Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Robert Vining" <rvining AT log.on.ca>]

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