Masterpiece Monday: Moses by Michelangelo

Author

Alfred Larsen
September 18, 2023

Michelangelo is famous for his David, but you may not know about his sculpture of Moses. It also has an interesting (kinda funny) story.

The sculpture seems to depict a moment while Moses was descending the mountain carrying the stone tablets and first heard the IsraElites partying. He seems to sit down, looking in the direction of the camp with great concern in his eyes. Of course, when he later reached the bottom of the mountain, he saw what was happening, and smashed the tablets in a fit of rage.

The account says:

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Then Moses turned and went down the Mountain carrying the two Tablets of Proofs in his hands... They were tablets of stone that were inscribed on both sides, and they were the works and writings of God.

Well, when JoShua heard the voices of people shouting, he said to Moses:

‘That’s the sound of a war in the camp!’

But [Moses] replied:

‘It isn’t the sound of people going to battle or the sound of defeat... What I hear is the sound of a lot of [partying].’

And when he [later] got close to the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses became so angry that he threw the two tablets from his hands and broke them into pieces at the base of the Mountain!

Then he took the calf that they’d made and had it melted and ground into dust, and he put it into some water and made the children of IsraEl drink it.

Exodus 32:15-20

You may notice something strange, however. Look more closely at his head:

Do you see it? He seems to have two horns growing out of his head! Why’s that?

Because of a mistranslation!

Exodus 34:29, 30, and 35 describe Moses’ face as shining or glowing after he came back from the mountain. However, when Jerome created the Latin Vulgate Bible, he saw that the Hebrew word's root literally means “horned.” Hence, centuries of European Christians thought that Moses had grown horns!

Numerous medieval artworks depicting Moses after he descended the mountain show him with these horns. Yes, one of the greats like Michelangelo made this mistake! Of course, if Jerome had simply trusted the Greek Septuagint (like we do in our translation), he would have seen that the “color” of Moses’ face was “glorified,” and millions of people would not have been misled.

Jerome also ignored the context, which clearly describes Moses as putting a veil over his face to stop others from seeing the glowing (Exodus 34:35). If he had horns, he should have worn a hat!

In our translation, we use various words to convey his face being “glorified”. Here’s one passage:

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So when Moses came down the Mountain, he had the two tablets in his hands... But, as he was coming down, he didn’t realize that his face was glowing because of his conversation with God! And when Aaron and all the elders of IsraEl saw Moses’ face radiating, they were afraid to come any closer.

Exodus 34:29

You can continue to read the passage at https://2001translation.org/read/exodus#_34:29

Today, it’s easy to see what Michelangelo’s work should have looked like if Jerome had just trusted the Septuagint. Here’s Moses with the horns digitally removed:

Original is credited to: Jörg Bittner Unna (CC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en)

However, we can’t know how Michelangelo might have portrayed the glowing, radiating face (if at all).

We can also ask Artificial Intelligence to transform Michelangelo’s sculpture into a more realistic image (minus the horns), including the glowing skin:

You can read more about Michelangelo’s Moses at its Wikipedia page.

Read the full Bible account at https://2001translation.org/read/exodus#_32

Warm regards

The 2001 Translation

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