Sunday, April 20, 2008

What Is A Leviathan?



 WHAT IS A LEVIATHAN?
Scholars through the ages have debated the true identity of the Leviathan, the creature mentioned in the Book of Job (from the Bible) chapter 41. Verse 1 says, "Can you pull in the leviathan with a fish hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?" Verse 7 further states, "Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?" What creature could you envision in your mind than a huge creature of the sea, the whale? But wait, the author made further descriptions at the later verses that will throw your assumptions off.

From verse 14 to 31, the author made other descriptions of this creature that are totally out of this world. Let us summarize them: Verse 14, "Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth?" Verse 15, "His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together." Verse 18, "His sneezing throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like rays of dawn."

Verse 19, "Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out." Verse 20, "Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds." Verse 21, "His breath sets coal ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth." Verse 25, "When he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his trashing." Verse 26, "The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin." Verse 27, "Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood." Verse 31, "He makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment."

What creature could you conjure in your mind with the above descriptions? Yes, a fire breathing dragon. It seems that chapter 41 of the Book of Job was mentioning two different creatures instead of one. The first one named the leviathan was probably a whale, but the second one which was unnamed was more of a fire breathing dragon. We can never discover the veracity of the second creature for we have not seem the remains of this fire breathing monster.

The Book of Job was the oldest written book of the Bible, even older than the Book of Genesis believed to be written by Moses. Genesis was placed ahead of every other book because it speaks of the beginning of creation.

There are so many legends around the world about dragons. Even China and medieval Europe have their own legends of this fire breathing monster. Are they myth and a pigment of man's imagination? But why would God mentioned the creature to Job? Was it just to impress him? It is not likely, for God does not boast nor indulge in tall tales. Who can ever solve this mystery?

Tags: Leviathan, whale, dragon, Book of Job, Bible, legends

Mel Avila Alarilla

26 comments:

Emmyrose said...

Bro.Mel, thanks for introducing me to entrecard.

God bless

Anonymous said...

interesting. i love these kinds of reads. =D

Anonymous said...

I still beleive that dragon existed before... Very good information.... I'll keep this in mind

Anonymous said...

hi bro mel

i am done subscribing to your blog (via email)...re: my feeds, you may find my RSS feed in my blog's sidebar. thanks as well..

have a nice day to u and to your family.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi sis Emmyrose,
You're welcome. I suggest you put your EntreCard widget at the upper portion of your sidebar where it can easily be seen. Blog hopping via EntreCard is very fast and takes only scant seconds and most blog hoppers will not bother to scroll down your sidebar to find out whether you have an EntreCard or not. Anyway, they can blog hop to a thousand sites with EntreCard. Try to drop as many blogs as you can so that you can earn credits, then later on you can advertise to popular sites and witness an explosion in your traffic. Thanks for your visit and comment. God bless you and your loved ones always.

Noushy Syah said...

Interesting and good read Mel. I do not know what to comment for this entry.

But I believe if it's stated by God, then it must be real.

Thanks for the post.Have a gr8 day my friend.

p/s when someone subscribe to your RSS/feedburner in anyway chosen,do the owner of the blog knows who's the subscriber? JUst wondering...

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi sis Pia,
Thank you so much for your visit and comments. I really appreciate that. Please place your EntreCard widget at the upper portion of your sidebar where it can easily be seen for maximum exposure. most bloggers just blog hop at sites where they can easily spot the EntreCard. Just drop first to other sites until you earn enough credits for you to place your own ad on other sites. Thanks again and God bless you and your loved ones always.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Tey,
It is really a puzzle why God mentioned this to Job it it was just a legend. But there's no known remains of any dragon so far. That's why it is still a puzzle to this day. Thanks and I hope you are doing well now and have recuperated from your recent operation. God bless you and your loved ones always. BTW, have you joined EntreCard already? If not, join now. It's the hottest SEO craze nowadays. Just be sure you put your widget on the upper portion of your sidebar where it can easily be spotted. Thanks again.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Fingertalks,
Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. I will subscribe to your feed via email. It is more convenient for me that way since I am now blog hopping through BlogCatalog and my emails. We can read each other's post at our convenience. Thanks again and God bless you and your loved ones always.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Noushy,
Thanks for your visit and comments. I really appreciate that since you may not be familiar with the post since it was taken from the Bible. Yes, you will know who visited you since the post will arrive to you via email or your reader (Google, Yahoo or whatever reader you are using. I use Google reader.) These exchange links make a lot of difference in improving the rank of blogs. BTW, you have a very high Technorati authority and your traffic figures are very, very high. You can earn a lot of money if you want by placing commercial ads to your blogs via Google Adsense and other advertising firms. Just a suggestion only my dear beautiful friend. God bless you and your loved ones always.

Arthur said...

Hi Mel, I think dragons were real, but only in the medieval times of Camelot (yes! I'm also thinking about king Arthur), but I also think dragons are all dead.

Big greetings and big hugs

Sweet Dreams, from the bottom of my Heart:
Arthur

Gusthav said...

Hi Mel, I find it wonderful, I really believe in dragons 'cause they can be seen in cartoon and any other tales.

Greetings and Hugs

Nice Day, with my whole soul:
Gusthav

Team Arthur said...

Hi Mel, we already signed up at the Blog Catalog.

Now, we are waiting for the approval.

Huge greetings and huge hugs

Sweet Dreams and Nice Day, from the bottom of our Hearts and with our whole souls:
Team Arthur

Wendy Lopez-Redaon said...

hello po =) i saw a documentary on discovery channel saying that dragons really exsisted!

Anonymous said...

Hi Mel Thanks for the visit. I already have entrecard on my 3 old blogs for quite sometime now. It can realy give you good traffic however you will find out later that those traffic are not the traffic you might be looking for. But nothing to loose to have one. I will have that soon as I got the chance

bb_ANN said...

hi bro. mel, I don't know much about entrecard but i'll make a research of it...tnx a million.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Arthur,
It is a point of view, but dragons have not been attested as having existed before since no remains (skeletal or otherwise) of them have been found. But legends persist that they existed before. Only time will tell whether mainstream science can actually and categorically state that they really existed before like the dinosaurs. Thanks for your visit and interesting comments my friend.
God bless you and your family always.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Gusthav,
I hope science can finally prove that they really existed before by finding an actual remain of one of them like they do to the skeletal remains of dinosaurs. Then and only then can we really say that they actually existed. But I believe they did exist since why would God confront Job about their existence if they really did not exist? Thanks for your visit and comments. God bless you and your family always my young friend.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Arthur and Gusthav,
As soon as you got your approval from Blog Catalog, copy their widget and paste it on the sidebar of your blog. You can do this by pasting the copied widget on your "add a page element" of your edit page under the html/java script section. When you have the widget on your sidebar, expect to receive new visitors to your blog. Visit back all those who will visit you so that you can help one another. You don't have to leave comments always. They will know you visited them back because your picture will appear on their widget each time you visit them. Thank so much my young friends. God bless you both and your respective families too.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi From The Eyes Of My Heart,
Is that so? Well, that's something new. I hope in due time, modern day science can declare with finality that they did exist. Thanks for your visit and new information. I appreciate that. God bless you and your loved ones always.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Tey,
Thanks for your visit and for your information about EntreCard. I am still weighing all options regarding commercial blogging and I am taking my time assimilating all relevant informations. Thanks so much and God bless you and your loved ones always. I hope you are feeling well now after your operation.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Bb_Anne,
Actually right now, I think Blog Catalog and EntreCard are the two hottest SEOs (Search Engine Optimization) in the field. But you can find that out for yourself. Thanks for your visit and comments. God bless.

GagayMD said...

droppin ghere...

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Gagay,
Thanks for your visit. God bless.

Sameera Ansari said...

That was very informative my friend.

Have a nice weekend.God Bless!

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Hi Sameera,
Thanks for your visit and comments. God bless you and your loved ones always my wonderful friend.


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