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  • From: "Robert Vining" <rvining AT log.on.ca>
  • To: b-hebrew
  • Subject: Exodus 34:29
  • Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 22:52:17


Letter to the Editor - TORONTO STAR

Re: Rev. Burrow's Mar. 13 letter in which he urges that Moses is a man, not
a monster. Tradition-bound thinking limits options, making one blind to a
third possibility. What a keen disappointment to orthodox thinking those
undeniable horns on Michelangelo's Moses! Think of all the possible
positive, exalting Moses that Michelangelo might have sculpted. Instead, he
chose to portray him as neither a man, nor a monster, but, as the
mythological figure he believed him to be. Why fashion those perplexing
horns, if not to signal this belief ? This conviction was based, not on a
single verse, possibly mistranslated, but from the totality of this learned
man's knowledge of the biblical and extra-biblical evidence..

Jerome (by some call St.) is held responsible for ostensibly
mistranslating Exodus 34:29, thus giving the revered Moses his undeserved
horns. Rev. Burrows should not be too confident in judging Jerome to be
in error, or, in presuming to know what was in the original Hebrew text.
Whether Jerome was mistaken, or courageously impeccable, in his
translation can not be answered conclusively. Given the uncertainties about
the original text, and the possible modifying caused by copyists and
translators; whether Jerome saw the root QRN in the Qal stem meaning
"shine", or in the Hiphil stem meaning "horned", is open to question. The
latter fits the context better. Earlier, the people were sore afraid of
the terrifying Sinaitic God, Exodus 20:18.. Now, they are afraid of His
agent who had spent a long, continuous, intimate time in His presence.
Maybe the Israelites would be frightened by a radiant Moses. More likely,
they would be afraid of a horned Moses, necessitating a mask, or veil
(Hebrew "masweh" used nowhere else in the OT) to cover the alarming
disfigurement, Exodus 34:33-35

Jerome has some worthy credentials as a translator of Hebrew scripture.
Originally translating from the Greek Septuagint, he became dissatisfied
with this second hand production. From 390- 405 he gave all his attention
to translating the OT from the Hebrew which he had come to believe was the
only inspired text. During this time and until his death in 420, he lived
in Bethlehem, where as a Hebraic scholar, he was taught and guided by
Jewish scholars. Biographers characterize him as a meticulous biblical
translator knowledgeable in both Greek and Hebrew. In canonicity
controversies, Jerome championed the inspiration of only the Hebrew text.

Although, we can not read the mind of either Jerome or Michelangelo, we
can read the biblical record, and arrive at our own conclusions as to
whether the authors are signaling history or mythology.
Robert Vining, Owen Sound, Ontario rvining AT log.on.ca




  • Exodus 34:29, Robert Vining, 03/24/1999

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