Are dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible?

Yes, but you won’t find the word “dinosaur” in a Bible word search. "Dinosaur," from the Greek words deinos meaning “monstrous” and sauros meaning “lizard,” was a word invented by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 to categorize the three huge reptile fossils know during that time. Before that regrouping, dinosaurs were lumped together with other animals.

Dinosaurs had their beginnings in the Genesis 2 creation account during the making of sea and bird life during Day 5, and land animals during Day 6. Their beginnings place them at the same time as people, so Bible characters did indeed interact with these creatures.

Go back merely 4000 years to the Book of Job to read about two dinosaurs. God, comparing Himself to the mightiest animals He created, was addressing a contemporary of Abraham named Job. God’s first comparison in the second half of Job 40 was to that of His largest creature - the Behemoth.

We learn that the Behemoth ate grass, was incredibly powerful and built like solid metal, had a tree-sized tail, waded in the marshes and was incapable of being captured. Some have guessed the description to be an elephant or hippo, but which of those could fit that description?

The next dinosaur God describes can be found in Job 41 – the sea creature called the Leviathan. God describes this fearless creature as incapable of being captured, too large to be harpooned to death, ferocious, having strong limbs and fearsome teeth with tightly fitted scales, snorting fire and smoke, and churned the waters with its movement. Some have guessed it to be a crocodile, but have any been seen spewing fire?

Dinosaurs are not around today for a number of theorized reasons. After the Flood, earth’s tropical weather changed to include lizard-unfriendly cold seasons. Nobody wanted dinosaurs running amuck and so hunted them to extinction. And, life spans became much shorter. Still, there are stories just a few centuries old from isolated areas all over the world of dragons, and still modern stories of huge lizards found in the remotest Congolese jungle.

What’s left of dinosaurs today is a record of their bones, converted to stone and called fossils. Fossilized mining equipment from the 1800s demonstrated that the process of creating fossils could be short. Human fossils have been found in earthen layers beneath dinosaur fossils. Human footprints have been found embedded inside dinosaur footprints. All bear witness that dinosaurs lived beside people.

Good places to get answers to further dinosaur questions can be found in Answers in Genesis (http://www.answersingenesis.org/) and Creation Science Evangelism (http://www.drdino.com/).

Dinosaurs can teach us a lot about the One who made both them and us. They stir our imaginations with their massive size and power. And yet, how much more awesome is a God who can claim, “No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me?” (Job 41:10 NIV).