Animals

The Asiatic lion once roamed the wooded gorges of the Jordan. Scripture pictures it twice: as the noblest of beasts and as a prowling enemy …

The working pack animal of the Bible world. Kings rode donkeys in peace, warriors rode horses in war — a contrast Jesus deliberately took up…

A young sheep, central to the sacrificial system and to Passover. John the Baptist names Jesus by it: "Behold the Lamb of God."

The rock dove (Columba livia), kept in dovecotes for food and offering. Scripture uses it for peace, purity, and at the Jordan for the Holy …

The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), swarming in plagues that could darken the sky and strip a country in a day. Joel reads such a swa…

A vast, scaly sea-creature in Job and the Psalms — part real animal (probably the Nile crocodile), part ancient chaos-monster which only God…

The wool-covered grazing animal at the heart of the shepherd metaphor — the most-mentioned animal in the Bible.

The venomous snake of the Bible lands — vehicle of the Fall, instrument of judgment, and a type of the crucifixion in John 3:14.

The scapegoat of Leviticus 16 carried Israel's sins into the wilderness — the animal behind the Day of Atonement ritual.

The great desert transport of the ancient Near East — and the largest, most unwieldy animal Jesus's listeners could imagine.

The horse in the Bible is almost always a war animal — symbol of military power and human pride, never trusted by the prophets.

The great soaring bird of the Bible — symbol of God's carrying power, divine speed, and strength that comes from waiting on the Lord.

The working animal of the Bible world — it plowed the fields, threshed the grain, and gave the apostles an argument for fair pay.

The main predator of sheep flocks in the Bible lands — its arrival meant death, and Jesus used it to warn of false teachers.

The all-black scavenging bird — first sent from Noah's ark, and the unlikely provider God used to feed Elijah in the desert.

The armoured venomous arachnid of the desert — its hidden sting made it a symbol of unexpected evil and extreme pain throughout the Bible.