How influenced are you by the scientific mindset? Is science or scripture the pathway to truth? When they conflict which do you choose? Here's a challenge for you:
Did you know that the Bible teaches that unicorns once inhabited the world? Of course the English Bible you read today does not mention them, but the Bible your grandparents grew up with does!
In the Septuagint (Greek translation) of the same verse "wild ox" translates monoceros, which the Liddell-Scott Greek-English lexicon defines as "with but one horn." This same creature is also mentioned in the following texts:
Numbers 23:22 (NIV) "God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox."
Number 24:8 (NIV) "God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox. They devour hostile nations and break their bones in pieces; with their arrows they pierce them."
Deuteronomy 33:17 (NIV) "In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousand of Manasseh."
Psalm 92:10 (NIV) "You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured out upon me."
Psalm 29:6 (NIV) "He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox."
Though the Greek word is the same in all these verses - monoceros - the Latin Vulgate translates the Numbers and Deuteronomy passages with "rinocerotis." The Psalm 91:11 translation is "monocerotis" and the Psalm 29:6 translation is "rinocerotis." But, in Psalm 21:22 the Vulgate translates "unicornium"!
Why modern translators chose the rather banal (and cowardly?) "wild ox" is probably due to an outlook influenced more by secularism than the world of the Bible ("Every modern 'educated' person knows that unicorns don't exist!"). It is not surprising then to see the King James Version, uninfluenced by modernist thinking, unashamedly translating monoceros as "unicorn" --
Job 39:9 (KJV) "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?"
Numbers 23:22 (KJV) "God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn."
Numbers 24:8 (KJV) "God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn."
Deuteronomy 33:17 (KJV) "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns."
Psalm 92:10 (KJV) "But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil."
Psalm 22:21(KJV) "Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou has heard me from the horns of the unicorns."
Psalm 29:6 (KJV) "He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn."
Does this seem incredible to us today? Perhaps the real problem for us is the presence of unicorns in the Bible makes it seem more fictional because it is less scientific. In that case I would suggest that maybe the evangelical mind has been more affected by modern, secular presuppositions than we admit - that science, not scripture is the real standard of truth for us.
Considering the Bible also contains talking beasts, giants, witches and sorcerers - a world closer to C.S. Lewis's Narnia - why not unicorns?
