Dragons In The Bible
Christina Weigand
Before I started researching this article, I thought that it was going to be a simple, straightforward article like my previous articles on dragons have been. Those articles can be seen here. As I started researching dragons in the Bible, of course the subject of faith came up. And why wouldn't it, since it is about Dragons in the Bible. I did not want this post to become a discussion about faith as this blog is not about that. Instead I chose to stick to the facts as I found them and you can decide what your own beliefs are.
The Hebrew word for dragon is tanniyn and can be found in the Old Testament 29 times. Dragons are not always referred to by that word, so the count is higher.
Some may argue that dragons are really dinosaurs. This definition does not fly because the word dinosaur didn’t appear in language until years after the translation was done.
This brings up the question: Are dragons real? I read a lot of articles in researching this post and found no definitive answer. There are people that say they don’t exist and of course others that say they do exist.
For those that don’t believe they exist, the argument is posited that they are mythological creatures and seen as symbolic of other things, like say curses.
For those that believe in the reality of dragons there is plenty of Biblical and scientific evidence to support this theory.
I won’t take this part of the discussion further, because it starts to play into people’s religious beliefs. So let’s just say the jury is still out on this one.
For many people, dragons are seen as evil, and Bible interpretation contributes to this. The thing about people whose primary belief is that dragons are evil choose not to see that there are the places in the Bible where dragons are depicted as good. Below I have chosen examples of each:
They appear as the avenue of God’s curses as seen in Isaiah 13: 19-22; And Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come and her days shall not be prolonged. (KJV)
They also appear as gentle beasts as demonstrated in Isaiah 23:20; The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people. (KJV)
So real or mythological, evil or good is an argument that will go on. I for one choose to believe that dragons do exist, and just like humans they can choose to be good or evil.
Bensvelk Thurkear (good night in dragon).
For more evidence here are a couple of articles that I used. Don’t be put off by the titles as the author talks more about dragons, than on the Christian beliefs:
Dragons: Fact or Fable
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