Leviathan: Another Dinosaur in the Bible?

The Bible is filled with truly terrifying beasts and creatures whose descriptions light a fire under the darkest parts of human imagination. God’s angels in their terrible beauty, Azazel fallen from on high, succubi and incubi that torment the sleep of the faithful, The Lilim, the infernal offspring of Adam’s first wife Lilith, and all variety of demons and devils abound in both the Old and New Testament. However there are also references to creatures that we may take for monsters when seen in the poetic language of the holy book, but when we view them objectively we realize that what we are looking at is in fact a dinosaur.

Now to clear up the differences between religious faith and scientific fact. The theory of evolution does have some compelling evidence backing it up, but there are examples of creatures as individuals or in small clusters out living the rest of a species. We find examples of these every day, and there are even some conspiracy theories about dinosaurs living far past the dawn of man (and winding up in a Loch in Scotland somewhere). For those who read the biblical description of the land beast Behemoth, it’s pretty obvious that what is being referenced in Job is a land beast so large that it couldn’t be anything other than a dinosaur.

Now, the description of Leviathan gives up a similar bunch of quotes to work with. Leviathan is described as “playing” in the sea (sort of like a child would in a tub), and its body is made of scales so tightly tied together that no air could penetrate. His mouth is rimmed with teeth, and his face is described as a door. It laughs at weapons that have no effect, treating iron as straw and javelins as brittle wood (paraphrasing there, the quotes can be found in Job). There is an idea of size that dwarfs ships of the time, and there are references to Leviathan’s glowing eyes and how it breathes smoke from its nose. This last is most likely spume colored by sunlight, or the cold mist that comes from hot breath, but I won’t crush any hold out hopes for a fire breathing sea serpent.

What else could Leviathan possibly be but a massive dinosaur? A huge sea serpent that to the observations of ancient mariners probably looked to circle the world and to create huge waves in its passing? Myths of creatures like this, such as the Viking myth of Jormundgand the World Serpent that circled the globe, suggest that the species we call Leviathan was not unique to the Middle East. Leviathan was only seen in the sea, and it was the oceanic version of the Behemoth, names for creatures that would have made sense to men and women of that time, but which have become shrouded in mystery to us today. Of course the ancient peoples wouldn’t have called these creatures dinosaurs… that word is a modern word, and is only applicable from the late 1800s onward.

Of course, the reality of Leviathan is lost to the flowery language and prophecy of scripture later on in the bible. For instance, Leviathan becomes a symbol of chaos and wickedness, of the devil. Leviathan is then smoted by the archangel Gabriel, and the beast’s skin stretched to cover all of god’s children. And while there are some big fish in the sea, nothing currently swimming the ocean that we have found is large enough to cover an entire nation, even a small one such as the people of Israel.

“What is Leviathan?” by Wayne Jackson at Christian Courier
“Dinosaurs and the Bible,” by Anonymous at Clarifying Christianity
“Genesis Day 5: Leviathan,” by Anonymous at Bible and Science


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *