Two Strange Beasts: Leviathan and Behemoth in the Second Temple

The ancient myth of a battle between a Divine Warrior and a primordial monster undergoes significant development in postbiblical and rabbinic literatures. This development is the focus of the present study. In particular, it examines the monsters Leviathan and Behemoth, showing that the postbiblical and rabbinic traditions about them are derived from ancient sources that are not all preserved in the biblical texts.
In the Apocalypse of Abraham and the Ladder of Jacob, the monster Leviathan ...