When I tell my students that there are dragons in the Bible, they get visibly excited. 

The best known biblical dragon is Leviathan, which is named six times in the Old Testament: twice in Isaiah (27:1), twice in the Psalms (74:14; 104:26), and twice in Job (3:8; 41:1). 

Contemporary readers have long sought to identify this creature with one that fits into modern zoological categories. Since the mid-1700s Leviathan has routinely been associated with the crocodile. Others have suggested the whale. But many early Christian interpreters were familiar with these categories and often chose not to use them. They seem to recognize the authors had something else in mind.

In the Septuagint, which is the earliest translation of the Old Testament into Greek, the Hebrew term Leviathan is translated either as “sea monster” (Job 3:8) or as “dragon” (Isaiah 27:1, Psalm 74:14, Psalm 104:26, Job 41:1). 

Looking at these Old Testament passages in Hebrew does not help to clarify the creature’s identity. Job 41:1-2 portrays Leviathan like a fish being caught on a hook; Isaiah 27:1 repeatedly calls it a “serpent;” and in Psalm 74:14, Leviathan is said to have multiple heads. All these details might make us wonder whether we are dealing with a creature that fits into modern scientific categories or with something else. I think we are dealing with something else.

Several Old Testament authors did too. Isaiah 27:1 says, “On that day, the LORD will afflict with his sword – hard, great, and strong – Leviathan, the fleeing snake, yes Leviathan, the twisting snake. And he will slay the serpent that is in the sea” (author’s translation). This is an animal that writhes and coils in the ocean, and it will be defeated by the LORD in the last days. 

In similar manner, Psalm 74:13-14 speaks of God as a king who conquers a monster in the sea: “13You shook the sea with your power, you broke to pieces the heads of the serpents upon the waters. 14You smashed the heads of Leviathan…” (author’s translation). 

Texts from ancient Canaan, Israel’s next-door neighbor, contain a similar theme, where the creature is called Litan. There we read, “When you smote Litan, the fleeing serpent, annihilated the twisting serpent, the powerful one with seven heads…” (author’s translation). 

The depictions narrated in these texts are also commonly found in various images from the world of the Bible (see figs. 1-2).

Fig. 1 Ivory shell plaque from southern Mesopotamia, ca. 2500-2400. BLMJ 2051, Bible Lands Museum. Drawing by Scott C. Jones.

Fig. 2 Seal impression from Tell Asmar (modern-day Iraq), ca. 2334-2197. IM 15618, Iraq Museum. Drawing by Scott C. Jones.

All these texts speak of divine combat against a threatening creature that must be conquered for the world to be stable. According to the Bible, this combat is something that happened at the beginning of time (Psalm 74), and it is something that will be repeated at the end of time (Isaiah 27). 

The conquest of Leviathan, alongside the control of the sea in which it lives, was a feature of the original creation of the world and will be part of the new creation. It should not be surprising, then, that chapters 12 and 20 of Revelation also feature a seven-headed dragon that must be cast down to the earth or the abyss by celestial powers. Unlike the Old Testament accounts, however, Revelation repeatedly identifies the dragon as “the devil” or “Satan” (12:9; 20:2). Even if the Old Testament does not equate Leviathan with Satan, some of its authors clearly believed it symbolized dangerous power.

But not all texts in the Bible portray Leviathan in the same way. This is one of the challenges of reading Scripture – hearing what each individual text has to say and not simply collapsing all the witnesses together into one generic message. 

The depiction of Leviathan in Psalm 104 is very different from that in Psalm 74 and Isaiah 27. Psalm 104 focuses repeatedly on God’s bountiful provision for all creatures, both human and animals. The relationship between the LORD and his creation is characterized by care and dependence. 

Verses 25-27 read: “25There is the sea, great and immeasurably broad! There are creeping things – and without number! –small animals together with great. 26Over there are ships traveling, Leviathan which you formed to play with. 27All of them wait on you to give their food in due time” (author’s translation). 

Here Leviathan is one among many sea creatures who rely utterly on the hand of God for provision and on the divine breath for life (Psalm 104:28-30). It is an object of the LORD’s playful delight.

The depiction of Leviathan in Job 41 falls somewhere in between the picture of the dangerous many-headed dragon of Psalm 74 and the harmless sea creature of Psalm 104. 

The Job text is largely about capture and control. Job 41:1-2 reads, “1Can you drag away Leviathan with a fish-hook, or with a cord can you bore through his tongue? 2Can you set a reed in his nose, or can you pierce his jaw with a barb?” (author’s translation) 

So far, Leviathan sounds more like a fish than a dragon. Verse 7 even mentions a harpoon: “7Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with a peg for fish?” (author’s translation). 

Given this description, it makes sense that Leviathan served as a model for the whale in Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, “Moby Dick.” The Job text emphasizes that God has Leviathan so thoroughly under his control that he has made the creature his ”everlasting servant” (41:4) and that it makes gentle requests of him (41:3). Human encounters with Leviathan would bring grave danger or death (41:8), but the LORD “plays” with Leviathan just as one might toy with a bird (41:5). If Leviathan in this text is a dragon, it seems that the LORD has a dragon as a pet.

So there are dragons in the Bible, but dragons are not always bad. Sometimes, as in Psalm 74, Isaiah 27, and Revelation, they are the object of God’s wrath and represent an evil force that must be conquered. At other times, as in Job 41, the Bible portrays Leviathan as a creature who may have been a powerful chaotic force in the past, but is presently under God’s thumb. Still at other times, as in Psalm 104, it is merely one animal among a teeming host of sea creatures that looks to the LORD for care and sustenance. 

But in every case, Leviathan is strange. It is an animal that reminds us how different the world of the Bible can be from our own. When we undertake the challenge of reading Scripture carefully and closely, sometimes we find dragons.

Scott Jones serves as professor of biblical studies at Covenant College.