Whether you believe its God’s word, a historical relic, or a load of hogwash, there’s no doubt that the Bible contains some interesting stuff. Like monsters, for example. All sorts of terrible creatures and mythical beasts can be found in its pages. Like…
10. The Behemoth
In Job, one of the Bible’s oldest books, the Behemoth is described as a gigantic, powerful creature that can only be tamed by God. His tail is so large that it ‘moves like a cedar.’ This description has led some Creationists to claim that Behemoth was in fact a Biblical-era dinosaur. However, carbon dating aside, the creature is mentioned as having a navel, which would rule it out as an egg-hatched lizard. In Jewish tradition, the Behemoth is a primal earth-monster, a symbol of chaos. Less imaginative scholars have suggested that the Behemoth is simply a poetic description of a real giant creature, like a hippopotamus.
9. The First Beast
If there’s one place that’s good for finding Biblical monsters, it’s the book of Revelation. No one agrees on whether this book of ‘visions’ contains descriptions of future events, or symbolic representations of the past, but everyone agrees that it sure has a lot of monsters. The ‘First Beast’ of Revelation, so called because it’s mentioned first and no one came up with a better name, is a monster with seven heads and ten horns that rises from the ocean. It also features the feet of a bear, the mouth of a lion, and the general appearance of a leopard. Theologians and Biblical scholars have interpreted this beast as symbolizing everything from the Papacy to the 1st Century Roman Emperor Nero.
8. The Second Beast
This beast, which unsurprisingly follows the first, rises up out of the earth. It has two horns and speaks ‘like a dragon.’ Personally, I’ve never heard a dragon speak, but I imagine it must be scary. This guy’s job is to perform false miracles that encourage people to worship the first beast. It also allows the first beast to kill anyone who doesn’t worship it. Damn. Once again, interpretations are varied: it’s been described as a symbol for everything from the prophet Mohammed to the modern United States.
7. Unicorns
Unicorns are mentioned nine times in the King James Bible, a medieval translation that remains popular to this day: ‘Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with band in the furrow?’ the book asks. Unfortunately, linguists have since discovered that the Hebrew word re’em, translated as ‘unicorn’ here, actually refers to the aurochs, a distant ancestor of the modern cow which went extinct in the 17th century. Which is a shame, because unicorns are far more interesting than slightly-larger-than-usual cows.
In fact, a whole bunch of ‘mythical creatures’ in the King James Bible are simply additions by medieval translators who were more interested in being poetic than in making sure their creatures existed. The cockatrice, a rooster-headed dragon mentioned in the book of Isaiah, has been scaled down in more recent translations to ‘viper.’ Lilith, a female demon, has been downgraded to ‘screech owl’, and mentions of satyrs (half-man, half-goat creatures) have been changed to ‘goats.’ More linguistically accurate, maybe, but nowhere near as fun.
6. Abaddon’s Locusts
These guys are ruled by Abaddon, an angel of the bottomless pit whose name means ‘Destroyer.’ Because they appear in Revelation, they’re of course not satisfied with being normal locusts: instead, they resemble war horses, have the stinging tails of scorpions, the faces of men, long hair like a woman’s, and wear crowns of gold and armored breastplates. Their scorpion’s tails are used to sting their victims, an experience that’s apparently so painful that ‘men shall seek death, and shall not find it.’ Ouch.
5. The 200 Million Horsemen
This epic army also appears in the visions of Revelation, although they’re not to be confused with the far more famous Four Horsemen, the guys who symbolize Death, War, Famine and Pestilence. But these riders aren’t to be messed with, either. Their horses have the heads of lions, tails like serpents, and spit smoke, fire and brimstone out of their mouths. Eventually, they’re responsible for the deaths of a third of all mankind. The horsemen army is led by four fallen angels, which is never good.
4. Daniel’s Beasts
Like Revelation, the book of Daniel is largely made up of visions which are meant to symbolize real-world events. In one of these visions, Daniel sees no less than four monsters emerge from the sea: one is a lion with eagle’s wings, which is then transformed into a human-like creature and has its wings plucked off; one is a bear-like creature who is told to gorge himself on flesh; one looks like a leopard with four wings and four heads, and one has iron teeth and ten horns, with which it destroys the whole earth. And believe it or not, the vision actually gets weirder from there. These beasts are often said to represent four different nations that existed in Daniel’s day.
3. The Dragon
Another beast from Revelation, the great Dragon is described as having seven heads and ten horns (those are very popular in Revelation.) He also has a tail capable of sweeping a third of the stars out of the sky. The author later identifies this dragon as Satan himself, who fights against God’s angels and is cast into hell.
The King James Bible refers to ‘dragons’ elsewhere, but like its mentions of ‘unicorns,’ these are mistranslated. Most modern versions of the Bible identify them as jackals, hyenas, or snakes.
2. The Nephilim
Much confusion surrounds the Nephilim, or ‘fallen ones,’ who pop up in Genesis and are described only as the offspring of ‘sons of god’ and ‘daughters of men.’ Some have interpreted this to mean the offspring of angels and human women. Another, less interesting explanation is that the passage refers to the mixing of two human tribes: ‘godly’ people descended from the good-guy Seth and the somewhat less godly descendants of bad-guy Cain. If that seems too dull, don’t worry: there’s also a strong Internet community that believes that the Nephilim were in fact extraterrestrials.
1. Leviathan
The second of the great monsters described in the book of Job, Leviathan is a massive sea-monster who’s impervious to human weapons, breathes fire, and emits smoke from his nostrils. Leviathan is probably related to another Ancient Near Eastern monster called Lotan, a seven-headed giant serpent who represented primeval chaos. As with many other Biblical creatures, there are some less exciting theories that insist that Leviathan is just a poetic depiction of a crocodile, although last time I checked crocodiles did not breathe fire.
29 Comments
You forgot the #1 monster in the Bible…
G O D.
The Nephilim were a special type of angels, in that they were covered with flesh! They were created before mankind, and were, in a sense, a hybrid creature, part ‘manlike’, and part supernatural being. They gave way to temptation, in desiring after human women, and left their positions in heaven. Their offspring were indeed giants. These fallen angels, now cursed and separated from God, became as ‘gods’ to mortals, as they had supernatural abilities and intelligence. They were worshiped as such by the Egyptian, Mayan, etc., and other cultures. These are the fallen angels that have been chained away in darkness.
The earth is in the last few hundred years left before it is transitioned from 6000 years of rebellion, into a 1000 year rule of another supernatural human hybrid, the God-King Christ Jesus. It will be a thousand years of the earth being repopulated again, and get this: there will be the one and only government: the Divine Monarchy of Heaven. The entire earth ruled by one Person.
The most important point is there is over 200 years left to go before we really see the rise of an ‘antiChrist’ beast, and his counterfeit One World Order. We are in the year 5778 of human existence , counting back from Adam, so there is a ways to go before year 6,000 is reached. It is possible that the Nephilim will be released briefly ( from that Revelation’s abyss of darkness ) in those ‘last’ last days, and giants will once again roam the earth.
And after 1,000 glorious years of awe and wonder comes close to an end, evil is allowed one final brief breath, and the War to End All Wars takes place. All evil is finally judged and done away with … and the unending moment of eternity begins. The earth, the remaining inhabitants that loved God and did not participate in the final rebellion , the cosmos, etc., all of this is changed and transformed, and time itself ends and eternity begins. If you find your way then, or now, to be a worshiper of the God King, Christ Jesus, you will be a part of His timeless eternity. If you do not, you will have thrown away your true destiny, and will be forever in a cursed place of judgment.
When all this happens everyone here in the states will be so hypnotized or on their meds from psychiatry we will be able to help these creatures. Bipolar schio? Did you take your medication? When Satan and his angels hears this he will go back to the ocean to drown himself.Proving psychiatry is a real life saver.?
Someone writes a chronicles book and store it in this house. Years later another person, unrelated, finds the book. He reads and decides to make his own histories as well. The story repeats and a thousand tales are written. One day the books are discovered again by someone with talent to make money. He sells the histories as truth and calls himself an apostle making black turn white with his word plays and charisma. Lots of commoners are fooled by the man and start following him. The upper class finally take notice in the movements of the man, some go against it and try to end the group but others think different and decide use it as a way to control the people. They take the books and edit it as they please, the chronicles long written became a bible. They use the faith to exercise control making sacred wars occur using the excuse of salvation. On each generation the books are interpreted, translated and edited to abide by the rulers will. Now, a hundred generations later, what remains from the original?
There is no base for what I just said. Its just a story. But maybe a thousand years latter, who knows, maybe it will turn into a religion. 😉
There is another creature in the book of revelations. It looked like a grasshopper
There called smoke locust.
Yes thanks Dean and Sam and Castile.
LOL
I agree with Connor they’ve killed at least 40% of these on supernatural. Thanks Dean (Jensen) and Sam (Jarad).
They’ve killed at least 40% of these on supernatural
Yep and still counting!
The beasts of Revelations, when taken in context, are symbolic. Dragons are mentioned several times and is not specific to an animal. To call it a croc or a jackal is just as presumptuous as dragon. These translators are doing the very same thing the King James translators did.
the behemoth is the beast of land and the leviathan is beast of the sea obviously by the first picture
i think the old english word unicorn actually meant rinocerous.
Personally, I think that nephilim are half-gods from ancient mythologies. Theory “sons of god” and “daughters of men” fits into mythological tales like ones of Zeus where he takes the role of Casanova of ancient times, having intercourse with human females, from which half-gods were born, like Hercules. It could be possible that gods from other mythologies had similiar actions with human females, which as a result had nephilim.
reality is stranger as fiction, some beasts are not matching the photos and some other are just idiomatic metaphors but the Bible is truly the Word of God! Praise Jesus!
Amen!
LOL.
“sigh”the ignorance of atheists still surprises me
I’m in a religious debate with a friend and she brought this up. It’s the first time I’ve heard about a few of these creatures and I have very little knowledge of them. Would you mind explaining about them?
nice list I think most of these monsters are supposed to be symbolic for something else like the leviathan sounds like satan and what not
Im not quite sure about the unicorn thing I havent seen it in the bible before
You will find unicorns in the Bible if you read the King James version. Newer translations have substituted “wild ox” because of linguistic discoveries since 1611. An illustrated article on the discoveries and translation of unicorn: http://www.alefpress.org/Blog%20Pages/unicorn.html
God works in mysterious ways,the bible also works the way too.The monsters in this list are NOT symbolic,but are clues to the end of days.
Unicorn is a name made by scientists, there was no such a word before. It is not a one-horn horse. Originally the Bible contained word rhinoceros, there are two types of rhinoceros ( with one and two horns). One-horn rhinoceros later was replaced by unicorn.
I’ve heard that leviathan is also commonly interpreted as symbolic of God himself.
Neat topic, though I’m surprised none of the more bizarre, alien-like angels are mentioned, or the “four living creatures” covered in eyes who sing God’s praises. Those guys are pretty neat.
But in Psalms, they say God crushes the heads of Leviathan. Why would God crush his own head?
I work in mysterious ways
Oh my God, I found God.
Exactly!!! The writer obviously has not studied the Bible. The second beast is speaking of a anti christ man and his prophet. The Bible tells the beast animals are symbolic. Leviathan is an actual creature.