I always had a hard time with this when I was younger. I remember learning about dinosaurs in school and asking my mom why they weren’t in the Bible.
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Dinosaurs do seem like something that is mythical, because I think that’s what they have become in our culture, in everything from Jurassic Park to kids toys. It’s wild how prevalent they are, even though they’re extinct!
As far as their existence, as the article mentions, the Bible does mention a couple of creatures that could have been dinosaurs, and also, I’m thinking about all the crazy wild creatures that do still exist today. They’re very much real and living on the same planet as we all live on, but I don’t often think of them unless I’m visiting a zoo or aquarium or watching a documentary or something. People in Bible times probably accepted dinosaurs as a fact of life since they didn’t have the mythic status back then as they do now.
If God created some of the wild crazy creatures that we know exist today, I don’t have any problem believing he created dinosaurs and that they existed. But either way, it doesn’t rock my faith. If anything, God’s creation of them only adds to his amazing creative powers.
FriendsL
Mary Oelerich-Meyer asks many more questions than she is able to postulate answers.
Firstly, the term “dinosaur” is a fairly recent invention. It refers specifically to a class of extinct reptiles, and was coined in modern Latin by Sir Richard Owen in 1841 (only 185 years ago). Before 1841 a “dinosaur” had never been heard of taxonomy, so it certainly could not have been included in sacred scripture. Sir Owen created his portmanteau-word by combining the Greek deinos “terrible” ( from which we get our English word dire) with saurus “lizard” ( a Latinized form of Greek "sauros). This Greek word sauros IS used in the Septuagint in Leviticus 11:30:
“These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and the large lizard after its kind; (30)the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon. These are unclean to you among all that creep. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening. Anything on which any of them falls, when they are dead shall be unclean, whether it is any item of wood or clothing or skin or sack, whatever item it is, in which any work is done, it must be put in water. And it shall be unclean until evening; then it shall be clean.” Leviticus 11:29-32 (NKJV)
In fact, all of the creatures mentioned in verse 30 were originally considered to be various kinds of “lizards” (your own translation’s efforts not withstanding). Maybe some of these mentioned were large lizards, it cannot be determined with certainty, and it doesn’t matter to the point God is making in the passage. The other beasts that might fit this category have been mentioned in Ms. Oelerich-Meyer’s article, Behemoths, and Leviathans, so I won’t cover them here but if we knew what they were, we might classify them as dinosaurs. This is only to point out that, of course, dinosaurs are not mentioned in the English Bible, or in any bible since the term originated less than 200 years ago. Before that these ancient extinct creatures would have been called by some other name, probably “big lizards”.
Among Ms. Oelerich-Meyer’s rhetorical questions, she asks: “I’ve considered whether there was mention of dinosaurs in the Bible (especially on Noah’s Ark), and if there wasn’t, did that mean God did not create dinosaurs?
Of course, the absence of a mention in the bible cannot mean God did not create it, otherwise mosquitos would also be mythical stealth blood-suckers. By this logic, most of creation would not be real since we still have not discovered every creature, not even all the eukaryotes. Just how many eukaryotes exist? According to https://ourworldindata.org/ “
One of the most widely cited figures comes from Camilo Mora and colleagues; they estimated that there are around 8.7 million species on Earth today. Costello et al. (2013) estimate 5 ± 3 million species; Chapman (2009) estimate 11 million; and after reviewing the range in the literature, Scheffers et al. (2012) choose not to give a concrete figure at all. More recent studies suggest that the true number is in the billions.
Even more disconcerting is that biologists estimate that roughly 99% to 99.9% of all species that have ever lived on Earth are now extinct. Also, estimates suggest 86% of just the terrestrial animal species are still unknown. Imagine. The thought is staggering. Clearly, God did not bring billons and billions of life forms past Adam to see what he would name them. The point of naming the animals was to bring Adam to the realization that they all had their mates, but he had none. It probably dawned on him long before he got to “Zebra”.
It is beyond question that God created an innumerable number of life forms that we can no longer observe because they have gone extinct. Some of these life forms are much larger than man, and most are much smaller. Some were no doubt lizards.
When Ms. Oelerich-Meyer’s says: “We don’t have a list anywhere, including in the list of all the animals in Noah’s ark, of all the creatures that God created.” she seems to have no idea how impossible that would be. If that list were in our bibles, our bibles would require several semi-trucks to carry the necessary volumes.
The article raised many more insignificant questions than it offers significant answers. You and I missed seeing dinosaurs, but we also missed seeing many many many more creatures that are now gone forever…. or are they?
KP
Reptiles get bigger the longer they live. Since people before the flood lived a long time, dinosaurs may also have lived long enough to get very big. Additionally mankind only got permission to eat meat after the flood.
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" If we are taking the six days of creation at face value, this could possibly make sense." quote from article.
best answered by a biblical quote:- ’ Did God really say ? ’
That is a very good thought! Never crossed my mind about this. Thanks for sharing.
I have and will always Put Thing On The Shelf until I hear or find which is More right For me
I have never thought about this.
Even though some scholars claim the “behemoth” is describing an Egyptian water ox or buffalo, or hippo, that does not fit God’s description…
Job 40:15-24
15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
This animal is a herbivore, eats only vegetation.
16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
A water buffalo or hippo does not have a tail as big as a cedar tree. That strength idea can apply to either a hippo or a dinosaur.
18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
Again, a hippo or dinosaur. But the tail like a cedar tree rules out the hippo.
19 He is the chief of the ways of God: He That made him can make His sword to approach unto him.
20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
22 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.
Not really convincing as a hippo or water buffalo, but for a dinosaur, yeah.
24 He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.
KJV
A water buffalo or hippo can be snared. But a dinosaur?
I strongly believe God was describing a dinosaur as that “behemoth”.
I worked with a test engineer (aerospace) who was a Christian, and he noticed I had done a study in Genesis 1 and about the fossil record, so he asked me to print him off a copy. I did. He said nothing about it for 2 years.
The one day, when I was headed around corner of my work area, I met him, and he was excited. He said that he believes The Bible, but he always had difficulty reconciling The Bible with the fossil evidence that exists, as he also was a student of science. Then he told his Church also has a teaching Hebrew scholar that only teaches Bible. He said that Hebrew scholar went over the things I had covered in God’s Word that point to a previous world earth age which God destroyed long ago, and was not the flood of Noah. I showed from God’s Word that there have actually been 2 world-wide floods upon this earth that God used in cleansing its surface of man’s works.
I then asked my friend if he looked around at the congregation, like if others there understood what their Bible scholar was teaching. My friend said most of the congregation had like question marks on their faces. He nudged his wife and asked if she understood, and she said she didn’t have a clue.
Now this does not mean Darwin’s theory of the evoultion of species is true, it is not. My friend doesn’t believe in evolution either. But the fossil record, that’s pretty difficult to ignore.
The KJV phrase “without form, and void” in the Hebrew refers to words that are used throughout The Old Testament about something that was originally in a good state, but then turns to vanity, or nothingness, corruption. In Isaiah 45:18, God said He did not create the earth “in vain” (Hebrew tohuw which is translated to “without form” in Genesis 1:2.
Jeremiah 4:23-28 repeats that “without form, and void” phrase, but it is used about a previous destruction God did upon this ancient earth.
In Romans 8:18-25, Apostle Paul showed that God placed His creation into a state of “vanity”, and “bondage of corruption”. That strongly suggests that God did not originally make His creation that way, like what He said in Isaiah 45:18 that He did not create the earth in vanity.
At the Smithsonian Institute, they have a model of a Wooly Mammoth that was found frozen buried in ice in the Arctic region. It still had vegetation in its mouth and undecayed in its stomach. That shows it was caught grazing in a green field in the Arctic region and was frozen at an instant. It reveals a sudden flood of waters and then an instant freeze of those waters in the Arctic region. In other words, it is pointing to ancient flood long before the days of Noah.
The following dinosaur fossil footprint made on top of a perfect human arch footprint suggests man existed with the dinosaurs. However, no human skeletal remains have ever been found with the dinosaurs nor back to that time. Because of this, I believe the following human footprint was an ANGELIC footprint, when the angels dwelt upon this ancient earth with God in that old world before Lucifer rebelled.
It’s not a matter of believing or not believing in dinosaurs. That’s like asking should Christians believe in cows. I see cow, cow go moo, cow exists. Cow make tasty burger. Yum yum.
I joke of course, but only barely.
The reality is that millions of Christians have no problem believing what Scripture says, and believing in the scientific consensus and what the scientific evidence says.
Dinosaurs, or specifically non-avian dinosaurs, were a vast group of diapsid amniote archosaurs (I’m deliberately choosing not to use the word “reptile” because “reptile” is an almost useless term) that lived from approximately 240 million and 65 million years ago during the Mesozoic era.
Not all dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous about 65 million years ago, we have surviving dinosaurs today, we call them birds. Which is why “non-avian dinosaur” is an important distinction. Birds aren’t just related to dinosaurs, birds are literally dinosaurs, in the same way that that chihuahuas are literally dogs.
Now, do all Christians agree with the things I just said? Well no. Lots of Christians disagree. Many Christians hold to a view known as Young Earth Creationism, which is a specific belief among some Christians that according to specific literal interpretations of certain passages in Scripture, the earth must be young, only thousands, rather than millions or billions of years; and also reject biological evolution because it contradicts their interpretation of the creation stories in Genesis 1 & 2.
On the other hand, lots of Christians hold to other views. Old Earth Creationists tend to still reject biological evolution, but accept an old earth, millions of years old or more. This was the most common view among the old Fundamentalists in the early 20th century, before Young Earth Creationism became more popular among Fundamentalists and Evangelicals in the late 20th century.
Age-Gap Theorists are a subset of Old Earth Creationists, who specifically interpret the Creation week less literally, with the days of creation functioning as vast ages of indefinite time, with “gaps” between, like sudden bursts of creative work over a long period of time.
Theistic Evolutionists/Evolutionary Creationists (like myself) may have different interpretations of the Creation stories, but generally non-literally. Embracing mainstream scientific consensus, and understanding that the material facts and evidence of science paint a picture of God’s creative work. Scripture and science are not opposing narratives about the universe; but are complimentary ones; Scripture is God’s divinely inspired and revealed word; science provides explanatory power about the genius and beauty and mystery of God’s creation. Science tells us about the material facts of creation; Scripture tells us that God is the One behind creation, and that creation points to Him and His glory. It’s not about making Scripture and science “agree”, that is, it’s not about trying to make Genesis 1 somehow be about evolution; it’s that the truth of Genesis 1 and the truths of science are not opposing and contradicting. They are both true, but answering different questions.