Dinosaurs in the Bible

2022-10-24

Taking the Bible at face value, one cannot adopt an old earth view. If the age of the earth is only a few millennia, then how do dinosaurs fit into this line of thinking? They could not have been around over 65,000,000 years ago; rather they would be contemporary with human beings. Many people scoff at this thought. However, if you take the Bible at face value, dinosaurs would have been created on the sixth day of creation and would have been contemporary with human beings (Genesis 1:24-31).

Having recently discussed many of the strange animals found in the Bible, three of them appear to be likely candidates for types of dinosaurs: Behemoth, Leviathan, and the fiery flying serpent. These do not fit any description of modern animals. Behemoth is a giant animal with a huge tail that moves like a cedar tree. Leviathan is an enormous, fire-breathing marine animal whose scales cannot be penetrated by any weapon of man. There is not a lot of discussion of dinosaurs other than these few mentions.

What happened to them is not discussed in the Bible (as far as I have seen, anyway). One suggestion that is in line with a Biblical worldview would be that they could not adapt to the postdiluvian world, which was vastly different from the antediluvian world. Many Christian scholars believe they would fit in the ark if they brought juvenile ones of every kind. See discussion from Answers in Genesis here.

There could be other explanations, but to get preoccupied with the question is to go beyond the scope of Biblical study.