8/2/2019 2012.05 Dragons

1/1

Section A14 MAY 2012

Dragons

D At this cry, knights,quaked with terror. Are dragonsmythical or real?

2012 is the Year o the Drag-on in the Chinese zodiac. The11 other zodiac creatures are or-dinary animals. Why wouldntthe dragon be just as real as theother eleven?

DragOnsinhisTOry

From China to Australia, rom Europeto India, rom Scandinavia to Persia,over 200 cultures have stories and art

with dragons. Dragons adorn manynational shields and amily crests.

Greek historian Herodotus, Ital-ian adventurer Marco Polo, and Al-exander the Great all report encoun-ters with dragons. Document archivesspanning the last two millennia con-tain scads o straightorward eyewit-ness accounts o dragonencounters across Eu-rope and Scandina-

via. As recently as the1600s, naturalists wroteo dragons matter-o-actly, documentingtheir anatomy and nat-

ural history.St. George and the

Dragon is one o manyancient accounts odragon battles. In one version, a townappeased a re-breathing dragon withtwo sheep daily. When focks weregone, girls were sacriced. The kingsdaughter was eventually the days lot-tery choice. A passing soldier namedGeorge, learning o the predicament,slew the dragon, and saved the prin-cess. George declined the Kings re-

ward o hal the kingdom, askinginstead to tell the town about Jesus;15,000 men were baptized.

Georges story is told in The GoldenLegend, a Latin collection o biogra-phies compiled around 1260. It was oneo the rst books printed in English.

George was an Imperial Guardtribune. Emperor Diocletian orderedevery soldier to worship Roman gods.George publicly reused, denouncedthe edict, and proclaimed his Christianaith. Diocletian hated to lose his best

and slaves did not work, Diocletian be-headed George in AD 303.

George is the patron saint oa score o countries. His cross

orms Englands national fag.His dragon battle graces manycoats o arms. The St. George Me-dallion is the Armys top awardor cavalry or tank soldiers. BoyScouts ounder Lord Baden-Powell called him Scoutings pa-tron saint.

Although accretions likehoarded treasure embellishdragon legends, the kernel otruth about St. George remains.George was a Christian soldier

was martyred. Sculptures, monu-

rate Georges actions worldwide.Dragons appear in Babylonian

nese tales. Babylons Ishtar Gatethat Nebuchadnezzar built dis-

plays dragons alongside li-ons and bulls. Roman his-torian Cassius Dio reportsthe Roman army killed adragon at Carthage andsent its 120-oot hide backto the Senate around 255BC.

Greek philosopherPhilostratus wrote aroundAD 225, The whole oIndia is girt with dragons

o enormous size; not only the marsh-es are ull o them, but the mountainsas well. There is not a single ridge

without one. The marsh kind aresluggish in their habits and are 30 cu-bits long.

American Indian petroglyphsdepict dragons. Sioux Indians havethunderbird legends. Peru is littered

with dragon artiacts in stone andpottery. From Ica, Peru, over 3,000engraved burial stones depict menbattling dragons. Decorated potteryrom Perus Moche culture (AD 400-

1100) has pictures o dragons amongmonkeys, spiders and birds.

Men saw dragons, wrote about

compelling testimony o countlessstories and artiacts is that dragons

were real. What were these erceand mighty beasts?

DragOnsinTheBiBLe

God created the great sea monsters...God made the beasts o the earth. (Gen-

esis 1:21,25) The Almighty ormedswimming, fying, and walking drag-ons on Days Five and Six.

Adam named dragons. Whileseeking a companion or Adam, God

ormed every beast o the eld...andbrought them to the man to see what hewould call them. Im glad Adam heldout or Eve over the re-breathingLeviathan! (Some husbands wonder

whether he did.)Noah took representatives o ev-

ery land animal on the ark, includ-ing dragons (Genesis 6:19-20). Noah

probably took hatchlings or youngdragons to conserve ood and space,and to utilize their entire reproductivelie cycle or replenishing the earth.

Literary scholar Dorothy Sayers

authored an advent calendar The Storyo Noahs Ark in 1956. Fritz Wegnersillustration shows animals, includingdragons, gathered at the Ark.

Sayers wrote, To be sure there weredragons in the Ark, or there wouldnthave been one or St. George to ght.Sayers logically deduced the presence odragons on Noahs Ark rom historysevidence o St. George and rom theGenesis record that all air-breathinganimals outside the Ark died.

Scriptures most extensive animaldescription (44 verses in Job) portraystwo terriying dragons: the largest landmonster Behemoth and the ercestsea creature Leviathan. Behemoth

was monstrous with a tree-like tail,bones like bronze, and limbs like ironbars. Leviathan was an enormous re-breathing dragon with vicious teethand stone-hard impenetrable scales.

The words dragon or monster(He-brew tanniyn, Greek drakon) appear48 times in the Bible. The fying ser-

pento Isaiah 30:6 was likely a wingeddragon. Jonahs sea monstermay

have been a dragon.Thirteen times in Rev-elation, John used dragon orSatan surely based on ear-some creatures John knew.Eves tempter may even havebeen a dragon beore the on

your belly curse. John callsSatan the dragon, the serpento old, who is the devil. (Rev20:2)

fy through the Bible romGenesis to Revelation. Adamnamed them 6,000 years ago.

They were on the Ark with

Noah (2500 BC) and amiliarto Job (2000 BC). Dragonswere known to Isaiah (700BC), Jeremiah and Ezekiel(600 BC), and John (AD 50).

DragOnsareDinOsaurs

Dragon was the word used or largereptile-like creatures beore the worddinosaur was coined in 1841 by cre-ationist scientist Sir Richard Owen.Creatures we call dinosaurs wereonce called dragons.

Dragons and dinosaurs look alikeand have similar traits claws, toughhide, massive tail.

Dinosaur comes rom two Greekwords meaning terrible lizard. Dino-saur is not in English Bibles because it

was not coined until centuries ater theKing James Version was published.

Dragon legends bear the stampo authentic conrontations with di-nosaurs. This explains the countlessdragon narratives and artiacts scat-tered worldwide.

Battles between ancient marinersand sea monsters were probably en-counters with ocean dinosaurs. Dino-saur pictographs and carvings on cave

walls, stones, and pottery provide con-rmation that man knew dinosaurs.

Whether called dinosaurs ordragons, these ossils have appearedon every continent since the 1820s.Most are in massive water-depositedgraveyards, probably rom NoahsFlood. Dinosaurs averaged pony-size,although some were larger than the50-oot Tyrannosaurus and weighed80 tons. Skeletons were more mam-malian than reptilian.

WhaThappeneDTODragOns?

land dragons were created on DaysFive and Six. Humans were createdon Day Six, so dragons and humans

were contemporaries.Dragons were once commonplace

compelling evidence comes romdragon tales and artwork throughouthistory rom cultures worldwide. Drag-ons may still roam inaccessible areas.From deep in remote Arican junglesand the wilds o Papua New Guinea,unconrmed reports o live dinosaurscontinue to trickle in. Reports persist oplesiosaurs in remote lakes and oceans.

Dragons have mostly perished,however, through battles with man,

ronments.Soli Deo Gloria.

E-mail Dr. Pelletier at

BibleScienceGuy@woodsidenews.org.Read the Bible-Science Guy blog athttp://BibleScienceGuy.wordpress.comand ollow him at http://twitter.com/BibleScienceGuy.

st. go n t don. M cuptu n t louv Mc Coom, 1510.

PhotoFRo

MwikiPedia.

WilliaM T.

Rma htra cau d

rprt th Rma army kll a

rag at carthag a t t

120-ft h bak t th sat.

tHE bIbLE AND sCIENCE by WilliaM T. PelleTier, Ph.d. [woodside news COLUMNIST]

PelleTier, Ph.d.

accounts, Aztec stories, and Chi-

who slew a dragon, testifed, and

insufcient ood, and unriendly envi-

RAGON!

commoners, and kings once

tribune, but when bribes o money, land,

ments, and paintings commemo-

dragons, and drew dragons. The

Dragons run, swim, and

Genesis teaches that all sea, sky, and

2012 William T. Pelletier