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Some people are critical of readings such as this in the King James Version:
Critics point to the mythical unicorn, and show yet another reason to not trust the Bible.
Perhaps because of such claims other Bible translations substitute the word 'unicorn' for something different.
The American Standard Version reads:
The word in question is the Hebrew word 'rĕ'em' which is used a total of 9 times in scripture.
The root word of 'rĕ'em' means to rise, but scholars are honest in admitting that the translation of 'rĕ'em' is not certain.
Many people at this point turn to the Septuagint which translates this 1 Hebrew word 2 different ways.
7 times is is translated to mean 'one horn'.
1 times it is translated as 'mighty one'.
1 time it is not translated and left out of the text.
Other people turn to the Latin Vulgate which translates the 1 Hebrew word with 5 different Latin words.
Jerome translated Psalms into Latin and the 3 times 'rĕ'em' appears in the Psalms he made the following translation choices.
Once he translated as 'one horn', or 'single horn'.
Once he translated it as 'rhinoceros'.
And once he transliterated the Greek word 'monokeros' as 'monocerotis'.
Ultimately it comes down to what language a person wants to use as their foundation.
Some use Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Latin, or English.
I will use the Hebrew as my foundation.
So what does the Hebrew reveal about this obscure animal?
Numbers 23:22 reads:
This shows us the animal is very strong.
The next characteristic is in Psalm 29:6:
This shows us the animal leaps at least when it is young.
A second characteristic appears in Job 39:9-10:
These verses show that the animal was not domesticated.
A third characteristic is in Deuteronomy 33:17:
This verse shows us that a singular rĕ'em can have multiple horns.
Does this invalidate the idea of an animal with a single horn?
Maybe not, because of what is says in Psalm 92:10:
Here it is possible that a rĕ'em, could have one horn, while another in the rĕ'em family may have multiple.
Such is the case with the rhinoceros family.
Interestingly enough a rhinoceros is a possible beast that fits this description as a young rhinoceros does indeed leap.
But writers from the 5th century BC also describe a single horned beast that is distinct from the rhinoceros.
The use of the word unicorn can be drawn from the Greek Septuagint which chose to translate the Hebrew word 'rĕ'em' with the Greek word 'monokerōs' which means 'one horn'.
The Septuagint is puzzling in that it reads "the horns of a unicorn".
The plural horns of a one horn? I don't get it.
The more common use of the word unicorn is from European folklore from the 5th century or later.
This is of coarse much later than the completion of the Hebrew scriptures.
This shows that the Bible is not referring to such an animal that would not even be invented until much later in the future.
This video gave us some ideas of what the rĕ'em is, or was.
Translations that use the word 'unicorn' are either arrived at from the context, or may be a wrong choice by a translator that failed to distinguish correctly between singular and plural words.
As far as I know the first translation to use the word unicorn is William Tyndale's translation in 1530.
So the issue is not to be made with the scriptures, but rather with translations of them.