“So God Created the Great Dragons” Genesis 1:21 Yes, the Bible Mentions “Dinosaurs”
By Chris Parker October 2023

Genesis 1:21 “So God created the Great Dragons” …Genesis 1:21. The Latin Vulgate; 5th Century

Introduction:

I grew up in the church of Christ in Northern California in what today would have been called a “conservative” congregation, but which was flagged as “institutional” and so off limits to those who knew what that designation meant and who thus avoided such congregations.

Every Sunday morning my parents listed to Batsell Barrett Baxter on the “Herald of Truth” program which was a radio outreach to the lost by churches of Christ who supported it financially.
Our congregation’s support for the national radio broadcast was the reason we were so designated because we supported a program that was not directly under the authority of our elders. None of who came to the congregation near, an Air Force base were even aware of the "controversy".

I digress a bit but let me also say that there was another congregation in town which we called “anti” because they had one cup and one loaf of bread for the congregation to share during the Lord’s Supper.
Later, while researching the church while at my university I learned that the churches of Christ as a group largely resisted those tiny little cups and crackers that most congregations use now. I guess those one-cuppers would have called us “antis” back in those days?

Circular firing squad.

So, in my conservative congregation we did not have a new converts class, or a basic church doctrine class and we did not have an apologetics conference or presentations which could have helped us deal with dinosaurs and evolution and similar topics. (Believing that God put the bones in the ground to deceive non-believers might work for you but perhaps not for your child at the University).

If a child learned anything on these topics it would have been something they learned on their own or from family teaching. As much as we studied scripture at church services and bible studies it tended to be in a haphazard fashion.

I personally did not read the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation until I had gone to the University of California and had graduated. (By the way, since I am doing so much digressing, I recommend, The Daily Bible (NIV) Paperback – September 8, 2020, by F. LaGard Smith.

Bro. Smith is a member of the church of Christ and the book features 365 chronological readings. I have had the honor of taking my entire congregation through the book as an adult bible class where we would come together to discuss the prior week’s readings. It has always been a rewarding experience. https://www.amazon.com/Daily.../dp/0736980296/ref=sr_1_1... 

Arm Yourself and Your Children with Scriptural Knowledge, Church Basics and Apologetics

As for me growing up in the church we never discussed evolution or dinosaurs except that a preacher here and there might have acknowledge that dinosaurs were dragons. When we were being taught evolution in school my parents never said a word or gave us advice. They may not have known we were being taught about evolution in biology class.

As a student and a Christian, baptized at age 15 I had developed cognitive dissonance, so that it was like speaking Franchi at school and English at home. I think in those days many Christians had areas that they felt comfortable being ignorant about, content to find out “someday, in the sweet by and bye”. Totally appropriate for some issues.

We weren’t challenged in high school by evolution as much as we would be in college. They know that you are most likely living away from home and making your own decisions now. Enjoying freedom for the first time.
Even deciding whether you are going to church on Sunday. That’s when certain professors and even your peers in school can challenge your faith. Today, even commercials for Raid bug spray say that roaches have been “evolving for millions of years”.

Have you been given the ammunition to combat that worldly teaching? When someone asks “why doesn’t the church have musical instruments do you have an answer? I mean, your own answer.
When someone utters the sinner’s prayer and avows that they are now a Christian can you take the to scripture. When you come across denominational teachings out there in the world do you recognize them?
Can you address them by going or asking your friend to scripture? When you visit a denominational church and they seem to be having a great time, then organ bumps to highlight each point of the sermon-are you lost?

Do you know how to find out what pleases the Lord? Eph 5:10

One day I came home from college and while there my mother asked; “Chris, do you believe that there really were dinosaurs”? I don’t know what had occasioned the question, but it was immediately clear to me that she had had these same questions the entire time I was growing up.at that point, I no longer lived at home.

The “Cowardice” or Misplaced Defense of Scripture by Some Bible Translators. Yes, ‘Dinosaurs Are Mentioned in the Bible; In the First Chapter of Genesis!
There is a missing piece of knowledge about Bible translations and about Bible translators. It is the original Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek that is God-breathed.
It’s the original manuscripts that are inspired. Its not the translators or their work that is “God Breathed”.

There we must depend on their integrity, fear of God, knowledge, and scholarship to produce an accurate rendition of God’s originally inspired words. Most translations utilize a team of scholars and do a very good job.
However, there have been times that they have been influenced by their own denominational or sectarian beliefs. There have been times that translators have tried to “protect” the inspired word from ridicule by changing the translation of a word.

Have you heard about pre-Adamic races of men? This false idea in more recent time came from the acceptance from science and evolution that there were “cavemen” or pre-men. Certain Christians created a theory to "protect" scripture which had not mentioned pre-men and created a doctrine and explanation to cover for God.
Now we know though DNA that all men Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon are from one genetically near identical race of men who could of course, interbreed and that all these ancient fossils are either 100 percent man or 100% ape or simian.

Something similar happened with respect to the Hebrew word “tannin” in the original manuscripts. Translators living after the golden age of the dinosaurs (a term first coined in 1841) chickened out when confronted with a word for which they were uncertain of its meaning.

Historically though it was most often translated as “dragon” but they didn’t want the “controversy” or belittling that that word might have engendered. So, they chose less controversial word translations such as whale, or jackal. or monster.

How many questions would have been asked by young children and how much more confidence and faith would have been addressed if the Word of God still contained the original translation and understanding of the Hebrew word “tannin”?

And what of the Unicorn, a word in the Greek that simply translated ‘One horn? https://www.s8int.com/.../Atheist.../d,bf_article.html 

The following select translations provide a sense of the confusion and weak-kneeing that went into the newer translations. Meaning after 500 AD or so.

Genesis 1:21 “So God created the Great Dragons” …Genesis 1:21. The Latin Vulgate; 5th Century.
21 “And God created the great dragons and every living soul that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their nature, and every winged fowl after its nature; and God saw that it was good.” Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB)
21 “And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind: and God saw that it was good.” American Standard Version (ASV)
21 “God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good and He affirmed and sustained it.” Amplified Bible (AMP)
21 “So God created the large sea ·animals [or monsters] and every living thing that ·moves [L swarms] in the sea.” Expanded Bible (EXB)
21 “And God prepareth the great monsters, and every living creature that is creeping, which the waters have teemed with, after their kind, and every fowl with wing, after its kind, and God seeth that [it is] good.” Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
21 “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. “KJV

“Great Dragons”, and “monsters” and even “great monsters” might have instilled some confidence in Christians looking for scriptural conformation that such creatures were mentioned in scripture, but it seems that “great whales": is really off the mark.

Great whales? The Latin Vulgate the Jubilee Bible both used older manuscripts as their sources. Here is a description of the Jubilee Bible. It’s not an old translation but utilized old manuscripts one by William Tyndale (a member of the church of Christ, murdered by the King of England for translating and printing a bible into English) which preceded the first King James translation.

Publisher's summary “In the Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB), the usage and context tends to define each key word so you don't need to depend on theological dictionaries or reference materials.
Careful attention has been made to properly translate the first usage of each key word and through to the last occurrence. Then, as the word makes its way across the Old Testament and you make the correct match with the corresponding Greek word in the New Testament, an amazing pattern emerges.

The Jubilee Bible is the only translation we know of that has each unique Hebrew word matched and mated with a unique English word so that the usage (number of occurrences and number of verses where the word occurs) sets forth a meaningful number pattern and a complete definition of what God means by each word.”

So, I told my mother all this and took her to Job 40 and Job 41.

Job 40 :15 " Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eats grass as an ox. Behold now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moves his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. His bones are as strong as brass; his members are like bars of iron. He is the beginning of the ways of God; he that made him shall make his sword draw near unto him.
Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play. He shall lie down under the shade, in the covert of the reeds and of the damp places. The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about. Behold, he shall drink up a river and not change; he trusts that he can draw up the Jordan into his mouth. His maker shall take him by the weakness of his eyes in a snare, and pierce through his nose". JUB 2000

Job 41 41 ¶ "Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook or with the cord which thou lettest down on his tongue? Canst thou put a hook into his nose or bore his jaw through with a thorn? Will he make many supplications unto thee? Will he speak soft words unto thee? Will he make a covenant with thee that thou shall take him for a slave for ever? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird, or wilt thou tie him up for thy maidens?
Shall the companions make a banquet of him? Shall they part him among the merchants? Canst thou cut his skin with knives or his head with a fish spear? Lay thine hand upon him; thou shalt remember the battle and do no more. Behold, your hope regarding him shall fail; for even at the sight of him they shall faint. No one is so bold as to dare stir him up; who then shall be able to stand before me? ¶
Who has preceded me, that I should repay him? All that is under the whole heaven is mine. I will not conceal his lies, nor his might, nor the beauty of his order. Who shall uncover the face of his garment? Or who shall come to him with a double bridle? Who shall open the doors of his face? The orders of his teeth are terrible. His scales (Heb. shields) are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.
One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; they stick together, that they cannot be separated. By his sneezings lights are lit, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

Out of his nostrils goes forth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth. In his neck dwells strength, and before him the work is undone. The failings of his flesh are joined together; his flesh is firm in him and does not move. His heart is as firm as a stone; as hard as a piece of the lower millstone. Of his greatness, the mighty are afraid; by reason of breakings they remove sin from themselves. When one catches up to him, no sword or spear or dart or coat of mail shall endure against him. He esteems iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.
The arrow cannot make him flee; with him, slingstones are turned into stubble. He counts any weapon as stubble; he laughs at the shaking of a spear. Broken clay vessels are under him; he carves his imprint upon the mire. He makes the deep to boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. He makes the path shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary. Upon earth there is not his like, who behaves without fear. He despises all exalted things; he is king over all the sons of pride". JUB 2000

There are many other verses to consider for sure, but I am a visual person, so I showed her the Palestrina Mosaic, a first century (time of Christ) mosaic floor with a Nilotic Scene which is 20 feet by 13 feet in size.

Among its many apparent depictions of animals thought to have been long extinct prior to the first century is a hunting scene where Egyptian warriors hunt an apparent dinosaur along the Nile River.
Those who would suggest that it is merely a depiction of a Nile Crocodile are confronted with a depiction on the same mosaic of a perfectly displayed Nile crocodile.

The Latin inscription above the creature being hunted which looks to me to be like the Iguanodon, a medium sized ornithopod dinosaur is Krokodilopardalis, which means crocodile leopard.

An Additional Assortment of Historical Dinosaur and man Evidence from Ancient Cultures

I received an email from a friend who is assisting to write a Home Study Course for Christians. He asked me for three items showing man and dinosaur interaction with a photo preferably from Wikimedia Commons, Images with a high resolution and if not from there, a high-resolution photo where rights for a for-profit distribution could be obtained.

That was a tough assignment to complete within the two or three hours I had available. Here are several which were selected with those parameters in mind. These are not exactly the set that I forwarded to him, however there is some overlap.

The important thing I wanted to convey is that the Bible does mention dinosaurs utilizing the word dragon and that translators had weak knees in the last thousand years or so when the crossbow and bullets made them scarcer in the world. However nearly every world culture has mentioned dragons in their histories.

Photo 1: Cover

Photo 2; The Nile Mosaic of Palestrina

Room floor sized Roman mural from 100 B.C. Top photo is highlight of original mosaic and below, Krokodilopardalis, is replaced by a modern depiction of Iguanodon.

Photo 3: Two running dinosaurs together. Made of Gold.
Exhibit of Pre-Columbian beasts made of gold in Bolivia's National Museum of Archaeology.

Photo 4: The Acámbaro figures are about 33,000 small ceramic figurines allegedly found by Waldemar Julsrud in July 1944, in the Mexican city of Acámbaro, Guanajuato. The figurines are said by some to resemble dinosaurs and are sometimes cited as anachronisms. Some young-Earth creationists have adduced the existence of figurines as credible evidence for the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans, to cast doubt on scientific dating methods and potentially offer support for a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation” Wikipedia.

“In 1954, the storm of controversy surrounding the Julsrud collection reached such a crescendo of interest that official archaeologists of the Mexican Government decided to investigate. Dr Eduardo Noquera, director of Pre-Hispanic Monuments of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologiae Historia, was the lead investigator. Dr. Noguera was accompanied by Rafael Orellana, Ponciano Salazar, and Antonio Pompa y Pompa of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologiciae Historia, upon arrival they inspected the collection and proceeded to El Toro Hill to select undisturbed sites for excavation.

Dr. Noguera supervised the dig at a site that he and the other prominent Mexican archaeologists selected. After several hours of digging many figures were discovered. The archeologists declared that the pieces gave every sign of antiquity and of having been buried a long time ago.

The figurines were dug up in the presence of several witnesses which included people from the local schools and members of the Chamber of Commerce. Immediately, the archeologists congratulated Julsrud on his remarkable discoveries. Two of the archeologists promised to write about the discovery in a scientific journal.

Noquera realized that the dinosaur figurines posed a problem that could ruin his professional career. The archeologists simply faced a dilemma to either tell the truth, that regardless of what anybody may think they had chosen a site and dug up dinosaur figures or to hide the truth in some alternative explanation.

Noquera went back to Mexico City and three weeks later submitted a report with his subordinates that the collection must be a hoax because of the life forms involved - dinosaurs. Dr. Noquera wrote,
"Actually, in spite of the apparent scientific legality with which these objects were found, it is a case of reproduction and to say falsification, made in a relatively recent epoch. In my opinion it is composed of three types of objects one of them figurines which pretend to be time reproductions of animals extinct for millions of years; possibly the maker of these objects was inspired by some books on paleontology which were in vogue at the end of the past century or the beginning of the present one."

Julsrud was gravely disappointed that in a span of a few weeks, the archaeologists first vindicated the collection and then cleverly maneuvered to deny their own discoveries. Julsrud, undaunted by all the academic goofy dust sprinkled over the collection by rigid orthodox scientists to make it go away, pressed on in his efforts to convince the skeptics.

Eventually, an eminent scholar arrived on the scene in Acambaro who would expose the contentions of Julsrud's opponents with a series of arguments and facts that would prove to be indisputable. In the summer of 1955 Charles Hapgood, the Professor of History and Anthropology at Keene State College of the University of New Hampshire, spent several months in Acambaro and conducted a very detailed investigation of the collection.

Charles Hapgood had already distinguished himself as the author of a number of books including "Earth's Shifting Crust" (1958), "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings" (1966), and "The Path of the Pole" (1970).
Hapgood excavated a number of sites that were on previously undisturbed ground and found many pieces of ceramic figurines of the "Julsrud" type. To eliminate any possibility of fraud that Tinajero or anyone else had manufactured the ceramics, Hapgood decided to excavate beneath a house that had been built in 1930, long before any artifacts were found on El Toro Hill.

They found a house directly over the site owned by the chief of police, asked permission to dig beneath the floor of his house. Permission was granted, and they dug a six-foot deep pit beneath the hard concrete floor of the living room, unearthing dozens of the controversial objects.

Since the house had been built twenty-five years before Julsrud arrived in Mexico, it exonerated Julsrud, eliminated the hoax theory and negated Dipeso's as well as Noquera's reports at all the important points.
In 1968 Charles Hapgood returned to Acambaro accompanied by Earle Stanley Gardner of Perry Mason fame. Mr. Gardner was not only trained in criminology but was also an investigator of archaeological problems. He was supremely impressed with the vastness and the variety of the collection. It was quite clear that Mr. Gardner considered the fake theory completely false, outrageous and deceptive!

The radiocarbon 14 method of dating was still in its infancy, but Hapgood acquired specimens for C14 testing. Gardner and Andrew Young (inventor of the Bell Helicopter) financed the testing.
Hapgood submitted the samples to the Laboratory of Isotopes Inc. in New Jersey. The results were as follows: the samples were from 430 BC to 2220 BC.” The Dinosaur Figurines of Acambaro, Mexico
Amazing evidence that dinosaurs and humans coexisted.

https://www.bible.ca/tracks/tracks-acambaro.htm#initial 

Photo 5: Double-Chambered Bottle
Bahia 4th–7th century, Pre-Columbian Metropolitan Museum

“Double-chambered bottles were a common vessel form among the Bahía people of coastal Ecuador. The chambers, which were round and squat or tall and slender, as here, were joined at the bottom by a tube and at the top by a strap handle. A single, narrow spout tops one of the chambers, while the other vessel serves as a base for modeled figurative sculptures.

On this bottle, two fantastic iguana-like creatures sit side by side at the top, their thick, long tails hanging down the side of the container. The iguanas wear necklaces and head crests; long streamers emerge from their open, fanged mouths; their bodies have dorsal crests and winglike elements projecting on the sides. The dull, bumpy surface of the animals, covered with light green pigment, contrasts with the smooth, burnished finish of the red-slipped chambers.

The hollow iguanas function as whistles, their several holes producing a sound when the liquid in the bottle is poured out. Iguanas or dragon-like creatures and serpents are frequent motifs in Bahía art and seem to have played an important role in local mythology.”

Double-Chambered Bottle, Ceramic, Bahia
Public Domain

Photo 6: Ica Stones.” IT IS A RARE OBJECT that stimulates the curiosity of archaeologists, ancient astronaut theorists, Atlantis supporters, and creationists who want to prove that dinosaurs co-existed with men: but the mysterious carved Ica Stones of Peru may just be the ticket.

Housed in a small private museum created by Peruvian physician Dr. Javier Cabrera in 1966, more than 10,000 stones of various sizes are carved with intriguing images of a lost civilization. In an astonishing variety of images covering a vast array of subjects the stones show dinosaurs frolicking, assorted extinct animals, maps and depictions of advanced surgical methods.” Atlas Obscura https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ica-stones 

Between the Ica Stones and the Acambaro figurines mentioned above are nearly 50,000 artifacts from South America that indicate that men and dinosaurs interacted recently.
The clay figurines from Acambaro have been carbon dated to show times consistent with ancient times. The Ica stones can not be substantiated in the same way, but the original Spanish explorers wrote about them and carried some back to Spain.

Mainstream science, of course, has always attacked the legitimacy of these stones, because they have no choice. These stone by themselves if legitimate would overturn many scientific theories concerning the history of man.

They must be called out as hoaxes. But who would spend their time carving stones which by the nature of their subject matter would automatically be called fakes? Hard to raise money from tourists that way. Nevertheless , that is one cover story; that a single uneducated farmer carved the stones for profit.

This website is run by a member of the church from Canada. https://www.bible.ca/tracks/peru-tomb-art.htm 

Photo 7: Left, Ancient Thai object (incense burner or candle holder) of art from the book Arts of Asia. Curiously enough, it looks like a stylized version of a sauropod, a type of dinosaur that was found in Thailand. Those are birds perched on the back of the dino.

Right: Incense burner with Dragon handle and Pheonix cover. Bronze. From the Vietnamese Bronze Age: 3rd century A.D. Cast bronze. Size: 13.5 x 19 cm (5 5/16 x 7 1/2 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Dongson culture.

Photo 8: Diploducus Depiction on 5,300-Year-Old Mesopotamian Cylinder Seal
The 5,300-Year-Old Mesopotamian Diplodocus on an ancient cylinder seal.

This ancient cylinder seal, currently housed at the Louvre Museum portrays sauropod like creatures as well as giant “birds” or pterosaurs. The seal is from Mesopotamia, approximately 3300 B.C. (Moortgart, Anton, The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia, 1969, plate 292., presumably seen by the artist.

I would ask that the interested reader note the points of similarity between a close-up of the “sauropod” depiction created by rolling the cylinder with the skull of Diplodocus Longus. This is the basis for me to call this creature and the consistent comparisons below diplodocus depictions.

Photo 9 : Granby Idol. 66 Pound Granby “Idol” showing dinosaurs and mastodon outlined in color.
Hutchison News, January 5, 1923

“Mammoth animals outlined in the stone of blue granite rock are contemporaneous with the Cro-Magnons period.

The flat nose is generally associated with a race preceding the Aztec’s according to J. Allard Jeancon curator of the Colorado Historical and Natural History Society.

The image/sculpture basically shows a three-fingered man holding a tablet covered with a strange, unknown script. According to W.L. Chalmers the discover, scientists in New York, Washington and Santa Fe were at work trying to decipher the script. Other museums and universities who had no doubt been in touch with Jeancon were seeking to obtain a rubbing from the granite piece.

Difficult to Carve Image Today

“The image through changes in the consistency of the rock, has become harder than steel. Geologists who have seen the stone say it would be impossible to make these impressions today by rubbing with flint implements. It is fourteen inches high, nine inches across the tablet and about 12 inches through to the back.

According to T.M. van Tuhl, who had not seen the rock image, alternate light and dark bands in the Denver Park area had convinced him that the mountains could date back to the “Archean” period, near the creation of the world. Other geologists who had seen it said that it (the artifact) could be thousands or even millions of years old.” SIC

The Granby Idol Photos: https://www.s8int.com/news/43/66/True-Suppressions-Remembering-the-Granby-Idol-Un-Fakeable-Relic-Showing-Dinosaur-Human-Mastodon-Interaction-in-Pre-Glacial-Granite/d,bf_article.html

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