Were There Dinosaurs on the Ark?

Were dinosaurs on the Ark?  Is there any biblical evidence for this?  Were dinosaurs still around at the time that the Bible was written?

Why the Ark?

Genesis 6:5-8 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

This clearly explains why Noah’s ark had to be built because only 8 of the thousands and thousands of people had found favor in God’s eyes.  The remainder of mankind had reached a point of impenitence because as Genesis 6:5 indicates “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” and so this continual state of sinfulness had penetrated mankind so deeply that repentance was never going to be sought by those outside of Noah’s family.  The flood is a picture of God’s judgment on the earth and shows just how offensive sin is to a holy god.  God decided to start over with mankind with Noah’s family who alone were pleasing God.

Building the Ark

During the approximately 100 years or so that it apparently took to build the ark, the people had time to repent and Noah’s opportunity to preach to them repentance was given a wide and long-lasting platform. Even so, no one repented and so the ark would save only Noah’s family and included “birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort” (Gen 6:20). If there were any dinosaurs living at that time, this certainly would have included two of every kind that was still alive when Noah built the ark.  They may have been those which were just born so as not to take up the limited space on the ark.  We know for certain that God is patient and longsuffering and not willing that anyone perish (2 Pet 3:9) and doesn’t take any pleasure in the deaths of the wicked (Ez 18:23, 32) and so for nearly a century, people had a chance to repent and trust in God but none but Noah’s family did.

Dinosaurs in the Bible?

Read some of these Bible verses to see if you believe that the authors are speaking about dinosaurs or not.   In Job (41:1-34) he describes a creature that inhabits the seas that some translations have mistakenly translated into the word whale but certainly any Bible with margins that gives the original translation of the word clearly indicates that this was no whale that I have ever seen.  Do whales have razor sharp teeth like iron that can swallow its prey whole (v 14)? What kind of a whale is impervious to the weapons of man which cannot penetrate its body (v 26-29)? Is it possible that a simple whale can destroy their prey just by passing over it (v 30)?  In 2008 the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway revealed one of the largest dinosaur sea predators ever found and it’s called the Pliosaur Kronosaurus which is estimated to be over 50 feet long. The teeth that remain are still sharp enough to cut wood today.

Job also describes a huge land giant that is like no animal that is alive today.  Job writes “Behold now, Behemoth, which I made as well as you … behold … his power in the muscles of his belly. He bends his tail like a cedar” (Job 40:15-17). His “the sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron… if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth. Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare” (Job 40:18, 23-24?  This doesn’t sound like anything that you’d find at the zoo today.

Flood of Judgment

Did the flood destroy most of the large dinosaurs?  It is possible; besides, the vast majority of dinosaurs were not the huge land and sea creatures that we see in books or in the museums of today.  Most of the dinosaurs were the average size of a small pig so two of many of the dinosaurs could have fit very easily onto the ark but the Bible is silent on this and there are actually some dinosaurs that are still alive today like opossums and crocodiles.  The word dinosaur is a relatively modern word and doesn’t appear in the Bible because it was a word coined just a couple of hundred years ago for “terrible lizard.” The age of the earth is not precisely known because of the dating methods used today are highly unreliable and by the way, the Bible does not give the specific date of the creation of the earth  or the age of the earth so we really cannot say with certainty how old the earth is.  Most of the largest dinosaurs may have died out millions of years ago or could have died in the flood during Noah’s day.

Conclusion

We can’t really say whether there were dinosaurs on the ark or not or if they co-existed with Noah.  There is some biblical references that indicate that at least some of them may have still been around when mankind was on the earth because some Bible verses seem to be talking about dinosaurs such as Psalm 74:13 and Isaiah 43:20; 51:9 along with the references in the Book of Job.  One thing we do know for certain is that God is the Creator and He desires to have a relationship with you and if you have already repented and trusted in Christ then you do have one but if you are not born again (John 3:3) then right now you are separated from God by your sin and you face a Christ-less eternity at this point. May I strongly urge you to make today your day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2) because tomorrow may be too late and we all have an appointment with death and with the judgment of God and we don’t know when that time will be (Heb 9:27).

Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon