sarlo the storm god versus the sea

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The Storm God versus the Sea:

An examination of the myth in the Bible and elsewhere in the Ancient Near East

Daniel Sarlo

NMC 1020


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SARLOThe Storm God Versus the Sea

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Introduction

The common Ancient Near Eastern myth of astorm god who defeats chaos developed into

one of the most popular stories in historythanks to the Bible. Many aspects ofYahwehs character, his chariot of clouds, andhis presence in the skies can be traced back tothe figure of Baal in the Ugaritic Baal Cycleand of Marduk in the Babylonian Enuma Eli.These gods, in turn, were developments of theSumerian Ningirsu/Ninurta.

Does the Bible really contain elements ofMesopotamian myth? Many passages refer toYahweh as a storm god who did battle withthe sea and a seven-headed sea monster. Thisstory does not appear to fit well into thenarrative of the Bible; we are only able to fullyunderstand its significance by examiningsimilar myths in other ANE traditions.

This paper will explore the myth in fourcultures: Israelite, Ugaritic, Babylonian, andSumerian, in order to contextualize theBiblical tale of the storm god versus the sea.A potential explanation of the myths

development will be offered as a conclusion.

I. The Israelite Tradition

i. Yahweh as a storm god

Yahweh, once an insignificant tribal god ofthe steppes,1 became increasingly important ashis nomadic followers settled and gainedinfluence in Canaan. In his ascendance to thethrone of monolatry, Yahweh absorbed many

characteristics belonging to the gods ofsurrounding nations, and replaced others inthe common lore.

In a number of biblical passages, Yahweh isdescribed as a typical ANE storm deity. Themost notable comparisons have been drawnto the Canaanite god Baal known from the

texts at Ugarit. Like Baal, Yahweh is a warriorwho descends from his mountain-home ridinga chariot of clouds. His voice is thunder andhis weapon is lightning; the earth quakes and

the skies release rain at his command. Inprimeval times he asserted his authority bydefeating the sea, becoming the ruler of theskies.

These parallels are certainly no accident;however they are unlikely to be the result ofliterary borrowing. Rather, they are due to theemendation of ancient texts to reflect laterIsraelite reforms. In short, Yahweh becamethe hero in certain myths that were notoriginally written about him. There issufficient evidence that in the early history ofIsrael, Yahweh and Baal were worshippedsimultaneously. Prior to the first millenniumBCE there was no distinct Israelite religion it originated as one of many local variants ofthe Canaanite religion,2 a polytheistic modelwith Yahweh as a minor deity. Around thetime of the Monarchy, the Israelites began todevelop their own unique religious identity,3but it was not until the ninth centuryBCE thatBaal worship became a concern to the cult of

Yahweh and kings actively sought to suppressit. This marked the beginning of the Israelitetrend of rejecting their heritage, and led to thefabricated notion that their religion was theantithesis of the Canaanite religion.4 Somebiblical authors like Jeremiah linked theworship of Baal to the fall of the NorthernKingdom in order to gain exclusive supportfor Yahwism. The cult of Baal was eventuallyeradicated, but not until 621 BCE with KingJosiahs reform.5

Psalm 18 reveals significant vestiges of theCanaanite tradition, and is an excellentexample of Yahwehs acquisition of Baalscharacteristics this is likely because of theantiquity of the psalm. The reworked versionwe find in the Bible is likely from the time ofJosiah, but scholars have suggested its original


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source, no longer extant, may have dated tothe tenth centuryBCE. The biblical psalm is asong of thanksgiving written by a victoriousking, perhaps David, who ascribes all of his

success to his god.

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In the course of hiscelebration, he describes Yahweh as the stormgod who defeated the sea (Heb.Ym). Itshould be noted that due to his connectionwith the mountain, Yahweh is often describedas an active volcano when angry, but here hisassociation with the storm remains at thefore:7

The land trembled and quaked, the foundations ofthe mountains shook and trembled, for he was angry.Smoke ascended into his nostrils and fire devoured

from out of his mouth, embers blazed forth fromhim. Then he divided the skies and descended withdarkness beneath his feet. He rode on a cherub, hetook flight, he soared on the wings of the wind. Hemade darkness his veil, his shelter around him wasdark waters and dense clouds. His clouds went forthfrom the brilliance before him and there was hailand embers of fire. Yahweh thundered in the skies,Elyon gave his voice and there was hail andembers of fire. He shot his arrows and made themscatter, he issued lightnings8 and confounded them.

Then the deepest trenchesof Ym9

became visible,the foundations of the land were revealed; by yourcommand, Yahweh, by the gust of wind from yournostrils10 Psa 18:7-15 (Heb. 18:8-16)

Yahweh is also portrayed as a storm god inPsalm 68. In its final form, the psalm hasbeen quite problematic for scholars to date,however Albrights suggestion that it is acollection of reworked Canaanite poemsdating from the 13th to the 10th centuryBCE11

is convincing. Perhaps the most obviousconnection to Baal is found in verse 4 (Heb.v.5), where Yahweh is referred to as the onewho rides on the clouds this epithet is alsoattested as a name of Baal in the Ugaritic BaalCycle.12 The relevant verses are providedbelow:

Sing for God, make melody in his name; make wayfor the one who rides on the clouds, his name is Yah,celebrate before himGod, when you went out before your people, when

you marched in the wilderness, the land quaked andthe skies poured before God, the god of Sinai; beforeGod, the god of Israel. You caused an abundantrain to pour, God, when your inheritance wasimpoverished, you restored itSing for God, kingdoms of the land, make melodyfor the lord. To he who rides through primevalskies, he thunders forth with his powerful voice.13Give strength to God, his majesty is over Israel, hismight is in the skies Psa 68:4,7-9,32-34 (Heb.68:5,8-10,33-35)

ii. Ym and his helpers in the Bible

The sea and its associated forces weredivinized in the early history of the ANE.14As a result, they were given names andcharacteristics, many of which can beidentified in the Bible. The presence of thesenames reveals clear mythological overtones themes that carried over and were notcensored by later redactors. The Hebrewword for the sea,Ym, often appears without

the definite article, hinting at its connectionwith the personified sea in the Baal Cycle(Yamm).

In the process of Yahwehs ascendance withinthe Israelite religion, it was imperative that hebe linked to the defeat ofYm. This isbecause of the chaos associated with hiswaters, which were believed to be not onlyencircling the earth, but above and below it.15In a time when shelter was considerably less

effective and when survival depended on localfood production, storms, floods and droughtshad the potential to severely affect the lives ofindividuals. Thus, if Yahweh did not controlYm, he could not offer his followers relieffrom these pervasive dangers.


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It is not entirelyclear whether Ym wasthought of as a creation of Yahweh or a pre-existent being the Bible does not provide auniform explanation. Generally, we should

expect later texts to say the sea was Godscreation, though this is not always the case.According to Genesis 1:2, which has beendated to the 6th centuryBCE,16 the watersexisted from the beginning, though the wordYm is not used specifically. In Proverbs8:24, a time when there were noThmt(depths) is described. Elsewhere, we read thatYm was restrained by Yahweh when he camebursting out of the womb (Gen 38:8),suggesting that Yahweh was present at hisbirth but did not initially have control of him.Despite the ambiguity surrounding his origins,the notion that he was ultimately defeated byYahweh is commonplace in the Bible. Oneexample can be found in Job 9:8:

[It is he] who spread out the skies on his own andtrampled on the back of Ym

That being said,Ym did not fight this waralone. There are several characters thought tobe associated with the primordial waters, who

may have beenYms army. Of these,Thm(deep) occurs most frequently in the Bible,and is often pluralized asThmt. However,a closer reading suggests thatYm andThm do not refer to separate entities:

The land was unformed and empty, darkness wasover Thm, and the wind of God was storming overthe waters Gen 1:2

Here,Thm and the waters should be

understood as synonyms forYm thepassage is describing the commencement ofYahwehs attack. Thus, it is unlikely thatThm is a personal name, but rather theremnant of one,17 which is why the word doesnot take the definite article.18 Furtherevidence that Thm and Ym refer to thesame entity can be gathered by the use of

parallelism in biblical poetry (i.e. Job 28:14,38:16). To be sure,Thm is not the preciseequivalent ofYm, it is better understood asone of his characteristics. This is also true in

Ugaritic, where t-h-m-t refers to the deepwaters of Yamm.19

Another Hebrew word connected toYm isTannn, or Tannnm in the plural. In severalpassages, it is used as a clear reference to amythological serpent (dragon) who lives in thesea and who Yahweh defeated along withYm. Tannn can be traced to the Semiticroot t-n-n to stretch oneself, certainly afitting verb to describe a serpentine creature.The same word is used in the Ugaritic texts todescribe one of Baals enemies,20 though it isunclear whether it is to be understood as apersonal name or an epithet. In any case,Tannn should be thought of as distinct fromthe sea.21

Arguably, Tannn should not be interpreted asa personal name in the Bible. Firstly, there areseveral cases where the word is used to referto a non-mythological snake that is found innature (cf. Deut 32:33, Psa 91:13). It is also

used in a parallel construction with Rahab inIsaiah 51:9, where Rahab is a personal name.22This evidence, though fairly limited, seems tosuggest that Tannn is a type of serpent ratherthan one serpent in particular. Furthermore,in Job 7:12 we find the word used as analternative to Ym.23 Thus, the verse shouldbe translated as follows:

Am I Ym ora Tannn?, for you have placed aguard over me

The Priestly authors of the sixth centuryBCErendered Yahweh the creator of theTannnm, despite their association with thepre-existent cosmic waters:24


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Here, the creatures of the underworld arecategorized as either dragons or depths. Thisis arguably a direct reference to Liwytn andYm, the defeated enemies of Yahweh who

must now bow before him in worship.iii. Creation out of chaos

We have established that there is an ancientmyth embedded in the Bible that Yahwehconquered the forces of chaos, personified asYmand Liwytn. However, we have yet todiscuss the different contexts in which thismyth is alluded to in the Bible. First of all, itis used to explain the creation of the knownworld. In Genesis 1, God is not said to havemade everythingex nihilo. In the beginning,everything was in a state of chaos and the landwas hidden beneath the deep waters ofYm,calledThm (Gen 1:2). With a powerfulwind, God separated this chaos from the land,and established limits for the waters bothabove and beneath the earth.31 This story isnot only referred to in Genesis we haveseen this notion already in Job 26:13, that theskies were made fair with the defeat of Ymand Rahab. Psalm 104 contains an even more

detailed description of this battle and thecreative act that followed:

[It is he who] built the beams of his high house uponthe waters, who made the clouds his chariot, and whowalked around on the wings of the wind. [It is hewho] made the winds his messengers, and fire andflame his servants. [It is he who] established theland on its foundations it will not shake forever.Thmcovered it like a garment, the waters stoodover the mountains. They fled at your command,

they scattered at the sound of your thunder Psa104:3-9

Once again, storm god imagery abounds Yahweh lives in the skies, is the ruler of theclouds and the winds, and uses thunder as aweapon. The passage clearly refers to theGenesis 1 creation account, reiterating the

story of the separation of the waters from theland. It is interesting that Yahweh builds ahouse on top of the waters in this version ofthe story. This is likely a reference to the

primeval mountain which is his home, as wehave seen in several passages. The notion ofthe god building a home after his victoryagainst the sea is significant, as it hasprecedents in Ugaritic and Babylonianmythology, which will be discussed later.

iv. The covenant with chaos

Before discussing the various other contextsin which the primeval battle against chaos isreferenced in the Bible, another layer of thestory should be explained. The chaos of thestorm was commonly used as a metaphor forthe barbarians who lived on the fringes andposed a constant threat to those in the city this is true not only in Israelite thought, butthroughout the ANE, as we will see. Unlessthese hostile forces were defeated in battle,there was no guarantee of safety.

Historically, the kings of the ANE wouldforce weakened enemies to sign vassal treaties

rather than kill every last one of them. Thiswould result in more subjects to give praiseand tribute to the king, and would add to themilitary force at his disposal. Even as early asthe third millennium BCE, these treaties hadbecome formulaic. The process consisted ofthe swearing of an oath by a subordinate kingwhereby he agreed to serve the more powerfulruler.32 Yahweh, the military leader of hispeople, as he was imagined, also opted for avassal treaty with the agents of chaos. We can

see this notion in the Bible when Yahwehdemonstrates his power by boasting to Job:

Could you catchLiwytnwith a hook and hold histongue down with a rope? Could you put a reed inhis nose and pierce his jaw with a thorn? Would heplead with you and speak to you in weakness?


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Would he make a covenant with you to become aservant forever? Job 41:1-4 (Heb. 40:25-28)

While this rhetoric is meant to belittle Job and

show him his place in the cosmos, it alsoreveals a tradition, not explicit in the Bible,where God captured Liwytn and forced himto become his servant.33 It has been said thatoriginally, the Hebrew word bert covenant(used in v. 4) meant the state of being bound,contractually, to a more powerful party againstones will.34 This is clearly the meaning of theword in this context, and thus should be seenas a type of vassal treaty. With this context inmind, let us proceed to discuss how Yahwehused these defeated enemies as agents ofdestruction.

v. The army of chaos

OnceYm and Liwytn becameYahwehsservants, their basic nature did not change.They were still destructive forces, but were nolonger able to freely molest the lands Godwould use them to unleash his judgment as hesaw fit. This is precisely what happens in thedeluge. Yahwehs anger with his people

caused him to summon a storm, using hisformer opponentThm as a weapon.

All the springs of great Thm were burst open, andthe windows of the skies were opened Gen 7:11b

Likewise, when he wanted the flood to beover, he simply ordered the cosmic sea backinto place:

God caused a wind to pass over the land, then the

waters receded, for the springs of Thm and thewindows of the skies were stopped up Gen 8:1-2a

This was an event of great significance. Themost dangerous elements known to mankind,the chaotic waters, were so easily manipulatedby Yahweh. In the form of snow and hail,they are said to be stored in compartments

awaiting the time of battle (Job 38:22-23).One psalm gives us an illustration of themagnitude of what Yahweh has done:

[It is he who] gathered up the waters of Ym like adam and placed theThmtin storehousesPsalm 33:7

The idea is that Yahweh has imprisoned hisfoes and releases them only for the purpose ofpunishing the people of the earth. All of theearths water is carefully controlled by God.We often see this in prophecy as well. Oneexample is Ezekiel 26:19, where the prophetinvokes mythological language to speak aboutthe destruction of Tyre Yahweh will useThm to engulf the city, killing all itsinhabitants. This is likely a reference toAlexanders siege of Tyre in the 3rd centuryBCE. With the use of dams, the Greeks wereable to flood a part of the city and separatethe people from the port where theirresources came in.35 The author of Ezekielexaggerates the story and attributes thedestruction to the Israelite god and hisservants. In another example from Amos,Yahweh says he will find his enemies no

matter where they hide if they escape to themountains, he will seek them out, and if theyhide in the sea, he will command the snake tobite them (9:3). Amos allusion toYm andLiwytn as Yahwehs agents of destruction isactually ahead of its time this monotheisticview was certainly not widely accepted in the8th centuryBCE.36

vi. The end of chaos

As we have seen, the chaos monsters areoften metaphors for Israels military enemies.For example, Egypt is called Rahab (Isa 30:7,Psa 87:4) and the Pharaoh is compared toTannn (Ezek 29:3-5, 32:2-8),37 as isNebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (Jer 51:34).There are many cases where the primevalbattle is compared to the Exodus, like Isaiah


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51: Yahwehs defeat of Rahab/Tannn is alsohis issue of plagues against Egypt/Pharaoh,and his separation of Ym/Thm is hisparting of the reed sea (v. 9-11).38

With this in mind, we turn to the biblicalconcept of the ultimate end of chaos. Afterthe Babylonian exile, Jewish writers began toforesee not only a return to their homeland,but a revitalization of the monarchy as it wasremembered in highly romanticized fashion during the reign of King David. Thus, inlater texts, Ym and Liwytn are the hostilenations surrounding Israel that must bedestroyed in order for this dream to berealized.39 As Niditch puts it, Writers ofapocalypses consider the workaday world onthe plane of history to have become achaos New chaos, however, means thatnew creation will follow40

A good example of this hope for the futurecan be found in Isaiah 27:1, a passage we havealready seen but which deserves to beexamined again in this context:

On that day, Yahweh will visit the fierce, great, and

powerful one, Liwytn, the fugitive serpent, with hissword

Many scholars have identified the serpent hereas Tyre. The Israelites thought of this city asthe embodiment of the Canaanite religioustradition that they had come to abhor. Theyfelt that the underlying reason God had sentthe Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem wastheir ancestors involvement in Canaanitepractices thus, they had a particular hatred

for its existence.

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The hope for a futurecosmic war between Yahweh and thesea/dragon was kept alive for many hundredsof years, and is expressed frequently in theNew Testament. In the book of Revelation,Saint John foresees the day when the dragonwill be imprisoned in the abyss the Greekword forThm (Rev 20:3) and ultimately

destroyed (Rev 20:10). The result is a betterworld, one without chaos:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the

first heaven and the first earth had passed away, andthe sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the newJerusalem, coming down out of the skies from God42 Revelation 21:1-2a

Here, chaos in the form of the sea is such anoverwhelming force that the whole universemust be destroyed in order that a new one becreated a world without the sea. The notionthat God will lower the perfect city downfrom the skies is a continuation of the Baaltradition where the head god is a warriorliving in the clouds.

II. The Ugaritic Tradition

i. Baal as a storm god

The Baal Cycle is a literary text discovered inthe city of Ugarit in the early 1900s.43 It hasbeen dated to around 1300 BCE,44 but isbelieved to be based on a much older oraltradition one that was also likely the

precedent for the MesopotamianAdad/Timat conflict.45 At some pointbefore it was given its final form in writing,this ancient tradition was merged with a storyabout Baal and Ltan.46 In addition to therelatively intact version scholars use fortranslation, seven other broken versions werefound which include variations of the cycle.47

The narrative focuses on Baals rise toprominence in the divine sphere through a

series of victories relevant here is his battleagainst Yamm. In an attempt to prevent Baalfrom encroaching on his power, Yammappeals to El and his divine council for help.They choose not to interfere, resulting in anall-out war between the two characters.48Though Baal is initially overwhelmed, with


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The etymology of Marduk has been debatedby scholars. Most recently, Abusch suggestedthat the original Sumerian form was

AMAR.UDA.AK, which he translates calf ofthe storm.74 Before Abusch, Jacobsen hadargued that Marduk was in fact a storm god,not a sun god as most scholars thought.There is no reason to doubt his conclusion,AMAR can mean calf or son, and UD (alsoUDA) originally held the meaning of stormin addition to sun75 the element AK simplyindicates that the name is a genitiveconstruction. Because Marduk does notappear to display any characteristics associatedwith the sun god, we should understand UDAas storm in this case.

In Enuma Eli, one of Marduks names isAddu (=Haddu),76 but this title is not the onlyindication that we are dealing with a stormgod. Throughout the narrative, we find theuse of storm imagery to discuss Mardukscharacteristics as well as his actions in battle:

He put lightning in front of him; His body was filledwith an ever-blazing flame. He made a net to

encircleTimatwithin it; He marshalled the fourwinds so that no part of her could escape: Southwind, North wind, East wind, West wind the giftof his father Anu he kept them close to the net athis side. He created the evil wind, the tempest, thewhirlwind, the four winds, the seven winds, thetornado, and the unfaceable facing wind. Hereleased the winds which he had created, seven ofthem. They advanced behind him to make turmoilinsideTimat. The lord raised the flood-weapon,his great weapon; He mounted the frightful,

unfaceable storm-chariot

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IV 39-50As we see, Marduks vehicle, weaponry anddomain are the same as those of Baal andYahweh. Furthermore, the nameTimat isetymologically related toThm and t-h-m-t,and refers to the same enemy the vastwaters of the sea.

ii. Timat and her helpers in Enuma Eli

Timats army consists of a military

commander named Qingu and eleven beasts.The nature of these eleven indicates animportant connection to later myth. Theyinclude four snakes: venomous snake, greatvenomous snake, giant snake, and fearsomesnake.78 As we will see, this is an importantstage in the development of the tradition only one of Ninurtas foes is serpentine, whilein the Bible the snake is the primary symbolof chaos. Marduks other foes includeuntameable animals and composite creatures:wild dog, weather monster, lion monster,scorpion man, hairy hero, fish-man, andbison.79 This part of the list finds no parallelat Ugarit or in the Bible, perhaps because theMediterranean coast did not share the varietyof animals common to the plains ofMesopotamia.

iii. Creation out of chaos

While the Ugaritic texts do not portray Baal asthe creator of the world, we can trace some of

Gods feats in Genesis to the story of Marduk.In Enuma Eli, the separation of heaven andearth is described as the splitting of Timatsbody in two. One of these halves was used asa firmament to hold the rain-waters in place:

He sliced her in half like a fish for drying: he put uphalf of her to roof the sky, he drew a bolt across andmade a guard hold it. He arranged her waters sothat they could not escape80 Enuma Eli IV137-138

As the God of the Bible invented the twelve-month year and the four seasons, and createdthe sun and the stars to keep track of time(Gen 1:14-16), so too did Marduk:

He fashioned the stations for the great gods. He setup the stars, their likeness, the constellations. He


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fixed the year, drew the boundary-lines, set up threestars for each of the twelve months81 EnumaEli V 1-4

Marduk is praised for having created a stableenvironment out of chaos (VII 80).Elsewhere, he is called the creator ofhumankind (VII 29). While the text does notspecifically say what became of Timats otherhalf, the implication is that it became the sea the waters below the firmament. Mardukcovered this sea with land until it became amountain (VII 70). This was the earth, whereMarduks creation dwelled, and the peak wasMarduks home, bringing to mind themountain-homes of Yahweh and Baal.

iv. Chaos as the surrounding nations

Like Yahweh, Marduk is said to have subduedthe chaos monsters rather than utterly defeatthem. There is no indication that somethingakin to a vassal treaty was signed, but hecertainly kept them alive in order todemonstrate his power.82

A Late Babylonian map of the world lists

many untamed animals which are described asthe defeated gods of Marduk:

The ruined gods which he settled inside the sea theviper, great sea-serpent inside The Anzu-birdscorpion-man mountain goat, gazelle, zebu,panther, bull-man lion, wolf, red-deer hyena,monkey, female-monkey, ibex, ostrich, cat,chameleon beasts which Marduk created on top ofthe restless sea83

Here, the sea is Tmtu, a late form of thenameTimat. The two snakes: viper andgreat sea serpent are said to be located inTimat, while the other land-dwellingcreatures were made to live on top of the sea this is a reference to the earth, the land thatwas placed overTimats body.84

We have found that the storm god Mardukshares some important characteristics withYahweh. He defeated Timat (=Thm) inprimeval times and the associated forces of

chaos. He separated the waters in two andcaused dry land to appear, on which heestablished his home and his creatures. Healso made the stars and fixed the year intotwelve months and four seasons.

IV. Sumerian Tradition

i. Ningirsu/Ninurta as a storm god

While there were many Mesopotamian stormgods including Ilumer, Dagan, Adad,Ningirsu, Ikur, and of course Enlil, 85 onlyone was a great warrior who battled againstchaos the Sumerian Ningirsu. The earliesttextual evidence for this god is from around2400 BCE,86 well before Marduk, Baal orYahweh were identified as storm gods.

In Lagash, Ningirsu was known as Ninurta.In about 2100 BCE, Ninurta came to beidentified as Enlils oldest son by the king ofLagash, legitimizing him as their patron god.87

It was around this time that Ninurta wascharacterized as a great warrior, perhaps forpolitical reasons. This is likely the origin ofthe storm gods war-like characteristics in theBaal Cycle and in the Bible Enlil himselfwas not called a warrior until after Ninurtawas declared his son.88

Despite his association with the storm,Ninurtas enemy was not the sea but themountain. In Lugal-e, his enemy is Asag, a

rebellious mountain, and his army of rocks.

89

In this myth, Ninurta is referred to as thedestructive high flood destroying themountain (Lugal-e 95).90 Elsewhere, he issaid to have defeated a number of enemies inthe mountains, only one of which was themountain itself. This brings to mind theBabylonian, Ugaritic, and Biblical notion that


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the sea is both the enemy and the location ofbattle. Many of the elements present in laterstorm god myths have their origin in thelegends of Ninurta. We will look at just a few:

The utterance of the sovereign is a storm Theword of Lord Ninurta is a storm91 NinurtasReturn 16-17

Ninurta, storm of the rebellious land, swept on likethe deluge, he rumbled like a storm on the horizon92 Ninurtas Return 74-75

When you step into your chariot heaven and earthtremble93 Ninurtas Return 84-85

The storm god is a warrior who rides in achariot, and makes the earth tremble when hepasses, as well as when he speaks with histhunderous voice. This is all very familiar tothe later Babylonian, Ugaritic, and Israelitetraditions.

ii. Ningirsu/Ninurtas enemies

As we said, there are many tales aboutNinurta in which he is a hero fighting the

forces of chaos in the mountains. Despitethis change in scenery, a comparison ofNinurtas enemies with Marduks in EnumaEli reveals some very interestingconnections:94

Ningirsus Temple Ninurta and Asagvenomous snake venomous snakesix-headed wild ram six-headed wild ramseven-headed dog seven-headed snakelion Lord Samananna

Mt. Saggar gypsumbisons head Imduguddate palm king date palmcopper strong copperMagilum Magilumkulianna kuliannabison bison

Ninurtas Return Enuma Elivenomous snake venomous snakesix-headed wild ram great venomous snakeseven-headed snake giant snake

captured cow fearsome snakeGypsum wild dogImdugud weather monstercaptured wild bull lion monsterstrong copper scorpion manmagilum hairy herokulianna fish-manBison Bison

A number of these composite creatures andwild animals survived into the Babylonianmythology, and even some to the Ugaritic,though it appears that only the snake survivedthrough to the Israelite tradition as an enemyof the storm god. In the various myths, oneor two of Ninurtas enemies were serpents,while the rest were other animals commonlyfound in the rugged terrain of Mesopotamia.The presence of a seven-headed snake in thelist is significant. We have seen this figure inthe Baal Cycle and the Bible as Ltan/Liwytn. There is evidence of a seven-headed serpentine creature early in a cylinder

seal from the 3rd

millennium BCE,95

suggestingthat it did not originate as an enemy ofNinurta.

As for the absence of Timat,Wiggermanntells us that later versions of the Ninurtamyths included the sea as one of his enemies.The word Timat specifically was introducedby the Akkadians, though it may not haveoriginally had anything to do with water.96Timtim (=Timat) appears on an Old

Akkadian school exercise tablet which reads:Steward of Timat, fierce warrior, arise! Tipak,steward of Timat, fierce one, arise!97

This appears to be a line from an incantationritual where the chaos monster is called to act


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on behalf of the individual a tradition whichmay also be alluded to in the book of Job:

May the sorcerers curse that day, those who are able

to wake Leviathan Job 3:8iii. Further considerations

While it is not certain whether or not thesurrounding cities or their inhabitants werereferred to as chaos monsters, certainly themountains were seen as rebel lands.98 This iswhere the barbarians came from, and wherewild animals and demons dwelled.Metaphorically, all that was outside the safetyof the city walls was chaos, while the areawithin them was orderly.99

Conclusion

In our examination of several mythologicaltraditions where the storm god battles withchaos, we have discovered interestingconnections that help us contextualize someof these themes in the Bible. This allows usto reconstruct how the myth of the storm godmight have developed from the third

millennium BCE in Mesopotamia to the sixthcenturyBCE in Israel. The following is anattempt to do so, albeit in a short simplifiedmanner.

The storm god Ningirsu was called Ninurtaand was given the characteristics of a warriorby the Nippurians. He was said to havedefeated a seven-headed snake in themountain. Later, the Akkadians added amonster named Timat to his list of defeated

enemies. As the story migrated West, Timatwas identified with the sea, and the location ofthe battle shifted. As Wiggermann notes, Inthe course of the second millennium, seareplaces the mountains as the geographicalfocus of monster mythology.100 Toward theend of the second millennium BCE, manyMediterranean civilizations collapsed,

including Ugarit. Much of the devastationcould be traced back to the sea, i.e. invasionsby the Sea Peoples, floods, et cetera. For thevictims and others living in the region, the sea

was chaotic; it represented a much greaterthreat than anything found in the mountains.Thus, a new myth was born the storm godwould conquer the sea.101

In the Babylonian Enuma Eli, Marduk wasthe calf of the storm, a powerful presence inthe skies much like Ninurta. From atop hisstorm-cloud chariot, he battledTimat andher eleven monsters, four of whom weresnakes. Ninurta had also defeated elevenenemies, but only one was serpentine.Marduk defeatedTimat and used her carcassas the material with which to create anexpanse. He heaped up dirt over the sea toform a mountain that became both his homeand the inhabitable world. He created humanbeings and an organized a system of time and the stars to help them keep track of it.

In the Baal cycle, Baal rides a chariot ofclouds like Marduk, and uses thunder andlightning as weapons. He fights Yamm, the

sea, who is also referred to as t-h-m-t(=Timat). New additions to his list ofenemies include the t-n-n (dragon) namedLtan. There are several other enemies in themyth, but we do not know enough aboutthem to comment on their origin or purpose.We do know, however, that the sea and thedragon are attested in the Bible by the samenames. Baal was not said to be creator of theworld, suggesting that the Baal Cycle was notdirectly borrowed from Enuma Eli, but from

an earlier story that the Babylonians also used.The earliest Israelite traditions evolved out ofthe Canaanite belief system, thus the BaalCycle was highly influential on the Biblicalauthors. As we have seen, both Yahweh andBaal are cloud-riders. Both Liwytn andLtan are fugitive serpents with multiple


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heads. Tannn is the type of serpent, identicalin Ugaritic (t-n-n). During the Babylonianexile, the Israelites would have read foreignliterature like Enuma Eli. With an

appreciation for Babylonian wisdom, theyamalgamated this creation story with theirown monotheistic view of history, and madeYahweh the creator in Marduks place. Likely,the concept of prophecy was also an importfrom the Babylonians. In the exile, writingsbegan to include the hope of a return to Israeland the revival of the Monarchy. With thedecree of Cyrus in the Persian period, theirwish appeared to have come true, but theGreeks soon controlled the region, shiftingthe prophecy further into the future. Persianeschatological concepts undoubtedly crept in,as prophets began to speak of the destructionof world which would be followed by thecreation of a new one one without chaos.


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Notes

1Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God: Yahwehand the Other Deities in Ancient Israel(SecondEdition; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 91

2Also called the Phoenician or West Semiticreligion by many scholars

3Herbert Niehr, Israelite Religion andCanaanite Religion, pp. 23-36 in ReligiousDiversity in Ancient Israel and Judah(ed. F.Stavrakopoulou and J. Barton; New York: T & TClark, 2010), 27-28

4Niehr, Israelite Religion and Canaanite

Religion, 265For more on Baal worship in Israel, see Smith,The Early History of God, 65-79

6Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 1-59: A ContinentalCommentary(Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 257-258

7Kraus, Psalms 1-59, 260

8The version in 2Sam 22:15 is preferred, wherebr does not appear, and(~y)qrb is governed instead

by the preceding verb xlv

9Here the text reads ~ym, but is likely a mistake 2Sam 22:16 has instead ~y

10All Bible translations are my own, based on theMasoretic Text of the Westminster LeningradCodex, unless otherwise stated

11Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 60-150: AContinental Commentary(Minneapolis: Fortress,1993), 49

12Baal is called rkb rpt (the one who rides on theclouds); for several examples see Mark S. Smith,Mark S. Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume I(Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 55; Leiden:Brill, 1994), 276, 336

13For this interpretation of the passage, seeMarvin E. Tate, Psalms 51-100 (Word BiblicalCommentary 20; Dallas: Word, 1990), 162

14Donald H. Mills, The Hero and the Sea: Patterns ofChaos in Ancient Myth(Wauconda: Bolchazy-Carducci, 2003), 1

15The belief in the Ancient Near East was that allfresh water was linked to the primeval sea,including the skies which were thought of as acanopy of its waters; for more information onancient Israelite cosmogony see John H. Walton,

Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament:Introducting the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 166-167

16Genesis 1:1-2:4 is understood as the Priestlyaccount of creation, a product of the 6th centuryBCE; see Mark S. Smith, The Priestly Vision ofGenesis 1 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2010), 41

17As we will see, in the Babylonian religionTimat is clearly a water deity. In the Bible,however, Thm has been thoroughlydemythologized

18Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis: The Traditional HebrewText with new JPS Translation(New York: JewishPublication Society, 1989), 6

19Private communication with Mark S. Smith(December 1, 2012)

20G.C. Heider, Tannin, pp. 834-836 in Dictionaryof Deities and Demons in the Bible(Second Edition;ed. K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, and P.W. vander Horst; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 834

21Mark S. Smith and Wayne T. Pitard, The UgariticBaal Cycle, Volume II(Supplements to VetusTestamentum 114; Leiden: Brill, 2009), 248

22John Day, Gods Conflict with the Dragon and theSea: Echoes of a Canaanite Myth in the Old Testament(Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 1985), 6


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23Though it is possible that here the two aresynonymous, in a construction of nominalhendiadys, there is reason to doubt such aposition; for example, in Psalm 74:13, Ym isclearly the abode of the Tannnm, unlikely to bethought of as its equivalent

24The passage belongs to the Priestly Source

25John Day, Leviathan, pp. 295-296 in TheAnchor Bible DictionaryIV (ed. D.N. Freedman;New York: Doubleday, 1992), 295

26 Day, Gods Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea, 4

27The MT reads You gave him as food for thepeople, to the wild beasts, but a slightemendation makes sense of the verse; see Kraus,Psalms 60-150, 96 f.14n

28Day, Gods Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea, 6-7

29K. Spronk, Rahab, pp. 684-686 in Dictionary ofDeities and Demons in the Bible(Second Edition; ed.K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, and P.W. van derHorst; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 684

30Day, Gods Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea, 39

31Loren R. Fisher, Genesis: A Royal Epic(SecondEdition; Eugene: Cascade, 2011), 225-226. Alsoinformative on the issue is Ellen Van Wolde,Why the Verb arb Does Not Mean To CreateIn Genesis 1.1-2.4a, pp. 3-23 inJournal of the Studyof the Old Testament34 (Thousand Oaks: SAGE,2009)

32Dennis J. McCarthy, Treaty and Covenant:A Studyin Form in the Ancient Oriental Documents and in theOld Testament(Analecta Biblica 21A; Rome:Biblical Institute, 1981), 32

33Kathryn Schifferdecker, Out of the Whirlwind:Creation Theology in the Book of Job(HarvardTheological Studies 61; Cambridge: HarvardUniversity, 2008), 172-174

34Dennis J. McCarthy, Treaty and Covenant:A Studyin Form in the Ancient Oriental Documents and in theOld Testament(Analecta Biblica 21A; Rome:Biblical Institute, 1981), 3

35Markus Saur, Ezekiel 26 and the History ofTyre, pp. 208-221 in Scandinavian Journal of the OldTestament24.2 (Oslo: Taylor & Francis, 2010), 210

36John Barton, The Theology of the Book of Amos(Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2012), 102-103

37This interpretation suggests that!ynt be read for

~ynt in both passages. This appears to solve theproblem of interpretation, since jackals does notmake sense in either context I am againstyou Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the greatjackalslyingin the midst of your streams (Ezk 29:3);You are likejackalsin the seas (Ezk 32:2)

38For a detailed discussion of the connectionbetween the chaos monsters and nations hostile toIsrael, see Day, Gods Conflict with the Dragon and theSea, 88-140

39

Smith, The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1, 21-2240Susan Niditch,Ancient Israelite Religion(NewYork: Oxford, 1997), 62

41John D.W. Watts, Isaiah 1-33 (Revised Edition;Word Biblical Commentary 24; Nashville: ThomasNelson, 2005), 409

42Translation based on the work of Smith in ThePriestly Vision of Genesis 1, 22

43Michael D. Coogan and Mark S. Smith, Storiesfrom Ancient Canaan(Second Edition; Louisville:John Knox, 2012), 3

44Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, xxii

45Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, 1


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46Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, 29, 35

47

Coogan and Smith, Stories from Ancient Canaan,97

48Coogan and Smith, Stories from Ancient Canaan,97-99


50This may not be the case, however. Accordingto Pettinato, Baal originated as a personal namewith no connection to the adjective Baal meaningLord. Furthermore, Baal and Hadad may have

been conflated in the second millennium BCE; seeW. Herrmann, Baal, pp. 132-139 in Dictionary ofDeities and Demons in the Bible(Second Edition; ed.K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, and P.W. van derHorst; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 132

51Smith, The Early History of God, 94

52Translation based on the work of Smith andPitard in The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume II, 81

53Translation based on the work of Smith and

Pitard in The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume II, 8454Translation based on the work of Smith andPitard in The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume II, 204

55Smith and Pitard, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, VolumeII, 247


57Smith and Pitard, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, VolumeII, 250-251





62W.G.E. Watson, Fire, pp. 332-333 inDictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible(SecondEdition; ed. K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, andP.W. van der Horst; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,1999), 32



65Coogan and Smith, Stories from Ancient Canaan,102

66See Days discussion of Mount Zaphon inYahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan(Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2000), 107-116


68David Novak, Jewish Eschatology, pp. 113-131 in The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology(ed. J.L.Walls; Oxford: Oxford University, 2008), 115

69Stephanie Dalley,Myths from Mesopotamia:Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others(Oxford:Oxford University, 2000), 229-230

70Wayne Horowitz,Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography(Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1998), 109

71 Ibid.

72Horowitz,Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 111

73Ibid.


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74T. Abusch, Marduk, pp. 543-549 in Dictionaryof Deities and Demons in the Bible(Second Edition;ed. K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, and P.W. vander Horst; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 543

75Thorkild Jacobsen, The Battle of Marduk andTimat, pp. 104-108 inJournal of the AmericanOriental Society88.1 (Ann Arbor: University ofMichigan, 1968), 105

76Smith, The Early History of God, 97

77Translation based on the work of StephanieDalley inMyths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood,

Gilgamesh, and Others(Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2000), 251

78G. Cunningham, Deliver Me from Evil:Mesopotamian Incantations, 2500-1500 B.C. (Rome:Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1997), 92

79Cunningham, Deliver Me from Evil, 92-93

80Translation based on the work of Dalley inMyths from Mesopotamia, 255

81

Translation based on the work of Horowitz inMesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 114-115

82Frans Wiggermann,Mesopotamian Protective Spirits:The Ritual Texts(Cuneiform Monographs 1;Groningen: Styx, 1992), 164



85See A. Greens discussion of Mesopotamianstorm gods in The Storm God in the Ancient Near

East(Biblical and Judaic Studies 8; Winona Lake:Eisenbrauns, 2003), 34-88

86Green, The Storm God in the Ancient Near East, 42

87Green, The Storm God in the Ancient Near East, 43

88Green, The Storm God in the Ancient Near East,43-44

89Fumi Karahashi, Fighting the Mountain: SomeObservations on the Sumerian Myths of Inannaand Ninurta, pp. 111-118 inJournal of Near

Eastern Studies63.2 (Chicago: University ofChicago, 2004), 118

90Karahashi, Fighting the Mountain, 112

91J. Black, G. Cunningham, E. Robson, and G.Zlyomi, The Literature of Ancient Sumer(NewYork: Oxford University, 2004), 181

92Black et al., The Literature of Ancient Sumer, 183

93Ibid.

94Cunningham, Deliver Me from Evil, 92-93

95C. Uehlinger, Leviathan, pp. 511-515 inDictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible(SecondEdition; ed. K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, andP.W. van der Horst; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,1999), 512

96Wiggermann,Mesopotamian Protective Spirits, 155

97A. Westenholz, Old Akkadian School Texts:Some Goals of Sargonic Scribal Education, pp.95-110 inArchiv Fr Orientforschung25 (Horn:Ferdinand Berger und Shne, 1974), 102

98J.V. Kinnier Wilson, The Rebel Lands: AnInvestigation into the Origins of Early Mesopotamian

Mythology(University of Cambridge OrientalPublications 29; Cambridge: Cambridge

University, 1979), 17

99Frans Wiggermann, Scenes from the ShadowSide, pp. 207-220 inMesopotamian Poetic Language:Sumerian and Akkadian(ed. M.E. Vogelzang andH.L.J. Vantiphout; Cuneiform Monographs 6;Groningen: Styx, 1996), 211


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100Wiggermann,Mesopotamian Protective Spirits, 155

101

Coogan and Smith, Stories from Ancient Canaan,104-105


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Barton, John2012 The Theology of the Book of Amos

(Cambridge: Cambridge University)

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(New York: Oxford University)

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1992 Leviathan, pp. 295-296 in TheAnchor Bible DictionaryIV (ed. D.N.

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Karahashi, Fumi2004 Fighting the Mountain: Some

Observations on the Sumerian Myths

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1993 Psalms 60-150: A ContinentalCommentary(Minneapolis: Fortress)

McCarthy, Dennis J.1981 Treaty and Covenant:A Study in Form in

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Sarna, Nahum M.1989 Genesis: The Traditional Hebrew Text with

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Saur, Markus

2010 Ezekiel 26 and the History of Tyre,pp. 208-221 in Scandinavian Journal ofthe Old Testament24.2 (Oslo: Taylor &Francis)

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