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Thursday, October 9th, 2025
the Week of Proper 22 / Ordinary 27
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Bible Dictionaries
Elephant

Bible Dictionary of Animals, Plants and other Objects

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Credit: Multiple: please see Wikimedia source

License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Credit URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org...

Comments: Collage of extant elephant species. From top left to right: the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis).

 

Elephant — We learn from Assyrian inscriptions that before the Hebrews settled in Syria, there existed elephants in that country, and Tiglath-Pileser I tells us about his exploits in elephant hunting. We do not read, however, of elephants in the Bible until the Maccabean times. True, III Kings (1Ki 10:18, 22; 1Ki 22:39) speaks of ivory, or "[elephants'] teeth", as the Hebrew text puts it, yet not as indigenous, but as imported from Ophir. In the post-exilian times, especially in the books of the Maccabees, elephants are frequently mentioned; they were an important element in the armies of the Seleucids. These animals were imported either from India or from Africa.

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Bibliography Information
Bible Diciontary of Animals, Plants, and other Objects. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​apo/​e/elephant.html. 2024.
 
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