Trampling Serpents: Dragons and Jesus Walking On Water
One of my favorite shows growing up was Discovery’s Mythbusters. My brother and I loved working with our hands, so seeing Adam Savage and Jamie Hynemen construct and blow stuff up in the name of science was a dream come true for two little boys. In one episode, they tested whether humans could walk on water like a Common Basilisk lizard. After watching the episode, I remember unsuccessfully trying to walk on water at .
While a fun example of youthful naiveness, like many others, I transferred my understanding of physics to Jesus walking on water in Matthew 14:22–33. assumed the miracle was Jesus defying the laws of physics. However, I later realized there’s WAY more to the story than I had initially thought. Let me explain by first giving some context of the Ancient Near East.
Ancient Near East Context: Chaoskampf
No, I didn’t misspell the last word in the title, and don’t be intimidated by the long word. Chaoskampf is a German word that basically means “struggle against chaos.” Chaoskampf is used in biblical scholarship to refer to a broad trope within Ancient Near Eastern creation myths where a high god, usually some storm or fertility deity, fights some form of chaos, usually a sea deity or dragon. It is only after the defeat of chaos that the high god creates the world. Some examples include:
- Enuma Elish (Babylonian): Marduk, the high god, fights Tiamat, a monstrous water dragon, to create the cosmos and rule over the other gods.
- Baal Cycle (Ugaritic): Baal must defeat Yamm, an ocean deity, and Mot, the god of death, to claim the kingship of the gods
- Kumbaris Cycle (Hittite): A cycle of Hittite gods constantly rising against one another for supremacy. The story features some…… peculiar… divine origins.
So, what does Chaoskampf have to do with the Bible? Actually, quite a bit. Because Israel was in the Ancient Near East, the Bible uses Chaoskampf to exalt Yahweh as the supreme God over creation. For example, Isaiah 27:1 reads:
“In that day, Yahweh will punish with his sword, His fierce, great, and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; He will slay the dragon of the sea.”
Notice that all the elements of Chaoskampf are present: the high god (Yahweh) fights and kills the chaos monster (Leviathan), who is some sea dragon or serpent (dragons and serpents were frequently interchangeable due to their similar appearance). This is consistent with Leviathan’s depiction elsewhere in the Bible (cf. Job 41, Psalm 74:14, 104:26) and in the ancient world (KTU 1.5 i 1–3).
Another example is Psalm 93:
“Yahweh, clothed in splendor, reigns, Yahweh has girded himself with strength, indeed, the world will be established and not shaken.
Your throne is established from then; you are forever.
Yahweh, the rivers lift up; the rivers lift up their voice, the rivers lift up their rushing.
Greater than the voices of the great and majestic waters, greater than the rushing of the majestic waters is the high place of Yahweh.
Your testimonies are very faithful for your house, pleasant is the holiness of Yahweh for all the length of days.
Once again, all the elements of Chaoskampf are present: Yahweh’s reign is linked with the stability of the created world, and His throne is established over the rivers. While it may seem like a stretch to interpret the rivers as the enemies of Yahweh, the Hebrew word “nahar” is related to Ugaritic “nhr,” a title for Yamm, Baal’s enemy, in the Baal Cycle. This fits in well with Chaoskampf and Yahweh’s enemies being associated with water.
Jesus And Chaoskampf
Applying the background of Chaoskampf in the Bible to Matthew 14:22–33 brings remarkable clarity to the passage. Jesus walking upon the sea is not simply a physical miracle; Jesus is also establishing His authority over the sea dragon, something only Yahweh alone could do in the Old Testament! It is no wonder that the disciples worship Jesus in verse 33 and call Him the Son of God; as Second Temple Jews, they recognize only Yahweh could’ve done what Jesus just did.
There’s also something else going on. Remember that in Chaoskampf, the enemy of the high god is usually some sea dragon or serpent; Isaiah 27:1 is a great example. With that in mind, I’d argue that Matthew 14:22–33 fulfills Yahweh’s promise to the woman in Genesis 3:15 that her seed would crush the serpent’s head because, in Matthew 14:22–33, you’ve got Jesus, the seed of Mary, literally walking upon a well-known symbol of the serpent!
Application: Dragon-Slaying Power
Finally, for those of you who know Matthew 14:22–33, you know that Jesus isn’t the only person who walks on the sea; He calls Peter out of the boat, and for a brief moment, Peter walks upon the sea until his faith wavers. Dear readers, consistent with Chaoskampf, Jesus is the only one who can destroy the chaos dragon, and He graciously gives believers dragon-slaying power. We are not meant to wait in the boat, but we are called to slay dragons as Jesus did; I suspect Paul is thinking similar thoughts in passages such as 2 Timothy 2:11–13. Peter sinks due to his fear and lack of faith (Matthew 14:30–31); therefore, his faith in Jesus gave Peter the power to tread upon the sea dragon. Faith is the catalyst for all things miraculous; let us cast aside all fear and trust that as Jesus trampled the sea, we will do the same thing.
Works Cited
Koehler, Ludwig, Walter Baumgartner, M. E. J. Richardson, and Johann Jakob Stamm. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000.
Walton, John. “Creation in Genesis 1:1–2:3 and the Ancient Near East: Order out of Disorder after Chaoskampf.” Calvin Theological Journal, 43 (2008): 48–63.
Wilson-Wright, Aren M., and John Huehergard. “How to Kill a Dragon in Northwest Semitic: Three Linguistic Observations regarding Ugaritic ltn and Hebrew liwyātān.” Vetus Testamentum, (2021), 1–12.
