Rahab, minister of the sea
Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) · numen · Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) traditional religion; continuing · numen
A PRIMARY NAME THAT IS NOT JUST 'RAHAB', ON PURPOSE. The corpus already holds yahwism_rahab and jewish_leviathan beside yahwism_leviathan, so the one-cult-two-keys pattern is established here; but an unqualified 'Rahab' would have been a needless collision, so the primary carries the office the Talmud gives him. He is also the only figure in this batch who is killed.
Domains
- rule of the sea
- refusal of the creator
- the primordial abyss
Relations
- cross tradition counterpart of: Rahab
Sources
- Reference treatment of Rahab the minister of the sea: according to Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 74b, when God sought to create the world He commanded the minister of the sea to open his mouth and swallow all the waters so that land could appear; the minister refused, saying it was enough to stay within his own waters, and God struck and killed him, citing Job 26:12, 'He stirs up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He smites through Rahab'; Rabbi Yitzhak concluded from this that the name of the minister of the sea is Rahab, the ruler of the sea; the Talmud notes that were it not for the waters covering him, no creature could withstand his smell, as his corpse emits a terrible stench; Rahab represents the primordial abyss, the water dragon of darkness and chaos, and later became a particular demon inhabiting the sea, especially associated with the Red Sea.
- Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 74b
- Job 26:12