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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2005
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Claim CH711:

Behemoth, from Job 40:15-24, was a dinosaur. Job 40:17 says, "His tail sways like a cedar." Such tails only existed on dinosaurs.

Source:

Willis, Tom, 2000. Creationism (interview with Tom Willis), New Scientist (22 Apr.). http://www.jodkowski.pl/ek/TWillis002.html
Willis, Tom, 1997. Dinosaurs -- incredible new evidence of their VERY recent life. The CSA News (Nov/Dec.), http://www.csama.org/199711NL.HTM

Response:

  1. There is no evidence to support such a claim. Fantastic creatures appear in folklore from all times and places. There is no reason to believe that the ancient Hebrews would be different.

  2. The "tail like a cedar," which creationists think indicates a large dinosaur, is not even a real tail. "Tail" was used as a euphemism in the King James version. A more likely translation for the phrase is, "His penis stiffens like a cedar" (Mitchell 1987). The behemoth was probably a bull, and the cedar comparison referred to its virility.

References:

  1. Mitchell, 1987. The Book of Job. San Francisco: North Point Press. Cited in R. T. Pennock, 1999, Tower of Babel, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, p. 217.
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created 2001-2-18, modified 2003-8-30