A search for the topic, bears (animals) in the Bible, is complicated by the abundance of occurrences of the word "bear," used to describe carrying something, physical, or mental, as in giving birth (bearing a baby) or laboring because of emotional stress (bearing grief).
This post is concerned only with bears as animals. There are a few such references in the Bible.
For more about the biology of bears, see the Wikipedia article. From that article, it appears that the bears mentioned in the Bible, which must have lived in Eurasia, were similar, or even part of the same species, as those found in North America. There is also a Wikipedia article on cultural depictions of bears, as for instance, in the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.
The first Bible reference to bears is in the dialog between Saul and David, with David stating that, since he was able to defeat a predatory bear, he could defeat Goliath.
In 2 Samuel 17, warning is given that attacking David and his followers is like attacking a bear with offspring. Proverbs 17 has a similar idea, about a female bear protecting her offspring. So does Hosea 13.
In 2 Kings 2, Elisha apparently causes two female bears to attack some boys who were mocking him.
In Job 9, the constellation known as the Bear is mentioned, along with other groups of stars. (The King James version uses Arcturus, not bear, whereas the World English Bible has "bear.") Job 38 repeats the use of the Bear as a constellation.
In Proverbs 28, a wicked ruler is compared to an angry bear, or to a lion.
In Isaiah 59, the Israelites, who have lost their way spiritually, are compared to frustrated bears.
In Daniel 7, Daniel is asked to interpret a dream that the king had, in which an animal like a bear appeared.
In Amos 5, a bear is symbolic of putting oneself (or one's people) in danger.
There are no uses of the bear, an animal, in the New Testament.
I previously posted a study of the use of the word "lion" in the Bible.
Thanks for bearing with me in this study.
1 comment:
First: Thank you, that was interesting.
I'm having trouble choosing a direction for the rest of the comment, so I'll choose both.
* When it's useful to search in the original language, there's a free tool (e-Sword) where the "KJV+" translation contains Strong's numbers to reference the underlying word in the original language. E.g. Proverbs 17:12 mentions "bear" and shows the Strong's number H1677. From there, searching for Strong's number H1677 yields 12 verses that use the same underlying Hebrew word. (And the word translated Arcturus looks unrelated to the word bear, in Hebrew.)
* Lemony Snicket had a good quote to illustrate the different uses of "bear", though I don't remember verbatim it went roughly: One use could be illustrated with the sentence "The camp counselor was unaware of the danger and did not hear the approaching bear" and the other use could be illustrated "The loss of our camp counselor was more than we could bear." [Again, not verbatim there, but that was the gist of it.]
Hope you have a blessed day
Anne / WF
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