What’s in Your Study Bible?

All good evangelical study Bibles teach that we are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone (Eph. 2:8, 9; Titus 3:5-7).  The Henry Morris Study Bible (formerly The Defender’s Study Bible) and The MacArthur Study Bible are highly regarded, but how can we spot a pro-Creation study Bible?  The next time you go to your Christian bookstore and browse look for the following:

1)  Is Genesis 1:1 the beginning?

2)  Creation in Six Days (CISD)

3)  Global Flood

4)  Gen. 5&11 implies a Young Earth

5)  Are Behemoth and Leviathan dinos or large reptiles?

6)  What does Mk 10:6 imply about a Young Earth?

The Wayfinding Bible (NLT, Tyndale) has a version of AiG’s ark similar to this,

However, the comments are fuzzy as to whether the Global Flood had significant geologic effect.  If your Bible has a map of Eden, that is an error – Noah’s Flood wiped out the pre-Flood geography.  Does your study Bible skip Exodus 20:11, which clearly teaches Creation in Six Days (CISD)?  In Job 40 & 41, Behemoth is surely a dino and Leviathan was most likely a large water-dwelling reptile (such as a mosasaur).

Ken Mathews in the Apologetics Study Bible (p. 15) says, “… this genealogy [Ge 5&11] cannot be used to the reconstruct the age of the earth.”  The chronology of Genesis does help us validate the Young Earth view.  Ted Cabal (p. 877) states that the “… old-earth interpretations arose due to the … discovery of enormous numbers of extinct animals such as dinosaurs.”  This is a non sequitur – fossils point to the Flood.  Terry Mortenson has shown in The Great Turning Point that Old Earth Fallacies (OEF) are founded on the work of Deist and atheist scholars using anti-biblical PreSuppositions.   

The New Geneva Study Bible has a chart of the ages of the patriarchs from Adam to Joseph (p. 17).  This would seem to favor the Young Earth interpretation, but the OT editor is Bruce Waltke who supports BioLogos.  The Framework Hypothesis is given consideration (p. 7).  The commentary on Ge 6:17 says, “A worldwide flood seems to be in view …” (p. 20).  R.C. Sproul now endorses The Reformation Study Bible.

Near the front of the NIV Study Bible there is a Chronological Chart:

The world is roughly about six millennia old – we don’t need a bunch of question marks.  Arguments for both a local and Global Flood are given (p. 15).  Behemoth is a hippo or elephant and Leviathan is a crocodile (p. 769).

Terry Mortenson describes Bible commentaries and systematic theologies that support the Young Earth perspective. [1]

After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.  The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed (Dan. 9:26, NIV).

Note:

1) Coming to Grips with Genesis ed. by Terry Mortenson and Thane Ury (Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 2008), pp. 327-329.

Behemoth & Leviathan

Was Behemoth an elephant or a hippo?  Was Leviathan a crocodile?  The Lord describes these creatures in Job 40 and 41.

The 1959 scifi movie The Giant Behemoth from the UK got it right – this creature was a dino!  The film can be seen here.  In the story, paleontologist Dr. Samson says, “I knew these creatures [dinos] were alive somewhere.”

The Apologetics Study Bible suggests that Behemoth may have been a buffalo, dino, rhino or hippo, but says that the hippo is the “most likely” identification. [1]  It even points out the tail being like a cedar!  This reference Bible favors the crocodile as being the Leviathan.

The NIV Study Bible claims that the description of Leviathan’s fire-breathing abilities (Job 41:18-21) is “highly figurative, exaggerated poetic imagery.” [2]  In contrast, we read this account from 1685 with the title A True Relation of the Dreadful Combat between More of More Hall and the Dragon of Wantley [3]:

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK) says the following about the Behemoth:

Perhaps an extinct dinosaur, maybe a Diplodocus or Brachiosaurus, the exact meaning is unknown. Some translate as elephant or hippopotamus but from the description in Job 40:15-24, this is patently absurd.

Carl Sagan (d. 1996), host of the PBS Cosmos series, made this startling admission:

Is it possible that dragons [dinos] posed a problem for our protohuman ancestors of a few million years ago, and that the terror they evoked and the deaths they caused helped bring about the evolution of human intelligence? … Could there have been manlike creatures who actually encountered Tyrannosaurus rex?  Could there have been dinosaurs that escaped the extinctions in the late Cretaceous Period?  Could the pervasive dreams and common fears of “monsters,” … be evolutionary vestiges of quite adaptive baboon-like responses to dragons and owls? ... [4]

Sagan’s last interview may be found here.

Here are fascinating firsthand accounts of Mkele Mbembe (a small dino) from the History Channel.

There’s nothing on this earth quite like him [Leviathan], not an ounce of fear in that creature!  He surveys all the high and mighty - king of the ocean, king of the deep!  Job answered GOD:  I’m convinced:  You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans (Job 41:33 – 42:2, Message).

Notes:

1)  The Apologetics Study Bible ed. by Ted Cabal (Holman, Nashville, TN, 2007), p. 781.
2)  The NIV Study Bible ed. by Kenneth Barker (Zonderven, Grand Rapids, MI, 1995), p. 770.
3)  British Dragons by Jacqueline Simpson (Wordsworth Editions, London, 2001, orig. pub. 1980), pp. 147, 150.
4)  The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan (Ballantine Books, NYC, 1977), pp. 150, 151.