Dragons, and gods, and dinos- Oh My!

I wrote the following short study for a few reasons. It started out as a study of the textural origins of Psalm 89 provoked by something some creationist had said (I don’t recall who or what they had said). The second was that using the various names used biblically for the sea dragon, “Rahab,” or “Leviathan,” we can see how various biblical authors were drawing on each other, and earlier sacred traditions. Thirdly, it is a common fraud for creationists of link dinosaurs with these biblical monsters. As all of my blog pages, I consider this to be a draft of some later “dead tree” print article.

Psalm 89 is an exilic period prayer for the restoration of the Davidic Dynasty. The first section introduces the Psalm by praising God and reiterating the Davidic Covenant, vss 3-4. Verses 15-18 link the creation and supremacy of Yahweh with the Kingship of David.

Let's break it down to what is says, and what it is about.

(I will add some textual revisions from Dahood (1965-1970), Cross (1973), JPS (2004) indicated by bold:D, C, or JPS). Verse numbers follow the World English Bible rather than modern Hebrew texts. The line usually included as verse 53 is not part of the Psalm, but marks the end of the Third Book of Psalms in the Hebraic traditional codes. I have dropped the WEB "lovingkindness" in favor of the standard translation "love.")

World English Bible
Psalms 89

1. I will sing of the love of Yahweh forever. With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
2. I indeed declare, "Love stands firm forever. You established the heavens. Your faithfulness is in them."
3. "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant,
4. 'I will establish your seed forever, And build up your throne to all generations.'" Selah.

So, the opening is totally explicit about what the Psalm is about; The singer, Ethan- born in Judah, i.e. "native born" and not born in the Babylonian captivity- first affirms his devotion to God, and praises God for His steadfast faithfulness. And, Ethan not so subtlety reminds all listening that Yahweh has a covenant with David by paraphrasing the prophesy of Nathan in 2 Samuel 7: 15-16. (This is repeated in Ps 89:20-38 with a nearly exact repeat of 2 Sam 7: 14 in Ps 89:33).

Now, it is worth thinking about that the verses in Samuel were about the proper building of the Temple in Jerusalem and the consequent promise to David's kingship, in the Psalm's text the focus is on the Covenant implied to Hebrews through the Davidic Dynasty. This idea is repeated in verse 50 where God is reminded of His promise.

The Psalm then opens out with a considerably more ancient hymn of the creation which deserves some extended discussion, vss 5-14.

5. In the heavens they praise your wonders, Yahweh; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.
6. For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh? Who among the sons of the heavenly beings is like Yahweh,
7. A very awesome God (El) in the council of the holy ones, To be feared above all those who are around him?
8. Yahweh, God of Hosts, who is like you? Mighty Yah, your faithful ones surround you. : D
9. You rule from the back : D of the sea. When its waves rise up, you calm them.
10. You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
11. The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours; The world and its fullness. You have founded them.
12. The north (Zaphon) and the south (Amanus), you have created them. Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your name.
13. Yours is a mighty arm, O Warrior.
Your left hand is triumphant
Your right hand is raised in victory.
14. Justice and Right are the foundation of your throne. Love and Truth Stand before you : D

Ugarit was a very wealthy coastal city near what eventually became the northern border of Israel. The people of Ugarit spoke a Western Semitic language close to ancient Hebrew, and there are many exactly matching words called cognates. Like Ugarit, the Phoenician language was also Western Semitic and in common use with Hebrew for far longer. Like most of the Canaanites, their pantheon was headed by the god El, 'Il, and the lesser gods and goddesses were collectively called the council of gods. From a Phoenician hymn, the Arslan Tash, we can read;

The Eternal One (lit. Olam) has made covenant with us
Asherah has made a pact with us

And all the sons of El,
And the great Council of the Holy Ones
With oaths of Heaven and Ancient Earth

This inscription also corrects verse 3 to read; With my mouth I declare: "Eternal One, your love created the heavens, but you made your fidelity more steadfast than these." (Dahood 1968). Asherah is of course the consort, or wife of God (Dever 2005).

The opening lines of the praise hymn in Psalm 89, vss. 5-8, identify Yahweh by His renown within the "assembly of the holy ones" (v.5), the sons of the heavenly beings (v.6), the council of the holy ones (v.7), and in verse 8 God Yahweh is identified as the "God of hosts" "surrounded by his faithful." The name Yahweh in verse 8 balances the name El used in verse 7 (see also Gen 33:22 El elohe yisra'el literally "El, god of the patriarch Israel." The council/assembly/host/"sons of" are the very same bene elohim from Genesis 6:2, "the sons of God" providing an answer to the question of who God spoke to in Genesis 3:22. The Council of Yahweh is biblically also attested in Psalm 82, the 'adat El , or literally "Council of El." We can now see that the herald Ethan while praising God is reminding all, even Yahweh!, that the Divine Covenant was properly witnessed by the Council of the Gods.

Psalm 89
9. You rule from the back : D of the sea. When its waves rise up, you calm them.
10. You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
11. The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours; The world and its fullness. You have founded them.
12. The north (Zaphon) and the south (Amanus), you have created them. Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your name.
13. Yours is a mighty arm, O Warrior.
Your left hand is triumphant
Your right hand is raised in victory.
14. Justice and Right are the foundation of your throne. Love and Truth Stand before you : D

The verses above are very rich contextually, and together summarize the entire Canaanite creation myth. This is done largely by references to key phrases that would be recognized by the listener. Since this Hebrew poem had strict requirements of rhyme, and syllable counts per line, it is a superb literary achievement.

In verses 9 and 10 we have a short phrase that is used to refer to a larger, well known text or narrative, what might loosely be called an incipit. The referred to account is the defeat of the sea dragon by a god who then uses the body of the monster to create the Earth. The classical account is the Enuma Elish where the Babylonian deity Marduk kills the sea-dragon Tiamat using her body to create the world (Dalley 2000). In the Ugarit version, the supreme god El does not participate. Rather, the sea god Yamm (also called "Judge River" in a possible reference to the Code of Hammerabi) sends a challenge to the god Ba'l Haddu. Ba'l , biblical Baal, defeats Yamm using two clubs, one in each hand. Baal returns to the Council of the Gods and is proclaimed their king (Pardee 2002) . The first biblical parallel found in the text is of course in Genesis. This primordial sea is described as well in Genesis 1:2, when "the world was formless waste with darkness over the sea and only an awesome wind blew over the water." (see Speiser 1962). The same theme is found mentioned in Job 26:10, "He drew a boundary on the waters; At the extreme {edge} were Light and Darkness meet." But strictly within the current texts, verse 9 tells us that this is the God who defeated the sea which in Mesopotamian narrative was the primordial chaos. This primordial chaos is dominated by the God in verse 9 who "rules from the back of the sea."

This victory is further commented in Ps 89:10 where God crushed "Rahab" and dispersed his pieces. So, who was Rahab? We learn this in Isaiah 51:9-10,
"Was it not you who smashed Rahab the writhing dragon?
Was it not you who dried up Sea, the waters of the great deep?"
Also, Job 26: 12-13;
By His power He stilled the Sea.
By His skill He struck down Rahab.
By His wind the heavens were calmed.
His hand pierced the Elusive Serpent.

There are several key connections to be observed here. The obvious is that Rahab is the dragon of the sea that is also known as Leviathan. In Hebrew, Job 26:13b "Elusive Serpent" reads nahash bariah, if one translates "bariah" from Aramaic as "fleeing." However, this same word is elsewhere translated (cf. Exodus 26:24-29 as "straight rod" or "bar." The "straight serpent" is in Ugarit texts the dragon Lotan or the biblical Leviathan, the "bariah serpent with seven heads" (see also Isa. 27:1)(see JPS, 2004). The name Rahab is used poetically in Ps 87.4 to refer to Egypt judging by its context.

As elsewhere (Ps. 74: 12-17, Isa 51:7, etc.), the primeval sea dragons slain at the creation are used to attest to the power of God.

In Psalm 74:12-17 we read
12 O God El, my King from old,
who brings deliverance throughout the land;
13 it was You who drove back the sea with Your might,
who smashed the heads of the monsters in the waters;
14 it was You who crushed the heads of Leviathan, who left him as food for the "untranslatable"*
* The Hebrew phrase is lost. Conventionally this is rendered as "denizens of the desert" or "seafaring men." Neither translation has been attested elsewhere.

Why is this important? The psalm's hymn of praise has again revealed the deep connections between the Canaanite mythopoetic and the Bible's origins. The Babylonian exile brought the northern and southern Hebrew theologies closer together then they had been since the united monarchy, perhaps ever before.

The Canaanite source for this hymn in Psalm 89 is further demonstrated in verse 12;"12. The north (Zaphon) and the south (Amanus), you have created them. Tabor and Hermon sing with joy in Your presence" (following Dahood 1968). The four named locations, Zaphon, Amanus, Tabor and Hermon are each mountains that were the local seats of power for the principle Canaanite gods just as Mt. Zion became fixed as the seat of Yahweh. Mt. Zaphon is nearly due north of ancient Ugarit, and dominates the northern horizon viewed from the site. This is the traditional home of Ba'l Haddu, or Baal. Thus, it is no wonder that "Zaphon" became in Hebrew sapon or "north" and in later Hebraic use became equivalent with the "heavens." There is an excellent association here with Greek mythology as well. The Greek myth of the battle between the supreme god Zeus and the ancient sea power/god Typhon in Homer's epic Iliad and echoed in his Hymn to Apollo, also mirrors the Canaanite Ba'l Haddu epic. The sea dragon Typhon gives birth to Gaia or the Earth. She is defeated in battle by Zeus on Mount Cassios (cassios (Greek) -> hazi (Hittite) -> zaphon (Ugaritic).

The closing verses to this praise hymn are;

13. Yours is a mighty arm, O Warrior.
Your left hand is triumphant
Your right hand is raised in victory.
14. Justice and Right are the foundation of your throne. Love and Truth stand before you : D

The left and right arms of God (Triumph and Victory) in this context are clearly linked references to the clubs used by Ba'l Haddu to subdue the sea dragon/god, and the epithet "O Warrior" is commonly used for Baal. More interesting, Justice, Right(eousness), Love, and Truth are the "throne" and servants ("stand before You") of Yahweh. The Mesopotamian tradition uses these aspects as attributes and as guardians of the major gods and favored human kings.

In a theme that will later be written and added to the Bible as Genesis 1, the God of Israel, Yahweh or El (formal plural Elohim), is credited with the creation of the ancient powers of Heaven and Earth, the defeat of primordial chaos Yamm (the sea), and (in common with Canaanite El) the creation of all other gods and the Assembly of Gods (Friedman 1987, Smith 2003).

The sources for the entire praise hymn in Psalm 89:5-14 can be drawn back to the pre-monarchy, even pre-exodus period of 1,400-1,300 BC. The Ba'l Haddu epics are known from about that time, and they serve as the bulk of the later part of the hymn. The opening verses 5-8 are also part of that tradition, but reflect the association of Yahweh and the supreme Canaanite god El. The mixed use of El, and Yahweh within the hymn places this composition to around between 800 and 1,000 BCE. The next portion of the psalm brings the story forward from the pre-Exodus era to the time of the Davidic Covenant, or also about 1000 BCE. (See also Smith 2002).

Cross, Frank Moore
1973 Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Boston: Harvard University Press

Dahood, Mitchell
1965 Psalms I, 1-50: Introduction, Translation and Notes New York: Anchor Bible- Doubleday

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1968 Psalms II, 51-100: Introduction, Translation and Notes New York: Anchor Bible- Doubleday

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1970 Psalms III, 101-150: Introduction, Translation and Notes New York: Anchor Bible- Doubleday (1995 paperback printing)

Dalley, Stephanie
2000 Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Revised Oxford: Oxford University Press

Dever, William
2005 “Did God Have A Wife? Archaeology And Folk Religion In Ancient Israel
Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Friedman, Richard Elliott
1987 Who Wrote the Bible? New York:Harper and Row

Jewish Publication Society
2004 “The Jewish Study Bible: TANAKA translation” Oxford University Press.

Pardee, Dennis
2002 Writings from the Ancient World Vol. 10: Ritual and Cult at Ugarit Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature

Pope, Marvin H.
1965 “Job: A new translation with Introduction and Commentary” Anchor Bible Vol. 15, New York: ABRL/Doubleday

Speiser, E. A.
1962 "Genesis: Introduction, Translation and Notes" New York: Anchor Bible- Doubleday

Smith, Mark S.
2002 “The Early History of God 2nd ed.” Grand Rapids: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing
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2003 “The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts” Oxford University Press.