The Biblical Case for Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark

For example, while many (not all) will concede that all of the other various air-breathing animal kinds could have fit on the ark, some think, “But surely that couldn’t have included those enormous dinosaurs!”

Or even if they are willing to believe in the historicity of the global deluge approximately 4,500 years ago, they say dinosaurs wouldn’t have been part of the payload, because “science” says dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years earlier.

Drilling down deeper, we hear Bible skeptics asking how the dinosaurs could have been kept from wreaking havoc on board the ark as depicted in movies like Jurassic Park, or they ask questions such as,

If humans and dinosaurs were coexisting at the time of the flood, why haven’t we found their remains fossilized together?

And if dinosaurs did get off the ark afterward, shouldn’t there be recorded descriptions of humans interacting with them—including within the biblical account?

Furthermore, what happened to the dinosaurs? Why did they go extinct if they were around after the flood just a few thousand years ago?

We’ll be working our way through these and many other related topics over the next several weeks, but to begin, let’s answer the most obvious question before we “get into the weeds.” Because many might say, “Why bother going into them in the first place if you don’t have to?”

The Biblical Case for Dinosaurs on the Ark

Even many Christians might ask why anyone would even argue that dinosaurs must have been on Noah’s ark. And the answer is simply: because it’s a logical deduction from the plain reading of the biblical text. The Bible clearly states that God created everything from nothing over six days.

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 20:11)

Now, it’s obvious that there is no time allowed prior to these six days because the first verse of the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” and there’s logically nothing prior to “In the beginning.” It’s also quite obvious that there is no time gap that can be inserted between or stretched out over these days of creation either.

In context, the Hebrew word for “day” in Genesis 1 (yom), refers to six, 24-hour days. Every time it appears elsewhere in the Old Testament with the words “evening and morning” or with a number (like second day, sixth day, etc.), it always refers to a 24-hour day. So, there’s no precedent in the Bible for believing God was saying anything other than what the text clearly indicates.

Exodus 20:11 even goes on to say, “Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy,” in reference as to how God created over six real days and rested on the seventh, which is the pattern showing how people are also to work for six real days and have a day of rest as well.

It’s also evident that the Bible is clear that absolutely everything was created by God. And that of course would have included the dinosaurs.

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3)

Man and Land Animals Living Together

Now, the detailed history revealed in the creation account “tells us that all the land-dwelling creatures were made on Day Six of Creation Week—the same day God made Adam and Eve. Therefore, [without influence from sources outside of Scripture] it is clear that dinosaurs (being land animals) were made with man.”1

Also, Genesis 6–9 clearly states that “two of every kind (seven of some) of land animal boarded the Ark”2 and disembarked after the flood. And because “nothing indicates that any of the land animal kinds were already extinct before the Flood,”3 it’s therefore logical to conclude dinosaurs were part of the cargo carried onboard.

Now, if we were to see what Hebrew experts might believe about the subject, look at the following quote from the late James Barr, the former Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford University in England. Note that Barr was a non-Christian, and consistent with his neoorthodox views, he didn’t believe Genesis was real history—he just applied his lifelong expertise and understood what the Hebrew clearly teaches (and what 99% of every Bible version [excluding certain “study notes”] plainly says).

Probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that (a) creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience; (b) the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story; (c) Noah’s flood was understood to be world-wide and extinguish all human and animal life except for those in the ark.4

So, despite many modern theologians’ attempts to overturn what the vast majority of the church fathers, the Reformers, and the average lay Christian has understood Genesis 1–11 to clearly mean for hundreds of years, it is still quite clear to those who understand what the original Hebrew plainly says.

Sidestepping the Issue

Instead of dealing with the logical implications and the questions that naturally arise from those conclusions (which we will be dealing with in coming articles), many Christians have adopted the tactic of attempting to sidestep them.

These tactics most often include simply accepting the evolutionary timeline involving supposed millions of years of earth history and declaring dinosaurs died out well before the flood and so wouldn’t have been part of the package Noah and his family prepared—therefore doing away with the need for any kind of apologetic (intellectual defense of the faith) whatsoever.

However, as well-meaning as these attempts might seem on the surface, they come at a tremendous theological cost that is quite destructive to the entire biblical narrative (including the gospel) when brought to their logical conclusions. How so?

Counting the Cost

Firstly, we know about dinosaurs because of their fossils which are found alongside billions of other creatures in sedimentary layers all over the earth. This is, of course, a record of death.

The Bible clearly states that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23, emphasis added), and that sin and death (both physical and spiritual) were infused into creation at a specific point in time because of Adam’s rebellion against God.

We read this not only in the Genesis account, but in the New Testament as well.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

God states that the world he created was “very good” upon its completion on day six, and so there couldn’t have been death and suffering (such as we see in the fossil record) prior to or during the six days of creation. And the fall of man did not only affect people—both humans and nature groan together as they long to be set free from the consequences of sin.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:22)

As a matter of fact, we even see diseases like cancer found in the fossil record (including within dinosaur fossils), so those fossils cannot have been created prior to God’s declaration that everything was “very good,” because obviously, cancer is not very good.

And Adam’s fall (and the subsequent fall of the entire creation) occurred after the day of rest. In short, there was no death or corruption in creation before sin entered when Adam fell.

Genesis 1:29–30 further clarifies that in the beginning both the beasts and man were eating plants (which are not technically alive in the same sense as man and animals) for sustenance, and yet the fossil record contains evidence of creatures consuming one another. This is more clear evidence that those carnivorous events (inferred by what fossils clearly demonstrate) were recorded and captured in the rocks after sin and death entered into the creation because of Adam’s fall.

And that is why Bible-believing Christians throughout the first 1,800 years of the church almost universally held to the idea that the vast majority of the fossil record was created at the time of Noah’s flood, which occurred 1,650 years after Adam had fallen and sin and death had entered into the creation.

It also makes sense of the totality of the eschatological profile the Bible reveals. The Bible clearly states that God will someday restore this world to a very good state. And what will that be like?

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:8)

And death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

The Bible is clear that death will eventually be done away with because it was an intrusion into God’s very good world. It is not “natural” as many believe. It had a specific entry point into the creation and will be dealt with and done away with at a specific time as well. As 1 Corinthians 15:26 says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

In summary, the Bible clearly teaches that God created a very good world with no death, disease, or carnivorous activity in six literal days. Sin and death became part of the world when the first man, Adam, rebelled against God and was punished for his transgression at the time of the fall (there was no death before Adam sinned).

This is why the biblically deduced, logical conclusion that dinosaurs were included onboard Noah’s ark is an issue that needs to be defended by Bible-believing Christians who want to uphold the authority of Scripture as 1 Peter 3:15 commands us—to always give a defense for the hope that we have, which is, of course, salvation through Jesus Christ.

Defending the topic of dinosaurs being on Noah’s ark is an issue of biblical authority. We can simply take the Bible as plainly written. We don’t have to compromise and be inconsistent by telling people they don’t have to believe what the Bible plainly says in one area (the creation account for example) while insisting we must take it as plainly written elsewhere (such as their need to accept Christ as their Savior).

However, instead of sidestepping, we should also be able to give a good answer to the other questions we discussed earlier. So stay tuned for Part 2 of Dealing with Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark where we will answer “How could ‘65-million-year-old’ dinosaurs have been on 4,500-year-old Noah’s ark?”