Ezekiel 29:3 gives Tanin (תנין) as a great sea-serpent or sea-monster, in this case specifically relating it to the Nile. Genesis 1:21 and Job 7:12 are less specific geographically. but not zoologically. Isaiah 27:1 equates him with Liv-Yatan (Leviathan), but specifies him as "the dragon that is in the sea". The link to the Nile suggests the Nile crocodile, Crocodylus niloticus, whose reputation as a vicious human-eater renders the term "sea-monster" entirely apt. Crocodiles, by the way, are salt-water reptiles, where alligators prefer fresh water.
Yechezke-El's rendition of him as a great serpent or sea monster is probably based on an alternative or corrupt form of Tanim (תנים), the plural of Tan (תן), a beast dwelling in the desert of Arabia which the Prophet elsewhere describes as "suckling its young" and "giving a mournful cry"; possibly a wolf or wild dog or jackal.
In Arabic Tanin (תנין) is once again a sea monster, or at the very least a vast fish. Exodus 7:9 on the other hand makes it a land serpent, and more precisely a mere snake - this is the snake into which Aharon's rod was transformed when he threw it on the ground before Pharaoh.
In Arabic Tanin (תנין) is once again a sea monster, or at the very least a vast fish. Exodus 7:9 on the other hand makes it a land serpent, and more precisely a mere snake - this is the snake into which Aharon's rod was transformed when he threw it on the ground before Pharaoh.
Deuteronomy 32:33 (the same chapter, incidentally, from which Shakespeare sourced Portia's court-speech in "The Merchant of Venice"), likewise associates the Tanin with mere snakes, stating of the foolish that "their wine is the venom of serpents (חֲמַת תַּנִּינִם יֵינָם), and the cruel poison of asps"; while Psalm 91:13 equates it with the cobra.
Jeremiah 51:34 is sometimes translated as "crocodile", though nothing in the verse affirms this.
The root is Tanan (תנן) = "to extend", and in Assyrian and Chaldean the same root means "to smoke", whence Atnun (אתנון) = "a furnace". This would support those translators who prefer "dragon" for the Tanin.
In chapter 41 of the Book of Job the sea monster appears as Liv-Yatan (לִוְיָתָ֣ן - Leviathan), rather than as Tanin. This may be the source of those English translations which give "great whales", for Taninim, rather than sea-monsters, which of course whales are, though that doesn't make it correct.
All these variations are rooted in the myth of the cosmic serpent who is called Tahamat or Tiamat or Ophis, who encircles the world before creation, is the lover of the mother-goddess, and is divided, whether in halves or in firmaments, in the act of Creation; a very primitive understanding of cell-division. See my notes to Genesis 1 for more on this.
Copyright © 2020 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment