Despite romanticisation of the poor, misjudged dragon who never harmed anyone until the tyrannical church came to power, this rather novel idea couldn't be farther from the truth. The dragon's strong mythological imagery existed prior to the gathering of books that collectively make up the Old Testament, and the dragon's role in the Bible, despite commonly held belief, was the result of adaptation of pre-existing dragon mythology.
The dragon within the Bible is a symbol of political opposition to God and His people, represented with the fierce Leviathan and his inevitable downfall. When the Devil or Satan began to take form during the New Testament, the dragon's theological position followed suit.
In no other religious tomes does the dragon feature so prominently as it does in Christian and Jewish texts. Though not outstanding in Christian and Jewish belief as a creature itself, the dragon represents the issue of evil, the essence of the devil and mankind's greatest enemy. The dragon is not something that exists in the natural world, but remains one of the Bible's foremost metaphors for evil in its many forms.
Prior to organised religion, the capacity for religion has existed almost as long as humanity was capable of abstract thought. One early explanation, forwarded by E.B. Tylor in 1871, was the theory of animism (Demerath & Hammond, 1969). This dictated an early belief in spirits living inside the body and appearing during dreams, only to escape at the moment of death, prompting a need for remaining family members to appease the dead. Dreams, reflections in a still pool of water, and the feeling of being watched or déjŕ vu all seemed to reinforce the existence of hidden spirits. Tylor's theory is no longer accepted today, as it deals with theological social issues, rather than its origins (Demerath & Hammond, 1969).
Religion appears to date back some 5 000 to 10 000 years, with archeological evidence pointing to special sacred sites, burial rites and the calling of spiritual hunting aids from Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon people (Demerath & Hammond, 1969). Australian Aboriginal people also had spiritual and religious beliefs, with 6 000- 8 000 year old rock art depicting the Rainbow Serpent, a highly religious figure (Tacon, et al., 1996). However, how beliefs like these came into existence remains somewhat of a mystery, even if remnants of said beliefs linger today.
Like Tylor, F. Max Müller was chasing the origins of religion. With the idea of naturism, Müller pushed forth the idea that religious beliefs have their basis in the natural world, especially in nature's great events such as storms, earthquakes and so on (Demerath & Hammond, 1969). Without any understanding of the rational explanation for these phenomena, primitive society turned to divine beings to seek their protection against potential disaster. Müller suggested that people saw the spiritual reflected in the natural; there was a heavenly system closely mirrored on earth. A person can be thrown or beaten by another, therefore when a man in a boat is being jostled by the waves, unseen hands are stirring the tempest waters. It takes only a short mental step from linking the natural agents or beings to gods, and Müller assumed this is what man did (Demerath & Hammond, 1969).
Neither Müller nor Tylor discounted the influences of one another's theories; for example, the animists brought into consideration the influence of nature over early man, and naturists kept in mind humanity's expression of themselves through dreams (Demerath & Hammond, 1969). However, being the first of their kind, animism and naturism suffered theoretical problems, such as the assumption of a linear religious development, and neither party claimed to explain the basis for all religion (Demerath & Hammond, 1969).
Christian and Jewish theology follow a monotheistic God, which is strikingly different to the multiple spirits suggested in Müller or Tylor's explanations regarding religious origins, though spirits- as angels or demons- do hold a place in Biblical passages. Dragons were present throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments, and appeared in then-present culture and society, most notably as the serpent.
Throughout the Bible, the dragon (or tannin [Fishbane, 1998]) becomes interchangeable with the snake or adder, appearing in Psalm 91:13: "The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample underfoot." However, the same passage also reads "thou shall tread upon the young lion and the adder" in other versions of the Bible. Psalm 91:13 in the Douay version states: "Thou shalt tread upon the adder and the basilisk" (Smith, 1989). While those taking the passages at face value may count this as a discrepancy or erroneous, this is in fact not so, as an entirely different point is reinforced here. It is not explicitly the dragon itself that is the enemy here, but the strings that have been attached to it through pagan religions. The dragon is endowed with heavy metaphysical imagery throughout the Bible, many of which stem from pre-existing mythology. This is not to discount the validity of the texts, but was well-placed adaptation of symbols existing at that time- many of which live on today.
Throughout the Hellenistic world, snakes were common as pagan symbols, as representative of the immortals and sexual union with the gods (Bauckham, 1993). Greece, Western Asia, Egypt and India were rife with mention of dragon combat (Fontenrose, 1959), and serpents were frequently associated with water, such as the she-dragon or drakaina slain by Apollo, or Vritra, who encircled the waters of chaos (Fontenrose, 1959). We are inclined to remember the snakes of Medusa's hair, or the serpent who was a symbol of the cults of Asklepios and Isis (Bauckham, 1993).
Though dates and sources regarding the origin of the Old Testament are still not known with great accuracy, it was compiled from around 900 BC to 100 BC (Bauckham, 1993). In their present form, these early books can be traced back to a time of Babylonian Captivity, around 586-538 BC, showing pieces of Canaanite, Babylonian, Iranian, and importantly, Hellenistic influences, with Canaanite being dominate. It was during the Hellenistic period between 800 BC- 338 BC (stark.kent.edu, 2004), the dragon became the dragon, shedding the skin of the serpent or snake, to become independent in its own right.
The dragon Leviathan (Islamic nun [Cooper, 1992]) is possibly derived from the Ugaritic Lotan who was conquered by Baal or Anat in a supernatural dual. Lotan (also Litan) was "the twisting serpent... the crooked serpent" and "the dragon... the crooked serpent", which is strikingly similar to Isaiah 27:1: "Leviathan that wriggling, twisting dragon... the monster that lives in the sea" (see Fig. 1). However, we can not place Leviathan's origins as entirely Canaanite, as we must remember it is difficult to determine how influential the Canaanite myths were during this time, or to what extent they were known (Bauckham, 1993).
Dragons existing during this time included the Persian azhi, which were the dragons and demons (Curtis, 1993). Such beasts had no regard for humanity, were the opposition to good, and despised by the gods. It is in doubt whether these had any influence on the Biblical dragons, as there is nothing to suggest they were known so far abroad. However, the lack of influence from Zoroastrian mythology, including dragons such as Azhi Dahaka (also Zahak) or Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) (Curtis, 1993) hardly seems to matter, when we consider the numerous tales of heroes and gods battling dragons which existed during this time, including Heracles and the Hydra, and Apollo and Python (Bauckham, 1993). This point would only reinforce a universal evil outlook on dragons.
The Bible has a strong use of metaphysical and mythological imagery to portray a genuinely held religious belief. Passages involving dragons have a strong imagery, usually of evil arriving as the crooked serpent (Bauckham, 1993). However, we must also keep in mind the historical emphasis of such verses, for not everything has a singular meaning, and low mythology is often used to explain a historical occurrence, in a way that is no less credible to readers. In Isaiah 51:9-10, God's triumph over Egypt at the Exodus is depicted in association with "the sea-monster", while remaining no less historically and spiritually valid: "Use your power to save us; use it as you did in ancient times. It was you that cut up the sea monster Rahab to pieces."
Rahab or "Raham" is another name for Leviathan, with Rahab holding the same meaning as the "twisting serpent" (Bauckham, 1993). He is referred to as Leviathan, "that wriggling, twisting dragon", and "the monster that lives in the sea", Isaiah 27:1. The name Rahab meant "pride", and pertained to the "God of gods", the defiant Syrian king in Daniel 11:36, who boasted he was "greater than any god, superior even to the Supreme God."
The dragon or Leviathan is further referred to in political contexts, and is seen as the manifestation of evil in the politicians or governmental parties that oppose God. In speaking of Babylonian Captivity, during which many of the Old Testament books were gathered, the Babylonian king is likened to the sea monster (also tanninim [Fishbane, 1998]) or Rahab, the Leviathan, in Jeremiah 51:34: "The king of Babylonia cut
Jerusalem up
and ate it.
He emptied the city like a jar;
like a monster he swallowed
it."
In the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, God speaks of the King of Egypt as a crocodile that will be punished and have a hook put through him. In Ezekiel 29:3-5 God details the Egyptian King's punishment, firstly calling him a "monster crocodile", and then goes into further detail: "You say that the Nile is yours and that you made it. I am going to put a hook through your jaw... then I will pull you up out of the Nile, with all the fish sticking to you. Your body will fall on the ground and be left unburied. I will give it to the birds and animals for food." Then in Ezekiel 32:2-8: "You act like a lion among the nations, but you are more like a crocodile splashing through a river. You muddy the water with your feet and pollute the rivers...." The same crocodiles were interchangeable with river dragons written about by Ezekiel, "the great dragons that lie in the midst of the rivers" (Smith, 1989).
The crocodile was not the only creature to become substituted with the dragon. Forgetting the four beasts of Daniel, or those accompanying the dragon in Revelation (as discussed further down), many un-classed, dragon-like animals appear in the Bible. In the story of disobedient Jonah and the whale (Jonah 1:17): "At the Lord's command a large fish swallowed Jonah, and he was inside the fish for three days and three nights." There was no specific term which referred to a whale exactly; the Hebrew word "whale" translated also meant "monster" and "dragon" (Smith, 1989). The word for a large fish was simply dag, which gives no detail as to the animal's specifics. The fish that swallowed Jonah was nothing like the whale we know- rather, it had a dog-like snout with long ears, a crest, and a long neck (Boardman, 1987). The slim body had a pair of clawed legs similar to those of a lion with a long, scaled tail. Jonah's fish also had wings, rather than fins, and in art was sometimes depicted with a deep chest. Often, the fish was shown with a spiny ridge running the length of its back, a beard on its chin, and sharp teeth protruding from its maw. Despite looking nothing like a fish, the dag was still aquatic, in its possession of gills beneath its chin and on its elbows (Boardman, 1987).
In texts following the tradition of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the dragon continues its representation of political opposition to God. The prideful dragon who seeks to become like God in Psalms of Solomon 2:25-29 is markedly like the Roman Pompey, who defeated Jerusalem. In Apocalypse of Elijah 3:33, the same imagery translates to the Antichrist, the last political enemy of God and His people, who "will perish like a serpent" (Baukham, 1993). The basilisk, which also appeared in the Bible like its literary descendant the cockatrice (Smith, 1989), was associated with the Antichrist, though not in Biblical texts (Cooper, 1992; Nigg, 2002). As mentioned above, the adder later took the place of the basilisk and cockatrice (Smith, 1989).
In Ladder of Jacob 6:13, we hear of God's judgment of the same last political opponent to God, similar to the aforementioned Isaiah 27:1: "And the Lord will pour out His wrath against Leviathan the sea-dragon; he will kill the lawless Falkon with the sword, because he will raise the wrath of the God of gods by his pride".
Like Rahab, Falkon was another name for Leviathan, which is a deviation of "crooked", a scarce Hebrew word (Baukham, 1993). In Isaiah 27:1, this name was translated into the Greek original of the Ladder of Jacob and then to the Slavonic Falkon (Baukham, 1993). However alongside the headstrong, politically-inclined demeanor of the dragon Leviathan, post-Biblical Jewish literature also conveys him simply as the sea dragon. Alongside the land-dweller Behemoth (and Ziz, the air power [Cooper, 1992]) who was made on the fifth day like Leviathan, he is the mightiest of God's creations, endowed with immense physical prowess. The dragon's fierce strength is spoken of extensively in Job 41:
"... Anyone who sees Leviathan loses courage and falls to the ground. When he is aroused, he is fierce; no one would dare to stand before him. No one can tear off his outer coat or pierce the armour he wears. His back is made of rows of shields, fastened together as hard as stone. Light flashes when he sneezes, and his eyes glow like the rising sun. Flames blaze from his mouth, and streams of sparks fly out. Smoke comes pouring out of his nose, like smoke from weeds burning under a pot. There is not a weak spot in his skin; it is as hard and unyielding as a millstone. There is no sword that can wound him; no spear or arrow or lance that can harm him. For him iron is as flimsy as straw, and bronze as soft as rotten wood. The scales on his belly are like jagged pieces of pottery; they tear up the muddy ground like a threshing sledge. He churns up the sea like boiling water and makes it bubble like a pot of oil. He looks down on even the proudest animals; he is the king of all wild beasts."
Limits were placed on the dragon, however, to stop him causing too much strife. The archangel Jaoel was sent to restrain him, "because [says Jaoel] through me is subjugated the attack and menace of every reptile" (Baukham, 1993, p. 191). [Top]
Behemoth, who is generally thought of as a hippopotamus but whose true identity is still open to debate, appears in the same Old Testament book of Job 40:15-19: "Look at the monster Behemoth; I created him and I created you. He eats grass like a cow, but what strength there is in his body, and what power there is in his muscles! His tail stands up like a cedar, and the muscles in his legs are strong. His bones are as strong as bronze, and his legs are like iron bars. The most amazing of all my creatures!"
It is interesting to note the idea that Behemoth may be some sort of dragon, which is argued because the description of a long tail is not compatible with the hippopotamus. The close associations with Leviathan have yielded this viewpoint, and the idea has not yet been dismissed. However, this appears unlikely as Behemoth sounds undeniably mammalian, and Leviathan and Behemoth are portrayed very differently from one another.
Originally there was a male and female Leviathan (and Behemoth), but had they produced offspring there would have been disaster, such was their strength. Not only would a population of Leviathans be unsustainable, they would only procreate once they had driven all other sea creatures from the ocean (Smith, 1989). So God castrated the male and slew the female, preserving her until the end time when she would be food for the holy people, as was written in Isaiah 27:1 (Fishbane, 1998). The walls of Jerusalem will then be decorated with the beauty of Leviathan's skin, as the glory of God's work in Isaiah 60:1-3 (Fishbane, 1998): "... The glory of the Lord is shining on you! ... On you the light of the Lord will shine... Nations will be drawn to your light." Leviathan was first given a double attribution by Rabbi Yohanan, who identified the Aramaic "sea gazelles" from tanninim, in Genesis 1:21: "So God created the great sea monsters (tanninim)". The word tanninim drew comments, after which Yohanan likened the monsters to the "wriggling, twisting dragon" tannin, of which two dragons called Leviathan were originally depicted.
Leviathan is known to have several heads, though the exact number is not specified. It would be safe to assume the number of heads is seven, as this number is symbolically important in Jewish tradition and is the same number as the dragon of Revelation (Bauckham, 1993). In Psalms 74:14: "You crushed the heads of the monster Leviathan." This again brings us back to Lotan, who also had several heads (Bauckham, 1993), albeit multiple-headed dragons were not unique to Ugaritic mythology, for example the Greek Hydra (Rose, 1965).
Leviathan was also to have disobeyed God when creation was still young, and the world was not yet finished. God told Leviathan, the Prince of the Sea (Yam [Fishbane, 1998]) or Rahab in Job 26:12, to swallow the sea waters (Fishbane, 1998). The sea monster refused: "Master of the world, it is enough that I stay with my own [kind]" (Fishbane, 1998, p. 44). Leviathan was punished for his arrogance, as God would not have anything, "harmful or evil" (Isaiah 11:9) on Zion, God's sacred hill. "As the seas are full of water", Isaiah 11:9, God covered the Prince of the Sea once he was beaten. Today, the Jordan river passes down into the Great Sea until it reaches the mouth of Leviathan, who in Job 40:23: "He is not afraid of a rushing river; he is calm when the Jordan dashes his face" (Fishbane, 1998).
Taking Leviathan on at face value, his literal existence still eludes to political and even sociological imagery. Leviathan is kept alive despite his wicked strength and danger, until the end time when he will be slain by God and given as food to God's followers. Leviathan is destined to be divided and sold among the kena'aneha in Jerusalem, who are the honourable people of Earth, or God's people (Fishbane, 1998). Much like the defeat of God's last political opponent, Christ promises to have His enemies placed beneath His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25).
The unprecedented Jewish linkage between the dragon and the devil was made possible by the anticipated defeat of Leviathan in the end time, like the dragon of the New Testament in Revelation (Baukham, 1993). Further similarities lie with Leviathan's several heads, as in Psalms 74:14, like the many (seven) heads of the dragon in Revelation. Apocalyptic authors who wrote of the terror before the peace had a strong founding in present happenings of the time, therefore they were understood and validated in the hearts and minds of readers (Russell, 1977). However, the devil was far more important in Christian belief and opinion than in Jewish, as rabbis placed little emphasis on demonology (Russell, 1997).
Though evil and sin is spoken of in both the Old and New Testament, the devil did not flesh out completely until the New Testament, which began detailing events from 1 AD. This does not make the devil any less credible, as the devil is undeniable in contemporary Jewish and Christian theology (Russell, 1997). Time often gives shape to historical- and spiritual- truth, especially when we consider the devil pre-empted the New Testament, but in an undefined form that later became definitive (Russell, 1997).
The word "devil" is originally derived from the Greek diabolos, originating from the Hebrew satan. Satan was seen as a singular aspect of the devil, not as the literal, sentient Devil1, and was one manifestation of the greater evil, when we define it as the personification of evil in any culture (Russell, 1997).
To some, the dragon’s strong imagery in apocalyptic texts may mask the extent of the devil's involvement in Revelation. The devil can often lose his sinister, godless personality and become steeped in the dragons metaphorically evil nature. This in turn disguises the true depth of the devil's intent, as a dragon giving power to another beast in Revelation 13:2: "... The dragon gave the beast his own power, his throne, and his vast authority". The subsequent demand for worship seems almost innocent, when we forget the torturous hell the dragon and his beast are knowingly bringing upon the people. Fig. 2 depicts the devil in the guise of the seven-headed dragon handing power to the beast, symbolised with the exchange of a staff.
The most prolific description of the seven-headed dragon appears in Revelation 12:3, after we are first introduced to his enemy in 12:1: "Then a great and mysterious sight appeared in the sky. There was a woman, whose dress was the sun and who had the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was soon to give birth...." In Revelation 12:3: "Another mysterious sight appeared in the sky. There was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and a crown on each of his heads. With his tail he dragged a third of the stars out of the sky and threw them down to the earth."
The verse continues to detail how the dragon tried to eat her baby as it came out. Revelation 12:4: "... He (the dragon) stood in front of the woman, in order to eat her child as soon as it was born."
The child was saved by God, who took the woman to the desert where he would take care of her for 1 260 days. From his mouth, the dragon sent a flood after the woman but the earth helped the woman by opening up and swallowing the water.
Revelation 13 also mentions the dragon; "Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads; on each of its horns there was a crown, and on each of its heads there was a name that was insulting to God. The beast looked like a leopard, with feet like a bear's feet and a mouth like a lion's mouth. The dragon gave this beast his own power, his throne, and his vast authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have been fatally wounded, but the wound had healed.
"Then I saw another beast, which came up out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb's horns, and it spoke like a dragon. It used its vast authority of the first beast in its presence. This second beast performed great miracles; it made fire come down out of heaven to earth in the sight of everyone. And it deceived all the people living on earth by means of the miracles which it was allowed to perform in the presence of the first beast."
Both the second and third beasts have chimerical traits which dragons also share. Whether or not any sort of classification was intended beyond beast, their disposition brings to mind the cockatrice and basilisk. This hails the introduction of the Antichrist, as the beasts force humanity to worship the dragon, and to have marks placed on their foreheads or right hands, Revelation 13:18: "... The number of the beast... stands for the name of someone. Its number is 666."
The first beast appears earlier in Daniel 7:2-7: "With its huge iron teeth it crushed its victims, and then it trampled on them. Unlike the other beasts, it had ten horns... I saw a little horn coming up among the others. This horn had human eyes and a mouth that was boasting proudly." Representing world empires, the four beasts came up from the sea, and in Revelation 12:18: "And the dragon stood on the seashore." We might also keep in mind the dragon sending a flood of water after the woman in Revelation 12:15. There was a definite affinity to Leviathan which John, author of the book of Revelation, recognised in regards to the Roman power and imperial cult (Bauckham, 1993).
However, in Revelation the dragon goes beyond human politics or government. He is the ultimate evil, a plague against goodness (Revelation 12:9): "The huge dragon was thrown out- that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world." While the devil's representation as a dragon was unprecedented to the Jewish, the ties between the dragon and devil were very possible through earlier associations between Leviathan and his downfall at the hands of God (Bauckham, 1993). Likewise, the enmity between the dragon swallowing the woman's child is not too dissimilar to the cursed relationship between the woman and snake (Bauckham, 1993) of Genesis 3:15: "I will make you and the woman hate each other; your offspring and hers will always be enemies."
The dragon had since been mythologically crippled as history began to alter and abstract it, almost beyond recognition. The New Testament appears to be a time of rescuing the dragon from this fate and returning it to mythological and historical life. During early Jewish apocalyptic texts the dragon was revived, not as an accessory but as a theologically significant, historical figure, which is considered an act of re-introducing mythology back into Old Testament Israel, where it had long since been absent (Bauckham, 1993). The dragon was also important in the world's end, a concept not only significant to Christianity and Judaism.
The Biblical story of Bel and the Dragon is an alternate version of Daniel's deliverance from the lion's den (Sayce, 1903). Like the dragon of Revelation, the account of Daniel's defeat over Bel and the Dragon is not only significant in displaying God's protection for His people, and Daniel's faith in unmasking false gods, but also of colouring credible history. A large focus of the passages lie with God's divine guard over Daniel as he was put to death. The story appearing in the Bible details how Daniel was cast in with the lions after praying to the Lord in Daniel 6:11-12; "when Daniel's enemies observed him praying to God, all of them went together to the king to accuse Daniel." King Darius tried to make excuses to keep Daniel safe, however he eventually had no choice and had him lowered into a pit of lions. In the morning, King Darius was relieved to find Daniel alive and well, and had him retrieved from the prison.
The story of Bel and the Dragon appeared in the Septuagint, at the end of Daniel, but was later omitted (Sayce, 1903). That the dragon was in fact a mythological character depicted on the walls of the temple and not physically existing is of little importance, for the point of the story lies with Daniel's ultimate deliverance from the lion's den, and the fallible nature of the false gods (Sayce, 1903).
The King told Daniel, whom he respected greatly for his gift of vision and his God-given ability to interpret dreams, to worship the god Bel. Daniel refused, informing the King that Bel was fake and it was the priests and their families who ate the sacrifices offered to the god. So the under the King's watch the temple entrance was sealed, but the priests cared little for this, "for under the table they had made a privy entrance, whereby they entered it continually, and consumed those things" (Sayce, 1903, p. 71). When their footprints were discovered, the priests and their families were punished without remorse. Upon realising he'd been deceived, the angry King had Daniel destroy the temple of Bel.
Then instructed to worship the dragon in the temple, Daniel refused and, with the king's permission, "took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did seethe them together, and made lumps thereof: this he put in the dragon's mouth, and so the dragon burst in sunder: and Daniel said, Lo, these are the gods ye worship" (Sayce, 1903, p. 72-3).
After this the Babylonians began to conspire against the King, saying he had become a Jew. Distraught, the King was forced to deliver Daniel to them, who was cast into the lion's den.
An angel brought a prophet from Jewry to the den when this happened, and gave Daniel food, who survived seven days among the lions without harm (Sayce, 1903). When he was brought from the den, the King cried in a loud voice, "Great art thou, O Lord God of Daniel, and there is none other beside thee." Those who had conspired against Daniel and the King were themselves thrown into the den, and devoured by the lions before they had reached the bottom of the pit (Sayce, 1903).
In no other religious text does the dragon feature as uniquely as it does in the Bible, nor in any as widespread and influential. Steeped in imagery, Leviathan is a symbol of political opposition to God, who is to be overthrown in the end time.
The defeat of Leviathan, his defiant nature, right down to the aesthetic similarities between the multi-headed sea monster and the seven headed dragon of Revelation have enabled the dragon to persist from the Old Testament into the New. The dragon is not simply evil as the Devil or crafty as the serpent in Genesis, but powerful and chaotic wherever it appears. A persistent theme is found throughout the Bible, shown in the enmity between the snake and woman of Genesis, and then between the pregnant woman and dragon in Revelation. It would be easy to take the dragon on at face value and declare he was evil; such is true, however we must also keep in mind the dragon is necessary, and in disregarding him we would be closing the door to a fascinating theological world, in which the dragon has a part.
Though dragons do not feature largely in Christian, Jewish or even Islamic thought, the sea monster does make its contribution in passing along an important religious and spiritual message.
