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Saturday, August 18, 2012

Mythological? The Leviathan and Dragons

Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words? Will he make an agreement with you for you to take him as your slave for life? Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls? Will traders barter for him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. I will not fail to speak of his limbs, his strength and his graceful form. Who can strip off his outer coat? Who would approach him with a bridle? Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth? His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted. His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of dawn. Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.  Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth. Strength resides in his neck; dismay goes before him. The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. His chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. When he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his thrashing. The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make him flee; slingstones are like chaff to him. A club seems to him but a piece of straw; he laughs at the rattling of the lance. His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. He makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think the deep had white hair. Nothing on earth is his equal--a creature without fear. He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over all that are proud."
Job 41

This is a very good description of the leviathan.
  • It lives in the water (Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook) (Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?)
  • The mere sight of him is overpowering.
  • No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
  • He has sharp teeth (Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth?)
  • He has scales (His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together)
  • His eyes are like the rays of dawn.
  • He breaths fire (firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.) (flames dart from his mouth.)
  • Smoke pours from his nostrils.
  • Strength resides in his neck.
  • The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.
  • His chest is hard as rock
  • Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.
  • Weapons do not effect him.
  • His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
  • Behind him he leaves a glistening wake
  • Nothing on earth is his equal
Leviathan seems to be a sea dragon to him, but, despite popular legends, he does not have a tender underbelly. His undersides are jagged potsherds and His chest is hard as rock But leviathan is just a type of dragon, so there could be dragons with soft underbellies that inspired that thinking, or it a soft spot could simply be a legend.
My friend Kaycee told me about the 40 foot Sarcosuchus imperator.
This a a 21 foot crocodile. Imagine something twice its size...that's how big the Sarcosuchus imperator is.
Here's a crocodile skull and a Sarcosuchus imperator skull.
That's huge! "Nothing on earth is his equal--a creature without fear."
And I found out about the 82 ft. Liopleurodon.
Here's a Liopleurodon and a sperm whale and a sperm whale.
And here's a sperm whale.
sperm whale<br />exploded
Going by the bible, I think Leviathan is a Sarcosuchus imperator (Super croc). "His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge" And if it leaves trail in the mud, it might be able go on land, or in a swamp. And I know that the picture of a Liopleurodon and what an artist thinks it looks like, but the Liopleurodon looks like it is built more for water and the super croc look like it could go in the mud and leave trail in it.

For God [is] my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, [and] gavest him [to be] meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.
Psalms 74:12-15 KJV

In psalms, though, leviathan is mentioned as well as dragons, so there might be a difference between the two. If Leviathan was a a sea dragon, then why would God break the heads of both sea dragons and leviathan, but then again, nothing on earth is it's equal, so breaking the head of a leviathan is much more impressive than a sea dragon.

How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number--living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
Psalm 104:24-26 NIV


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 KJV


In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.
Isaiah 27:1 NIV

From Isaiah 27:1, the King James Version makes it sound like the leviathan might be evil and not coiling. And look at the last part, God could be slaying mutiple sea creatures, but by the wording, I think that Isaiah is still speaking of leviathan. If that is true, than the leviathan is a sea dragon.
And now to move more into Dragons. So why doesn't the bible mention dinosaurs? (Just in chase you didn't read my previous post)
“Dinosaur” was not invented until after the KJV
That's why. the word wasn't inverted until the 1800s.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Psalm 91:13 KJV

The burden against the beasts of the South. Through a land of trouble and anguish, From which [came] the lioness and lion, The viper and fiery flying serpent, They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on the humps of camels, To a people [who] shall not profit;
Isaiah 30:6 NKJV

And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.

Revelation 13:1-2 NIV

You've probably heard this before, but dragons are dinosaurs. And the Leviathan is a Leviathan. Maybe Leviathan is a type of dragon, a sea serpent, or maybe not. Maybe Leviathan was a super croc, or a Liopleurodon. I have no way of prove what a Leviathan is, but I can tell you that dragons and the Leviathan exist because I have faith in the bible. And if you want even more evidence, go here: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/what-happened-to-the-dinosaurs

Now faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. Hebrew 11:1 KJV


Want to read about more animals that aren't mythological?

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