Moses why horns

Commissioned in by Pope Julius II, the colossal sculpture strangely portrays the biblical lawgiver with two horns on his head. Even if this might seem an oddity at first sight, the choice is far from being a novelty attributable to the Renaissance genius.

In fact, the motif of the Horned Moses can be found with relative ease in medieval illuminated manuscripts. It is the result —as is usually the case— of an early mistranslation, widely spread, from the Hebrew to the Latin.

In the ancient world, horns were considered a symbol of power and authority. In fact, most of the gods of the ancient world were horned, in a clear reference to the most powerful beast on earth —the bull, the wild ox, the biblical Behemoth. Back then, horns were not yet considered to be an exclusive attribute of demons, nor associated with evil at all.

Some scholars suspect Jerome was trying to suggest that Moses had been imbued with god-like strength after his descent from the mountain. Be that as it may, most scholars agree: Jerome simply made a mistake.

Actually, this is far from being the only error found in his translation. Despite all its majesty, the statue possesses a rather sad, floppy-looking pair of horns—the sort you might expect to see on a baby goat, or something.

So, in Exodus chapter 34 , after spending several days on Mt. Septuagint, the Ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, got the gist and rendered the word as glorified —that is, shining with the glory of God—but then St. Jerome had to come along years later and screw everything up. So he took it upon himself to translate the Bible into the vulgar i.

Scripture itself offers few, if any, visual descriptions of Satan, and what is there rarely mentions horns the main exception being the Book of Revelation, which depicts him as a horned dragon.

Ancient and medieval artists illustrated Satan in a variety of ways, but it took until the early Renaissance for him to sprout a pair of horns, which were apparently borrowed, originally, from depictions of various pagan gods.

The founder of Judaism is horned, just like Satan!!! Which, of course, raises the question of why Michelangelo chose to portray his Moses with horns anyway. Actually, no one really got along with Julius—the guy was a heel who, like many medieval and Renaissance popes, was far more interested in military conquest than theology or church leadership.

And so, Moses, who in life shared in so much of the glory of God that his face shone with majesty, got his most enduring likeness carved with a pair of sad, floppy horns, partly because St. A detail of Michelangelo's Moses masterpiece inside St. Click the alert icon to follow topics: Judaism. Haaretz Cartoon. Build a Hospital in Sakhnin. Tel Aviv Is Over. Gay Haredim Turn to Her for Help.

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