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Rahab |
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Rahab - In Job 26:12; Psalms 37:4, Rahab designates Egypt as an earthly power of evil; also as "an angel of insolence and pride" (Isaiah 51:9). In the Talmudic Bab Batra 74b, Rahab is called the "angel of the sea." (In occult lore the demon of the sea is Kupospaston.) [See Conybeare, The Testament of Solomon, where Kupospaston is a hore-fish and delights in overwhelming ships.] According to legend (Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews V, 26), Rahab was destroyed by God for refusing to separate the upper and lower waters at the time of Creation; and was destroyed again for trying to hinder the Hebrews from escaping the pursuing hosts of Pharaoh at the time of the crossing of the Red (Reed) Sea. Another legend relates that Rahab restored to Adam the mystical Sefer Raziel (The Book of the Angel Raziel) after it had been cast into the sea by envious angels. [Cf. legend of the sacred book, containing all knowledge, that Raphael is said to have given Noah.] The Babylonian Talmud regards Rahab, Leviathan, Behemoth, and the Angel of Death as identical or interchangable. [Rf. Midrash Genesis Rabba 283; Talmud Sanhedrin 108b.] In Blake's Jerusalem, Rahab emerges as the Great Whore, triple goddess (sic) of Heaven, Earth, and Hell. In Blake's Vala or The Four Zoas (Night the 8th), Rahab, as "representative of Urizen's mysteries unclothed, sits among the judges at the trial of Jesus." This Rahab is not to be confused with the Rahab of Joshua 2, the harlot of Jericho, grandmother of David and, it might be said, ancestress of all future quislings, whom Dante nevertheless, in his Paradiso, canto 9, places in Heaven among the elect. (a) RAHAB By : Wilhelm Bacher & Jacob Zallel Lauterbach Originally a mythical name designating the
abyss or the sea; subsequently applied to Egypt. Job ix. 13 and xxvi. 12
indicate that it is an alternative for "Tiamat," the Babylonian name of the
dragon of darkness and chaos; Ps. lxxxix. 9 also indicates that "Rahab" is a
name applied to the sea-monster, the dragon. According to a sentence
preserved in the Talmud, "Rahab" is the name of the demon, the ruler of the
sea ("Sar shel Yam"; B. B. 74b). It is used as a designation for Egypt in
Ps. lxxxvii. 4 and Isa. xxx. 7. Similarly, in Isa. li. 9, which alludes to
the exodus from Egypt, the destruction of Pharaoh is described as a smiting
of the great sea-monster Rahab or the dragon Tannin. The juxtaposition of "Rahab"
and "Tannin" in this passage explains why "Rahab" was used as a designation
for Egypt, which was otherwise called "Tannin" (see Ezek. xxix. 3, Hebr.).
It must be noted that the Jewish exegetes deprived the word "Rahab" of its
mythological character, and explained it as merely an equivalent for
"arrogance," "noise," or "tumult"—applied both to the roaring of the sea and
to the arrogant noisiness and proud boasting of the Egyptians (comp. Abraham
ibn Ezra on Ps. lxxxvii. 4 and lxxxix. 9). (k) [See Also:
Abezi-Thibod,
Leviathan,
Behemoth] |
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Resource List - all entries are taken verbatim from the original source: (a) "The Dictionary of Angels" by Gustav Davidson, © 1967 (k) http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/index.jsp |
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