Pit Locusts
[ranking: 1]
"Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth... They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone... In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces." - Revelation 9:3-10
The 10 plagues detailed in the Bible include five months of torment caused by pit locusts, which destroyed all edible plants in sight, and were equipped with a scorpion-like stinger. One of the things that makes the locust plague truly scary is the possibility of it happening in the 21st century.
You're unlikely to run into a vampire or Leviathan, but enough locusts to cover 270,000 square miles descended on Russia in 2016.
The Second Beast
[ranking: 2]
"Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon." - Revelation 13:11
The Second Beast was said to come out of the Earth after the First Beast emerged from the sea. This creature isn't as well described as other biblical monsters, though had awesome powers: "And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people."
The Second Beast is most notable for being credited with creating the mark of the beast, emblazoning it on people, and directing humanity to follow the First Beast. This mark of the beast is believed to identify followers of the First Beast, who may be the antichrist.
Daniel's Four Beasts
[ranking: 3]
"And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ??Arise, devour much flesh.'" - Daniel 7:1-28
In the Book of Daniel, the titular prophet has a vision of four beasts, which represent four empires. The creatures all emerge from the sea, terrifying and destructive; yet, like the empires of the world, despite their power and violence, they pass from the Earth, and only the kingdom of heaven endures.
The first beast is described as being a lion-eagle hybrid. The next looks like a bear, and was created to "devour much flesh." The third of Daniel's beasts is a leopard-like creature with four wings and four heads. Finally, the fourth beast is the destroyer of the entire world in Daniel's vision. This fearsome creature has 10 horns and teeth made of iron.
Leviathan
[ranking: 4]
"In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea." - Isaiah 27:1
The Leviathan was a fierce, serpentine sea monster with multiple heads that ran amok in the Old Testament; a sea monster mentioned in Revelations may be a permutation of it. The monster's defeat at the hands of God preceded creation, making it a beast of chaos.
The creature is a prime early example of sea creatures that became increasingly prevalent as mankind took to the high seas, sailing to far away destinations. Centuries later, Sir Humphrey Gilbert would detail seeing a creature in the sea that resembled a lion.
More Leviathan
#76 of 123 on Every Single Keyblade From Kingdom Hearts (And Which Game They're In) #27 of 37 on The Best Documentaries Without Narration
The First Beast
[ranking: 5]
" And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority." - Revelation 13:1-2
The Book of Revelation details two awesome monsters, which arrived one after the other. The first, known as The First Beast, is an imposing figure, as would be any creature with seven heads, 10 horns, and more than a half-dozen blasphemous names.
The heads of The First Beast each represent a king (which king is unclear; perhaps Roman emperor? You can read all about this here). The First Beast is also characterized as a king, though was cast into perdition before it had a chance to rule. Some Christian denominations believe the First Beast is the antichrist.
Cherubim
[ranking: 6]
"He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." - Genesis 3:24
Wait, seriously? Cherubim? As in, cherubs? Those cute, fat babies so often peeing in fountains? As it turns out, cherubim in the Bible are not such cuddly creatures. Rather, they're otherworld beings with four distinct faces that emerge from a swirling nebulous of smoke and fire.
"As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces." Ezekiel 1:5-11
Nephilim
[ranking: 7]
"And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them." - Number 13:33
The Nephilim are demigods born of the sons of God and the daughters of man. Described as giants, they once roamed the Earth. As mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4:
"When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, 'My spirit shall not abide[a] in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.' The Nephilim were on the earth in those days??and also afterward??when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown."
Some interpret "sons of God" to mean fallen ones, such as Lucifer, while other assume them to be sons of Seth, while men are the offspring of Cain.
Dragons
[ranking: 8]
"And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." - Revelation 20:2
Dragons are mentioned by name several times in the Bible, and are conflated with a number of other creatures throughout, including sea monsters (including the Leviathan), and are thought to be derived from crocodiles.
Dragons appear in the mythology of several ancient and medieval cultures. It's possible early man attempted to explain the discovery of dinosaur fossils with the dragon myth. There are also numerous works of art depicting Saint George slaying a dragon. The Bible is a historical time capsule of the beliefs of its day, and it would have been more shocking if dragons didn't make an appearance.
More Dragons
#37 of 122 on The Best 'Game Of Thrones' Characters #8 of 21 on The Meanings Behind Animal Symbol Tattoos
The Behemoth
[ranking: 9]
??Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron." - Job 40:15-24
According to Job, the Behemoth was the first creation of God, an enormous creature of tremendous power. It has also been described as a "primeval monster of chaos, defeated by Yahweh at the beginning of the process of creation," much like the Leviathan.
Historians believe the Behemoth could have been modeled on, or even be a hyperbolic description of, an elephant or hippopotamus.
Vampires
[ranking: 10]
"There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind." - Proverbs 30:14
Are vampires really in the Bible? According to Bible resource Open Bible, there are at least 50 verses with vampiric imagery or content. The topic is very contentious; many claim these passages have absolutely nothing to do with these nocturnal bloodsuckers, and can be explained easily by anyone with a cursory knowledge of biblical metaphors and the culture of biblical times.
As Faith in the News explains re: the above quote:
"The context of that has nothing to do with vampires; rather, people actually devour the people??s wealth and create poor among the people. They are not feeding on the people but on the people??s wealth. The fact is that drinking blood of any creature, man or beast, is sin (Lev 17:10-14) because the blood represents life, and in the Old Testament, this was punishable by death."
However, there are theologians who believe the connections between Satan, drinking blood, and sinning are made clear in the Bible. To be clear, the word "vampire" never appears in the Bible. However, modern vampire mythology didn't begin to appear until around the 12th century. Meanwhile, mythological beings that were believed to be blood drinkers trace their origin all the way back to ancient Egypt. It's possible these creatures are basically the same as vampires, just not called such.
Do Bible verses such as "And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (Revelation 17:6) indicate vampirism? It's impossible to know, but numerous mentions of blood and blood drinking do appear in the Bible.
Giants
[ranking: 11]
"And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze." - 1 Samuel 17:1-58
There are giants all over the Bible, the most famous of which is Goliath, who fell to David. The Amorites, a race of giants, are mentioned more than 80 times, including this tasty quote from Amos 2:9?C10:
"Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. Also it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite."
Biblical scholars estimate the height of these monsters at anywhere from six to 30 feet. If the Amorites were really as tall as cedars, it's possible they stood 50 to 100 feet tall. Another example of giants in the bible, from Deuteronomy 2:10?C11:
"The Emim had dwelt there in times past, a people as great and numerous and tall as the Anakim. They were also regarded as giants [Hebrew rephaim], like the Anakim, but the Moabites call them Emim"
Werewolves
[ranking: 12]
"Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws." - Daniel 4:33
Werewolves are one of mankind's first monsters; there's evidence of people believing in men turning into wolf-life creatures far before Christianity. One example can be found in Book IV of The History of Herodotus, written in 440 BCE.
"It may be that these people are wizards; for the Scythians, and the Greeks settled in Scythia, say that once a year every one of the Neuri becomes a wolf for a few days and changes back again to his former shape. Those who tell this tale do not convince me; but they tell it nonetheless, and swear to its truth."
Werewolves appear in other works predating Bible, such as the tale of Lycaon, a king of Arcadia who supposedly turned himself into a wolf.
Full disclosure: the Bible never mentions werewolves explicitly. As Wayne Miller writes for Werewolves.com,
"Are werewolves mentioned in the Bible? In a word, no. Not specifically. However, there is a great deal of imagery that, while not overtly lycanthropic in nature, melds quite nicely into the body of common knowledge concerning werewolfism."
Miller relates the story of Nebuchadnezzar, to whom the above quote refers, and who went insane and fled to the wilderness, where he lived like an animal and took on some of the attributes of wolves.
New Random Display Show all by ranking(13 items)