Dragons or dinosaurs?
In the book of Job, God speaks of a behemoth and a fire-breathing Leviathan (Job 40: 15–24; 41: 1–34). There are no such animals in the modern world. Is it possible that we are talking about dinosaurs and other reptile-like sea and land creatures?
Dragons are constantly mentioned in the historical records of many cultures and peoples of the world. We also find images of these creatures in paintings and clay products. The similarities in the stories and drawings indicate that they are based on actual descriptions of these animals. We are talking about dinosaurs and other reptiles created by God on the fifth and sixth days of the week of Creation (Genesis 1: 20-25), which survived the Flood in Noah's ark (Genesis 6:19).
We do not see dinosaurs today for the same reasons that many other animals became extinct: climate change, nutritional difficulties, human extermination. Let's face it, most legends end with the death of dragons, but the memory of them lives on.
Dragon Legends, Australia
In the far north of Queensland, Australian aborigines from the Kuku Yalanji tribe discovered and sketched a monster that lives in the sea and lakes. This creature was remarkably similar to a plesiosaur.
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Dragon Legends, Babylon
Babylon is the center of the early post-Flood civilization. The famous gate called Ishtar was built by King Nebuchadnezzar II, a powerful ruler during the Babylonian captivity of Israel. This gate depicts a reptile with four legs, which, like dinosaurs, stands on its hind legs.
Dragon Legends, China
The well-known Chinese dragons all over the world are present even in the Chinese twelve-year calendar. Eleven animals from this calendar we meet in the modern world (dog, rat, monkey, etc.), so why should we think that the twelfth animal (dragon) is mythical? The Travels of Marco Polo book describes tall and long "dragons" with short legs and claws. According to Polo, the Chinese used special methods to kill these dragons. They used some parts of the body of these animals for medicinal purposes, and ate others as a delicacy.
Dragon Legends, Egypt
The ancient Greek writer Herodotus wrote in his works: “I was told that near the city of Bout, in Arabia, there is a place where flying snakes exist. So I went there and saw many piles of bones. Here the mountains border the valley, connected with a vast plain on the side to Egypt. They say that these snakes fly away from Arabia in the spring, but they meet, when leaving the gorge, the ibis bird, which kills them and therefore is very revered by the Egyptians. A flying snake is like a water snake; its wings have no feathers, like a bat's."
Dragon Legends, England
Of considerable interest is the engraving on the tombstone of Bishop Richard Bell, who died in 1496, in Carlisle Cathedral. The ornaments engraved on the tombstone contain images of animals that resemble some species of dinosaurs, such as the long-necked sauropod or horned ceratopsian.
Dragon Legends, North Africa
The Roman historian Cassius Dion describes how a dragon was once killed by the Roman army. The original passage from his lost Book 11, entitled “Roman History,” was copied by the Monk John of Damascus (c. 676-749) in his work On Dragons and Ghosts. Here is what he writes: “Once, when the Roman consul Regulus fought against Carthage, a dragon suddenly crawled behind the shaft of the Roman army; the Romans, by order of Regulus, killed him and, stripping off his skin, sent it to the Roman Senate. When the hide, as Dion says, was measured by order of the Senate, it was one hundred and twenty feet long; the thickness was also appropriate for the length."
Dragon Legends, Sweden
An Anglo-Saxon epic poem called Beowulf tells of three battles between Beowulf, king of the Gauts (Gothenburg, modern Sweden), with unusual creatures. The last dragon he met, he described as "a fire-breathing flying kite that lives underground and sometimes comes to the surface." Beowulf managed to defeat this monster, but he died from the wounds he received in the battle.
Dragon Legends, Peru
Peru is well known for its depictions of dragon-like creatures on pottery and other artifacts. For example, in the National Museum of Peru there is a piece of clay that depicts a dragon-like dinosaur. This clay belongs to the flourishing period of the Moche culture (400-1100).
State of Utah (USA)
Some petroglyphs (rock paintings) depict flying or ground dragons. The pictograph on the rock in San Rafael Swell depicts creatures resembling a pteranodon or pterodactyl. The animal in one of the cave paintings at Natural Bridges National Monument looks a lot like a sauropod dinosaur.