Did the writer of Job and did Isaiah borrow the myth of Leviathan from the Sumerians and Babylonians?

Posted on September 23, 2025 by Dr. John Oakes wrote in Anthropology, General, Other Religions, Q & A, Reliability of the Bible.

Question:

I wanted ask you about the similarities between Isaiah 27 and the Canaanite’s Baal cycle in which both Yahweh and Baal respectively kill a large aquatic sea serpent like monster. I’m copying and pasting some more information about it down below.

Leviathan in the Book of Job is a reflection of the older Canaanite Lotan, a primeval monster defeated by the god Baal Hadad. Parallels to the role the primeval Sumerian sea goddess Tiamat, who was defeated by Marduk, have long been drawn in comparative mythology, as have been comparisons to dragon and world serpent narratives, such as Indra slaying Vritraor Thor slaying Jörmungandr. Some 19th-century scholars pragmatically interpreted it as referring to large aquatic creatures, such as the crocodile. The word later came to be used as a term for great whale and for sea monsters in general.
Lotan (Ugaritic: 𐎍𐎚𐎐 LTN, meaning “coiled”), also transliterated Lôtān, Litan,or Litānu,is a servant of the sea god Yamdefeated by the storm god Hadad-Baʿal in the Ugaritic Baal Cycle. Lotan seems to have been prefigured by the serpent Têmtumrepresented in Syrian seals of the 18th–16th century BC, and finds a later reflex in the sea monster Leviathan, whose defeat at the hands of Yahweh is alluded to in the biblical Book of Job and in Isaiah 27:1. Lambert (2003) went as far as the claim that Isaiah 27:1 is a direct quote lifted from the Ugaritic text, correctly rendering Ugaritic bṯn “snake” as Hebrew nḥš “snake”.
What’s up with similarities? And why do so many other religions have their own versions of the battle. Were the Israelites just copy from the Babylonians? Or was it just a common trope at the time in the Middle East? Was God using it to mock the Babylonians? Or is it possible that other cultures are confusing the sea serpent with Satan and have simply just confused the account with a literal battle when in actuality it’s just metaphorical. How do you explain the similarities and why they appear in so many different religions?

Answer:

This can be a somewhat uncomfortable discussion for us as Christians. It is apparent that some writers in the Old Testament incorporate mythological characters which were part of the religious culture in the Near East into their poetic writings. It is important to note that these are primarily metaphors and that they are used in the poetic genre of literature. Therefore, we ought to concede that the idea of Leviathan and of Behemoth are, at least in some sense, “borrowed” from the mythology of the peoples of Canaan. This is not to say that the Bible is borrowing Canaanite polytheism, but it is using the mythology in a metaphorical way. Given the poetic and metaphorical way in which Leviathan and Behemoth appear in the Bible, we are not to conclude that there is an actual god/creature named Leviathan or one named Behemoth. These are poetic devices to explain the chaos and the spiritual battles in the world. The point is that God is triumphant over the spiritual forces in the world.

OK, I am going to do something I have never done before. I am going to quote AI. I do so ironically, but it just so happens that my AI hits the nail on the head. Here we go:

These creatures represent untamed forces of nature, serve as symbols of God’s power over chaos, or embody specific human attributes.

I believe that this pretty much tells the story. Like I said, for us rationalistic, Western-influenced readers, this is a bit surprising, but I believe that this is what is going on when the OT writers mention Leviathan or Behemoth.

John Oakes