Are there dinosaurs in the Bible?
The term "dinosaur" was derived in 1841 from the Greek deinos, "terrible," and sauros, "lizard." Therefore, it is not found in the original text of the Bible. The Bible does make mention of mysterious, large, and powerful creatures, however."Leviathan" or sea serpent is interpreted from the Hebrew livyathan. It seems to be a large, dangerous sea creature that may have breathed fire, or possibly a plesiosaurus.
Job 3:8 "Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan"
Job 41:1 "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?"
Psalm 74:14 "You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness."
Psalm 104:25-26 "Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it."
Isaiah 27:1 "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."
Another Hebrew word for sea serpent is tanniyn. A tanniyn might also mean a dragon or a serpent.
Genesis 1:21: "So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves …"
Job 7:12 "Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?"
Psalm 74:13 "You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters."
Psalm 148:7 "Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps."
Isaiah 51:9 "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?"
Jeremiah 51:34 "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster …"
Ezekiel 32:2 "Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: 'You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas …'"
The "Behemoth" is sometimes thought to be a hippo or an elephant, but the description in Job sounds more like a diplodocus.
Job 40:15-17 "Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together."
Dinosaurs are found in other ancient texts and stories, as well. The 6th century BC Ayurvedic mentions the timingila and the makara—the monster shark and the sea serpent. The Roc is derived from the Persian simurgh; although the roc is depicted as a giant bird, earlier versions of the simurgh resemble the oviraptor. The Sioux have stories of a creature called the Unktehi that bears a striking resemblance to the ankylosaurus. And there are still stories in Africa about the mokele-mbembe, "one who stops the flow of rivers," which many consider to be a sauropod. Even more cultures have carvings and petroglyphs that greatly resemble dinosaurs. The Chinese have a statue at least 2000 years old that looks just like an oviraptor. A 5000-year old cylinder from Mesopotamia has carvings that look exactly like an apatosaurus. The Anasazi Indians also left petroglyphs of apatosauruses in Utah. The ancient Peruvians carved beautiful renditions of triceratops on ceremonial burial stones. And nearly every culture has a myth about dragons—serpent-like creatures with wings.
Evolutionists have what they believe to be a very good reason for all these depictions: ancient people found fossils and, with incredible accuracy, derived the form of the dinosaurs. Although this doesn't explain the picture of the Sumatrans actually hunting the corythosaurus or the bronze sculpture of the Dogon tribesman from Mali riding an ornithopod, the issue is considered closed. Like too many other amazing discoveries, these pieces are ignored or explained away instead of seriously considered, and those who do contemplate the mystery are dismissed or mocked.
How old is the Earth?
What does old-earth creationism teach?
Was the Noahic flood global?
Is creationism scientific?
Faith vs. science. Is there a contradiction between faith in God and science?
Truth about Creation
