Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DRAGON

A mythical reptilian creature common in the mythology and iconography of the ancient Near East. It is now thought to be related to the chaos creature of Canaanite mythology (to whom also are linked such terms as “Behemoth,” Job 40:15; “Leviathan,” Job 41:1; “Rahab,” Ps. 89:10[MT 11]; and “serpent,” Isa. 27:1; Job 26:13) rather than Mesopotamian figures (cf. Heb. tĕhôm in Gen. 1:2, related to Ugar. thm rather than Akk. Tiamat). Most biblical references are polemics against the pagan gods, promoting Yahweh as the true Creator and sustainer of order in the universe.

“Dragon” is an increasingly less frequent rendering of Hebrew terminology in recent English versions of the OT. In the NT it translates Gk. drákōn, “serpent, dragon” (symbolic of Satan), which the LXX employs for Heb. kĕpîr, “lion”; liwyāṯān, “Leviathan”; nāḥāš, “serpent”; ʿattûḏ, “goat”; and peṯen, “serpent.” “Jackals” is now clearly the correct reading for KJV “dragons” at Mal. 1:3 (tannôṯ) and in most places where tannîm is so rendered; Ezek. 29:3 reflects the reading of tannîn as “dragon(s), serpent(s), whale(s), sea monster(s), or sea creature(s).”

See Sea Monster.

W. Creighton Marlowe

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DRAGON

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)