Moses’ horns – the Bible archaeological society

Moses of Michelanjillo, Church of St. Peter in Chains, Rome, 1513-1515.
Jorig Butt butter, by CC by 3.0, through the Wikimedia Commons.

Whenever visitors arrive at the Church of Rome’s St. Peter, they are affected by the greatness of Michellejilo’s Moses, but eventually gets upset with her appearance. Why are the horns on Moses’ head? In our modern context, the horn personalities often represent the devils and the devils. Most documents or tour guides will immediately begin the explanation of misunderstandings in the Bible. But the history of the horny Moses is actually very complex and context.

It starts with the Bible. In the book of Exodus, after seeing the glory of God, Moses gets the law. The Israeli god says Moses could not see his face and could not survive. On the contrary, Moses is said to stand in the crack of a rock. As God passes, Moses sees his back, his face is not. When Moses takes two pills from the law, he descends from Sinai, he apparently changes. The key phrase is that “Moses did not know that his face shone because he was talking to God” (Exodus 34: 29, ESV).

At the end of the fourth century, the Christian monk, Jerome, translated the Hebrew a Testament and a new Testament from Greek into Latin. It was translated as Wilgate. In the original Hebrew language, the word used to integrate this change in the appearance of Moses is that Truck. In the other books of the Hebrew Bible, such as Habcuk 3: 4, Truck Identifies “rays” like “rays of light”. Jerome translates this phrase Carnota East FaxLiterally, “his face was a horny.”

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It is worth discussing whether there was a malicious intention to use the word Jerome Cornota (“Horns”), but it seems that it is unlikely. He probably used the Latin’s best word to explain that his interaction with God had clearly changed Moses. The Greek translation of the Hebrew text of the third century BC, septovint, does not use similar words. Dedoxysty This means that Moses’ face was “glorified”.

Words are important. Jerome translated the most famous version of the Bible in the Christian West. The choice of the word in the exodus moved from the metaphorical to the literal period in the medieval period. Nevertheless, some religious experts interpreted Moses’ horns into the horns of light, possibly close to the desired meaning of Jerome.

But in Christian art, with the appearance of Moses, who was horny on his head, began a change toward Moses’ anti -Jewish anti -Jewish interpretation. This change is clear by examining the context of medieval Europe, especially Christians and Jews. Some only need to look at the fourth liter council in 1215, which made all Jews publicly identified with a different style and ordered them not to start it during the week. The anti -Christian Judit surrendered to Jerome’s translation to justify hatred of Jews.

In other ancient religions, the horns were seen as a source of power and was not negatively seen.¹ Mesopotamine gods were often shown with a horn head dress. Statistics, such as Alexander the Great, appear on the coins with Horny Ram’s helmet, and honorable Norses’ personalities also appeared with horns.

Even in the Christian context, the horns were not always negative. The horn of the bishop meter can remember Moses’ horns. As Pope Innocent III notes, they represent old and new names. In this way, Moses’ horns can be seen not the horns of sarcasm, but as a sign of respect or proximity to the sacred.

In the early Christian art of the third century, Moses occasionally got the law, but often, demonstrating miracles. Although the Volgate was completed in the fourth century, it was several hundred years in which Moses was visible without horny. It was shown Advertising nausea Catcoum art and relief sculptures are usually held on the staff of its miracle, crossing the rock or crossing the Pacific. Early Christian authors, such as Origin in Against the salesMoses, the most important miracle of ancient, is called Moses.

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Early Christian text and art tried to connect Jesus to Moses through miracles and proximity to God. Jesus was often photographed like Moses, which was occasionally justified with a picture of Moses, such as in the mid -century scene from Dumitella’s catakum in Rome. Jesus was also shown as a miracle with the staff – just like Moses – though there is no mention of the use of his staff in the Testament.

Symbolically, Jesus was given a will to Moses’ staff, and they were linked to the Bible’s miracle workers and Jesus was shown as “the new Moses”.² For the early Christians, just as Moses reflected the glory of the Lord through the “old” law and covenant, Jesus reflected the glory of God with “new” law and covenant. A different religious message was sent from Moses’ head and separated from Jesus, which would not have been profitable for the newborn Christian religion.

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In medieval interpretations, however, Moses and the old law began to turn away from Jesus and his new law. Starting in the medieval England, the horn is easily visible to Moses. The initial representation comes from a bright manuscript of the eleventh century, now known as the Pentach and Joshua’s Effective Paradise Frees at the British Museum. Occasionally horns appeared as small noodols, such as on a sculpture in the French city of Diejan, but they can be like big and devils in the stained glass windows and bright drafts, such as the Hunting Field Selter.

Jesus’ proximity to Moses suffered the appearance of the horns, because they tried to separate Jews in a Christian era when Jews were often called the defamation of Christ’s killers or burial. Not accidentally, other ridiculous images of Jews appear in Middle Ages, including the representation of a blind “Synagoga” (a Jewish synagogue figure) on Strasbourg Cathedral in France.

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Although Moses had previously been a respected figure in the early Christian text and art, after the 13th century, he was associated with a blind symbol and a rapid sarcastic picture of the Jews who followed the “old” law. Even on the cover of Martin Luther’s notorious tract, pictures of Jews wearing the horns of the horns, or the devil’s horns were shown more easily. On the Jews and their lies. The Jews were considered united with the devil in opposition to Christ, and Abraham’s children were accused of “your father Satan” while alive the literal reading of John 8:44. The idea promoted that if the most important Jews were the horns of Moses, then all Jews must have horn, who reflect the devil’s heritage. Even until modern times, Jews have reported anti -Semitic accusations that all Jews were born of horns. The translation of Art and Jerome has been manipulated and encouraged by the anti -Jewish attitudes.

Moses did not initially represent sarcasm or dishonor in Jerome’s Wulgate. On the contrary, they reflected the presence of God. And for centuries after the translation of Jerome, Moses was shown together with Jesus, demonstrating miracles, reflecting the proximity of the Divine. But once they appear in art, the horns literally turned. They were considered as an indicator of the rejecting evil and Christianity. However, this understanding was not completely the same.

Of Michelangelo MusaPerhaps the most famous statue of Moses with horns was created in the 16th century for the tomb of Pope Julius II, which did not possibly ignore Moses’ status. And more modern artists, such as Mark Chagal, showed Moses with two -ray beams in the upper part of his head rather than physical horns. As artistic representation, it reminds contemporary readers that Moses has no solidarity in interpretation, and they may not be horns.

Note

1. Moses in medieval art and thinking (Berkeley: UC Press, 1970).
2. RepetitiveFall 2020.

Lee M. Jeffersen Nelson de and Mary McDewell are associated with Rodes at Center College. Its interest is the development of Christian tradition and art and late ancient imagery.

This article was first published daily on May 3, 2023 in the history of the Bible.

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