Dinosaurs in the Bible

[Teresa9]

Dearest Friend

I know someone who is convinced that Behemoth in the Book of Job is what could be described as a Dinosaur. I think their thinking is that this would then explain the 7 day creation theory and time scale for different ages (stone age etc) Does anyone know anything about ‘Behemoth’ and an explanation of this?

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[Della]

Here is the relevant passage from Job 40:

10 Behold behemoth whom I made with thee, he eateth grass like an ox.

11 His strength is in his loins, and his force in the navel of his belly.

12 He setteth up his tail like a cedar, the sinews of his testicles are wrapped together.

13 His bones are like pipes of brass, his gristle like plates of iron.

14 He is the beginning of the ways of God, who made him, he will apply his sword.

15 To him the mountains bring forth grass: there all the beasts of the field shall play.

16 He sleepeth under the shadow, in the covert of the reed, and in moist places.

17 The shades cover his shadow, the willows of the brook shall compass him about.

18 Behold, he will drink up a river, and not wonder: and he trusteth that the Jordan may run into his mouth.

19 In his eyes as with a hook he shall take him, and bore through his nostrils with stakes.

20 Canst thou draw out the leviathan with a hook, or canst thou tie his tongue with a cord?

21 Canst thou put a ring in his nose, or bore through his jaw with a buckle?

22 Will he make many supplications to thee, or speak soft words to thee?

23 Will he make a covenant with thee, and wilt thou take him to be a servant for ever,

24 Shalt thou play with him as with a bird, or tie him up for thy handmaids?

25 Shall friends cut him in pieces, shall merchants divide him?

26 Wilt thou fill nets with his skin, and the cabins of fishes with his head?

27 Lay thy hand upon him: remember the battle, and speak no more.

28 Behold his hope shall fail him, and in the sight of all he shall be cast down.

The footnote in the Ignatius RSV (Job 40 beginning at the 15th verse) says the animals referred to are the hippopotamus and the crocodile, not dinosaurs. I hope that helps!

 

[SwordofLight]

Della:

Here is the relevant passage from Job 40:

10 Behold behemoth whom I made with thee, he eateth grass like an ox.

11 His strength is in his loins, and his force in the navel of his belly.

12 He setteth up his tail like a cedar, the sinews of his testicles are wrapped together.

13 His bones are like pipes of brass, his gristle like plates of iron.

14 He is the beginning of the ways of God, who made him, he will apply his sword.

15 To him the mountains bring forth grass: there all the beasts of the field shall play.

16 He sleepeth under the shadow, in the covert of the reed, and in moist places.

17 The shades cover his shadow, the willows of the brook shall compass him about.

18 Behold, he will drink up a river, and not wonder: and he trusteth that the Jordan may run into his mouth.

19 In his eyes as with a hook he shall take him, and bore through his nostrils with stakes.

20 ***Canst thou draw out the leviathan with a hook, or canst thou tie his tongue with a cord?

21 Canst thou put a ring in his nose, or bore through his jaw with a buckle? ***
22 Will he make many supplications to thee, or speak soft words to thee?

23 Will he make a covenant with thee, and wilt thou take him to be a servant for ever,

24 Shalt thou play with him as with a bird, or tie him up for thy handmaids?

25 Shall friends cut him in pieces, shall merchants divide him?

26 Wilt thou fill nets with his skin, and the cabins of fishes with his head?

27 Lay thy hand upon him: remember the battle, and speak no more.

28 Behold his hope shall fail him, and in the sight of all he shall be cast down.

The footnote in the Ignatius RSV (Job 40 beginning at the 15th verse) says the animals referred to are the hippopotamus and the crocodile, not dinosaurs. I hope that helps!

The bolded parts are what the protestants use to dispell the hippo and the crocodile. Hippos don’t have a tail like a cedar, and crocs can be pierced and wrestled with, though it isn’t very safe!

 

[csr]

You might have a look at Walt Brown who doggedly pursues a theory he calls the Hydroplate Theory, which incorporates a great deal of geological phenomena into a description of events consistent with Revelation (the Flood). He mentions also the distinct possibility that man and dinosaur co-existed.

---

“It is absolutely wrong and forbidden, either to narrow inspiration to certain parts only of Holy Scripture, or to admit [into discussion] that the sacred writer has erred.” *

 

[Edwin1961]

Then you have 9+foot Goliath.

 

[Calbreese]

There were giants in the earth in those days. Man has been finding bones of Dinosaurs for thousands of years. The Bible records HisStory. IHS Daryl

 

[mary_tim]

scott hahn poses a theory that adam may have met a much more scary animal than a tiny snake at the wonderful tree of knowledge of good and evil. he proposes that rather than stand up for his bride, eve, adam chose to give in to the threats of the serpent, read scary monster or could that not be a dinosaur infiltrated by a devil?if you are not familiar with scott’s theory he says something like: the devil said adam would not die (God had said he would if he ate the fruit)if adam ate the fruit. adam ate and didn’t die (for a very long time hundreds of years later ) so scott says was the devil right did God lie. NO of course not. but he says, put the devils words in the way of a mafia figure. unless you eat you will die and i will see to it.
back to dinosaurs God cursed the animal that so frightened adam and made a snake /serpent out of him.
could i be so bold as tro speculate what would have happened if adam had obeyed God and given up his life for his bride.to this monster. adam being the first and only man would have had to be saved like isaac at the last moment or could he have died and then been resurrected and having passed his test would our dear Lord Jesus not have had to suffer His horrendous passion.

 

[CrimsonUnicorn]

mary tim:

scott hahn poses a theory that adam may have met a much more scary animal than a tiny snake at the wonderful tree of knowledge of good and evil. he proposes that rather than stand up for his bride, eve, adam chose to give in to the threats of the serpent, read scary monster or could that not be a dinosaur infiltrated by a devil?if you are not familiar with scott’s theory he says something like: the devil said adam would not die (God had said he would if he ate the fruit)if adam ate the fruit. adam ate and didn’t die (for a very long time hundreds of years later ) so scott says was the devil right did God lie. NO of course not. but he says, put the devils words in the way of a mafia figure. unless you eat you will die and i will see to it.
back to dinosaurs God cursed the animal that so frightened adam and made a snake /serpent out of him.
could i be so bold as tro speculate what would have happened if adam had obeyed God and given up his life for his bride.to this monster. adam being the first and only man would have had to be saved like isaac at the last moment or could he have died and then been resurrected and having passed his test would our dear Lord Jesus not have had to suffer His horrendous passion.

Adam’s test was simple obedience to God. There was no threat from Satan to Adam, only tempation to be like God.

As for dinosaurs, those died out about 65 million years before Adam was created. It is kind of like sticking your head into the sand to believe that the earth is only a few thousand years old. Some parts of Genesis are not to be taken literally.

 

[mary_tim]

dear crimson unicorn were you there all those millions of years ago creation scientists argue very convincingly to a young earth. you. might look into creation science on the internet it isn’t flat earth at all it is coming up with very sound proofs for the bible as history. also scott hahn is a very credible scholar it isn’t that easy to pooh pooh his bible study.mary tim

 

[Evan]

mary tim:

dear crimson unicorn were you there all those millions of years ago

There is very good science that indicates these dinosaurs existed.

It appears they were there millions of years ago (before A & E) then died.

God certainly could have put the fossils there on creation. In fact he could have created the world in 1953 around the time of my birth with all this history there just for me (what a lucky guy).

But, I believe that the universe is billions old since all that was put there would be an attempt to confuse and distort history, ie a lie. And God is all Truth.

I’m going with the church’s option that the days of creation explain what God made, not how he made it. It gives much more glory to God to make it simple in such a way that complexity comes out of it rather than to make it complex and have the complexities die off.

 

[Della]

SwordofLight:

The bolded parts are what the protestants use to dispell the hippo and the crocodile. Hippos don’t have a tail like a cedar, and crocs can be pierced and wrestled with, though it isn’t very safe!

Well, hippos and crocs are only educated guesses, after all. We really don’t know what creatures the sacred author had in mind, and his descriptions might have a tinge of poetic license, as well. The central point of this passage is to show that Job (and we) could not have created such animals as God had done. If he had used butterflies for his example it would have been the same, but I think the author used such fearsome creatures to drive home his point, which is all we really need to get from it.

While it’s fun to speculate about when we came on the scene compared to dinosaurs, the important thing to remember is that God created both, and in his own good time. The dinosaurs may have been here long before man in the order of God’s plans for his creation, living and dying their natural deaths as he had willed them to do. I have heard (I forget the source) that man was probably meant to bring an end to such natural death by his obedience to God–to bring about a new order of creation as the head of God’s creation on earth, but since he failed, he too was condemned to share their fate until God could bring about the end of death through Christ, the Second Adam who did not fail God in obedience. Interesting theory, don’t you think?