Are Moses’ Horns Based on a Jewish Tradition?

Michelangelo Buonarotti’s sculpture of Moses is probably the most famous artistic depiction of the Israelite lawgiver and prophet. It also embodies one of the most famous biblical mistranslations. In Exodus 34, the Torah states of Moses that, after descending from Sinai, “the skin of his face shone [karan].” The similarity between the verb meaning “shine” and the word for “horn” (keren) led to St. Jerome’s Latin Bible, and translations based on it, stating that Moses’ face was “horned.” Hence the two protrusions from the head of Michelangelo’s statue.