One of the famous statues of Moses shows him with horns. Many of the paintings show light coming out of either side of his forhead. What’s the deal?
I believe carnivorous is referring to Michelangelo’s “Moses,” part of Pope Julius II’s tomb (found in S. Pietro in Vincoli, in Rome). It’s really an amazing work, even if it is surrounded by a bunch of second-rate sculptures.
The page goes on to say:
You say St. Jerome, I say St. Hieronymus…
When you type in Moses AND horns, Google gives some 4,000 occurences. So, if we dug a bit further, I guess we could find a couple of other saints to blame.
The verse in question is Exodus 34:29. The original Hebrew says v’henai koran ohr panav. The word koran is similar to the Hebrew word keren (remember, in Hebrew there are no letter vowels) which means “horn.” The actual meaning of the verse is that his face was radiant (or shone). This should be obvious, because the word ohr means “light.” However, some people (as I guess Michaelangelo did) took it to mean horns literally.
As an aside, I used to work in a college volunteer ambulance squad. We had one member who (as my then-fiancee, now-wife tells it) looked in astonishment at me as I took off my hat. After I left, he asked my fiancee where my horns were. (You’d think being in Brooklyn he’d have seen plenty of Jews). He truly thought all Jews had horns.
Zev Steinhardt
You’ve been reading Journey to Fusang, right?
I have a similar story to Zev’s. When I was a freshman, I hung out with this very Appalachian chick from Kentucky. Needless to say, I was the first Jew she had ever met.
She was genuinely surprised to learn that I did not have horns.
No. Never heard of it. What is it?
Zev Steinhardt
One of the greatest things about growing up Jewish in the South is meeting people [dave barry] who–and I am not making this up[/dave barry] believe that circumcision is what a Jewish male goes through at eight days old–it’s the surgical removal of the horns.
but back to the OP.
I was always told that it was a mistranslation of the Latin corona (halo, or glow) into cornuta (horn). I don’t know how accurate this is, from what I’ve read off of the provided links, it could’ve been one of many mistranslations.
Well, I’ve never met a Jewish male with horns, but I’ve known a few horny Jewish guys. Does that count?
is an alternate history novel by William Sanders.
The adventures of Finn Of No Fixed Abode (“And how was I to know she was the High King’s Daughter?”) and his side kick Yussef in the New World discovered and run by Islam.
A less than bright Englishman asks Finn where Yussef’s horns are.
Indians named Muhammed Ten Bears and Two Dogs Fornicating.
However, I’m going to bring up an old thread in which this question (among others) came up:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=7758