Unicorns were mentioned in versions of the Bible.
The King James Bible Really Does Mention Unicorns
Open a King James Bible to Job 39:9 and you'll find a striking question: "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee?" It's not a typo or a fantasy insertion—the word "unicorn" appears nine times in the 1611 translation, scattered across Numbers, Deuteronomy, Job, and Psalms.
This wasn't the work of imaginative translators. It was the result of a 2,200-year game of telephone that started with a Hebrew word and ended with a mythical creature.
The Translation Chain
The original Hebrew word was re'em (רְאֵם), describing a powerful, untamable animal with prominent horns. When scholars created the Greek Septuagint around 250 BCE, they translated it as monokeros—literally "one horn." The Latin Vulgate followed suit with unicornis.
By the time the King James translators arrived in 1611, "unicorn" was simply the English equivalent of what centuries of previous translations had established. They weren't describing magical horses—they were trying to name a fierce biblical beast they'd never actually seen.
What Was the Re'em Really?
The biblical re'em was almost certainly the auroch, a massive species of wild cattle that stood six feet tall at the shoulder. These animals were notoriously aggressive and impossible to domesticate, which matches every biblical reference perfectly.
Aurochs went extinct in 1627—just 16 years after the King James Bible was published. The translators were describing an animal that was vanishing before their eyes, using the closest word their reference materials provided.
Some scholars suggest the re'em might have been a rhinoceros or a large antelope species, but the auroch remains the leading candidate. Archaeological evidence and ancient descriptions align with an enormous wild ox that made modern cattle look like housecats.
Why Modern Bibles Changed It
Today's translations render re'em as "wild ox" or "wild bull" because we now have better understanding of ancient Hebrew and extinct animals. The context clues in the Bible itself helped scholars figure it out:
- Described as having great strength (Numbers 23:22)
- Impossible to tame or yoke (Job 39:10)
- Possessing prominent horns (Psalm 92:10)
- Dangerous and wild (Deuteronomy 33:17)
None of these descriptions match a delicate magical horse with a spiral horn. They perfectly describe a hulking, aggressive bovine that ancient peoples both feared and respected.
So yes, unicorns are in the Bible—but only because medieval translators did their best with the linguistic resources available. The creature they were actually describing was real, formidable, and would have gored anyone who mistook it for a fairy tale.