Book of Mormon Evidence: Isaiah's Monster in Jacob's Teachings

After reading the words of Isaiah (2 Nephi 6:6–7, 16–18; 2 Nephi 7–8), the prophet Jacob explained how Christ brings about a way of escape from what he termed “that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment” (2 Nephi 9:19). Throughout this chapter, Jacob repeatedly employs this striking hybrid image (2 Nephi 9:10, 26). Previous studies have noted that Jacob’s monster imagery appears to be rooted in ancient Near Eastern cosmic symbolism, including Isaiah 51:9–10.1 This article offers additional evidence supporting that view.

An Ancient Sea Monster

In the ancient Near East, the sea was often personified as a monster of frightening epic power that had to be subdued at the time of creation.2 Various words with overlapping meaning were used to reference the primeval ocean whose dangerous force could only be held at bay by divine power. Israelite prophets made use of this cultural backdrop to emphasize God’s triumph over the chaotic waters at the time of creation or in subsequent acts of deliverance in which the unruly waters were equated with the historical enemies of the Lord’s people.

For instance, Isaiah alludes to the Lord’s victory at the Red Sea using the following language: “Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not he who hath dried up the sea, and waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?” (2 Nephi 8:9–10; Isaiah 51:9–10). These terms used by Isaiah—“Rahab,” “dragon” (tannin), “sea” (yam), and “deep” (tehom)—were all connected with the mighty waters and express overlapping facets of the same conceptual foe.3

Rahab was the name of a powerful monster conceptualized as an enormous serpent or dragon, “a sea monster defeated at the time of creation.”4

The dragon (tannin) is depicted in some passages as an enemy of God to be slain at a future day (Isaiah 27:1).5 Ezekiel, writing somewhat after Isaiah, refers to Pharaoh as tannin (Ezekiel 29:3; 32:2). These and other biblical passages reveal “the portrait of a sea monster (or dragon) who served in various texts as the personification of chaos or those evil, historical forces opposed to Yahweh and his people.”6 

The sea (yam) not only refers to the ocean but could also denote inland seas that we might characterize as lakes, such as the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. According to ancient conceptions, “Yam is not only the deity of the sea, but also of the rivers (he is often called zbl ym tpt nhr, ‘prince Sea, ruler River’). In this context, the rivers are to be construed as destructive powers.” Specifically, Yam often “represents the power of chaos which appears in the sea and the rivers.”7 As such, “The destructive powers of Yam and Mot [death] are somehow connected.”8

The deep (tehom) refers to the dangerous chaotic primeval waters thought to surround the earth when the world was created.9 They were perceived as a threatening force that still needed to be controlled by God’s power.10

According to Neil Forsyth, each of these elements—Rahab, Tannin, Yam, and Tehom—blended together into one ancient conception. In Isaiah’s writings, the Lord is “the same warrior who defeated the dragon, or the beast Rahab, who overcame the chaos of the Deep in the cosmogonic combat myth, making the waters dry up so the people could proceed.”11 In passages such as Isaiah 51:9–11, “The historical event of the crossing and the mythological combat have become identical, when viewed from the typological perspective. Deep, Rahab, Red Sea—all are parallel forms of the cosmic and historical adversary.”12

The Sea: A Domain of Chaos and Death

The waters of the deep (tehom) could also symbolize the “world of the dead.”13 According to A. J. Wensinck, “It is a designation of death, the grave and hell.”14 Similarly, both Rahab and Yam were often equated with or linked to death.15 As explained by Nicolas Wyatt, “the Sea does not merely bound the world; it participates in, indeed is one of the dominant metaphors for, the underworld.”16 The rolling, serpent-like waves of the waters could also convey the idea that the sea, the realm of death, was a place of suffering. Rahab was linked with the shades of the dead which were perceived as troubled.17

Poetically, the prophets and psalmists also equated the troubled waters to those peoples who arrayed themselves against God and his people.18 As portrayed in passages like Psalm 77:16, the writhing, turbulent waves pointed to the unsettled state of sinners: “The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths were also troubled.”

The book of Job conveys similar imagery: “Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering” (Job 26:5). The Hebrew word rendered “formed” in the King James version of this passage is derived from a root meaning to “twist, writhe: a. in pain, esp. childbirth.”19 That is, the waters are a place where the shades of the dead writhe in pain or torment. Although the final form of this text was probably composed after the time of Lehi’s departure from Jerusalem, its imagery of the sea as a place of the dead likely reflects a concept understood by earlier biblical writers such as Isaiah.

Jacob’s Teachings

With these details in mind, it may be helpful to more thoroughly review of Jacob’s statements on this topic in 2 Nephi 9:

10 O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.

11 And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.

12 And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies …

16 … wherefore, they who are filthy are the devil and his angels; and they shall go away into everlasting fire, prepared for them; and their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone …

19 O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.

26 For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them breath, which is the Holy One of Israel.

As can be seen, death, hell, the devil, and torment, are repeatedly associated with a monster that has captured its prey (the souls of men) and also with a sea/lake of fire that is associated with a grave. Jacob establishes Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel, as the one who will deliver and redeem his people from this composite sea beast. 

One line of evidence that helps directly connect Jacob’s monster imagery with that previously given by Isaiah involves Jacob’s use of the phrases “way of escape” and “way of deliverance”: 

The verses in 2 Nephi 8:9–10 (quoting Isaiah 51:9–10) allude to the defeat of Pharaoh and his armies at the Red Sea, as well as Israel’s safe passage through the waters. These dried up waters were the “way for the ransomed to pass over.” As previously noted, Isaiah overlays this scene with cosmic monster imagery (mentioning “Rahab” and the “dragon”) that was prevalent throughout the ancient Near East. Wyatt observes that, since the ocean symbolizes the dominion of death, “to cross the sea is to die. The Israelites cross the sea. In doing so, they travel from the land of the dead to the land of the living.”20 

In other words, the Lord in his victory over the sea makes a dry path through the waters, which Jacob fittingly reinterprets as the abolishment of death through the power and resurrection of the Holy One of Israel, in which all the dead shall “pass from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal” to appear before the judgement seat of God (2 Nephi 9:15). The fact that the passages in 2 Nephi 9:10–11 allude to this same “way” of escape or deliverance—but that they contain different and entirely appropriate monster/sea imagery—is quite telling. This appears to be a sophisticated commentary written by an author who was himself steeped in Near Eastern mythology.

Conclusion

It would be quite surprising if Joseph Smith would have known to include this relevant complex of ideas (“monster,” “death,” “hell,” “lake,” “grave”) throughout Jacob’s commentary in 2 Nephi 9, and especially in a setting of deliverance like 2 Nephi 9:10–11 (corresponding to 2 Nephi 8:9–10; Isaiah  51:9–10).21 Most modern readers have probably never noticed how Jacob is specifically building off of imagery from the previous chapter, much less its congruence with the Near Eastern cosmic mythology. The manner in which Jacob develops and sustains this theme, connecting the deliverance of Jesus Christ to a network of ancient sea/monster motifs is truly remarkable, pointing to the Book of Mormon’s textual complexity and ancient origins.