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Copyright © 2019 Kenneth William Lovett All Rights Reserved. The Copyright © 2019 Kenneth William Lovett All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. THE NEGATIVE MOTIF OF THE SEA IN THE OLD TESTAMENT __________________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary __________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________________ by Kenneth William Lovett May 2019 APPROVAL SHEET THE NEGATIVE MOTIF OF THE SEA IN THE OLD TESTAMENT Kenneth William Lovett Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ Terry J. Betts (Chair) __________________________________________ Duane A. Garrett __________________________________________ Russell T. Fuller Date ______________________________ For the glory of God. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE ..................................................................... vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY . 1 Thesis ................................................................ 2 Outline ............................................................... 4 Methodology . 5 2. HERMANN GUNKEL . 7 Significant Works . 9 Challenges ........................................................... 24 Conclusion . 28 3. HISTORY OF SCHOLARSHIP . 29 Significant Contributors .. 30 Conclusion . 48 4. THE NEGATIVE MOTIF OF THE SEA IN ANE LITERATURE ................................................. 50 ANE Myths about the Sea . 51 ANE Myths and OT Scripture . 66 Conclusion . 68 5. THE NEGATIVE MOTIF OF THE SEA IN OTHER ANCIENT LITERATURE ................................... 69 Flood Myths .. 70 Creation Myths . 76 iv Chapter Page Other Sea-Focused Myths . 79 Conclusion . 81 6. THE NEGATIVE MOTIF OF THE SEA IN THE OLD TESTAMENT . 82 The Sea is Opposed to Creation .. 82 The Sea as Judgment .. 96 The Sea is the Abode of the Enemy . 115 The Sea, Death, and Darkness . 127 7. CONCLUSION .. 142 Appendix OCCURRENCES OF TEHOM IN THE OT .. 148 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................155 v PREFACE I would not be writing the preface to this dissertation were it not for the unfailing endurance of my wife, Sarah. Reading that sentence, you might imagine the countless nights and weekends that she kept the kids, alone, in order to allow me to research and write without distraction. What you might not know is that I was at the same time a US Army National Guard Chaplain required to be out of town on a regular basis for training and deployments that have totaled one full year out of the last six years. No one deserves more recognition and thanks than she does. Our children, Luke, Hudson, and Lauren, have also been incredibly patient and encouraging to me. Dr. T. J. Betts essentially became my supervisor before I had even decided to pursue a Ph.D. He gave me the unexpected opportunity to be the grader and occasional teacher for an Elementary Hebrew class during the second semester of my M.Div. studies at SBTS, and he continued to afford me that opportunity and the valuable experience that accompanied it in several Hebrew and Old Testament courses for the rest of my M.Div. and Ph.D. work. His encouragement and guidance have influenced the direction of all my graduate studies. Ken Lovett Louisville, Kentucky May 2019 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY The sea is an inanimate part of creation and has no volition to rebel against its creator. But the OT speaks of God defeating the sea, driving it away, restraining it behind prison bars, stopping the advance of its proud waves, and splitting it as one would split a snake with an ax.1 At the time of creation, the sea was driven away by God so that he could create the dry land. During the flood, the sea covered the dry land, killed all the people, and destroyed their property. In Exodus, the sea killed Pharaoh’s army while they pursued the Israelites. The sea also served as an apt image for prophets to warn of the imminent destruction of the Holy Land. In Jonah, it was the place of his punishment and would have been the place of his death if God had not intervened. Evil beasts and uncontrollable monsters find their home in the sea. The shadowy unknown of the dark depths of the sea also associate it with Sheol, the place of the dead. The OT is so consistently negative about the sea that one would think that the sea is an enemy of God. The enemies of God and humanity in the OT are not difficult to catalog. Satan would top the list as the first enemy to come to mind for most people.2 Death is another enemy that would be on such a list.3 Death and Satan are not the only biblical enemies of humanity and God’s good purposes in the universe. Others on the list would include Babylon; Egypt; and the Philistines, who were enemies more often than not in the biblical 1 See Pss 89:9-10, 104:6-7; Job 38:8-11; and Isa 51:9-11. 2 He is the serpent who deceived Adam and Eve, seducing them to sin, who continues to tempt humans to sin and who makes accusations against them before God to this day (Gen 3; Matt 4; Jas 1:13-15; Rev 12:9-10). 3 Death came through sin just as God told Adam it would (Gen 2:17; Rom 5:12ff.). The Bible also says that death will be the last enemy that will be defeated (1 Cor 15:26). 1 story. The sea is an unlikely candidate for an enemy of God and humanity in the OT. However, this dissertation will demonstrate that the OT uses the sea as a negative motif and that God treats the sea as an enemy. The sea is opposed to God’s purposes in the biblical narrative and finds itself on the receiving end of God’s rebuke and restraint (Ps 104:6-7; Job 38:8-11). Thesis This dissertation argues that the sea is consistently—although not universally—a negative motif in the OT. The OT does not present the sea as a personal being or force like the ancient Near Eastern (ANE) myths that involve a god or goddess of the sea at war with the creator god. However, the sea represents chaos in the OT and opposes the orderly work that is initiated by God in creation and is continued by humans who work to spread order across the land. The sea is a negative motif because it is the abode of Satan. It also harbors his representatives Leviathan, Rahab, and the beasts of Daniel’s vision. These beasts are guises of Satan and find their home in the sea. The sea is a negative motif because it is a place of death and darkness. The sea was also understood with similar negativity throughout the ANE. Several ANE myths have similarities with the OT in their negative depiction of the sea as an opposing force against the creator.4 Outside of the ANE, ancient myths and stories from around the world also reveal that similar beliefs were held by peoples on every continent of the globe. The sea is a negative motif in the stories of ancient peoples from the Aztecs to the Chinese and from the Vikings to the Africans. Generally, those negative feelings about the sea are revealed in a creation story or a flood story from each group. This dissertation examines the evidence against the character of the sea in the 4 There are undeniable similarities and even matching phrases between certain passages from the Bible and ANE myths. This dissertation will also discuss what that does and does not mean regarding the text of the Bible. One must use caution in drawing conclusions based solely on the overlap of a few words. The evidence and arguments for this subject are examined in chap. 4. 2 OT and suggests certain implications for NT studies.5 One interpretational application is the absence of the sea from the new creation in Revelation 21:1, which should be understood in light of the OT’s negativity about the sea. The OT presents the sea in such negative terms that John believed that its chances of being found in the new creation were similar to those of death or Satan. Although this dissertation demonstrates that ANE myth is generally in agreement about the negativity of the sea, this dissertation demonstrates that the content of the OT indicates the negative reputation of the sea. Much of the scholarship that is dedicated to the discussion of the sea in the OT has turned to ANE mythology to find explanations for passages in the OT that refer to the sea in negative terms. The OT is not exclusively negative about the sea—a few verses are positive about the sea, but the scope of this dissertation is to discuss the ways in which the biblical authors used the sea as a negative motif. The sea has existed in tension from the time God created it. It is a beautiful part of the earth and is a gift that God gave to people. Genesis 49:25 speaks of the blessings of the great deep. Deuteronomy 8:7 anticipates the promised land being filled with springs of water from the great deep (the waters under the earth). Ezekiel 31:4 speaks of the great deep causing a figurative tree to grow abundantly, but at the tree’s death the same great deep is closed over it in 31:15 to seal its fate. The sea is full of life forms but is also a fearful place of death. The biblical authors consistently use the sea as a negative motif that connotes the threat of destruction, chaos, death, and darkness. 5 A full discussion of NT interpretational applications is outside the scope of this dissertation, which focuses almost exclusively on the OT.
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