Dragons Aren't Real... Right?

If you crack open a 1946 edition Webster's Dictionary and look up the word dragon, you'll be met with two words: "Now Rare." That's the first definition listed, too. About fifty years before that edition was published, an article released by the Tombstone Epitaph (a legitimate publication out of Arizona) came with the following headline: "A Strange Winged Monster Discovered and Killed on the Huachuca Desert."

According to this report, two men encountered a flying creature that resembled a "huge alligator with an extremely elongated tail" with featherless wings that measured out to 160 feet tip to tip. They shot it to death and the creature was reportedly later seen by "prominent men" from the city of Tombstone.

Many people aren't aware of the fact that the word dinosaur is a relatively new word (having been coined by Sir Richard Owen in 1841). Before then, people referred to dinosaurs as dragons. Amazingly, Pastor Russell McKinney observed that the word dragon appears over 20 times in the Old Testament of the King James Version. Here are just a few examples (emphasis mine):

• "Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters" (Psalm 74:13).
• "And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire" (Nehemiah 2:13).
• "Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out" (Jeremiah 51:34).

It should also be said that the dragons mentioned in the Bible probably looked a bit different than the fantastical, larger-than-life depictions in movies like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire or How to Train Your Dragon. Nevertheless, the historicity of dragons is well established in the Bible; the "dragon well" mentioned in Nehemiah 2:13 was a real location in Jerusalem. Dr. Henry Morris noted that

"The dragon well was known as such by the Jebusites who inhabited the region long before its conquest by Israel. Quite possibly the well was given its name by the first inhabitants who migrated there after the dispersion from Babel, when dinosaurs frequented the spring."

Moreover, various biblical authors refer to dragons and owls in the same breath. How could that be if the former were purely the stuff of legend? Job, for instance, said "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls" (Job 30:29). By the same token, humanity has been enthralled from the earliest ages by stories of legendary heroes, monstrous beasts, and the triumph of good over the forces of evil. From the tales of the mighty Beowulf to the supposed defeat of a dragon at the hands of an embattled Roman legion, these stories of heroism have largely been relegated to the annals of mythology.

Fantastical stories and epic tales of beast-slaying men of renown could very well be exaggerated versions of what really happened at the beginning of Creation. The fearsome dragons and serpents chronicled in the annals of the ancients could have earned their monstrous reputations not only because of their appearances, but because of what they represent to human beings. After all, Genesis 3:15 records a special promise from God that the serpent (who was empowered by Satan) would be crushed by a Person, and that this Person would be wounded in the process.

At the end of the Bible, Satan is described as both a “great dragon” and an “old serpent” (Revelation 12:9). This kind of imagery hearkens back to the very beginning in Genesis! Since all dinosaurs can be classified as dragons, these land-dwelling animals would've been created on Day Six of the Creation Week:

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:24-25).

Not all dragons are dinosaurs, however, since some are flying creatures whereas others inhabit the depths of the oceans. Thus, they're not classified as land-dwelling animals. The pterosaur, for instance, is commonly depicted as a dinosaur even though it is technically a dragon (i.e., a flying creature).

In closing, flying and swimming dragons were created by God on Day Five of the Creation Week whereas the dragons who roam Earth were created on Day Six. These amazing creatures were made to reflect the glory of the Creator who made all things in the span of six literal, 24-hour days. As we appreciate the majesty and awesome power associated with the dragons of old, may we echo the words of a certain Psalmist:

"Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps" (Psalm 148:7).

Thanks for reading,

Angel