Why is Moses sometimes depicted as having horns?

Sincere question. I just did an image search and there were various works of art showing Moses with horns. I also found one of Isaiah and Joshua.





On a different note, there are coins depicting Alexander the Great with -you guessed it- horns.





Why is this?

Why is Moses sometimes depicted as having horns?
Greetings, Red Queen. Yes, I've been trying to answer your question for some time. Poor Yahoo must have asthma.





An art history professor told me those are not really horns, they are a symbol of the glory of God shining from them. The book of Exodus speaks of Moses' face shining after being in the presence of God on Mt. Sinai. Michelangelo, among other great artists, rendered this as horns.





Studying Renaissance art is a great corollary to studying Bible history and the way Europeans interpreted biblical stories, btw.





Add to tehilla v--Yes, it was believed that Jews had horns, but Alexander the Great was not Jewish by any means, and he was also depicted as having horns, because the glory of the gods was supposed to be in him.
Reply:Directly from Wikipedia:





"Exodus 34:29-35 tells that after meeting with God the skin of Moses' face became radiant, frightening the Israelites and leading Moses to wear a veil. Jonathan Kirsch, in his book Moses: A Life, thought that, since he subsequently had to wear a veil to hide it, Moses' face was disfigured by a sort of 'divine radiation burn'.





This passage has led to one longstanding tradition that Moses grew horns. This is derived from a misinterpretation of the Hebrew phrase karan `ohr panav (קָרַן עֹור פָּנָיו). The root קרן Q-R-N (qoph, resh, nun) may be read as either 'horn' or 'ray of light', depending on vocalization. `Ohr panahv (עֹור פָּנָיו) translates to 'the skin of his face'.





Interpreted correctly, these two words form an expression meaning that Moses was enlightened, that 'the skin of his face shone' (as with a gloriole), as the KJV has it."





Excellent question! I have often seen this too and didn't even register it consciously.
Reply:"So with horns, Michelangelo acclaimed Moses a man of power and station far greater than lawgiver of a local tribe. With horns he saluted him not only as one who had stood in the presence of God, and had realized, had become at-one with, his own divinity, but nobler far, as a man fulfilled who had returned -- for some do not. Only the few come back, down the mountain, in order to teach and lead mankind."


http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/worl...





Michelangelo was not relying on a mistranslation of the Bible.





Cheers,


Bruce
Reply:This is an answer I culled from a web search on the topic of Moses being depicted with horns:





"Because St. Jerome translated the Hebrew term that probably means "ray of light" as "horn" when compiling his Latin Vulgate Bible, which was still the standard edition for Latin Christians in Michelangelo's time. Michelangelo followed what was then the official Church line, and there you have it." [stuthehistoryguy]








Moral: stick with the traditional King James version.





Great question, by the way. I learned something new!
Reply:Because of (yet another) Christian mis-translation of Jewish scripture.





When Moses came down from the mountain after seeing G-d, his face was so radiant that it was if beams of light were shooting from his face. The Hebrew was mistranslated by Christians to read "horns" instead, and since then Moses was often depicted with horns--





I wish that was the whole story! Of course Christians decided that ALL Jews must have horns--that's why Jewish men wore those skullcaps, right?--to hide the horns?--and for centuries people believed that Jews had horns. Of course it was less than coincidental that Christians also believed that SATAN had horns...





This would be funny if it weren't so sad. I have a friend who actually was approached about this when her son was born. The neighbor wanted to see the baby's little horns. :( Hard to believe, but true.





Edit for G-d exists: The KJV is riddled with errors that are no less ridiculous, and that misrepresent Judaism. The REAL moral: stick with Hebrew.
Reply:Re Moses: it's a MIStranslation of 'shining'. The original Hebrew said that the face of Moses was 'shining' and somehow, this became 'horns'.......!





It's one of MANY mistranslations that appear in the 'old testament'. The OT is NOT the same as the Jewish Tanakh, as you can see.








TEHILLA V is entirely correct.





It is one of the oldest and most foolish beliefs that Jews had 'horns'. Very offensive, and again, one of MANY mistranslations.



skin tone