Faith
The Creation of the World and the Mention of the Sea Monsters
Why Are the Tanninim Mentioned in the Creation Narrative?
Question
Hello,
I ended up having a discussion with several non-believers, even heretics, about the creation of the world, and about the argument over whether there is one God, whether there were beings before Him, and so on. I am religious and, in these discussions, I simply try to bring what I know well. A question came up that I did not have a clear, well-explained answer to, although the answer is as clear to me as day: they asked me why it says in the Tanach that Hashem created the tanninim. Why are they mentioned specifically? Their answer was that the tanninim are mentioned intentionally in order to sharpen the point that Hashem created them and that they were not created by themselves and did not exist before the creation of the world. They added that there is some theory that the tanninim were gods before the creation of the world, and therefore they are specifically mentioned in the creation of the world, because Hashem, as it were, wanted to prove that He created them. Of course, this theory sounds completely foolish to me, but I promised that I would come back to them with an answer as to why the tanninim are actually mentioned. Thank you in advance, and may we have a good Shabbat for the people of Israel, amen. Michal
Answer
Greetings and blessings,
I will quote the words of the Ramban on Genesis, chapter 1, verse 21.
And God created the great tanninim because of the greatness of these creatures, some of which are many parasangs long, and our Sages also spoke greatly about them (see Bava Batra 73b). For this reason, He attributed their creation to God, for He is the One who brought them into existence from nothing at the beginning, as I explained regarding the term creation (above, verse 1). So too does He do with man, because of his greatness, to teach that he too comes from nothing, together with his intellect and understanding:
And in Sforno on Genesis, chapter 1, verse 21: And God created the tanninim - the generative power arranged in the waters was not sufficient to bring the first tanninim into existence without seed, until He then created a sufficient power for this:
However, as to the substance of the matter, it may be that the Torah came to refute foolish beliefs that were accepted in the past, and there is no flaw in the Torah’s refuting superstitious beliefs that were widespread in earlier times; indeed, we find this in many places in the Torah.
With blessings - Binyamin Shmueli
