The topic of dinosaurs in the Bible is part of a larger ongoing debate within the Christian community over the age of the earth, the proper interpretation of Genesis, and how to interpret the physical evidence we find all around us. Those who believe in an older age for the earth tend to agree that the Bible does not mention dinosaurs, because, according to the old-earth paradigm, dinosaurs died out millions of years before the first man ever walked the earth, so the men who wrote the Bible could not have seen living dinosaurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those who believe in a younger age for the earth tend to agree that the Bible does mention dinosaurs, though it never actually uses the word\u00a0dinosaur<\/em>. Instead, it uses the Hebrew word\u00a0tanniyn<\/em>, which is translated a few different ways in our English Bibles. Sometimes it\u2019s \u201csea monster,\u201d and sometimes it\u2019s \u201cserpent.\u201d It is most commonly translated \u201cdragon\u201d in the KJV. The\u00a0tanniyn<\/em>\u00a0appears to have been some sort of giant reptile. These creatures are mentioned nearly thirty times in the Old Testament (e.g.,\u00a0Psalm 74:13; Isaiah 27:1; Jeremiah 51:34) and were found both on land and in the water. Another Hebrew word,\u00a0livyathan<\/em>, transliterated leviathan, is used six times in Scripture (e.g.,\u00a0Job 41:1; Psalm 104:26) and refers to some type of large, fierce sea creature. The description of leviathan in\u00a0Job 41\u00a0gives the impression of a strong yet graceful, unstoppable creature against which weapons are unavailing: \u201cNothing on earth is its equal\u201d (Job 41:33).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another giant creature the Bible describes and that Job was familiar with is the\u00a0behemoth, said to be \u201ca prime example of God\u2019s handiwork\u201d (Job 40:19, NLT). The behemoth is a huge, plant-eating animal that dwells by the water. Its bones are like \u201ctubes of bronze,\u201d and its limbs are like \u201crods of iron\u201d (Job 40:18); its tail is likened to a cedar tree (Job 40:17). Some have tried to identify the behemoth as an elephant or a hippopotamus. Others point out that elephants and hippopotamuses have very thin tails, nothing comparable to a cedar tree. Dinosaurs like the Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, and Saltasaurus, on the other hand, had huge tails that could easily be compared to a cedar tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nearly every ancient civilization has left some sort of art depicting giant reptilian creatures. Petroglyphs and clay figurines found in North America resemble modern depictions of dinosaurs. Rock carvings in South America depict images of creatures resembling Triceratops, Diplodocus, and Tyrannosaurus Rex. Roman mosaics, Mayan pottery, and Babylonian city walls all testify to man\u2019s trans-cultural, geographically unbounded memories of these creatures. Thirteenth-century explorer Marco Polo wrote of seeing \u201chuge serpents\u201d in China, which he described: \u201cAt the fore part, near the head, they have two short legs, each with three claws, as well as eyes larger than a loaf and very glaring. The jaws are wide enough to swallow a man, the teeth are large and sharp, and their whole appearance is so formidable, that neither man, nor any kind of animal can approach them without terror\u201d ((Polo, M.,\u00a0The Travels of Marco Polo<\/em>, trans. by Marsden, W., ed. by Rugoff, M., Signet Classics, 1961,\u00a0pp. 158\u2013159).<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, are there dinosaurs in the Bible? The matter is far from settled. It depends on how one interprets the available evidence. If the first two chapters of Genesis are taken literally, the result is a belief in a relatively young earth and the conviction that dinosaurs and man coexisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If dinosaurs and human beings coexisted, what happened to the dinosaurs? The Bible does not discuss the issue, but dinosaurs likely died out\u00a0sometime after the flood due to a combination of dramatic environmental shifts and being relentlessly hunted to extinction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The topic of dinosaurs in the Bible is part of a larger ongoing debate within the Christian community over the age of the earth, the proper interpretation of Genesis, and how to interpret the physical evidence we find all around us. 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