Mermaids, the mythical half-human, half-fish creatures, are not directly mentioned in the Bible. However, there are some passages in the Bible that may relate to mermaid legends and beliefs.
Leviathan
In the Old Testament, the Leviathan is described as a powerful sea creature or sea monster. The most detailed description is found in Job 41:
Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook? Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words? Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life? Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house? Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants? Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears? If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form. Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor? Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth? Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted. Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn. Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth. Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing. The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it. A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance. Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair. Nothing on earth is its equal— a creature without fear. It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud. (Job 41:1-34)
Some Bible scholars believe Leviathan was a crocodile. Others think it refers to a mythical sea creature or even Satan. Either way, the description of its large size, armor-like scales, and fearsome appearance has similarities to some mythical mermaid legends.
Rahab
In a few places, the Bible mentions “Rahab,” which is not referring to the Canaanite woman Rahab that helped the Israelite spies. This Rahab seems to refer to a symbolic sea monster or serpent.
Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through? (Isaiah 51:9)
It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert. (Psalm 74:13-14)
Similar to Leviathan, Rahab seems to represent the chaos and danger of the sea and mythological sea creatures. Some link the descriptions of Rahab to ancient Near East myths about sea monsters and serpents battling the gods.
The “great fish” that swallowed Jonah
The Old Testament book of Jonah describes how God sent Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh, but Jonah disobeyed and tried to flee by sea. In the midst of a storm, Jonah was thrown overboard and swallowed by a “great fish”:
Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.” And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:1-17)
While not specifically described as a mermaid, the “great fish” has drawn comparisons to giant sea creatures and monsters in mythological stories. Jonah being kept alive inside it for three days has mythological parallels that resonate with certain mermaid tales.
Symbolic creatures in Revelation
The New Testament book of Revelation contains vivid symbolic visions involving bizarre creatures. For example:
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. (Revelation 13:1-2)
The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. (Revelation 9:7-10)
While these visions are symbolic, the images of hybrid man-beast creatures arising from the sea have some parallels to mythical mermaid concepts. The visionary nature of Revelation means it should not be taken literally, but it shows how early Christians were familiar with hybrid legendary creatures associated with the seas.
Lack of definitive mermaid references
So while certain Bible passages may bring to mind mermaids and sea monsters, the Bible contains no definitive references to mermaids as specifically imagined in mythological traditions and medieval folklore. Passages about Leviathan or Rahab do not describe them as having human upper bodies and fish tails. And while the “great fish” that swallowed Jonah was a sea creature of unusual size, it is not depicted as a hybrid human-animal. The same is true of the symbolic beasts in Revelation, which are visions not intended to be taken literally.
In the Bible, the sea represents danger, chaos, and the unknown, as well as God’s power and mystery. So it makes sense that Bible authors would refer to fearful sea creatures as symbolic representations of those themes. However, they do not provide full physical descriptions that align with the artistic representations of mermaids in folklore and legend. Mermaids as specifically imagined in Western mythology—beautiful, human-like women with fish tails—do not appear in the Bible. The Bible focuses on theological truths, not descriptions of mythical beings. So if you are looking for a mermaid “sighting” in Scripture, you are likely to be disappointed.
That said, the lack of mermaids in the Bible has not stopped some people from claiming evidence that mermaids exist in the natural world. These claims about scientific “proof” of mermaids are controversial, but they illustrate that the legends and myths about mermaids still fascinate and spark the imagination. Even if the Bible contains no definitive mermaid references, mermaids remain ingrained in the human consciousness as mysterious and alluring figures of the sea.
