Ok. First of all... a few basics:
- If you believe Genesis 1:1 - 2:2 to be a literal creation by God (whether or not you believe in literal days or “ages”) then you have to acknowledge that dinosaurs were created on the same day/age as humans: Day 6. (some may have been created on the 5th day, if they flew or swam). Thus, you have to acknowledge that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the Same Time. (this is very important)
- Even if you believe in the “age” theory, you still have to acknowledge that dinosaurs and man walked the earth at the same time because you have to acknowledge that sin and death did not enter the world or the Garden until After Day 7. If nothing died before day 7, then you have to acknowledge that every creature God created on Days 5-6 existed together at least for days 5-7.
- Alright... moving right along. If you concede that dinosaurs and man existed at the same time, then you start to realize that the world’s propaganda about “cave-men,” “neanderthals,” “cromagnon men,” etc, is all a lie. There never were any cave men. (This is not to say that nobody has ever lived in a cave, that happens all the time... but the people in history/present day who lived in caves were/are simply humans, just like you and me, not the grunting, violent, sub-intellectuals that are portrayed in movies/TV shows, etc.
- It’s not a huge stretch, then, once you’ve discovered that humans and dinosaurs lived on the same planet at the same time... to realize that there must have been SOME dinosaurs on Noah’s ark. (Not full grown ones, that would be silly). But God told Noah, “You are to bring inot the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.” (Gen. 6:19-20) - He didn’t exclude fierce animals. We accept that he had elephants and rhinoceroses and alligators and giraffes on the ark, animals that, when full grown, aren’t exactly small. This ark... to give you some perspective... was HUGE. (about the size of the Titanic - but with less “stuff” inside, so it could hold more). Here is a good link with a picture: http://www.biblestudy.org/biblepic/how-big-was-the-ark-of-noah-scale-model.html
- Ok... so if we believe that dinosaurs lasted at least a little bit beyond the flood... then we get to Job. Most Bible scholars believe Job is the Oldest book of the Bible, predating Moses. Many Bible scholars believe that Job was a contemporary of Abraham, only about 400 years after the flood... in that time, it is possible that the dinosaurs (even the big ones) were still around. Maybe not many, at this point... but if you allow for them to be around, and well-known enough to be recognizable, then it is not hard to believe that the behemoth of Job 40:15-24 is, indeed, a dinosaur. Imagery such as: “tail swings like a cedar,” “his bones are tubes of bronze,” “his limbs are rods of iron.” “He ranks first among the works of God,” “he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth.” “Can anyone caputre him by the eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose?” Bring to mind images of something FAR larger and more impressive than an elephant or a hippopotomous (both of which have been trapped, elephants are commonly used for riding, and neither of which have very impressive tails)
But then, read on into Job 41... this is where it gets interesting. For here, God describes a creature called a “leviathan.” (Remember, this is the Lord speaking... and He doesn’t exaggerate)
41:7: can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?
41:8: if you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
41:9: Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering.
41:10: No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
41:15: His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together
41:18: His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of the dawn.
41:19: Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.
41:20: Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
41:21: His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth.
41:24: His chest is hard as rock.
41:26: The swords that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
41:27: Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
41:33-34: Nothing on earth is his equal - a creature without fear. He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over all that are proud.
Does this sound like a crocodile to you? The Lord spends Four Whole Verses talking about the fact that this creature breathes fire! The rest of the chapter makes it clear that this is not an animal you can capture, tame, or subdue. “When he rises up, the mighty are terrifed.” (41:25) This is not a creature that Crocodile Dundee would Dare wrestle with. I would encourage you to take a moment to read through the whole chapter of Job 41, it’s a fun read... and it pretty much talks about a dragon.
Besides all this, the word “dragon” actually appears in Scripture 19 times in 18 different verses, and the Leviathan himself shows up in 3 other passages of Scripture besides Job 41. In the NIV they have translated the words: tannah - dragon, and tanniyn - dragon, serpent, sea monster, whale - to read as “serpent” in most cases, and “sea monster” or “monster” in the rest and “desert jackals” in one. In the KJV (which, I know has some issues) they translated both of these words as “dragon” 18 times out of the 28 that it is used.
In the new Testament, we find the Greek word “drakon” 13 times in Revelation - translated as “dragon” every time.
So there you have it... my reasoning behind the belief that dragons existed, and that we get a lot of the imagery surrounding them from the Bible itself, including their size, ferocity, the fact that they breathed fire, and even that their chests were pretty stinkin’ invulnerable.
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