In 1505, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti for his tombstone. The project provided for the creation, in contrast to the wall tombstones traditional for Italy of that time, a majestic, free-standing mausoleum, decorated with 40 statues larger than a human being. However, after a quarrel with the Pope over funding for the project, work on the tombstone was interrupted. Then it was repeatedly resumed and interrupted. Already 30 years after the death of the Pope, according to the sixth contract in 1545, a two-tier wall tombstone was installed in the Roman church of San Pietro in Vincoli, which included 6 statues made by Michelangelo in "free time". Among them was a statue of Moses, on which the master worked from 1513 to 1516…
The symbolic meaning of the statue was as follows: biblical Moses- the liberator of his people from Egyptian captivity, the artist hoped that Julius would free Italy from the conquerors. All-consuming passion, superhuman strength strain the powerful body of the hero, his face reflects will and determination, a passionate thirst for action. It is believed that the leader of the Jews is depicted at the moment when he, descending from Mount Sinai with the commandments, suddenly discovered that his people waiting for the leader, he invented an idol for himself - a golden calf, and worships him. Hence the menacing look, and the left leg laid back - the readiness to stand up. One of his hands powerfully rests on a stone tablet on his knees, the other rests here with a carelessness worthy of a man who needs only a movement of his eyebrows to make everyone obey, they said " before such an idol, the Jewish people had the right to prostrate themselves in prayer"... really saw God.
According to legend, when the master finished work on the statue, he was so shocked by his creation that he hit the statue with a hammer and exclaimed: “ But why don't you speak?”
I haven't been to Rome (I hope someday) but I saw a plaster cast of this majestic statue in Moscow's Pushkin Museum.. It's a truly amazing work of art.
The only question that is asked by almost everyone who sees this statue is: “ Why does he have horns???»
Moses - the great leader of the Jewish people, legislator and founder official religion brother of Aaron. The book of Exodus tells how Moses led the people of Israel out of Egyptian captivity and how he received the Ten Commandments from God. Among the Old Testament figures, Moses was even more significant than David, and many parallels were drawn between his life and the life of Christ. Moses is honored by followers of three religions - Jews, Christians and Muslims ... And here Buonarroti depicts him as horned ... how is it?
In fact, "Horned" Moses by Michelangelo Buonarroti is not unique in its kind. Throughout Europe "roam" his no less horned gather. For example here:
Cathedral in Salzburg:
And here is the Horned Moses from the cathedral in Angers, France ()
I could not find the "place of registration" of this Moses ..., I found the picture through google. But what kind of horns does he have here ....
Moses from Roslyn Chapel, Scotland. I can’t help but note that there are such horned and eared devils sitting there
So how did it happen that Moses became horned?
Michelangelo lived in Catholic Italy, and the Bible in which he could read about Moses is the so-called Vulgate - the Latin translation of the Bible by Blessed Jerome. The Vulgate is a revised and corrected edition of an older translation, the Septuagint, a collection of translations of the Old Testament in ancient Greek made in the III-II centuries BC. e. in Alexandria.
What is written about Moses in the Vulgate? That's what:
Ref. 34:29. “When Moses was descending from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of revelation were in Moses’ hand as he descended from the mountain, Moses did not know that his face became horny because God spoke to him.
"Cornuta esset facies sua"
In Russian, “his face was horny”
For the sake of curiosity, let's look at the Hebrew text:
כי קרן אור פניו
Well, for those who, like me, do not read Hebrew
ky qrn ‘wr pnw
We are interested in the word qrn. The fact is that in the Semitic tradition vowels are not written
So the translation should be like this:
Ref. 34:29." When Moses descended from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of revelation were in Moses' hand as he descended from the mountain, Moses did not know that his face began to glow because God spoke to him».
How could Saint Jerome be so wrong? - I don’t know ... probably the evil one beguiled in order to laugh at both one and the other ... One way or another, this is already the business of Moses and Jerome, and they will figure it out there ..
By the way, qeren's word Old Testament occurs only in three places: Ex. 34:29, 30, 35. I.e. only in this story about Moses ....
It should be noted that for the first time the Vulgate was published under Sixtus V, under the title: "Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis" (Rome, 1590). I did not find confirmation, but I risk suggesting that it was during the printing of the book that the error was discovered and corrected, because later Moses was no longer depicted with horns, but simply with two rays of light coming from his head:
Engraving by Gustave Doré, 1865:
Gentile da Fabriano (fragment of the painting "The Adoration of the Magi", 1423):
Bern, Switzerland, Münsterplatz (and the rays still look like horns):
And the great Rembrandt Van Rijn had all the horns on his side (1659):
And what about the Orthodox? And the Orthodox people have never heard of the horns of Moses! Because the first teachers and enlighteners Slavic Cyril and Methodius were Greeks and they brought the first translation of the Bible to Russia! And they based it on the Septuagint mentioned above. In Ex. 34 in all three places where the damn grn meet we see different forms from the Greek verb "doxazo" - to exalt, to radiate glory, to shine, to be revered.
Therefore, like subsequent translations of the Bible, so is the Elizabethan Bible (1751), which, it must be said, is still used by Russian Orthodox Church correctly translated: 29 " like the glory of the flesh of his face"; 30 "Byashe glorified the sight of the flesh of his face".
Another thing is that the European artistic tradition also influenced Russia. And if on the old canonical icon presented above neither horns nor rays come out of the head of Moses, then for example, paintings from St. Isaac's Cathedral In Petersburg:
F.S. Zavyalov, "The dying testament of Moses" (1848-1850):
Although here in the same place: I.K. Dorner, "Prophets Samuel, Moses, Elisha" (1848-1852):
But this Moses "lives" in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior:
But one way or another, neither the "radiant" nor the "horned" Moses is loved by the Orthodox heart. And he did not take root with us in any!
Well, where and without alternatives. In general, no matter how exhaustive the explanation of the “hornedness” of the great prophet is, there are still people who cannot be satisfied with it.
We will discard the version about the wife of Moses, but the rest:
Moses was deceived not by God, but by the devil
They say that the unclean one spoke with the prophet and it was he who "rewarded" him with his special sign. We will not talk about the logic of this version ... The Ten Commandments, after receiving which Moses "horns and grew" will not be remembered. Let's ask ourselves another question: where does the devil's horns come from, if he is a fallen angel...
But the answer to this question is much more difficult to find than to find out about the "horniness" of Moses. In the Apocalypse, Satan is described as " a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems"- but this is clearly not the case. The image of a horned-tailed beast with hooves came out of the image of Greek satyrs, who, like other elements of pagan culture, were declared demonic by the church.
boring version
Some far-fetched version, I reproduce without comment:
Among the ancient peoples, horns were a sign of divine power and creativity, as well as a symbol of fertility in nature. Hence the ram's horns of Moses, Bacchus, and Amun in ancient images, cow horns Isis and Diana, etc., etc.
In ancient times, in Jewish temples, sacred horns stood on the four sides of the altar, which symbolized the all-encompassing power of Jehovah God.
In the Middle Ages, Christianity turned against the worship of horns, which became medieval art a symbol of Satan and his followers.
Moses Marc Chagall:
alien version
Representatives of other civilizations communicated with Moses... They handed the prophet a device with two antennas, with the help of which he always communicated with them. Further variations vary depending on the degree of the author's madness... I will not comment on them. Apparently, the inhabitants of the planet Niribu communicated with Moses ()
He's just horny...
In fact, people do have horns. In fact, this is an anomaly, but on the Internet you can also find this version:
The fact is that such a powerful brain structure as the hippocampus (in fact, the “horns” inside the brain) projects the radiation of its two tonsils onto the frontal part of the head, where, during intensive mental work, outgrowths of bone tissues are observed. So, Yuri Longo wrote about his alleged ancestor Dimitrius Longo, a famous fakir and illusionist, that, they say, “his grandfather grew horns in old age.”
So Moses, from intensive mental work, acquired horns ... True, in this case, the horns should be located on the forehead, and not on the crown, as depicted by Michelangelo ...<
About horned people
Moses Dali (rays or horns are easily guessed):
By the way. If you try to find out what the horns mean, then you can also find out this: horns are a symbol of summoning and gathering, as well as a sign of the power of the ancient gods and rulers, a symbol of strength and glory. Among the peoples of the North, a deer horn with ten branches is a sign of a shaman who has power over nature.
The horn symbolizes the animal principle, as it is made of bone. If the shepherd's horn has become a symbol of the ability to speak the language of animals, then the hunting horn is associated with a call to a wild beast. In Italy, horns serve as a protective sign against the evil eye, in any case, for almost 2000 years people have worn amulets with their image.
The horn may be a sign of adultery. Why - it is also unknown, there are versions that this is connected not so much with the horn, but with “horns” made of fingers - a symbolic gesture of the victory of a successful lover over a deceived husband. Another lies in the "horns" of knights leaving for war and leaving bored wives at home...
However, the horn is not only a growth on the head, but also dishes, as well as musical instruments made from animal horns. For example, the horn of the Shofar, from the sound of which the walls of Jericho collapsed, and whose voice, according to Jewish ideas, will be heard on the Day of Judgment. Or Roland's horn - a symbol of military prowess. As a musical instrument, the horn, due to its mournful sound, is an attribute of Melpomene, the muse of tragedy....
In conclusion, I would like to say yes - horned Moses- This is a translation error of the Bible, and one of the most famous. Muslims or atheists like to point to it, accusing Christians of distorting their faith... So, if faith is distorted, it is not because of translation errors. Yes, Moses "gained" horns instead of light ... but at the same time, no distortion touched the ten commandments that he brought from Mount Sinai and which God gave him ...
Why was Moses depicted with horns
Please note that in fig. 103 (taken from, vol. 3) Moses is depicted with horns. And here is another sculpture by Michelangelo, where he is also depicted with horns (see Fig. 104, taken in the same place). Now you will understand why our ancestors used to portray Moses in this way. Pay attention also to the fact that Jesus Christ is depicted inside the thorn bush.
Rice. 103. Moses and the Burning Bush, miniature
Rice. 104. Sculpture Michelangelo Moses
Rice. 105. Big Trinity
Take a look at fig. 105. Before us is the Big Trinity, which we discussed in, v. 2: Mother-Void - Man - Life Force or Great Mother - Man - Veles / Great Serpent. It is complete because it includes the masculine and the feminine. Let me remind you that the structure of our world looks like in Fig. 102. It is fivefold, and within this scheme are contained two Trinities: the Greater and the Lesser. How they change places, “breathe”, so to speak, we also considered in detail with you.
Now, keeping the Big Trinity in front of your eyes, take a look at fig. 103. What do we see? Also the Trinity: Moses - Jesus (man and God) - the Mother of God, who is personified by a thorn bush / burning bush. If these two drawings depicting the Trinity are superimposed on each other, then the Mother of God, as it should be, personifies the Great Mother, Jesus is the person who became God, but Moses, it turns out, personifies Veles / Beelzebub - the Force of Life and Vila . That's why Moses has horns.
Two horns - a maiden - a deity. Horns - month - 12 Forces of the Year / Gad of the Great Serpent Veles. That is, the horns and the month indicate that we are dealing with the Great Serpent and the Force of Life (you can see how the ancestors depicted Volos / Veles / Beelzebub in photo 4).
Photo 4. Hair, Veles, Beelzebub. The stone was found in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, not far from Petrodvorets
Moses led his people into new lands? It is the Force of Life that leads to new lands, and the Mother of God - the Great Mother - protects.
And we are told that Moses brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, meaning by them the Jews. But it was we Russians who swore by Veles, we always relied on the Power of Life and went down to Veles for Forces, Wisdom, treasures (see)! Going down to Veles in the kingdom of the dead, we died in his underground and underwater kingdom (our "I" died), and then returned to life as twice-born. Veles, that is, the Power of Life, led us Russians through life. And the Mother of God has always been the intercessor of our RUSSIAN LAND.
Conclusion? I think that in this case we are not dealing with the real history of the Jewish people, but with a prophecy regarding the future of Russia, the near future.
Into the mind. Moses personifies the bottom and Veles / the Force of Life. But since he met God on Mount Horeb, and on Mount Sinai God appeared to him in the form of a burning and non-burning crown of thorns, then Moses, in addition to Veles / the Power of Life, also personifies the top and Hair / Will. This means that Moses united in himself (in the middle) the top and the bottom.
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If you happen to visit Rome and visit the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli, then you will see with your own eyes the tomb of Pope Julius II, which includes 6 majestic statues by the great master Michelangelo Buonarroti. One of them is the legendary statue of Moses.
In 1505, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti for his tombstone. The project provided for the creation, in contrast to the wall tombstones traditional for Italy of that time, a majestic, free-standing mausoleum, decorated with 40 statues larger than a human being. However, after a quarrel with the Pope over funding for the project, work on the tombstone was interrupted. Then it was repeatedly resumed and interrupted. Already 30 years after the death of the Pope, according to the sixth contract in 1545, a two-tier wall tombstone was installed in the Roman church of San Pietro in Vincoli, which included 6 statues made by Michelangelo in "free time". Among them was the statue of "Moses", on which the master worked from 1513 to 1516...
The symbolic meaning of the statue was as follows: the biblical Moses - the liberator of his people from Egyptian captivity, the artist hoped that Julius would liberate Italy from the conquerors. All-consuming passion, inhuman strength strain the powerful body of the hero, his face reflects will and determination, a passionate thirst for action. It is believed that the leader of the Jews is depicted at the moment when he, descending from Mount Sinai with the commandments, suddenly discovered that his people waiting for the leader, he invented an idol for himself - a golden calf, and worships him. Hence the menacing look, and the left leg laid back - the readiness to stand up. One of his hands powerfully rests on a stone tablet on his knees, the other rests here with a carelessness worthy of a man who needs only a movement of his eyebrows to make everyone obey, they said "before such an idol the Jewish people had the right to prostrate themselves with prayer" ... really saw God .
According to legend, when the master completed the work on the statue, he was so shocked by his creation that he hit the statue with a hammer and cried out: “But why don’t you speak?”
Among the Old Testament figures, Moses was even more significant than David, and many parallels were drawn between his life and the life of Christ. Moses is honored by the followers of three religions - Jews, Christians and Muslims... And here Buonarroti depicts him as horned... how so?
In fact, the "horned" Moses Michelangelo Buonarroti is not unique in its kind. All over Europe "roam" his no less horned counterparts. For example here:
Cathedral in Salzburg:
And here is Moses from the cathedral in Angers, France:
How did it happen that Moses became horned?
Michelangelo lived in Catholic Italy, and the Bible in which he could read about Moses is the so-called Vulgate - the Latin translation of the Bible by Blessed Jerome. The Vulgate is a "refined and corrected edition of an older translation - the Septuagint" - a collection of translations of the Old Testament into ancient Greek, made in the III-II centuries BC. e. in Alexandria.
What is written about Moses in the Vulgate? Here's what: Ex. 34:29. “When Moses descended from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of revelation were in Moses’ hand as he descended from the mountain, Moses did not know that his face became horned because God spoke to him.”
"Cornuta esset facies sua"
In Russian "his face was horny"
For the sake of curiosity, let's look at the Hebrew text:
כי קרן אור פניו
Well, for those who, like me, do not read Hebrew
ky qrn ‘wr pnw
We are interested in the word qrn. The fact is that in the Semitic tradition vowels are not written
Thus the translation should be: Ex. 34:29. “When Moses descended from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of revelation were in Moses’ hand as he descended from the mountain, Moses did not know that his face began to shine with rays because God spoke to him.”
By the way, the word qeren in the Old Testament occurs only in three places: Ex. 34:29, 30, 35. I.e. only in this story about Moses ....
It should be noted that for the first time the Vulgate was published under Sixtus V, under the title: "Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis" (Rome, 1590). There is an assumption that it was during the printing of the book that a mistake was discovered and corrected, because later Moses was no longer depicted with horns, but simply with two rays of light coming from his head:
Engraving by Gustave Doré, 1865:
Bern, Switzerland, Münsterplatz:
Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Covenant by Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1659:
And the Orthodox people have never heard of the horns of Moses! Because the first teachers and enlighteners of the Slavic Cyril and Methodius were Greeks and they brought the first translation of the Bible to Russia! And they based it on the Septuagint mentioned above. In Ex. 34 in all three places where grn occurs, we see different forms from the Greek verb "doxazo" - to exalt, to radiate glory, to shine, to be revered.
Therefore, both subsequent translations of the Bible and the Elizabethan Bible (1751), which, it must be said, is still used by the Russian Orthodox Church, are correctly translated: 29 "as the glory of the flesh of his face was glorified"; 30 "be glorified is the sight of the flesh of his face."
Another thing is that the European artistic tradition also influenced Russia. And if on the old canonical icon presented above, neither horns nor rays come out of the head of Moses, then for example, the murals from St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg:
F.S. Zavyalov, "The dying testament of Moses" (1848-1850):
But this Moses "lives" in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior:
But one way or another, neither the "radiant" nor the "horned" Moses is loved by the Orthodox heart. And he did not take root with us in any way! .. In conclusion, I would like to say, yes - horned Moses is a mistake in the translation of the Bible, and one of the most famous. Muslims or atheists like to point to it, accusing Christians of distorting their faith... So, if faith is distorted, it is not because of translation errors. Yes, Moses "gained" horns instead of light... but at the same time, no distortion touched the ten commandments that he brought from Mount Sinai and which God gave him...
Moses Marc Chagall:
Article materials used: http://sim-life.spb.ru/post110085891/
Monsters and monsters, it seems, live in large numbers only in the space of ancient Greek myths, and when it comes to Christianity, only the Devil and his minions can be considered monsters in it. But what if we take a closer look at traditional Christian iconography and see that Moses has horns growing on his forehead, and the Mother of God has three arms? How to explain that an Orthodox saint has the head of a dog?
The sleep of reason breeds monsters: what are monsters if not fantasy? Do ridiculous hybrid creatures deserve attention, besides being a fiction, a simulacrum, a mistake? Freud explains to us that any mistakes are not accidental. Monsters, chimeras of the mind, sit inside a person, are in the hidden depths of the collective unconscious. Each mistake has its own meaning, and each historical curiosity must be considered as a phenomenon significant for the history of science and culture.
The Catholic and Orthodox bestiary does not easily reveal its secrets. We can trace many iconographic subjects that are unusual for modern perception, such as the black Madonna or the bald Jesus, but not all such cases represent a really interesting connection with the more archaic layers of thought embodied by the brushes of icon painters. We will consider the most significant images of the Christian bestiary in connection with their pagan prototypes.
Horned Moses
The prophet who received the tablets of the covenant with the commandments on Mount Sinai is not always depicted in the Christian tradition as a simple gray-bearded old man. Sometimes this old man has neat horns on his head. So, for example, Moses saw Michelangelo Buanarotti. But why did the horns, the devil's attribute, appear on the head of the great Christian prophet?
The fact is that when translating the Bible into Latin from ancient Greek, in the so-called Vulgate of the 4th century AD, a new detail of the life of Moses appeared: after descending with the tablets from Mount Sinai, “his face became horned because God spoke to him” . Subsequently, the Vulgate spread throughout Europe, which served as a source of a common iconographic error. And the error itself arose as follows: in the original Bible, the spelling of the word "horn" was very similar to the word "beam", which misled the translator. In fact, the phrase should have sounded like this: "Moses did not know that his face began to shine with rays because God spoke to him." As a result of a small translation error, we have a rich and still widespread tradition of depicting Moses with horns or at least horn-shaped rays beating from his head (as, for example, on the sculpture on the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow).
The question that is worth asking after reading the ancient legends about Moses is as follows: how could the Christian religion even allow such an animal image of the prophet to be used in iconography? Why did this image take root so quickly, despite the fact that the translation error was subsequently revealed? Why was tradition stronger than common sense?
Apparently, such images in the era of early Christianity were perceived rather neutrally. Pre-Christian European beliefs in the 4th century had not yet completely receded into the background, and therefore, when contemplating a horned Christian prophet, an early medieval European did not break the pattern. Horns as a symbol of the divine were actively used in the mythology and iconography of many pantheons - from ancient Egyptian to Roman and Jewish. Alexander the Great himself depicted himself on coins with horns, like the god he declared himself to be in Alexandria of Egypt. Accordingly, the image, not yet fully associated with the demonic, quite easily took root on the remnants of the memory of pagan beliefs.
Three-armed Mother of God
The three-armed Mother of God can still be seen on Orthodox icons. For example, in Moscow there is even a temple-chapel of the icon of the Mother of God "Three Hands". According to legend, for the veneration of icons, the Monk John of Damascus was cut off his hand. After that, he prayed for a long time before the icon of the Mother of God, and woke up in the morning with a brush that had grown back. In honor of his healing, he attached a silver hand to the icon's frame as a symbol of his salvation. The copyists, however, took the hand on the oklad literally, and inscribed it in the plot of the icon, which is what the cult of the Mother of God of Three Hands, which still exists today, owes.
A copy of the icon came to Russia thanks to a Serbian monk. In order to avoid misunderstandings, further copies were ordered to be made only by silvering the third hand of the Virgin, “not degrading the people.” However, in the 17th century, the Metropolitan of Athos shares a new legend with Russian icon painters: it turns out that while working on the icon, a third hand appeared on the image in a divine way, and the voice of God did not allow it to be removed. In this way, permission was obtained to write three hands of the same color.
Other interpretations of the appearance of the third hand arose among the people. A common variation was the story of how Mary, fleeing the robbers, swam across the river with the baby. God sent help to her, and she swam, holding Jesus with one hand, and rowing with the other two. In favor of this belief, the name of the church holiday was distorted - Midlife - which began to be called "Preplaviny", that is, the day when the Mother of God swam across the river with the baby.
It would be strange to believe that such an image could take root without having an extensive tradition of depicting the multiplication of limbs in previous cultural layers. Miraculousness was an integral function of the multiplication of limbs, and in this connection we can recall the horse of the Scandinavian god Odin, Sleipnir, which has eight legs. The divinity of the horse was emphasized by doubling the number of its legs: with the help of such multiplication, it accelerated so much that it could move between worlds. Apparently, the model of perception of the three-armed Mother of God was built according to a similar scheme: Mary was on the border between the divine and earthly worlds, therefore, there is nothing strange in the fact that she could look not quite like an ordinary person, if necessary.
Dog-headed Saint Christopher
Another representative of the Christian bestiary is St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, whose images are still carried by many European motorists. His name literally means "bearer of Christ" and refers to the legend of how he carried the baby Jesus across the stream. The giant Christopher reaches the middle of the stream and feels that he cannot go further under the weight of the baby. Asking why he is so heavy, Christopher receives the answer: "for I bear all the burdens of the world."
This legend does not explain why Christopher is often depicted on icons with a dog's head. One of the versions tells that Christopher was a Canaanite, and due to the similarity of this name with the word dog (Latin - canis), he later turned into a dog head, a representative of the mythical people of cynocephals. It is possible that the synonyms used to describe the holy giant, “bestial”, “faithful as a dog”, eventually began to be taken literally.
None of the listed versions explains how the saint with the head of a dog could exist in Christian iconography to this day (icons in Russia can be found in existing Old Believer churches). Most often, cynocephals were depicted and mentioned by Copts - Egyptians who professed Christianity. The Egyptian trace in this plot makes us recall the Egyptian god Anubis, also a psi-headed one - perhaps it is the reason for the appearance of the image of Christopher. The legends about these two mythological characters are very similar - both of them left the path of evil and turned into a champion of justice. It is possible that the Coptic Christians borrowed the ancient cynocephalic image, adapting it to new conditions. In this case, the ancient Egyptian deity continues to live in the Christian image of St. Christopher.
So, the three-armed Mother of God is the mistake of the icon painter, and the horned Moses is the mistake of the translator of the Bible. But what if we pose the question point-blank: how could such errors, obviously revealing themselves against the background of a harsh and unchanging tradition, even appear? Obviously, for the appearance of images that are so out of the conventional religious context, certain mechanisms of associations must have been present in the mind. With a careful study of religious texts and analysis of their origin, we found out the commonality of Christian and pagan images, the direct inheritance by Christians of the traditions of their predecessors, and sometimes - as was the case, for example, in Ireland or in Russia - the simultaneous existence of two religions. Horns appear not only in Moses, but also in many gods of antiquity - from Isis to Pan, the multiplication of limbs symbolizes a connection with the other world, and the dog-headed Saint Christopher becomes the heir to the god of ancient Egypt - Anubis. A seemingly random mistake betrays deep unconscious associations forged in the crucible of more archaic, pagan thinking.
When I was selecting illustrations for my article "", I came across a photograph of the statue of Michelangelo Buanarotti "Moses", completed by the great sculptor in 1542 and placed in the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter) in Rome (its plaster copy is in Pushkin Museum in Moscow). And he was struck by the similarity of Moses with the ancient Greek god Pan (ancient Roman Faun and Sylvanus), depicted on an ancient sculpture in the Louvre. Judge for yourself based on the photos below!
It couldn't be just an accident. And Michelangelo and other sculptors had to be guided by some common source when working on their creations - otherwise the medieval society might not understand them. Having found and read the explanations of representatives of various religious denominations and art historians on this subject, everything seemed to fall into place. According to their unanimous opinion, the mistake was made in the Latin translation of the Bible, made by the blessed Jerome (about 345-420), an excellent expert in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. His translation of the Bible became the normative Latin text, which received the name Vulgate from the 16th century.
The Vulgate is " updated and corrected edition of an older translation - the Septuagint"- a collection of translations of the Old Testament into ancient Greek, made in the III-II centuries BC in Alexandria.
The place in the Bible (Ex. 34:29) is controversial, where it is told how Moses descends "from Mount Sinai", horned:
“When Moses was descending from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of revelation were in Moses’ hand as he descended from the mountain, Moses did not know that his face became hornybecause God spoke to him.
At this point in the Bible, the Hebrew word "qrn" is used (vowels are not written in the Semitic tradition). The word "qrn" can be read in several ways, in particular:
1) qeren - horn;
2) qeren - beam;
3) qaran - shone, radiated, radiated.
And if Blessed Jerome translated “qrn” as “horned”, then the latest translations of the Bible (the King James Bible and the Russian Synodal Translation) speak not of “horns”, but of “rays of light”. Thus, the word "horn" was replaced by the word "beam" - and Moses turned out not "horned", but "radiant", which was reflected in all subsequent portraits of Moses:
« When Moses descended from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of revelation were in Moses' hand as he descended from the mountain, Moses did not know that his face began to glowbecause God spoke to him ».
The Septuagint doesn't seem to say anything about horns either. Thus, it turns out that the face of Moses was radiant ... although, nevertheless, one cannot exclude the interpretation of the blessed Jerome that he was horned.
Could Moses still be horned?
Let's leave aside the epithets "shining", "rays of light" and consider the Vulgate version - that Moses was horned. And for starters, let's throw off the shackles of medieval ignorance, forcing us to believe that horns are devilish and satanic attributes.
Pay attention, satyrs and silens from ancient times lived in the same place where the Jews settled!
Their leader was considered the son of the god Hermes, the patron of shepherds and the god of herds, and from the II century BC. e. the patron of all nature, the god Pan. According to the Titanomachia, the satyrs and silenes, led by Pan, were allies of the Olympians in their fight against the titans, and their role in the victory of the Olympians was quite significant.
In the work “Satyrs, silens, devils”, I concluded that satyrs, silens and devils similar to them were once quite real earthly inhabitants. These were the "old people" who lived on Earth long before the appearance of the "new" ones, similar to us, people, and then for a long time in parallel with them.
In ancient China, many legendary Chinese emperors and rulers (Fuxi, Shennong, Zhuan-hsu, Di Ku and others) and their numerous peoples were horned. As I wrote in the article “Yahweh and Huitzilopochtli - who are they? Reflections on the similarity of the outcomes of the Jews and the Aztecs and the nature of the gods who led them, " Rudra Shiva was depicted as horned; some other Indian deities were similarly depicted.
On the Internet, there are works that claim that human skulls with horns were found in Northern China, Mongolia, the USA and a number of other places.
Thus, hornedness is not at all an attribute of devilry and Satanism, but a characteristic feature of the appearance of a large group (or groups) and other similar creatures (by the way, in the beginning in the Christian church there was a saint with a dog head - St. Bartholomew).
Read the continuation of the article after the photos