The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to The Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production. Music provided by Joseph McDade. He is your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to the program. I’m Jack Logan. I’m happy to be back and I’m happy to have you back and welcome to all of our new listeners. So glad to have you with us too. Today we’re gonna have a lot of fun because we’re gonna talk about monsters. Sea monsters in particular, the mammoth hideous monster that lurks in the filthy sludge in the bottom of the ocean. So.

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This sea creature is really important in the ancient tradition. So don’t count this episode out if you aren’t interested in sea dragons or sea serpents, because all of this stuff is relevant to a full understanding of the ancient tradition. And if you hang on until the end, you’re going to learn about a remarkable connection between this sea creature and the clothing worn by the high priest in the ancient Hebrew tradition. It’s pretty fascinating stuff.

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couple of episodes, we’ve been talking about the creation. And I’ve mentioned this many times, but the ancients placed extraordinary importance on the creation because it was through the narrative of the creation that the ancients taught important spiritual doctrines. So if we want to understand the theology of the ancient tradition, then we have to understand what they taught in their creation stories, or we’re going to miss a lot of great stuff. To this point in the

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with a lot of help from the research that was done by Marinus van der Sloes on the ancient creation stories, that the ancients have a pretty uniform account of the creation. In fact, we can trace most of the motifs, which I call here the pillars of creation, back to the very dawn of civilization, which is of course exactly what we’d expect if the ancient tradition were revealed in the very beginning.

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So, so far we’ve established two pillars of creation in the ancient record. And before I give you that recap, let me remind you that the account of the creation given by the ancients is highly symbolic, which is why I’ve given so much attention in these episodes on honing our symbolism literacy. We’ve got to decipher the symbols if we’re ever gonna really fully understand what the ancients were trying to teach us. So these are the pillars of creation that we’ve discussed to this point.

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the pillars of a creation that show up time and time and time again in the ancient record. Number one, the first pillar. Before the creation took place, the universe was made up of a dark infinite mass of unorganized lifeless chaotic material, which the ancients described as a primordial ocean or sea. The second pillar that we see all over the place is that God

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wind into the primordial elements which prepared them for life and creation. So all of this brings me to pillar number three today. At this point in the creation account we’re told by the ancients that an impressive sea creature dwelt in the depths of the primordial waters. This sea creature shows up all over in the ancient record. Oliver Crimin who is the senior curator of fish.

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Yes, something like that does actually exist. At the Natural History Museum in London says, quote, sea serpent myths go back into antiquity to a point in time we can’t even discern. That’s how old the sea monster myths are. This sea creature shows up in almost all ancient civilizations.

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As we go along, see if you can’t improve upon your symbolism quotient and see if you can’t figure out what is being symbolized by this sea creature. So let’s start. Let’s look at a couple of these sea creatures. And I’m going to start with Egypt because I always do. In Egypt, this sea monster was conceived of as a giant serpent and it was known as Apep, A-P-E-P, which translated into the Greek was Apep.

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It’s a serpent and we can find serpent iconography really really early in the ancient Egyptian record. We find images of it showing up in the pre-dynastic period, which dates to between about 5,000 and 2,900 BC. So we’re talking 7,000 years ago that we start to see these serpent images show up. And of course, this is not very surprising since snakes were a regular fact of life in that region of the world. So we shouldn’t be surprised.

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Apophis is first mentioned in ancient Egypt in the first intermediate period when he’s given an actual name and this dates to between about 2134 and 2040 BC to kind of give you an idea Scholars think the name that’s given to the sea snake is a composite name a Composite word the first part means great and also a word that means inarticulate or gibberish so the actual translation of Apophis would mean

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the great babbler or gibberish speaker. Very interesting name for a snake. Why would they use that? Well, pay special attention to this serpent’s name because remember in the ancient Near East, names were meant to signify the actual essence of the being. So if you recall back in episode number 12, the word that changed the universe, we talked about how the power of the spoken word was everything in ancient Egypt.

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According to Dr. Abdao, quote, the ancient Egyptians believed that uttering from the mouth had power, uttering or the articulation of the word had power. Saying it had the exact same effect as doing it. Uttering a speech achieved the action stated. And, you know, we saw this with the ancient Egyptian god Ptah. You remember in the Shabaka stone, he created the world by his tongue.

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He called or spoke all things into being, and he did it through divine utterance. In other words, it was by speaking the words that Ptah brought order or creation to the universe. For the Egyptians to name the sea serpent Apophis, the great babbler or gibberish speaker, this seems to be just another way to emphasize that this sea serpent had no ability to command the elements to take shape or form. He was

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powerless to bring about creation. And why? Because his tongue only spoke gibberish. He didn’t have the ability to divinely utter. So he was without the power to create, which is a really powerful and important point to make about this snake. He had the power to destroy, but not the power to create. He had the power to bring about disorder, but not the power to bring about order. And again, why? Because he was the great babbler.

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His words had no creative efficacy. In the sixth hour of a text referred to as the Book of Gates, which is an ancient Egyptian text dating to the New Kingdom, which was around 1570 BC, in scene 35, we get this description of Apophis. So they’re describing for us what this sea serpent is like. And listen to this, it says, quote,

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One without its eyes is this snake without its nose and without its ears. It breathes its screaming. It lives on its own shouting. Very interesting description there. Dr. Ludwig Mornes who wrote about a pofus in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies says this about that very passage. He says quote, this short stanza describes a pofus as an antisocial creature.

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without any proper sensory organs. Apophis is just noisy. Well, we’re getting that picture here of the noisiness. But then we find something really interesting. Dr. Morens then goes on to point out that this description of Apophis as a babbler is actually very similar to the description of the sea monster Tannin, T-A-N-N-I-N, in the Hebrew Bible. And this is what he says. The entomology of Tannin is uncertain.

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but it’s been suggested that it is related to the root TNH, which means recount, rehearse as in lament or howl. So we’re getting the same description in the Hebrew Bible of this sea serpent here and it’s howling. So if Dr. Mornes is correct, then the depiction we’re getting of the sea monster is a creature who loves to wail and shout and howl.

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In the Bremner rind papyrus, now this is a much later papyrus and it’s dated to the fourth century BC and it gives Apophis the following epitaphs. So it’s a list of epitaphs that this snake has. Apep the fallen, the mangled. Apep the fallen, the most evil. Apep the fallen, the fierce faced. Apep the fallen, the roarer. So there again we get this emphasis on wailing. Apep the fallen, the ill-disposed.

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Apep the fallen, the devourer. Apep the fallen, the despoiler of the land. Apep the fallen, the enemy. Apep the fallen, the dark one. Apep the fallen, the potent of glance. Apep the fallen, the serpent. Apep the fallen, the evil-minded. Apep the fallen, the broken. So we’re starting to get a much better picture of what the ancient Egyptians thought of this sea snake. It’s evil and enemy.

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despoiler, aroarer. And I’m wondering, however, if you caught one of the most important aspects of this serpent, it’s actually mentioned in each one of the serpent’s epitaphs. Because of that, we’ve got to conclude that this aspect of the serpent was considered by the ancient Egyptians to be one of the serpent’s most important characteristics. Each epitaph begins with, apep, the fallen, the fallen.

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Dr. Morninz translates this epitaph as the fallen one. Fallen from what? Well, we’re gonna look into that. But for the answer, you’re gonna have to keep listening to the end of this episode. But I’ll give you a little clue. The answer is in the book of the holy secrets of Enoch. Interestingly, in the Bremner Rind Papyrus, Opep’s epitaphs are preceded by a very intriguing statement, and it reads.

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quote, the names of OPEP, which shall not be. Okay, so what does it mean by names which shall not be? If you’re a regular listener, you’ll recall back in episode number 12, the word that changed the universe, that part of the creation process involved naming. So to name something was to bring it into creation. So the statement here in the Bremener Rhein Papyrus that OPEP’s names shall not be,

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is seems to be another way of saying that spiritually the sea serpent remains perpetually uncreated. It’s almost like they’re saying the sea serpent is nameless. It’s really without a name because it’s a creature that’s really never truly been spiritually created. And try and remember this because in a future episodes this is going to be really really important to not be named or to not have a name is devastating. It’s akin to not being.

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And listen to what Richard H. Wilkinson, who I’ve mentioned before, says of Apep in his book, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Quote, Apophis was the great adversary of the sun god, Ray, and the embodiment of the powers of dissolution, darkness, and nonbeing. The huge serpent was believed to have existed from the beginning of time in the waters of primeval chaos, which preceded creation.

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and it was thought that he would continue to exist in an endlessly malevolent cycle of attack, defeat and resurgent attack. It’s from Wilkinson’s summary of Apophis and what we read in the Bremner Rhine Papyrus, we learned several important things about this ancient Egyptian sea serpent. All right, so the first thing that we learn is that the sea serpent actually existed before the creation took place. This serpent lived before the earth

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born. So here again we see the ancient Egyptian doctrine of a pre-existence. Second, we learned that this sea serpent lived in the primordial waters of noon, the undifferentiated lifeless chaotic matter that filled the pre-creative universe. And third, you know, we assume from the epitaphs we find in the Bremner Rhine Papyrus that this sea serpent as the fallen one

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had not always lived in the primordial waters. From that epitaph, we garner that it lived in some higher sphere in the pre-existence until at some point it fell, where it fell into the depths of the primordial ocean. The fourth thing we learn is that we can assume that this sea serpent wasn’t very pleased about its fall because it quote, lives on in its own shouting, lamenting and howling.

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in the depths of the primordial ocean. In fact, there are myths that say it was trapped in the waters because it had previously been a chief god that Ra had overthrown, which is very interesting. We also learned that this sea serpent lives in a perpetual state of uncreation. It has no creative powers. It’s the embodiment of chaos, disorder, destruction, and evil, and because of that, it’s the greatest threat to order creation.

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life in the universe. It is the Lord of Chaos. Sixth, this sea serpent as the embodiment of chaos is the enemy of the creator God Ray who embodies the divine principle of Mott which I haven’t discussed yet but I’m definitely going to in a future episode which is the ancient Egyptian principle of order control and balance. Finally number seven this sea serpent is on an

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endlessly malevolent cycle of attack. So the Sun God Rey and his assembly, they have to be on a constant vigilance to guard against its demonic attacks, else kind of like a viper, it’ll sting them with its venomous bite. At this point, it’s probably a good idea if I had to kind of just pause for a moment and say something about symbolism again. It’s kind of fun to think of these sea monsters and let our imaginations just run wild. In fact, if you get on the internet, it’s just full of

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really creative and fantastic descriptions of and paintings and artwork of these sea creatures. They’re really fun to look at. But keep in mind that the ancient Egyptians again did not actually believe that a gigantic 120 cubit long serpent, which is about 180 feet, lurks along the bottom of a primordial ocean of water. The Egyptians were trying to convey in symbolic terms something about

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So here they chose to use a temporal snake to convey to we humans something about the spiritual reality of this entity that lives in a perpetually uncreated state. So if we want to learn more about what the ancients are trying to convey to us, then we’re probably going to have to learn a little bit more about snakes. I’ve studied a lot of these symbols and I have to tell you that snakes and serpents have got to be one of the most complex symbols in the ancient world that I’ve come across. So I don’t really want to oversimplify it here. But.

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In ancient symbolism, snakes have been used both to represent these positive, very positive, and also very negative characteristics. Here I’m going to only focus on the negative since Apophis is depicted negatively by the ancient Egyptians. So why did the ancient Egyptians use a snake to convey this demonic entity? And so when we look at the life of actual snakes, we can see some really interesting aspects of the snake that would bring out this demonic idea.

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For example, they’re creatures of the ground. In previous episodes, we’ve talked about birds and how they’re often used symbolically to represent gods or celestial beings or angels, those who have the ability to ascend to the heights. But see, here we have a snake who has no wings. It’s permanently relegated to the dusty floor of the earth. And that is making a point about its lack of ability to ascend.

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And also remember, Apophis was referred to as the fallen one who had fallen from the heights. And, you know, snakes, they lurk in dark places and hide in rocks. Their motions are subtle and sly and stealthy. And a lot of them, their skins match their environment so they can camouflage kind of who they really are inside. And if you’re not alert or watching all the time, you’re at risk of being stung by their venomous bite.

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And just the word slither itself kind of gives me the creeps. Their motions are subtle and smooth, but in an instant they can strike with unmatched speed and punch their fangs into your skin. And in my humble opinion, they’re kind of hideous. They’re ugly and scaly. There’s, to me, there’s no natural beauty to them. And so compare this to a Kate Salt bird. Like I mentioned, I love the Kate Salt bird. Compare Kate Salt verb to a snake and you’ll kind of see what I mean.

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Snakes are cunning with their motions and their behaviors. Sometimes it’s really difficult to decipher if this is a friendly snake or a deadly snake and their behaviors can deceive us. And their venomous bite can be extremely harmful, even lead to death. Because of that harm, then there’s also this great fear attached to them. This is one of the reasons why they’re using snakes to convey this demonic entity that exists down in the.

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bottom depths of the primordial ocean. And you know, Hollywood uses a lot of this stuff in their movies and in their literature. You can think of Indiana Jones, right? Snakes are Indiana’s Achilles heel. And even in the Harry Potter movies, you know, Harry’s archenemy is Voldemort who transforms into this massive basilisk snake. And if you don’t know anything about this, the legend has it that if you look into their eyes, then it leads to immediate death.

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And these are all very, very old ideas. In fact, this is one of the epitaphs mentioned of Apophis. In the Bremner, Ryan Papyrus, we read Apep, who is Apophis, the fallen, the potent of glance. The authors are drawing from a rich history of these ideas. You know, there’s probably a lot more characteristics of snakes that you can think of, which is why these symbols are so great. But the characteristics I’ve mentioned can provide us with a good starting point.

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for why the ancients used a snake to convey a spiritual entity that had the potential to really do so much harm in the universe. This brings me to the other aspect of Apophis. It brings me to the sea or marine aspect of Apophis. Why does this snake live in the sea? Why is this serpent a sea serpent? And I’m guessing that most of you have already figured this out and I’ve already hinted at it, but once you figure it out, you’ll see how it makes complete sense.

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symbolically to conceive of the notion of a sea serpent, sea monster, sea dragon or leviathan. And I’ll come back to it in a couple of minutes, but think on it if you haven’t figured it out. We can also see this sea monster among the Babylonians and we discussed this in our last episode. We studied the Babylonian creation myth, the Anuma Elish. There we saw the god Marduk, the first son of the high god Ea, using wind and a spear.

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to slay the monster Tiamant, who personified the chaotic primordial waters. It’s just like what we saw in Egypt, where Apophis is the enemy of the sun god, Ray. In Babylon, Tiamant is the principal adversary of the chief Babylonian god, Marduk. In the Enuma Elish, Tiamant is explicitly understood as the deified primordial sea. She is a god.

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So the battle between she and Marduk is a battle between gods. This is known as Theomachy. Theo being God or gods and Machy being war or battle. So Theomachy refers to battle amongst gods. And a couple of things are worth noting in the Enuma Elish regarding the sea monster Tiamat. And I haven’t pointed this out yet in any of our episodes, but I need to hear cause they’re kind of important. So first,

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Tiamat, she creates an army of monsters which are led by her consort Kingu to battle Marduk. So here we have a battle and it’s not just between the gods. Tiamat comes with an army and see if you can’t pick this up in the following passage from the Enuma Elisha. And this comes from tablet one and it starts with line 32. This is from the BR Foster translation. And listen to this army that she composes.

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forming a host that they might start hostilities. Mother Hubber, who can form everything, added countless invincible weapons, gave birth to monster serpents, pointed a fang with merciless incisors. She filled their bodies with venom for blood. Fierce dragons she clad with glories, gave them glories, made them like gods, saying, whoever sees them shall go numb with terror.

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Let their bodies keep leaping forward and never retreat. She deployed serpents, dragons, and hairy hero men, lion monsters, lion men, scorpion men, mighty demons, fishmen, bull men, bearing unsparing arms, fearless in battle. Her commands were absolute. No one opposed them. Eleven indeed on this wise she created. From among the gods, her offspring, who made up her host, she raised up Kingu. It was he she made greatest among them.

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Leadership of the forces, command of the host, arming, contact, ordering the attack. This point is important because we don’t see a battle between two gods. We see a war between two gods, a war that involves a host, an army that has aligned itself with Tiamat. And Tiamat has an entire legion of monster serpents helping her wage war against the god Marduk.

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And pay special attention to what the text says of this legion of serpents in tablet one, line 134. It says that she quote, gave birth to monster serpents. In line 136, she filled their bodies with venom for blood. You’ll see as this podcast progressed that motherhood, it’s often used to convey the notion of spiritual birth, not just physical birth. And I think that’s kind of what’s going on here in this passage.

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Motherhood is a way to convey that she is the author of these serpents thinking she’s their leaders She’s the one who fostered and encouraged their demonic nature So what are we to make of this army of monster serpents? So keep in mind again that this legion of monster serpents is used here Symbolically there was not an army of monster serpents slithering around in the primordial ocean. This is symbolic

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and it’s supposed to teach us something about spiritual reality. And also keep in mind that everything that we’re reading in the Enuma Elish takes place before the creation in a pre-existent world. This account attests that before the world was created, a God of disorder along with a Legion or army of followers waged war against order, creation, and life. In tablet two, lines one to three, we read,

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quote, Tiamat assembled her creatures, drew up for battle against the gods her brood. Thereafter Tiamat more than Apsu was become an evil doer. So let’s not mince words here. The god Tiamat and her army of monster serpents were evil. This account attest that evil existed in the pre-creative universe.

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before the earth was ever created. And this is something that we also see in the ancient Egyptian accounts. And there’s another interesting aspect of Tiamat that’s worth pointing out. Sometimes she’s referred to as the shining one or the glistening one. And keep this in the back of your mind because it’ll be very important towards the end of today’s program. I also wanna point out what Marduk does with Tiamat’s carcass once he slays her.

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Listen closely to what he does with her carcass. And this comes from tablet four, line 135. And it begins, the Lord calmed down. He began inspecting her carcass, that he might divide the monstrous lump and fashion artful things. He split her into like a fish for drying. Half of her he set up and made as a cover, heaven. He stretched out the hide, assigned watchman. From her eyes he let the Euphrates and Tigris flow out.

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He heaped up distant mountains from her, water holes he drilled through her to flow into its pools, coiled up her tail and tied it as a great bond of heaven and earth. Having spread half of her as a cover, he established the earth. So again, keep in mind, this is symbolic. Here Marduk takes half of Tiamat’s hide and stretches it out and makes a cover, heaven. And the other half of her carcass he uses to make the earth.

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From her eyes come the rivers, from the heaping of her carcass, he makes mountains, et cetera. None of this really makes sense unless we understand the symbolism. What’s going on here? How come he’s using the sea serpent’s carcass to make the earth and to make a heavenly temple? See, Tiamat represents the antithesis of life and creation. She’s the embodiment of disorder, destruction, and death. It’s only when Marduk slays her

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that life can flourish, that the earth can be formed. And so he uses her carcass to create the earth. And this is just another way of conveying that because of Tiamat’s death, the death of chaos, the creation can take place. Tiamat must die before there can be order, creation, and life in the universe. With the other half of Tiamat’s hide, then Marduk makes a covering of heaven, like I just mentioned, and keep that in the back of your mind because we’re gonna come back to that in a couple of minutes.

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The last point that I want to make about this account in the Anuma Elish is that the war between Marduk, the firstborn of the high god Ea, and Tiamat is in large part about kingship. It’s a war over who has the right to lead, to be the king. And keep in mind again that everything in the Anuma Elish takes place in a pre-existent realm. So the argument is over who in the pre-existent realm has the right to be king.

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and I’ll get into this more in the next episode, but as you know, Marduk comes out victorious. The Enuma Elish ends with these four lines. Okay. The entire Enuma Elish ends with these four lines and keep in mind how they reference the conquering of Tiamat, water, which is the source of life and an emphasis on Marduk’s name and kingship, this heavenly kingship. And it reads, the destiny of Marduk.

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whom the Igigi gods exalted. Wherever water is the drink, his name let them invoke. Let them sound abroad the song of Marduk, how he defeated Tiamat and took kingship. If we’re to look at the ancient record, every time we see sea monsters or sea serpents and the war that ensues, it’s almost always associated with either the creation of the world, the battle for kingship.

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or both. And if you’d like to listen to a full recording of the enuma liege and you haven’t done so yet, you can listen to a full recording of it on our sister podcast, the ancient tradition audio writ. So we see these sea monsters everywhere else in the ancient record too. We can find this sea monster among the Hittites. He was known as Uli Kumi. It was a stone monster that grew in the sea and battled Teshub who was the son of the high god, Qumarbi, over the kingship.

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We can find it among the Canaanites as well. They have the sea monster Yam. Now this is the Semitic word for sea. And Yam was a tyrannical violent God of the sea, chaos and death. And in the story, the high God El gives the kingship to the Prince Yam instead of Baal. But Yam abuses his power. He becomes a tyrant and then Baal and Yam battle. So again, that one’s over kingship, right? Among the Greeks,

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Most of you are probably familiar with this. We have the monstrous serpentine giant Typhon. Typhon attempts to overthrow the king of the gods, Zeus. And the two fight this cosmic battle, which Zeus ends up winning. Upon his defeat, Typhon is cast into Tartarus, an infernal pit beneath the earth where the gods imprison their enemies. So keep that little tidbit in the back of your mind too. Hesiod’s theogony dated to around the eighth century BC.

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describes Typhon like this and note how Hesiod emphasizes the noise that this sea monster makes and it should remind you of the great babbling Egyptian sea serpent Apophis or the howling Hebrew sea monster Tannen. Quote, From his shoulders grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon with dark flickering tongues and from under the brows of his eyes and his marvelous heads flashed fire.

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and fire burned from his heads as he glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable. For at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud, ungovernable fury. And at another the sound of a lion, relentless of heart. And at another sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear.

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And again at another, he would hiss so that the high mountains re-echoed. There’s actually a very interesting tidbit that you might’ve missed in there. And I wanna point this out, it reads, and there were voices in all his dreadful heads, which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable. But at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood. But now they make the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud, ungovernable fury.

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So this is super interesting. This seems to indicate that at one time, this sea monster did not babble, did not howl, did not bellow like a bull, but spoke in a way that the gods could understand. This corresponds with what the Egyptians said of the sea serpent Apophis when he referred to him as the fallen one, which also suggests that at one time, this sea monster was perhaps not a monster at all, but something much more refined. So think on that for a minute.

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When we go to the Greeks and Romans, we end up with this multi-headed serpentine water monster, Hydra. Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and lived in this mythical lake of Lerna. In this account, the king of the Tyrans sends Hercules to slay Hydra, and Hercules ultimately slays Hydra by slicing off its last head with a golden sword. Among the Norse, we have the sea serpent Jormungandr,

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huge monster or great beast. It was this unfathomably large sea monster who encircles Midgard, which is the earth, biting his own tail. And Jormungandr is depicted in constant conflict with Thor, the son of Odin, the All-Father Chief of the Norse gods. And in one of the versions of the myth, Thor strikes Jormungandr on the head with his t-shaped hammer and it kills him.

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In the Vedic tradition, we have the dragon Vitra who hoards the waters and serves as the chief adversary of the king of the divas, Indra. Among the Hebrews, we have the primeval sea monster Rahab or Leviathan, who is the enemy of Yahweh. In Psalms 74, 12 to 14, it reads, and noted in these verses what God does with the carcass of the Leviathan after he slain it.

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quote, for God is my King of old working salvation in the midst of the earth. That it’s divide the sea by thy strength. Thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave us him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. So note here, just like we saw with the Enuma Elyse, that there seemed to be multiple dragons in the waters, not just one. And did you catch what God did?

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with the carcass of the Leviathan. He fed it to the people. So again, this is symbolic. By killing the sea monster, the God of death and destruction, God’s able to provide greater nourishment and life to his people. A dead Leviathan means a living, flourishing people. And there are clear parallels here between the use of the carcass by Yahweh to feed the people and the use of the carcass by Marduk in the Babylonian creation myth too.

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create the earth. So I think you’re starting to get the picture here. These sea monsters show up all over in the ancient record and they’re almost always connected either to the creation of the world, a battle over kingship or both. So back to my original question I asked earlier, why sea monsters? Why do these monsters or serpents reside in the sea or in the water? Why not just a snake? Why a sea snake? If you’re a regular listener, the answer is pretty simple and you probably already know the answer, but in case you don’t, it’s because the primordial sea

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is where all the uncreated, undifferentiated, lifeless elements reside. A creature of the sort we’ve been discussing is a perfect match for these surroundings. As the Lord of Chaos, as the ancient Egyptians referred to Apophis, there’s really no better place for his residence than in this lifeless, chaotic ocean. So now you know how and why the ancients developed the

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in the collective conscious. You know if we look at some of the hints that we’ve already looked at so far it seems like this sea monster didn’t always reside in the primordial waters. If we look at what the Greeks say at some point earlier the sea monster used to speak a language the gods understood and according to the Egyptians this sea monster must have resided in a higher sphere because he had to fall from somewhere.

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It’s here I wanna pause for a moment and share with you a couple of really curious passages that are written in the Midrash. If you’re not familiar with the Midrash, the Midrash is the rabbinic explanations and interpretations of biblical texts or verses. And scholars date the Midrash to sometime around between about 400 and 700 AD to kind of give you the timeframe there.

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And this is what they say in commenting on Job chapter nine verse seven, which refers to the Leviathan’s fins. And listen to this quote, the reflection of the Leviathan’s fins makes the disc of the sun dim by comparison. So that instead of each of the fins, it telleth the sun that it shines weakly. Huh? So according to the mid rash, the fins of the Leviathan

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shine brighter than the sun? This is perplexing, because I thought the sea monster was just that, a monster. Yet here the rabbis are telling us that this monster shine brighter than the sun. You know, I was envisioning this dark, lonely, murky bottom of the ocean, but now I’m seeing it with a monster down there that shines brighter than the sun. And this doesn’t seem to make sense.

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So let’s keep reading the Midrash. It continues, and this time it’s commenting on Job chapter 41 verse 22, and it reads, for the Leviathan’s under parts, the reflections thereof surpass the sun. Where it lieth upon the mire, there is a shining of yellow gold. Ordinarily, there is no place more filthy than the one where a fish lies. Hence, where it lieth upon the mire, there is a shining of yellow gold.

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So again, this is still perplexing. Why does this sea monster shine brighter than the sun? I mean, his underbelly shines so brightly that it makes the mire look like yellow gold. Let’s keep reading. The Midrash says this of Job 41 verse seven, quote, “‘On account of its glory, he God brings forth his defenders because he possesses a celestial glory. The Holy One, blessed be he,

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says to the ministering angels, go down and wage war with it.” So you can see it’s some interesting things in that passage. You know, the Holy One has angels who are going to war, so he has a host as well that’s going to be in this battle. But we need to read this really slowly. It says, on account of its glory, and it’s referring to the Leviathan here. What glory? This sea serpent has glory? I continue.

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because he possesses a celestial glory. So this is even more perplexing. The serpent has a celestial glory and this seems really contradictory. According to this Midrash, the Leviathan possesses a, or possessed a celestial glory, which is why it shined above the sun and why the place, though at the bottom of the ocean, shined like yellow gold. Irving Jacobs, who wrote the Midrashic Process,

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writes this of this passage. Quote, the imagery and language employed in the opening lines of this passage require further evaluation, particularly the phrase celestial glory. This unusual formulation occurs apparently only in the above context from which it is difficult to determine its precise significance. We may assume, however, that our unknown agodus, which means rider, is alluding to an ancient tradition, possibly biblical in origin.

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that Leviathan is endowed with a supernatural splendor. The splendor of Leviathan is comparable with that of the primordial light, which according to rabbinic tradition, emanated from the mantle donned by God at the time of creation. This Leviathan radiates a heavenly splendor. Well, this is very, very interesting. This suggests that at one time, the Leviathan in the pre-existent realm

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obtained a celestial glory, a glory akin to God. And in the Psalms, for whatever reason, it says he now swam in the primordial waters as the enemy of Yahweh. So something had to have happened between the obtaining of celestial glory in the celestial realm and his now residence in the filth in the bottom of the primordial ocean as the enemy of Yahweh. And for the answer to this,

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to what happened between we need to return to the book of the Holy Secrets of Enoch. In episode chapter number five, I talked about the importance of this book. So if you haven’t had a chance to give it a listen, it’s worth your time. In this book, Enoch is awoken by two angels standing at the head of his bed. And they call him by name, and they tell them that they’re to accompany him through the heavens to the throne of God.

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In the tenth heaven, Enoch sees God’s face and God teaches Enoch with his own mouth all about how he created the earth. And it’s here that we learn about what happened to the sea monster. In chapter 29 it reads, and this is God speaking to Enoch, quote, for all the heavenly armies I shaped an image from the essence of fire.

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So right there we learn that God has a celestial army, an army that shines like fire. I’ll continue. I created the orders of the incorporeal armies. So here God is telling Enoch by the use of the word orders that not everyone in God’s celestial army is of the same rank. They are different ranks. Quote, I created the orders of the incorporeal armies.

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their fiery weapons and their burning flame clothes. I commanded that each one should stand in rank. It’s at this point in the text that we learn what happened and it reads, quote, “‘One from out of the rank of archangels deviated, “‘along with the division that was under his authority. “‘He conceived an impossible thought “‘to place his throne higher than the clouds “‘above the earth.”

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that he might become equal in rank to my honor. Wow, the sea serpent had been an archangel. That’s what this passage is saying. Arch means chief. So an archangel is a chief angel. Archangels are the highest rank of angel, at least from what we can tell. And from the ancient record, we know of very few angels who are referred to as archangels. So this means…

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In the celestial hierarchy of Christianity, this sea serpent must have been very much like God, full of celestial glory. From this passage, however, it appears that he had a fatal flaw. He desired to make his throne as high as God’s. And this sounds quite a bit like pride, which is really interesting because in the Hebrew Bible, the sea monster is sometimes referred to as Rahab or Rahab.

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which means in Hebrew, pride or arrogance. So the name that they give to the sea monster means pride. Very fascinating. So the passage in the book of the Holy secrets of Enoch continues, it says quote, he conceived an impossible thought to places thrown higher than the clouds of the earth, that he might become equal in rank to my power. I threw him out from the height with his.

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angels. Okay, so now that explains a lot. God threw this prideful archangel along with all of his angels out of heaven. And we surmise from the other accounts that he and his angels were relegated to the depths of the primordial ocean. And keep in mind that all of this happened before the earth was created. The golden glow of their skin reflects who they once were. But now in the ancient accounts,

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Monsters who roam the deep wrecking havoc on the universe. So whether or not you’re an archangel or a monster depends on basically your level of holiness. And apparently these sea monsters don’t seem to love being outside of God’s presence because they do a whole lot of wailing and howling, like I mentioned before. Or as the Egyptians said, they live on in their own shouting. I love that imagery there.

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The Enoch account is corroborated in the Christian New Testament, so we can find these same ideas in chapter 12 of St. John’s Revelation, where we read the following account. And this starts in verse 3, quote, And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and it cast them.

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to the earth. As you’re probably likely aware, the book of Revelation is just loaded with symbolism. The dragon is the archangel who was thrown out of heaven. He’s depicted with a lot of horns and crowns and horns generally represent power and crowns generally represent royalty and dominion. So we’re supposed to have this image convey to us that this archangel was extremely powerful, royal, and had been given extensive dominion. And stars here,

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generally represent glorious beings, which indicates that a third part of the heavenly beings followed after this archangel who fell. Verse 7 continues, And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil.

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and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him.” So in this verse, we see that a full-on war waged in heaven before the world was created between the armies of God and the armies of this fallen archangel. And in verse 9, we learn that this fallen archangel became the devil, or who we understand today as Satan.

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And Satan is sometimes referred to as Lucifer. If we read in Isaiah chapter 14 verse 12 in the King James version, it says, quote, how art thou fallen from heaven, oh, Lucifer, son of the morning. So like I mentioned, we gotta study the names, right? The name here, Lucifer means light bringer. And the son of the morning refers to the morning star or Venus, right? Which has a level of glory to it. So both of these seem to hearken back to Satan’s

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former glory as an archangel. This brings me to one last really intriguing article that I read by Andre Orlov. He’s that professor out of Marquette University who I’ve mentioned a couple of times and who you can find on our website theancienttradition.com under noteworthy scholars. You should read everything the man writes. Great stuff. In the article I’m referring to is titled

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the article by quoting Josephus, who if you’re not familiar with Josephus, he was an important Roman Jewish historian who lived from 37 to 100 AD, and he wrote Jewish antiquities. In Jewish activities 3.154 to 156, Josephus speaks of the vestments that were worn by the high priest in the Israelite tabernacle or the later temple. And this is what Josephus says, quote.

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This robe is a tunic descending to the ankles, enveloping the body and with long sleeves, tightly laced around the arms. They girded at the breast, winding to a little above the armpits, the sash, which is of the breadth of about four fingers and has an open texture, giving it the appearance of a serpent’s skin. Wound it first time at the breast, after passing around, it once again, it is tied

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and then hangs at length, seeping to the ankles. When I read this for the first time, I had to do a little double-take. The sash that is worn by the high priest in the temple has the appearance of serpent’s skin. Orlov then quotes an author by the name of Fletcher Lewis, who examined this description by Josephus in detail, and he says this, quote,

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The sash hanging at his side evokes the image of a limp and defeated serpent in the hands of its conqueror. Very interesting. And we see in St. John’s Revelation chapter 1 verse 13 that the risen Christ is depicted wearing a golden sash. And it reads, quote, one like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot.

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and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. A girdle here is used to refer to a belt. So if these scholars are correct, then we now know why the risen Lord wears a golden sash which hangs down to his ankles. He is the great high priest. He is the one who conquers and vanquishes Satan, the sea serpent and his followers to the depths of the lifeless primordial ocean. He’s the one who stands.

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victorious as the conqueror of evil. And it’s by slaying the Leviathan, the evil-doer, that greater life and light comes into the world. So every time you see a depiction of Christ, the King of Kings, vested in a golden sash, you can think of how he vanquished the sea serpent. And that’s worth thinking on. Now I’m going to leave you with one last insight. And this is another one of those tidbits I’ve come across that just kind of blows my mind. In this article, Dr.

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quotes this passage from the Talmudic tractate 74A, and it reads, quote, “‘The Holy One, blessed be He, will in time come to make a tabernacle for the righteous from the skin of the Leviathan.'” So here in the Talmud, it tells us that God will use the hide or the skin of the dead Leviathan to make a tabernacle. And if you’re familiar with the tabernacle in the Old Testament, then you know.

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He’s talking about a temple. He’s gonna use the height of the Leviathan to make a temple. Now, where have we heard something similar? Where have we heard of using the skin of the Leviathan to build a temple? If you thought of the Enuma Elish, then you’re absolutely correct. In that account, Marduk takes half of the carcass of the sea monster Tiamat and makes a covering, a heaven. And let’s not forget that heaven, where God dwells, is a temple. So,

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Here we have a nearly perfect correspondence between the account in the Babylonian Enuma Elish on tablets which scholars date to 700 BC and the account given in the Talmud which was compiled between 200 and 500 AD. But here’s the kicker, where did the rabbis get the idea that the Leviathan skin would be used to make a temple? Because the Enuma Elish, which was found in the library of Asher Bonipol,

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wasn’t found until 1849 AD, which is some 1200 years after the Talmud was compiled. This is just stunning to me. And it all speaks to a singular religious tradition in deep antiquity, the ancient tradition. That wraps up this edition of the ancient tradition. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, feel free to share it with your family and friends.

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As always, I’m going to leave you with the words of William Shakespeare, knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. I’m Jack Lohan.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production.