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The Ark Park has come to my attention. And in that, I noticed that they are actually going to have unicorns – UNICORNS – in the ‘exhibit’. Unicorns. As any former KJVO’er would know, the KJV has unicorns because it mistranslates re’em following the Greek, and not the Hebrew.
KJG Deuteronomy 33:17 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.
NLT Deuteronomy 33:17 Joseph has the majesty of a young bull; he has the horns of a wild ox. He will gore distant nations, driving them to the ends of the earth. This is my blessing for the multitudes of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh.”
Proving that Young Earth Creationists are still holding to the KJV (among other outdated data sets), Ken Ham (the modern day John Tetzel) has promised that unicorns (and dragons) will be in the Ark Park.
And then, in what I believe is rather childish behavior, uses a toy Sauropod dinosaur (and compares it to the bathtub Ark he says ‘IS’ Noah’s Ark!) to mock the project–and then adds the mythical version of the unicorn as if this is what we at AiG believe! AiG has a number of articles going back years, where we speak against the ‘fantasy unicorn,’ and deal with the meaning of the word in a scholarly way: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/aid/v2/n1/unicorns-in-bible
At the above linked article, you will find the same mind-bending/numbing ‘intellectualism’ which brings us to the present situation in American Christianity. They end not with actual facts, but the advantageous argumentum ad ignorantiam,
To think of the biblical unicorn as a fantasy animal is to demean God’s Word, which is true in every detail.
In other words – if you say, “No Ken, there were no unicorns. The Hebrew based text doesn’t say unicorns, but wild oxes, among other verifiable proofs,” then you are ‘demeaning’ the Scriptures. It is not the Scriptures which you are disagreeing with – but Ken Ham. Don’t confuse the two. This is just one of the many examples of Ham’s methodology. It is poor – beyond poor.
Oh… and there be dragons too!
But, while there are unicorns and dragons (which they use poorer and hypocritical methodology to say are dinosaurs) there will not be the Nephilim.
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Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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Joel,
As usual, you misrepresent the truth of the matter. The Ark Encounter will not have fanatsy unicorns; though a wild ox is one possible candidate for the Biblical unicorn, there is another possible interpretation of re’em as a rhinoceros. Of course, your intent was not to inform but to mock, so I understand why you might not have felt the need to be completely forthcoming to your readers. Might I suggest in the future that you actually take the trouble to discover what your opponents profess to believe BEFORE you bother to disagree with them?
Oh, and try building people’s faith in the Bible rather than constantly trying to get folks to doubt it, merely to impress your liberal Bible-doubting friends,eh?
Rev Tony Breeden
http://DefendingGenesis.org
I didn’t say fantasy unicorns. You did. And no, actually the wild ox is the actual word. Build their faith in what? Lies? Superstition? Bad interpretation like your liberal, eisegesis teaches you to do? Your idol represents a liberal trend in Christianity that is seeking to undermine the faith of many. Too bad you guys read the bible like you do these posts… Blind by your one reason.
Joel,
You’re wasting your breathe (or I guess energy in this case). Any time someone responds to you by making a distinction between real unicorns and fantasy unicorns, you can rest assured the conversation is going nowhere … and fast
BTW a point of the post was to highlight the lack of biblical scholarship which is going into th Ark Park. Snce morn translations have updated the translation to reflect more accurate scholarship, all one has to do is to say that the Ark Park will have wild oxen, since the Text actually doesn’t say unicorns. Of course, since the Ark Park YEC doesn’t actually read or use the text, modern translations or modern scholarship…. I bet they didn’t know that no bible except the KJV uses unicorn anymore.
Btw, I can read Hebrew, and no, rhinoceros is, I repeat is , a possible translation.
What does Hebrew have to do with reading the bible?
Well a lot in the case of Deut. 33:17, since you have horns on a animal
True, but when has a YEC ever needed anything but the KJV and his or her own reasoning?
Would they have been likely to have known about rhinos? They’d have to go a long way south to find any. Given that the root r’m is originally to do with strength, I suspect the LXX Greek monokeros is more of a distraction than anything else.
Tony,
How dare you bring historical-cultural background into understanding the meaning of a word
D’oh!
[...] by Kentucky’s newest private/public joint project called the Noah’s Ark Park, Joel and I have a new proposal for KY Governor Steve [...]