Are There Dinosaurs in the Bible?

Someone once told me that he has a hard time believing the bible because it doesn't mention the dinosaurs. I'm not so sure that's correct, and I told him so. In fact, I'm almost convinced that it speaks of dragons as well. You can read it for yourself, if you choose, and make up your own mind. If you will allow me to use my own words, I promise not to change the meaning. I am just not so easy with thou and hath and maketh; I'd much rather use the language as it is today.

In the Book of Job, Chapters 40 and 41, we read about the behemoth and the leviathan. I know that many interpret these creatures to be the hippopotamus and the crocodile, but I prefer my own images.

The behemoth eats grass, like an ox. He moves his tail like a cedar and his bones are like pieces of brass or like bars of iron. (A cedar is a tall, straight tree.) He lies under shady trees and among the reeds and fens. He can drink up a river and he moves slowly. This is supposed to be a hippopotamus? I've never seen one in real life, but I've seen them on television and in photographs. I don't recall seeing one with a long, straight tail, like a cedar tree. While I'm sure that one of them could squash me with its great bulk, strength is not the characteristic that immediately comes to my mind, if I had to describe one. But imagine that this is a description of a brontosaurus or one of the other herbivorous dinosaurs. It might indeed eat grass and have a long, straight tail that it could swing about. It's bones would have to be very strong to support the tens, or hundreds, of tons of its mass. Being kin to the reptiles, it would naturally seek shady spots and spend much of its time in wetlands; not just so the water could help support its bulk, but also to help get rid of excess body heat. Reptiles do not sweat, and probably dinosaurs didn't either, so water and shade are especially useful to them. Maybe it couldn't literally drink up a river, but it must have had to take in huge quantities of water. I can easily place any of a number of dinosaurs that we know about into the word picture we are given here.

The leviathan is the one that gives me a problem. If this is not a dragon, then I cannot imagine what it can be. Chapter 41 begins by asking several questions and the ones that grab me are: Will he make many supplications of you? (Supplications are humble requests.) We he speak softly to you? Will he make a deal with you? Will you play with him as if he were a bird? Shall not a person be defeated just from looking at him? Then, we are told that his teeth are terrible round about, his scales are knitted so close together than even the air can't penetrate between them and they're stuck together. In the next part, my King James Version uses the word "neesings" and I didn't know what that meant, so I had to look it up. The Gideon Bible, the Masonic edition, and even the Webster's dictionary were no help, but the NIV Bible, the Jerusalem Bible and the New World Translation all agree the this word is some variation of "snortings" or "sneezings"; at any rate it has to do with blowing out through the nose, and leviathan has light or sparks associated with the action. There is a glow in his eyes, out of his mouth comes sparks and fire, and from his nose there is smoke. He has a strong neck and his heart is hard as a rock. When he raises up, even the mighty are afraid. Swords and spears and arrows cannot hurt him, and he sees them as useless as if they were straws or rotten wood. There is nothing else like him in the world and he is not afraid of anything.

This is not a crocodile; not to me at least. I'll grant that I would not want to meet a crocodile face to face, but I don't see that it warrants so much as we are given here. First of all, the leviathan can (apparently) speak if it chooses to do so, and fly. Yes, a crocodile has terrible teeth round about and scales, but when was the last time anyone saw a crocodile breathe fire and sparks. In all honesty, it also has to have a neck because it can move its head from side to side, but I don't normally think of that when I see one; and I've never seen one raise up, except in the sense that it can lift its belly off the ground when it wants to. Also, a crocodile can be harmed, even killed, with swords and spears and arrows, just as any other creature can be. No, to me this creature is a dragon, or nothing at all.

You're welcome to read it for yourself, and it doesn't matter what "version" you use; they all say the same things, even if they use different words. If I say "red", you say "ruby" and someone else says "scarlet", are any of us really wrong?