Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DEEP

The chaotic and terrifying cosmic waters out of which the world originated (Heb. tĕhôm; Gk. ábyssos).

In the Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, the monstrous goddess Tiamat, whose name is etymologically related to Heb. tĕhôm, is slain by the god Marduk in a cosmic battle. After he defeats Tiamat, Marduk cuts her body into two parts; one becomes the earth, and the other becomes the heavens. Marduk thus creates the world and establishes order out of chaos.

Even though there are echoes of this Babylonian epic in Genesis, God there creates order out of chaos by “separating the waters from the waters” and “making a firmament” and separating the waters under the firmament from those above it (Gen. 1:6-7). He does not tame a giant dragon. God divides and contains the waters with his breath (Ps. 33:6-7), and he uses “the fountains of the great deep” to wash away the violence and corruption of the world (Gen. 7:11; cf. 8:2). These waters are also the instruments of God’s power and providence in leading the Israelites out of Egypt (Exod. 15:5-8).

The deep also refers to the underworld (Jon. 2:3, 5-6[MT 4, 6-7]) and the realm of the dead (Job 38:16; Rom. 10:7), and it occasionally refers to the primeval battle between God and the monsters of chaos: Rahab, Leviathan, Tannin (cf. Isa. 51:9-10).

Henry L. Carrigan, Jr.

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DEEP

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)