Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

>Agreed that they are cognates. The important question is what IF ANY is
>the relationship between their meanings. 

There is a clear relationship, but one needs to look 
at what the Enuma Elish actually says, for Tiamat is 
water.

>My point was simply that we
>should not presuppose that there is any relationship. I agree that we do
>this by looking at the way the terms are used. I don't see any close
>relationship between the Akkadian concept of a primordial monster and
>the consistent (including Genesis 1) Hebrew usage as the seas or ocean.

The normal Hebrew word for sea is ym. This doesn't 
mean that there is no overlap between the two terms 
for Job 28:14 has them in parallel. We find thwm 
used in conjunction with $mym in Gen 49:25 and 
Prov 8:27. This is specifically the case with the 
sources of flood waters as well: springs of the 
deep and windows of heaven.

Yet beyond the lexical, we should look at literary 
sources in other parts of the biblical tradition -- 
which I have already done. In a passage on the 
creation in Job 26, we find vv12-13:

"By his power he stilled the sea; 
 by his understanding he struck down Rahab. 
 By his wind the heavens were made fair; 
 his hand pierced the fleeing serpent"

(And note the wind again!)

And Ps 74:12-17. Vv13-14:

"You divided the sea by your strength, 
 and broke the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters
 You broke the heads of Leviathan to pieces..."

This material has been turned into apocalyptic in 
Isa 27:1.

"On that day the Lord ...will punish Leviathan 
 the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting 
 serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is 
 in the sea."

From Ugarit KTU 1.5

"When you killed Lotan, the fleeing serpent,
 Annihilated the twisting serpent,
 The potentate with seven heads..."

From primal creation event to eschatological event!

There are a number of references in the Tanakh to 
a battle between YHWH and the sea monster. In Ps 74 
and Job 26 they are related to creation accounts. I 
think it is hard to overlook the spill from them 
onto the more abstracted version in Gen 1. As I 
have previously said, Genesis knows more than what 
it states. In this case, it doesn't state the 
battle between YHWH and the sea, although it hints 
at it by the cryptic reference to tehom and the 
divine wind in Gen 1:2, but it is clear that it 
knows it as it is found elsewhere in the Hebrew 
tradition.


Ian