SCIENCE & THE BIBLE by Bolton Davidheiser, Ph.D., Chairman of the Science Division, Biola College
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T he seventy scholars who trans lated the Old Testament into Greek in the third century B.C. found themselves facing a real problem when they came to the Hebrew word re’em. From the text they learned that this word was the name of a strong, swift, and intractable beast. It was apparently well known to the Hebrews, but the translators, who were living in Egypt a long time after the writing of the original, did not know which animal was meant. For some reason they translated it monokeros, which means an animal with one horn. The Latin Vulgate translation, based largely upon this Greek Septuagint, used the word uni cornis, and the English, French, and German Bibles followed with the word unicorn and its equivalents. A Greek historian named Ctesias had brought back a report of the Indian rhinoceros in the fifth century B.C. and perhaps the seventy thought that the characteristics of this one-horned beast best fitted the attributes of the re’em. By medieval times the unicorn was thought of as a horse-like animal with a hom on its forehead. The horn was reputed to have medicinal quali ties, but it was chiefly valued for its alleged ability to counteract all poi sons. Rhinoceros horn was not every where accepted and was sometimes called false horn to distinguish it from supposedly true hom of the unicorn. Something was most likely to be accepted as true hom if it came from a far away country and from an unknown source. Thus the tusks of narwhals, of mammoths, and even of walruses were sold at fabulous prices to those who could afford this protec tion from poisoning. It is said that at the peak of this traffic the horn was sold for ten times its weight in gold. Queen Elizabeth had one valued at more than a third of a million dollars at the present rate of exchange. To the time of Charles II it was used in England to purify the royal food, and in France it was employed in the same
Until rather recently there was considerable speculation about which animal was really meant by the word re’em. The answer came when Assyri an texts were found picturing the urus or wild ox and calling it rimu, the Assyrian equivalent of the Hebrew re’em. It seems to have become extinct in Asia not long before the time of Nebuchadnezzar. When the seventy scholars were preparing the Septua gint, it still lived in Europe north of the Alps. Later, when Julius Caesar became acquainted with it, he com mented on its ferocity and its unusual strength and swiftness. He also re corded that it was captured in a trap which was a pit dug for the purpose, that its hide was used to make shields, and that its horns were greatly prized as trophies. A report in 1555 A.D. stated that by this time all the remaining ani mals were in Lithuania. According to W illy Ley this herd consisted of about thirty individuals, and by 1602 they had been reduced to four. The species became extinct in 1627 when the last animal died. For a long time it was said that I there really must be such an animal as the fabulous unicorn because the Bible says so. As the mythical nature of the medieval unicorn became ap parent and the Royal Society in Lon don showed by an experiment that the hom had no ability whatsoever to counteract poison, the references to the unicorn in Scripture became an embarrassment to Christians and a de light to scoffers. Actually the original text of the Bible said nothing at all about unicorns, and the whole affair arose because the scholars who pre pared the Septuagint rendered the Hebrew word re’em as monokeros. We now know that this animal was the urus or wild ox, Bos primigenius. One by one the supposed errors and difficulties in the Bible are cleared up. Any which may still remain may well be taken in faith with the knowledge that in the fullness of time all difficulties will disappear.
way as late as 1789.
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JUNE, I960
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