How Does The Bible Explain Dinosaurs?

Last updated on: March 8, 2016 at 12:00 pm by Jack Wellman

How Does The Bible Explain Dinosaurs? 2016-03-08T12:00:13-06:00 Jack Wellman

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How does the Bible explain dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs in the Bible?

If you’re looking for the word “dinosaur” in the Bible, you won’t find it because the word dinosaur is a relatively new word in our vocabulary. When the King James Authorized Version was written (in 1611), the famous British scientist, Dr. Richard Owen, was yet to coin the name “Dinosauria,” which means “terrible lizard,” so you won’t find the word dinosaurs in the Bible because dinosaurs were called dragons since it was written before the word dinosaur was formulated in the 1800s. Even then, it took some years before it came to be used in the general public. The discovery of dinosaurs began in the 1820s when Dr. Gideon Mantell found some very unusual teeth and bones in a quarry and he immediately recognized that there was something unique about these bones. At first he thought he had discovered a brand new group of reptiles but by 1841, there were at least nine types of these reptiles that were uncovered so the question is, are dinosaurs in the Bible? Are they mentioned in the Old Testament? As you have read, the word dinosaur will not be found in the Bible, but that doesn’t mean these “terrible lizards” aren’t in the Bible.

All Creatures, Great and Small

There is no distinction between species in the creation account. It simply says “God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:21), but then God did something marvelous. Mankind would be different from all the other creatures on the earth and in the seas. He created man who is much different from the rest of the animal kingdom because he had the ability to make moral decisions; to do good and evil. Since mankind didn’t evolve via a molecules-to-man evolutionary process aided by time and chance, neither did morality and values. Morality doesn’t develop in a slime pit or in science experiment in a beaker. Man has a conscience and has the ability to contemplate, consider, plan, create, choose, and other things that makes them free moral agents but beings who are responsible for their actions. God created them male and female but man was radically different from the rest of the creatures because “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). No other creature was created in the image of God; only man. After He created them, “God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1:28) and mankind has certainly had dominion over the creatures of the earth but instead of having dominion, man has had domination.

Biblical References

If we look closely at the original language of the Old Testament, which is Hebrew, we can read in Job 40 and elsewhere that this is no ordinary beast of the field. Job describes something that is like nothing alive on earth today and where God Himself declares, “Behold [the] Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox” (Job 40:15), but we can take note that the Hebrew word for “Behemoth,” which is unknown, however that doesn’t mean we cannot know something about this “behemoth” because the following verses tells us that there is “strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly” (Job 40:16) and “He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together” (Job 40:17), so we’re obviously not talking about a rhinoceros or an elephant. Even “if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth” (Job 40:24), so the question is, “Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare” (Job 40:24) with the obvious answer being no.

The Dragon

Isaiah the Prophet wrote with the specific purpose of glorifying God, for which we were created anyway, and I believe this is why Isaiah wrote about the creature he calls a “dragon” for the creator of something is always greater than that which he or she created, so in this case, the Creator is greater (infinitely so) than the enormous creature that Isaiah is writing about. He writes “In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1). The Hebrew word for “Leviathan” (“livyathan”) means “sea monster” but is distinctly different from the “dragon” (Hebrew, “tanniyn”) which means “serpent-like” in appearance or “monster.” These descriptions are not described as fish or even the “great fish” (Heb. “dag”) that swallowed Jonah (Jonah 1:17), so the Leviathan and the dragon are like nothing else in God’s creation and similar in majesty and size to the Behemoth.

Conclusion

I cannot say that I don’t care if you believe in evolution or in creation because I do, but I cannot convince you. I shouldn’t have too because “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). Just as a painting necessitates the need for a painter, the creation proclaims the handiwork of God and it declares His glory and “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Rom 1:19-20) so if you don’t believe in God and Him as Creator, sorry; you have no excuse. You reject Christ as Lord, Savior, and the very Son of God because you either love your sin or you don’t want to humble yourself by submitting to God’s will; it could be both. This is why all unbelievers “became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rom 1:21b-23).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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