Annotatio CXVI

”He knew not that his face was horned.” — Exodus 34:29

Augustine, Bishop of Kissamos, marvels at Jerome, because — against the Hebrew truth and the Septuagint edition — he put in his translation that Moses’s face was “horned.”¹ For thus that bishop writes in the Annotations on Exodus: “For the ambiguous word made an error in the edition — although there is also a difference between” between the noun “Horn” and that which signifies “Radiant.” For “horn” is called קרן Kerren with a double segol; but “radiant,” קרן Karran. Therefore it is not had in the Hebrew context that Moses’s face was horned, but radiant. Which is most clearly understood from the words themselves, which in Hebrew have this form — ומשה לא ידע כי קרן עור פניו בדברו אתו, Mosche lo iadacha chi Karan or panaiu bedabero ito — that is, “And Moses knew not that the skin of his face was radiant.” It is not written, therefore, that his face was horned, but that his skin was radiant. From this, then, the depraved custom of the common people can be corrected, who paint Moses with two horns: for horns did not come forth from [his] forehead, but [his] forehead, and nose, and mouth, and chin were radiant. And it is a wonder that Jerome, not having considered the Hebrew truth, did not even notice what the Septuagint had translated — who rendered this passage well: καὶ Μωϋσῆς οὐκ ᾔδει ὅτι δεδόξασται ἡ ὄψις τοῦ προσώπου αὐτοῦ, “And Moses knew not that the appearance of the skin of his face had been glorified.” And so the Jews laugh at us and execrate us, whenever they see Moses depicted in our temples with a horned face — as if we (as they foolishly interpret) thought him to be some Devil. From this passage of the Septuagint edition it is known that that ancient edition which the Church used before Jerome was that of the Septuagint themselves. For in the office of the Transfiguration of the Savior is sung, “The face of Moses was glorified” — which is taken from the Septuagint edition, which the Latins used, and whence they also took [their] Antiphons.