194 An Attempt to ascertain the Animal 



rally considered to be the whale: Beza, Diodati, Bochart, 

 Vansittart, and most modern writers, however, conceive it to 

 be the crocodile. As to the behemoth : by some it has been 

 taken in the sense of beasts in general ; but the description in 

 Job, ch. xl. ver. 15 — 24., clearly applies to some particular ani- 

 mal. Bochart, Shaw, Calmet, and others, suppose it to be the 

 hippopotamus; Schultens, Scott, Franzius, Bruce, Michaelis, 

 and others, believe the elephant to be intended. 



Besides the leviathan and behemoth, there is, however, 

 another doubtful animal mentioned in the Scriptures, called 

 in Hebrew " than," sometimes " thanin," or " thanim." 

 What animal is meant by the " than," has puzzled the 

 Seventy and all other translators of the Hebrew Bible ; but 

 they have not, in this instance, used the caution observed by 

 them in the cases of the leviathan and behemoth, where, 

 being ignorant what animals were really meant, they have 

 retained the original Hebrew terms ; but, in the case of the 

 " than," they have ventured at a guess, and construed it 

 mostly "dragon," sometimes " sirens," occasionally "sea mon- 

 sters," &c. Now, the dragon and the siren are known to 

 be purely fabulous animals; and, as the " than" is spoken of 

 in the Scriptures of truth as an existing animal, it follows 

 that neither dragon nor siren can be the true translation of 

 " than." 



On this subject I shall not enter very much at large, as the 

 Rev. James Hurdis, in his work entitled A Critical Disse?*t- 

 ation upon the true Meaning of the xvord Than, has most satis- 

 factorily proved that it does most undoubtedly mean that 

 species of the crocodile which still inhabits the Nile. 



I believe that there is no animal mentioned in the Hebrew 

 Scripture which the Seventy translators have ventured to 

 translate by the name of " the crocodile ; " though, undoubt- 

 edly, that animal, so numerous in the Nile, must have been 

 known to the Hebrews, and most probably would be some- 

 where spoken of in their scriptures. 



The crocodile was chiefly known to the ancients as an 

 inhabitant of the Nile ; hence it was anciently used as a 

 symbol, signifying Egypt, or Egypt's king. 



In order to give some slight idea of what animal was meant 

 by the "than" in Scripture, we shall now introduce a few 

 quotations wherein the word occurs, from which, I believe, it 

 will appear evident that the crocodile was meant. In such 

 quotations, I shall not use the translated terms, but the 

 Hebrew name " than," in order not to perplex the subject. 

 The word occurs in Ezekiel, ch. xxix. ver. 3., " Behold I am 

 against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great than that lieth 



