Why Doesn’t the Bible Mention Dinosaurs?

The fossil evidence for the existence of dinosaurs is undeniable. Thousands of fossil remains exist, and no human remains have ever been found together with dinosaur fossils. You can go to various museums and see these fossils for yourself or go to this article to see how people dig up and assemble them. Then, if they actually existed, why doesn’t the Bible mention dinosaurs?

Remember that the Bible also does not mention bacteria, platypuses, penguins, parasites, or many other living things. It does not attempt to explain the creation of the millions of species of every living thing on Earth, even though people today want to know about them. However, the Bible was not written just for people living today but also for people living thousands of years ago without microscopes or global travel.

The Bible’s message is spiritual, not a physical history of life on Earth. Why doesn’t the Bible mention dinosaurs? Some people try to say that it does. The Hebrew “behemoth” in Job describes an animal known to Job that ate grass, had a tail like a cedar, and lay under shady trees (Job 40:15-24). None of those things apply to dinosaurs. The description of the “leviathan” of Job 41, Psalms 74:14, and 104:26 has nothing in common with what we know about dinosaurs.

What we do know about dinosaurs is that they were part of a very different ecosystem than what we have today. The world of the dinosaurs was hotter and had a different atmosphere. The time of the dinosaurs was perfect for plant growth, resulting in massive amounts of vegetation. We see the remains of that vegetation in coal and peat.

It is essential to understand that God used two methods to give us the world with the resources we have today. One method was the production of things by a miraculous act. Time, space, and matter/energy were created out of nothing by this method. Today, quantum mechanics helps us verify that. The Hebrew word “bara” describes this method and is correctly translated as “created” in Genesis 1 only in verses 1, 21, and 27.

The second method is to change what God had previously created. The Bible uses the Hebrew “asah” for that. You will find it in verses 7, 16, 25, and 31 of Genesis 1. Humans can locate resources such as coal and oil because God used this method. At the conclusion of the creation account, Genesis 2:3 tells us that He “rested from all His work which God created (bara) and made (asah).” Then why doesn’t the Bible mention dinosaurs? The Bible contains the story of God’s spiritual relationship to humans, and dinosaurs were part of God’s method of preparing the Earth for humans.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
References: “God’s Revelation In His Rocks and His Word” by John N. Clayton and “How to bring a 75-foot-long dinosaur back to life” in National Geographic