✝ Christian CanonLeviathan
Primary Source: Job 41:1-34 (Biblia Sacra Vulgata); Isaiah 27:1; Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job 33-34; Peter Binsfeld, De confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum (1589)
In classical Christian theology, Leviathan is the impenetrable serpent of chaos and lord of the watery deep. Regarded in Job as king over the proud and prophesied in Isaiah to be slain at the eschaton, medieval exegesis identified him as the devil. Peter Binsfeld designated him the demon of Envy, while medieval iconography famously depicted his maw as the Hellmouth consuming sinners.
“The Latin Vulgate translation of Job establishes Leviathan as an indomitable sea creature whose breath kindles coals, which Gregory the Great allegorized into Satan and Binsfeld codified as the archdemon representing envy.”
