Dragons and Unicorns
Back to the commenter’s question, I think it is disingenuous to suggest folks like myself are ignoring dragons in the Bible or elsewhere. A simple internet search will yield dozens of web pages that address dragons. Simply put, many cryptozoologists and most biblical creationists think dragons are in fact, dinosaurs. The term “dinosaur” wasn’t coined until about 1840. Until then, people called modern-day dinosaurs dragons.
Dragon legends span the globe. To those who believe a remnant of dinosaurs have survived into our day, dragon legends are an old record corroborating that belief.
I have written several blog posts concerning dragons, such as a commentary on the deuterocanonical text Bel and the Dragon. In the text, Daniel slays a dragon. Could this have been some sort of modern-day dinosaur?
1 And king Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus of Persia received his kingdom.
2 And Daniel conversed with the king, and was honoured above all his friends.
3 Now the Babylons had an idol, called Bel, and there were spent upon him every day twelve great measures of fine flour, and forty sheep, and six vessels of wine.
4 And the king worshipped it and went daily to adore it: but Daniel worshipped his own God. And the king said unto him, Why dost not thou worship Bel?
5 Who answered and said, Because I may not worship idols made with hands, but the living God, who hath created the heaven and the earth, and hath sovereignty over all flesh.
6 Then said the king unto him, Thinkest thou not that Bel is a living God? seest thou not how much he eateth and drinketh every day?
7 Then Daniel smiled, and said, O king, be not deceived: for this is but clay within, and brass without, and did never eat or drink anything.
8 So the king was wroth, and called for his priests, and said unto them, If ye tell me not who this is that devoureth these expences, ye shall die.
9 But if ye can certify me that Bel devoureth them, then Daniel shall die: for he hath spoken blasphemy against Bel. And Daniel said unto the king, Let it be according to thy word.
10 Now the priests of Bel were threescore and ten, beside their wives and children. And the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel.
11 So Bel’s priests said, Lo, we go out: but thou, O king, set on the meat, and make ready the wine, and shut the door fast and seal it with thine own signet;
12 And to morrow when thou comest in, if thou findest not that hath eaten up all, we will suffer death, or else Daniel, that speaketh falsely against us.
13 And they little regarded it: for under the table they had made a privy entrance, whereby they entered in continually, and consumed those things.
14 So when they were gone forth, the king set meats before Bel. Now Daniel had commanded his servants to bring ashes, and those they strewed throughout all the temple in the presence of the king alone: then went they out, and shut the door, and sealed it with the king’s signet, and so departed.
15 Now in the night came the priests with their wives and children, as they were wont to do, and did eat and drink up all.
16 In the morning betime the king arose, and Daniel with him.
17 And the king said, Daniel, are the seals whole? And he said, Yea, O king, they be whole.
18 And as soon as he had opened the door, the king looked upon the table, and cried with a loud voice, Great art thou, O Bel, and with thee is no deceit at all.
19 Then laughed Daniel, and held the king that he should not go in, and said, Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps are these.
20 And the king said, I see the footsteps of men, women, and children. And then the king was angry,
21 And took the priests with their wives and children, who shewed him the privy doors, where they came in, and consumed such things as were upon the table.
22 Therefore the king slew them, and delivered Bel into Daniel’s power, who destroyed him and his temple.
23 And in that same place there was a great dragon, which they of Babylon worshipped.
24 And the king said unto Daniel, Wilt thou also say that this is of brass? lo, he liveth, he eateth and drinketh; thou canst not say that he is no living god: therefore worship him.
25 Then said Daniel unto the king, I will worship the Lord my God: for he is the living God.
26 But give me leave, O king, and I shall slay this dragon without sword or staff. The king said, I give thee leave.
27 Then Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did seethe them together, and made lumps thereof: this he put in the dragon’s mouth, and so the dragon burst in sunder: and Daniel said, Lo, these are the gods ye worship.
28 When they of Babylon heard that, they took great indignation, and conspired against the king, saying, The king is become a Jew, and he hath destroyed Bel, he hath slain the dragon, and put the priests to death.
29 So they came to the king, and said, Deliver us Daniel, or else we will destroy thee and thine house.
30 Now when the king saw that they pressed him sore, being constrained, he delivered Daniel unto them:
31 Who cast him into the lions’ den: where he was six days.
32 And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given them every day two carcases, and two sheep: which then were not given to them, to the intent they might devour Daniel.
33 Now there was in Jewry a prophet, called Habbacuc, who had made pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl, and was going into the field, for to bring it to the reapers.
34 But the angel of the Lord said unto Habbacuc, Go, carry the dinner that thou hast into Babylon unto Daniel, who is in the lions’ den.
35 And Habbacuc said, Lord, I never saw Babylon; neither do I know where the den is.
36 Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown, and bare him by the hair of his head, and through the vehemency of his spirit set him in Babylon over the den.
37 And Habbacuc cried, saying, O Daniel, Daniel, take the dinner which God hath sent thee.
38 And Daniel said, Thou hast remembered me, O God: neither hast thou forsaken them that seek thee and love thee.
39 So Daniel arose, and did eat: and the angel of the Lord set Habbacuc in his own place again immediately.
40 Upon the seventh day the king went to bewail Daniel: and when he came to the den, he looked in, and behold, Daniel was sitting.
41 Then cried the king with a loud voice, saying, Great art Lord God of Daniel, and there is none other beside thee.
42 And he drew him out, and cast those that were the cause of his destruction into the den: and they were devoured in a moment before his face.
I also wrote a post about the belief that some biblical creationists hold that the villain in Beowulf, Grendel, was a dinosaur. Many take the Old English epic poem Beowulf literally, and find evidence for the existence of dinosaurs in recent memory. In the story, the hero Beowulf kills a monster named Grendel. Grendel is described as being terrible to look upon, and is a cursed descendant of the first murderer—Cain. One translation of Beowulf describes Grendel as being: "in the shape of a man, moves beyond the pale, bigger than any man, an unnatural birth called Grendel by the country people in former days."
Beowulf killed Grendel by pulling off his arm. I’ve heard a couple of biblical creationists ask, “What better way to kill a T-rex than to pull off its tiny arm?”
The severed arm is described this way:
Every nail, claw-scale and spur, every spike and welt on the hand of that heathen brute was like barbed steel. Everybody said there was no honed iron hard enough to pierce him through, no time proofed blade that could cut his brutal blood caked claw.
Fifty years later, when Beowulf was a king, he does battle with a monster described as a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf and his companion Wiglaf kill the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded in the fight. The dragon in Beowulf, according to some biblical creationists, was a pterosaur.
So, as I said, it is disingenuous to say dragons are ignored by creationists and cryptozoology enthusiasts.
Unicorns
Recall from earlier the YouTube commenter who said, “I always wonder why folks bring up Leviathan and Behemoth but always fail to bring up what is on the same page that speaks of unicorns and dragons,” in response to a video I made about Leviathan. Again, I think the question is a bit disingenuous, especially if/when directed at me. I am not a conservative Christian, and certainly not someone out to prove the inerrancy of the Bible. That is not what I’m all about. My references to the Bible are simply because I find them interesting as they pertain to subjects I write about. I also quote extrabiblical works such as the book of Enoch, LDS scriptures, and more.
Moreover, as far as unicorns are concerned, I don’t even think it is a good question. With Leviathan, the descriptions in the Bible are eerily similar to a sea serpent. Behemoth sounds a lot like a long-necked dinosaur. There has long been eyewitness reports of both sea serpents and dinosaurs—unicorns do not share the same reporting history. Additionally, the Bible verses referring to unicorns are a little vaguer and do not seem to point to the pretty magical horses that my granddaughter loves so much.
God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. —Numbers 23:22
God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. —Numbers 24:8
His glory is like the firstling 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. —Deuteronomy 33:17
The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing. 9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? 10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? —Job 39:8–10
Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. —Psalm 22:21
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. —Psalm 29:6
But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. —Psalm 92:10
And the unicorns 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. —Isaiah 34:7
All verses from the Authorized King James version
Though the following verses do not use the term unicorn, most think a unicorn (whatever a unicorn is) is the animal described:
4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great. 5 And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 6 And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. —Daniel 8:4–6
So, what is going on with unicorns in the Bible? What is the Bible talking about here? I have a few thoughts.
Unicorn is a translation of the Hebrew word re’em. It is worth pointing out that certain translations of the Bible, including the American Standard Version and New American Standard Bible, interpret re’em as "wild ox.”
I have always felt a rhinoceros is a better fit for biblical unicorns. All the verses make a big deal about the horns of unicorns. What known animal has a more notable horn than a rhinoceros? Moreover, the creature is strong and mighty—characteristics of a rhinoceros.
Another thought I have is that the unicorns mentioned in the Bible might be a hazy reference to the Siberian unicorn. Officially called, Elasmotherium sibiricum, the Siberian unicorn is an extinct genus of large rhinoceros. Siberian unicorns reached sizes of six feet tall, twelve feet long and weighed more than four tons, and had a single horn reaching three feet in length.
Recently, scientists came to the conclusion that Siberian unicorns did not go extinct when thought, but rather, hung around until about 39,000 years ago. In other words, they walked alongside modern humans! So, is the biblical unicorn a hazy recollection of Siberian unicorns? Or did a small remnant survive into biblical times? It’s a stretch, but I can’t help but wonder.
