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Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc
And just as a note for your interest, the horn thing can still be argued. Because actually, horns were taken by many cultures simply as an attribute of divine power. So there are scholars even today speculating that the horns may be there rightfully after all.
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Actually, Moses was not horned. This comes from a mistranslation by Jerome in the Latin Vulgate Bible. Jerome took the Hebraic word
Qaran and used it in one of its interpretations, the noun 'horn' (
'Qui videbant faciem Moses esse cornutam'), but there is another derivation meaning 'to emit light' or 'shed rays' (horns of light radiating from his face, aka a halo).
Qaran is used conjuctively with the phrase 'the skin of his face' (not horns on top of his head). Thus, after coming down from Mount Sinai and his meeting with Yahweh, his face was literally glowing -- so much so that he had to wear a veil so as not to frighten his people.
The Apostle Paul, in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, is quite clear about the proper definition being Moses' face shone:
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And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished...
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Michelangelo, steeped in esoteric Christian learning from his long stay at the scholarly court of Lorenzo De Medici, would naturally be aware of Jerome's vulgate translation of Exodus, and incorporated it in his monumental sculpture.
P.S. Please note the remarkable resemblance Moses has with Charlton Heston.