Dragons

2022-09-30

Dragons in the Old Testament

There are three related words that are translated “dragon” in the Old Testament. They are also translated “whale,” “serpent,” and “sea monster.” It does not translate the word “serpent” as in the general term for “snake.” There is another word for that. The reason for the various translations seems to be that it can mean multiple things, and the context is going to determine which meaning is used.

Here is what we can know about dragons:

  1. The dragon can be a specific type of snake. Which one, it is not known. It would be a poisonous one. Consider the parallelism here: “Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps” (Deuteronomy 32:33). They would be deadly: “Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death” (Psalms 44:19).
  2. The dragon dwells in places that have been abandoned. “And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls” (Isaiah 34:13).
  3. The dragon could also be a saltwater animal. Recall Leviathan was such a one: “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” (Isaiah 27:1).
  4. The dragon could be a freshwater animal. Egypt was likened to such a one:
    Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven. (Ezekiel 29:3-5)
    Since Egypt was known for its main water source, the Nile, which they deified, it was likened to a creature that would have been found there.
  5. The dragon could also be a type of whale. This could either be the same or different from the previous points. The term seems to include all the species of whales and like creatures at the dawn of time: “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:21). These are powerful creatures: “Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers” (Ezekiel 32:2).
  6. They could also be some other kind of massive sea creature, being translated “sea monster”. “Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness” (Lamentations 4:3). By this analogy, we see that these aquatic creatures were cruel.

Dragons in the New Testament

In the New Testament, “dragon” is only translated from one term, and is imagery for Satan in Revelation. He is referred to as a dragon. This should remind us of Leviathan and Rahab in the Old Testament. “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 his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born” (Revelation 12:3-4). “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” (Revelation 12:9).