Ezekiel 2: 3the Monstrous Behemoth
Besides giant reptiles, the Bible also includes several references to a monstrous and mighty beast, specifically called Behemoth in the book of Job:
“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. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.”He is the first of the works of God let him who made him bring near his sword! For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play. Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh. For his shade the lotus trees cover him the willows of the brook surround him. Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth. Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare?” From this description of the Behemoth, it seems possible that the book of Job was describing a giant, vegetation-eating sauropod.
Why Are Dinosaurs Not Alive Today
The sudden extinction of the dinosaurs, as shown by the geological record, is a mystery that evolutionary paleontologists have considerable difficulty explaining. What happened to wipe out the dinosaurs so quickly? A change of temperature? A change in the plants? Blasts of heat from a meteor? Mammals eating dinosaur eggs? A change in oxygen concentration? Overspecialization? Senility? All these have been offered as explanations by evolutionary scientists. The dominant theory at present is that a large object from space hit Earth and blasted up so much dust that the sun was obscured for months. Plants and animals died. However there are problems with this theory. If this happened, why was the extinction selective? Why did some plants and animals, including some more fragile than dinosaurs, not become extinct?
Did God Create Dinosaurs
Would God have created dinosaurs? Why is there no mention of dinosaurs in the Bible, especially the creation account? In Creation, there are many creatures that were not mentioned by name that do exist. When thinking of dinosaurs, most first thoughts are of gargantuan, ferocious lizards. It makes it hard to believe that God would create something so monstrous for the Garden of Eden.
Actually, the fossil remains indicate that they were indeed a highly diversified group, ranging in size from that of a rabbit to tremendous beasts 20 feet high, 85 feet long, and weighing up to 50 tons. It appears that some were relatively light-footed and had bipedal locomotion, while others were quadrupedal and moved about in a slow and cumbersome manner. Some were carnivores and others herbivores. Certain types were well suited for aquatic habitat while others remained on land. However, most dinosaurs were relatively the size of humans.
Not only that, something to be considered is that humans at the time of Adam up until Noah lived hundreds of years. Adam died at 930 years, Methuselah died at 969, Noah lived 950 years. With such longevity, isn’t it only logical to believe that mankind grew larger and taller? True, it might not be the size of a 20-foot dinosaur, but perhaps proportional to how one experiences the grandiose size of a blue whale compared to the modern average human.
Isaiah 11:6-7 shares this picture of heaven:
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Do We Read About Dinosaurs In The Bible
We dont find the word dinosaur in the Bible of course, because the word dinosaur was not even thought of then. But there are a number of places where the word dragon occurs in the Scriptures. Actually, the same Hebrews word for dragon is used in some passages to speak of monsters, serpents, and even sea monsters!
The most interesting passages in the Bible that refers to a huge monster type of creature is found in Job chapters 40 and 41.
How Do We Know The Animal Referenced Isnt One Of Our Modern Day Giants
Some Bible scholars and commentaries claim the Behemoth is our modern day elephant or hippopotamus. However, one characteristic mentioned in this passage talks about the animals tail swaying like a cedar, implying it is the size of a tree. Neither of these animals fits this description. There is only one creature that fits the characteristics mentioned and that is the dinosaur.
Watch this interesting, educational video to learn more about dinosaurs and how they relate to Biblical creation.
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Were Dinosaurs On Noahs Ark
In Genesis 6:20 we read, 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. If dinosaurs were alive at the time of Noah, we can be assured that they were on the ark. Could the dinosaurs have gone extinct before the flood?
We can calculate from the genealogy from Adam to Noah in Genesis 5, that the earth was approximately 1656 years old at the time of the flood. Thats not a lot of time for mass extinction to take place. The Bible mentions nothing about any cataclysmic events in this period, other than the Fall, when a curse on the land made farming more difficult and caused brambles and thorns to grow.
In recent centuries, hundreds of animal species have been driven to extinction, mainly through over-hunting and loss of habitat. Our world experienced a huge population increase , leading to the development of areas that were once vast wildernesses. However, only certain species became extinct not entire families of animals. For instance, the passenger pigeon is extinct, but not all birds, and not even all pigeons.
5. Genesis 6:20 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.
6. Genesis 7:3 And also seven of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, in order to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth.
How did dinosaurs fit on the ark?
Dragons
Is There Archeological Evidence For The Existence Of Behemoth And Leviathan
We should keep in mind, paleontologists did not dig up the first dinosaur until 1819. And according to World Wide Fund for Nature, 10,000 species go extinct every year. Researchers still have not uncovered all the creatures that existed in other periods of history, perhaps including ones such as the leviathan.
A lack of archeological evidence does not conclude such animals did not exist.
For instance, 10 archeological finds in 2018 alone bolstered evidence for events and people mentioned in Scripture. But before 2018, those historical events and people still had existed, whether archaeological artifacts proved it or not.
Does it matter?
Yes, and no.
It matters in a sense that we can see Gods fingerprints on all of creation, including the dinosaur fossils we pass in museums. It also matters in the sense that if the animals mentioned in Job are, in fact, dinosaurs, this concludes humans and dinosaurs overlapped in time periods of existence.
However, all in all, whether Job referred to a diplodocus or a hippopotamus, this does not affect major doctrinal issues in the Bible. We should keep in mind Scripture doesnt mention every animal that ever came into existence. This does not mean God didnt have a hand in creating all living things simply because they dont receive a specific remark in the Bible.
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Children From All Around The World Are Captivated By Dinosaurs From Television Shows Movies Books Theme Parks And Toys The Mystery Of These Ancient Creatures Continue To Stir Their Imaginations And Draw Them In To Learn More For Some Children This Love Of Dinosaurs Might Even Become A Lifelong Passion Maybe Some Of Your Children Are Already Aspiring Paleontologists Just Like Dr Kendall Park In The Jonathan Park Audio Adventures
My children are still in the dinosaur-loving phase and always on the hunt for a new dinosaur book or documentary, always open to learning something new. However, the problem Ive encountered is that most books and documentaries teach about these amazing creatures from an evolutionary point of view. And this worldview doesnt line up with the Bibles teachings and the Creation account in Genesis.
It didnt take my children long to question how dinosaurs could be hundreds of millions of years old when the Bible teaches that everything was created just thousands of years ago. Up until recently, they seemed satisfied with my answer that according to Scripture, God created all animals on the sixth cay of Creation , and that this would have included dinosaurs .
However, I was recently taken off guard when one of my boys posed a very good question. If God created dinosaurs just like all the other animals, then why doesnt the Bible talk about them?
Many people , assume that the existence of dinosaurs isnt mentioned in the Bible. But when you take a closer look, youll discover that the Bible does reference animals that fit the description of what we call dinosaurs today.
God talked to Job all about a dinosaur that could have been sauropod
For example, in Job 40:15 we see God telling Job about an animal He calls Behemoth.
Look at Behemoth,
which I made along with you
and which feeds on grass like an ox.
What strength it has in its loins,
Its tail sways like a cedar
- Job 41
More Possible References To Dinosaurs In The Bible
Psalm 104:26, 148:7 Isaiah 51:9 Job 7:12.
These obscure creatures defy zoological classification and have led some interpreters to think the Scripture writers may have been rendering pictures of dinosaurs.
So, while Christians have trouble agreeing on the timeline and extinction period of dinosaurs, most believe they existed. It doesn’t require too much digging to see that the Bible supports that belief with reasonable evidence for their existence.
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Would You Adam ‘n’ Eve It Dinosaurs In Eden
The razor-toothed Tyrannosaurus rex, jaws agape, loomed ominously over the gentle Thescelosaurus, looking for plants to eat. Admiring the museum diorama were old and young visitors, listening on headphones to a stentorian voice describing the primeval scene.
But the Museum of Earth History is a museum with a controversial difference. To one side, peering through the bushes, are Adam and Eve. The display is not an image of the Cretaceous. It is Paradise. ‘They lived together without fear, for there was no death yet,’ the voice intoned about Man and Dinosaur.
Nestling deep in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas, in the heart of America’s Bible Belt, this is the first dinosaur museum to take a creationist perspective. Already thousands of people have flocked to its top-quality exhibits which mix high science with fundamentalist theology that few serious scientists accept.
The museum is riding a wave of creationist influence in America. Creationism, which holds that the Earth is just a few thousand years old and the biblical account of Genesis is fact, is central to a rash of furious arguments across America. From school boards in Kansas to elections in Pennsylvania, the ‘debate’ between creationism and evolution has become a political hot potato.
The Museum of Earth History may be the first dinosaur museum of its kind. It is not likely to be the last.
Did Dinosaurs Really Exist
Definitely! Thousands of partial fossilized skeletons have been found on every continent, even a few remains still containing soft tissue. Dinosaur eggs have been found, and CT scans show the developing embryo inside. A few nearly complete skeletons have been unearthed with about 90% of bone mass.
When were there dinosaurs on earth?
Most scientists say that dinosaurs evolved into existence over 225 million years ago, in the Triassic Period, and continued through the Jurassic and Crustaceous Periods until they became extinct about 65 million years ago. They dont explain how soft tissue from dinosaur bones could have been preserved that long. According to the Bible, the Earth is around 6000 years old. Knowing this, we can conclude that dinosaurs were created around 6000 years ago.
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Were There Dinosaurs On Noahs Ark
A visit to Kentucky’s creationist museum, a conservative base in the culture war
But lets not get ahead of ourselves. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. A short while later, Ken Ham found 40 acres of pastureland in northern Kentucky on which to build a museum devoted to the ideology of Young Earth creationism, which holds that the world is 6,000 years old, and which represents for a subset of evangelical Christians not only the most convincing explanation for how our planet, and the humans who rule it in Gods name, came into being, but also a potent weapon in the struggle against homosexuality and other modern ailments. What I didnt understand until I visited Ken Ham is that his museum, which is devoted to a literal, historical reading of the first book of the Bible, is in itself a forward operating base in the conservative war against legalized abortion, gay marriage, and the belief that man is at least partially responsible for climate change .
Luckily, I belong to a tradition that, in addition to creating the Bible , came to understand, per Maimonides, that the first chapters of Genesis contain stories meant to advance an understanding of universal, ethical monotheism, rather than scientific explanations for creation. A faith that demands uncompromising fealty to a literal reading of its origin story seems to me a perilously brittle faith.
The Creation Museum is not a museum so much as it is a 3-D hellfire sermon with a food court.
What Makes Dinosaurs Different
Other than the huge size of some dinosaurs, the major feature that really distinguishes dinosaurs from other reptiles is the position of their limbs. Dinosaurs had posture that was fully erect, similar to that in mammals. Most other reptiles have limbs in a sprawling position. For instance, compare the way a crocodile walks with that of, say, a cow. Dinosaurs would have moved like a cow, with the limbs supporting the body from beneath. Crocodiles waddle, as their limbs project sideways from their body.
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What Happened To The Dinosaurs
The Bible does not comment on the disappearance of the dinosaurs. However, it does state that all things were created because of will, so God clearly had a purpose for making dinosaurs. When that purpose was fulfilled, God allowed the dinosaurs to become extinct.
^ par. 1 The fossil record proves that dinosaurs existed. In fact, fossils show that for a time dinosaurs were abundant in a great variety of forms and sizes.
What Are The Strange Creatures Mentioned In The Bible
Did dinosaurs really live millions of years ago? Did they evolve? What happened to them? Why are there so many dinosaur fossils found?
Did dinosaurs ever live on earth with man? Does the Bible have anything to say about dinosaurs?
There is no doubt that millions of dinosaurs once roamed Earth. Fossils have been found all over the world and the bones of some of them are on display in the museums. Scientists have reconstructed the ancient creatures and we think we have a pretty good idea what they looked like.
If you try finding the word dinosaur in ancient literature or the Bible, I can save you time. The word is simply not found. But then the word dinosaur didnt come into existence until 1841 when Sir Richard Owen coined the name which means terrible lizard.
The finding of fossil bones began over a hundred years ago in 1822 when an English doctor by the name of Gideon Mantell found some strange teeth fossilized in a rock. Actually, Dr. Mantells wife found the first tooth and they began a life-long investigation that led them to more bones in a gravel quarry.
Mantell was convinced that the tooth his wife had found looked identical to an iguana only about twenty times larger. Dr. Mantell finally named the creature that had owned that tooth Iguanodon which means iguana-like tooth!
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Giant Reptilian Dragons Of The Bible
You won’t find Tyrannosaurus Rex or the term “dinosaur” anywhere in the Bible. Yet, Scripture does use the Hebrew word tanniyn to describe a mysterious creature resembling a giant reptile. This being appears 28 times in the Old Testament, with English translations referring to it most often as a dragon, but also as a sea-monster, serpent, and whale.
The term applies to a water monster , as well as a land monster. Many scholars believe Scripture writers used tanniyn to describe images of dinosaurs in the Bible.
What Does The Bible Say About Dinosaurs
- General Biblical Studies, Interdenominational Christian Training Center
We know for a fact that dinosaurs existed. Bones and teeth from these mysterious creatures were first accurately identified in the early 1800s. Before long a variety of different dinosaurs were distinguished, and since then their remains have been found all around the world.
In 1842, an English scientist, Dr. Richard Owens, dubbed the huge reptilian beings “terrible lizards,” or “dinosauria,” as they came to be called.
From the time their bones were unearthed, dinosaurs have fascinated humans. Life-size skeletal reconstructions from fossils and bones are popular attractions in many museums. Hollywood films about dinosaurs have brought in millions of dollars. But did dinosaurs catch the eye of Bible writers? Were they in the Garden of Eden? Where can we find these “terrible lizards” in the Bible?
And, if God created dinosaurs, what happened to them? Did dinosaurs become extinct millions of years ago?
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