unicorns in the bible ?

[RichardT]

um... lol , what ? Are there really unicorns in the bible ? Can you show me ?

[ZiSunka]

De 33:17 (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=de+33:17&version=kjv&st=1&sd=1&new=1&showtools=1) - Show Context (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=de+33:17&version=kjv&context=1&showtools=1) His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.
Ps 22:21 (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=ps+22:21&version=kjv&st=1&sd=1&new=1&showtools=1) - Show Context (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=ps+22:21&version=kjv&context=1&showtools=1) Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
Isa 34:7 (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=isa+34:7&version=kjv&st=1&sd=1&new=1&showtools=1) - Show Context (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=isa+34:7&version=kjv&context=1&showtools=1) And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

[ZiSunka]

Nu 23:22 (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=nu+23:22&version=kjv&st=1&sd=1&new=1&showtools=1) - Show Context (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=nu+23:22&version=kjv&context=1&showtools=1) God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.
Nu 24:8 (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=nu+24:8&version=kjv&st=1&sd=1&new=1&showtools=1) - Show Context (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=nu+24:8&version=kjv&context=1&showtools=1) God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.
Job 39:9 (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=job+39:9&version=kjv&st=1&sd=1&new=1&showtools=1) - Show Context (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=job+39:9&version=kjv&context=1&showtools=1) Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
Job 39:10 (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=job+39:10&version=kjv&st=1&sd=1&new=1&showtools=1) - Show Context (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=job+39:10&version=kjv&context=1&showtools=1) Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
Ps 29:6 (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=ps+29:6&version=kjv&st=1&sd=1&new=1&showtools=1) - Show Context (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=ps+29:6&version=kjv&context=1&showtools=1) He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
Ps 92:10 (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=ps+92:10&version=kjv&st=1&sd=1&new=1&showtools=1) - Show Context (http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?passage=ps+92:10&version=kjv&context=1&showtools=1) But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

[RichardT]

So , unicorns existed ? I never heard of this before..

[MrJim]

:clap:

Unicorns-they ain't New Age after all^_^

[RichardT]

Wow this is completely going to kill my faith in the bible if some dosn't give a good explanation to this..

[ZiSunka]

Wow this is completely going to kill my faith in the bible if some dosn't give a good explanation to this..

Wow! God owes you an explanation for having unicorns in His word? Sounds like dangerous territory to me!

Nevertheless, why is it impossible for you to believe that unicorns ever existed? Did wooly mammoths exist? Did dinosaurs exist? Did passenger pigeons exist?

Show me where the Bible says that every animal that once existed still exists today, and then I'll understand why the existence of unicorns threatens your faith.

[RichardT]

Wow! God owes you an explanation for having unicorns in His word? Sounds like dangerous territory to me!

Nevertheless, why is it impossible for you to believe that unicorns ever existed? Did wooly mammoths exist? Did dinosaurs exist? Did passenger pigeons exist?

Show me where the Bible says that every animal that once existed still exists today, and then I'll understand why the existence of unicorns threatens your faith.

Unicorns existed? We have not found any runicorn remains...

[ZiSunka]

Unicorns existed? We have not found any runicorn remains...

So? Unless there's a corpse, it never existed?

I guess it's really hard for you to believe in Jesus then, since the only evidence of him is in the Bible, just like unicorns.

[RichardT]

So? Unless there's a corpse, it never existed?

I guess it's really hard for you to believe in Jesus then, since the only evidence of him is in the Bible, just like unicorns.

Oh ok , I guess unicorns did exist...

[arunma]

Richard, in most modern translations of the Bible, you'll find "wild ox" instead of unicorn. It's unfortunate that the KJV translators used the word unicorn (I suppose that in their day, people really did believe in unicorns). However, even these godly men were still only mortal men, and they erred in translating the pertinent words as unicorns.

Now, if you believe in KJV-onlyism, then I suppose this is a problem. If anything, it should only shake your faith in the doctrine of KJV-onlyism. But there is no problem with the word of God.

[MrJim]

Other versions translate as rhinocerous or wild ox...

[handmaiden97]

a unicorn is simply a one horned animal right, not the beautiful horse of folk lore. infact there is a type of deer like critter in Africa with horns so close together from a side vies it looks like only one...it is refered to as an ancient unicorn...I will try and find a picture of it....I wonder if that isnt what the biblcal unicorn is

[graysparrow]

Wow this is completely going to kill my faith in the bible if some dosn't give a good explanation to this..

Richard I don't really know what the Bible refers to. Yet 'unicorn' is a latin (not hebrew) word. Add to that, that in the middle ages rinoceros were called unicorns and you have a possible clue to what happened in the mind of translators.

Remember that till quite recently most europeans have not even seen the picture of a rinoceros so they had to describe them some way... horse with horn. Remember that the use of unicorns horn in medicine parallels with that of the unicorn.

Secondly the translators were guessing here as it is not clear the meaning of Re'hame (wild bull). It could even be some extinct animal we know nothing of or who knows, maybe there were still wild herds of cows and bulls back then.

[CooL_Genesis]

Richard,

Faith is believing that which can not be seen. Be careful not to let words or descriptions from the Bible; unicorns, a beast with 10 horns (Rev.), etc., stretch your imagination to the point of unbelief in the scriptures.

Have Faith! :) Trust in the Lord and His Word and you will gain understanding. Seek, and ye shall find.

-Genesis

[ZiSunka]

Or, it could be that unicorns existed, but are now extint. It isn't all that unusual for scientists to discover a creature or a fossil from a creature that they thought was pure myth.

Just because there are no unicorns today doesn't mean they never existed.

[MrJim]

It's nice to think that there were bona fide unicorns--horses with a single horn--and that they weren't just rhinos or something like that.

[BigNorsk]

Since I am the probable source of this, I thought I should answer. The KJV translators ran into a word in reference to an animal a re'em. They didn't know exactly what that word meant. But they knew some characteristics of it. It was strong, untamable, has a horn, is fierce and so on.

They didn't know what the animal was.

So they used the unicorn. Now we would read unicorn and think the mythical horse with one horn, but I don't believe that is correct.

Take the footnote from the KJV for Isaih 34:7

Isaiah 34:7 KJV
(7) And the unicorns [172] shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

[172] unicorns: or, rhinocerots


Take the entry from the 1828 Webster's Dictionary.
Rhinoceros
RHINOC'EROS, n. [L. rhinoceros; Gr. nose-horn.]

A genus of quadrupeds of two species, one of which, the unicorn, as a single horn growing almost erect from the nose. This animal when full grown, is said to be 12 feet in length. There is another species with two horns, the bicornis. They are natives of Asia and Africa.

Unicorn
U'NICORN, n. [L. unicornis; unus, one, and cornu, horn.]

1. an animal with one horn; the monoceros. this name is often applied to the rhinoceros.

2. The sea unicorn is a fish of the whale kind, called narwal, remarkable for a horn growing out at his nose.

3. A fowl.

fossil unicorn, or fossil unicorn's horn, a substance used in medicine, a terrene crustaceous spar.

We tend now when we hear unicorn to think of the mythical horse with a horn, but notice that the 1828 Webster's doesn't even mention that meaning. Certainly strange with the prominence the KJV had in that day if the meaning in the KJV wouldn't even be considered? We also have the Webster bible which also used unicorns, so we are really certain what he meant.

I think it's pretty clear, from their own hand, that the translators were referring to the single horned rhinocerous not the mythical flying horse-like creature.

Study since then has led us to believe that it is an extinct species of ox. If you go through the references you see that indeed a fierce ox fits and fits well the verses.

So it is a case where the translators used an educated guess,based on the characteristics of the animal, even if it ended up not to be the actual animal referenced.

And we probably shouldn't "blame" the KJV translators, it actually goes back past them. Luther called the animals "Einhorns" which literally means single horns or unicorns. Tyndale, the Bishop's bible, the Geneva bible all use unicorn.

The Douay-Rheims uses rhinocerous which actually reflectsan earlier source, the Vulgate. The Vulgate uses the word "rinocerotis".

Now the LXX uses the word "μονοκερως" which as far as I can tell means unicorn in English. So it would be a very probably source for Jerome's Vulgate.

So there we are, all the way back to the LXX. The basic question is whether the translators of the LXX were correct. Current scholarship would say no, which would shoot down the claims of divine inspration for the two translations it is most commonly claimed for.

But in any case, we should understand that we are talking about the very real rhinocerous and not the mythical unicorn.

Marv

[ZiSunka]

So the LXX says unicorn, but rhinoceros is correct, therefore the Bible is wrong and "scholarship" is corrent?

[MrJim]

BigNorsk (Swedish for "wet blanket") ;)

[graysparrow]

So the LXX says unicorn, but rhinoceros is correct, therefore the Bible is wrong and "scholarship" is corrent?

The LXX is just a translation. Secondly the medieval myths regarding the unicorn maybe were not developed back in pre-medieval times.

[BigNorsk]

You guys are on your own with all the references to dragons.

Marv

[arunma]

So the LXX says unicorn, but rhinoceros is correct, therefore the Bible is wrong and "scholarship" is corrent?

Well I might not be a KJV-onlyist, but I do believe in LXX-onlyism. So now you're starting to speak my language (which is Greek).

[NothingButTheBlood]

I have always heard it's an Irish myth that unicorns existed but they all died in the flood because they played when God told them to go to the arc.

[JPPT1974]

Don't remember ever knowing that there were unicorns in the bible at all my friends?:confused: