Shalom, Boaz.
Two things one should remember:
First, a "dragon," particularly in the English translations of the Hebrew Tanakh (the Old Testament), means simply "a large lizard or reptile."
OT:8577 tanniyn (tan-neen'); or tanniym (Ezek 29:3) (tan-neem'); intensive from the same as OT:8565; a marine or land monster, i.e. sea-serpent or jackal:
KJV - dragon, sea-monster, serpent, whale.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
The word "taniym," spelled tav-patach-nun-chireq-yod-mem, is used specifically for the Nile crocodile in Yechezk'el's prophecy against the Pharaoh of Egypt:
Ezekiel 29:3-4
3 Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers (the Nile and its delta streams), which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
4 But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
KJV
When one looks this word up in a good Hebrew-English dictionary, such as Webster's NewWorld Hebrew Dictionary, one will find:
taneen / -eem nm crocodile; (pl+of: -ey)
(A similar Hebrew word is also listed on the same page:
tan / -eem nm jackal)
The Greek language has a similar word, "drakoon," spelled delta-rho-alpha-kappa-omega-nu.
It may be found in the Greek Dictionary of Bible Words found in the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible:
NT:1404 drakoon (drak'-own); probably from an alternate form of derkomai (to look); a fabulous kind of serpent (perhaps as supposed to fascinate):
KJV - dragon.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
This word is only to be found in the B'rit Chadashah (the New Testament) within the book of Revelation:
Revelation 12:3, 4, 7 (twice), 9, 13, 16, 17; 13:2, 4, 11; 16:13; and 20:2.
We are told that Yochanan (John) sees this creature as a large, red creature with seven crowned heads, a tail and apparently wings, for originally in the war of 12:7, they - the drakoon and his messengers - could fly in the sky ("heaven") until in verse 9 they were thrown to the ground ("earth") and in verse 8, we are told that they had no more place in the sky, i.e., his wings, their wings, were CLIPPED! They could no longer fly.
Secondly, we are told in 12:9 and later in 20:2 that the drakoon was also called "the devil" (Greek: "diabolos" = "slanderer") and "satan" (Hebrew: "saataan" = "a [courtroom] enemy") and that he was the "original serpent" or "original snake" in the Garden of Eden.
Revelation 20:1-3
20 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent (Greek: "ho ofis ho archaios" = "the snake the original"), which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
KJV
Reading the description of the fall in Genesis 3 and the curse placed upon the serpent or snake:
Genesis 3:14-15
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
KJV
Apparently, before this curse was invoked, the serpent did NOT go upon his belly. In other words, it either had appendages that supported it off the ground or it could fly. After the curse, those appendages were set to the side of the body, such as on lizards today, or they were stunted and/or removed altogether, like in modern snakes and serpents. Some species of snakes actually have vestigial hips and leg bones beneath their skin.
Also, the word for "crowns" is "diadeemata," the plural of "diadeema," from which we get our word "diadem." It means a "circlet," as "bound about the head." These crowns are not necessarily removable, but may be natural markings on each head of this creature.
The horns he saw were probably arranged down the spine in one or two lines, in order for him to be able to count them in a glance, and they were NOT associated with the heads.
My point is this: Not everything in the book of Revelation has to be figurative or representative of something else. Yochanan (John) may have actually seen some of these creatures and scenes and was describing them as literally as he could.
Another point I'd like to bear out is that the creationists of the Institute for Creation Research have noted that some of the creatures that we have labeled "dinosaurs" had chambers within their skulls for which their purpose is not totally or adequately explained, and some have noted that the bombardier beetle has the ability to mix chemicals to produce a hot liquid/gas that is propelled out of the beetle's abdomen to repel predators. While some scientists believe these chambers may have been resonance chambers, these creationist scientists believe they may have had similar mechanisms within their skulls as that of the bombardier beetle to "breathe fire" more LITERALLY!
Just some things to think about.
