Moses

The name that is transliterated as “Moses” in English is signed in Spanish Sign Language and Polish Sign Language in accordance with the depiction of Moses in the famous statue by Michelangelo (see here ). (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff.)


“Moses” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

American Sign Language also uses the sign depicting the horns but also has a number of alternative signs (see here).

In French Sign Language, a similar sign is used, but it is interpreted as “radiance” (see below) and it culminates in a sign for “10,” signifying the 10 commandments:


“Moses” in French Sign Language (source )

The horns that are visible in Michelangelo’s statue are based on a passage in the Latin Vulgate translation (and many Catholic Bible translations that were translated through the 1950ies with that version as the source text). Jerome, the translator, had worked from a Hebrew text without the niqquds, the diacritical marks that signify the vowels in Hebrew and had interpreted the term קרו (k-r-n) in Exodus 34:29 as קֶ֫רֶן — keren “horned,” rather than קָרַו — karan “radiance” (describing the radiance of Moses’ head as he descends from Mount Sinai).

Even at the time of his translation, Jerome likely was not the only one making that decision as this recent article alludes to.

In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting holding a staff. This refers to a number of times where Moses’s staff is used in the context of miracles, including the parting of the sea (see Exodus 14:16), striking of the rock for water (see Exodus 17:5 and following), or the battle with Amalek (see Exodus 17:9 and following).


“Moses” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

In Estonian Sign Language Moses is depicted with a big beard. (Source: Liina Paales in Folklore 47, 2011, p. 43ff.)

See also Moses and Elijah during the Transfiguration.

Translation commentary on Exod 36:3

And they received from Moses is literally “and they took from the face [the presence] of Moses.” This suggests that all the construction materials were with Moses. These were all the freewill offering which the people of Israel had brought. The word for freewill offering in this first instance should be only offering, or “contributions” (Revised English Bible), without freewill. New Jerusalem Bible has “everything.” A different word is used in the second sentence. This offering includes all the materials listed in 35.22-28. (See the comment on offering at 25.2.) People of Israel, literally “sons of Israel,” can also be rendered as “Israelites” (Good News Translation). For doing the work on the sanctuary is literally “for the task of the service of the holy [place],” as in verse 1.

They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning is literally “and they, they caused to enter [or, brought] unto him still a voluntary gift by morning by morning.” In this second instance the word for “freewill offering” is the same as that used in 35.29. The emphatic They refers to the people of Israel, not to the special workers whom Moses had called. Good News Translation repeats “people of Israel” to make this clear (similarly New International Version, Revised English Bible, and New American Bible).

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .