Why aren't dinosaur's in the bible?
By lena2000
@lena2000 (2392)
Belgium
10 responses
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
9 Sep 07
It is because they were not known as dinosaurs, they were called Behemoth (see Job 40:15-24), Leviathan,(see Job chapter 41, Psalm 104:25,26 and Isaiah 27:1. ) and tanniyn, which is the Hebrew word for dragon. As for the fire breathing, it was more likely fire shooting and if there are electric eels, they are sure to be fire shooting dragons or tanniyn if you can understand Hebrew. The Bible was written way before they found those dinosaur bones and called them dinosaurs. If those dinosaur bones had been found in 1611 or before then, people would have said they found dragon bones.
1 person likes this
@lena2000 (2392)
• Belgium
10 Sep 07
I've heard that before the flood, reptiles lived for many years and didn't stop growing, which resulted in dinosaurs. I can't back that up...just heard it somewhere, I think History Channel?
Some believe that there is a 'Gap', or indeterminable about of time between Genesis 1:1 & Genesis 1:2, based on the original Hebrew text. This 'Gap' could be thousands, millions, or billions of years, in which case dinosaurs could have existed.
Again, this is just a THEORY, and not all Christians agree on this. Just something to think about
@2timothy (794)
• Philippines
19 Oct 07
G.H. Pember's "Earth's Earliest Ages" gives a scholarly Biblical commentary on what happened between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2. Watchman Nee's "Meditations on Genesis" www.ministrybooks.org/collected-works.cfm[3.The Christian(1)] and Witness Lee's "Life-study of Genesis" www.ministrybooks.org/life-studies.cfm both summarizes this point in their second chapter.
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
10 Sep 07
The dinosaurs were gone by the time the writers of the Bible lived. That doesn't mean that they never existed. It means that the earth is a little older than they thought.
1 person likes this
@lena2000 (2392)
• Belgium
10 Sep 07
There are a number of places where it appears that dinosaurs or other similar creatures are mentioned in the scriptures. Remember that the Bible was translated into English long before the word "dinosaur" was coined. However, the word "dragon" appears 21 times in the Old Testament alone. "You shall tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet" (Psalm 91:13). From the context it is clearly speaking about a real creature that it would be impressive and intimidating to step on! Jeremiah 51:34 tells, "he has swallowed me up like a dragon..." which brings to mind the way many carnivorous reptiles swallow their prey whole. Both dragons of the sea (Psalm 74:13) and field (Isaiah 43:20) are mentioned. Indeed, Genesis 1:21 can best be translated: "And God created great sea monsters..." One such sea monster became sufficiently well-known to the ancients to be given the special name "Rahab" (Isaiah 51:9). The prophet Ezekiel likens Pharaoh to a sea monster that invaded the Nile river and stirred up the mud (32:2). The Hebrew word, "Tannin," is from the root meaning "to extend." The language conjures up an image of a long-necked plesiosaur-like creature paddling up the river and stirring up mud from the Nile delta with its flippers. Just such a creature is depicted by the ancient Egyptians who may have netted one just as Ezekiel describes in verse 3.
Job is the oldest book in the Bible. This book is very interesting from a scientific perspective because of the many natural phenomena that are addressed by God, Job, and his friends. Along the way, God points Job to two special creatures. The first, mentioned in Job 40:15, is usually translated "behemoth" in the English Bible. Some commentators have suggested that behemoth was a hippo or elephant. But the passage makes clear that this herbivorous animal was "chief of the ways of God." Certainly the hippo and elephant (which had other Hebrew names) don’t qualify as the biggest land animal, nor does their anatomy fit the clear language of verse 17. A cedar tree brings to mind a dinosaur’s huge tail! In fact, pygmy peoples in equatorial Africa tell stories of a ferocious dinosaurian creature that occupies their swamps and rivers and lashes its opponents with its tail. It becomes fascinating, as one considers the tail as an offensive weapon, to review the description of Satan as a dragon: "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon ...And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth:" (Revelation 12:3-4).
Job 41 portrays yet another awe-inspiring creature: Leviathan. While clearly one of the fiercest creatures that God made, it is difficult to establish exactly what Leviathan was. The Bible describes a sharp-toothed, scaled creature whose habitat is the mire and deep waters. Ken Ham suggests the ferocious kronosaur as a candidate. Others have suggested that this fire-breathing monster was a land-dweller that merely spent much of its time in the water. Perhaps leviathan was a dinosaur with armor or claws whose "sharp stones" were employed to destroy ancient weapons. Maybe we have yet to discover the remains of a leviathan!
The "unicorn," mentioned nine times in the KJV Bible, is the Hebrew word "Re-em." The Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) translated it "Monokeros" (one-horn) which was used in Bibles until the 19th century when Akkadian and Ugaritic records were found that mentioned the "Re-em" being hunted like a wild ox. However, their early pictograph for the "Re-em" shows an animal head with three horns, like a Triceratops. In Psalm 92:10 the "Re-em" has but one horn, while the language or Deuteronomy 33:17 implies two horns. Although most commentators and modern versions translate it as a bull or rhino, some have theorized that "Re-em" might be a Monoclonious (single horned dinosaur like Triceratops). In Job 39:9-12 God asks, "Will the unicorn be willing to serve you, or abide by your crib? Can you bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after you? Wilt you trust him, because his strength is great?" This passage shows that the unicorn, whatever it was, could not be tamed to be used in farming, as could an ox. In his classic work Naturalis Historia the first century author Pliny the Elder described "an exceedingly wild beast called the Monoceros [one-horned]. ...It makes a deep lowing noise, and one black horn two cubits long projects from the middle of its forehead." He describes it as like an elephant in length, but with much shorter legs. Other classical authors like Aelian, Oppian, and Martial also mention a "nose-horn" creature (a "Rinokeros"). Some claim that the "Rinokeros" sharpens his horn on a rock and utilizes it in fighting elephants. This is the root word from which we get the modern name rhinoceros. But a rhino does not stab with its horn, which is actually composed of keratin (hair). The correlation between the classical authors and some modern cryptozoological reports is striking. Dr. Roy Mackal’s explorations in the Congo brought back reports of a rare, single-horned animal called "Emela-ntouka" or "killer of elephants." In a recent expedition, pygmies in Cameroon identified the horned creature (there called "Ngoubou") with a Ceratopsian dinosaur and claimed it could sport from one to four horns. Indeed, modern researchers believe that the ceratopsian dinosaurs likely did use their great horn for combat (Dodson, Peter, The Horned Dinosaurs:A Natural History, 1996, p.123.)
In the Authorized version of scripture we find Isaiah twice mentioning the "fiery flying serpent." Egypt is called the place of the "lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent," (30:6). This fits with classical authors describing pterosaur populations in Egypt and Arabia. Goertzen notes: "The Hebrew word, m'opheph Jpvfm, is a polal participle; a form used only by Isaiah when describing the reptilian saraph. The polal indicates an intensive of the root pvf ooph that means to fly or flutter. The imperfect form of the polal is found in Genesis 1:20, ‘flying creatures that flutter to and fro’ and Isaiah 6:2 ‘seraphim’ (the same word as the reptiles here used for angelic creatures) that fly to and fro.’" (Goertzen, John, "The Bible and Pterosaurs," 1998.) This same word is employed in Numbers 21:6 to describe the poisonous reptiles that bit the murmuring Israelites. Indeed it is easier to envision an attack of nimble flying snakes (pterosaurs) killing many of the children of Israel rather than them being surprised and killed by snakes on the ground. The pterosaur becoming a type of Christ (John 3:14) seems more appropriate than the snake, which from Genesis to Revelation is a symbol of Satan. In addition, the spread wings on the top of the pole would form a cross. In fact, a plate found with Sennacherib's booty at Calah (from the conquest of Palestine) depicts such a winged serpent on a pole that would seems to match the Nehushtan or brazen saraph of Moses that had become a symbol of worship by Hezekiah's reign (II Kings 18:4). The "fiery" flying snake even matches some cryptozoological reports from New Guinea, which attribute to alleged living pterosaurs a bioluminescent capability like a firefly.
While some of this remains merely speculation, it becomes clear that some very fascinating animals have become extinct since Biblical times. But some might object to using arguments from the Bible, claiming that it is not a reliable resource. There are several lines of evidence that the Bible is God’s Word. Skeptics respond that there are supposed to be a great many contradictions in the Bible. Again the facts come down on the side of God’s Word being consistent, entirely without error in the original, and remarkably preserved.
@RealIolo (1854)
• United States
9 Sep 07
Seems there are many details about earth which are not recorded between creation and the flood. Moses just kind of skips through this period of history with very little written about it.
It seems the Moses mostly talks about the generations of men up to Noah. The Bible says "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." Genesis 5:4
After that Moses records that God "repented", "that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at this heart". So God had Noah make the ark and he destroyed the earth with the flood. The dinosaurs did not fit into the ark and were lost.
@icer01 (30)
• Australia
8 Dec 07
The early part of the Bible is very metaphorical, and the ancient Jewish people had little idea of science. We know the earth is a sphere and revolves around the sun but it doesn't say so in the Bible. Furthermore, this kind of knowledge was irrelevant to the ancient Jews with no knowledge of physics, therefore God isn't going to bore them with the whole bible taken up with science and biology lessons.
Dinosaurs were before people, the bible is all about humans and so it barely describes any time before them. Ancient Jewish people didn't even know about dinosaurs so there was no point in having them in the bible. God populated the earth with life via evolution, but since ancient Jews knew nothing about biology or even cells, God's not going to give them some complex science lesson in the bible. Also, a lot of other animals we know exist today are never mentioned in the bible, as they were not seen as relevant or even known to the ancient Jews.
The part about the world being made in '7 days' is very metaphorical. 7 was a sort of magic complete symbolic number to the ancient Jews, not meant to be taken literally. The 'days' was actually a word meaning 'period of time'
The Adam and Eve story is a sort of parable about the ancient Jewish people stopping being wandering hunter-gatherers and becoming modern humans in a more modern human civilisation with agriculture etc. [Read it, God casts them out to farm, when they didn't before!]. This actually fits with the dating of the story quite well.
@sandwedge (1339)
• Malaysia
11 Sep 07
cavemen and dinosaurs do not exist in the same time period. dinosaur first then came the cavemen. the cavemen wasn't in the bible too. as the world ages and men invented the written language..they start to read and write. later on you have the bible.
..but if the dinosaurs did know how to read and write..then you may have dinosaurs in the bible.
the study of ancient past, thus Dinosaur is later in life when the discipline i invented. Professors lecturing about dinosaurs wasn't around during the biblical time. people are too busy staying alive then.
@sandwedge (1339)
• Malaysia
1 Oct 07
dinosaur first then men. adam and eve? read the first pageof of genesis and tell me before asking. the first page as in the introduction to genesis (not genesis chapter 1 vs 1). the introduction. most if not all bible have a short introduction telling you what where and who before each chapter.
@sandwedge (1339)
• Malaysia
11 Sep 07
oh and dragons MAY not be dinosaurs. the crocodile in the Nile was referred to as dragons too.
@haroldg_slasher (94)
• Philippines
12 Dec 07
opinion only:
maybe because when the early people were present, they never knew about dinosaurs. we only new about them due to the hi-tech machinery present in our time.....
@luzamper (1357)
• Philippines
18 Oct 07
There's no proof yet that dinosaurs existed. They were just shown in movies and might be also a creation of mind. In the Holy Bible, the first created was light then the firmanent, third day - water was divided and earth appeared and plants grew; fourth day - sun and moon; fifth day - birds and animals; sixth day - big animals and man. God commanded man to rule over all His creations. The name dinosaur does not appear in the Bible but some description of the dinosaur apply to the leviathan found in the book of Job. Animals were created before man - one day before, not so long.
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
11 Sep 07
I will admit that this is one of those subjects that I have only touched on investigating as far as the Bible is concerned. But, I will say this there are some animals mentioned in the Bible that I do not recognize.
I will also say that I would much rather question scientist than the word of God. I have a lot of questions about things in the Bible also. But, the Bible itself says that it is a mystery and there are some things that we may not understand until we get to heaven and there are some things that we may never understand.
All I needed to be convinced of is that God is real. I am satisfied to know that he is. Remember, the Bible says, Let God be true and every man a liar. In other words if you have a choice between believing God or man, always choose God. He will only allow us to know what he wants us to know anyway.
@spiderlizard22 (3444)
• United States
1 Oct 07
Who ever wrote the bible didn't know about dinosaurs back then. Then again people in middle east didn't know about dinosaurs 2,000 years ago. Dinosaurs weren't discovered until centuries after the bible was written. The bible or at least the Chrisitan bible did mention that man existed right after God created world and put animals in the world. Then again is it really possible to fit all the animals in the world into one ark?