Nataraja

I think I recall reading somewhere that Bahamut and Behemoth are somehow related. I think Bahamut is thought to have come from Apsu, Tiamat's mate and a creature from possibly Babylonian or Sumerian creation myth. I'm in no mood to hunt down sources but I'm interested in knowing the opinion here on this. Could Bahamut/Behemoth/Apsu be an originally Hebrew idea? If not, how do you think it came to be a part of of their theology? Does anyone know the details behind these stories?

lpetrich

Behemoth was most likely a hippopotamus (it's big, lives near water, and eats grass), though some creationists claim that Behemoth was really a sauropod dinosaur (those that look like snakes that had swallowed elephants but with the legs sticking out).

Leviathan is less clear, though I've seen it identified as a crocodile.

Vinnie

The Behemeth is a dinosaur! Its tail was like a cedar tree. What kind of a hippo has that?


The author of Job was in no position to know about dinosaurs
Job mentions dinosaurs.

Conclusion -- the Bible shows supernatural awareness of certain things! Therefore, some of its contents must have been inspired by a supernatural being!


:boohoo: :notworthy

Nataraja

Hippopotamus...river horse...Ah! That would fit in very well with the much older story of Apsu's demise. Supposedly, Tiamat's mate was drowned in some form of river. Apsu wanted to exterminate humanity, which I find perfectly understandable, so he was done away with by one of the other gods. It is possible that the sound created by certain types of whale were thought to be the sounds of Tiamat's grief, which would certainly tie in with the biblical version, Leviathan, being likened to a whale. That she is a female may come from animistic tribal religions that assigned feminine characteristics to the ocean. Those inhuman cries coming from the ocean would certainly have been disturbing enough for primitive people to spawn such myths. It makes sense that the Greeks didn't see it this way because they probably had trouble thinking of women as anything other than sex objects. In a sense, however, they were actually closer to the mark with the Sirens than the earlier cultures were with Tiamat and Leviathan because it IS, in fact, a mating call! I think that their Titans may have come from Tiamat (through Tieten), which would explain why their creation myth credits Chronos, a Titan if I am not mistaken, with the original creation of space-time.

Vinnie

Absolute Proof that Man and Dinosaur co-existed:

http://www.acfaith.com/dinospoof.html



Vinnie

Mageth

Vinnie, I'm not sure if you're serious or not, what with all the smilies in your posts. Even if you're not serious, I'll answer some of your points.

The Behemeth is a dinosaur! Its tail was like a cedar tree. What kind of a hippo has that?

IIRC, the original text that is translated "tail" was probably referring to behemoth's penis. We don't know if dinosaurs/sauropods had true penises, and if they did, they were probably concealed.

I don't know about hippopotomi penises, but they're undoubtedly large, as are the penises of most large mammals. Some think "behemoth" may be the elephant, and their penises are "like a cedar tree".

The author of Job was in no position to know about dinosaurs
Job mentions dinosaurs.

No, Job mentions "behemoth" and "leviathan". Some people have extrapolated from those descriptions that Job mentioned dinosaurs. I find these arguments much less than convincing, since dinosaurs disappeared from the fossil record (discounting birds) 65 million years ago.

Vinnie

Not

Nataraja

Who thinks it's ancient erotica?

Spaz

That's pretty odd, if I was describing an animal the last thing I'd think about was its package, he was one sick bastard

Nataraja

Not necessarily. The taboo against bestiality is a fiction. Bestiality was considered perfectly acceptable, if rather odd, during many time periods. The taboo is losing steam in this country and in many other parts of the world.