Biblical Fiery Flying

Was the deadly “fiery flying serpent” of the related to the modern ropen? That’s a difficult question, but it’s worthy of consideration. Let’s first look at three scriptures regarding this long-tailed reptilian-type animal.

Relevant Verses in King James Version of Bible

Numbers 21:6

And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Isaiah 14:29

Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

Isaiah 30:6

. . . into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent . . .

Regarding those Old Testament verses about the fiery flying serpent, I recommend the following online resource for details about what the author of the article believes were living pterosaurs:

The Bible and Pterosaurs

There is an increasing amount of archaeological and linguistic evidence that pterosaurs (flying reptiles) were mentioned by several authors of Scripture. . . .

Those accounts [Scripture and other reliable accounts of ancient authors like Josephus] lead to grammatical questions regarding the ancient vocabulary that will need additional study. However, enough is known to be fairly confident of the basic fact: flying reptiles were indeed mentioned by the writers of Scripture. . . .

Archaeological knowledge, like grammatical knowledge, is beginning to accumulate. Already, however, more than enough, including seal and bowl inscriptions, is available to understand the cultural phenomenon of pterosaurs during Isaiah’s prophecy . . .

Were They Snakes?

I’m well aware of the common belief in modern times, that the fiery flying serpents were literally snakes, with “fiery” coming from a burning sensation caused by their venomous bites. When a person believes that idea (the indirect meaning of “fiery”) then it’s easy to also believe that “flying” is likewise not literal. But why believe that only that one word is literal, “serpent?” I suggest “snake” is less-precise, with the other two words more literal or direct. Why I Believe the Fiery Flying Serpent was a Pterosaur

I don’t have to rely only on Hebrew scholars or historians who specialize in ancient Middle Eastern history. Much of what I know about modern pterosaurs, those “flying dinosaurs” that have lived alongside humans, I know from eyewitnesses who have seen them within the past few decades.

Drawn in 1971, within minutes of the sighting in Cuba

The talented artist Eskin C. Kuhn (now living in Ohio) gave us a detailed sketch of what he saw flying at the coast of southeastern Cuba, at Guantanamo Bay. The above sketch was drawn just minutes after he saw the two “pterodactyls” flying in clear daylight, at close range. He has stood by his 1971 sighting for decades, despite ridicule and disbelief from skeptics.

I interviewed native eyewitnesses on Umboi Island (formerly called “Rooke” Island) in Papua New Guinea, during my 2004 expedition. Most of those I interviewed saw only a brief flying light at night, nothing that revealed any form or features of what produced the bright glow.

That fits perfectly with the idea that “fiery” refers to a bioluminescent glow, nothing requiring an indirect meaning. When ancient people (or modern natives) see a glow at night, fire is the first thing that comes to mind, naturally. But my associates and I learned much more from our expeditions in Papua New Guinea.

Some of the natives have a superstition about the ropen: Some repeat the idea that the flying creature can transform itself between three kinds of living things:

1. Ropen 2. Man 3. Snake

Notice the third: snake. I believe that one or more natives, at some time in the past, saw the ropen in the bush when only its tail was showing. That gave them the idea of a snake. When the creature emerged to reveal that it was a ropen—that is when the idea of transformation took hold of the imagination.

Imprecise “Snake”

What else could the ancient Hebrews have called a bioluminescent Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur? It looked like a flying snake that glowed at night, so they called it “fiery flying serpent.”

Extinction Indoctrination

Why has this escaped the knowledge of so many modern readers of scriptures? That’s easy to answer: Westerners have been indoctrinated, for generations, into universal-extinction dogma, that ALL species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs must have become extinct many millions of years ago. That pseudo- religious scientific-sounding dogma has delayed the discoveries of these wonderful modern species of pterosaurs.

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New View of the Fiery Flying Serpent

. . . the “fiery flying serpent” has been assumed . . . in modern times, to have been [in ancient human history] a species of venomous snake that strikes as if it were flying into the air, and “fiery” has been interpreted as a description of the burning pain from its bite. But this approach judges two words technically incorrect and only one correct: not literally fiery, not literally flying, but a literal snake. Could the actual animal be more like the reverse? I believe so.

The Fiery Flying Serpent

The word in Hebrew relates to a back and forth motion, like the wing beats of a bird or the swinging of a sword during an ancient battle. The new interpretation is this: “fiery” refers to a bioluminescent glow, “flying” refers to literal flying, and “serpent” refers only to a general look of a snake.

Was the Fiery Flying Serpent a Ropen?

What is a ropen? It’s not longer considered confined to Papua New Guinea or Australia or even the southwest Pacific. Those cryptozoologists who specialize in this cryptid believe it lives, in one or more species, in many areas of the world, including North America. It appears to be a long-tailed bioluminescent Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur, notwithstanding long-standing traditions about universal extinctions, axioms long taken for granted in Western societies.

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