The Adventure Link

Dino-Mite!

Behold Behemoth

Are Dinosaurs in the Bible?

Many are surprised to find dinosaur-like creatures are mentioned in the Bible. The book of Job was written years before Jesus was born. The book is hard to date, some speculate it was created shortly after the Flood. In addition to the twelve other animals discussed by God in His message to Job about creation, two mighty creatures are described—behemoth and leviathan. Here God describes the greatest of land animals, an animal the Bible calls “behemoth,” meaning “gigantic beast.”

This biblical description clearly fits that of a large dinosaur sauropod (grass-eating dinosaur) such as the diplodocus or apatosaurus. The description also fits very closely the massive brachiosaurus depicted by an artist in the book Evolution published by the Time-Life Association on Nature. Time-Life editors are not at all sympathetic to the creationists’ position that man and dinosaur lived and existed at the same time. However, the sketch so resembles the words in Job that it is as if the artist were reading Job 40 as he painted his picture.

Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. He ranks first among the works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword. The hills bring him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby. Under the lotus plants he lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh. The lotuses conceal him in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround him. When the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth. Can anyone capture him by the eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose? (Job 40:15–24 NIV).

The behemoth described in Job 40 could not have been an elephant or a hippopotamus as some Bible commentaries have speculated; the likening of its tail to that of a cedar (verse 17) clearly indicates the creature must have been of enormous proportions.

This passage clearly indicates that creatures fitting the description of reptilian dinosaurs lived in the near east as late Job’s lifetime; and remember, Job lived after Noah’s Flood.

So for all of those who have theorized that perhaps all the dinosaurs died in the flood and did not get on board the ark...this notation does not seem to fit.

So what about the Behemoth?

The Jurassic Adventure continues....