Leviathan and Exegetical Imagination

The Bible is more than simply a theological resource; it can also serve, like J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, as an indispensable introduction to the magical beasts of the biblical world.1 Leviathan, an enormous mythical sea-creature with seven heads, is one of the most significant of these biblical beasts, bearing eschatological and messianic associations. Because Leviathan is mentioned a number of times throughout the Tanakh and subsequent Jewish literature, it is largely assumed to be a Jewish idea, an example of original Jewish thought. But is it, and has it alw