10 Average Questions about Animals in the Bible

Answer: Sheep

Sheep are mentioned over 500 times in the Bible. They first appear in Genesis 4:2 where we learn Abel was a shepherd. They also appear in Revelation 9:19, the last book of the Bible, where Aaron sacrifices a ram.

Answer: Dove

2 Kings 6:25 'And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver'. The fourth part of a cab is equal to 16oz.

Answer: Ivory

1 Kings 22:39 says 'Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?'. Amos 3:16 also mentions 'houses of ivory'. Elephants are never mentioned in the Bible so the source of the ivory remains uncertain.

Answer: Fox

Judges 15:4-5 tells us how 300 foxes aided Samson in getting revenge on the Philistines who stole his wife.
'And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.'

Answer: Owls

'There be four things which are little upon the earth,
But they are exceeding wise:
The ants are a people not strong,Yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
The conies are but a feeble folk, Yet make they their houses in the rocks;
The locusts have no king, Yet go they forth all of them by bands;
The spider taketh hold with her hands, And is in kings' palaces.'

The saying of 'wise old owl' may have come from the association of the Little Owl with the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athene.

Answer: Dog

In the Bible dogs are compared to prostitutes (Deut. 23:18), greedy men (Isa 56:10), and evil men (Phil 3:2)(Rev 22:15).

Answer: Badger

Exodus 36:19 'And he made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above that.'
The word 'tachash:' to describe the skins. This word is again used in Numbers to describe the covering of the Ark and in Ezekiel to describe what women's shoes were made of.

Answer: False

None of the Gospels mentions the mode of transport Joseph and Mary used. About 150 A.D. the non-Biblical Protoevangelium of James says "And he [Joseph] saddled the ass, and set her upon it;".

Answer: Locusts

John was preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Matthew 3:4 tells us 'And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.' Leviticus 11:22 lists locusts as being 'clean' and so edible, along with crickets and grasshoppers.

Answer: In the mouth of fish he would catch

There was a two Drachma temple tax. Jesus tells Simon (Peter) that he will find a four Drachma coin to pay both their taxes.
Matthew 17:27 'Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.'