Dragons . . . Were They Real?
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, July 14, 2025 (Donate)
A Dodo Of An Introduction
The dodo was a strange bird, and our understanding of its
demise and extinction by 1662 is equally strange. The dodo was a flightless
bird that lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It was easy to
catch and provided meat to sailors. There were numerous written accounts,
sketches, and descriptions of the bird from the 1500s through the 1600s.
Drawing by Sir Thomas Herbert of a cockatoo, red hen, and
dodo in 1634. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lophopsittacus.mauritianus.jpg.
But when the dodo went extinct, no one seemed to notice. And
a few years later, scientists began to promote the idea that the dodo was
merely a myth. Just look at the evidence:
1.
It was a very strange creature.
2.
No one could find them.
3.
They seemed to exist only in the old
descriptions, accounts, and drawings!
Had it not been for specimens popping up in the recesses of
museum collections, and finally found brought to light, they could have been
labeled simply as “myth” for as long as the earth endures! But in the
nineteenth century, at last, there was vindication that the dodo was real and
that it had merely gone extinct. Since then, fossils and other portions of
specimens have been identified as dodo.
Parallel To Dragons
So what does this have to do with dragons? Consider the
following points:
1.
Dragons are very strange creatures.
2.
No one can find them.
3.
They seem to exist only in the old descriptions,
accounts, and drawings!
If we don’t know our history, are we doomed to repeat it?
Sadly in recent times, secular scientists have relegated dragons to myths also.
But unlike the dodo, which is just a particular type of
bird, dragons are a large group of reptilian creatures. Moreover, we have
descriptions, drawings, and accounts of dragons. Not just the handful like we
have of the dodo but in massive numbers
from all over the world!
And many of these descriptions and accounts are very similar
to creatures known by a different name: dinosaurs. We’ll consider this
connection momentarily.
Dragons In The Bible
To settle this issue of the reality of dragons, let us turn
to the Word of almighty God who knows all things.
In each case in Table 1, the verses use the word Hebrew tannin, or its plural form tanninim,
which was usually translated as “dragon(s).” In some cases, you might see the
translation “serpent” or “monster.”
Table 1 (Bulletted): Dragons in
the Bible
- Deuteronomy 32:33: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
- Nehemiah 2:13: 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.
- Job 7:12 (YLT): A sea-monster am I, or a dragon, That thou settest over me a guard?
- Psalm 74:13: Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
- Psalm 91:13: Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
- Psalm 148:7: Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
- Isaiah 27:1: 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 51:9: Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
- Jeremiah 51:34: Nebuchadnezzar 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.
- Lamentations 4:3 (GNV): Even the dragons draw out the breasts, and give suck to their young, but the daughter of my people is become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness.[3]
- Ezekiel 29:3: 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.
- Ezekiel 32:2 (GNV): Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh King of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a lion of the nations and art as a dragon in the sea: thou castedst out thy rivers and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and stampedst in their rivers.
- Genesis 1:21 (YLT): And God prepareth the great monsters [dragons], 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.[4]
- Exodus 7:9, 10, 12: When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent [dragon]. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent [dragon]. . . . For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents [dragons]: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.[5]
Consider also the scriptural references to “fiery serpents”
or “fiery flying serpents,” “leviathan,” and “behemoth”:
Table 2: Fiery
Serpents, Leviathan, and Other Dragon-Like Creatures
|
Reference
|
Verse
|
|
Numbers
21:6, 8
|
And
the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and
they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. . . . And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a
pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he
looketh upon it, shall live.
|
|
Deuteronomy
8:15
|
Who
led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and
drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the
rock of flint;
|
|
Isaiah
14:29
|
Rejoice
not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken:
for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit
shall be a fiery flying serpent.
|
|
Isaiah
30:6
|
The
burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from
whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the
shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to
a people that shall not profit them.
|
|
Job
41:1
|
Canst
thou draw out leviathan with an
hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
|
|
Psalms
74:14
|
Thou
brakest the heads of leviathan in
pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
|
|
Psalms
104:26
|
There
go the ships: there is that leviathan,
whom thou hast made to play therein.
|
|
Isaiah
27:1
|
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.
|
|
Job
40:15–24
|
Behold
now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his
strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He
moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. He
is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to
approach unto him. Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the
beasts of the field play. He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of
the reed, and fens. The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows
of the brook compass him about. Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth
not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. He taketh it with
his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.
|
These creatures could rightly be lumped among dragons. Even
Leviathan is called a dragon in Isaiah 27:1.
Some have argued that the fiery flying serpents (and fiery
serpents) were myth, but God clearly reveals them as real creatures, just as
other creatures are real in the immediate context like scorpions, lions,
vipers, donkeys, camels, and so on.
Some have argued that fiery flying serpents were real but
were just venomous snakes that would leap into the air. But that would render a
portion of the Scriptures redundant, as the viper, which does that very thing,
is mentioned immediately before it in Isaiah 30:6. Even today there is an
insect from South America called the Bombardier Beetle that shoots out two
chemicals that essentially ignite and superheat its victim. Leviathan was also
a fire breather (Job 41:1–21).
Some have suggested the behemoth as an elephant or a hippo,
but neither the elephant or the hippo eat grass like an ox, nor do they have a
tail that moves like a cedar. An elephant has a tail that moves like a weeping
willow, and a hippo hardly has a tail! Some have argued that behemoth and
leviathan were myth, but why does God speak of real creatures (lion, raven, donkey,
wild ox, ostriches, horse, locust, hawk, and eagle) in the same context as the
behemoth and leviathan (Job 38–41)?
So, some of what we can learn from the Bible is as follows:
(1) dragons were real creatures, and (2) the term “dragon” could include land,
flying, or sea creatures.
Dragons By Ancient Historians, Literature, And Classic
Commentaries
Dragons were viewed as real creatures by virtually all
ancient writers who commented on them. While many references could be cited,
consider these select accounts:
1. “But according to accounts from
Phrygia there are Drakones in Phrygia too, and these grow to a length of sixty
feet.”
2. “Africa produces elephants, but
it is India that produces the largest, as well as the dragon.”
3. “Even the Egyptians, whom we
laugh at, deified animals solely on the score of some utility which they
derived from them; for instance, the ibis, being a tall bird with stiff legs
and along horny beak, destroys a great quantity of snakes: it protects Egypt
from plague, by killing and eating the flying serpents that are brought from
the Libyan desert by the south west wind, and so preventing them from harming
the natives by their bite while alive and their stench when dead.”
4. “Among Egyptian birds, the
variety of which is countless, the ibis is sacred, harmless, and beloved for
the reason that by carrying the eggs of serpents to its nestlings for food it
destroys and makes fewer of those destructive pests. These same birds meet
winged armies of snakes which issue from the marches of Arabia, producing
deadly poisons, before they leave their own lands.”
5. Gilgamesh, hero of an ancient
Babylonian epic, killed a huge dragon named Khumbaba in a cedar forest.
6. The epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf (ca. AD 495–583) tells how the
title character of Scandinavia killed a monster named Grendel and its supposed
mother, as well as a fiery flying serpent.
7. “The dragon, when it eats fruit,
swallows endive-juice; it has been seen in the act.”
Ancient historians and writers clearly believed creatures
like dragons were real. They describe seeing them first hand—often in the
context of other types of animals that still live today. Some historians even
describe the fiery flying serpents as real creatures in regions near where
Moses and Isaiah were and point out the winged
nature of these flying serpents. Such things are a great confirmation of
the biblical text.
Interestingly, in the Beowulf account, the dragon called
Grendel was known to have a heavy claw on its finger, yet had a fairly small
arm. (Beowulf was famous for ripping the arm off of this dragon.)
Correspondingly, we have a dinosaur with smaller arms (and its remains are
found in Europe) called baryonyx,
which literally means “heavy claw!” Its arms are actually smaller too! The
common descriptions of Grendel and baryonyx are striking.
Classic commentators often agreed that dragons were real and
spoke of them as real, and these are just a small sample of the writings these
expositors of Scripture have on the subject:
1.
Dr. John Gill wrote, “Of these creatures, both
land and sea dragons, see Gill on ‘Mic 1:8’; see Gill on ‘Mal 1:3’; Pliny says
{l} the dragon has no poison in it; yet, as Dalechamp, in his notes on that
writer observes, he in many places prescribes remedies against the bite of the
dragon; but Heliodorus {m} expressly speaks of some archers, whose arrows were
infected with the poison of dragons; and Leo Africanus {n} says, the Atlantic
dragons are exceeding poisonous: and yet other writers {o} besides Pliny have
asserted that they are free from poison. It seems the dragons of Greece are
without, but not those of Africa and Arabia; and to these Moses has respect, as
being well known to him.”
2.
John Calvin stated, “Then he says, he has
swallowed me like a dragon. {3} It is a comparison different from the former,
but yet very suitable; for dragons are those who devour a whole animal; and
this is what the Prophet means. Though these comparisons do not in everything
agree, yet as to the main thing they are most appropriate, even to show that
God suffered his people to be devoured, as though they had been exposed to the
teeth of a lion or a bear, or as though they had been a prey to a dragon. ”
Even the artwork for John Calvin’s commentary for Genesis
(when translated from Latin to English in A.D. 1578) included images of dragons
such as this one on the upper right of the page:
3.
Charles Spurgeon, when speaking of London, said,
“We are not sure that Nineveh and Babylon were as great as this metropolis, but
they certainly might have rivaled it, and yet there is nothing left of it, and
the dragon and the owl dwell in what was the very center of commerce and
civilization.”
4.
John Trapp stated, “Anger is a short madness; it
is a leprosy breaking out of a burning, and renders a man unfit for civil
society; for his unruly passions cause the climate where he lives to be like
the torrid zone, too hot for any to live near him. The dog days continue with
him all the year long; he rageth, and eateth firebrands, so that every man that
will provide for his own safety must flee from him, as from a nettling,
dangerous and unsociable creature, fit to live alone as dragons and wild
beasts, or to be looked on only through a grate, as they; where, if they will
do mischief, they may do it to themselves only.”
5.
Church fathers, on Philip killing a dragon in
Hierapolis, stated, “And as Philip was thus speaking, behold, also John entered
into the city like one of their fellow-citizens; and moving about in the
street, he asked: Who are these men, and why are they punished? And they say to
him: It cannot be that thou art of our city, and askest about these men, who
have wronged many: for they have shut up our gods, and by their magic have cut
off both the serpents and the dragons.”
There were numerous dragon slayers in history as well. Not
to belabor the point, I’ve simply made a table of a few:
Table 3: A Few Dragon
Slayers and Capturers
|
Slayer/Capturer
|
Approximate Date
|
Place
|
1
|
Martha of Tarascon
|
AD 48–70
|
Tarasque
|
2
|
Apostles Philip and Barnabas
|
Before AD 70
|
Hierapolis
|
3
|
St. George
|
AD 300
|
North Africa
|
|
|
|
|
4
|
St. Sylvester I
|
AD 300
|
Italy
|
5
|
Sigurd
|
Before AD 400–500?
|
Northern Europe
|
6
|
Beowulf
|
AD 400–500
|
Denmark, Sweden
|
7
|
Tristan
|
AD 700?
|
British Isles
|
I could continue with hosts of other quotations from the
church fathers who often spoke of dragons as real creatures, not questioning
their reality. But the point is already made: people believed dragons were
real.
Dragons In Petroglyphs
It would be nearly impossible to have an exhaustive listing
of dragons on walls, pottery, textiles, petroglyphs, artwork, maps, books, and
so on. Here are a few, and note that some of these dragons are very similar in
form to our understanding of dinosaurs.
Image from Presentation Library
This famous petroglyph by the Anasazi natives looks
strikingly like a sauropod dinosaur (i.e., dragon).
This petroglyph has stirred up controversy over the years—judge it as you may.
Image from Presentation Library
This dragon with back spines is reminiscent to a
Kentrosaurus or Amarga but possibly a Lambeosaurus near Lake Superior in
Canada.
Image from Presentation Library
This flying dragon was made by Native Americans in Utah. This
one has also stirred up controversy—judge it as you may.
Images by Ben Horton
This relief in Angkor, Cambodia, is something akin to
Stegosaurus-type of dragon.
Ishtar Gate of Babylon in the British Museum; Photo by Bodie Hodge
Built by the order of King Nebuchadnezzar, the eighth gate
of Babylon has aurochs (an extinct type of cattle) and a dragon alternating all
the way up the gate. Since this dragon is a reptile (note the scales and
tongue), it also has hips that raise the body off the ground; so, by definition
it is also a dinosaur.
Photos by Bodie Hodge
Dragons in Peru adorn hosts of ancient pottery, rock ark,
textiles, and so on. This pottery is from the ancient Moche Culture and is on
display at the Museum of the Nation in Lima, Peru.
Dragons On Flags And Banners
It is fairly well known that the Welsh flag endows a dragon.
But few realize that this was not the only culture to have a dragon on its
flag. These cultures clearly viewed dragons as real.
Welsh Flag; Image from Presentation Library
Royal Bavarian Flag; Pre-1918
Imperial Chinese Flag; Pre-1912
The famous Bayeux Tapestry that depicts the Norman invasion
of England has numerous animals on it. Some are dragons.
Bayeux Tapestry, about 1,000 years old
Many other flags and banners could be added to this list,
and diligent searches will turn up numerous ancient flags, banners, and emblems
with such things.
Have Dragons Been Relegated To Myths?
It was not until the twentieth century that dragons were
seen as myths. In 1890, a large flying dragon was killed in Arizona (in the
United States), and samples were sent to universities back east. This was
recorded in a newspaper under “A Strange Winged Monster Discovered and Killed
on the Huachuca Desert,” The Tombstone
Epitaph, on April 26, 1890. No
one seemed to entertain the idea they were myths then.
Even the 1902 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, while trying to explain away the accounts
of sea dragons (“sea serpents”), concluded that they might still exist (as
their numbers were few by this time):
"It would thus appear that, while,
with very few exceptions, all the so-called “sea serpents” can be explained by
reference to some well-known animal or other natural object, there is still a
residuum sufficient to prevent modern zoologist from denying the possibility
that some such creature may after all exist."
Yet only eight years later, it was published that dragons
were myth! In 1910, the Encyclopædia
Britannica states the following:
"Nor were these dragons anything but
very real terrors, even in the imaginations of the learned until comparatively
modern times. As the waste places were cleared, indeed, they withdrew farther
from the haunts of men, and in Europe their last lurking-places were the
inaccessible heights of the Alps, where they lingered till Jacques Balmain set
the fashion which has finally relegated them to the realm of myth."
This was only about 100 years ago that the dragon first
began being relegated to a mythical status. Apparently, since Jacques Balmain
couldn’t find one, they were deemed myth. Perhaps the idea that they went
extinct was too much to consider.
Though this idea of dragons being myth still defied Encyclopædia Britannica’s claim even
into the 1920s. They were not to eager to make such bold claims. In 1927 one
dictionary consulted still viewed dragons as real but rare:
"A huge serpent or snake (now rare);
a fabulous monster variously represented, generally as a huge winged reptile
with crested head and terrible claws, and often as spouting fire; in the Bible,
a large serpent a crocodile, a great marine animal, or a jackal."
But it makes sense as more people spread out and settled in
more lands, the dragons were pushed to the brink of extinction. Many old
accounts of dragons had them living underground particularly near swamps (e.g.,
Beowulf). As man develops areas, those habitats are destroyed. But just like
the dodo, when you can’t find them any longer, they are suddenly considered
“myth” instead of being seen as extinct.
Sadly, this also influenced Christians and subsequently
modern translations rarely use the word dragon in the Old Testament, due, in my
opinion, to these secular influences.
Dragons And Their Relation To “Dinosaurs”
Dragons include land, sea, and water reptiles. Though
dragons in old forms of classification also denoted snakes, dinosaurs are more
specific.
Dinosaurs are land reptiles that (by definition) have one of
two kinds of hip structures that allow the creature to naturally raise itself
off the ground.
In other words, crocodiles, komodo dragons, alligators, and so on are not seen
as dinosaurs since their hip structures have their legs coming out to the side
so the belly naturally rests on the ground. But neither would flying reptiles
like pterodactyls or water reptiles like plesiosaurs be dinosaurs by definition
either.
So all dinosaurs are dragons, but not all dragons are
dinosaurs. Dinosaurs and other land dragons were made on Day Six (Genesis
1:24–31). Flying dragons and sea dragons were made on Day Five (Genesis
1:20–23).
It is important to realize that the word dinosaur did not
exist until the year 1841. Sir Richard Owen invented the term “dinosaur,” and
it means “terrifying” or “terrible” lizard. Maybe the controversy could have
been avoided if they just called dinosaur bones “dragon” bones.
But this means dinosaurs were created and lived the same
time as man and went aboard the Ark of Noah (Genesis 6:20). Those that did not
go aboard died. Many likely rotted and decayed, and others were rapidly buried
by sediment from the Flood, making them candidates for fossilization. Hence, we
find many of these dragon bones (e.g., dinosaur bones) in rock layers from the
Flood. Dinosaurs came off the Ark and have been dying out ever since.
One dinosaur resembles a dragon so much that they named it
after a dragon from a movie series—Dracorex Hogwartsia.
Reasons For Extinction?
So why did dragons (e.g., dinosaurs) die out? The simple
answer is sin. When Adam and Eve
sinned (Genesis 3) death came into the world. Living things began to die, and
many things began to die out—dragons as well as dodos were no exception.
Some specific reasons for their extinction likely include
changing environments (e.g., the ice age that followed the Flood, the
destruction of swamp lands by man, and so on), predation by man (cf. Genesis
10:9), diseases, genetic problems, catastrophic events, etc.
Keep in mind that most dragon legends end with a dragon getting killed.
Like
the dodo, man could have been a major factor why dragons no longer survive, as
far as we know. The possibility exists that some still live in remote parts of
the world or underground and only come out at certain times. This was quite
common with old dragon accounts.
However, it is unlikely that we will find any living ones,
in the same way that it is unlikely that we will find passenger pigeons, dodos,
and many other things that have been pushed to extinction.
Conclusion: Dragons In Relation To Satan
There is much to be said about dragons, and this short
chapter is just a taste. Dragons, including the specific subset of dinosaurs,
were real creatures and have simply died out due to sin, just like so many
other animals including the dodo. The land-dwelling, air-breathing dragons
survived on the Ark of Noah, and they have been dying out ever since (Genesis
6:20; 7:21–22).
Many were surely timid creatures (especially since they are
known to have inhabited old ruins), but others were known to terrorize
according to the old accounts of dragons. And when such conflicts arose, a
dragon usually ended up dead by someone who could overcome it. Such conquerors
were remembered in history with a powerful and strong name.
But such vicious attacks could well be the reason that Satan
is metaphorically called a “dragon” in Scripture (e.g., Revelation 12:3); also
consider Satan’s use of a serpent in Genesis 3:1 to deceive Eve and ultimately
get Adam to bring sin and death into the world (Romans 5:12).
Satan’s vicious attacks leave many helpless (e.g., 2
Corinthians 2:11; 1 Peter 5:8). But Christ, the “stronger man” in Luke
11:21–22, has conquered Satan (Hebrews 2:14) and has an eternal name above all
names (Philippians 2:9). For in Christ, one can have the victory over Satan,
the great dragon (1 Corinthians 15:57).
With this in mind, it is good to realize the big picture.
Satan wants people to accept the idea
that dragons were myth as this is simply another attack on the authority of
God’s Word. Satan wants us doubt God’s Word the same way he attacked Eve using
a serpent in the Garden of Eden to doubt His Word (Genesis 3:1–6; 2 Corinthians
2:11).
Were dragons a myth or did they simply die out? It’s time to
trust God’s Word over the fallible ideas of man, who was not there and not in a
position of superseding God on the subject (Isaiah 2:22). Of course, dragons
were real.
Originally here: https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/were-dragons-real/;
Edited; Republished by permission.
The New Century Dictionary (New York, NY: P.F. Collier & Son
Corporation, New York, 1948), p. 456.
