Shayla: Could you point out Scripture for Dinosaurs in the Bible? Do you believe in three world ages?

Meforshim:

Descriptions of dinosaurs can be found in Job 40:15-24; 41:1-34. In the passage, the word “behemoth” means simply, “huge beast,” and many old school commentators commonly take it to be either an elephant or a hippopotamus. The subsequent description, however, fits neither of these, nor any other living animal. On the other hand, it does seem to match the probable description of a great land dinosaur, such as the tyrannosaurus. For instance, no elephant or hippo has a tail like a cedar.

In 40:19, the behemoth was the “chief” of all created land animals, which lends itself to the theory that this may have been one of the great land dinosaurs. Even we “moderns” refer to the tyrannosaurus as “Rex” (Latin for king).

These, like all other animals, were created on the fifth and sixth days of the creation “week”, which leads to a whole other set of questions.

“Leviathan” was evidently the greatest of the marine reptiles, or dinosaurs, something like a plesiosaur, perhaps, although modern commentators tend to call it a crocodile. Isaiah says that leviathan was “the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1), and the psalmist said that leviathan “played” in the “great and wide sea” (Psalm 104:25-26).

Whatever the leviathan was, it was not a crocodile. Some descendants survived to and beyond Job’s day, giving rise to all the traditions of dragons in various parts of the world.

As a corollary, “cave-men” can be found in Job 30:1-8. This passage describes cavemen not as people that preceded modern man but as people who were dispossessed for one reason or another from society. This actually fits recent discoveries which indicate that Neanderthals survived well into the age of man, cross bred with them at times, but were hunted out of existence, or died due to other circumstantial pressures. By the way, Genesis’ account of two lines in Genesis 6 is taken by some (not me) as representing those two genetic lines.

However, we need to be careful in pronouncing every skeleton found in a cave to be a cave man in the sense the world usually uses. To this very day there are people living in caves all over the world. Some do it because they are social outcasts, some do it for economic reasons, and some do it simply because they enjoy the coolness!

Were there ancient groups of people that preceded the historical record? Absolutely. However, we must not fall into the interpretive trap of associating every cave dweller with a primitive society.

In re: Three Ages of the World

There are several references to “three ages of the world” that span the scope of human philosophy from New Age, to Russelism, to hyper fundamentalism’s “gap theory.” I’m not sure whether you’re referring the Charles Russel’s Dispensational theory or “gap theory” and I’m fairly sure you’re not referencing the New Age. If you mean either of the two “Christian” theories then I have to say that no, I categorically do not give credence to either of those theories.