Does the Bible (Job 40) Describe a Sauropod Dinosaur (Behemoth)?

Genesis Apologetics

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Many people have asked where did dinosaurs fit into the biblical timeline and what does the

00:05

Bible say about dinosaurs? Yes, the Bible does mention dinosaurs even specifically, but before we get there, let's take a quick look at the big picture

00:14

Evolution holds that dinosaurs evolved 220 million years ago and died about 65 million years ago from any of a number of possible extinction events

00:21

But the Bible teaches that all land animals including dinosaurs were created on the sixth day of creation

00:27

Just thousands of years ago and they were all named by Adam just before God handed over his completed creation to Adam and Eve Charging them to take dominion over his completed creation then about 4 ,400 years ago the entire world was deluged by Noah's Flood and the dinosaurs along with billions of other creatures were wiped out

00:44

Let's take a quick look at some evidences that show that the biblical account might actually be true first Dinosaurs are cleverly designed consider this triceratops

00:52

It's 2 ,000 pound head is mounted in a way that allows it to turn every which way yet still be strong enough to ram something

00:59

Even while running What about massive serapods with weight -bearing systems from hip to toe that allow its?

01:04

200 ,000 pound body to even walk and neck vertebrae that are 90 % filled with air so it can lift up its head next

01:10

There's the absence of dinosaur ancestors and transitions Even the Chicago Field Museum sign admits there have been zero transitions between dinosaur kinds

01:18

It shows question marks regarding where they came from It's almost like someone just put each basic kind on earth right at the same time

01:24

There are even dinosaur design features that show they lived in the ideal pre -flood world Pterodactyls may have been too heavy to fly in today's atmosphere

01:32

Same with huge pre -flood dragonflies the fossil record is filled with giant creatures and plants We know this because there are billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth and when we

01:42

Look at the dinosaur fossil record. We see that they were buried furiously rapidly and simultaneously Oftentimes found fleeing in groups take this massive bone bed in Hilda, Canada Thousands of centrosaurs were catastrophically buried over an entire square mile or this one in China where thousands of different kinds of dinosaurs were

01:59

Simultaneously buried in a single 980 foot long ravine There are hundreds of dinosaur bone beds all over the world including the u .s.

02:07

Where the Morrison formation covers 13 states and 700 ,000 square miles Thousands of torn apart dinosaurs are buried here in hundreds of mass graves with many found in the classic death pose with their next arch

02:18

Back choking as they died museum signs everywhere even admit they died in a watery Catastrophe some dinosaurs are even found mummified with tree leaves flowers ferns shrubs and algae still in their stomach

02:29

Dinosaurs are even found buried with marine creatures. Isn't a global flood the best explanation for this?

02:34

Scientists have been discovering soft tissue in dinosaur bones They describe blood cells blood vessels connective tissue and even collagen which has a maximum shelf life of about 900 ,000 years at 40 degrees with a maximum shelf life of less than 1 million years

02:48

What's collagen doing in dinosaur bones that are supposedly 65 million years old many dinosaur bones are even found unfossilized in places like Madagascar Alaska and Montana does this evidence seem to support the

02:59

Bible's recent and violent flood or Evolution stories, but some would say if the Bible includes the truth about Earth history it would specifically mention dinosaurs

03:08

Well, the term dinosaur wasn't even invented until 1841 and Bible translations before this time used the term dragon over 35 times in many contexts describing dinosaur like creatures

03:22

Job chapter 40 describes a majestic creature using the name behemoth Which means colossal beast in context

03:30

Job and his philosopher friends just finished over 30 chapters of dialogue Trying to explain God and why he would allow such hardships into Job's life

03:37

Then God shows up in a whirlwind Tells Job to brace himself like a man and says that he would be the one asking

03:43

Job the questions for a while Then for four chapters straight God asked Job 77 rhetorical questions that all have to do with creation

03:52

After explaining to Job that he is the master designer of space and earth God describes 13 of his created animals such as an ostrich

04:00

Horse and deer then caps off the discussion by telling Job about his two grandest creations behemoth and Leviathan God calls behemoth the first of all his ways

04:10

Meaning the first in rank the chief the most supreme of his creative works in Context God is saying to Job sit down brace yourself

04:19

And now I will tell you of the chief of all my works the biggest most amazing land creature.

04:24

I ever made When we scan through all land dwelling creatures both living and extinct

04:30

Which one comes up as the first in rank the most colossal or the chief?

04:35

Clearly the sauropod dinosaur Pairing God's word that behemoth is the grandest creature he ever made with the fact that sauropods are the largest land creatures

04:44

We've ever found should give us a clue to behemoth's identity Sauropods were huge the largest one found to date was over 120 feet long that's 10 freeway lanes across at a weight of 76 tons

04:59

It's a wonder these creatures could even walk in fact dr. Waddell was granted an international award for discovering one of the secrets behind how their mobility was even possible

05:08

Their bones were pneumatic they were charged with air Dr. Waddell notes they were marvels of biological engineering and that efficiency of design is especially evident in their vertebrae the bones that make up the

05:21

Backbone it turns out their vertebrae was increasingly lighter higher up the spinal column and were filled with air some up to 90 %

05:29

When Matt puts sauropod backbones through a CT scanner he finds a real surprise

05:37

The x -ray slices from the CT scans revealed not marrow But a honeycomb pattern inside the dinosaurs back and neck bones filled only with air

05:49

Matt's work shows that the bigger dinosaurs got the more air they had in their vertebrae this is one neck vertebra from super saurus a

06:00

Neck bone like this would have been light enough for one man to lift the same size mammal bone would require a forklift

06:08

Now we found that the biggest of these sauropods the vertebrae were about 90 % air, so that's comparable to styrofoam

06:16

So the bigger the dinosaurs got the more air sac like structures running into the bone

06:22

Absolutely while this may solve the puzzle of how they could lift and move their massive heads and necks

06:27

It doesn't solve the challenge of how they could possibly inhale enough oxygen through their tiny nostrils Which were only about twice the size of those on a living horse

06:36

Perhaps they thrived better in a world before Noah's flood when the oxygen levels were likely higher their long necks and tails resembled living suspension bridges

06:45

For this creature to eat breathe and move its long neck the series of over 12 neck vertebrae had to be interlocking and twistable

06:52

They also had to have anchoring points in just the right places for muscles and ligaments to connect in such a way to prevent

06:59

The neck from pinching veins and nerves and to brace the trachea and esophagus God even describes behemoths diet eating grass like an ox in 2005

07:09

Researchers found grass and sauropod coprolites in India and some paleo botanists are even saying that this will cause a rewrite in our

07:16

Understanding of dinosaur evolution because evolution holds that grass didn't evolve until millions of years after the dinosaurs had gone extinct

07:24

God describes behemoth strength in his hips and power in his stomach muscles again

07:30

We have a strong clue that behemoth was a sauropod dinosaur because while many animals have strong hips and stomach muscles

07:37

None were as strong as the sauropod The muscle structure around the hips and stomach that were necessary for sauropods to move walk turn and eat would be incredible in fact for some sauropods like the

07:49

Diplodocus its highest point of its core body was the hips and its whole body balanced on the hips front to back

07:56

Diplodocus was able to rear up on its back legs and balance on his tail like a tripod Making use of the hips to support not just the back half of its body

08:05

But the front half too this required enormous strength in the hip and stomach muscles Considering they lifted tons of its own body into the air

08:13

Below the hips was an incredible weight distribution system that went from a massive femur Which in some cases was about eight feet long to two shin bones then to five toes

08:24

Behemoth's tail also closely matches those of sauropods God describes that he moves his tail like a cedar tree and follows this by stating the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit

08:35

Paleontologists have learned from muscle attachment locations in their bones that the tightly knit structure of behemoth's thighs and hips

08:41

Actually made his tail sway from side to side with each step much as a cedar tree does when it sways in the wind

08:48

Tail drag marks are only rarely found behind sauropod footprints indicating their tails were raised while they walked

08:55

It's difficult to think of a creature that fits this biblical description better than a sauropod dinosaur

09:00

God describes his bones like beams of bronze Most Bible versions translate this phrase as tubes of bronze

09:07

Conduits of bronze or pipes of brass which conveys both strength and being hollow like a channel or a tube

09:15

This matches the fact that sauropods had the largest leg bones of any animal and they are in fact

09:20

Just like tubes of metal having a hard outer casing and spongy marrow and veins on the inside Then God says that its ribs are like bars of iron

09:29

Unlike much of sauropod skeleton that was spongy and filled with air for weight savings its ribs were fully ossified

09:35

They were made out of solid bone again. We have a perfect match God even describes behemoth's habitat

09:45

He lies under the lotus trees in a covert of reeds and marsh The lotus trees cover him with their shade and the willows by the brook surround him

09:54

This was a creature that had to be near lots of green food living in a lush tropical environment

09:59

Large sauropods had to eat half a ton of vegetation every day and they likely had to eat all day long to consume this amount of food

10:07

Next God says that indeed the river may rage yet. He is not disturbed He is confident though the

10:14

Jordan gushes into his mouth Why would God point out that this animal can stand in a rushing river?

10:20

Lots of animals can do this depending on the size of the rushing river in this case God said the river may rage yet He is not disturbed in that behemoth is confident

10:29

Even though this raging river should gush into his mouth The Jordan River is the largest river in Palestine and it currently flows at only 15 % of the rate it flowed in the past Even so in the winter this river would be incredibly difficult to cross and it would take a very sizable animal to stand

10:46

Undisturbed in this rushing current and even more let the current gush into its mouth Some of the larger sauropods stood over 20 feet at the shoulders and weighed over 70 tons

10:56

Creatures of this size and mass could withstand a raging river better than any others Even with all this evidence some say that behemoth was just a mythical creature

11:10

But why would God try to display his awesome creative power by describing something that never existed?

11:15

Anyone can do that And why would God say that behemoth was the chief of all his creations after describing 13 real still living animals in the same passage?

11:25

Why go through all the trouble to describe behemoth as a grass -eating animal that lies peacefully in the shadow of the river plants along with His physical description diet and habitat all of which happen to fit a known creature a sauropod dinosaur

11:38

Certain Bible footnotes state that behemoth was a hippo or an elephant, but neither comes close to matching all 13 characteristics

11:45

God used to describe behemoth Certainly hippos and elephants aren't the first in rank or chief of God's creations

11:51

Would God tell Job to gird up his loins to behold the chief of his creations just to show off a hippo an elephant?

11:58

These creatures were plentiful They also don't have tails that sway like cedar trees and both of these animals have been captured and killed by man throughout history

12:07

But God says that only behemoth's creator can approach him that he cannot be captured by humans when he is on watch and that no

12:15

One can use barbs to pierce his nose These impossibilities fit sauropod dinosaurs better than any other animals because of their towering heads and huge size

12:23

With a head that reached over 40 feet high it could also see people coming from far away

12:28

Its massive tail also makes him unapproachable Based on what we know from fossils some sauropods could cover a 200 -foot circle with deadly force using their tails

12:38

Which could be over 50 feet long and weigh over 13 ,000 pounds Recent studies have shown that some sauropods could probably create sonic booms with their tails just like a whip

12:49

It's not by chance that God says to Job that behemoth can only be approached by his creator

12:54

Good luck even getting near this creature to put a snare in its nose to this day Elephants and hippos are surrounded by hunters and killed but sauropods better fit this passage because they are simply unapproachable

13:06

God says that he made behemoth along with man like during the same creation week not millions of years ago

13:13

God made Adam as the last of his creations and gave him dominion over all the animals that have just been created during creation week

13:20

Not just some of the creatures Why else would God tell Job to consider or behold a creature which no human had ever seen?

13:31

Just in the last 20 years over 50 articles have been published in scientific journals that have documented 14

13:37

Bioorganic materials and dinosaur bones that simply cannot be millions of years old These include blood vessels, red blood cells, hemoglobin, bone cells, ovalbumin, chitin, unmineralized bone, collagen, limited

13:52

DNA, skin pigments, fex proteins, histones, keratin, and elastin

13:59

Just 20 years ago. Most scientists simply assumed dinosaur bones were solid mineralized impressions of bones

14:05

But modern science has now revealed that many of the dinosaur bones are original even at the molecular level

14:10

Hello, I'm Neil deGrasse Tyson your host for Nova science now

14:15

For the last decade the African island has offered Ray and Christy Rogers a spectacular excavation site

14:23

They work in an area of remote grasslands where dinosaur bones literally cover the ground an

14:30

Ancient graveyard where an unusually large number of dinosaurs died and were entombed by mud flows

14:37

That preserve their bones The preservation is unbelievable. The quality of the material is exceptional.

14:44

This is the piece of bone from the Madagascar Locality it in many regards doesn't even look like a fossils.

14:51

This is typical of the Madagascar material It is not heavily stained. It's not been invested with iron with manganese

14:58

It doesn't look like a typical fossil if you didn't know you might think you're picking up a cow bone today a bleached cow bone

15:05

I was looking at this thing thinking this is really interesting It was the inside of the t -rex bone that fascinated

15:12

Schweitzer who made thin sections out of it And in these cross sections of fossilized bone, she saw something that she and everyone else had thought was impossible round structures that looked like red blood cells dinosaur blood cells

15:29

Inside those channels where the blood vessels would have run Were these little round red structures that were all kind of lined up like a like a train and they were bright red and translucent

15:41

Nobody else had seen anything like that before The very idea of blood cells in a 70 million year old bone was more than unconventional

15:51

It was radical. Nobody was imagining that dinosaurs might have had preserved soft tissues

15:58

Derek Briggs is curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Peabody Museum at Yale University So along comes

16:06

Mary Schweitzer and she's starting to look inside dinosaur bones and Has made this startling discovery about the presence of red blood cells.

16:15

What was your Initial reaction to that? Oh, I think the same reaction is everybody's that this was

16:23

Totally improbable she'd perhaps misinterpreted the evidence or was Exaggerating the potential for what she was saying.

16:30

So skeptical at first. Oh, yeah, definitely Why do you think it didn't occur to anybody? Because we have this clear understanding that part of all biological cycles involves decay

16:40

I mean nature is set up to to break down that material and recycle it So it's just improbable that those kinds of very delicate structures would survive particularly for millions of years

16:50

When you think about it the laws of chemistry and biology and everything else that we know say that it should be gone

16:56

It should be degraded complete. It's not possible Do it again We got another piece of bone.

17:03

We put it in the solution. We waited two or three or four weeks Looked again more blood vessels.

17:11

We must have repeated that with probably 17 or 18 different fragments of bone

17:18

Several ancient cultures have drawings and carvings of sauropod like creatures Look at this one from the

17:23

Amazon rainforest that shows nine warriors hunting what appears to be a sauropod dinosaur It even dates to around the time the book of Job was likely written amazing pictographs here

17:36

Allegedly over 5 ,000 years old. They definitely look at that I've seen pictographs all over the world and we have a hunting scene here with a very large

17:45

Animal in the center now we have one two, three, four, five, six, seven eight nine

17:51

Hunters and you can see this hunter here is raising his spear getting ready to spear this animal

17:57

Obviously these people saw this animal alive. They didn't dig up the bones. They saw it living breathing

18:03

They were hunting this animal. Well, what is it? There's a lot of people that aren't sure what it is, but it sure looks like a dinosaur

18:11

It's got the long neck the small head the big body and the large tail Some have suggested maybe this is a camel it like a llama

18:19

But llamas don't have big large tails like that many reptiles do but according to the theory of evolution dinosaurs went extinct at least 65 million years ago.

18:30

What in the world were people just over 5 ,000 years ago doing hunting them The local secular archaeologist would not tell us what he believed the animal was on film

18:42

Off -camera, he admitted that it was a dinosaur that survived extinction and lived alongside people

18:50

Why did so many different cultures draw and paint the same type of creature as a land -dwelling creature that breathed through its nose

18:56

Noah was commanded to bring these types of creatures onto the ark as juveniles Of course and many likely survived for some centuries after the flood

19:04

When it comes to human history to bridge the gap between four to five thousand years ago and the distant past beyond this time

19:11

We each have two choices Rely on God who is there and told us what happened or trust in carbon -14 dating and other types of radiometric dating beyond 100 ,000 years

19:22

Choosing between these two histories is no small matter You see people won't allow God's Word to shape their daily lives or guide them in their eternal choices if they don't believe it's historically or scientifically credible

19:34

God's timeless word lays out Earth's initially perfect creation the fall the flood and life afterwards

19:41

The New Testament describes Christ as the only way to be reconciled to God and live with him in eternity

19:46

His timeless word gives us a clear testimony about when he created the world and the creatures that were present in the original creation

19:53

Plus some of his magnificent creatures that survived after the flood Why would God dedicate one of his longest animal descriptions to behemoth calling him the chief?

20:02

Could it be to reassure Christians today that his word really is true permanent and dependable and the viewpoint offered by the world is not

20:11

Are you a Christian student looking for answers about what the Bible teaches about creation the fossil record dinosaurs?