, or his orderly frame.
13 “Who can strip off his outer armor?
Who can come within his double mail?
14 “Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth there is terror.
15 “His strong scales are his pride,
Shut up as with a tight seal.
16 “One is so near to another
That no air can come between them.
17 “They are joined one to another;
They clasp each other and cannot be separated.
18 “His sneezes flash forth light,
And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 “Out of his mouth go burning torches;
Sparks of fire leap forth.
20 “Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth
As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21 “His breath kindles coals,
And a flame goes forth from his mouth.
22 “In his neck lodges strength,
And dismay leaps before him.
23 “The folds of his flesh are joined together,
Firm on him and immovable.
24 “His heart is as hard as a stone,
Even as hard as a lower millstone.
25 “When he raises himself up, the mighty fear;
Because of the crashing they are bewildered.
26 “The sword that reaches him cannot avail,
Nor the spear, the dart or the javelin.
27 “He regards iron as straw,
Bronze as rotten wood.
28 “The arrow cannot make him flee;
Slingstones are turned into stubble for him.
29 “Clubs are regarded as stubble;
He laughs at the rattling of the javelin.
30 “His underparts are like sharp potsherds;
He spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mire.
31 “He makes the depths boil like a pot;
He makes the sea like a jar of ointment.
32 “Behind him he makes a wake to shine;
One would think the deep to be gray-haired.
33 “Nothing on earth is like him,
One made without fear.
34 “He looks on everything that is high;
He is king over all the sons of pride.” (NASB 1995)
In case the description in Job 41 is insufficient to identify this sea monster, Psalm 74:14 and Isaiah 27:1 provide the final pieces of the puzzle:
Psalm 74:13 You divided the sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. (NASB 1995)
Isaiah 27:1 In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
With His fierce and great and mighty sword,
Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;
And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea. (NASB 1995)
What multi-headed (Psalm 74:13-14), fire-breathing (Job 41:18-21), sea dragon (Isaiah 27:1) existed in mythology? The Lernaean Hydra! According to Greek and Roman myth, Greek Heracles/Latin Hercules destroyed this beast using a sword and fire as the second of his Twelve Labors. The Bible states that in the Latter Days (just before the FIRST resurrection and Christ’s millenial reign according to Isaiah 26:19-21 and Revelation 19:20-21), the Lord will destroy Leviathan with His fierce, great, mighty sword, and Behemoth and she will be thrown into Gehenna. What is the source on which mythology is based? This was and is an actual creature; there is so much that humanity and science does not know about the Earth and what secrets are contained within it.
What is interesting from the “Leviathan” article in Wikipedia, is the following tradition preserved in Jewish midrash:
“In the Talmud Baba Bathra 75a, it is told that the Leviathan will be slain and its flesh served as a feast to the righteous in [the] Time to Come, and its skin used to cover the tent where the banquet will take place. The festival of Sukkot (Festival of Booths) therefore concludes with a prayer recited upon leaving the sukkah (booth): ‘May it be your will, Lord our God and God of our forefathers, that just as I have fulfilled and dwelt in this sukkah, so may I merit in the coming year to dwell in the sukkah of the skin of Leviathan. Next year in Jerusalem.'”
Will this creature be served to those invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb on a future Sukkot? Will its skin be used as the sukkah for this feast? Based on Psalm 74:14, that does not appear to be the case. For this and other reasons, take all rabbinic commentaries with a grain of salt. Perhaps the male is referenced in Psalm 74:14, and the female will be served to the elect in the Latter Days.
According to The Book of Enoch the Prophet translated by Richard Laurence, the following will occur on Judgment Day (based on 1 Enoch 68:5-6):
1 Enoch 68:7 In that day shall be distributed for food two monsters; a female monster, whose name is Leviathan, dwelling in the depths of the sea, above the springs of waters; 8 And a male monster whose name is Behemoth; which possesses, moving on his breast, the invisible wilderness. 9 His name was Dendayen in the east of the garden, where the elect and the righteous will dwell; where he received it from my ancestor, who was man, from Adam the first of men, whom the Lord of spirits made.”
Unfortunately, the translation by R.H. Charles does not corroborate this (even the chapter numbering is different):
1 Enoch 60:7 And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters. 8 But the male is named Behemoth, who occupied with his breast a waste wilderness named Dûidâin, on the east of the garden where the elect and righteous dwell, where my grandfather was taken up, the seventh from Adam, the first man whom the Lord of Spirits created.
Regardless, both maintain that Leviathan is a REAL, female sea creature – not some metaphor. Behemoth was examined in my Revelation Study series. What is interesting is that the Charles translation states that Enoch, the seventh from Adam (Jude 1:14-15), was taken up in the wilderness of Dûidâin to the east of the Garden of Eden. The Bible does not elaborate on Enoch’s life other than he was the son of Jared, the father of Methuselah, and in his three hundred and sixty-fifth year was taken up alive into Heaven:
Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (NASB 1995)
The text in upper case is referencing Genesis 5:24.
To conclude this section, Jubilees offers little more than the Genesis account, and Josephus offers even less:
Jubilees 2:11 And on the fifth day He created great sea monsters in the depths of the waters, for these were the first things of flesh that were created by His hands, the fish and everything that moves in the waters, and everything that flies, the birds and all their kind. 12 And the sun rose above them to prosper (them), and above everything that was on the earth, everything that shoots out of the earth, and all fruit-bearing trees, and all flesh. These three kinds He created on the fifth day.
Ant. 1.1.1 “… And on the fifth day he produced the living creatures, both those that swim, and those that fly; the former in the sea, the latter in the air: he also sorted them as to society and mixture, for procreation, and that their kinds might increase and multiply.”
It is interesting that Josephus excluded any mention of sea monsters.
Be sure to read the companion articles in the Creation Week and Mo’edim (appointed times) series:
- Yom Rishon (First Day)
- Yom Sheni (Second Day)
- Yom Shlishi (Third Day) – The True Vernal Equinox
- Yom Revi’i (Fourth Day) – The REAL New Year (1 Abib)
- Yom Shishi (Sixth Day) – The Last Day of Creation
- Mo’ed: Shabbat (Weekly Sabbath)
Shema Yisrael! (Hear, Israel!)
Copyright (C) 1995-2018, L. Alan Schuetz. All rights reserved.
2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (NASB 1995)
The Way (Heb. HaDerech) 
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