Unicorns

Unicorns have been relegated to the beautiful mythological child's play. What this episode does is bring to light the origin. This episode answers questions many have been afraid to ask. Tune in we will dive in and see what if anything scripture has to say about unicorns.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hello, this is Bobby with another episode of Yup, It's In There. And today we're going to cover an educational piece. We've started season two, and our first episode of season two was on dinosaurs. So if you haven't taken the opportunity to take a listen on dinosaurs and season two, episode one, please do. But tonight we have another creature that many of us have rarely seen outside of a its romanticization or romanticized version. How about that? The romanticized version of that. And that is the unicorn. And yeah, I know, I can hear you. Bobby, are unicorns in scripture? And my response is what it always is. So come on, let's get into it. So first, before we jump off into unicorns and the description of it, I want to go over uh some information I think that's very important as it relates to our findings and what we find. And so we'd like to think that we do the most extensive research so that we bring you information that is not propagandist, but information that is true and accurate, and when searched out, can be found as well. And so as it relates to unicorn, there has been some contention regarding the Septuagint. And so, what do I mean when I say Septuagint? Septuagint, the meaning of that word is 70. And it is believed that 70 to 72 scholars who translated the scriptures from Hebrew to Greek, when they did that, there are many who believe that the uh inaccuracy of the word unicorn was found as an error in translation. And so I do want to cover the scriptures that in fact reflect that. There are several uh scriptures that reflect unicorns, and many of which I was very surprised to find. And as long as I have been reading, listening, and looking at scripture, I will say I miss them all. I don't ever recall reading a unicorn in scripture. And uh so without any further ado, before I do that, I want to make sure that we cover a working definition of what a unicorn is, and so for a working definition. A unicorn is a fictional character mostly associated with small children, oftentimes thought of as harmless and whimsical. They are just pretty creatures that are harmless and loved by all. Numbers chapter 23, verse 22, and it reads, God brought them out of Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. Numbers twenty four and eight. God brought him forth out of Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. He shall eat up the nations, his enemies, and shall break their bones and pierce them through with his arrows. Deuteronomy thirty three and seventeen. His glory is like the furcling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns. With them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth, and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh. Job thirty nine verses nine through twelve. Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee or abide by thy crib? Canest thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow, or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him because his strength is great, or wou leave thy labor to him? Wilt thou believe him that he will bring home thy seed and gather it into thy barn? Psalms twenty two and twenty one. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. Psalms twenty nine and six. He maketh them also to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Syrian like a young unicorn. Psalms ninety two and ten. But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Isaiah thirty four and seven. And the unicorn shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls, and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. And we have all of those translations that came over using the term unicorn or unicorns in the plural form. But it is none of those scriptures that led me on this journey to find out if, in fact, unicorns were in scripture. It was the description of a fierce creature in the book of Daniel, chapter eight. And as I read Daniel chapter eight, and this creature was described, everything with the exception of the rainbow-like colors, the white gleaming, glistening coat of this creature, everything said unicorn to me as I read Daniel chapter eight. And so, what I'd like for us to do is go to Daniel chapter eight, and we're going to read verses one through eight. And as it was described, what we have come to know and understand a unicorn to be, the description here is much different than that of what we understand and have come to know by way of the romanticized, whimsical, dreamy looking creature that is rarely in battle, as we have heard in all of the scriptures mentioned here. And so I think what we can gather from what we've read concerning unicorn that could be found in scripture already was that it is a formidable beast, a formidable warrior-like creature, almost hero-like in its uh strength and power. And so we we've read a little bit about how a unicorn was perceived in scripture and all of the scriptures that we've read before, and please, by all means, uh take some time to go back through and uh read those scriptures for yourself and read the full context so that you understand that what I'm saying to you now definitely is not a reach. And so the scripture that led me on this journey with regard to if in fact unicorns can be found in scripture was in fact what I found in Daniel chapter 8. And so I'm gonna go ahead and uh read those to you. And I am reading this out of the uh amplified version. It says, In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that first appeared to me. I looked in the vision and it seemed that I was at the citadel of Susa, which is the province of Elon, and I looked in the vision and saw myself by the Uli canal. Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, there in front of the canal stood a ram which had two horns. The two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, nor was there anyone who could rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and magnified himself. As I was observing, behold a male goat was coming from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground, and the goat had a conspicuous and remarkable horn between his eyes. He came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and charged at him in the fury of the power and wrath. I saw him come close to the ram, and he was filled with rage toward him, and the goat struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to stand before him, so the goat threw him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly, and when he was young and strong, the great horn was suddenly broken, and in its place there came up four prominent horns, the four winds of heaven, whom the kingdom was divided, the four wind toward the four winds of heaven, and again that is the uh amplified version. And I know you heard me use the word ram, and you heard me use the word goat, the very description of this creature that could overpower a ram with the two horns. The description that led me on the journey to see if, in fact, unicorns could be found in scripture was the fact that it said it it traveled across all of the earth, never touching the ground. And what we know about our romanticized unicorns is that they fly and they don't touch the earth, and so and also the description with regard to the horn in the middle of the eyes, and so you know, we see goats, and many of the goats that we see, if in fact we see have seen a goat, they have two horns, and oftentimes they're not large, not very prominent. And the goats that we are in fact aware of are no match for the power and strength of a ram, no matter what size it is. And I know that the description uh being given here was in fact an open vision that Daniel had in fact been given. And the idea that he could see this in an open vision and that he had a name for it, and he was so descriptive in what it was that he saw, indicated to me that what was brought over in the Septuagint very closely matches the description of what we saw in Daniel's vision or what we read here in Daniel's vision. Daniel's uh vision talked about the fury or the rage of this goat, the fact that it moved with great power and strength throughout the earth. And if you ever saw a ram, we know how formidable a ram is, very muscular body and very head strong. But we read here that this one-horned goat was able to trample under foot a ram, and I know that there is a lot of symbology in what Daniel saw, and I want to just refer you back to the scriptures that we read out of the book of Numbers, the scriptures we read out of Job, the scriptures we read out of Deuteronomy and uh Psalms and Job. And so all that we've read up until this point to me is an infallible proof that a unicorn is in fact what was brought over in the Septuagint, even if it is described in this open vision that Daniel had as a goat, what we know about the goats that we see. They're not goats that have one horn, they're not goats that fly through the earth and don't touch the ground, and so it indicates to me that there is in fact something other than what we've come to know as a goat and it and in how it functioned in this vision. And so I don't want to get so much caught up on you know the fact that we know this was a vision, this was a dream that Daniel had. We know that it was a symbology of that, but I wanted to share Daniel's vision or Daniel's dream because what it does to me is it airs out the idea that there was something potentially wrong in the Septuagint, where where this clearly defines an animal that is great in strength and formidable as the creature that was named as unicorn in the previous scriptures that we've read. And so while I know in the book of Daniel it was an open vision, and it is in fact what took me on my journey to dig a little further, and so I know you're you wanted to know at the very beginning, and I don't think I answered the question. So, Bobby is unicorns in scripture, and my response today is undoubtedly yes, it is, and so my response for the sake of our podcast here is yup, it's in there. So, see you next time.