Everyone in this thread is acting like the whole “Jews have horns” thing is a myth.
I have good evidence to the contrary.
Oh, great. I just groaned so loudly, a cow-orker asked if I was OK!
Interesting. Does this mean that the name Karen could be loosely translated as “Horny”?
“How do you like me shofar?”
Not necessarily. Horns have been connected with spirituality or gods among a number of cultures. The Greeks had Pan, who had horns. Cernunnos, who had antlers, was found all over Europe, including Italy (from at least the 4th c. BC). Here’s a pic of a Roman horned god. Some speculate that the pictures of horned gods may also represent priests in some sort of ceremonial gear.
Anyhow, I do not find it difficult to believe that a translator (Greek, Roman or otherwise) would think “horns” in connection to an encounter with the divine. I’m not suggesting that (a la Joseph Campbell) these various horned gods have any connection to Jews, Moses, each other, etc. Just that a translator might not consider the idea of horns to be utterly unimaginable in a religious context.
Oooh, the pain!!!
Does kinda play into the whole jews have horns thing though, doesn’t it? ;j
That’s where I thought it came from. There’s a funny bit in the liner notes where a Rabbi uses the Kabbalah and numerology to illustrate that Jews have soul. I don’t have the album at work, so I can’t quote it, but I assure each and every one of you that it is funny.
I lived there for about 20 years. And the bulk of hearing this was from people outside of Utah. Ignorant people no doubt but people nonetheless.
And apparently i’m not the only one as evidenced Here middle of the 4th paragraph
and here (although not a huge example, there is a mantion of the belief as being something anti-LDS folks believe)
and here in the 4th and 5th paragraph
So apparently I do know what i’m talking about. And your “ummmm…” start only serves to make you sound a bit pompous. You might want to avoid trying to insinuate people are making things up until you have done a little research.
You do realize that the name Cernunnos almost certainly comes from the same “root” [K.R.N] as the Hebrew Keren?
Also, interestingly, “corner” (as in “keren zavit”, corner of the room – the place where the walls fan [“ray”] out; “keren ha-rehovot”, street corner – where the streets do the same) - which is another soundalike from the K.R.N. family.
Dani
Except cornu (horn) is Latin, which is Indo-European, while Keren is Hebrew, which is Semitic. Do you know how cornu got into Latin…is it from Phoenecian? They would be the only Semitic people that Latin speakers would have had extensive contact with early enough.
Unles it’s borrowed from the Greek. Remeber, the Hellenic world included quite a few Semitic peoples.
Yeah, I guess that’s possible too, especially post-Alexander. Does anyone know the ancient Greek for horn?
If you’re dealing with someone who orks cows, maybe you should be asking him if he’s OK. 
1.) Interesting Cites
2.) You read far too much into an “Ummmm…”
3.) I’m not a bit pompous. I’m extremely pompous. Ask anyone who knows me.
A few comments:
The person who posted (I forget who) who said that technically Moses is not a Jew (Yehudi) is correct. The first time I see the word Yehudi uses in the Bible is 2 Kings 16:6, but that might actually refers to Judeans. 2 Kings 25:25 seems to refer to “Jews”, meaning Israelites.
It should be noted that in post Biblical literature, e.g., Talmud and Midrash, Jews are referred to almost always as “Israel”.
Regarding horns: as has been posted, before and parallel to the identification horns with the devil, horns were a symbol of power and glory (see the Vikings).
Zev, I don’t know if you have Midrash Ha-Gadol (13th Century Yeminite) around, but years ago I saw a reference there that said that Moses really had horns. Midrash Ha-Gadol is important, because it contains many ancient traditions that were left out of the Talmud and Midrash extant today.
The ancient tradition that Moses really did have horns likely influenced St. Jerome when he translated the Bible into Latin, called the Vulgate. St. Jerome, if I remember correctly, was Syrian, and spoke Syriac, a cognate language of Hebrew (roughly it is Aramaic, but not exactly the same as Jewish Aramaic).
The extension of the horns of Moses, as divine symbols of glory and power, to every Jewish male, as sign of being spawned by the devil (see John 8), in my mind came later. The idea that Jews have horns is most definitely connected to the “demonization of the Jews” – the tradition of linking Jews to Satan, and misinterpreting the meaning of Moses having horns.
Sheesh! Way to fight ignorance! 
The Vikings did not use horned helmets.
Good call! I was relying on research I did on this topic years ago, and should have redone some of the research. I should have said “Scandinavians” (and others) who wore horned helmets.
See here:
Horned helmets were used by earlier Bronze Age peoples of Europe and Scandinavia, and some spectacular helmets have been found, but all date more than one thousand years earlier than the Viking Age, AD 750-1050.
My basic point, though, is that horns were a symbol of power and glory before they became associated with the devil.
Not quite. Mordechai himself is called “Ish Yehudi” or “Mordechai HaYehudi.” His ancestor Kish is referred to as “Ish Yemini.”
The designation of all Israeltes as “Jews” no doubt came from the fact that all people from the Judean (southern, Davidic) Kingdom referred to themselves as Judeans/Jews to distinguish themselves from the people of the Israelite Northern Kingdom, regardless of actual tribal ancestry. Mordechai, who is identified as an “Ish Yehudi” despite his clear tribal descent from Benjamin is the perfect example of this.
As was said earlier, Biblical personalities from before the split of Northern and Southern Kingdoms would have been referred to by their contemporaries as Israelites (or as members of their individual tribes) and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob themselves would have been “Hebrews” or “Ivrim.”
The religion, however, is the same one (with some differences in day-to-day practice, but not really in principle) that is called “Judaism” even though that name was attached to it only after all Israelites came to be referred to as Jews.