We are holding a Leviathan story writing contest. The deadline for submitting your work is the 30th of September, 2015. A prominent feature of your story must be the biblical Leviathan.

There will be separate contest winners for each age category: under 10 years old, 10-14, 15-19, 20-29, 30+

We are seeking those who will want to contribute prizes for our winners, thus promote their favourite organization through our contest. We know some of you will want to enter the competition regardless of the prizes, so we are giving you a head start. Please subscribe to this blog so that you will be notified when we announce the prizes that can be won for each category.

The Job Project must have the coolest dragon ever, as our Leviathan. We cannot skimp, or settle for second best. The Leviathan scene is crucial to this story. Leviathan fans around the world are counting on us to get this right! God speaks for the entire chapter 41, exclusively about this fierce animal. This gives us a lot to work with, plus it gives us time, during His description, so the video can display a good deal of action for this awesome beast.

It would be good to have several independent designs, so that we can choose the best for this production … thus our creative writing contest. We also may be able to combine features from the various designs.

There is no restriction as to when your story was written. If you wrote a story years ago about the biblical Leviathan then, by all means, submit the work as a contest entry. The age category for the contest will be based on your age on the 30th of September, 2015, rather than your age when you wrote the story.

There is no size limit for your entries. If you write a 200,000 word tome, and it is actually about the biblical Leviathan, then our judges will evaluate it along side the other entries. The extra length will not necessarily improve your standing.

Plagiarism will result in disqualification. If you submit “Beowulf” as if it were your own work, we will notice.

There is no limit to the number of entries each person can submit.

All story entries must be written in English.

You are still free to publish your original story that you have submitted. Each submission is a contribution to the project, though you will still hold the copyright. You are granting us the right to use any part of the story in our project, or to revise the story, as we see fit. We will not publish your original story, except with your permission, or except to the degree that we incorporate elements of your work into our project.

Story content limitations:

• No super-powers, like force fields or magic, except those mentioned in Scripture (armour plating, fire-breathing, invincible, etc.). The power of the real Leviathan is impressive enough, so stick with that.
• We have no interest in stories that portray Leviathan as a myth, metaphor, parable, or allegory. Your story is a work of historical fiction, not fantasy, mysticism, or folklore. We can trust God’s Word that Leviathan was a real historical creature whose attributes were not fanciful word pictures or legendary fabrications.
• No offensive language. Yes, we are aware that bad people use bad language and that you may have some bad people in your story. Just tell us that they used offensive language, rather than telling us the offensive part of what they said. Thanks!
• No disgusting or hideous descriptions. As above, you can give the reader a picture of how disgusting something is by describing how someone reacted to it, rather than giving the graphic details directly.
• The Leviathan in your story must fit within the biblical limitations. See below for such considerations.

In the Bible, Leviathan is defined as a sea monster, or sea creature. He is big, and he is scary. This creature is a fire-breathing dragon.

Each model must completely fit within the biblical framework and limitations. For example, the question is not whether he was breathing fire, but the question is what that looks like. The question is not whether he was a sea creature, but the question is what that means.

God tacitly states that several activities are not feasible, regarding the Leviathan:

• Fishing for him with a hook and line
• Subordinating him with a nose ring or prod
• Making sport with him
• Taming him
• Hunting him for food
• Domesticating him as cattle
• Spearing him, or harming him by shooting arrows
• Fighting with him, especially not winning

God concludes that no one would be able to endure a battle with Himself, since no one would even dare to pick a fight with Leviathan, which He created. So, it is important to emphasise the utter insanity or ignorance of anyone who would even consider attacking the king over all the children of pride, the Leviathan.

Here are some of the features each plan needs to include:

• Scales and skin like armour
• Terrible teeth
• Strong mouth
• Fire from his mouth, sparks and smoke from his nostrils
• Strong neck
• Fearless
• Tears up the banks of the water
• Thrashes the water
• Intimidating

Answers in Genesis has proposed, at different times, both the Sarcosuchus and the Kronosaurus as potential candidates for Leviathan. They are not dogmatic about this, as those are just possible ideas. Both of these creatures are known by their fossil remains. The Sarcosuchus is an absolutely massive crocodilian. The Kronosaurus is a form of plesiosaur.

It seems difficult for Kronosaurus to be in a position to kindle a fire, since he is in the water. Due to his paddle like appendages, it is not feasible for him to get far from the water. Though he certainly would tear up the river banks, whenever he did come ashore, as the Bible’s description of Leviathan indicates. Maybe they came inland to lay their eggs. There is one kindling scenario that comes to mind. Wooden ships would be vulnerable to attack from such a creature, since it would be reasonable to expect that he could paddle in such a manner to hold his head out of the water, while scorching the timbers.

It seems that there has been a change in the size estimate for the Kronosaurus. There is a huge fossil reconstruction of this creature in the Harvard Museum. At the time, little was known about this animal, so some liberties were taken to guess how many vertebrae were needed. Apparently, this was overestimated. So, the Kronosaurus may not be as big as was first imagined.

However, just as there is great variety in the cat kind, in the horse kind, in the dog kind, etc., there is also a family of such beasts of the deep, called plesiosaurs. They all have paddles for appendages. Some have longer necks, some quite short. They all have spiked teeth. Some of the creatures are large, and some are absolutely monstrous. Included in the plesiosaur family is one reputed to be the largest predatory carnivore ever, somewhat dwarfing the land dwellers, such as T. Rex, Ceratosaurus, and Spinosaurus. Predator X featured a head two times the size of a T. Rex skull, with a bite that was estimated to be eleven times more powerful. In this family is also the Styxosaurus, with a very long neck, which would fit the “serpent” description of Leviathan in Isaiah. This would also align with many of the legends of the creatures sighted by sailors at sea. With a longer neck, it is much more feasible to lift the head far above the water.

So, it would be reasonable to piece together our monster from the attributes of this family. We could have a mouth big enough to to chomp a few sailors at once, and his body is the size of an island, held rock steady with his powerful paddle legs, so that his head is lifted significantly above the deck of a mid-sized ship. He is also completely armoured with ossified scales, plus flames and sparks and smoke spewing from his mouth and nostrils.

It is easy to understand why Kent Hovind prefers the famed Tyrannosaurus Rex monster as the best possibility for the Leviathan. Who would ever attack such a fierce creature, with daggers for teeth?

The Spinosaurus dinosaur seems like the closest fit for many of the dragon legends. He is even bigger than T. Rex, though his mouth is not bigger, and his teeth are less like daggers. With his long, reptilian neck and tail, he can easily be considered in the broader category of a serpent. In order for him, or the T. Rex, to qualify as a sea creature, they would need to be hunting for prey in the rivers, lakes, deltas, or sea coasts. It seems that they would need to wade in, about hip deep, so their weight is still anchoring them securely to the floor of the water. Since the arms are on the short side, the attack would be mainly with the mouth, though one hind foot may be employed to pin the quarry down. This activity would arguably make the kind of water thrashing described in Scripture.

Then there is the option of a dragon. All of the previously mentioned creatures could be considered dragons, but this would be yet another beast, styled after the legends, rather than fossils. We can learn from the mistakes others have made, when they assumed the animals described in the Bible were always among those we know in current day science.

Other than the book of Job, we also have some information in Scripture that we can consider, regarding the description of Leviathan. Psalm 104 says that Leviathan plays in the sea. Isaiah describes Leviathan as “that crooked serpent,” “the piercing serpent,” and “the dragon that is in the sea.” The meaning of his name is “mourning,” and is translated that way once in the Bible. This one occurrence is none other than Job, himself, lamenting his losses, before his “friends” start giving him “advice.”

In future posts, we plan to share more information, such as the process for you to submit your entries, the judging process, and even some sample Leviathan stories.

Birthday decoration made for me by my children.