{"id":18218,"date":"2018-09-11T12:36:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T16:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dougbittinger.com\/thoughts\/?p=18218"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:37","slug":"unicorns-in-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/unicorns-in-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Unicorns In the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the arguments that some Bible critics make is that it mentions unicorns — which we all know are mythical creatures and therefore the Bible must be a book of myth and legend, not fact.\u00a0 And indeed the King James Bible does talk about unicorns:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Daniel 8:5<\/a> [Full Chapter]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Bible search results<\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
Numbers 23:22<\/a> — God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn<\/b>.<\/div>\n
\n
In Context<\/a> | Full Chapter<\/a> | Other Translations<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
Numbers 24:8<\/a> — God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn<\/b>: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.<\/div>\n
\n
In Context<\/a> | Full Chapter<\/a> | Other Translations<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
\n
Deuteronomy 33:17<\/a> — His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorn<\/b>s: 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.<\/div>\n
\n
In Context<\/a> | Full Chapter<\/a> | Other Translations<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
\n
Job 39:9<\/a> — Will the unicorn<\/b> be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?<\/div>\n
\n
In Context<\/a> | Full Chapter<\/a> | Other Translations<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
\n
Job 39:10<\/a> — Canst thou bind the unicorn<\/b> with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?<\/div>\n
\n
In Context<\/a> | Full Chapter<\/a> | Other Translations<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
\n
Psalm 22:21<\/a> — Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn<\/b>s.<\/div>\n
\n
In Context<\/a> | Full Chapter<\/a> | Other Translations<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
\n
Psalm 29:6<\/a> — He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn<\/b>.<\/div>\n
\n
In Context<\/a> | Full Chapter<\/a> | Other Translations<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
\n
Psalm 92:10<\/a> — But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn<\/b>: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.<\/div>\n
\n
In Context<\/a> | Full Chapter<\/a> | Other Translations<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n
\n
Isaiah 34:7<\/a> — And the unicorn<\/b>s 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.<\/div>\n
\n
In Context<\/a> | Full Chapter<\/a> | Other Translations<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The above results are from BibleGateway.org,\u00a0 King James Version<\/a> (KJV)<\/strong>\u00a0 Public Domain<\/a><\/p>\n

The problem comes from applying a modern conception to an ancient fact.\u00a0 In modern translations, most have changed “unicorn” to wild goat or wild ox to get away from the foible inherent with the word unicorn.\u00a0 But the actual, living unicorn was also recorded in non-biblical texts and we can use those to support the truth of the Bible.\u00a0 One such was the Merriam Webster dictionary.\u00a0 The 1828 edition contained this reference:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>U’NICORN<\/strong>, noun<\/em> [Latin unicornis; unus, one, and cornu, horn.]
\n1.<\/strong> an animal with one horn; the monoceros. this name is often applied to the rhinoceros.
\n2.<\/strong> The sea unicorn<\/em> is a fish of the whale kind, called narwal, remarkable for a horn growing out at his nose.<\/p>\n

The earliest extra biblical writings to mention Unicorns were the writings of a Greek writer: Ctesias in the late 5th century BCE.\u00a0 He described a strong animal with a white body, a red head, and a single horn protruding from its head.\u00a0 450 years later, Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote of single horned beast that was so strong and so wild that it could not be captured alive.<\/p>\n

So, when the King James Bible talks about a Unicorn, it’s not the whimsical white horse we think of today, but an early rhinoceros.\u00a0 That kind of pulls the chair out from under that argument about the Bible being a book of fables, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the arguments that some Bible critics make is that it mentions unicorns — which we all know are mythical creatures and therefore the Bible must be a book of myth and legend, not fact.  And indeed the King James Bible does talk about unicorns: Daniel 8:5 [Full Chapter] And as I was considering, … Continue reading “Unicorns In the Bible”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-18218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-bible"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21255,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218\/revisions\/21255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}