One of the highlights of the movie will be the nature scenes to be portrayed while God is speaking to Job. During this section, God mentions the unicorn. Of course, many skeptics scoff at this mention of a “fabled” beast in the Bible.
The current day, fairy tale, concept of a unicorn is a horse with a straight spiralled horn projecting from its forehead. Some variants may include:
1. a goatee
2. a tail like a lion’s
3. legs of a deer
The translators of the King James Holy Bible included a footnote for unicorn: rhinoceros. This is quite a contrast with what the modern reader would be thinking.
Noah Webster’s 1828 Definitions:
U’NICORN, n. [L. unicornis; unus, one, and cornu, horn.]
1. An animal with one horn; the monoceros. This name is often applied to the rhinoceros.
2. The sea unicorn is a fish of the whale kind, called narwal, remarkable for a horn growing out at his nose.
3. A fowl.
Fossil unicorn, or fossil unicorn’s horn, a substance used in medicine, a terrene crustaceous spar.
Notice that the above definitions make no mention of a horse. Unicorn was somewhat a general term for a creature with one horn, often the one-horned rhino. The below definition is even more interesting.
RHINOC’EROS, n. [L. rhinoceros; Gr. nose-horn.]
A genus of quadrupeds of two species, one of which, the unicorn, has a single horn growing almost erect from the nose. This animal when full grown, is said to be 12 feet in length. There is another species with two horns, the bicornis. They are natives of Asia and Africa.
The following article goes into more detail why unicorn is a good translation of the Hebrew word as used in the Holy Bible:
http://brandplucked.webs.com/unicorns.htm
But, the main point of our blog post is that the connotation of the word is different today than it was in the many earlier translations where unicorn was used. They were just referring to the one-horned rhinoceros. That is certainly not an excuse to scoff.
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WhenHisVoiceIsHeard 
I’m glad you brought up these creatures. I have taken notice of them before but it doesn’t seem to be generally known that there were huge beats with one horn, now extinct that would have been fitting for God to bring up in such a discussion. They made an impression on everyone that saw them and were frequently brought up in ancient and medieval literature, not because they were mythological but because they were powerful; a little more intimidating than than a white or pink horse with a horn. I found it interesting that the greater indian rhino’s scientific name is rhinoceros unicornis (it is still living in Nepal).
Thanks Steven!
Yes, intimidating is a good word for these beasts.
God sure did put a lot of genetic diversity into the rhino kind. Wow … look at this one!
A one-horned version of this would be rather fitting when considering all of the verses in the Bible that mention them.
Ah! Thanks for writing this, Mr. Lauser. This is a topic I have been studying recently. Very concise and to the point. :D
You are quite welcome. And thank you for your encouragement.
Very interesting. I’ve never heard (even from all my AIG and CSE reading), that unicorn could most likely mean rhino. This makes much more sense. I like how the other commenter said: more intimidating than a pink horse with a little horn on its head. Next time I see a picture of a “unicorn” horsey, I’ll know better. Thanks!
And thank you for your comment! There is so much to learn about the Holy Bible! Praise God there is always more to learn!