information on the subject. The Apocalypse of Abraham 10 speaks of Leviathans (i.e., the male and female monsters), which the archangel Jaoel holds in check; in another passage (21; the text is not quite clear) Leviathan and his possession are spoken of, where, perhaps, the Leviathan and his mate should be read. In case this apocalyptic work was originally composed in Hebrew, the present text can easily be explained as being due to the translator’s confusion of קניתו=קנעחו “his mate” with קניתו=קנינו “his possession”. Comp. Kiddushin 6a, where instead of the reading קנויה, as is found in our texts, we should read, with the Geonim in Sha’are Zedek 17a, No. 4, קניתי=קנעתי “my mate”. In the last passage of the Apocalypse referred to above the remark is made that the world rests upon Leviathan. This shows the high antiquity of the similar statement found in rabbinic sources; PRE 9; Konen 26; ’Aseret ha-Dibrot 63; Baraita de-Ma’aseh Bereshit 47 (the whole world, as well as the “Great Sea” which compasses it, rests on four pillars, and these pillars rest on one of the fins of Leviathan); Seder Rabba di-Bereshit 9; Zohar III, 279. Comp. also the numerous quotations from Kabbalistic writings by Luria on PRE, loc. cit., as well as Ginzberg, Haggada bei den Kirchenv., 19, where a quotation from a New Testament apocrypha is given concerning the “divos pisces (i.e., Leviathan and his mate) jacentes super aquas … tenentes totam terram”. Rather obscure is the statement of Jerome on Is. 27.1 that, according to a Judaica Fabula, the monster spoken of by the prophet lives under the ground and in the air, whereas the monsters mentioned in Gen. 1.21 have their habitation in the sea. As an explanation of these obscure words of Jerome, attention should be called to the fact that next to the view mentioned above which sees in Leviathan a monster which encircles the whole earth, there is also another which identifies him with the vault of heaven to which the signs of the Zodiac are affixed. Comp. the quotation from PRE by Kimhi on Is., loc. cit.; Kafir, loc. cit. (it has 365 eyes = days of the year); Kaneh 30c and 32c–32d; Rokeah in the commentary on Yezirah 14c. Comp. also Harkavy תלי אתליא in the Hebrew periodical Ben ‘Ammi, January 1887, 27–35. That Leviathan was not identical with the תנינים mentioned in Gen., loc. cit., is also presupposed by the Haggadah which asserts that Leviathan was created first (this is based on Job 40.19, which rather applies to Behemoth; thus the two monsters are taken to be a “pair”; comp. above), and afterwards the rest of the world. Comp. Ibn Ezra’s introduction to his commentary on the Pentateuch, and פרוש על איוב
45
