Unicorn Rebuttal Points

“The Best Things have been Calumniated”

1. Margin of Isaiah 34:7 shows that the KJV translators meant rhinoceros

A. This is completely backwards understanding of the “‖ Or, …” marginal annotations.  These marginal annotations refer to what the KJV translators called “diverse” senses, which means “different senses,” or as Scrivener put it, “alternative readings.” Timothy Berg, who has also extensively studied the marginal annotations, has the same description (here). 

B. The marginal annotations, that say “‖ Or, …” always express a different sense from the main text.  Sometimes the difference is small, sometimes the difference is large, but there is always a difference.  There are explanatory notes, but these are indicated with a dagger symbol 

2. Deuteronomy 33:17 doesn’t mean that the Re’em has two horns because sometimes the singular noun can stand for the plural in Hebrew.

While it is certainly true that a singular noun can refer generically to a group, and arguably that’s even the case here (1) English follows the same grammatical principle as Hebrew on this point and consequently it is better to translate the singular with a singular and, more importantly, (2) because in this case although Reem is singular, horns is plural, so the expansion based on generic use is just to a herd of reems each of which has horns.  The two words Reem and horns are tied together grammatically.  

3. The “single horn reference” in Psalm 92:10 is “ignored”

The “singular” horn reference in Psalm 92 is about the horn of the person, not the Reem.  The phrase “the horn of an unicorn” in the KJV is supplied by the translators, it is not the text of Scripture.  This can be seen from the italics both in the modern editions of the KJV and in the original printing of the KJV.

Psalm 92:10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Here are six words of the Hebrew text (with vertical lines added for folks less familiar with Hebrew) with the corresponding English below (recall that Hebrew is written right to left):

וַתָּרֶם | כִּרְאֵים | קַרְנִי | בַּלֹּתִי | בְּשֶׁמֶן | רַעֲנָֽן׃

 fresh. | with oil | I will be anointed | my horn | like a Reem | But you will exalt

4. The Septuagint translates as μονόκερως (monókerōs)

There be many words in the Scriptures which be never found there but once, having neither brother nor neighbour (as the Hebrews speak) so that we cannot be holpen by conference of places. Again, there be many rare names of certain birds, beasts, and precious stones &c. concerning which the Hebrews themselves are so divided among themselves for judgment, that they may seem to have defined this or that, rather because they would say something, than because they were sure of that which they said, as St Hierome somewhere saith of the Septuagint. Now in such a case doth not a margin do well to admonish the Reader to seek further, and not to conclude or dogmatize upon this or that peremptorily?

5. The Latin has Rhinocerotis five times and Unicornis four times. 

(p. 156/205)

6. All English bibles predating 1611 have Unicorn in every place, except the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible that has both Vnicorn and Rhinoceros. 

(22) þara anhyrna: Ro. unicornuorum; according to Helge Kökeritz, “The Anglo-Saxon Unicorn,” in Early English and Norse Studies ed. Arthur Brown and Peter Foote (London, 1963), pp. 120-26, at p. 125, anhyrna is the wk. fem. noun anhyrne, and the gen. pl. flexion in -a is analogical from the st. gen. pl. nouns or is a corrupt form (through haplology) of original *anhyrnena. But the subst. adj. of the corresponding Lat. and the preponderance of adj. renderings of Lat. unicornis, unicornuus among the Old English glossed psalters suggests that anhyrna here represents an adj. used subst., perhaps originally anhyrnena, with subsequent modification either through haplography or through late West Saxon confusion with the vocalic declension of nouns (see S-B §304, n. 2). See also Gneuss, Lehnbildungen, no. 167.

ANHYRNE adj. subst. (?) unicorn gp wk. anhyrna 21.22 (see Commentary)

7. The concept of another animal, such as a “wild-ox”, “Auroch”, or “goat” came after 1611, and was mostly popularized in modern bibles versions since around the time of Westcott and Hort’s Revised Version. 

8. Rabbi Kimhi (aka Rabbi Kimchi aka “the Radak” for RAbbi DAvid Kimhi)  

“Re’em with his majestic horns” (Deuteronomy 33:17), meaning a type of wild ox with only one horn, as in “the calves of the re’em” (Psalm 29:6). The word “re’em” is sometimes spelled with an aleph instead of an ayin, such as “from the horns of the re’em you answered me” (Psalm 22:22), and sometimes with a yod instead of an ayin, such as “will the wild ox be willing to serve you” (Job 39:9). It is a very strong animal among the desert beasts.

ראם   וְקַרְנֵי רְאֵם קַרְנָיו (דברים לג, יז), רוצה לומר ראםי כי אין לראם אלא קרן אחת. כְּמוֹ בֶן־רְאֵמִֽים (תהלים כט, ו). ובהניח האל”ף וּמִקַּרְנֵי רֵמִים עֲנִיתָֽנִי (תהלים כב, כב). ובהניח האל”ף והתחלפה ביו”ד הֲיֹאבֶה רֵּים עָבְדֶךָ (איוב לט, ט), הֲתִקְשָׁר־רֵים בְּתֶלֶם עֲבֹתוֹ (איוב לט, י), בהמה מבהמות המדבר חזקה מאד.

“It was written in the name of Rabbi Saadia Gaon that the re’em is the female of the wild goat from Accho. This is a matter of wonder, for can it be imagined that the male is pure and the female is impure? There are also commentators who explain that the re’em is a creature with a single horn on its forehead, but this is also incorrect, since it is written ‘with his majestic horns’ (Deuteronomy 33:17), implying that it has more than one horn.”

ראם   א”א כתב רבינו סעדיה ז”ל כי הראם היא הנקיבה מן אקו. ויש לתמוה על זה, וכי תעלה על דעת שהזכר יהיה טהור והנקיבה טמא? גם יש מפרשים ראם הוא החיה שיש לה קרן אחת במצחה וגם זה איננו נכון מדכתיב וְקַרְנֵי רְאֵם קַרְנָיו בָּהֶם (דברים לג, יז), משמע שיש לה יותר מקרן אחת.

9. Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary of 1910, and the Webster’s Dictionary of 1828, both support the word unicorn as being an umbrella term for all kinds of creatures with a single horn, including the Rhinoceros. The footnote in the KJV modified which kind of unicorn it was, i.e., not a Narwal, nor the Hercules beetle, nor a mythical creature, nor a caterpillar (Schizura unicornis), nor a kamichi (unicorn bird), nor a snake (Green unicorn), nor a Rhino-horned lizard, nor a Bicornus (two horned) Rhinoceros, but a single horned “Rhinocerots”, which was later officially named the Rhinoceros Unicornis.

Oxford English Dictionary (1910), vol. 8, p. 829, center column.