Should Christians Believe in the Existence of Unicorns?

Critics and skeptics love to mock Christians because some older translations of the Bible, such as the King James Version, mention unicorns in nine different verses. My employer, Answers in Genesis, has frequently been ridiculed on this point. Someone has developed a unicorn museum website to spoof the Creation Museum site. Many atheists and other skeptics have derided the Ark Encounter project by asking if there will be unicorns on the Ark. The video linked to in this article shows a few examples of skeptics mocking biblical creationists on this issue. So what is this all about?

The word translated as “unicorn” in the KJV, is often rendered as “wild ox” in modern translations (the Hebrew word is re’em). For example, see Psalm 22:21 and Job 39:9–12 in the KJV and then compare to a modern version like the NKJV or NASB.

Is this mystical creature what the King James Version refers to as a unicorn?
(Image courtesy of www.scenicreflections.com)

Those who mock the Bible at this point are guilty of some pretty shoddy scholarship. Rather than spending their time mocking, they should try to understand why the King James translators used the word unicorn or its plural form nine times. Luther’s German Bible, translated nearly a century earlier than the KJV, also renders the Hebrew word re’em as Einhorn (lit. “one horn” or unicorn).

So all of these translators were guilty of believing in some make-believe animal, right? Not at all! The main problem is that several centuries ago, when people mentioned a creature called a unicorn they often had in mind something very different than the mystical horse-like creature pictured above.

Here’s an excellent video that explains why biblical translators used the word unicorn.

As explained in the video, the 1828 edition of Webster’s Dictionary cites two different possible identifications for the unicorn:

  1. An animal with one horn; the monoceros. The name is often applied to the rhinoceros.
  2. The sea unicorn is a fish of the whale kind, called narwal, remarkable for a horn growing out at his nose.

Modern versions of Webster’s Dictionary describe the unicorn as a mythical animal. Are we just that much smarter than people 200 years ago who believed in mythical creatures? Of course not. The difference is now when most people hear the term “unicorn” they automatically think of the horse-like fantasy creature because our society has been so inundated with that imagery. However, Noah Webster recognized that the term unicorn simply referred to an animal with one horn, such as the one-horned rhinoceros (as shown in the video) and the narwhal.

Webster was not alone. Consider the following descriptions from some very old sources. During his vast travels, Marco Polo kept detailed records. He mentioned seeing unicorns while visiting what is now known as Sumatra. Here is what he wrote:

They have wild elephants and plenty of unicorns, which are scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant’s. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead . . . They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions. (Ronald Latham, translator, Marco Polo: The Travels (New York: Penguin, 1958), p. 253.)

Marco Polo specifically refuted the mystical notion of a unicorn by dismissing the creature of legends that could supposedly be captured only by virgins. This idea still persists in unicorn lore.

Illustration of an elasmotherium. Is this what Marco Polo saw?

So what did Marco Polo see? It certainly wasn’t the horse-like creature. He said it was very ugly to look at and was barely smaller than an elephant. The rhinoceros would be an excellent candidate for this, especially the extinct version known as elasmotherium (pictured here). Some argue that what Polo saw was the Javan Rhinoceros (a one-horned variety of the rhino). While this is possible, the Javan Rhinoceros does not have hair like a buffalo as the elasmotherium likely had.

In the twelfth century, a popular book on animals (a bestiary) was written. Known as The Book of Beasts, it offered descriptions of numerous animals, including the unicorn. Although this ancient book included an illustration of the mythical horse-like unicorn, the English translation by T. H. White includes the following information in a footnote:

To put it briefly, the idea of the unicorn probably originated in travellers’ tales about the rhinoceros whose horn was so much valued in Asia as an aphrodisiac. These tales about the scarce horn were given an impetus by the teeth of narwhal found on beaches. The famous medieval ones at Paris, Venice, Antwerp and in England, and those belonging to the King of Poland and the Duke of Mantua, with what Sir Thomas Browne calls their ‘anfractuous spires and chocleary turnings’, were narwhal horns. They were supposed also to have great virtue against poisons, particularly arsenic.” (T. H. White, translator, The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1954; 1984), p. 44.

“Chocleary” may be a misprint for “cochlear,” a term which describes a coiled shape like a snail shell. The description of the narwhal’s horn, which is actually a tooth, perfectly matches the horns on the popular drawings of the mythical horse-like unicorns. It is easy to see how legends were built upon the supposed magical or medicinal properties of these rare horns.

So let’s take a quick look at how the Bible describes the unicorn. The descriptions of this creature sometimes appear in the midst of discussions of other well-known animals and are treated as real creatures. As you read the descriptions here, notice how a real and extremely powerful animal like a rhinoceros is being described rather than the mythical horse-like creature.

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? Or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? Or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn? (Job 39:9–12)

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. (Deuteronomy 33:17)

The narrator of the video was not entirely correct that the King James translators made a mistake here; however, I think they could have been just a little bit more precise. The Hebrew term re’em almost certainly refers to the rhinoceros—both the single horn (rhinoceros unicornis) and two-horned (diceros bicornis) varieties. In this particular verse, it probably would have been more accurate to refer to the two-horned creature here, especially since the plural term “horns” appears twice in this passage while referring to a single creature.

This verse likens Joseph’s descendants to the horns of a rhinoceros. The larger horn represents Joseph’s son Ephraim, who had far more descendants than his brother Manasseh, represented by the smaller horn.

So should Christians believe in unicorns? Absolutely! They were very likely of the rhinoceros kind (perhaps including the elasmotherium). Many of them are still alive today. They were definitely not the mythical horse-like creature, nor did the Bible writers portray such a creature. Their descriptions match that of the rhinoceros. Some Christians propose that this refers to the “wild ox” or the extinct aurochs, whose symmetrical horns may appear as one in profile drawings.

All those critics who enjoy mocking the Bible on this point should perform a bit of research to see how foolish they sound for mocking Christians who believe in the existence of the rhinoceros and/or elasmotherium. But like I’ve said before, many of these scoffers are not interested in studying the Bible, they simply want to mock it and suppress what they know to be true because they do not like the idea of God being their judge when they die. Rather than willfully suppressing the truth and remaining in ignorance, I pray these critics will bury their pride, repent of their sin, and trust in their Creator, whose name is Jesus Christ.

Answers in Genesis has offered several responses to the critics on this subject, including a chapter in their popular New Answers Book series and web articles like this one.

What are your thoughts on this subject? If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on facebook and/or twitter by clicking the appropriate buttons below. Thanks for reading.

The Sons of God and the Nephilim—Part 2

[As of 11/5/11 my thesis is now available in print or for Amazon Kindle.] In my previous post I briefly explained the subject of my thesis and summarized the three major evangelical approaches to the mysterious identity of the sons of God and Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6. In this article I will explain why one of the popular views does not adequately explain the text, but I need to critique the liberal view of this passage.

Most liberal scholars believe the early chapters of Genesis are a compilation of various myths that the Jews borrowed from the surrounding cultures. As such, Genesis 6 is seen as a myth about gods cohabiting with women, similar to the popular Greek myths of gods and goddesses having affairs with human beings.

There are many problems with this position, but two will be cited here. First, the early chapters of Genesis are not compiled from pagan myths. They are accurate historical accounts of real events. This includes Genesis 6. Second, the Bible is strictly monotheistic (belief in one God), and if the proposed redactor (compiler and editor) tried to insert polytheistic teaching in Scripture, the Jews would have immediately dismissed it. It makes much more sense to see Genesis as providing the true history of earth while the pagan legends are distortions of real events.

This brings us to one of the three major views held by evangelicals today: the Sethite view. Briefly stated, this position sees the sons of God as godly descendants of Seth who married the daughters of men, believed to be the ungodly women from the line of Cain. Some of those in this camp see the Nephilim as the offspring of these unions while others believe they were simply a group of people on the earth when these marriages took place.

There are a few strengths for this position. First, it avoids the troublesome nature of the fallen angel view. Second, the surrounding context provides some support for this notion, since the descendants of Cain and Seth are described in Genesis 4–5. Finally, this was the dominant view in church history from the time of Augustine (4th century) until the early 20th century. In the past century this interpretation has largely fallen out of favor with most scholars, but there are still some who hold to it.

Despite its apparent strengths, this view has some significant weaknesses. First, the Bible does not reveal that all of the Sethite men were godly and Cainites ungodly. In fact, this clearly was not the case. By the time of Noah, only eight people survived the Flood on the Ark. The rest of the world was corrupt and evil (Genesis 6:5–12). This would have included all of the allegedly godly Sethites except for Noah and his family. Furthermore, if these Sethite men were so godly, then why did they continually marry ungodly women?

Second, this position does not really account for the offspring of these unions being described as “mighty men of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4). Why would the children of these marriages be any different than the children that come from unions of unbelievers and believers today? Why would these illicit unions lead to the devastating judgment of the Flood?

Third, it is important to understand that this view was the last of the major views to be developed. It only came about after the rise of the allegorical hermeneutic among Christians in the third century who sought to explain away the plain meaning of the text.

Fourth, this view fails to account for the existence of the Nephilim in the Promised Land mentioned in Numbers 13:33. Since all of the Cainites would have been wiped out in the Flood, there would not have been any of them around in the post-Flood world to produce Nephilim (at least not in the same manner as those in Genesis 6).

Fifth, the strongest (and I believe fatal) objection to this position comes from the text itself. Read through the passage below and pay close attention to how the word men (or man) is used throughout.

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:1–4)

Notice how the first use of “men” in this passage is in a general sense, that is, all men. This verse talks about something happening when (all) men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them. Who were daughters born to according to this verse? Men in general. Not a specific group of men.

So what happened when mankind multiplied? Well, verse two tells us that that the “sons of God” saw the “daughters of men” and married them. If the daughters in the first verse referred to the daughters born to men in general, then the “daughters of men” in this passage should refer to the same group of women. However, the Sethite view claims that “the daughters of men” in verse two only refers to a select group of people—the female descendants of Cain. There is no justifiable interpretive principle that allows for this sort of hermeneutical gymnastics. But it gets far worse.

In verse three God said that His spirit would not strive with man forever. This is a reference to all mankind. As far as I know, proponents of each of the views would agree on this point. However, verse four mentions that the giants (Hebrew Nephilim) were on the earth in those days, when the sons of God had children with the “daughters of men.” Once again, the Sethite position requires “men” in this passage to refer to a select group of individuals.

This inconsistent and unjustifiable interpretive scheme led commentator Gordon Wenham to write that perhaps what the author of Genesis really meant to write was that “the sons of some men [married] the daughters of other men” (Wenham, Genesis, 139).

Bible scholar Derek Kidner wrote, “The sons of God are identified by some interpreters as the sons of Seth, over against those of Cain. By others, including early Jewish writers, they are taken to mean angels. If the second view defies the normalities of experience, the first defies those of language (and our task is to find the author‘s meaning).” Derek Kidner, The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Genesis (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1967), 83–84.

The Sethite view fails, not because it is implausible from a human perspective, but because it offers an unjustifiable interpretation of Genesis 6 that defies the use of language.

In the next article I will critique the second most popular view of this passage which views the sons of God as royalty and the daughters of men as women who were taken into their harems.

[Click here for Part 3 of the Sons of God and the Nephilim]