Dragons! Truth or Fable?

The roaring flame and the powerful flapping of the wings of a dragon are something we all awe at. His mighty scales and his large talons are portrayed as vicious and cruel. It is known that a dragon is unbeatable except in one area close to his heart. Saint George and the dragon is a well-known story that has been passed down from ancient history and now portrays a beautiful picture of the might of the Saint and the reality of the dragon. True, this story may be false, as are many other tales about dragons, but where do these tales come from? Where does the writer get the idea of a dragon, and if he gets it from history what happened to all of the dragons? Is the idea of a dragon true history or just an interesting fable?
In Chinese and Japanese mythology we find story upon story of the great dragons living in their lairs hording away precious treasures. Pictures, sculptures, mosaics, and paintings of dragons are all over these countries. Even street-parades are held occasionally for the well-known dragon of “good-luck.”
We are also very familiar with the European idea of dragons. The story of Saint George and the dragon is very famous and the idea of dragons stealing away maidens is extremely popular. Even now Loch Ness is said to be living in the River Oich or the Caledonian Canal. Hundreds upon hundreds of stories, pictures, historical writings, and paleontological excavations are all across the world. Where is it all coming from? If it is true how come there are so many who claim it to be false? What exactly is going on?
Job 41 is a lengthy passage on the “Leviathan.” This leviathan is spoken of to be alive at the time of men and walk with men. But what exactly is the leviathan? Many claim the leviathan to be a crocodile, whale, or alligator. But let’s look at the text in Job.
Job 41:1,2,7,31,32 all speak of this creature living in the water. So obviously we know that this living creature is in the depths. The crocodile, whale, and alligator all live in the water… but we have some problems:
Verse 14 speaks of his terrible teeth, round about. The crocodile and the alligator don’t have round teeth, but we can let this part slide, considering the mouth and teeth are strong and terrible. Many whales have baleen instead of teeth, but there are toothed whales which primarily feed on fish, squid, or both. So for now we can keep all three on the list.
Verse 15 speaks of his scales and how they are shut up together. Verses 16 and 17 say that his scales are so close together than no air can come between them… this describes the dragon and how none can kill the dragon with a sword or spear. Verse 17 says that the scales cannot be sundered, or broken apart.
Verse 18 says that by his neesings (or sneezing) a light doth shine and in the next verse it speaks of burning lamps going forth out of his mouth and sparks of fire leaping out. Verse 20 and 21 say, “out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.” Well, all three of the above animals are quickly checked off after these statements. Truly this is a fire-breathing creature, one that stands above all others.
Job 41 constantly speaks of the strength of the leviathan, whether it be in his neck, sinews, scales, flesh, heart, etc. And even in verse 26 it says that the sword drawn to him cannot hold, the spear, dart, nor the habergeon. He sees iron as straw, brass as rotten wood, the arrow cannot make him flee, slingstones are turned into stubble, darts are counted as stubble, he laughs at the shaking of a spear. What animal is like this but the dreaded dragon of ancient history? He is the king over the children of pride!
Interestingly enough in Job 41 verse 5 it says, “wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?” Isn’t it known throughout history that dragons drag maidens away into their hoary homes and keep them there as a hostage or for a meal? This truly is spoken of in the Scriptures and in many other Historical books that recount tales of such.
Isaiah 27:1 says, “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.” Knowing that the leviathan is a serpent and is also referred to in the same passage as a dragon living in the sea it can easily be said that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was a talking dragon before God cursed him and caused him to grovel in the dust.
Three times dragons are spoken of in the Bible with owls. One of those times it is spoken of that their habitations are much alike. How could a dragon live in a home much as the owl if he had no wings? Malachi speaks of the mountains being a dwelling place for the dragons and Jeremiah speaks of dragons snuffing up the wind. Truly, what more proof do we need than this, out of God’s own book, than to be sure that dragons lived alongside man and many of the stories we hear of dragons are true and real?
Many claim these stories or paleontological sights as false because of many reasons. One of the reasons is because they are afraid to admit the Bible’s authenticity. If they claim that dragons are real creatures that have lived thousands (or in the world’s eyes, millions) of years old then what must they say about the rest of Scripture? Others cannot fathom the idea of dragons or other mysterious creatures living in our world right alongside men… but truly that is the beauty of the creation of our world and all that is in it. Dragon is simply a name that describes an animal, it is not just a mythological name that is to scare us and to drive us to think that they are only in picture books with fairies, gnomes, and goblins. The actual word “dragon” is derived from a Greek word meaning: a serpent of huge size, a python, a dragon.
But what happened to them all? From all the research and study I have engaged in, I have found that there are actually still some dragons in this world of ours. I believe that alligators and crocodiles are a form of a dragon. The dragon portrayed in “Saint George and the Dragon” pictures are all smaller-sized than what we envision dragons to look like. Most of the pictures drawn or painted look much like an alligator. Truly, I do not believe that all dragons looked like our nowadays alligators but I do believe that these reptilian creatures are a form of a dragon. At the same time there have been rumors and tales of dragon-like creatures still inhabiting many areas of the world. Some such places have been recorded to be in the deep jungles of Africa where certain tribes of African’s have claimed to see and actually battle with these dragon-like creatures, living either in the water or in “high places.”
“According to various estimates by scientists, every day 35-150 species of life become extinct. Most of these vanishing species are (or were) inhabitants of tropical rainforests. A majority of them are insects or plants, and most remain undiscovered by humans at the time of their extinction.” How can we claim that “no animals can just disappear, so if we can’t give real proof for where the dragons went we just won’t believe they ever existed.” Interestingly enough, animals go extinct every day all around the world. Dragons? With the flood, ice age, natural phenomenon, and man hunting and killing for food, pride, and protection I would hope I wouldn’t have to give more of an explanation for what happened to such-and-such animal. I do not believe that we have to give some one-basic reasoning behind why the dragons went extinct, considering the fact that perhaps they all haven’t really gone extinct!