Any debate of the merits of evolution and creation will almost certainly involve some discussion of dinosaurs – with some creationists claiming that fossils footprints have been found proving that man and dinosaur once lived side by side on earth.

Generally speaking, however, dinosaurs appear to belong to the Mesozoic era, part of the Pre-Adamic world, as already discussed. As reptiles, the gigantic size they attained may, at least in part, be attributed to their sheer longevity and continuous growth, which in turn may have been a consequence of the absence of cosmic radiation at the earth’s surface prior to the Flood. Perhaps as a result of the movie “Jurassic Park”, a vast amount of information regarding dinosaurs is now available in most public libraries as well as on-line.

Terrible Lizards
The large dionsaurs may also have been genetically giant forms anyway, and it was their similarities with modern-day lizards that led William Owen to coin the name dinosaur – “terrible lizard”, although he did note that their physiology was somewhat different. We read in Genesis that there was a race of giant people on the Earth in the age before the Flood (Genesis 6:4) – just as today there are giant turtles and giant varieties of certain plants. However, scientists still continue to speculate, on the basis of scant remains, as to whether dinosaurs were warm or cold blooded, if they made sounds, and even if they were feathered and possibly brightly coloured.

Young Earth creationists, who have to fit the age of reptiles into the period between Adam and Noah, always point to two strange creatures that were clearly extant in the days of Job as possibly being dinosaurs. Although often identified in Bible reference books as elephants or hippopotami or crocodiles, they were clearly more than that.

Silly Creatures
In humbling the proud Job, God begins by describing some of the amazing animals he has created, including some seemingly silly creatures that make a nonsense of evolution (Job 39). The wild donkey, for example, chose to live on the arid salt flats where food was hard to obtain. Why? The ostrich lays her eggs on the ground, God points out, and leaves them covered with sand where they can easily be accidentally crushed. Why? How could such a creature be fit to survive? As the account also points out, the horse even happily exposes itself to danger and possible death by rushing boldly into battle at the sound of the trumpet. How did such foolish creatures ever survive?

Behemoth
Next God draws attention to Behemoth, “the Beast”, which he remarks, “I made with you”, in other words, at the time when man was also created (Job 40:15), indicating that this particular creature was a separate creation from the dinosaurs of the pre-Adamic age.

The account describes Behemoth as a herbivore living amongst the reeds in the marshes, and as having his strength in his loins, with powerful muscles in his belly. His tail was as stout as a cedar, which is a very large tree, and he is described as ranking first among the works of God, possibly by virtue of size. Another clue to his stature is the description of his bones as being like tubes of brass, and his limbs as rods of iron.

The description would seem to fit very well with a dinosaur, but if so, what happened to it? Perhaps the clue lies in the phrase “yet his Maker can approach him with his sword” (Job 40:19), implying perhaps that God chose, for some reason, to render Behemoth extinct – perhaps anticipating the advent of guns and bombs which nothing composed of flesh and blood can possibly resist.

Although Behemoth appears to have been a great monster, the impression given by the account is that he was quite a rare sight, and certainly did not rampage the countryside in herds like the dinosaurs, whose numbers are attested to by the mass burial graves and large number of eggs that have been discovered in various locations.

Leviathon
A second creature brought to Job’s attention by God was Leviathon, (Job 41), a “coiling serpent”, that was apparently a fierce, probably a four-legged sea serpent of the type depicted in ancient seascapes. In another place (Isaiah 27) Leviathon is described as a crooked and piercing serpent, possibly having an armoured snout that was able to penetrate the hull of wooden ships.

Leviathon is also described in Job as having powerful jaws and a frightening array of teeth. His back had a row of shields or plates that were tightly jointed together, and his underside bore an array of jagged scales that left a trail in the mud has he emerged from the water. His chest was apparently as hard as millstone, quite impervious to swords, spears, harpoons or arrows.

Fire-breathing Dragons?
As with a medieval dragons, which, we are told, figured in serious books on zoology until the middle ages, the account in Job seems to be saying that Leviathon could apparently belch fire and smoke. Although such claims would be quickly discounted as myth by most modern readers, a few moments’ thought suggests that such a thing might be quite possible—given the fact that the flammable gas methane is generated in the digestive tract of animals, and could conceivably be exhaled from a storage bladder and catalytically ignited.

Finally, we read that nothing on Earth was Leviathon’s equal, possibly referring to his ferociousness. Although a four-legged serpent, or dragon, he could apparently rear up to a great height and glare down on any who dared approach.

Again, I think the implication of the account is that Leviathon was a rare sight, but there is no indication of his extinction. Might his kind still lurk in the depths of the oceans or even Loch Ness?