Top 1. Apr 15, 2005 7:31 PM

» ArthurRuger - Dang! There goes the inerrant Bible.
Today the unicorn is legendary, or mythical. But this was not always so. At one time the unicorn existed--or, at least, was thought to exist.

As described in ancient scientific writings and depicted in painting and tapestry, the unicorn was a beautiful horse-like creature with a single long horn thought to have medicinal properties. Respected ancient scholars, such as Aristotle and Pliny, mention them existing in their day. But today unicorns have gone the way of fairies, elves, and trolls. Belief in such creatures was abandoned with the 18th century Enlightenment. Oddly enough, however, the unicorn remained a fixture in the Bible until the 19th century.

"How could that be?" one may well ask.

The Christians who wrote the New Testament did not use the Hebrew Old Testament, but rather its Greek translation, as sacred Scripture. In the Greek Old Testament eight passages describe an animal having only one horn (monokeros) as a translation for the Hebrew word re'em.

In the late fourth century, the Old Testament was translated into Latin (the Vulgate) using both the Greek and Hebrew. In some of the passages above the Vulgate translates the Hebrew re'em as "rhinoceros" and others as "unicorn." All Christians used the Vulgate until the 16th century, at which time Martin Luther translated the Bible into German â?? the first time the Bible was ever translated into a modern European language. Luther used only the Hebrew, for the Old Testament. Nevertheless, he still translated re'em as unicorn.

Later William Tyndale, using only the Hebrew, likewise translated re'em as unicorn, and so did the King James Version of 1611. In the 19th century, however, scholars decided that the Hebrew re'em did not really mean unicorn, but rather wild buffalo. Thus Christians from the fourth century well into the 19th found the unicorn in the Bible. The first English language edition to read "wild ox" for the Hebrew re'em was the American Standard Version of 1901. Today, "wild ox" has become the accepted English translation for re'em.

The Greek Orthodox Church, however, still uses the ancient Greek version of the Jewish Bible as their Holy Scripture. Where it differs from the Hebrew (and it often does), they believe the differences are due to divine inspiration. Unicorns, therefore, still exist in their Bible, as they existed for all Christians until the 19th/20th centuries.

So the question boils down to this: Did scholars change re'em to "wild ox" because they knew unicorns were mythical and hence should not/could not have been in the Bible? Or did they change because of new information about the Hebrew word?

Once I asked a college class if they believed unicorns existed. They replied that unicorns had never existed â?? such is the influence of the Enlightenment on Western culture. When I pointed out that unicorns were in the Bible until the 19th century (and still are in some Bibles), most students changed their minds â?? such is the influence of the Bible in modern life.

What do you think? Were Christians misled by their Bibles for 1,900 years, or do unicorns really exist?

Charles W. Hedrick is distinguished professor emeritus of religious studies at Southwest Missouri State University.

http://www.suite101.com/discussion.cfm/new_christianity/116785


I guess, Joe, this explained my questioning. Both versions of my bible clearly state "wild ox". So, I wonder did they really exist and in what form where they. Where they the mystical horse like creature, or a rhinoceros, or a okapi like animal? Interesting though that the bibles before used the word unicorn and our modern version say "wild ox". Wonder what other words have been changed and that we are just now finding out about them.

Thank you, Joe, for another interesting topic.

That was a very nice follow-up article on the subject, bringing to light that we need to look at our source for scripture with diligence as we begin to understand it, and most definitely asking Our Father for the assistance of His Holy Spirit to guide us in the understanding. While I've used the New International Version (NIV) for simplicity, I try to keep my references to scripture in the King James Version (KJV) and New King James Version (NKJV) respectively. Seeking the original sources in Hebrew & Greek is a very big plus!

The unicorn is interesting as when I saw the article and pictures, the mythical distortion was removed and the reality of what this animal truly was like came about. The zebra & horse share similar characteristics which the Okapi displays, the geographical area of it's sighting is close enough to the Kingdom of Israel where trade and merchants shared goods and stories... Egypt & Ethiopia were two African nations with whom cultural exchanges took place... Egypt as far back as Abraham (2000 BC)& both Egypt & Ethiopia at the time of Moses(1500 BC), and let us not forget that there was a great famine that affected the region during the time of Joseph, who was 2nd in charge in Egypt and would have come in contact with peoples and goods of other area kingdoms. So the Okapi fits the description quite well for me, and the timing of it's rediscovery also seems very telling... science validating the Bible!