This word is frequently to be met with in our English
translation of the Bible. It answers generally to the Hebrew תן, תנין,
תנים; and these words are variously rendered _dragons_, _serpents_,
_sea-monsters_, and _whales_. The Rev. James Hurdis, in a dissertation
relative to this subject, observes, that the word translated “whales,”
in Gen. i, 21, occurs twenty-seven times in Scripture; and he attempts,
with much ingenuity, to prove that it every where signifies the
crocodile. That it sometimes has this meaning, he thinks is clear from
Ezekiel xxix, 3: “Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the
great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers.” For, to what could
a king of Egypt be more properly compared than the crocodile? The same
argument he draws from Isaiah li, 9: “Art thou not he that hath cut
Rahab, [Egypt,] and wounded the dragon?” Among the ancients the
crocodile was the symbol of Egypt, and appears so on Roman coins. Some
however have thought the hippopotamus intended; others, one of the
larger species of serpents.
translation of the Bible. It answers generally to the Hebrew תן, תנין,
תנים; and these words are variously rendered _dragons_, _serpents_,
_sea-monsters_, and _whales_. The Rev. James Hurdis, in a dissertation
relative to this subject, observes, that the word translated “whales,”
in Gen. i, 21, occurs twenty-seven times in Scripture; and he attempts,
with much ingenuity, to prove that it every where signifies the
crocodile. That it sometimes has this meaning, he thinks is clear from
Ezekiel xxix, 3: “Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the
great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers.” For, to what could
a king of Egypt be more properly compared than the crocodile? The same
argument he draws from Isaiah li, 9: “Art thou not he that hath cut
Rahab, [Egypt,] and wounded the dragon?” Among the ancients the
crocodile was the symbol of Egypt, and appears so on Roman coins. Some
however have thought the hippopotamus intended; others, one of the
larger species of serpents.