{"id":12101,"date":"2024-11-25T20:36:28","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T19:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/?p=12101"},"modified":"2024-11-25T20:36:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T19:36:30","slug":"why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Moses portrayed with horns on his head?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What happened to Moses when he encountered God? Did his face shine or did he grow horns? When we look at Moses\u2019 iconography, he is frequently portrayed as having horns on his head. According to what was written in the Bible, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, his face changed. This is what is written in the Book of Exodus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. <\/p>Exodus 34:29<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In Hebrew the verb to shine is \u05e7\u05e8\u05e0 (q-r-n). The account in Exodus 19 describes the events at Mount Sinai. When the Jewish people arrive, God tells Moses: \u201cIf you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples\u201d (Ex 19:5), and God offers to make a covenant with the people. Moses\u2019 face begins to shine when he encounters God, but Moses does not realise it; it is the people who see his shining countenance. This verb caused numerous arguments to arise throughout history, because the noun \u2018qeren\u2019 means \u2018horn\u2019. Some of the principal reasons that this word is translated as \u2018shining\u2019 and not a \u2018horn\u2019 are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. The subject of the verb \u2018q-r-n\u2019 is the face, not the head. It is unlikely that horns grew on Moses\u2019 face without him noticing.<\/li>
  2. The horn as a symbol does not make sense in light of what Moses had experienced.<\/li>
  3. The majority of the principal Biblical translations, apart from the Vulgate, translate this verb as \u2018shining.\u2019<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Since the Vulgate (the Bible translated from the original languages into Latin by St Jerome) was the translation used for many years, Michelangelo created his sculpture of Moses based on the Vulgate\u2019s translation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Cumque descenderet Moyses de monte Sinai, tenebat duas tabulas testimonii, et ignorabat quod cornuta<\/strong> esset facies sua ex consortio sermonis Domini.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    And when Moses came down from the mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord. <\/p>Ex 34:29 (Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    This is the reason why Michelangelo sculpted Moses with horns on his head. Throughout history, these horns have been interpreted as symbols of wisdom and leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What happened to Moses when he encountered God? Did his face shine or did he grow horns? When we look at Moses\u2019 iconography, he is frequently portrayed as having horns on his head. According to what was written in the Bible, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, his face changed. This is what is written in the Book of Exodus:<\/p>\n

    Moses came down from Mount Sinai… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"rizors":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy is Moses portrayed with horns on his head? - Behold<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why is Moses portrayed with horns on his head? - Behold\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What happened to Moses when he encountered God? Did his face shine or did he grow horns? When we look at Moses\u2019 iconography, he is frequently portrayed as having horns on his head. According to what was written in the Bible, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, his face changed. This is what is written in the Book of Exodus: Moses came down from Mount Sinai... Read more »\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Behold\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-25T19:36:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-25T19:36:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/michelangelo_moses1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"636\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/\",\"name\":\"Behold\",\"description\":\"Archdiocese of Malta\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/michelangelo_moses1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/michelangelo_moses1.jpg\",\"width\":636,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/\",\"name\":\"Why is Moses portrayed with horns on his head? - Behold\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-25T19:36:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-25T19:36:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/#\/schema\/person\/1a1e9d04086c254bae5537c18a91f5b5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"item\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"item\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/why-is-moses-portrayed-with-horns-on-his-head\/#webpage\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/#\/schema\/person\/1a1e9d04086c254bae5537c18a91f5b5\",\"name\":\"Rev Gilbert Scicluna\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/author\/gilbert-sciclunamaltadiocese-org\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12102,"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12101\/revisions\/12102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12101"},{"taxonomy":"rizors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/behold.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rizors?post=12101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}