A number of Bible passages seem to mention unicorns, including Numbers 23:22, Deuteronomy 33:17, Job 39:9-10 and Psalm 22:21. So what’s the deal? Does the Bible really teach that unicorns existed in the ancient world?
Looking into this question teaches us some important lessons, not about Bible interpretation, but rather about Bible translation. It turns out that the only English translation that uses the word “unicorn” is the King James Version, which was translated back in 1611. No modern versions translate this Hebrew term as “unicorn.”
The actual Hebrew word is re’em and is consistently translated as “wild ox” in most modern versions of the Bible. The reason the King James translators used the word “unicorn” is easy to understand once we trace the translation history of this word.
The Hebrew word re’em was translated into the Greek Bible by using the word monokeros—which literally means “one horn.” From there, it was translated into the Latin Bible by using the word unicornis. What is the original meaning of this word? It simply refers to an animal with one horn. It does NOT refer to the mythical creature that looks like a horse with a horn coming out of its snout. That is what we modern Western people think of when we hear “unicorn,” because that is what we are familiar with from European fairy tales or the “My Little Pony” TV series! But the word itself simply refers to some type of animal with a single horn. We know that there are several species alive today that have a single horn, including the Indian rhinoceros, the narwhal and the unicorn fish.
So, what animal was the Bible referring to when it used the Hebrew word re’em? Some think it refers to a rhinoceros. Other scholars have pointed out that the reference in Numbers 23:22 uses the Hebrew word tow’apaha to refer to more than one horn. In light of this, it is quite possible that the Hebrew idea never referred to a literal one-horned animal at all! Rather, it was the Greek translators of the Bible who introduced the idea of one horn by choosing the word monokeros to translate the Hebrew. This would mean that the idea that unicorns are in the Bible is based on a mis-translation in the Greek! In other words it is possible the Greek translators were taking some creative license to create a graphic image of a wild and powerful animal, but one that, literally understood, had two horns and was a normal, everyday animal.
It has been proposed that the most likely candidate for this animal is the aurochs (or urus), a large type of cattle that populated Europe and Asia in ancient times, and that became extinct sometime in the 1600s.
