Behemoth and Leviathan in the Bible
Does the Bible have dinosaurs living with humans?

This is part of a series of articles on Catholics and Creationism.

Catholics and the age of the earth
Old Earth vs Young Earth in the Bible (This article)
Catholics and Evolution
Excerpts from Cardinal Ratzinger's book "In the Beginning"
Church Fathers on the Age of the Earth
Age of the earth timeline
How was the human body formed?

What was the Behemoth?

Advocates of a young earth point to Job 40:15-24, as a description of a dinosaur, and proof that they lived concurrently with humans.

“Behold now, behemoth, which I made as well as you; he eats grass like an ox. Look, his strength is in his loins. And his force is in the muscles of his belly. He moves his tail like a cedar: The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are as tubes of brass; his limbs are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God: only he who made him gives him his sword. Surely the mountains bring forth food for him — where all the beasts of the field do play. He lies under the lotus-trees, in the covert of the reeds and the marsh. The lotus trees cover him with their shade; the willows of the brook surround him. Behold, if a river overflows, he does not tremble; he is confident, though a Jordan [swift river] swell even to his mouth. Shall any take him when he is on the watch, or pierce through his nose with a snare?” (Job 40:15-24).

The passage describes a large creature. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) thought it was an elephant. This was long before any human being had heard of dinosaurs, which were first discovered in the 1800's.

Most young earth advocates think it is a Brachiosaurus. They say the elephant theory has problems because it doesn't "move its tail like a cedar". They usually bold "cedar" and not MOVE. The word translated to "move" is an adverb greek: bend khaw-fates' which means: to bend, sway or move.

greek job 40

"cedar" is an adverb describing how it bends or sways or moves. Its not a noun. Grammatically, the sentence is not saying how big it is.

The Greek word, זָנָב or "zanob" means "tail, end, or stump".

North American cedars didn't exist in the middle east. The only cedar was the Lebanese cedar. They are still in the middle east. labanese cedar

It actually look likes an elephant's tail.

And here's how the tail moves

An elephant has no natural enemies so the line about "Only God can give it the sword" fits. It reclines under trees. The word "Behemoth", means beast and is usually used in a generic way in Scripture. (cf. Genesis 6:7)

Elephants have unique bones that are not brittle.

They don't break under their great becasue they bend like copper but are strong like iron.

Job 40:18 His bones are as strong pieces
of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.

"nekh-00-shaw": Copper. A soft pliable metal.

1) Iron. A rigid or strong metal.

Elephants love the water.

The Brachiosaurus theory has problems:

The Greek seems to indicate that only God could give kill it. But every plant eating dinosaur had a natural enemy, a meat eating predator such as an Alosaurus, or Tyrannosaurus Rex. Young earth folks say these were not meat eaters, which has huge logistical problems as a theory.
A tree would never give shade to a 50' high, 70' long dinosaur.
The Jordan is not deep enough to come to its mouth.

Leviathan

Psalm 74 says:

It was you who split open the sea by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.

This appears to be a multi headed beast.

If dinosaurs lived with men they would be all over the Bible

For those who think it is a good source for dinosaur stories, the fact that there are only a couple of oblique references to large creatures, "Behemoth" (Job 40:15-24) and "Leviathan" (Job 41:1-34), is highly problematic. If dinosaurs co-existed with man, one would think the Bible would be rift with such descriptions and analogies, and one would think there would be thousands of such examples in ancient literature, rather than just a few questionably oblique references.

Behemoth and Leviathan in the Bible Does the Bible have dinosaurs living with humans?