BEHEMOTH AND LEVIATHAN—DINOSAURS?

I DON’T THINK SO

 

Background

 

A small group of Christians have interpreted Scriptural references to beasts called behemoth and leviathan in the books of Job, Psalms, and Isaiah as pertaining to dinosaurs.  This rather unusual

interpretation stands in opposition to the vast majority of Bible scholars who identify the creatures as common known animals (hippopotamus or Nile horse and crocodiles, whales, porpoises, dolphins, or other sea creatures).

 

The question most often asked is: what could lead to this admittedly bizarre interpretation of what seem to be ordinary animals observed throughout history as long extinct beasts? Another question is: what to make of it?

 

When this young-earth theory was published, the religious and scientific community identified a plethora of Biblical (missing dinosaur references; timeframe) and scientific (fossil dating; fossil associations) problems associated with dinosaurs in the Bible.

 

These issues prompted numerous articles published by a considerable number of Christian and scientific scholars who took the young-earth creationists to task. Given the success of the Biblical and scientific articles refuting the young-earth theory on a 6,000-year-old universe, which is the basis of the dinosaur claims, there is no need for another comprehensive paper to repeat the charges.

 

There are, however, a couple of facets of the dinosaur issue that have received less attention from writers refuting the young-earth theories. These are: 1) the Bible references young-earth creationists purport to prove the existence of dinosaurs in the last 6,000 years, and 2) the real message of the Scriptures. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to detail the flaws in the young-earth interpretation of Biblical references of behemoth and leviathan to dinosaurs and then to explain the actual reasons behind God’s references to these creatures.

 

This paper first looks at the motivation behind this group of Christians insisting that these Biblical creatures are dinosaurs. Next, all the Scriptural references to behemoth and leviathan are examined and compared with information from studies of known animals and to what information is available from dinosaur fossils. Finally, the actual meaning behind the Scriptures is presented—and it does not involve dinosaurs.

 

Motivation For Interpretations As Dinosaurs

 

There is a debate in the Christian community that focuses on the age of the creation of the earth. A small group of Christians, have come to believe that the universe, including the earth and everything in it was created some 6,000 years ago. The belief of this young-earth group is rejected by the multitude of other Christians who are convinced from Biblical and reliable scientific references that the earth and its creatures are considerably (orders of magnitude) older.

 

The belief in a 6,000-year-old-universe and earth means that in this short timeframe all species of dinosaurs on the earth would have to have been created, lived out their lives, and became extinct. From fossil evidence, dinosaur species have been found to span the spectrum from gigantic to small; land-dwelling to sea-dwelling; walking, flying, and swimming; and being herbivores to carnivores. Conservative estimates put the number of known dinosaur genus at about a thousand, each of which has several species.  Furthermore, these numbers are likely to represent just a fraction of the dinosaur genera that lived and either didn't fossilize or have yet to be found (Enchanted Learning, 2017).

 

Where the existence of dinosaurs in B.C. 4,000 becomes a dicey issue for those holding the young-earth belief is that the ark built for the flood of Noah’s time—generally thought to have occurred around B.C. 4,300—is documented in Scripture to have housed at least two of all creatures living at the time:

 

You (Noah) are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.  (Genesis 6:19-22)

 

By insisting that dinosaurs were in existence at the time the ark was constructed, “two of all living creatures” by definition must include thousands of dinosaurs on the ark. This has to be especially troubling for those holding to this 6,000-year-old belief, not only because of the obvious space issue for the ark, but because not only is there no mention of dinosaurs being on the ark, there is no mention of dinosaurs anywhere in the Genesis account. This should raise a red flag for anyone researching the issue.

 

If these issues did raise any flags, apparently the warnings were ignored, because young-earth writers, unable to find Scriptural references to dinosaurs on the ark or in Genesis, seem to have scoured the Bible for any reference, which could possibly be construed to suggest the existence of dinosaurs. Necessity being the mother of invention, interestingly enough, the young-earth search netted two arcane Biblical animal references— “behemoth” and “leviathan”—that they have declared as “proof” for dinosaurs.

 

Scriptural References To Behemoth And Leviathan

 

The next step is to review the Scriptural references to behemoth and leviathan. The behemoth reference is found in Job 40:15-24 and references to leviathan are found in Job 41:1-10, Psalms 74:14 and 104:26, and Isaiah 27:1. These, including the Hebrew words and Strong’s interpretations, are as follows:

 

      Job 40:

Look at behemoth, בַּהֲמוֹת (Strong’s H930—a water ox; the hippopotamus or Nile horse), 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/moves/bends 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)

 

      Job 41:

Can you pull in leviathan לִוְיָתָן (Strong H3882—a wreathed animal, i.e. a serpent, especially the crocodile or some other large sea monster), with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? (Job 41:1)

     

      Psalms 74:14:

It was you who crushed the heads of leviathan לִוְיָתָן and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.

     

      Psalms 104:26:

There the ships go to and fro, and leviathan לִוְיָתָן, which you formed to frolic there.

     

      Isaiah 27:1:

In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, leviathan לִוְיָתָן, the gliding serpent, leviathan לִוְיָתָן, the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea. 

 

Actual Context Of Behemoth And Leviathan Scriptural References

 

In this section the actual context of the Scriptural references to behemoth and leviathan is discussed and the young-earth reasoning is addressed.

 

      Behemoth of Job 40—a hippopotamus. Strong’s Concordance describes behemoth (בַּהֲמוֹת) as “a singular noun of Egyptian derivation; a water-ox, i.e. the hippopotamus or Nile-horse”. Most researchers and Bible scholars concur that Job’s behemoth is nothing more than a hippopotamus or water ox (DeWitt, 2000). According to Cansdale (1970):

 

Bible translators have chosen not to use the name “hippopotamus”, perhaps because it comes so late in usage; because they are not zoologists; and because some scholars including Bodenheimer (1960) have preferred to use the name behemoth for beasts generally.

 

The exceptions are the Revised Standard Version, the Orthodox Jewish Bible, and the Contemporary English Version, which accurately translate behemoth as “hippopotamus.”

 

According to Bodenheimer (1960), The hippopotamus was reliably reported from the Orontes river in Syria around B.C. 1500 and was in the lower Nile until the twelfth century A.D. It was hunted using harpoons with barbed hooks and was well known in Biblical times.

 

General information on the hippopotamus listed below is from several websites including: https://www.hippoworlds.com/hippopotamus-information; https://www.livescience.com/27339-hippos.html/; and https://facts.net/hippopotamus/index.htm.

 

• The hippopotamus can weigh upwards of two tons and measures 15 feet long by 5 feet high;

 

• The hippopotamus has been genetically related to Cetaceans, which are aquatic creatures (whales and dolphins);
• The hippo has massive strength in his loins, and power in the muscles of its belly; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit; and its bones and limbs are strong—like metal;

 

• Despite the size of his tail (18-26 inches in length), the hippopotamus’ powerful tail becomes erect when it is excited or running (Zuck, 1991) and it can move it like a limb or branch of a tree;

 

• The hippopotamus is herbivorous—a plant eater;

 

• The hippo is aquatic, living in riverine and marsh-like conditions and able to remain submerged for long periods of time beneath floating lotus plants. Because of its bulk, the hippo is able to withstand fast moving rivers like the Jordan;

 

• Historically, the hippo is distributed throughout that part of the earth and was certainly known in Biblical times, esp. in Egypt (http://holycall.com/biblemaps/egypt.htm); and

 

• There are ancient records of hunting hippos with harpoons and barbed hooks in the first century B.C. (DeWitt, 2000).

 

At any level—cursory or detailed—the hippopotamus perfectly fits the description given by Job from a physical, habitation, and historical standpoint. Yet, despite all of these attributes, which are clearly characteristic of a common animal known to exist historically and in the present, young- earth creationists refuse to accept the obvious; choosing, instead, to insist that the animal is a dinosaur.

 

To justify this rather bizarre theory, they ignore the plethora of descriptive attributes and dwell on only one attribute of the hippo’s massive body—the tail. According to Allen Steel of Answers in Genesis (2001), “we will now consider the key clause in Job 40:17a”. That clause reads, “His tail sways/moves/bends like a cedar”. Steel and the other young-earth creationists insist that because of this Scriptural reference to that tail, the beast can be absolutely nothing but a dinosaur; specifically, a sauropod.

 

The Hebrew word in Job 40:17 (Strongs—zânâb זָנָב) is translated tail, stump, or end—hardly conveying a vision of a massive appendage of a giant sauropod, which is the dinosaur of choice for young-earth creationists. Moreover, the Hebrew verb (Strongs—chaphets חָפֵץ) describing the connection between what the animal does with his tail (zânâb זָנָב) is translated by various versions (NIV, NASB, ASV, NKJV) as moves, bends, or sways.

 

The NIV simply states that “he (בַּהֲמוֹת) moves (chaphets חָפֵץ) his tail like a cedar.”  Other Bible versions such as the Greek Septuagint translate chaphets as "histemi," which means to stand—especially, to stand firm or steadfastly or with authority. The RSV renders chaphets as "makes…stiff"; Peake’s Commentary on the Bible refers to a "stiff tail"; The New Living Translation Bible describes the appendage as being "straight"; Today’s English Version of the Bible says that it "stands up"; and the Douay-Rheims version of the Bible renders it as "He setteth up his tail…." 

 

Regardless of which version is used, however, the fact is, Scripture neither states—nor even implies—that the hippo tail, stump, or end:

 

• looks like a full-grown cedar tree; 

 

• is the shape of a cedar tree;

 

• is the color of a cedar tree;

 

• is as strong as a full-grown cedar tree;

 

• is the diameter of a full-grown cedar tree; or

 

• is as tall as a full-grown cedar tree. 

 

An interesting documentary produced by Georgia Public Television, Hippo Beach (2003) followed a family of hippopotami in Zambia.  The program emphasized a number of hippo characteristics including: their riverine habitat—rivers fed from hill or mountain sources—in which they are submerged beneath floating lily pads, such as the lotus plants; their herbivorous nature in which they feast on plants, floating in the rivers, at least some of which are washed down from the hills; their massive size and strength; their huge, sharp teeth, with which they defend themselves; and

(their short but massive tail that not only gets rigid, but is used as a weapon to discourage rival competitors).

 

Clearly, God was simply describing a normal animal’s tail by comparing it to a known object, just as He compared other parts of the animal’s body to other materials such as tubes of bronze and rods of iron. Even young-earth creationists would agree that metals were not the actual construction materials of the animal’s bones.

 

The attached table compares the Biblical attributes of behemoth with a description from writers who have studied the hippopotamus and with what information is known of the sauropod dinosaur from fossil remains, associations, and researcher speculation. The sauropod is the dinosaur of choice of most young-earth creationists for the behemoth.  

 

Because the hippopotamus is a living animal, all facets of its anatomy, habitat, and habits can be—and have been—studied; its attributes are observable and documented. Dinosaurs, however, are long dead and, with the exception of some fossil remains, cannot be studied or observed. Even young earth writers, therefore, are forced to acknowledge how little is to be known about dinosaurs. For example:

 

Of course, scientists can never be certain about a creature's habits when they only have bits of dead ones to study, and most dinosaur fossils are extremely fragmentary, usually consisting of part of a single bone. (Morris, 2006)

 

Yet, this admission by Morris about the dinosaurs does not deter young-earth writers from wild speculations about them. In the absence of observable data, a plethora of inferences and assumptions (guesses, actually) have been made for the sauropod anatomy, habitat, and habits. The same data applies for the other creatures—“leviathan” that they declare are dinosaurs.

 

      Leviathan of Psalms 74 and 104, Job 41, and Isaiah 27. Most Biblical scholars studying the leviathan mentioned in Psalms, Isaiah and Job suggest that all these Scriptural references are to a single creature.  The descriptions of leviathan in the Bible, however, strongly suggest at least two, and possibly three, different animals: 

     

      Leviathan of Psalms 104—whales or dolphins. The Psalms 104:26 passage: “There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there” would seem to describe a whale or dolphin, like those which are seen jumping in the oceans today.  There is a travel website that features “frolicking humpback whales” and a CBS report of them aired in San Francisco (Evans, 2016);

 

      Leviathan of Psalms 74—common sea or land monsters. Psalm 74:13-14 describes God’s dealing with Leviathan: “It was you (God) who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.”

 

      Leviathan of Job 41—a crocodile. God gives Job a lesson in humility as He describes another of his creations. The lesson is meant to show Job that the Lord has created another creature that he is unable to control. Given that, God asks who is capable of questioning Him:

 

Can you pull in leviathan לִוְיָתָן (Strong H3882—a wreathed animal, i.e. a serpent, especially the crocodile or some other large sea monster), with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? No one is fierce enough to rouse it…. Who then is able to stand against me? (Job 41:1;10)

 

      Leviathan of Isaiah 24-27—common serpents/sea monsters. Isaiah prophesies God’s wrath and the cleansing of the earth at the end of the age.  Isaiah 24:1 sets the stage: “See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants.” The prophet declares God’s punishment of earth’s people and creatures:

 

See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her; she will conceal her slain no longer. In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing (fugitive) serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea. (Isaiah 26:21-27:1)

 

Prophetic Context Of Leviathan Scriptural References  

 

      Leviathan of Isaiah 24-27—a future prophecy? An even more interesting concept from Isaiah’s prophecy to be considered is that God may not be referring to an actual animal in this Scripture at all—but may be using the serpent “leviathan” in a metaphorical sense.

 

It is especially significant to note the prophetic aspect (“in that day”—meaning the end of the age) of this Scripture as it relates to God’s punishment of a serpent: Isaiah 27:1 states:

 

…In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the בָּרִיחַ (Strong’s H1281—fleeing or “a fugitive”) serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the עֲקַלָּתוֹן (Strongs H6129—twisted, crooked) serpent; and He will kill the dragon תַּנִּין (Strong’s H8577— dragon, serpent, sea monster) who lives in the sea….

 

This reference to punishing a serpent/dragon/sea monster at the end of the age is especially interesting for three reasons:

 

• The first reason concerns the question: why would God be intent on punishing a snake or killing a sea monster when, clearly, nothing in the Bible suggests that God hates snakes or sea monsters in general—after all, he created them. There is, however, the one prominent snake and dragon/monster in the Bible that has been identified by God in His Revelation to John—as Satan:

 

…an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads…the great dragon…that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan. (Revelation 12:3 and 12:9)

• The second reason: it does not seem coincidental that the ancient serpent/dragon, the Devil, in this Revelation 12:3 Scripture, is depicted as multi-headed (“seven heads”)—and then God is depicted punishing a multi-headed serpent:

 

…you broke the heads of the monster תַּנִּין (Strong’s H8577— dragon, serpent, sea monster) in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of leviathan and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert. (Psalm 74:13-14)

 

• The third reason: moreover, it does not seem coincidental that this multi-headed serpent/dragon—Satan—will be punished by a sword-yielding Jesus at Armageddon: “Now out of His (Jesus’) mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations” (Revelation 19:15).

 

Reminder: God does not believe in coincidences.

 

The significance of this interpretation is that this prophetic aspect seems at least as cogent and credible an interpretation of the Scripture as dinosaurs. Especially in light of Isaiah’s explanation for why God is doing what He is doing: “See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her; she will conceal her slain no longer” (Isaiah 26:21).  

 

God’s Amazing Creatures

 

But, even ignoring the likely prophetic explanation for these creatures, on a purely physical level, the references in Psalms and Isaiah to serpents and sea creatures should surprise no one because we see them today—and, have no reason to believe that they didn’t exist in Old Testament times. 

 

But there is, however, an anomaly—Job 41.

 

      Job 41—Not so common crocodile. Job 41 describes a large creature that is reminiscent of the gigantic Nile crocodile—right up to the point that “firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.  Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth” (Job 41:19-21). This description has prompted wild speculation that this creature is a dinosaur (Mart-Jan Paul, 2010; Morris, 1989).

 

Although this creature from this Scripture fits the general description of a Nile crocodile, there are clearly aspects of the animal which are not attributable to common crocodiles. But then, of course, neither do they fit any known dinosaurs. 

 

Descriptions and pictures of crocodiles from as far back in time as the 12^th and 13^th Dynasties in Egypt—when the Egyptians worshipped the Nile crocodile god, Sobek (Wikipedia, 2017b)—clearly and closely resemble crocodiles of today.  No Egyptian documents or pictures give any indication of a fire or smoke breathing crocodile. Logically, there is little doubt that if such a creature existed, the Egyptians would have depicted Sobek as having those abilities?

 

So, clearly, no one knows what God had in mind in Job 41. All that said, without question, weird creatures exist in the present and weird animals are likely to have existed in the past. In fact, an article in The National Geographic Magazine (2006) concerning sea monsters, featured descriptions and pictures of a multitude of such creatures and makes this statement:

 

…amazing beasts lurk in the murky depths of the ocean. Some are as large as a school bus. Many glow in the dark. Most have razor-sharp teeth. And we're just beginning to discover the vast majority of them. 

 

Such an “amazing beast” is the squid, which has chromatophores (pigment-containing and light-reflecting cells) embedded in their skin for camouflage.  They also have the ability to expel an ink-like chemical, if threatened. The torpedo ray, electric catfish, and electric eel are equipped with electrical-producing defense mechanisms that are capable of sending electrical shocks up to 700 volts. The stonefish, scorpionfish, pufferfish have glands that produce poisonous toxins capable of killing not only their aquatic enemies, but humans, as well.

 

Some creatures do have the capacity to produce heat and light. Ostracods with their transparent bodies, are bioluminescent and literally spit blue light in the dark as a defense against predators. The malaysian exploding ant defends the colony from attackers by blowing itself up. Two large glands full of a poisonous chemical are located all across the ant’s body and when attacked, the fluid-filled glands burst, releasing the sticky, poisonous substance from the head at the target.

 

Another heat-producing creature is the bombardier beetle. This beetle is of special note because it has attracted the attention of young-earth creationists (Gish and Ross, 1977) trying to explain the Job 41 Scripture as a reference as a fire-breathing dinosaur. The bombardier beetle is interesting in that it is able to defend itself by mixing chemicals that seem to explode when fired through twin tail tubes that can swivel like gun turrets. The bubbling liquid shoots out at 212º F (Wikipedia, 2017a).

 

Gish and Ross have attempted to extrapolate characteristics of the bombardier beetle (Weber, 1981) to a dinosaur. According to their theory, the crests of Lambeosaurines and Parasaurolophus (both genus of hadrosaurid—the duckbilled dinosaurs), function the same way as the special glands inside the posterior of the beetle—to help them breathe fire.

 

Several things are wrong with this theory. The most obvious is that any of these dinosaurs have been dead for millions of years so they are irrelevant. Next, according to Dawkins (1987), efforts to test this “fire breathing” theory by combining the chemicals found in the bombardier beetles produced only a brown liquid—no explosion.

 

Then, no evidence has ever been found inside of any dinosaur's crests to support such a notion.

Researchers find no fossil evidence that the delicate bones, nostrils, or throats of any of these creatures were ever exposed to high temperatures. In fact, scientists who have studied these fossil remains have determined that the crests most likely operated like a brass instrument such as a trumpet and a trombone, not to breathe fire, but to make sounds.

 

Creatures from cockroaches and termites to carpenter ants and honeybees and dozens of miniature creatures from around the world were given arsenals of sprays, venom, toxins, froth, feces, camouflage, and sticky coatings with which to defend themselves.  So, a creature such as the one described, could easily have been made by God.  

 

So, as noted, there is no way to know for certain what creature God was describing in Job 41 and the other Scriptures; but one thing is certain—there is no scientific or Biblical evidence that dinosaurs were described in the Bible.

 

 

 

God’s Real Purpose of These Scriptures

 

Most Biblical scholars realize that these Scriptures in Job are nothing more than God putting Job in his place. Job is a good man (one of the best), but in Job 40:8, God says to Job, “Would you discredit my justice?  Would you condemn me to justify yourself”? God then asks Job (40:12-13) if he is capable of dealing—as God does—with proud and wicked mankind and concludes His point by saying, if he (Job) can do this, “then I (God) myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you” (Job 40:14).

 

God then explains (Job 40:15-41:34) that He made beasts, behemoth—a land animal, alongside Job—and leviathan—a sea creature, which God easily handles, but Job—or indeed, any man—is incapable of controlling. God is demonstrating to Job that not only could he (Job) not deal with proud and wicked mankind, but he is incapable of even dealing with God’s creatures lower than himself. God’s question is this: since Job is unable to deal with these creatures, then how could he possibly expect to force the hand of his Creator?

 

Job, in Job 42:6, finally gets the point that he really is not capable of contending with or correcting God: he says, “Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."

 

To Summarize

 

These Scriptural references are nothing more than descriptions of common beasts created by God that are too strong for Job, or any human to control. Since Job cannot control beasts that God created, how could he presume to advise the Lord? Clearly, there is no reason to believe that the detailed descriptions of the beasts are anything but ancillary to the main point—God making Job aware of his lowly status.

 

Given God’s reasoning, the focus on the beasts by the young-earth creationists diverts attention from His real message and amounts to nothing more than an ineffective effort to justify a pre-conceived notion about the Creation.

 

At least that’s the way I see it.

 

Chuck, 2021