Editing Leviathan (section)

==Christianity==
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| caption1          = Hellmouth ''The life of St John and Apocalypse'', {{Circa|1400}}
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Leviathan can also be used as an image of the [[Devil in Christianity|devil]], endangering both God's creatures — by attempting to eat them — and God's creation — by threatening it with upheaval in the waters of chaos.<ref>{{cite book |last=Labriola |first=Albert C. |year=1982 |chapter=The Medieval view of history in ''Paradise Lost'' |editor-first=John | editor-last=Mulryan |title = Milton and the Middle Ages |publisher=[[Bucknell University Press]] |pages=127 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0YX1AKt4gn0C&pg=PA127 |isbn=978-0-8387-5036-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Thomas |last=Aquinas |author-link=Thomas Aquinas |title=Commentary on Job |lang=en |url=https://isidore.co/aquinas/english/SSJob.htm#403 }}</ref> A "dragon" (''drakon''), being the usual translation for the leviathan in the [[Septuagint]], appears in the [[Book of Revelation]]. Although the Old Testament nowhere identifies the leviathan with the devil, the seven-headed dragon in the [[Book of Revelation]] explicitly is.<ref>{{cite book |last=Giblett |first=Rod |year=2019 |title=Environmental Humanities and the Uncanny: Ecoculture, literature, and religion |place=Vereinigtes Königreich, DE |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=19 }}</ref> By this the battle between God and the primordial chaos monsters shifts to a battle between God and the devil.<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal |last=Wallace |first=Howard |date=1948 |title=Leviathan and the Beast in Revelation |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/3209231 |journal=The Biblical Archaeologist |language=en |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=61–68 |doi=10.2307/3209231|jstor=3209231 }}</ref> Only once, in the Book of Job, the leviathan is translated as "sea-monster" ({{math|κῆτος}}, ''ketos'').<ref name="auto1"/>

In the following chapter, a seven-headed [[The Beast (Revelation)|beast]], described with the same features as the dragon before, rises from the waters endowing a Beast of the Earth with power. Dividing the beasts into monster of water and one of dry earth is probably a recalling of the monstrous pair Leviathan and Behemoth.<ref name="auto">Bauckham,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;(1993).&nbsp;The Theology of the Book of Revelation.&nbsp;Vereinigtes Königreich:&nbsp;Cambridge University Press. p. 89</ref> In accordance with {{Bibleverse|Isaiah|27:1}}, the dragon will be slain by God on the last day and cast into the abyss.<ref name="auto1" /><ref name="auto"/> The annihilation of the chaos-monster results in a new world of peace, without any trace of evil.<ref name="auto1" />[[File:Liber floridus-1120-Leviathan-p135.jpg|thumb|''[[Antichrist]] on Leviathan'', [[Liber floridus]], 1120]]

[[Jerome]] comments on Psalm 104:26 that "this is the dragon that was cast out of Paradise, that beguiled Eve, and is permitted in this world to make sport of us. How many monks and clerics has it dashed headlong! "They all look to you to give them food in due time," for all the creatures of God live at His bidding."<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0020964319896308?journalCode=intc | doi=10.1177/0020964319896308 | title=Leviathan to Lucifer: What Biblical Monsters (Still) Reveal | date=2020 | last1=Murphy | first1=Kelly J. | journal=Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology | volume=74 | issue=2 | pages=146–158 }}</ref>

[[Peter Binsfeld]] classified Leviathan as the demon of envy, as one of the [[seven Princes of Hell]] corresponding to the seven deadly sins. Leviathan became associated with, and may originally have been referred to by, the visual motif of the [[Hellmouth]], a monstrous animal into whose mouth the damned disappear at the [[Last Judgment]], found in [[Anglo-Saxon art]] from about 800, and later all over Europe.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Devil: A Mask Without a Face |last=Link |first=Luther |year=1995 |publisher=Reaktion Books |location=London |isbn=0-948462-67-1 |pages=75–6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EU7Qt5HSmHAC&pg=PA76 }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |title=Infernal Imagery in Anglo-Saxon Charters |last=Hofmann |first=Petra |year=2008 |publisher=St Andrews |pages=143–44 |hdl=10023/498}}</ref>

The [[Revised Standard Version]] of the Bible suggests in a footnote to Job 41:1 that Leviathan may be a name for the [[crocodile]], and in a footnote to Job 40:15, that Behemoth may be a name for the [[hippopotamus]].<ref>{{cite book | title = The Holy Bible Revised Standard Version | url = https://archive.org/details/holybiblerevised00roub | url-access = registration | publisher = Thomas Nelson and Sons | year = 1959 | location = New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/holybiblerevised00roub/page/555 555]–56}}</ref>