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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Exo 34:33 Moses put on a veil - when

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Oun Kwon <kwonbbl AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Exo 34:33 Moses put on a veil - when
  • Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 22:55:51 +0100

On 20/05/2006 22:32, Oun Kwon wrote:
...
Exo 34:33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them,
he [had to] put a veil over his face.

With expansion [had to] added in the text, the narrative tells the
story without confusion.

While Moses was speaking with them, his face kept shining. Thus he had
to put a veil for the sake of the people after finishing speech. I
think KJV overstepped and tried to understand (wrongly) the text to
say Moses put a veil before beginning to speak.

Oun, I must say I wondered for a moment if there was some contradiction between this verse and 2 Corinthians 3:13. Perhaps the KJV rendering is an attempt, perhaps unconscious, to harmonise Exodus with the New Testament verse, which at first seems to imply that Moses veiled his face when speaking to the Israelites, not afterwards. But a closer look at 2 Corinthians 3:13 in context makes it clear that the Israelites had the chance to see Moses' face unveiled but they could not fix their eyes on it (ATENISAI, v.7), also that what the veil hid was not in fact the Moses' shining face, but literally "the end of what was being destroyed". It is not quite clear to me what this means, but certainly one possibility is a reference to the fading away of the glory. Thus 2 Corinthians agrees with Exodus, that Moses displayed his shining face for a while, but then covered it up - perhaps because he knew that the glory would fade away and didn't want others to see this happening.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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