dragon Summary and Overview

(1.) Heb. tannim, plural of tan. The name of some unknown creature inhabiting desert places and ruins (Job 30:29; Ps. 44:19; Isa. 13:22; 34:13; 43:20; Jer. 10:22; Micah 1:8; Mal. 1:3); probably, as translated in the Revised Version, the jackal (q.v.). (2.) Heb. tannin. Some great sea monster (Jer. 51:34). In Isa. 51:9 it may denote the crocodile. In Gen. 1:21 (Heb. plural tanninim) the Authorized Version renders "whales," and the Revised Version "sea monsters." It is rendered "serpent" in Ex. 7:9. It is used figuratively in Ps. 74:13; Ezek. 29:3. In the New Testament the word "dragon" is found only in Rev. 12:3, 4, 7, 9, 16, 17, etc., and is there used metaphorically of "Satan." (See WHALE T0003805.)

The translators of the Authorized Version, apparently following the Vulgate, have rendered by the same word "dragon" the two Hebrew words tan and tannin, which appear to be quite distinct in meaning. 1. The former is used, always in the plural, in #Job 30:29; Ps 44:19; Isa 34:13; 43:20; Jer 9:11| It is always applied to some creatures inhabiting the desert, and we should conclude from this that it refers rather to some wild beast than to a serpent. The syriac renders it by a word which, according to Pococke, means a "jackal." 2. The word tannin seems to refer to any great monster, whether of the land or the sea, being indeed more usually applied to some kind of serpent or reptile, but not exclusively restricted to that sense. #Ex 7:9,10,12; De 32:33; Ps 91:13| In the New Testament it is found only in the Apocalypse, #Re 12:3,4,7,9,16,17| etc., as applied metaphorically to "the old serpent, called the devil, and Satan."

DRAG'ON . This word, in the Bible, has at least three meanings. Very commonly, where it occurs in connection with ostriches, owls, deserts, and ruins, it denotes the jackal, whose characteristics are unmistakably indicated, such as his "wailing" and "snuffing up the wind." So in Job 30:29; Ps 44:19; Jer 9:11, in all which passages solitude and desolation are illustrated. Mic 1:8. In some passages it denotes monsters of the deep or huge land-reptiles, as in Deut 32:33; Ps 91:13. The figurative use of this term, as in Ps 74:13; Eze 29:3; Rev 12:3 and Rev 20:2, is sufficiently obvious.

Tannin, tan. Tan in Jeremiah 14:6, "dragons" "snuffing up the wind" is translated by Henderson jackals; rather the great boas and python serpents are meant, which raise their body vertically ten or twelve feet high, surveying the neighborhood above the bushes, while with open jaws they drink in the air. They were made types of the deluge and all destructive agencies; hence the dragon temples are placed near water in Asia, Africa, and Britain, e.g. that of Abury in Wiltshire. The ark is often associated with it, as the preserver from the waters. The dragon temples are serpentine in form; dragon standards were used in Egypt and Babylon, and among the widely-scattered Celts. Apollo's slaying Python is the Greek legend implying the triumph of light over darkness and evil. The tannin are any great monsters, whether of land or sea, trans. Genesis 1:21 "great sea monsters." So (Lamentations 4:3) "even sea monsters (tannin) draw out the breast," alluding to the mammalia which sometimes visit the Mediterranean, or the halichore cow whale of the Red Sea. Large whales do not often frequent the Mediterranean, which was the sea that the Israelites knew; they apply "sea" to the Nile and Euphrates, and so apply "tannin" to the crocodile, their horror in Egypt, as also to the large serpents which they saw in the desert. "The dragon in the sea," which Jehovah shall punish in the day of Israel's deliverance, is Antichrist, the antitype to Babylon on the Euphrates' waters (Isaiah 27:1). In Psalm 74:13, "Thou brokest the heads of the dragons in the waters," Egypt's princes and Pharaoh are poetically represented hereby, just as crocodiles are the monarchs of the Nile waters. So (Isaiah 51:9-10) the crocodile is the emblem of Egypt and its king on coins of Augustus struck after the conquest of Egypt. "A habitation of dragons" expresses utter desolation, as venomous snakes abound in ruins of ancient cities (Deuteronomy 32:33; Jeremiah 49:33; Isaiah 34:13). In the New Testament it symbolizes Satan the old serpent (Genesis 3), combining gigantic strength with craft, malignity, and venom (Revelation 12:3). The dragon's color, "red," fiery red, implies that he was a murderer from the beginning.