Dragons in Genesis

The Mediterranean region is littered with myths of storm gods fighting great sea monsters, and Israel is no different. Their dragon goes by the name Leviathan and wishes to swallow up the world, and Yahweh, in a great tumultuous flood. This is part of their creation myth, but it can serve another purpose. It can be recycled to explain military losses and the destruction of Yahweh’s temple… but to do that, Yahweh must side with his greatest enemy, the dragon itself.

As the destruction of the temple draws near, Jeremiah offers mixed messages of hope and despair, of violent ends and joyous beginnings. The city will be dismantled, no, it will be burned down. The temple will be toppled, or perhaps consumed by cleansing flames. And through it all the story of Zarathustra shines as the prophet replays the court scene from the legendary Persian prophet.

Moses is presented as the prototypical prophet who brings Yahwism to a nation of people who have forgotten Yahweh. Under his reform and leadership they eradicate idolatry and establish a new covenant. But is Moses the true prototypical prophet, or is he modeled after another?

When the Jewish exiles returned from Babylon they brought with them sweeping changes to their religion, changes formed during and after their captivity. Many changes were unwelcome, but as they were backed by the Persian state, they held sway in the newly-built Jerusalem. As their reforms took root, older forms of Yahweh worship were deemed apostate including the acknowledgment of Yahweh’s siblings, the worship of his consort, and the practice of sacrificing children to appease their deity.

Throughout human history people have attempted to explain tragedy with divine wrath. Great calamity seems to invite magical explanations as we seek meaning in our suffering. The final chapters of Isaiah attempt exactly that, ascribing their crushing defeat at the hands of the Babylonians to Yahweh’s anger and using such an explanation as a polemic against rival styles of worship. And in doing so, the anonymous prophet offers hope in time of suffering.

Throughout the Hebrew Bible we’ve found important sections that were inspired by older myths and stories. From the opening chapter of Genesis drawing upon the Babylonian creation epic to Jacob’s struggle with the mysterious figure by the river taking details from the Epic of Gilgamesh, outside inspiration permeates the stories. But were the stories of Abraham and Moses inspired by portions of the book of Isaiah? And was Sarah, Abraham’s wife, originally a Canaanite goddess?

The Hebrew Bible is filled with prohibitions against human sacrifice as Yahweh repeatedly states he is against such practices and has never asked for them. Yet buried within the text are stories which the redactors forgot to remove, stories in which Yahweh fiery pits are maintained for the purpose of sacrifice children and even entire armies to the patron god of Jerusalem.

The Jubilee Year was a time of change in Jewish lives, a time when property was returned to its original owner and people returned to their homes. A time to return the disrupted nation to a more orderly state. It should come as no surprise that this concept was linked with the Great Flood in which sin was washed away, leaving the world ready for a new and fresh creation. And as Isaiah explores these connections, he provides a wealth of inspiration for later Christians.

Throughout the story of Jesus we find countless references to Old Testament passages, and no book of the Hebrew Bible is quoted more often than Isaiah. The contents of this book is concerned with themes of judgment and atonement, the remission of sin and the consequences of corruption, the destruction of the temple and the return to glory, and most importantly, the coming of the messiah.

The Song of Songs is a collection of erotic poetry that somehow made its way into Jewish scripture, but how did this occur? Apologists have long struggled with this idea, offering thee excuse that it’s secretly an allegory for the love of Yahweh to his chosen people. But the poetry contained in this book might be a love poem between two other deities entirely.