144 REMARKS ON THE LEVIATHAN AND BEHEMOTH. 



is also said to be erroneous, the original terms " hathaninim magado- 

 lin" more properly being rendered " great reptiles ;" so that if we 

 admit behemoth to have been an oviparous saurian, those even which 

 are now extant were not created tvith man, but before him ; for these 

 reasons it would ai)pear that for the type of the behemoth we must 

 explore the great class mammalia. When we reflect that the megalo- 

 saurus and the iguanodon are found only in the fossil state, that they 

 required a hot temperature, that they appear to have been created 

 long before the mammalia, and consequently not at the same time 

 with man, the argument drawn from the mere possibility of these 

 reptiles having existed since the earth was fitted for man's existence 

 loses much of its weight ; and besides, the Wealdon stratum, perhaps 

 the uppermost where the iguanodon is foimd, was depo?ited during 

 an era quite distinct from the one over which, at all events, post 

 diluvian Scripture history extends, this is evident by the distinctive 

 characters of its animals and flora. 



It is shown in the paper that the than of the Scriptures is the 

 crocodile of the Nile ; and stated that the leviathan is the megalo- 

 saurus, and the argument mainly depends on the question, whether 

 than be specifically, distinctively, and solely applied to the crocodile j 

 " for," says the author, " already we have seen reason to assert that 

 the than of the scriptures is the crocodile ; then the leviathan could 

 not also be the crocodile, for both animals are distinctly mentioned in 

 the same portions of Scriptures, as in Psalm 74, ver. 13, 14." 



Now a perusal of the passages quoted to show that the " than" 

 refers to the crocodile prove no more than that, and fail to convince that 

 the term is exclusively so applied ; on the other hand, we are infonned 

 from other sources that the Hebrews did not apply the word to the 

 crocodile alone, but that it is applied to poisonous seqients, as well 

 as to saurians of regions so dry that the crocodile could not be an in- 

 habitant of them. Thus, in Jer. 9, ver. 11, "I will make Jerusalem 

 a heap, a den of thanim." " Jer. 10, ver. 22, " To make the cities 

 of Judah desolate, a den of thanim," and in Malachi, chap. 1, ver. 3, 

 the than is described as existuig in one of the driest regions of the 

 earth, and the most destitute of rivers, but which is infested with 

 small lizard and serpent tribes, " and I hated Esau and laid his 

 mountains and his heritage waste for the thanoth of the wilderness." 



The term than, then, was not a name confined to the crocodile of 



