![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Moses_by_Michelangelo.jpg\")
<\/a>Michelangelo\u2019s Moses, Church of St. Peter-in-Chains, Rome, 1513\u20131515. It begins with the Bible. In the Book of Exodus<\/a>, Moses receives the law after seeing God\u2019s glory. The God of Israel states that Moses could not see his face and live. Rather Moses is told to stand in the cleft of a rock. As God passes by, Moses sees his back, not his face. When Moses descends from Sinai with the two tablets of the law, he is visibly changed. The key phrase is that \u201cMoses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God\u201d (Exodus 34:29, ESV).<\/p>\n In the late fourth century, the Christian monk Jerome translated the Old Testament from Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek into Latin. His translation became known as the Vulgate<\/a>. In the original Hebrew, the word employed to connote this change in Moses\u2019s appearance is qeren<\/em>. In other books of the Hebrew Bible, such as Habakkuk 3:4, qeren<\/em> indicates \u201crays,\u201d such as \u201crays of light.\u201d Jerome translates the phrase as cornuta esset facies<\/em>, literally \u201c(his) face was horned.\u201d If you'd like to help make it possible for us to continue Bible History Daily, BiblicalArchaeology.org, and our email newsletter please donate. Even $5 helps:<\/p>\r\n Words matter. Jerome\u2019s translation became the most popular version of the Bible in the Christian West. The word choice in Exodus moved from the metaphorical to the literal in the medieval period. However, even then, some theologians interpreted the horns of Moses in Exodus as horns of light, likely closer to Jerome\u2019s intended meaning.<\/p>\n But with the appearance of a Moses with horns on his head<\/a> in Christian art, a shift began toward a derogative, anti-Jewish interpretation of Moses\u2019s horns. This shift is evident by examining the context of medieval Europe, especially the friction between Christians and Jews. One only need look at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 that ordered all Jews to be identified by a different style of dress in public and to not venture out during Holy Week. Christian anti-Judaism weaponized Jerome\u2019s translation to justify hatred toward Jews.<\/p>\n In other ancient religions, horns were seen as a source of power and not viewed negatively.1<\/sup><\/a> Mesopotamian deities were often depicted with horned headdresses. Figures, such as Alexander the Great, are seen on coins with a horned ram\u2019s helmet, and esteemed Norse figures also appeared with horns.<\/p>\n Even in Christian contexts, horns were not always negative. The horns of a bishop\u2019s mitre could recall the horns of Moses; as Pope Innocent III noted, they represent the Old and the New Testaments. Thus, the horns of Moses could be viewed not as horns of derision but as marks of respect or proximity to the holy.<\/p>\n Moses was featured heavily in early Christian art from the third century onward, occasionally receiving the law but, more often than not, performing miracles. Even though the Vulgate was completed in the fourth century, there were several hundred years wherein Moses appeared hornless. He was depicted ad nauseum<\/em> in catacomb art and relief sculpture striking water from the rock or crossing the Red Sea, usually holding his miracle-working staff. Early Christian authors, such as Origen in Against Celsus<\/em>, referred to Moses as the most important miracle worker of the Old Testament. Read Biblical Archaeology Review<\/i> online, explore 50 years of BAR<\/b>, watch videos, attend talks, and more<\/p>\r\n Iconographically, Jesus was bequeathed the staff of Moses<\/a>, connecting them as the preeminent miracle workers of the Bible and showing Jesus as a \u201cNew Moses<\/a>.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a> For early Christians, just as Moses reflected the glory of the Lord by the giving of the \u201cold\u201d law and covenant, Jesus reflected the glory of God with the \u201cnew\u201d law and covenant. Painting or sculpting horns on Moses\u2019s head would have sent a different theological message and separated him from Jesus, which would not have been profitable to the nascent Christian religion. Jesus\u2019s closeness to Moses was deemphasized with the appearance of the horns, as they served to segregate Jews in a Christian era when Jews were often labeled as Christ-killers or desecrators of the sacrament. Not coincidentally, other pejorative images of Jews appear in medieval Christian art, including the representation of blind \u201cSynagoga\u201d (a figural personification of the Jewish synagogue) on the Strasbourg Cathedral in France.<\/p>\n In the free eBook, A Digger\u2019s Life: A Guide to the Archaeology Dig Experience<\/strong>, step into an archaeological excavation and find out what it takes to find, prepare for, and work on a dig.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
J\u00f6rg Bittner Unna, CC BY 3.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/em><\/p><\/div>Whenever visitors arrive at the Church of St. Peter-in-Chains in Rome, they are struck with the grandeur of Michelangelo\u2019s sculpture of Moses<\/a> but ultimately are vexed by his appearance. Why does Moses have horns<\/a> on his head? In our contemporary context, horned figures often represent devils and demons. Most docents or tour guides would immediately launch into an explanation involving a mistranslation in the Bible. But the history of a horned Moses is actually much more complicated and contextual.<\/p>\n
\n Our website, blog and email newsletter are a crucial part of Biblical Archaeology Society<\/em>'s nonprofit educational mission \r\n<\/h3>\r\n
This costs substantial money and resources, but we don't charge a cent to you to cover any of those expenses.\r\n<\/h2>\r\n
<\/a>
It is debatable whether Jerome had any malicious intent in using the word cornuta<\/em> (\u201chorned\u201d), but it seems unlikely. He probably used the best Latin word at his disposal to insinuate that Moses had been visibly altered by his communion with God. The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew text from the third century BCE, does not use a similar word, instead using dedoxastai<\/em> to imply that Moses\u2019s face was \u201cglorified.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBecome a BAS All-Access Member\u00a0Now!<\/h3>\r\n
<\/a>
Early Christian texts and art sought to connect Jesus to Moses through the medium of miracles and proximity to God. Jesus was often depicted performing similar miracles as Moses, occasionally juxtaposed with an image of Moses, such as in a mid-fourth century scene from the Catacomb of Domitilla in Rome. Jesus was also depicted as performing miracles with a staff\u2014just like Moses\u2014even though there is no mention of his use of a staff in the New Testament.<\/p>\n
\n
\r\nIn the free ebook<\/em> Who Was Jesus? Exploring the History of Jesus\u2019 Life<\/a><\/strong>, examine fundamental questions about Jesus of Nazareth. Where was he really born\u2014Bethlehem or Nazareth? Did he marry? Is there evidence outside of the Bible that proves he actually walked the earth?<\/em>\r\n
In medieval interpretations, however, Moses and the old law began to be distanced from Jesus and his new law. The horns became readily visible in appearances of Moses, beginning in medieval England. The earliest representation comes from the 11th-century illuminated manuscript known as the Aelfric Paraphrase of the Pentateuch and Joshua, now in the British Museum. Occasionally the horns appeared as small nodules, such as on a statue at Dijon, France, but they could also be rather large and demon-like in stained-glass windows and illuminated manuscripts, such as the Huntingfield Psalter.<\/p>\n
\n\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t