If people saw dinosaurs, you would think ancient historical writings, such as the Bible, should mention them. The King James Version was first translated in 1611. Some people think that because the word dinosaur is not found in this, or other translations, the Bible does not mention dinosaurs.
However, it was not until 1841 that the word dinosaur was invented. Sir Richard Owen, a famous British anatomist and first superintendent of the British Museum (and a staunch anti-Darwinist), on viewing the bones of Iguanodon and Megalosaurus, realized these represented a unique group of reptiles that had not yet been classified. He coined the term dinosaur from Greek words meaning terrible lizard.
Thus, one would not expect to find the word dinosaur in the King James Bible the word did not exist when the translation was done.
Is there another word for disnoaur? There are dragon legends from around the world. Many dragon descriptions fit the characteristics of specific dinosaurs. Could these actually be accounts of encounters with what we now call dinosaurs?
The Hebrew word commonly translated dragon in the KDJV (Hebre: tan, tannin, tannim, tannoth) appears in the Old Testament some 30 times. There are passages in the Bible about dragons that lived on the land: he [Nebuchadnezzar] has swallowed me like a dragon (Jer. 51:34), the dragons of the wilderness (Mal. 1:3). Many biblical creationists believe that in many contexts these could refer to what we now call dinosaurs. Indeed, Strongs Concordance lists dinosaur as one of the meanings of tannin/m.
In Genesis 1:21, the Bible says: And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind. The Hebrew word here for sea monsters (whales in KJV) is the word translated elsewhere as dragon (Hebrew: tannin). So, in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, God may be describing the great sea dragons (sea-dwelling dinosaur-type animals) He created.
There are other Bible passages about dragons that lived in the sea: the dragons in the waters (Ps. 74:13), and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea (Isa. 27:1). Though the word dinosaur strictly refers to animals that lived on the land, the sea reptiles and flying reptiles are often grouped with the dinosaurs. The sea-dragons could have included dinosaur-type animals such as the Mosasaurus.
Job 41 describes a great animal that lived in the sea, Leviathan, that even breathed fire. This dragon may have been something like the mighty 55-foot (17 m) long Kronosaurus, or the 82-foot (25 m) long Liopleurodon.
There is also mention of a flying serpent in the Bible: the fiery flying serpent (Isa. 30:6). This could be a reference to one of the pterodactyls, which are popularly thought of as flying dinosaurs, such as the Pteranodon, Rhamphorhynchus or Ornithocheirus.
Not long after the flood, God was showing a man called Job how great He was as Creator, by reminding Job of the largest land animal He had made:
Behold now behemoth, which I made with you; he heats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the muscles of his belly. He moves his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are like tubes of bronze; his limbs are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God: his maker brings near his sword. (Job 40:15-19)
The phrase chief of the ways of God suggests this was the largest land animal God had made. So what kind of animal was behemoth?
Bible translators, not being sure what this beast was, often transliterated the Hebrew, and thus the word behemoth (i.e., KJF, NKJV, NASB, NIV). However, in many Bible commentaries and Bible footnotes, behemoth is said to be possibly the hippopotamus or elephant. Some Bible versions actually translate behemoth this way. Besides the fact that the elephant and hippo were NOT the largest land animals God made (some of the dinosaurs far eclipsed these), this description does not make sense, since the tail of behemoth is compared to a cedar tree.
Now, an elephants tiny tail (or a hippos tail that looks like a flap of skin!) is quite unlike a cedar tree! Clearly the elephant and the hippo could not possibly be behemoth. No living creature comes close to this description. However, behemoth is very like Brachiosaurus, one of the large dinosaurs.