Why was Moses always depicted with Horns in Medeival church paintings? Was it to trick pagan farmers?

Answer 1

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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 (qof, 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".[84]

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.[

Source(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses

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Answer 2

LOL Most likely!

Why not the Early Roman Christians did all sorts of things to get the Pagans on board, why would the Medieval church give up the practice since it worked so well!

Source(s):

z

Answer 3

As a couple people have already mentioned, it's a translation error. For a very long time there was a passage in the Bible that stated that Moses had horns on his head, and the artists of the time merely reproduced that description. That's not what it says in the original Hebrew, and modern Bibles have long since been corrected.

Answer 4

Actually they are rays of light. A closer study of some paintings will show it better.

Answer 5

The Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible tells us that following his conversation with God on Mount Sinai, Moses’ face was “horned.” (Exodus 34:29, 30, 35; compare Douay Version.) The Vulgate enjoyed great popularity in much of Christendom and thus influenced the way scriptures were understood.

However, the Hebrew word translated “horned” also has the meaning ‘send forth rays’ or ‘shine.’ (According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the word “denotes the form of a horn(s) rather than the substance.” And viewed pictorially, rays of light do actually resemble horns.

The fact that Moses’ face emitted rays is explainable, as Jehovah’s glory had just passed by. (Exodus 33:22; 34:6, 7) Paul confirms this to be the accurate understanding, writing about “the glory” of Moses’ face, not of his “horns.”—2 Corinthians 3:7.

Accurate understanding of Biblical terminology thus leads to a more penetrating knowledge of the Bible report. Accordingly, the horns on Michelangelo’s famous statue of Moses are simply an artistic curio stemming from a long-corrected error of translation.

Answer 6

The actual reason was is that they wanted to demonize the Jew. Many people in the church (not all) consider either the Jews as the enemy of the church or just as competition. The Jews were also considered by some church officials to be witches too.

Answer 7

I don't know, funny you should mention about Moses because I was looking on this website http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/… where there is a statue of Moses with horns.

There is got to be a meaning behind it.

Answer 8

I forget the Hebrew word used in the original bible, but it has two different meanings "Shone" and "Horns".

An English example is "invalid". It can mean either "illegal" or "ill".

Answer 9

I honestly don't know. Perhaps there were shades of the Green Man, a Pagan nature spirit in the idea to add horns.
Christianity is like that, though, it tends to "borrow" ideas from existing or more popular Religions to try and enhance itself.
Google/Wiki the Green Man and see what you think. It's another possibility.

Answer 10

The horns on some images of Moses was not meant as an insult or lack of reverence. The horns represented rays of light--as mentioned by other responders to your Q.

Answer 11

I don't know, but some Christians (ignorant ones, obviously) believe that Jews have horns and devil tails, and are "Christ-killers".

I'm thinking that depicting Moses with horns might be related to those anti-Semitic beliefs.