JWHVACR
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The Dragon - 2007/03/07 07:32
That the Bible speaks about what is translated as dragons (gr. drakonta) several times, raises some interesting questions. The dragon (although supposedly a mythical animal) is one of the world’s most widely recognized creatures. It is highly regarded in the Buddhist religion and is seen in ancient religious carvings from around the world. This testifies that people have believed in the existence of dragons for as far back as human records go. Why?
Note that dragons are thought of as animals with the bodies of snakes (gr. orphis), but they also have feet and legs.
What was the dragon? Revelation 12:9 tells us, when it says, ‘So, the huge dragon was thrown out. He is the first snake, the one who is called the Slanderer and Opposer, who is misleading the whole earth.’
So, from the above, we see that the vision identifies the dragon as ‘the Opposer’ and ‘the Slanderer’ (Satan and Devil) and it says that he was the first snake, the one who seduced Eve in the ‘Paradise of Delights’ (see Genesis 3:2).
The fact that the dragon is viewed as a snake with legs in religious legends throughout the world, testifies to the fact that people everywhere once believed in the Bible account in Genesis, and they also believed that when God cursed the snake to ‘travel on its chest and belly,’ it lost its legs.
However, the unusual uses of the word dragon (gr. drakon) in the Bible reveals that it actually had another meaning to the people of the Third Century B.C.E. (when the Greek Septuagint was translated). We draw this conclusion from the words found at Job 40:19, 20 (for example), where God was describing a wild ox and how it is captured by a man. It says there (in the Septuagint), ‘Then, when someone spies him and snares him, he drills a hole through his nose, and leads this terrible creature (gr. drakon) with a hook and a halter around his snout.’
As you can see, in this case the ox was referred to as a dragon, so it should be translated as terrible creature or beast here, for that is the meaning implied by the verses. This well illustrates the problem te problem often encountered when translating, for words that we assume to always have one meaning often turn out to have multiple uses in ancient languages. So, those who look at words in the Bible and wonder at their meanings shouldn’t be too hasty to think that they understand and then draw wrong conclusions. For here, where some may scoff at the Bible’s use of the word dragon, we see that it has another meaning that is totally consistent with what we know is true.
It is interesting that dragons are also part of the folklore of Europe, for who hasn’t heard the story of St. George and the dragon. Yet, if you read that story, you’ll see that it is actually an allegory about man’s fight against sin and the Slanderer. So in that case, it refers to the original dragon, or the first creature of terror.
Notice that Job 7:12 asks, ‘Am I the sea or the dragon that guards it?’
This view that a dragon guarded the edges of the seas was common throughout Europe until after the Sixteenth Century, for dragons were usually drawn at the edges of maps of seas during that time. Yet, as we can see, the actual reference may have been to animals and fish that men feared and didn’t understand, not snakes with legs.
However, notice how vividly Job described the Slanderer as the dragon at Job 26:12, 13, where we read, ‘By His strength He has settled the sea in its bed, and in His wisdom He’s filled it with whales. The bolts from the skies stand in awe of Him, and He’s ordered the death of the dragon that rebelled.’ (2001 Translation).
We find a whole Chapter in Job (Chapter 41) that is obviously a description of the evil one, but has gone mistranslated for centuries, simply because its meaning has been misunderstood. Other Bibles speak of a leviathan here, and some of a crocodile. And in the Septuagint, we find no name at all or any explanation, leaving us to guess what is being described.
It is unusual that some translators have thought that this creature was a crocodile, for crocodile is a Greek word that is easily recognized, since it is spelled almost the same as in English. There is one place where that word is found in the Law of Moses, at Leviticus 11:25, when listing animals that shouldn’t be eaten, and in that place most Bibles also translate the word crocodile wrong.
If you read the text of Job 41, you’ll see an obvious reference to a fire-breathing dragon. For notice how verses 10 and 11 describe it, ‘When he sneezes, he brightens the sky, and His eyes are as the morning star. What comes from his mouth is like lamps that are lit, and they scatter like sparks from a grate. From out of his nostrils comes the smoke of a furnace, burning bright with the fire of live coals.’
At this point critics could say the Bible was talking about a mythical dragon. Yet, notice the further description in verses 22-24, ‘He breaks out of the abyss as from a brass cauldron, and he views the sea as an ointment jar. In dark places he lives as a captive, and he thinks of the pit as his promenade. There is nothing on earth that is quite like him, for he was made to be mocked by My messengers.’
If you examine these verses, you’ll see that God is using cryptic text to explain to Job just who is to blame for his problems. Yet, the use of the words Tartarus (which 2001 translates as ‘In dark places’) isn’t found again in the Bible until the reference at 2 Peter 2:4, and the only mention of his coming out of his prison (pit or abyss) is found at Revelation 20:7. Also, why would God’s messengers (angels) mock an animal?
Clearly, this second-to-the-last Chapter in Job, as in any good writing, brings back into play all the characters that the book started with.
Then, why did Jewish scribes and translators have so much trouble understanding this Chapter that there are obvious deletions? There are four likely reasons:
· They didn’t believe in fire-breathing dragons
· They didn’t know that the Slanderer was the dragon
· They didn’t know of the Slanderer’s position in Tartarus or the pit
· A correct understanding would have linked the Book of Job to the Scriptures of the Christian era.
It is interesting that we again find mention of a dragon at Isaiah 27:1, where we read, ‘In that day, God will bring His great, holy, and strong sword against the dragon – the crooked and fleeing snake – and He will do away with the dragon, the one in the sea.’ This is an obvious reference to the destruction of the same dragon mentioned at Revelation 12:9 above, but it goes unnoticed in Hebrew texts, where the word leviathan is misunderstood.
What is particularly interesting about this scripture, is that it speaks of the dragon from the sea in the same words as found at Ezekiel 32:2, where the reference is obviously to the land of Egypt and to its destruction. And you will also find references to the land of Egypt in the song of Isaiah 26, 27. However, this song seems to speak of some future time when God’s people (Israel) are released from a symbolic Egypt at Armageddon, for notice the words of the prophecy found at Isaiah 26:18-21:
‘We won’t fall, though all others who live on earth will fall, but the dead will be raised from their tombs. Then all on the earth will be joyful, for, as dew You’ll send them a cure, while the land of the godless will fall. Proceed, O my people, to enter your bedrooms! Go inside, lock your doors, and hide a little while! For, this will happen, then that, and the rage of Jehovah will pass. {Look!} From His Holy Place Jehovah sends His rage, upon all those living on earth. He’ll unveil all the blood on the earth… and He won’t cover up those He destroys anymore.’
So, Egypt seems to be used here as a symbol of the godless nations that are destroyed in the Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:16), and the dragon that represents them appears to be the Opposer.
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