Leviathan in the Bible: Sea Monster or Dragon?
@gtargirl (5376)
United States
January 5, 2012 6:11pm CST
I love hearing about the discoveries of dinosaur bones. Like we didn't believe in them already. Well, at least I know because they were written about in the Bible. Right? Sometimes scientists give names to new discoveries because they didn't go to the Bible for the original name, though the descriptions of the animal remain the same. Have you found any dinosaurs or dragons or even a unicorn in the Bible? Check this out from the book of Job in chapter 41. It's a pretty lengthy read but bear with me. What do you think it's describing?
12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
its strength and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat?
Who can penetrate its double coat of armor?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
ringed about with fearsome teeth?
15 Its back has rows of shields
tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next
that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from its mouth.
22 Strength resides in its neck;
dismay goes before it.
23 The folds of its flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm and immovable.
24 Its chest is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
they retreat before its thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw
and bronze like rotten wood.
28 Arrows do not make it flee;
slingstones are like chaff to it.
29 A club seems to it but a piece of straw;
it laughs at the rattling of the lance.
30 Its undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 It leaves a glistening wake behind it;
one would think the deep had white hair.
33 Nothing on earth is its equal—
a creature without fear.
So tell me, MyLotters, what is a Leviathan?
1 person likes this
8 responses
@veganbliss (3895)
• Adelaide, Australia
6 Jan 12
An excellent find! This same creature is also described in The Book of Enoch 60:7
"And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the 8 abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters."
I think the other Biblical references are Psalm 74, Psalm 104 & Isaiah 27:1.
I'm sure Job was more interested in conveying important spiritual truths in the text you refer to, rather than merely describing a monster which may or may not have actually existed. There's a fair bit of evidence which describes such monsters even before Job's time, so such a creature, whether myth or real, would not have been unfamiliar to Job's target audience.
1 person likes this
@gtargirl (5376)
• United States
8 Jan 12
I am one who tends to believe there was such a creature. Just because I know God can create anything and who else would have such a creative mind? But I do love what you said that Job was interested in conveying important spiritual truths. Amen to that. And we do use illustrations that are familiar to our target audience. You sound like a writer, my friend. 
@veganbliss (3895)
• Adelaide, Australia
8 Jan 12
Thank you for the BR!
Fair enough, there may have been such a creature - who really knows? But it's possible.
I'm less of writer than you are, it seems - you have more successful posts to your credit than I.
But, all the best to both of us with that.
I'm more of a reader, though I have learned that to be a good writer, one needs to be well-read first.
Fair enough, there may have been such a creature - who really knows? But it's possible.
I'm less of writer than you are, it seems - you have more successful posts to your credit than I. But, all the best to both of us with that. I'm more of a reader, though I have learned that to be a good writer, one needs to be well-read first.1 person likes this
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
6 Jan 12
I've always thought an ocean species dinosaur, but the last about the white hair makes me think a whale.. I know Job described a dinosaur, or someone speaking in the book of Job, and says (it's been a while since I have thought of it) "has a tail like a mighty cedar" and that cannot be an elephant or wooly mammoth, and sounds like a dinosaur to me.. besides there's all those legends most lands have of dragons.. I think they were dinosaurs. And science as of late has come to the conclusion man and dinosaurs coexisted..
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@gtargirl (5376)
• United States
6 Jan 12
Yeah, I was thinking of all these legends about dragons. And since nothing is new under the sun, even the thoughts of our imaginations came from somewhere or something that already existed . . . if that makes sense.
@gtargirl (5376)
• United States
8 Jan 12
And if I gave you 10,000 examples, what would you then believe?
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
7 Jan 12
i want a 10,000 example of different stories that dinosaur actually living in the world of humans before,
what i only heard is that Levithians and Noah's ark only told about giant dragons and monster and nothing else stories to add,
very few reports, meaning, dinosaurs didn't live in the world of humans, they are gone millions of years ago before humans are the kind of the land animals of earth.
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@peavey (16936)
• United States
9 Feb 12
There are many references to a dragon in the Bible, but whether they are actual dragons or spiritual references is a matter of interpretation.
That said, I also believe this to be a dinosaur or dragon of some kind. It had been awhile since I read the description so it struck me as fresh. Besides, there's something about reading in online that makes it fresh.
Anyway, when "Flames stream from its mouth, sparks of fire shoot out, smoke pours from its nostrils as a boiling pot over burning reeds" it really sounds like what we call a dragon.
Although dragons are thought to be mythical creatures, where did the concept come from? Diverse cultures and religions include dragons, so it would seem that the idea is based on something other than imagination.
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@gtargirl (5376)
• United States
9 Feb 12
I've heard it said it was some sort of dinosaur. I'm sure it's been debated. All in all, it sounds fierce.
@GardenGerty (157462)
• United States
6 Jan 12
I see a plated or scaled dinosaur that is also able to swim. Yes, it sounds as if it breathes fire. A friend of mine had a series of videos where a scientist explains about dinosaurs and the Bible and it was very convincing. I am sure that dinosaurs lived on the earth, and that God knew about them and took care of them as he does every animal.
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@gtargirl (5376)
• United States
6 Jan 12
We're on the same page, my friend. I kindda wanna see one. Maybe when we get to heaven. And, for sure, God knew about these ancient marvels and absolutely took care of them.
@celticeagle (158615)
• Boise, Idaho
7 Jan 12
It certainly sounds alot like a dragon. I wonder if there are different types of dragons and the leviathan could be one. The outer coat, the breath like fire, strikes of fire, etc. sounds like a dragon to me.
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
7 Jan 12
i have an another doubt too that what if that Levithian only saw is not actually a giant monster but a group of soldiers forming a "CEASAR'S TURTLE" formation while wearing early forms of armor where they are using flames as a weapon or that ceasar's turtle tail instead of an actual tail of a creature is a projectile cannon of stone or a catapult while two of its giant claws serves as two giant bow and arrow attached to the giant cart (an early forms of a battle war tank) and the thick skin of armour found on the back of that dragon monster is a hand-held shield formation of the ceasar's turtle type of formation, where a spear inserted and aimed at the spaces between the shields serves as the haired or scale of the dragon monster.
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
7 Jan 12
I think the one who saw it are either he/she is hallucinating, drunk, or just inventing new stories just to have some topic or miss-interpretation to what the original text because the Holy Bible is translated the languages for several times.
Text of miss-intrepratation does happen to in the field of martial arts where a kungfu guy performs his super feats set pattern and the observer tells to a friend that he see a guy performing a karate, well see?
a karate is a very far different to kungfu....
About the Leviathan:
It seems that he saw only a single animal like that and no other animals except that unique monster, meaning, i have a doubt of just hallucinating because not all that we see using our naked eyes is sometimes an optical illusion.
like the watered road in a distance when traveling in a hot summer deserted road, that if you are already there on the distance road that you see, there is no watered road, but in a far distance road again, another watered road exist which is not, and an optical illusion only.
and why is it in the Leviathan number 19, that monster draw a flame, fire on its mouth or nostrils, meaning, there are no such big giant animal that even a dinosaur exist that actually breaths fire?
maybe that Leviathan actually saw is a smoke of little fogs that came out from the animal's mouth during winter or cold temperature time, and miss-interpreted by the authors of the bible as flame, and translated to a different language and miss-interpreted again not a flame but a fire...
just like soddom and gommorha that is destroyed by fire as what said in the translation of the holy bible text, but actually fire didn't destroy soddom and gommorha but destroyed by an ice found on the top glaciered mountains...
meteor shower hit those mountains and the ice that are found on top of that mountain bounches off and projectiled to soddom and gommorha and destroyed it by ice and not by fire or flame....
