“He swishes his tail like a cedar.” One verse from the book of Job has been causing controversy for centuries, drawing theologians, paleontologists, and simply interested believers into the same discussion. Are ancient scriptures in existence before the term “dinosaur” was even coined possibly describing creatures now known from fossil records?
For Christians and Jews intrigued by both the Torah/Bible and the fossil record, this is not merely a question of science or religion it’s a question of where these two could intersect. The Hebrew Bible and Old Testament are full of descriptions of bizarre beasts: sea serpents, giant land beasts, even fire-breathing dragons. Some scholars dismiss such as poetic metaphor. Others believe them to be eyewitness descriptions of actual animals, even dinosaurs.
From mysterious Behemoth, to terror-inducing Leviathan, and slippery Hebrew word “tannin,” these animals beg examination. The following are eight of the strongest biblical and historical threads that sustain this enigma.
1. Behemoth: The ‘Chief of God’s Works’
Job 40 describes Behemoth as an herbivore the size and strength of which is simply staggering, with bones “like bars of iron” and a tail likened to a cedar tree. While other theologians associate it with a hippopotamus or elephant, critics point out those creatures’ diminutive tails barely fit the bill. Young-Earth creationists tend to associate Behemoth with sauropod dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus, whereas others propose extinct megafauna like the hornless rhinoceros Baluchitherium. The sheer size and specificity in the passage make it one of the Bible’s most dinosaur-like descriptions.
2. Leviathan: Sea Monster or Prehistoric Reptile?
In Job 41, Leviathan is a monstrous sea creature, resistant to swords and even depicted as fire-breathing. Some interpreters interpret this as a crocodile, but the imagery of the text scales, powerful neck, and unbridled strength has caused others to draw parallels with sea reptiles such as the long-necked Elasmosaurus or even partially aquatic Spinosaurus. Isaiah 27:1 refers to Leviathan as a “tannin” in the sea, connecting it to the larger class of great reptiles.
3. Tannin and Tannim: Distinguishing Ancient Hebrew
The Hebrew word tannin occurs some 14 times in the Old Testament, sometimes referring to sea monsters (Genesis 1:21), other times to serpents (Exodus 7:9). Its plural form, tanninim, has reference to land and sea animals, while the homophonous tannim simply means “jackals.” Misunderstanding between the two has resulted in mistranslations such as “dragons” in some earlier Bibles spurring speculation that certain tanninim might include dinosaur-like creatures.
4. Dragons Pre-Dating Dinosaurs Had a Name
Prior to Sir Richard Owen inventing the term “dinosaur” in 1841, enormous reptilian beasts in books were frequently referred to as dragons. Ancient translations such as the Septuagint translated tannin as δράκων (drakōn), and medieval histories are full of dragon stories. Creationist researchers refer to worldwide dragon myths from Sumer to China that have startling similarities to recognized dinosaur anatomy, indicating that these legends might have deposited cultural memories of actual contact.
5. Ancient Art That Bares a Suspicious Resemblance to Paleontology
From Native American petroglyphs in Hava Supai Canyon that look like Diplodocus, to Peruvian burial stones carved with Stegosaurus-like plates, ancient art has been used as potential proof of the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans. While mainstream archaeology tends to invalidate these examples, the proponents say that the anatomical detail in some of the art existed before modern-day reconstructions of fossils.
6. Death Before the Fall? Theological Tensions
One point of contention among most believers is whether death among animals predated Adam’s sin. Romans 5:12 is one passage read by some to speak only of man’s spiritual death, leaving room for a prehistoric earth where extinction and carnivory were part of God’s plan. Psalm 104 even speaks of lions stalking as part of the order of creation, implying predation wasn’t necessarily the result of the Fall.
7. Old Earth, Young Earth, and the Fossil Record
Young-Earth creationists explain that dinosaurs coexisted with humans and were destroyed in catastrophes such as Noah’s Flood, which accounts for the fossil record. Old-Earth proponents embrace the geological timescale but do not find it contrary to scripture, interpreting Genesis as theological, not scientific, narrative. Both struggle with how to position Behemoth and Leviathan in their chronologies.
8. Lessons Beyond the Bones
Whether literal or metaphorical, these biblical beasts serve a theological purpose: to humble humanity before God’s power. As Matthew Henry noted of Behemoth, the point is less about taxonomy and more about recognizing that if one cannot contend with God’s creatures, one cannot contend with God Himself. In this way, dinosaurs real or symbolic become part of a larger spiritual conversation.
The Bible’s enigmatic creatures stand at the intersection of faith, history, and science. To some, they’re poetical metaphors to others, they’re fossil records of once-upon-a-time giants whose extinction is a certainty. Either way, they pose a challenge to readers to delve into scripture both reverently and inquiringly, leaving ajar the possibility that the world’s oldest stories and the Earth’s oldest bones may be sharing pieces of the same narrative.
