Unicorns, myth, real or mistranslation?

[MISFIT]

Unicorns are mentioned many time s in the KJV Bible, and it's some-thing I have non-believers ask me about all the time. So I know many of here love to answer this kind of stuff so help me out here

Numbers 23:22
God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Numbers 24:8
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.

Deuteronomy 33:17
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.

Job 39:9
Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

Job 39:10
Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

Psalm 22:21
Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

Psalm 29:6
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

Psalm 92:10
But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Isaiah 34:7
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.

 

[John]

From AIG.

Some people claim the Bible is a book of fairy tales because it mentions unicorns. However, the biblical unicorn was a real animal, not an imaginary creature. The Bible refers to the unicorn in the context of familiar animals, such as peacocks, lambs, lions, bullocks, goats, donkeys, horses, dogs, eagles, and calves (Job 39:9–12.1) In Job 38–41, God reminded Job of the characteristics of a variety of impressive animals He had created, showing Job that God was far above man in power and strength.2

Job had to be familiar with the animals on God’s list for the illustration to be effective. God points out in Job 39:9–12 that the unicorn, “whose strength is great,†is useless for agricultural work, refusing to serve man or “harrow (plow) the valley.†This visual aid gave Job a glimpse of God’s greatness. An imaginary fantasy animal would have defeated the purpose of God’s illustration.

Modern readers have trouble with the Bible’s unicorns because we forget that a single-horned feature is not uncommon on God’s menu for animal design. (Consider the rhinoceros and narwhal.) The Bible describes unicorns skipping like calves (Psalm 29:6), traveling like bullocks, and bleeding when they die (Isaiah 34:7). The presence of a very strong horn on this powerful, independent-minded creature is intended to make readers think of strength.

The absence of a unicorn in the modern world should not cause us to doubt its past existence. (Think of the dodo bird. It does not exist today, but we do not doubt that it existed in the past.). Eighteenth century reports from southern Africa described rock drawings and eyewitness accounts of fierce, single-horned, equine-like animals. One such report describes “a single horn, directly in front, about as long as one’s arm, and at the base about as thick . . . . [It] had a sharp point; it was not attached to the bone of the forehead, but fixed only in the skin.â€Â3

The elasmotherium, an extinct giant rhinoceros, provides another possibility for the unicorn’s identity. The elasmotherium’s 33-inch-long skull has a huge bony protuberance on the frontal bone consistent with the support structure for a massive horn.4 In fact, archaeologist Austen Henry Layard, in his 1849 book Nineveh and Its Remains, sketched a single-horned creature from an obelisk in company with two-horned bovine animals; he identified the single-horned animal as an Indian rhinoceros.5 The biblical unicorn could have been the elasmotherium.6

Assyrian archaeology provides one other possible solution to the unicorn identity crisis. The biblical unicorn could have been an aurochs (a kind of wild ox known to the Assyrians as rimu).7 The aurochs’s horns were very symmetrical and often appeared as one in profile, as can be seen on Ashurnasirpal II’s palace relief and Esarhaddon’s stone prism.8 Fighting rimu was a popular sport for Assyrian kings. On a broken obelisk, for instance, Tiglath-Pileser I boasted of slaying them in the Lebanon mountains.9

Extinct since about 1627, aurochs, Bos primigenius, were huge bovine creatures.10 Julius Caesar described them in his Gallic Wars as:

“a little below the elephant in size, and of the appearance, color, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied . . . . Not even when taken very young can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed. The size, shape, and appearance of their horns differ much from the horns of our oxen. These they anxiously seek after, and bind at the tips with silver, and use as cups at their most sumptuous entertainments.â€Â11

The aurochs’ highly prized horns would have been a symbol of great strength to the ancient Bible reader.

One scholarly urge to identify the biblical unicorn with the Assyrian aurochs springs from a similarity between the Assyrian word rimu and the Hebrew word re’em. We must be very careful when dealing with anglicized transliterated words from languages that do not share the English alphabet and phonetic structure.12 However, similar words in Ugaritic and Akkadian (other languages of the ancient Middle East) as well as Aramaic mean “wild bull†or “buffalo,†and an Arabic cognate means “white antelope.â€Â

However, the linguistics of the text cannot conclusively prove how many horns the biblical unicorn had. While modern translations typically translate re’em as “wild ox,†the King James Version (1611), Luther’s German Bible (1534), the Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate translated this Hebrew word with words meaning “one-horned animal.†13

The importance of the biblical unicorn is not so much its specific identityâ€â€much as we would like to knowâ€â€but its reality. The Bible is clearly describing a real animal. The unicorn mentioned in the Bible was a powerful animal posessing one or two strong hornsâ€â€not the fantasy animal that has been popularized in movies and books. Whatever it was, it is now likely extinct like many other animals. To think of the biblical unicorn as a fantasy animal is to demean God’s Word, which is true in every detail.

 

[JudaicChristian]

Unicorns are mentioned many time s in the KJV Bible, and it's some-thing I have non-believers ask me about all the time. So I know many of here love to answer this kind of stuff so help me out here

Numbers 23:22
God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Numbers 24:8
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.

Deuteronomy 33:17
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.

Job 39:9
Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

Job 39:10
Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

Psalm 22:21
Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

Psalm 29:6
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

Psalm 92:10
But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Isaiah 34:7
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.

The places you have listed are mistranslations in the KJV. However there is a parable about a single horn goat in our bibles. In the book of Enoch, a single horn ram comes against a single horn goat in the last days. Some Christians think that the single horn ram is Jesus, and others think that it is Michael. The single horn goat is believed by some to be the (edit).

 

[John]

The single horn goat is believed by some to be the Vatican.

I lol'd

 

[JudaicChristian]

The single horn goat is believed by some to be the Vatican.

I lol'd

Edited. :bigfrown

 

[John]

And the more i know..cause knowledge is power

 

[MISFIT]

I really would not doubt either. There are many extinct animals, and I have heard that there are many mistranslations in the KJV. Thanks for your input.

 

[John]

Anytime man. Nice avatar btw, lol

 

[MISFIT]

Thanks! I love me some Futurama, I have all 4 seasons, still need to get the last 3 movies though.

 

[dentonz]

Unicorns are mentioned many time s in the KJV Bible, and it's some-thing I have non-believers ask me about all the time. So I know many of here love to answer this kind of stuff so help me out here

Numbers 23:22
God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Numbers 24:8
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.

Deuteronomy 33:17
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.

Job 39:9
Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

Job 39:10
Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

Psalm 22:21
Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

Psalm 29:6
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

Psalm 92:10
But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Isaiah 34:7
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.

The places you have listed are mistranslations in the KJV. However there is a parable about a single horn goat in our bibles. In the book of Enoch, a single horn ram comes against a single horn goat in the last days. Some Christians think that the single horn ram is Jesus, and others think that it is Michael. The single horn goat is believed by some to be the (edit).

It doesn't matter if it is a mistranslation but I happen to believe that it is not. What is a unicorn? How would one describe it? We have heard it is something like a horse with a single horn on its head... right? Okay what is a hippo? Does it look anything like a horse? No, it doesn't; however, hippopatamus means "river horse". Hmmm. There is however a creature still alive today that is built very similar to a hippo that does have a horn sticking out of its head and its called a rhino. So if ancient people would name a hippo a river horse, than it is very likely that one describing a rhino to someone that has never seen one could very possibly describe as a large horse like creature with a long sharp horn sticking out of its head.

 

[John]

It doesn't matter if it is a mistranslation but I happen to believe that it is not. What is a unicorn? How would one describe it? We have heard it is something like a horse with a single horn on its head... right? Okay what is a hippo? Does it look anything like a horse? No, it doesn't; however, hippopatamus means "river horse". Hmmm. There is however a creature still alive today that is built very similar to a hippo that does have a horn sticking out of its head and its called a rhino. So if ancient people would name a hippo a river horse, than it is very likely that one describing a rhino to someone that has never seen one could very possibly describe as a large horse like creature with a long sharp horn sticking out of its head.

Interesting concept

 

[dentonz]

It doesn't matter if it is a mistranslation but I happen to believe that it is not. What is a unicorn? How would one describe it? We have heard it is something like a horse with a single horn on its head... right? Okay what is a hippo? Does it look anything like a horse? No, it doesn't; however, hippopatamus means "river horse". Hmmm. There is however a creature still alive today that is built very similar to a hippo that does have a horn sticking out of its head and its called a rhino. So if ancient people would name a hippo a river horse, than it is very likely that one describing a rhino to someone that has never seen one could very possibly describe as a large horse like creature with a long sharp horn sticking out of its head.

Interesting concept

Also to add to my previous post. If you read all of the supposed mistranslations in the KJV that are listed in this thread about the unicorn and you substitute a rhinocerus in its place, they make a lot of sense. The verses talk about their strength, they talk about not being able to bind them up, it talks about the skipping of a young unicorn. If you've spent any time watching nature programs about rhinos, you'll notice how the young ones always skip and hop around. And as far as their strength is concerned, I don't think that needs any explanation.

 

[animal]

Got this from wikipedia. This is my new favorite bible verse by the way.

A one-horned animal (which may be just a bull in profile) is found on some seals from the Indus Valley Civilization.[2] Seals with such a design are thought to be a mark of high social rank.[3]

An animal called the Re’em (Hebrew: רְ×ÂÖµ×Â‎) is mentioned in several places in the Hebrew Bible, often as a metaphor representing strength. "The allusions to the re'em as a wild, un-tamable animal of great strength and agility, with mighty horn or horns (Job 39:9-12, Ps 22:21, 29:6, Num 23:22, 24:8, Deut 33:17 comp. Ps 92:11), best fit the aurochs (Bos primigenius). This view is supported by the Assyrian rimu, which is often used as a metaphor of strength, and is depicted as a powerful, fierce, wild mountain bull with large horns."[4] This animal was often depicted in ancient Mesopotamian art in profile, with only one horn visible.

The translators of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible (1611) employed unicorn to translate re'em, providing a recognizable animal that was proverbial for its un-tamable nature.