Exodus 34:29-35 · The Radiant Face of Moses

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord . 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the Lord 's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord .

The Unveiled Truth
Exodus 34:29-35
Sermon
by Robert A. Hausman
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Moses with horns! Have you ever seen a painting of Moses with horns?

It was a common artistic convention in the middle ages to portray Moses with two horns, one on each side of his head. It all began with this passage. It says that when Moses came down from the mountain, the skin of his face shown. The root of that verb for shining (grn) is the same as the word for horn. Here it seems to be used in the sense of a ray (of the sun) coming forth from the head as a symbol of divinity. The Latin translation, the Vulgate, took it literally and referred to a "horned Moses." From that translation came the pictorial representation of Moses with horns.

Questions of interpretation come not only from the shining face, but also from the veil which Moses put on his face. What kind of a veil was this? …

CSS Publishing Company, THE DAYS ARE SURELY COMING, by Robert A. Hausman