You can ask Rabbi Yair Davidiy (originally also from Australia, like yourself currently) about the political purpose of the "unicorns" in the kJV (fortunately correctly missing in the NkJV) from
http://www.britam.org .
i was under the impression that the KJV uses fantasy mythological beasts like unicorn, basilisk, cockatrice, phoenix & satyr when they came to Hebrew words for animals for which they had practically no idea how to accurately translate.
that is, all these have some kind of connection to some kind of heraldry, sure, but it wasn't the heraldic associations the translators had in mind -- it was just the fact that the word meant some kind of animal, that was clear, but as far as
what animal, scholars of their day were at a loss to definitively say -- so they put a beast's name from popular/pagan mythos that seemed to kinda fit.
the word translated unicorn, for example, is probably actually referring to an aurochs, the giant ancient species of bull that used to be common in the Levant, famously incorporated in rodeos & religion in Minos.
the word translated satyr, rather than being half-man-half-goat mythical Greek nature demigods, is probably referring simply to a kind of wild goat.
the word translated as a cockatrice in the KJV, rather than being a half-chicken-half-snake-or-dragon mythical monster, is likely just a type of snake.
several of these words that the KJV puts fantasy creature names down for in one place, are used in other parts of the Bible and the KJV uses a normal name for. the same word they put 'cockatrice' for, for example, they also just put 'viper' or 'adder' for in another place. in their preface they addressed criticism levied against them because they had chosen not to be consistent in translating particular Hebrew or Greek words, but to use many different English words in different verses for the same original Greek or Hebrew one. they explained, this variation makes the language more beautiful, and reflects the variation God put in nature. so i think, gee maybe the KJV translating body just thought 'cockatrice' was a pretty word, and wanted to use it in some places. so they'd used viper, they'd used adder, they'd used serpent... hmm what else we got. oh, cockatrice, that's a good one. it's half-snake. put that there.
