October 11, 2025

Scripture & History: Dinosaurs on the Ark?

To be clear the Bible doesn’t specifically say that dinosaurs entered the ark two by two. But it certainly seems to follow that they co-existed with man and that they lived contemporaneously with the flood event. For example, pictographs depict dinosaurs (obviously drawn by men who witnessed them), and great dinosaur beds filled with fossils are best explained by a worldwide catastrophe consistent with the biblical flood which trapped their bodies below thick layers of rapidly-hardening sediment, preventing them from decomposing naturally.

It is perhaps logically possible that God did not bring every species of animal into the ark. One could conjecture that post-flood conditions might not be conducive for certain species, thus God planned for some animals, such as the dinosaurs, to go extinct at that time. However, the Bible clearly states, “And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life” (Gen. 7:15). Therefore, I contend that even dinosaurs entered the ark though perhaps God brought juvenile dinosaurs which would not require a large space or perhaps he placed them into hibernation during their time on the ark. For me it’s much easier to picture dinosaurs on a man-made ark than to explain how inorganic beings with personality and intricate design could have simply formed from nothing at some point in the past as evolutionary scientists do.

But it still doesn’t explain what happened to the dinosaurs after the flood since none today roam the hills and dales of my hometown. The common evolutionary theories posit that the demise of the dinosaurs was caused by volcanic eruptions, gradual climate changes (over millions of years) or perhaps by an asteroid, six-miles in diameter, that hit the earth near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, sending shock waves, heat waves and debris into the atmosphere, blocking sunlight and causing widespread disruption to plant life which seriously impacted the dinosaurs’ food chain and led to their starvation.

Many Bible teachers propose that the flood seriously impacted climactic conditions on the earth, resulting in a significant drop in pre-flood oxygen pressure, for example, that made it difficult for post-flood dinosaurs to absorb the necessary oxygen. They would then have become lethargic, perhaps failing to reproduce in sufficient numbers to sustain a growing population or perhaps failing to reach reproductive maturity. Obviously we can’t know for sure. What do you think?

Trivia Quiz (Answer at bottom of page)

During what season of the year does Israel generally receive no rainfall at all?

Life in the Land: Majadra

If you’re looking for a new recipe, perhaps something with a Mediterranean twist, then try this hot dish from the Middle East that’s popular with Jews and Arabs alike, especially those who hail from countries like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. The dish usually consists of three main components: lentils, caramelized onions and seasoned rice. I bought a majadra rice mix manufactured in the beautiful Jezreel Valley of Israel that’s seasoned primarily with cumin, turmeric and cinnamon. Majadra is traditionally served with yogurt, salad, fried eggplant or hard-boiled eggs, but my family paired it with a hearty plate of ribs.

History: Daniel Deronda

Chances are pretty high that you don’t know that name. After all, Daniel Deronda isn’t even real. He’s only a book title, yet the book that bears his name is arguably the most significant non-Jewish literary work in modern Jewish history (wow, did I just say that?), and it’s fiction! Written in 1876 by the female English novelist, George Eliot, it predated the ground-breaking work by Thomas Hertzl, The Jewish State, by twenty years. Hertzl, the Father of Modern Zionism, is buried atop Mount Hertzl in Jerusalem inside Israel’s national cemetery where he is proudly recognized for his early leadership in calling for a Jewish state whereas the name Daniel Deronda is probably unrecognizable to the vast majority of Israel’s seven million Jews and George Eliot is probably known only to Israelis by three quiet streets that bear her name in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, each no longer than about one city block.

The word Zionism, which refers to the political call for a Jewish homeland, wasn’t even coined until at least ten years following Eliot’s death, yet the character of Daniel Deronda verbalized hope for a national return to Israel. According to author Norman Lebrecht, David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, cited Eliot’s work as the “prime cause” of a Jewish state and Thomas Hertzl himself read the novel on the eve of the first Zionist Congress. Near the close of Eliot’s book, Deronda notably exclaims, “I am going to the East to become better acquainted with the condition of my race…. The idea that I am possessed with is that of restoring a political existence to my people, making them a nation again…. At the least I may awaken a movement in other minds, such as has been awakened in my own.” Daniel Deronda did that and so much more!

Bibliology: The Process of Revelation, part 1

Of all the theological doctrines that one can study, the best place to start, I think, is with bibliology because without the revelation that we received through the Scriptures, we can’t know any theology. So let’s nail down how we understand the Bible itself, how it came to us, and what it means.

I would divide bibliology into five different subtopics: the process of revelation, the inspiration of Scripture, the illumination and clarity of the Word of God, the preservation of the Bible, and its canonicity.

Let me start with the revelation of the Bible. The Bible is entirely composed of special revelation from God to human agents. The entirety of the Bible is God’s revelation—the 66 canonical books from Genesis through Malachi in the Old Testament and from Matthew through Revelation in the New Testament—and it’s true! Admittedly, not all divine revelation was recorded in the Scriptures. That is, God gave some revelation to prophets, for example, that didn’t make its way into the Bible. We see this, for example, in Revelation 10:4 where God says, “No, don’t write this down, but I’m going to tell you something.”

God has provided general revelation that’s accessible to all humanity outside of the written record. We know that the heavens declare the handiwork of God, but all special revelation has ceased due to its complete sufficiency for every aspect of life today. This is apparent from 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17. God has given us the complete canon of what He wanted us to receive in Scripture.

So that’s the basics of revelation and how we’ve received information from God. But I should also summarize the philosophical field of epistemology, meaning how we come to know something. It answers, “How do we discover what is true in this world?”

There are three major schools of thought throughout time of how humanity receives truth. Let me break it down this way. There is a pre-modern method of discovery of truth, philosophically speaking, which means that mankind receives information from above, from a higher power, the gods, God. Truth is received from a metaphysical reality, from an outside, objective standard and source. This view formed the history of humanity up until the Enlightenment Age.

The Enlightenment brought on a modern method of discovering truth, essentially the scientific method. Humanity is here on earth trying to figure things out. We operate in the natural world around us. We see with our own two eyes. We use our senses to discover things. We apply the scientific method to know what is true by testing it and seeing it. That’s the modern way.

Today we live in a post-modern society in the Western world, which views truth as subjective. What’s true for me is true for me. What’s true for you is true for you. You have your truth. I have my truth. There is no objective standard of truth in a post-modern society. Truth is whatever you want it to be. Truth comes from inside my own mind into the outside world.

These are the three different ways of discovering what is true. Can you take a guess at what I am? I am a pre-modern man and I say it without shame. I think that’s the only sure way to arrive at truth, to have an objective standard that is the arbiter and definer of truth revealed to us. The modern way may sound good, but at the end of the day it fails because even though we all have the same evidence before our own two eyes, we’re all faulty, sin-cursed people who might misunderstand something and we’ll all come to different opinions on the nature and meaning of what is before our eyes. Therefore, man can’t be the final arbiter of what is true or not, and with regards to post-modernism, I just throw that out the window because something is either true or it’s not true, and the only sure way to know if something is or is not true is if we’re told by that higher power, the higher authority who of course is God Himself.

I sure don’t want to get into any trouble for saying this, but perhaps you’ve attended a Bible study where the teacher asks, “What does this verse mean to you?” Well, let me suggest a better question to ask, “What does this verse mean?” for when the Bible makes a statement, it means something specific. Or perhaps the question can be worded this way, “How should you apply this verse to your life?” or “What does this look like in your daily life?” I think that is what most teachers mean when they ask, “What does this verse mean to you?” so I don’t want to be too hard on them if they ask this in a Bible study, but the Bible says what it means and means what it says, and it’s our aim to arrive at a correct understanding of what the verse means. How we then apply it to our lives can look a bit differently in various life situations.

In any event this completes my summary of the revelation of the Bible. We know what is true because God has told it to us. Without revelation, we wouldn’t really know for sure if something is or is not.

Adam Keim

Greatest New Testament Archaeological Discoveries

#7, The Caiaphas Ossuary

Simply put, an ossuary is a box that contains bones. Between 37 B.C. and 70 A.D., Jews placed the bodies of their dead in tombs and then returned one year later to retrieve the bones and put them in ossuaries.

As they moved ground to build a waterpark south of Jerusalem In 1990 a construction crew uncovered a first-century tomb. Inside the tomb archaeologists discovered an incredibly ornate, stone ossuary with the inscription, “Joseph, son of Caiaphas.”TAs they moved ground to build a waterpark south of Jerusalem In 1990 a construction crew uncovered a first-century tomb. Inside the tomb archaeologists discovered an incredibly ornate, stone ossuary with the inscription, “Joseph, son of Caiaphas.”

Ronny Reich, a renowned Israeli archaeologist, explains, “The name Joseph son of Caiaphas does not necessarily mean that Caiaphas was Joseph’s father. Caiaphas may designate simply a family nickname….. A person named Joseph with the nickname Caiaphas was the high priest in Jerusalem between 18 and 36 [A.D.]. The New Testament provides only his nickname…. Josephus [a first-century, Jewish historian], however, gives his proper name as … “Joseph Caiaphas” or elsewhere, “Joseph who was called Caiaphas of the high priesthood.” In short, we are explicitly told by Josephus that Caiaphas was indeed a nickname (Biblical Archaeology Review, Sept/Oct 1992).

In all probability then we have recovered the bones of the high priest who presided over the trial of Jesus. That’s extraordinary! You may remember that Caiaphas asked Jesus, “Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” (Matthew 26:63). Jesus’ response, “It is as you said” (v. 64). But the proof of Jesus’ identity goes beyond his claim that day before Caiaphas! Just follow the bones. We have those of Caiaphas. The bones of Jesus have never and will never be found! He rose from the dead to defeat sin and death. It is as Jesus said!

Answer to the Trivia

C. Summer