Where does the idea or the prototype of a dragon come from? Almost every culture has a dragon or flying serpent in its mythology. I can think of two ways it could have come about.
The Bible says that Noah took two of every kind of animal with him on the ark (and seven each of clean animals). Since he took two of EVERY kind, that would include dinosaurs - albeit they would have had to be young ones to fit on the ark. (Gen. 7:2-3)
All kinds of land animals were created on the sixth day. Dinosaurs, many of them, were land animals. Before the Flood, people only ate vegetation as far as we know. In Genesis 1:29-30, God tells Adam and Eve they may eat every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds in it. (By the way, all of the animals were also created to eat plants. See v. 30)
It is possible that as people discovered more and more ways to disobey God, that they began eating animals and that the dinosaurs were hunted to extinction before the Flood. I cannot prove that one way or another. But assuming some were alive when Noah constructed the ark, then there were dinosaurs aboard it when the rains began to fall.
After the Flood, the earth was substantially different. There were annual seasons instead of a uniformly warm planet. (See studies done in the Antarctic that prove it was once warm and lush. http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/03/from-leafy-to-lifeless-tropical-rainforest-once-covered-antarctica/ )
Certainly that would have affected the lifespan and size of the great lizards, but they might have continued to exist for some centuries past the Flood. Stories like St. George and the Dragon lend some credence to this idea. Also explorers to the Dakotas claim to have seen flying lizards. The Native Americans there called it a thunderbird.
Another possible origin for dragons would also begin in the Garden of Eden. The talking snake that discussed eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was not shaped like our modern snakes. When God cursed the snake, He said it would crawl on its belly and eat dust all of its life. That wouldn't have been much of a curse unless the snake hadn't crawled before the curse was given. So I pose the question, what was the snake's mode of getting around before he landed on his belly? Legs almost certainly. Even today, pythons and boas have vestigial legs. That would make the curse even worse, to still have a reminder of what once was. (Gen. 3:14)
So snakes had legs in the beginning. What if that wasn't all? What if they also had wings and could fly?
No one doubts flying lizards (see the aforementioned pterodactyls and pterodons). There is a species of snake in South America that leaps from tree branches, flattens out its body, and glides on the air for some distance. http://www.flyingsnake.org/ South American mythology has an important god named Queztalcoatl or Plumed Serpent. The idea of flying snakes had to begin somewhere - and some snakes seem to remember that they were once allowed to fly.
Take your pick of the choices, but I have to lean in favor of the snake in the Garden of Eden. All the other references to dragons in the Bible link the name Dragon to Satan. (Rev. 12:13-17 and, just in case that doesn't do it for you, see Rev. 20:2)
Go with God.
Kathi
The Bible says that Noah took two of every kind of animal with him on the ark (and seven each of clean animals). Since he took two of EVERY kind, that would include dinosaurs - albeit they would have had to be young ones to fit on the ark. (Gen. 7:2-3)
All kinds of land animals were created on the sixth day. Dinosaurs, many of them, were land animals. Before the Flood, people only ate vegetation as far as we know. In Genesis 1:29-30, God tells Adam and Eve they may eat every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds in it. (By the way, all of the animals were also created to eat plants. See v. 30)
It is possible that as people discovered more and more ways to disobey God, that they began eating animals and that the dinosaurs were hunted to extinction before the Flood. I cannot prove that one way or another. But assuming some were alive when Noah constructed the ark, then there were dinosaurs aboard it when the rains began to fall.
After the Flood, the earth was substantially different. There were annual seasons instead of a uniformly warm planet. (See studies done in the Antarctic that prove it was once warm and lush. http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/03/from-leafy-to-lifeless-tropical-rainforest-once-covered-antarctica/ )
Certainly that would have affected the lifespan and size of the great lizards, but they might have continued to exist for some centuries past the Flood. Stories like St. George and the Dragon lend some credence to this idea. Also explorers to the Dakotas claim to have seen flying lizards. The Native Americans there called it a thunderbird.
Another possible origin for dragons would also begin in the Garden of Eden. The talking snake that discussed eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was not shaped like our modern snakes. When God cursed the snake, He said it would crawl on its belly and eat dust all of its life. That wouldn't have been much of a curse unless the snake hadn't crawled before the curse was given. So I pose the question, what was the snake's mode of getting around before he landed on his belly? Legs almost certainly. Even today, pythons and boas have vestigial legs. That would make the curse even worse, to still have a reminder of what once was. (Gen. 3:14)
So snakes had legs in the beginning. What if that wasn't all? What if they also had wings and could fly?
No one doubts flying lizards (see the aforementioned pterodactyls and pterodons). There is a species of snake in South America that leaps from tree branches, flattens out its body, and glides on the air for some distance. http://www.flyingsnake.org/ South American mythology has an important god named Queztalcoatl or Plumed Serpent. The idea of flying snakes had to begin somewhere - and some snakes seem to remember that they were once allowed to fly.
Take your pick of the choices, but I have to lean in favor of the snake in the Garden of Eden. All the other references to dragons in the Bible link the name Dragon to Satan. (Rev. 12:13-17 and, just in case that doesn't do it for you, see Rev. 20:2)
Go with God.
Kathi
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