The Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.

Genesis 3:14-15 EHV

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Revelation‬ ‭12‬:‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? … Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever? … Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated. His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth … His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone … He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.

Job‬ ‭41‬:‭1‬, ‭4‬, ‭13‬-‭21‬, ‭24‬, ‭34‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The Ubiquity of Dragons

Most of us grew up hearing fairy tales about battles between brave knights and fire-breathing dragons. But dragons are not unique to Western European folklore. Anthropologists will confirm that dragons are ubiquitous. Dragon stories are found from ancient times on every continent.

There’s the Hydra of Ancient Greek mythology, a serpentine sea dragon who grew back two heads whenever one was crushed. He thus represented an insurmountable challenge. The old Norse dragon Fáfnir hoarded a great treasure, and thus dragons are associated with avarice (think Smaug in The Hobbit). In China, dragons called loong were associated with imperial power and fortune, and also controlled the weather, bringing typhoons. The West African ninki nanka rises from swamp scum with a deathly gaze, and devours everything in its path. Meanwhile, several Native American tribes venerated horned serpents, who possessed supernatural powers.

Now, the anthropologists offer a rather facile explanation for the omnipresent dragon: our primitive ancestors were afraid of predatory animals, like crocodiles, snakes, big cats, and birds of prey. Therefore, a sort of jambalaya of these creatures imprinted itself upon the collective psyche of our distant ancestors. The dragon is therefore merely an icon, an archetype within the collective unconscious.

I don’t deny that the dragon is an archetype in the collective unconscious. What I do deny is that they are merely a pastiche of dangerous and unsavory animals our ancestors had to deal with. I deny the attempt of modern science and sociology to disenchant our world. These people need to get out of their ivory towers and watch some scary movies. In those movies, it’s always the ones who try and offer “rational” answers who either end up dying first, or getting others killed. Our basest theater has better understanding than the authorities. The facile explanation is actually dangerous.

I keep using the word facile, because facile means an explanation that seems orderly and comprehensive, but only appears so because it ignores or dismisses important details.

In the case of dragons, the expert rationalists are refusing to consider Scripture. Or at least, dismissing it as a reliable source of true history.

My hunch is that the dragon is not embedded in the collective memory of humanity because some evolutionary function created an überbeast casserole, Frankensteined from the scariest bits of carrion beasts and apex predators. Rather, all peoples have inherited a memory of the dragon from an actual traumatic encounter our first parents—the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve—had with the apex predator: the devil, who, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬ ‭‬‬KJV). Only the devil didn’t come to them as a roaring lion, but a silver-tongued, serpentine dragon.

The Fiery Flying Serpent

Consider the dragons we grew up with, from the medieval legends of the British isles. They are portrayed as fire-breathing, flying reptiles. These dragons tend to line up with the biblical pictures of dragons. Isaiah 30:6, for example, speaks of the fiery flying serpent. To the extent that our dragon narratives come to us through a Christian culture, it should be no surprise that the dragons would appear as the Bible depicts them.

But to simply stop here and say: Of course. It’s simply the old archetype filtered through the Christian imagination; would be—here’s that word again—facile. And frankly boring. And useless.

Rather, there’s something about the particular shape of our dragon stories that’s deeply relevant, and could provide useful guidance, not only on how to read Scripture, but how to read the human condition.

The archetype (that word again, too!) of the Western dragon story is Edmund Spenser’s version of St. George and the Dragon, from The Faerie Queene (1590). St. George is a knight who conquers a fire-breathing dragon who has enthralled a kingdom, and by his victory liberates the kingdom and is given the princess as his bride.

Why do we find this story so compelling? Well, let’s go back to the very beginning of history. The biblical narrative presents us with a man and his bride, Adam and Eve. Our first parents. They dwell together in the garden kingdom of Eden. God has given them a land with good water, ready access to gold and precious stones, and all good fruits they can eat from the countless trees. Only one tree is prohibited them: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

Everything is going splendidly, until the Serpent arrives: Now the serpent was more clever than any wild animal which the Lord God had made (Genesis 3:1 EHV). This silver-tongued Serpent persuaded the mother of all the living (Genesis 3:20 EHV) to eat some of the forbidden fruit. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it (Genesis 3:6 EHV).

And with that, the Serpent defeated our first parents. They lost their hope of immortality and their home in Eden. Death, suffering, tears, and frustration grew like thorns and weeds—along with actual thorns and weeds. Adam, Eve, and their sons and daughters after them, became slaves to the Serpent, enthralled by sin, and ravaged by death, because, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin (John‬ ‭8‬:‭34‬ ‭KJV‬‬); and, the wages of sin is death (Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭23‬ ‭KJV‬‬). Indeed, the whole kingdom of creation has been thus annexed into the Serpent’s domain of darkness (Colossians 1:13 ESV), subjected to futility and in bondage to decay (Romans 8:20, 21 ESV).

When a Serpent is also a Dragon

This story is familiar to every Christian. But are we seeing it as intended? Specifically, when you read serpent in Genesis 3, do you picture a snake?

But read Genesis 3 in light of Revelation 12:9: And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. The ancient Serpent who deceived our first parents, and through them, the world, is also called the great dragon.

When is a serpent also a dragon?

The Hebrew word for serpent is nachash, which is sort of onomatopoeia approximating a snake’s hiss. But nachash doesn’t only signify a snake. For example, Isaiah 27:1 declares: In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent [nachash], Leviathan the twisting serpent [nachash], and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea (ESV‬‬). Notice that Leviathan, the dragon that is in the sea, is also called the Serpent here.

A nachash can also be a dragon.

Now, the dragon Leviathan is called a nachash. Notice some of the details with which God described Leviathan for Job: I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame. Wait, snakes don’t have limbs! But dragons do. Next, speaking of his scales, God says: His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated. Remember how in all the stories, a dragon’s scales cannot be pierced? This is what God is alluding to. Now, notice what God says about his breath: Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth (Job 41:12, 15-17, 19-21 ESV). Leviathan was a fire-breathing dragon.

But Leviathan functions as more than confirmation of the one-time existence of fire-breathing dragons. He is also a cipher for Satan, as we shall soon discover.

The Dragon’s Declension

Let’s go back to Genesis 3, when God pronounces judgment on the Serpent. He says: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life (Genesis 3:14 EHV).

The curse upon the Serpent involves crawling on his belly and eating dust. This kind of language elsewhere in Scripture denotes those who have fallen into a most miserable estate: For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground (Psalm‬ ‭44‬:‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬). There is both a spiritual fulfillment of this curse, applied to Satan; and a visible, physical fulfillment, received in the body of the serpent Satan had used to lead our first parents into sin.

You see, Satan, being an angel—a spirit—would have to have taken on the form of a serpent. This he most likely did by possessing the body of a serpent, as the Legion of demons possessed a herd of pigs during the ministry of Jesus (Mark 5:11-13). Thus, Martin Luther was no doubt correct to assert: the serpent is a real serpent, but one that has been entered and taken over by Satan.

And upon this real serpent, God placed a real curse: You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. Compare this to the judgments God spoke to Eve and Adam. Labor pains are very real (Genesis 3:16), as are the thorns and thistles we must now contend with to grow our crops (3:18).

If the serpent—the earthly creature—crawled and slithered before this judgment, God’s curse is an empty curse. But if we see this as a real judgment—on par with labor pains and thorns—then God has done something to physically alter the serpent. We must conclude, then, that this serpent, at least, at one time had limbs. And what is a dragon, but a serpent with limbs?

Likewise, the snake, as we know him now, has something in the roof of his mouth called a Jacobson’s organ. The snake uses it to “smell” his way around, by flicking his tongue in and out of his mouth, transferring particles to the Jacobson’s organ, alerting him to changes in scent. Thus: you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

So picture, not a slithering snake coiled around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; but a fire-breathing dragon, like Leviathan, speaking to Eve. Of course prideful Satan would choose such an awesome creature as his mouthpiece.

But why should God curse the poor brute whom the Devil overtook for his wicked purposes? John Calvin offers an elegant answer:

If it seem to any one absurd, that the punishment of another’s fraud should be exacted from a brute animal, the solution is at hand; that, since it had been created for the benefit of man, there was nothing improper in its being accursed from the moment that it was employed for his destruction. And by this act of vengeance God would prove how highly he estimates the salvation of man; just as if a father should hold the sword in execration by which his son had been slain.

(Execration is an old-timey word that means essentially the same thing as Tolkien’s Gollum when he squeals: We hates it forever!)

Look at it this way: After the Flood in Noah’s day, God placed the rainbow as a visible sign of His promise to never again destroy the world with a deluge (Genesis 9:12-17). Likewise, the serpent’s declension is a visible sign of God’s judgment upon Satan—so that Satan is humiliated, both in his own eyes and in the eyes of mankind.

As Satan has been cast out of heaven (Revelation 12:9); cast into hell with his band of rebel angels, and bound with chains while awaiting final judgment (2 Peter 2:4; cf. Revelation 20:1-3, 10); so the serpent he employed has been cast down to the dust, to be trampled underfoot. He will not stand boldly upright to look humans in the face and defy the Lord, but must slither and skulk, and strike in secret like a coward. Fire no longer pours forth from his mouth, but venom oozes from his fangs.

The serpent would no longer strut, but slither. This is a kind of visual shorthand for the heights from which the Devil has fallen:

Thus says the Lord God: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering … and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you … Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you … All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever.”

Ezekiel‬ ‭28‬:‭12‬-‭15‬, ‭17‬, ‭19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Satan and Leviathan

Just as God’s curse on the Serpent includes both the Devil and the beast he possessed; God’s description of Leviathan in Job involves both the dragon’s physical features and spiritual attributes. Those spiritual attributes do not belong to a beast, but to the Devil.

His heart is hard as a stone, says the Lord, hard as the lower millstone (Job‬ ‭41‬:‭24‬ ‭ESV‬‬). Here is the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth … for he is a liar and the father of lies (John‬ ‭8‬:‭44‬ ‭ESV‬‬). He is a being without remorse and without a conscience. He has hardened his heart from of old, and it cannot be made soft; and no, not even God will soften it, because there is no hope for him. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come; and surely it is not angels that [Christ] helps (Hebrews 2:5, 16 ESV). Once Satan hardened his angelic heart, the option of repentance was forever foreclosed. In his recalcitrance, his heart was calcified.

God concludes that Leviathan sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride (Job‬ ‭41‬:‭34‬ ‭ESV‬‬). This is no ordinary serpent, nor even one of our familiar dragons. This is Satan, the ruler of this world (John 12:31 ESV), the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

He is a fearsome creature, indeed. Will he make a covenant with you, the Lord asks, to take him for your servant forever? (Job‬ ‭41‬:‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬) In violating their covenant with God (Hosea 6:7), they made a covenant with the great dragon … that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9 ESV), a covenant they ratified with a covenant meal of forbidden fruit, of which the Lord had said: in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬ ‭KJV‬‬).

And having made this foolish covenant with Satan – Leviathan, our first parents quickly found that he was not their thrall, but they his. Now God says to humanity, enthralled by Leviathan, enslaved to sin, under the shadow of Death and Hell: Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? (Job 41:3 ESV) No. Having persuaded them to join in his rebellion, the Devil now only accuses (Revelation 12:10). You understand, when God interrogates Job, He is interrogating us all, every son and daughter of Adam and Eve. God continues: Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls? Lay your hands on him; remember the battle—you will not do it again! Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him (Job‬ ‭41‬:‭5‬, ‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

Human strength cannot defeat Satan – Leviathan, cannot tame him or cage him. But God has, can, and will once more: Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended (Revelation‬ ‭20‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬). The Lord has Satan on a leash, as it were, and fenced in.

Humans try to fight Leviathan in their own power, by their own insight, by reforming this, regulating that, deregulating this, going to war against that, tearing this down, building that utopia. What we fail to see is that we are simply crushing one head of the Hydra, and two more are growing in its place.

But God promised us a champion who would crush the ancient Serpent’s head, decisively. He promised us this when He cursed the Serpent in the Garden.

The Dragonslayer

Again, the curse God spoke upon the Serpent was a blended curse. The first part was spoken to the physical serpent—to crawl on its belly and eat dust. But there was hidden in this curse humiliation for Satan, who had used him to strike at our first parents; and a reminder to Adam and Eve, and their children after them, that God would cut the great dragon down to size.

The second part is directed at Satan, and makes explicit what had been implicit in the humiliation of the nachash: I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel (Genesis 3:15 EHV).

God is speaking typologically here. When He says He will put hostility between the Woman and the Serpent, He will do this by declaring a new covenant—a Covenant of Grace—in place of the covenant our first parents broke under Satan’s influence.

Her seed will be those who receive this covenant by faith, born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John‬ ‭1‬:‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬). But the Serpent will also have a seed, those who, like Satan, harden their hearts against God, and so are hostile to His people. That’s why John the Baptist called the Pharisees and Sadducees, You brood of vipers! (Matthew 3:7; cf. Luke 3:7-8). Jesus later called the Pharisees the same thing: You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭33‬ ‭ESV‬‬) Another time, He tells them: You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires (John 8:44). By their hostility to Christ, they showed that they were the seed of the Serpent, not the Woman.

When God pronounced the curse upon the Serpent, He declared that one seed in particular would come to conquer the Serpent: He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.

Christ is this promised Seed of the Woman. He is this because He was born of a virgin: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (Isaiah‬ ‭7‬:‭14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬; cf. Matthew 1:22-23). Immanuel means, God-with-us. Jesus is the God-Man, truly God and truly Man: For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬). This is necessary, because only as God is He mighty to defeat the Serpent, but only as Man is He able to defeat the Serpent on behalf of mankind.

Satan was able to bruise the heel of Christ by using wicked and unbelieving men—just as he had used the serpent—to crucify Christ. That Satan wounds His heel means that he was only able to harm Christ in His lower nature, that is, in His humanity—for His deity could not be pierced.

But this was all according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭23‬ ‭ESV‬‬). For you see, God did draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, and put him on a leash (Job 41:1, 5 ESV). The Serpent didn’t realize that God had been drawing him along to his own destruction all along. For when Christ died and rose again on the third day, as He walked out of His tomb, He crushed the Serpent’s head beneath His feet. For, the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭56‬ ‭ESV‬‬). But in His perfect human life, He fulfilled the righteousness of the Law for those who believe in Him; in His death, He bore the curse of the Law for our sin; and by His resurrection, He secured the resurrection of His people. So we read: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

Behold Jesus Christ, our Dragonslayer! For He has broken the teeth of the ancient Serpent for all who trust in Him. Hear the great dragon’s head crunch beneath the foot of our Champion, which was bruised when He was crucified for us. And we shall join Him in the victory, and He will share with us the plunder from the Serpent’s hoard; for it is written: we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭37‬ ‭ESV‬‬); and also: The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet (Romans‬ ‭16‬:‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

Rumors of the Dragonslayer

The Bible, then, is really a dragonslayer tale, on a cosmic scale. Indeed, this is exactly how Revelation, the final book of Scripture, sums up the Bible’s grand narrative.

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

Revelation‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

That is deep, dense storytelling, and there’s not room to explore all the facets of this diamond of a text. The point is, Scripture itself invites us to read it as the greatest of all dragon stories. This is high adventure, which even the skillful pens of Tolkien, Lewis, or MacDonald couldn’t match.

And like any skillful storytelling, Scripture provides points of foreshadowing that confirm the promise of the Genesis 3:15 prophecy, and build the reader’s expectation for its true fulfillment.

Notice how often the bad guys—the oppressors and tyrants, who are proud and whose hearts are hard like Satan—are portrayed as serpents, and die from head wounds.

For example, notice how Psalm 74 retells the story of the Exodus, when God through Moses delivered Israel from Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea:

Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

Psalm‬ ‭74‬:‭12‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Here, the ancient Serpent Leviathan is portrayed as having many heads crushed. This is referring to Pharaoh—the Satan-figure par excellence of the Old Testament—who took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them (Exodus‬ ‭14‬:‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬), and pursued Israel to the Red Sea. By the way, it is certainly not by accident that the Pharaoh wore a headdress that made him look like a cobra about to strike.

Likewise, in the book of Judges, you have two stories of interest. The Canaanite general Sisera, whose army had attacked Israel, was killed when a woman named Jael drove a tent peg through his head (Judges 4:17-22). Later, the murderous Abimelech, who had set himself up as a king over Israel, was finally defeated when a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull (Judges‬ ‭9‬:‭53‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

Perhaps the most picturesque prefiguration of the promised dragonslayer is the story of David defeating the giant Goliath. We are told that Goliath wore scaled body armor, which was made of more than one hundred pounds of bronze (1 Samuel 17:5 EHV, emphasis added). Most English translations obscure this detail of Goliath’s armor, which, according to the Hebrew, was composed of impenetrable scales. Goliath was dressed as a giant dragon! David—Christ’s human ancestor (Matthew 1:1; Romans 1:3)—defeated this Leviathan of a man when he took a stone … shot it from his sling, and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground. Then, David stood over the Philistine, took hold of his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it (1 Samuel 17:49, 51 EHV).

David wounded the dragon’s head with an unexpected stone, then decapitated him with his own sword. Likewise, Christ defeated Satan by His cross and resurrection, which the ancient Serpent had not expected. Then He used Satan’s own weapon—the power of Death he had unleashed—to strike the fatal blow, as it is written: that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Hebrews‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬). Christ conquered Satan-Leviathan to set His people free when no one else could, just like David did to Goliath.

And just like Moses did to Pharaoh at the Red Sea. And as Jael did to Sisera. And as the unnamed woman did to Abimelech.

All of these are a foreshadowing of Christ, the true Dragonslayer, for Scripture describes them all delivering their people from tyranny by wounding the head of the oppressor.

The Healing of our Dragon-wound

Near the beginning of this essay, I posited that the reason every culture has dragons, and we all enjoy a good dragon tale; is because we’ve all “inherited a memory of the dragon from an actual traumatic encounter our first parents—the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve—had with the apex predator: the Devil.”

The ubiquity of the dragon is, on my account, the scar of original sin. We all carry a Dragon-wound. The venom of the ancient Serpent is in us all and will kill us all. We have all been born east of Eden and bred in exile.

But because God is merciful, He rescues some of us from being completely delirious from the Serpent’s venom. We are homesick for Eden and for God, and we hate dragons of all kinds. So we delight in those old dragon tales—like St. George—where the dragon is vanquished, the damsel is saved, and the good land is liberated.

We long for a Champion who will succeed where Adam failed. After all, the Lord specifically took the man—Adam—and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬). That verb for to keep it means to guard, to watch over, to protect. Adam failed to do that. God specifically gave Adam the commandment, before He even made Eve: of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬). Adam should have protected the garden and his bride from the Serpent. Instead, he stood by and allowed her to be deceived (she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate, Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬ emphasis added); and willfully joined in Satan’s rebellion.

But God, that very day, promised us that a Dragonslayer, the Serpent-crusher, would come. And the seed of the Woman—collective—the Church, has always longed for the coming of the Serpent-crushing Son.

Christ came to be the Serpent-crusher. He succeeded where Adam failed. Satan came to our first parents in a verdant garden full of food, and tempted them to eat. But he came to Jesus in a barren wilderness, after a forty-day fast. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬) Rather than question or defy the word of God, Jesus stood firm. In that first battle, He owned the Serpent.

Christ’s whole ministry was dedicated to sabotaging the Serpent. When He forgave sins, healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead, He was breaking into the ancient Dragon’s hoard, like Bilbo Baggins raiding Smaug’s cave in The Hobbit. That’s exactly how Jesus framed His ministry: no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house (Mark‬ ‭3‬:‭27‬ ‭ESV‬‬). Every disease healed, disability corrected, demon evicted, sin forgiven, and death undone was to demonstrate that Jesus was indeed the promised Dragonslayer. Every miracle He did was a sign that Satan had no power over Him, and that the Father had sent Him to redeem His people and His property from the ancient Serpent’s thrall.

It is in His Cross and resurrection that He gains the decisive victory over Satan. While Adam was not willing to lay down his life for his bride Eve by fighting the Serpent; Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭25‬-‭27‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

By His perfect life, His atoning death, and His resurrection which secures our resurrection, Jesus has defanged the Serpent for His people: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭55‬-‭57‬ ‭ESV‬‬). So it is written: you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! (Psalm‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

Just as the Israelites plundered the Philistines after David defeated Goliath, the Church will have a share in His victory: The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet (Romans 16:20 ESV). At Judgment Day, believers will not sit in the dock to be examined and a verdict passed. Our Judgment Day happened on Good Friday. But Scripture says: do you not know that the saints will judge the world? … Do you not know that we are to judge angels? (1 Corinthians 6:2-3 ESV). Is Satan not among the fallen angels we will take part in condemning? The deceiver of the world and accuser of the brethren will himself be justly accused by the saints, and cast into Hell forever.

Like the dragonslayers of old, Christ rescues His Bride, the Church; and His Kingdom—all of creation—from the ancient Serpent. For it says: The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever (Revelation‬ ‭11‬:‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬). And, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬). And, according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

All of the Dragon-wounds will be fully healed when Christ returns. But they are already being healed now. For He says: Behold, I am making all things new (Revelation 21:5 ESV). Not simply I will make all things new, but I am currently at work to do it.

Why We Continue to Tell Dragon-Tales

So, Christ is the fulfillment and perfection of every dragon tale. He is the Dragonslayer; the Serpent-crusher. So why do we still treasure stories like St. George and the Dragon? Or Bilbo plundering Smaug’s treasure horde? Or Puddleglum breaking the spell of the venomous Lady of the Green Kirtle in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia? Or even Harry Potter’s battles against the serpentine Lord Voldemort, and his basilisk? Why do we still need them?

Well, first, because they remind us of the true story of our perfect Dragonslayer, the Lord Jesus Christ. They are all, in their way, rehearsing the Gospel.

But also because decapitated serpents still thrash about; and in the same way, a Satan with his head crushed still creates chaos in the wake of his death throes. Not only that, but the ancient Serpent’s seed is still with us, dwelling alongside and even among the seed of the Woman, the Church.

Remember Christ’s parable of the wheat and the tares: the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world (Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭38‬-‭39‬ ‭KJV‬‬). The Woman and her seed, the Church; will have to contend with the spawn of Satan until the end of history. Likewise, St. Paul warned the elders of the church at Ephesus: Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them (Acts‬ ‭20‬:‭28‬-‭30‬ ‭ESV‬‬, emphasis added).

As long as we are still awaiting the eternal return of our Dragonslayer, there will be dragons to fight. Demons are still present, of course, and working mischief, for St. Paul says we must still contend against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

Likewise, there are wicked men—predators, bullies, abusers, oppressors, bloody tyrants. These are the spiritual kin of Amalek, who cowardly attacked Israel as she journeyed in the wilderness, preying upon the old, weak, and small at the back of the congregation. Scripture proclaims: The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation (Exodus‬ ‭17‬:‭16‬ ‭ESV‬‬).

Again, heretics will arise in the Church. In Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, the work from which the most familiar version of St. George and the Dragon comes; before the knight meets the Dragon, he encounters a dragonish beast named Errour. She is half-woman, half-serpent, and suckles innumerable baby serpents from her venomous teats. The implication is clear: There will always be heretics in the church, nursing at the breast of error.

So we will not run out of dragons to fight. In every generations, there will be demonic strongholds to be torn down; tyrants to be defied; predators to be cast into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck. In every generation the Church must earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ ‭KJV‬‬). The hostility between the Dragon-seed and the Woman and her seed will continue until the end of this age.

So we need our dragon tales to remind us and our children that dragons must be fought, not appeased; and that they will be defeated. God will raise up a St. George to slay the dragon, liberate the kingdom, and marry the princess. A little Bilbo to plunder the dragon’s horde and a Bard to spot the chink in his scales and fire an arrow into it. A Puddleglum to break the Green Lady’s enchantment.

But even if we lose our lives fighting the dragons of our times, the Dragonslayer, Jesus Christ, has already triumphed over the father of dragons, the ancient Serpent, Satan. So even death will not have the final word over us. We fight against our dragons in light of the resurrection, remembering the words of St. Paul: Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭58‬ ‭ESV‬‬).