The closest analogue, perhaps, is the figure to which Revelation refers as the dragon. In many ancient Near Eastern cultures, the process of creation is thought to have involved a battle between the creator god and a sea monster—Tiamat in the Babylonian Enuma Elish, Yamm (Sea) in the Canaanite Baal myth known from texts found at Ugarit in northern Syria. We find allusions to similar creation stories in the poetic books of the Hebrew Bible. So Job 26:12: “By his power he stilled the Sea; by his understanding
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