Moses grew horns?!

Gwendolyn · Jul 27, 2005

This morning at Mass, the first reading was from Exodus, chapter 34, which talks about Moses descending from Mt. Sinai with the 10 Commandments. Because his skin shone so radiantly after his encounter with God, Moses had to veil his face in order to refrain from shocking the Israelites by his appearance.

My priest shared with us an interesting story about a translation error that St. Jerome made while translating the Hebrew into Latin. [font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]And what an amusing error it is! In Hebrew, as in all languages, one must always remember to translate certain words that have varied meanings with respect to the context of the passage or sentence. In Exodus 34, St. Jerome appears to have taken the basic meaning of the word qaran (qarnu, etc.) and translated it as "horns" or "to grow horns", neglecting the word's derived meaning, which is "to emit rays" or "to shine". You can see his error in Exodus 34:29-30, 35 (cornuta being the Latin word for "[having] horns"):[/font]

[font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]Exodus 34:29-30 - ...[/font][font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]cumque descenderet Moses de monte Sinai tenebat duas[/font][font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif] tabulas testimonii et ignorabat quod cornuta esset facies sua ex consortio sermonis Dei. V[/font][font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]identes autem Aaron et filii Israhel cornutam Mosi faciem[/font][font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif] timuerunt prope accedere..[/font]

[font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]Exodus 34:35 - ...[/font][font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]qui videbant faciem egredientis Mosi esse cornutam sed[/font][font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif] operiebat rursus ille faciem suam si quando loquebatur ad eos.
[/font]
[font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]So, instead of Moses' face shining radiantly like the Hebrew says, in Latin, Moses sprouted horns.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]I FIND THIS SO FUNNY! Of course, Michaelangelo's famous statue of Moses in the church of San Pietro in Rome has ram's horns sprouting from his forehead, so the horns have become an unfortunate part of poor Moses' iconography.
[/font]
You can read more about this unfortunate mistranslation here (pdf file) and here.

Maggie893 · Jul 27, 2005

Thank you for sharing that...it's quite funny.

CorTortilla · Jul 27, 2005

LOL that is funny.

Kasia · Jul 27, 2005

You learn something new everyday

HisLittleOne · Jul 27, 2005

LOL! Poor Moses...

jbarcher · Jul 27, 2005

Ech. I bet Jerome would be embarassed finding out. I don't like being of such erroneous nature; I misread a line while working on Greek and read ballw thanaton. "I am throwing death". Blunderous mistakes.

Kasia · Jul 27, 2005

Ech. I bet Jerome would be embarassed finding out. I don't like being of such erroneous nature; I misread a line while working on Greek and read ballw thanaton. "I am throwing death". Blunderous mistakes.

Oh gosh, I took a semester of Ancient Greek last year at my university. That was the hardest class I have ever taken, I nearly cried before my final because I thought I was going to fail. Ah, memories.

prodromos · Jul 28, 2005

Jerome made a few other errors.
In Matt 6:11, "Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον" is translated as "panem nostrum supersubstantialem", but in Luke 11:3 the exact same expression is translated as "panem nostrum cotidianum"

Then there is Romans 5:12

Quijote · Jul 28, 2005

Veritas_et_Puritas said:
[font=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]I FIND THIS SO FUNNY! Of course, Michaelangelo's famous statue of Moses in the church of San Pietro in Rome has ram's horns sprouting from his forehead, so the horns have become an unfortunate part of poor Moses' iconography.
[/font]
You can read more about this unfortunate mistranslation here (pdf file) and here.

Just to clarify....when you say St. Pietro in Rome you're not refering to St. Peter's basilica but the "St. Peter's in chain's" (St. Pietro in Vincole) church right?

http://www.geocities.com/sgatz/italy/rome/source/dsc00703.html

Cheers

Gwendolyn · Jul 28, 2005

prodromos said:
Jerome made a few other errors.
In Matt 6:11, "Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον" is translated as "panem nostrum supersubstantialem", but in Luke 11:3 the exact same expression is translated as "panem nostrum cotidianum"

Then there is Romans 5:12

Because I'm not wholly proficient in Latin (and can't read Greek well at all), what does that mean?

Quijote said:
Just to clarify....when you say St. Pietro in Rome you're not refering to St. Peter's basilica but the "St. Peter's in chain's" (St. Pietro in Vincole) church right?

Yes, not the Basilica.

Paul S · Jul 28, 2005

Veritas_et_Puritas said:
Because I'm not wholly proficient in Latin (and can't read Greek well at all), what does that mean?

"Our supersubstantial/daily bread", from the Pater noster.

But how do we know Moses didn't sprout horns?

Gwendolyn · Jul 28, 2005

Paul S said:
"Our supersubstantial/daily bread", from the Pater noster.

But how do we know Moses didn't sprout horns?

Because the Hebrew Scriptures say he didn't.

Paul S · Jul 28, 2005

Veritas_et_Puritas said:
Because the Hebrew Scriptures say he didn't.

But qaran can have both meanings. And, perhaps St. Jerome chose cornuta in a more figurative sense.

The article you linked to says:

Those horns have an interesting history. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Exodus records, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God (34:29). The Hebrew word qaran, translated shone in Exodus 34:29-35, can mean to send out rays or to display or grow horns. Either way, qaran signifies power. When St. Jerome translated the Bible into the Latin vulgate (or common-day language) in 406, he chose cornuta, the word for horns, as a figurative translation of qaran. Most scholars agree that Jerome continued the intention of the original passage. His colorful translation was deeply imbedded in the iconography of Christian art by the time of Michelangelos work in the sixteenth century.

Paul S · Jul 28, 2005

Here's another article discussing this.

Gwendolyn · Jul 28, 2005

I was being facetious.

robotneil · Jul 29, 2005

I learned about this in college a long time ago...I remember thinking how upsurb it was because of my Jewish decent.

At the time it made me feel like Catholics hated the Jews.

Neil

Marjorie · Jul 30, 2005

This also was reflected in Western Christian art... see Michelangelo's statue of Moses and you'll see what I mean!

In IC XC,
Marjorie

bigsierra · Jul 30, 2005

Moses in the Chambers of the House of Representatives and Senate office subway.

Moses grew horns?!

back in black

It is what it is.

I love COFFEE!!~~

Pray for our troops!

Wayward Heart

ANE Social Science Researcher

Pray for our troops!

Senior Veteran

a.k.a Mr. Q

back in black

Salve, regina, mater misericordiæ

back in black

Salve, regina, mater misericordiæ

Salve, regina, mater misericordiæ

back in black

Well-Known Member

Senior Veteran

Contributor

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency