Unicorns in the Bible: Myth, Mistranslation, or Real History?

Jane Isley
Aug 28
4 min read

Updated: Sep 2

To answer your question, yup, the word unicorn is most definitely still used in some Bible translations.

All nine verses below are from the 21st Century King James Version.

“the strength of a unicorn.” Num 23:22
“the strength of a unicorn.” Num 24:8
“and his horns are like the horns of unicorns.” Dt 33:17
“Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?” Job 39:9
“Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band to the furrow?” Job 39:10
“for Thou hast heard Me from the horns of the unicorns.” Ps 22:21
“like a young unicorn.” Ps 29:6
“But my horn shalt Thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn;” Ps 92:10
“And the unicorns shall come down with them,” Isa 34:7

Three glowing unicorns in a mystical forest, surrounded by soft light and colorful flowers, creating an enchanting, magical atmosphere. — ChatGPT

So, does that make this mythological creature true?

Well, I’ve discovered a yes and no answer here; the yes part is actually pretty awesome, so stick around.

First, here’s the short history lesson on how the word unicorn landed in the Bible in the first place.

The Hebrew word translated into unicorn is re’em, then the Greeks came along with the Septuagint and took re’em and translated that to monokeros, which means single horn (unicorn).

Then the Vulgate kept that literal translation and used the word unicorn and finally came along the King James translation, and they kept to that literal Latin word, and voila — you get unicorn, and they just might have gotten it right, in a weird way.

Now to the fun stuff.

The animal used in these Biblical descriptions doesn’t fit the mythical unicorns we hear about from mythology. This animal is used to describe great strength, and Ps 29:6 indicates a calf, not a foal or colt.

Meaning not horse-like in appearance.

Trust me, they knew the difference, Zechariah 9:9.

So, I got curious and found two things.

The first thing is where the traditional, as we know it, unicorn myth got its start. A dude named Ctesias from 4th century BCE spotted something in India and this is what he said about it “fleet of foot, having a horn a cubit and a half in length, and coloured white, red and black” (1) but then he goes on to describe another animal with similar makings, with kinda rules his first description, then a few other key people added more over time.

Honestly, check out the article, it’s fun and right to the point (1). It’ll go through everything on the mythology side of things. I've got something cooler I want to show you.

A mythical creature resembling a furry rhinoceros with a long horn stands in a vast grassy plain under a cloudy sky, exuding majesty. — ChatGPT

Skeletal remains of a prehistoric animal displayed in a museum, featuring a large rib cage and skull. Background includes arch designs. — bbc.com

The Siberian Unicorn (Elasmotherium sibiricum)

And yup, he was real and he was a rhino (extinct now), so those who translate that animal into rhinoceros may also be very correct, because the Siberian Unicorn was a hairy rhino.

Here’s what they know about this big guy.

“were likely vegetarians, have been described as weighing up to four tons and standing two meters tall by nearly five meters long” (2)
“despite its massive size and prominent shoulder hump, it is thought that the Siberian unicorn was actually adapted to running at speed.” (3)
“roamed the grasslands of Eurasia” (4)
“ recent discovery of a well-preserved skull in Kazakhstan.” (2)
“may have eventually died out because it was such a picky eater.” (4)

It’s a wee tricky to see, but the blue dots were the Siberian Unicorns (Elasmotherium sibiricum) roaming areas, for lack of a better term.

Map of Europe and Asia shows Elasmotherium species distribution with colored dots; green, blue, red, pink markers; yellow outline. — wikipedia.com

I’m zeroing in on Ps 26:9 because David specifically used the word calf, not colt or foal. So somewhere along the line, David knew about these animals.

I decided to use Google Maps and see how far Lebanon (where they believe he was when he wrote Ps 29:6) was from Kazakhstan.

Map of Eurasia shows a blue dotted walking route from Israel to Russia, lasting 999 hours and covering 2,920 miles. — googlemaps.com

According to Google Maps, he was only 999 (walking) hours away from where this recent finding of a not quite as long extinct as thought Siberian Unicorn.

If you’re wondering, that's only 42 walking days away, well, 41.625 to be exact. We know Jesus as His disciples walked a lot more than that, plus they had camels, donkeys, and horses to travel on. So 42 days was nothing to them, and easy enough for travelers to go around talking about these big guys as well.

My conclusion?

How cool is this? A lot of people use the unicorn translation to discredit Bible translations, and others use it to say it’s all made up because there are verses that talk about the fabled mythical unicorn.

Maybe the writers of the Bible weren’t wrong after all, and we just had a different vision of what we think a unicorn should look like? Either way, I think this is a very neat piece of the pie that some might have fun learning about.