Dragons represent chaos and death, while stars symbolize the opposition to order and goodness in the world.
The presence of darkness and waters signifies nonorder, while light and land symbolize order in the creation narrative.
Deep dives
Dragon symbolism in ancient Near East
The Sea Dragon is a common symbol in the ancient Near East, representing chaos and death. It is mentioned in the first mention of the Sea Dragon in the Bible, on page one, where God creates the Sea Dragon on day four as He fills the seas with various creatures. The Sea Dragon and stars are different ways of talking about the chaos and disorder that exist in the world. They are not rivals of God, but rivals of creation and order.
Separation of order and nonorder
The poetic ordering of the creation days in Genesis 1 highlights the separation of order and nonorder. Days one and three represent order and goodness, while day two focuses on separating waters from waters. The presence of darkness and waters represents nonorder, while light and land symbolize order. The creation narrative emphasizes the importance of separating the realms of chaos from the realms of order.
The significance of bonus inhabitants
Days four and five in the creation story introduce bonus inhabitants associated with darkness and waters respectively. Day four brings forth the sun, moon, and stars as inhabitants of the dark realm, while day five introduces sea monsters as additional inhabitants of the watery realm. These bonus inhabitants represent cosmic forces that pose threats to the good and ordered creation.
The symbolism of stars and sea monsters
Stars and sea monsters serve as symbolic representations of spiritual forces in biblical literature. The rebel stars and sea monsters symbolize the anti-creation powers that seek to oppose the goodness and order that God desires. These symbols are used to describe the opposition to God's will and the forces that seek to bring chaos and destruction to creation.
Dragons show up on page one of the Bible, named among the beings that feature in the seven-day creation narrative in Genesis 1. God creates dragons to inhabit the chaos waters, and we meet one early on that tries (and succeeds) to get the first humans to choose their own destruction. Why would God create these creatures? What is their purpose? Join Tim and Jon as they talk about the literary function of dragons in the Bible.
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Show Music
“Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS
Additional sound design by Tyler Bailey, Dan Gummel, and Matthew Halbert-Howen
Show produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder, Lead Editor Dan Gummel, and Editors Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza. Mixed by Tyler Bailey. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by Hannah Woo.
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