Lecture 2 — Behemoth or the elephant as a metaphor for the devil

^40:10^ Behold Behemoth which I made with you. He eats grass like an ox.

^40:11^ His strength is in his loins and his power is in the navel of his belly.

^40:12^ He stiffens his tail like a cedar, the sinews of his testicles are joined together.

^40:13^ His bones are like tubes of bronze; their cartilage is like plates of iron.

^40:14^ He is the first of the ways of God. He who made him will direct his sword.

^40:15^ The mountains yield grass for him; all the beasts of the fields play there.

^40:16^ He sleeps in the shade in the thicket of the reeds and in wet places.

^40:17^ The shadows protect his shadow. The falling willows cover him.

^40:18^ He will absorb rivers without shame; he presumes that the Jordan will flow in his mouth.

^40:19^ In his eyes, they capture him like a fish on a hook, and they pierce his nose with stakes.

534. Behold Behemoth which I made with you. In these remarks the Lord had told of the effects of his power which he works on evil men. Here he goes on the describe the evil of the devil. It is clear from what has already been said that Job and his friends have the same opinion about the demons as the one the Catholic Church holds, namely, that they fell through sin from angelic dignity, and so he said already, behold those who serve him are not stable (Job 4:18). Just as man fell through sin from the dignity of reason and is compared to irrational creatures in acting against reason, so the devil turned himself through sin from supreme and intelligible goods, because he desired power over lower and earthly things, and so he is compared to the brute animals. The demons frequently appear to man in the likenesses of beasts. God foresaw this and gave them the ability to take such figures of bodies to fittingly represent their condition.

535. Consider that just as the angels who remain in their dignity have a certain excellence above the dignity of men, and so they appear to men in a very brilliant light, so also the demons have a certain excellence and dominion over evil men, and so they are described using the figures of certain extraordinary and almost monstrous animals. Among all earthly animals, the elephant excels in size and strength, and among aquatic animals, the whale. So the Lord describes the devil using the metaphor of an elephant and a whale. Thus the name Behemoth, which means animal, is referred to the elephant, which among other land animals who are more common has a certain preeminence because of the size of his body. The name Leviathan, which means their addition, is referred to the large whales, which have a larger dimension than every other genus of animal.

536. Perhaps it might seem that the Lord in the literal sense intended to express the characteristics of elephant and whale as to the size in which they surpass the rest of animals. But the properties of these animals are described as a metaphor of something else. This is clear because, after he has described the characteristics pertaining to this figure, He explains their meaning here. After he has described the properties of the Behemoth, that is, the elephant, he explains the truth, saying, he is the principle of the ways of God. When he has explained the properties of the Leviathan, that is, the whale, he says, he is the king over all the sons of pride (Job 41:25). The disputation of Job is finished, fittingly enough, with a description of the devil, who is his adversary, because Satan was the cause of all his suffering in the first place (Job 1:12). So, because the friends of Job strove to refer the cause of the adversities of Job to Job himself, and thought he was punished because of his sins, the Lord, after he contradicted Job about the lack of order in his speech, makes the final determination of the argument and treats the evil of Satan, which was the beginning of the adversity of Job, and is the beginning of human damnation. This is in accord with Wisdom, death was introduced into the world by the envy of the devil (Wis 2:24).

537. First, he begins to describe Satan using the image of Behemoth, and he describes this as fitting to man, saying, behold Behemoth which I made with you. If, indeed, this is referred to the time of the beginning of both, it is true as to the metaphysical term itself because man and the earthly animals were created together on the sixth day (Gen 1:24). If it is referred to the devil, about whom these things are said figuratively or metaphorically, it does not seem that the devil was created at the same time as man. For man, we read, was created on the sixth day. Satan, however, according to faith, was created with the angels in the beginning, in which God created the heaven and the earth. But if the enumeration of days in creation does not designate succession of time but the different genera of the things created, according to the opinion of Augustine, there is no opposition in the text. If, however, as others say, the creation of the angels preceded in duration the bringing forth of man, the word “with” can be understood in two ways. In one way, the sense is which I made with you, that is, whom I made just as I made you, and he says this to exclude the error of those who, considering the evil of the devil, thought that he could not be a creature of the good God. In another way the sense is, whom I made with you, because the devil is like you in intellectual nature. One finds some trace of this likeness in the elephant. For Aristotle says in VIII De Animalibus that the wild animal most capable of domestication is the elephant: for one can teach him many things and he understands, since one trains them to kneel before kings. This is not said because he has an intellect but because of the good of his natural estimative power.

538. After he describes how Behemoth is one with man, he describes his characteristics, and to refer us first to the image, he describes three things.

First, his food, when he says, he eats grass like the ox. Literally, he is not a carnivorous animal but eats grass and other things of this kind like the ox. Because grass grows in the earth, this is an image of where Satan feeds, because he delights in the dominion of the earthly things, and so he says, boasting about himself in Luke, they are given to me, namely, the kingdoms of all the earth, and I give them to whom I will (Luke 4:6).

539. Second, he describes his conjugal relations. For the principal animal pleasures consist in food and intercourse.

He describes the intercourse of the elephant first, as to the principle of pleasure which excites animals to intercourse, when he says, his strength is in his loins, for semen descends to the genital members from the loins or from the kidney area.

Second, he describes the act of intercourse. For, as Aristotle says in V Animalium, the young girl elephant undergoes coitus sitting down, and the male mounts her. This is what he means when he says, and his power is in the navel of his belly, namely, he places the navel in coitus on the back of the female, and the navel must be very strong so as not to be broken in the impact of such large bodies. Animals who perform coitus of this kind press their tails between their legs when they perform the sexual act, and so he says, he stiffens his tail like a cedar, which he says because of their size.

Third, he describes the organs serving coitus when he says, the sinews of his testicles are joined together, that is, they revolve twisting around each other, as Aristotle says in III Animalium, about the testicles of all animals who walk and generate other animals.

540. These things cannot be literally referred to the devil, since demons themselves do not have carnal intercourse like animals, as though they took pleasure in intercourse itself. For although as Augustine says in Book XV of The City of God: the demons often are said to have slept with women, lusted after them, and consummated intercourse with them. Yet they did not do this from enjoyment of intercourse, but they do enjoy leading men into the kind of sins which they are prone to. So Augustine says in Book II of The City of God: can anyone fail to see and understand what efforts these malignant spirits use to give authority and an example for criminal acts?, and because of this, as he says in the same book in another place, spirits of this kind delight in the obscenities of lust; and their delight is metaphorically expressed in the passages cited above. Because they especially use the concupiscence of the flesh to conquer men with this sin, he says, his power is in his loins, which refers to men, and his strength in the navel of his belly, which refers to women. They make their tails stiffen like a cedar, because those he casts into this sin he holds bound together until they end in the sweet pleasure of their desire; the sinews of his testicles are joined together, because if anyone cast down in this vice desires to flee, he is ensnared a second time on various occasions.

541. Third, he describes the motion of the elephants which are said to have inflexible feet, shin bones, and legs, in order to sustain the weight of their body, and they have solid bones without joints. To show this he says, his bones are like tubes of bronze, because like tubes of bronze they cannot be bent. This refers to the exterior organs of motion, which are the shin bones and the joints. The interior organs of motion are certain limbs and nerves, which are also not easily bent in elephants, and expressing this he says, their cartilage is like plates of iron, which cannot be curved or extended. This indicates the obstinacy of the devil, who cannot renounce his malicious designs, and the cruelty by which he does not cease from the exterior harm of men.

542. The Lord explains these things figuratively, continuing, he, that is, Satan, about whom these metaphors are used, is as the first of the ways of God, of his works. If this is referred to the works of creation, it is because Satan was created among the first creatures, or also because according to some author, he was more excellent than the other creatures. But it seems more fitting to the intention to understand the ways of God to mean the works of his providence. We should consider that there is only one work which is properly fitting to God’s goodness: to do good and be merciful. The fact that he punishes and allows adversities to happen is due to the evil of rational creatures, which is first found in the devil and derived by his suggestion to men. Therefore, he clearly says, he is the principle of the ways of God, because God uses different ways to do good and to punish evil. To preclude one from thinking that he is the first of the ways of God because he has the power to harm from himself alone, he says, he, God, who made him will direct his sword, that is, his injurious act. The will to harm comes from the devil in himself, and because of this, the sword is said to be his.

But the power of harming can only come from the divine will or divine permission. Since he had said that he eats grass like an ox (Job 40:10), he shows where he gets his grass to eat, and so he says, the mountains yield grass for him. By this, one understands that the proud and lofty men in this world offer to the devil the material of his delight or eating. He shows how this is done, saying, all the beasts of the fields play there. For just as the wild animals gather in the mountains for security and leisure, according to the literal sense, so under the protection of men in high places, men who rage like beasts rest secure. This is clearly shown in Daniel, beneath the tree, which means the kingly dignity, animals and beasts live (Dan 4:9).

543. He next describes their habitat. Consider here that Aristotle says in V Animalium, elephants live for the most part in solitude and on the banks of rivers; and because there are usually reeds, willows, and shady places on the banks of rivers, he therefore shows the habitat of the elephant, saying, he sleeps in the shade in a thicket of reeds and in wet places. Since this animal does not desire just any kind of shade but deep dark shade, he says, the shadows protect his shadow, to say that the smaller shadow is protected by the larger shadow from the heat. Last, he shows the cause of this shade, saying, the falling willows cover him, for willows make a thicker shade and are cooler than reeds. According to the literal sense, this animal dwells in shadowy places because he is an animal with a dry and dark complexion and he lives in hot climates. So he seeks the refreshment of dampness and shade against the dry heat of the summer. By this, he describes the fact that the sword of the devil has power not only in the mountains, among the proud who nourish him with grass and protect the beasts playing in the fields, but also in men who live in leisure, like in the shade. These men try to perceive this shade for themselves with great zeal, so that the shades thus protect their shade, and nourish themselves on pleasure in humid places.

544. For the same reason that this animal seeks humid and shady places, he also drinks a lot of water, and so Aristotle says in VII De Animalibus that now an elephant drinks fourteen Macedonian netretae of water right off and again in the evening another eight. So to describe the great quantity of his drink, he says, he will absorb rivers without shame, because he usually drank much water, and after he drank much, he hoped to drink even more, and so he says, he presumes that the Jordan will flow in his mouth, which is a river known in that part of the world where these things were recounted. This is hyperbole when referring to the elephant. However, as it is referred to the devil, who is figuratively represented in these things, they describe the presumption with which he confidently joins with him by consent all the unstable men, even if they have some knowledge of God. To show this, he especially speaks of the Jordan, a river which flows in the land where one had the true knowledge of God. The sword of the devil has special power in these three kinds of men: the proud, the sensual, and the unstable, or those given to the cares of this world, who can be described as a river.

545. Yet there are some who are not overcome by the devil, but rather, obtain victory over him. This principally pertains to Christ, about whom the Apocalypse says, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered (Rev 5:5). Consequently, this befits others also through the grace of Christ, as Corinthians says, thanks be to God, who gave us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:57). The Lord describes this victory using the image of hunting the elephant, saying, in his eyes they, the hunters, capture him like a fish on a hook. These hunters are Christ and those who belong to him. There is said to be one manner of hunting elephants which consists in making a deep hole in the path of the elephant into which he falls without knowing. One hunter approaches, strikes and stabs him. Another hunter comes, touches the first hunter, and moves him away, so that he should not strike the elephant and finish the elephant, and gives the elephant barley to eat. When he does this three or four times, the elephant loves him who has freed him and so he tamely obeys him. So they are captured by food given to them like fish by a hook.

There is another way of hunting elephants. As Aristotle says in IX De Animalibus, the hunters ride tame elephants on horseback, proceed in quest of wild elephants and wound them with various kinds of weapons. He expresses this, saying, they pierce his nose with stakes, where he has more sensitive flesh, and that is why he is more often wounded there by hunters. In the spiritual sense this describes Christ, who overcame the devil by showing natural weakness to him so that he might destroy him as though he used a hook, and afterwards he might exercise his power in him, as Colossians says, he disarmed the principalities and his powers, and made a public display of him (Col 2:15).