Bible animals : $b being a description of every living creature mentioned in the Scripture, from the ape to the coral.Wood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Bible animals : $b being a description of every living creature mentioned in the Scripture, from the ape to the coral.
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
"And do we think that _David_ would compare the vertue of his kingdom
and the powerful redemption of the world, unto a thing that is not, or
is uncertain, or is fantastical? God forbid that ever any man should
so do despight to the Holy Ghost. For this cause we read also in
_Suidas_, that good men who worship God and follow His laws are
compared to Unicorns, whose greater parts, as their whole bodies, are
unprofitable and untameable, yet their horn maketh them excellent; so
in good men, although their fleshy parts be good for nothing, and fall
down to the earth, yet their grace and piety exalteth their souls to
the heavens."
In late years, after the true origin of the Unicorn's horn was
discovered, and the belief in its many virtues abandoned, the Reêm, or
Monoceros, was almost unhesitatingly identified with the rhinoceros of
India, and for a long time this theory was the accepted one. It is
now, however, certain that the Reêm was not the rhinoceros, and that
it can be almost certainly identified with an animal which, at the
time when the passages in question were written, was plentiful in
Palestine, although, like the lion, it is now extinct.
We will now take in their order the seven passages in which the animal
is mentioned, substituting the word Reêm for Unicorn.
The first of these passages occurs in Numbers xxiii., where the
remarkable prophecies of Balaam are recorded. "The Lord his God is
with them, and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out
of Egypt, he hath as it were the strength of Reêm:" (ver. 21, 22).
From this passage we gain one piece of information, namely, that the
Reêm was an exceptionally powerful animal. Indeed, it was evidently
the strongest animal that was known to the prophet and his hearers, or
it would not have been mentioned as a visible type of Divine power.
Next we come to Deut. xxxiii., wherein another prophecy is revealed,
namely, that of Moses, just before his death and mysterious burial.
Speaking of Joseph and his tribe, the aged prophet uses these words,
"Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of
the head of him that was separated from his brethren. His glory is
like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of
Reêm: 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" (ver. 16, 17).
In this passage we gather more information. In the first place it is
to be noticed that the Reêm is mentioned in connexion with the
domestic cattle, and that the name is used as one that is familiar to
the hearers. Next, as the marginal reading gives the word, Reêm is
used in the singular and not in the plural number, so that the passage
may be read, "his horns are like the horns of a Unicorn." Thus we come
to the important point that the Reêm was not a one-horned, but a
two-horned animal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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