No, Dinosaurs Aren't in the Bible: Part 2 (Leviathan)

Last week I wrote about how the infamous passage in Job 40 about the Behemoth is often misconstrued as a dinosaur. In the very next chapter, God describes a monstrous fire-breathing sea dragon, the Leviathan, which Young Earth Creationists speculate was a real-life marine reptile, even citing this passage as evidence that dragons from ancient lore must have been based on an actual animal.

I pointed out that dual references of a cow-like fertility deity and a fire-breathing dragon of chaos often appear in ancient literature in conjunction, helping place Job in its proper historical context. Calling the Leviathan a dinosaur is an even bigger stretch than the Behemoth, for reasons we’ll get into a little later.

To recap: Job is a righteous man, but God agrees to let the devil to test his faithfulness. Satan attacks Job, who loses all his possessions and children, then is smitten with boils. His wife tells him to curse God and die and his friends chastise him for whatever wrongdoing brought such divine wrath. In the final chapters, God appears in a whirlwind, rebuking Job and his friends for questioning how He runs the universe. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding (Job 38: 4).

God uses the Behemoth and Leviathan at the end of the book to illustrate His mastery over Creation. Job 41:1-2: Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hood? Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? Or bore his jaw through with a thorn? The rest of the chapter describes how immensely powerful the Leviathan is: In his neck remained strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him (verse 22). Could this be evidence that something akin to a plesiosaur swam in the oceans in Job’s time? Some even argue that the Loch Ness monster or some other cryptic beast could have been the inspiration for this mysterious passage.

However, things get complicated as you read more descriptions of Leviathan. Verses 20-21 reveal that it breathes fire: Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. Young Earth Creationists like Ken Ham, in a misguided attempt to keep this a real animal, point out that the bombardier beetle has the ability to shoot out hot gas to ward off frogs. But unlike the Behemoth, Leviathan is mentioned outside of Job: Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness (Psalm 74:14). So the Leviathan is also a multi-headed hydra.

Now, let me be clear again; this series isn’t about the age of the earth. While I’m personally not a Young Earth Creationist, I am in no way trying to prove that our planet is older than 6,000 years. But I believe that in an attempt to find dinosaurs in the Bible, people have misread certain passages that need to be placed in the proper context to get to the bottom of their real meaning.

So what, exactly, is the Leviathan? In the ancient Near East, people believed the earth was a flat disk, an enormous sea monster surrounding and guarding its edges. Because of its circular shape, it was often called the “twisting serpent” and was usually a god of chaos synonymous with natural disaster. The symbol of the twisting serpent appears all over the ancient world; in Egypt, it was called the Pofis and in Babylon the Taimak.

In the early 1900s, archaeologists first began excavating the ruins of Ugarit, a port city on the coast of Syria that bore remarkable similarities to Israelite culture. Hebrew literature influenced Ugarit and vice versa, and this is most evident with the end of Job, where the Behemoth is mentioned next to the Leviathan. In the Ugaritic texts, the calf of Attic is mentioned alongside the Litanu, Ugarit’s version of the “twisted serpent.”

Now this leads to the inevitable controversy of why God would invoke idols of other kingdoms in his speech to Job, but this is why ancient Near Eastern context is so crucial. Modern readers tend to approach the Bible with very Westernized, Greek-influenced philosophical presuppositions. We don’t see the world the same way ancient people did and simply don’t use symbolism like they did . God only meets people where they’re at in time and speaks to them in a language they’ll understand.

Job certainly would have understood what Behemoth and Leviathan represented to the neighboring kingdoms, so in context, God’s use of them as literary devices to drive His point (His mastery over Creation) home is brilliant. But if the Behemoth represents the untameable animal kingdom, how does the Leviathan fit here?

Isaiah 27:1: In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. While God invited Job to marvel at the Behemoth, He informed him that one day He would utterly vanquish the Leviathan.

In fact, the Leviathan is mentioned so many times in the Bible, it’s actually an important piece to the Biblical puzzle, a fibrous tissue that connecting the Word of God together. God’s inevitable victory over Leviathan is emphasized over and over again; yet strangely enough, the Bible also describes God having already achieved it before Creation. Psalm 74 describes God breaking the “heads” of Leviathan, then invokes Creation afterwards: The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou has set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter (verses 16-17). But its reappearance in the New Testament reveals what it actually represents. Revelation 12:3: And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads…And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (verse 9). Verse 10 reveals that this dragon is also the accuser of the brethren: And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

Bringing this full circle (no pun intended), Job literally opens up in the first chapter with Satan appearing before God: Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought (Job 1:9)? So while scoffers mock the Bible for referencing a giant water snake that circles the edges of the earth, and Young Earth Creationists argue that it could have been a real biological animal, I can’t help but think both are missing the point: the Leviathan is supposed to represent Satan.

I used to find it peculiar that God never revealed the reason for Job’s suffering. However, now realizing what the Leviathan actually is, I see that God was promising that the one responsible for all his torment would one day be defeated.

This is so profound that it casts many more Biblical passages in a whole new light. It’s no coincidence that a serpent tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. I can never comprehend when atheists laugh at Genesis saying “snakes can’t talk!” when even a child in Sunday school knows that this was not an actual talking serpent. But one evangelical belief I’m now rethinking is that snakes once had legs that God took away as punishment after one was possessed by the devil to tempt Eve: And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life (Genesis 3:14).

I always wondered why the Lord would punish a dumb animal for Satan’s wrongdoing; but now I think this is a complete misreading of the text. This has nothing to do with snakes losing their legs and everything to do with God promising the devil that he will be cast down “into the dust” for deceiving mankind, and his punishment would come through the woman’s seed (the Messiah, Jesus). And I will put enmity between thee and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (verse 15). It’s also worth noting that the seraphims before God’s throne in Isaiah 6 are fiery beings with six wings each, and the root word for “seraphim,” seraph, is Hebrew for “serpent.”

This supports the idea that Lucifer was always in a serpentine form, even before His downfall. The passages in Psalm 74 that the Leviathan had to be defeated before Creation also support the so-called Genesis “gap” doctrine, which proposes that the creation account of Genesis 1 is not the beginning of the entire universe, but God’s re-creation of the world after the destruction of a prehistoric one associated with the fall of Satan. This would explain the earth’s state in verse 2: and the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Some attribute this to the extinction of the dinosaurs, as it may well have been; but that’s only the most famous of many apocalyptic events from earth’s past; we may never know for sure.

The promised defeat of Satan is one of the most anticipated moments in the Bible, manifested time and time again, from God’s promise to Job that He will totally defeat Leviathan to John’s vision of Lucifer’s fate in Revelation 20:10: And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

As we put all the puzzle pieces together, a wonderful pattern lays itself out before us. Job is the oldest book in the Bible and literally begins with Satan appearing before God’s throne to accuse Job. It ends with God promising Job that one day Satan (Leviathan) will be defeated. Revelation, the youngest book in the Bible, ends with this exact moment, the final judgment of Lucifer and all his followers. More details are slowly filled in in the long story in between.

See now why it’s missing the point to try to figure out if the Leviathan was a real animal?

Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him? None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about. His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him. The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved. His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone. When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon. He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear. Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary. Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride. (Job 41)

Last week I wrote about how the infamous passage in Job 40 about the Behemoth

And last week Cottraux, in contrast to many good articles by him, was exposed (by the grace of God) as subscribing to a form of liberal revisionism, of relegating a creature that is clearly stated to be a creation of God, along with Job ("Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee " - Job 40:15), to being non-actual, mythical creatures, representative of the animal kingdom. (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 .

God uses the Behemoth and Leviathan at the end of the book to illustrate His mastery over Creation.

Indeed, by invoking literal creations of His in illustrating His omnipotence and omniscience to Job who is experiencing literal afflictions, not mythological creatures of paganism, even if the names are also used to refer to them. As said, it would hardly be impressive to claim to be able to control the Klingons as specifically described, even if somehow representative of humanity.

Creationists like Ken Ham, in a misguided attempt to keep this a real animal,

How dare he?! Even with an estimated 75% of non-avian dinos remaining to be discovered, with possibly 3,400 dinosaur genera existing including many that would not have been preserved in the fossil record? Maybe because God refers to Behemoth and Leviathan as real creations of His, a beasts Job was familiar with, one with flesh which goes in the sea, and who is overall described with a scope and depth of detail that is nowhere given to mythological or spiritual creatures! Why the next thing you know he probably believes (or should) that the extensive detailed prophecy of Ezekiel foretells a literal future temple in Ezekiel also, during the 1,000 year reign of Christ. .

Young Earth Creationists like Ken Ham, in a misguided attempt to keep this a real animal, point out that the bombardier beetle has the ability to shoot out hot gas to ward off frogs.

Oh yes, that must be rejected. Why?

But unlike the Behemoth, Leviathan is mentioned outside of Job: Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness (Psalm 74:14). So the Leviathan is also a multi-headed hydra. .

So what, exactly, is the Leviathan?

Hold your breath:

in Egypt, it was called the Pofis and in Babylon the Taimak...Litanu, Ugarit’s version of the “twisted serpent. There it is, a nice false dilemma, by which the Behemoth and Leviathan of Job must be rejected as referring to a literal animal since it can also be used to refer to another, under the premise that such must refer to only one thing, and occur in only one literary genera. Consistent with this, "Babylon" can only refer to either a literal city or as representative of something else in prophecy. And since Phillip states , "In all likelihood, the name “Noah” is borrowed from the Gilgamesh hero," then consistent with the logic that the Behemoth and Leviathan of Job must be mythological since they refer to creatures in pagan mythology - yet with only a partial, incomplete correspondence to a mythical creature - then Noah could be relegated to being mythological, based upon the false premise that is what is historically or scientifically presently known supports that explanation, and to some degree is contrary to the Biblical account, then we must find a way to make the latter conform to the former.

And yet here the best it seems that Phillip can do is to state "I think the evidence is sufficient to call the Great Flood a fact of human history. I am also satisfied that the evidence is sufficient to support at least the basics of the Genesis story, that a real person built large wooden ship to save himself, his family, and animals from certain annihilation." However, even if he does not "intend to diminish from the meaning of the flood tale with regards to the Bible," he calls into doubt the literal nature of the whole event that he calls the "flood tale," by subjecting the veracity of the Biblical historical account to the very limited amount of evidence ("the evidence is sufficient to call the Great Flood a fact". Rather, if Phillip were to follow what he himself professes, "the principle that the simplest explanation is almost always the right explanation" (i.e Occam’s razor), then it means that while further archeological research can come to support what was previously denied on the basis of it, and support what Scripture states, yet the simplest and right explanation is that the events of the Flood of Noah are as they are presented in Scripture, being a literal historical account.

And likewise when God refers to creatures as creations of His, as specific illustrations of His omnipotence and omniscience to a perplexed Job suffering real afflictions and in need to such real illustrations, then God did indeed can and dis create these beings that He refers to as His creations.

Meaning these supposed Westernized, Greek-influenced philosophical presuppositions which relegate beasts that are invoked by Him as creations of Him to being mythological creatures, was how the NT Christians read their Scriptuires, recognizing such realities that, as Philip yet does, while the word gehenna actually refers to the Valley of Hinnom where a shrine to Baal had once been erected for idol worshipers to sacrifice and eat their own children, yet this refers to a literal place, of literal enduring torment of the wicked, even if we have no scientific evidence for it.

the Leviathan is supposed to represent Satan...promising Job that one day Satan (Leviathan) will be defeated.

Which it indeed can, but which does not mean that the Behemoth and Leviathan of Job were not real creatures of God, regardless of it in the lack of fossil record, or the names also referring to entities in pagan mythology. In war against Young Earth Creationists, Cottraux ends up resorting to an either/or false dichotomy, when both are real, and there is simply no reason to relegate the Behemoth and Leviathan of Job to being non-actual, mythological creatures which somehow illustrated God's power and omniscience. If God can create such fiercesome beasts as the Behemoth and Leviathan then He would also be able to deal with the devil who afflicted Job.

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