Were "dinosaurs" around a few thousand years ago?

Question

In the book of Job chapter 40, God talks about the behemoth, which very accurately fits the description of "dinosaurs." It says that the behemoth's strength is in his loins, that he moves his tail like a cedar and that he is the chief of the ways of God. Leaving aside dinosaurs, do you know any creature which has a tail like a cedar?

If you think that "dinosaurs" died out millions of years ago, yet the Bible clearly describes these creatures when they were living a few thousand years ago, it clearly shows that dinosaurs did not die out 65 millions years ago

Answer 1

The Cedaranosaurus

Answer 2

Some Dinosaurs are still around, but that still does not make the bible a true reference source.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, It clearly describes Dragons as being alive today. The book of Job was written to help explain that Satan could not bring financial and physical destruction upon us unless it is by God's permission. Satan was a new idea borrowed from Babylonians during the exile. When Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return to their native land (537 BCE), they brought back the concept of the devil with them. So Job was written in 500BCE.

Something else he borrowed is shown chapter 40, - the Ba‘al myth and its counterparts. What we know of the basic elements of the myth actually comes from two groups of texts. The Jews adopted elements of the Babylonian creation hymn, Enuma Elish, describes a great battle among the gods, -And elements from their Canaanite neighbours- primarily between Marduk, the champion of the gods, and Tiamat, the primeval ocean or the "deep."

Sometimes Tiamat was portrayed as a great serpentine beast, the dragon of chaos or the dragon of the sea. Marduk overcame Tiamat and her forces and after splitting her body into two parts, made the sky, stars, sun, and moon from one half, and the earth from the other. From the blood of Tiamat's defeated husband Kingu, one of the lesser gods, Ea (Enki) then created humanity to be servants of the gods so they would never have to work again.

In the Syrian version, Ba‘al was the storm god, the bringer of rain, and thus fertility, to the land. There was rivalry among the gods and a struggle erupted between Yamm, the sea, and Ba‘al, the rain. With the help of his sister Anat, the goddess of war, and Astarte, the goddess of earth and fertility, Ba‘al defeated Yamm, and his cohorts, Tannin, the dragon of the sea, and Loran (or Lothan, cf. Isa 27:1), the serpent with seven heads. The gods began to build a magnificent house for Ba‘al so that he could be at rest and provide abundant rain for the earth. But Ba‘al was challenged by Mot (or Mut), the god of death and the underworld. Mot temporarily triumphed and Ba‘al disappeared into the underworld. Anat and Shapash, the sun god, found Ba‘al, brought him back to life, and restored him to his house.

I think the bible is not a good book to base a history, biology or Geography lesson upon, but if you look back at the mindset of a race of shepherds 2500 years ago, then there has to be a simple solution for this animal. It was clear that Job based this book on the Babylonian myth - he even used the names Bhea-mot, and thus in Jewish belief, Behemoth is the primal unconquerable monster of the land. As Leviathan is the primal monster of the waters of the sea and Ziz the primordial monster of the sky.

Looking at the animals of Mesopotamia, that would have been new to the Israelis, then 2500 years ago, there were Elephants and Hippos in the lower Tigris marshes. You might not believe this, but the Russian word for a hippopotamus is "behemoth" - Leviathan were crocodiles and Ziz the mythical Persian Roc.

Although the animals tail "moves like a cedar" (40:17), an unlikely description for these animals - fits better with the elephants - In Jewish literature - the word "tail" is a euphemism for male genitalia. Support for this is based on another meaning of the Hebrew word "move", which means "extend".

The Dinosaur, most probably a sauropods, unlike Behemoth, were tree-browsers that became extinct 65 million years ago, predating the appearance and rise of people or grasses. Also, the Behemoth is said to eat grass like an ox, meaning it would chew cud. Sauropods could not chew.

Answer 3

In many books we read of knights in medieval times fighting dragons . They had a great show on the discovery channel about it some time ago . On it they stated the nearly every culture on earth has some reference in their history mentioning dragons . The show was a dramatization but scientists described in detail how such a creature could exist and actually explained quite convincingly how they could even breath fire . I think the possibility remains dragons ( which could be described as a dinosaur ) may have actually existed . This would back up what you have said just from a different non - biblical viewpoint . The many cultures with references to dragons in their history hadn't all met one another and collaborated on the idea of them , so that makes for some compelling evidence that yes indeed dinosaurs may well have existed a few thousand years ago . In 1938 a fish called a Coelacanth believed to have been extinct since the Cretaceous period was found off the east coast of South Africa, off the Chalumna River . So in my opinion I believe in the possibility that dinosaurs may have existed in some form just a few thousand years ago . Also this doesn't discount the biblical statement of which you refer.

Answer 4

The bible is not fact and this proves that. Humans were around a few thousand years ago; dinosaurs were around a 'few' million years ago.

Edit:
Please do not believe a book written by people with very little knowledge of history and science over modern day science facts and evidence. The only thing you should take from the bible are it's straightforward moral messages, then again, if you need a book to tell you those morals then you are not a very decent person to begin with.

Answer 5

This is a cedar http://www.alloregonrealestate.com/images/Port%20Orford%20Cedar.jpg

I don't know of any animal, dinosaur or not, living or dead that has a tail like that.

Unless you mean that the bible used a metaphor or parable in its description, and it wasn't meant to be taken completely and totally literally.

In which case, we no longer have to go through painful convolutions of logic and strained attempts to fit physical evidence into a literal interpretation of Genesis, and we can take the Bible as a spiritual guide and actually listen to its message, rather than trying to claim it's also a science textbook.

Answer 6

Just because it says it in the Bible, does not mean it is true. Just because the description correlates with a dinosaur does not mean that dinosaurs were living in biblical times. Your argument is not logical.

In fact, many ancient cultures, most notably the Greeks, used the bones of prehistoric creatures as evidence for the existence of creatures of legends. Ancient Greeks believed that the heroes of legend were many times the size of modern humans. When they discovered the gigantic bones of mammoths, they re-buried them with full honours. A famous example of this was told in Herodotus' "History" concerning the bones of Orestes. When found they were measured and found to be 7 cubits tall. Contemporary drawings clearly show that the bones are prehistoric and in some cases can even be positively identified from the fossil record. Adrienne Mayer's "Fossil Hunters of Ancient Rome" documents numerous accounts of clearly ancient bones being used as sacred offerings or representations of mythical beings.

Fossil dating is based on accepted scientific methods, such as Carbon 14 and radiometrics, and stringent mathematic calculations. There is no salient evidence that refutes it. There is also no evidence that dinosaurs or dinosaur like creatures existed as recently as a thousand years ago. That time period is well within the time of written histories and no account of such creatures exists beyond cryptic references to lake monsters. There may well be creatures unknown to science, or these accounts may refer to rare creatures, unknown to early writers.

Ultimately, your description of behemoth is not compelling. The biblical description of behemoth resembles a herbivorous mammal, not a reptilian. It is another example of a biblical extract taken out of context. In the original Hebrew midrash, Behemoth is linked with Leviathan and Ziz, monsters of the sea and sky. In Jewish eschatology the myth states that the monsters will battle until the end of the world. As you say yourself, Behemoth is "the chief of the ways of God", this implies he is no mere beast but a higher being. It is a metaphor for God's power over his creation.

Perhaps like their Greek and Roman counterparts, ancient Hebrews saw fantastic bones that sparked their imagination. Perhaps behemoth is no more than a metaphor for an instrument of God. It is certainly not an accurate description of a dinosaur and certainly does not prove they existed a few thousand years ago.

Answer 7

Dinosaurs were very obviously around millions of years ago.

Those who say that dinosaurs were around only thousands of years ago are trying to 'cook the books' in order to make the bible credible again. They are failing miserably.

Answer 8

Millions my dear, not thousands. Dinosaurs were on the earth before humans were. We missed them by several million years I believe.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Your question is based on the belief that the world is only 4000 years old (or created when Adam was created)

There is another theory that the earth was created millions of years before (1t Earth Age) and God destroyed the Earth when Satan rebelled. He recreated the Earth during Adam's time (2nd Earth Age)

The reference in Job is to the 1st Earth Age