Lecture 3 — Leviathan as a metaphor for the devil

^40:20^ Or could you catch Leviathan with a fish hook and will you bind his tongue with cord?

^40:21^ Can you put a ring in his nose and pierce his jawbone with a bit?

^40:22^ Will he multiply prayers to you or will he speak soft words to you?

^40:23^ Will he make a covenant with you and will you take him for your perpetual slave?

^40:24^ Will you deceive him like a bird or bind him with your servants?

^40:25^ Will friends cut him to pieces, will the merchants divide him?

^40:26^ Will you fill the net with his skin and the bow net of fish with his head?

^40:27^ Put your hand over him. Remember the war and do not say another word.

^40:28^ Behold, his hope will be in vain for him, and he will perish with everyone looking on.

546. Or could you catch Leviathan with a fish hook. After the Lord described the characteristics of the devil under the simile of an elephant, the largest land animal, he describes him under the simile of Leviathan, that is, a whale, the largest of marine animals. As Pliny says, he is the size of four acres, and Isidore says that they have bodies the size of mountains. The name Leviathan alludes to this, for one can interpret it to mean their excessive size. So Isidore says this animal is called balena from the Greek balein, which means to send forth, because it sends forth water higher than the other animals. Just as the devil is compared to the elephant, who lives on land, because of the manifest effects which he causes in land and corporeal creatures, so one can compare the devil to the whale, living in the waves of the sea, because of the effects which he works in moving interior motions to and fro.

547. Since he already expressed the victory of man over the devil using the image of hunting elephants, to preclude one from believing that man, by his own power, can overcome the devil, he begins to exclude this in the image of Leviathan.

First, he shows that he cannot be caught like one catches other fish, and so he says, or could you catch Leviathan in the sea with a fishhook?

This cannot happen for two reasons.

First, because he is of such great size that no power or instrument of man can lift him, and to show this he says, could you catch him?

Second, because he has such great power that he cannot be held by a fishhook, and to show this he says, and will you bind his tongue with cord? For fish which are taken with a hook are bound by the line which is attached to the hook. This means that no man can take the devil away from his malice or even bind him to keep him from doing this evil.

548. Second, he shows that man cannot master him in the manner in which other great land animals are mastered. An ox is restrained by man using an iron ring which is placed in its nostrils, by which a man leads it where he wills. To exclude this he says, can you put a ring in his nose? Man also masters the horse, ass, or camel by placing a bridle or muzzle in his mouth, and to exclude this he says, or pierce his jawbones with a bit? The jawbones of these animals are perforated with a bit, that is, with iron which is placed in their mouth. As the ox is led with a ring placed through its nose, so the gait of the horse is directed with a bridle and bit placed in the jaws of the horse so that he may carry a man with ease. Through this image we are given to understand that no one can lead the devil where he wants nor direct him to serve his will.

549. Third, he shows that Leviathan cannot be mastered like man subjects man.

This happens in two ways:

in one way by a simple word, for example, when someone, as he is humbled by ,must ask another for what he desires, and he expresses this when he says, will he multiply prayers to you? He may even add flattering words to this request, and he expresses this continuing, or will he speak soft words to you? using flattering words to please you; as Proverbs says, a quiet response shatters anger (Prov 15:1).

In another way, one is obliged to someone either by some particular contract, which he expresses when he says, will he make a covenant with you? or by perpetual slavery, which he expresses, saying, and will you take him for your perpetual slave?

These four things sometimes go in order.

For sometimes, because of fear, someone first addresses a request to a victor,

second, he flatters,

third, he is taken under indenture,

and fourth, by this indenture he is subjected to perpetual slavery.

Through all these images we are given to understand that the devil does not fear man, entreating him as a superior, or as one stronger, from fear or flatteries or treaty or slavery. If he pretends these sorts of things, he deceives man, so that he may rather subject man to himself than be subjected to man.

550. Fourth, he shows that he cannot be tamed like birds are tamed by man.

Consider here that birds are first captured with some deception, by nets or bird‑lime or something of the kind. To exclude this he says, will you deceive him like a bird, so that you master him by deception?

Second, after their capture, they are bound so that they cannot fly, and they are shown to the children and the servants like playthings. He means this when he says, or will you bind him with the servants? By these things he shows that man cannot by his own diligence overcome the devil by deceiving him, nor can he show him to others as an object of derision.

551. After he has shown that he cannot be subjected like animals are subjected, he shows consequently that man cannot use him, even if he were subjected, like he uses other large animals when they are given into the power of man.

First, he shows this as to other captured land animals, for example, deer, boar, and other things like this, whose flesh is divided in two parts, one to give free to friends, and he excludes this, saying, will friends cut him in pieces? as a question. In another way, by selling it to various people, and expressing this he says, will the merchants divide him? implying the answer no. For so great is the bulk of this animal that should it be captured on rare occasions, it would suffice to feed a whole region, and so it is not divided into parts by friends or sold to the butcher like other animals. By this, he means that man cannot offer the aid of the demons to someone else either for free or for profit.

552. Second, he shows that man cannot use Leviathan like he uses fish he has caught. Fishermen fill large nets with these fish in great numbers, and he expresses this, saying, will you fill the net with his skin? He clearly says skin, perhaps to express the way in which the very large whales are captured, who by very long stalks which they have, bind the whales to the rocks when they are sleeping in their crags, as one source says, and then, when the fisherman approaches as close as he can, he cuts the skin from the fat as far as the tail. For the animal is very fat, and because of this fat he does not feel the cut. So when the cords have been attached which bind him to the rocks or the trees, the fisherman excites the whale with a shower of stones, who leaves his skin trying to escape. They find other smaller recipients with smaller fish, and as to this he says, and a bow net of fish with his head? For the bow net is an instrument made from flexible baskets, which the fishermen place in a whirlpool to capture fish. But so great is the size of the whale that neither the whole nor the part of it, for example, the head, can be contained in a great bow net. For it is said to have a head so big that one can fill forty large earthen vessels with it. This is all a figure, to show that the devil cannot be bound by human power, as the fortune tellers thought they could bind him. This results completely from his cunning, which he uses to deceive men. If anyone thinks rightly about this, all this seems to confound the presumption of the fortune‑tellers, who sought to enter into a pact with demons, either to subject them to their power or to bind them in some other way.

553. After he has shown that man cannot overcome the devil in any way by his own power, he says as a conclusion to all he has said, put your hand over him (if you can is implied), for you cannot put your hand over him in any way by your own power to subject him to yourself. But, although he cannot be dominated by man, yet he is overcome by divine power, and so he adds, remember the war, in which I fought against him, and do not say another word against me when you see that he has been vanquished by my power, whom you could not overcome by yours. About the conquest by which he is overcome he adds, behold, his hope will be in vain for him. If this is referred to the whale, it is clear. For when the whale follows fish hoping to eat them, he runs aground on some shore, and as he cannot free himself because of the shallowness of the water, he is frustrated in his hope, which is to capture fish. So when he rises to the surface, he rushes to death. He express this then, saying, and he will perish with everyone looking on, because men run from everywhere when they see him to kill him. In this, he wants to show that the hope the devil has for the subversion of the saints will be frustrated, and he with all his following will be cast down into hell on the day of judgment with all the saints looking on.