Did you know that unicorns are actually mentioned in the Bible? As a matter of fact, the word “unicorn” appears nine times in the King James Version, in five different books, written by five different authors. One of these who mentioned a unicorn was God himself!
Below are some of the verses:
- 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 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.”
- 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.”
- Psalm 22:21 – “Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.”
- 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.”
Now, since unicorns are mentioned in the Bible, does that mean white, horse-like creatures with one horn roamed around in Bible times? Sadly, the answer is no. When the King James Bible was translated in 1611, the word “unicorn” simply meant, “An animal with one horn; the monoceros. This name is often applied to the rhinoceros” (1828 Noah Webster’s Dictionary). This takes on a totally different meaning than what we would think of as a unicorn today.
In the Latin language, the words that were translated into “unicorn” by the King James translators were unicornium, unicornis, and rhinoceros. That last one seems awfully familiar, doesn’t it? In 1611, the words “unicorn” and “rhinoceros” were basically synonymous. In the times of Bible translation, legends of horses with a single horn were not widespread and common like they are today. When someone mentioned a unicorn, the picture of a rhinoceros would come into the mind of the listener.
There you have it: a short explanation of unicorns in the Bible. To find out more on this subject, click here: http://creationtoday.org/why-does-the-bible-mention-unicorns/.
