DRAGON. This word is frequently to be met with in the Scripture, it answers generally to the Hebrew Thannim or Thannin. LXX. Genes. i. 21. Job. xxx. 29. Isai. xxxiv. 13. xliii. 20. Jerem. xlix. 32.Thannin, which signifies a large fish, a Seadragon. The Septuagint generally translate it Dracones, rarely great fishes; sometimes Sirens or Ostriches. St. Jerom most frequently renders it dracones, but sometimes he takes it for Sirenes or Lamiæ. The same varieties almost are observable in Aquila, Gen. i. 21. Job vii. 12. Ps. lxxiii. 13. clxviii. 7. Isai. xxxviii. 1. Ezek. xxxii. 2. Ex. vii. 9, 10, 12. Deut. xxxii. 33. Ps. xc. 13. Isai. xxxv. 7. Jerem. xiv. 6. Ps. lxxiii. 13. Isai. li. 9. Ezek. xxix. 3. Dan. xiv. 22.Symmachus and Theodotion. By the word Sirenes they mean very pobably Sea-monsters; for we are not able to explain the fabulous creatures of this name, mentioned by the poets. It is certain by comparing the different passages where the word tannin or tanninim is to be met with, that it signifies sometimes large river or sea-fishes, and at other times venomous and land serpents, and, as I conjecture, more particularly the crocodile, and whales.
As to the Dragons which are talked of, and are often mentioned in books, they are for the most part only old serpents grown with age to a prodigious size. Some are described with wings, feet, claws, crests and heads of different figures. There is no question but there are winged serpents, Moses speaks of them under the name of Zaraph, Numb. xxi. 6. The Babylonians adored a Dragon, which Daniel killed. Nothing was more common in the Heathen Religion, than the worship of Serpents and Dragons.
This word is sometimes taken in Scripture for the Devil: “ St. John in the Revelations describes to us a great Dragon “ with seven heads and ten horns, and “ seven diadems upon his heads: his tail “ drew the third part of the Stars of Heaven, and cast them to the earth. The “ Dragon stood before the woman, who “ was ready to be delivered, to devour “ her child as soon as she had brought it “ forth. She brought forth a child, which “ should rule all nations with a rod of iron. “ And there was a great battle in Heaven: “ Michael and his Angels fought against “ the Dragon and his Angels; the Dragon “ was overcome, and afterwards they appeared no more in Heaven: and the great “ Dragon, that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who seduceth the world, was “ cast out; he was cast into the earth, and “ all his Angels with him.” All this describes the conflict of the Devil with the Church of Christ, and his defeat by Michael, General of the Church militant.
Esther xi. 6, 7.There are several places in the Prophets wherein the name of Draco cannot be understood of an animal belonging to the water, because there is mention of their cries; for example: Behold two great Dragons came forth ready to fight one against the other. Their cry was great, whereby all the heathen were ready to fight against the righteous people. And Jeremiah xiv. 6. And the wild Asses did stand in the high places, and drew in their wind like Dragons, their eyes did fail because there was no grass. And Micah i. 18. I will make lamentation like the Dragons, and mourning as the ostriches.
In other passages where there is mention of the ruin of a city, the ravaging of a See Isa. xiii. 21. xxxiv. 13. Jerem. ix. 11. x. 32. xiv. 6. xlix. 33. l. 39. li. 34, 37.province, or of a land reduced to a wilderness, it is said to be a dwelling for Dragons. As in reality Serpents, Dragons, and venomous Beasts hide themselves in uninhabited places, in the ruins of cities, and in rubbish: for this reason the ancients supposed them to have the guard of treasures. But it must be confessed, that this word is sometimes taken for a great fish, an animal that lives in water. Serpents and Fishes were by the Hebrews ranked almost in the same Class: they were equally comprehended by them under the name of creeping things and serpents.
Among the Gentiles, the Dragon was the symbol of health. They never described Æsculapius, nor the goddess Hygieia, Health, without a serpent near them, either about their staff, or in their hand. Real Solin. c. 30.Dragons, by Solinus’s account of them, have a small mouth, and cannot bite; or if they do, their biting is not venomous. The Egyptians call them good Genius’s, and keep them tame in their houses. We are not to believe that these were the Dragons spoken of by the Prophets; these were dangerous creatures, mischievous, and deadly, wild, &c.