Okay, random question…does the Bible actually mention dinosaurs?
I’ve heard some people say creatures like Behemoth or Leviathan might’ve been dinosaurs, but I’ve also seen others say they’re just poetic descriptions or symbolic.
Were dinosaurs just never mentioned because they were already extinct long before people, or are there verses that could possibly be referring to them?
Curious what you all think. Is there any scriptural basis for dinosaurs being in the Bible, or is that more of a modern interpretation?
Before the flood people lived a much longer time. If reptiles (which grow larger the longer they live) also lived a long time, some would have gotten very large.After the flood, people were given permission to eat meat. The mention of large animals in the bible seems to be after the flood and may not refer to dinosaurs.
This article is very helpful in presenting the evidence and science for/against dinosaurs as well as whether the Bible is consistent with this (spoiler alert: it is). But most importantly, it gets to the heart of the matter about what dinosaurs say about our amazing Creator!
Does the bible mention dinosaur’s? Simple answer. As Dinosaur is a modern word from the 19th century, no it does not mention them.
If you loo, in an old version of the AV you may find dragons mention.
Movi g on to the follow up question did people live along side dinosaurs/dragons etc.
The bible says that ALL land creatures were created on day 6, so it follows that land based dinosaurs where created then.
The answer depends on your source of final authority.
If God/the bible is the ultimate authority then dinosaurs were created on day 6.
If the bible is mythical and man’s science is the final authority then dinosaurs didn’t live with man, ain’t mentioned in the bible and died out millions of years ago.
Depends on what you mean by “dinosaurs”. The Bible mentions birds many times, and technically birds are dinosaurs. Birds are the only dinosaurs that didn’t go extinct and still exist.
Though generally the word “dinosaur” is used to describe the non-avian (non-bird) dinosaurs, especially the big ones that captures our imagination like the long-necked sauropods, or T-Rex and the like. The Bible never refers to any non-avian dinosaurs because they went extinct WAY before the biblical authors were around. People simply had no knowledge of them because they weren’t around.
Ancient people did stumble upon fossils, and people came up with explanations for the bones of strange things. Famously it’s thought that stories of the cyclops–the one-eyed giants of Greek myth–were inspired by old mammoth skulls. If you look at a mammoth skull the hole in the skull where the trunk would have connected to the head looks like a giant eye socket–so ancient people may have imagined one-eyed giants. But in the last few hundred years we have acquired a great deal of knowledge about long-extinct animals through the study of their fossils, knowledge which people in previous generations didn’t have access too.
Brief summary answer: The Bible doesn’t mention non-avian dinosaurs because biblical writers and people at the time generally were unaware that such creatures ever existed; and they had been extinct for a very long time. All observable data and evidence places the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs about 65 million years ago; that’s certainly a very long time ago.
If God/the bible is the ultimate authority then dinosaurs were created on day 6.
If the bible is mythical and man’s science is the final authority then dinosaurs didn’t live with man, ain’t mentioned in the bible and died out millions of years ago.
I’d argue that this is a false dichotomy. Millions of Christians around the world believe both the perfect and infallible authority of Scripture and accept the mainstream explanations of modern science.
Most biblical scholars, understand Behemoth and Leviathan as poetic symbols of untamable forces in creation, representing God’s power and sovereignty rather than literal animals. From a historical standpoint, dinosaurs lived millions of years before humans, so Scripture likely doesn’t describe them directly but rather uses vivid, ancient imagery to express theological truths about creation and God’s mastery over it.
Yes, I have found Answers in Genesis to be helpful on this topic as well. I did not know that the word dinosaur was first used in the 19th century, though. Now I’m curious about the history of the term and will have to look more into that!