8When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds.
“The rod was described as a dead piece of stick cut from a certain tree. The informant wanted to know what kind of tree, and when told that it was an almond tree, he asked what color the blossoms were. The encyclopedia disclosed that almond trees in the Middle East bear yellow blossoms. He had to know this before he could give the proper term for “budded,” since the color of the bud is incorporated in the word. The translation is: . . . Éran bigish ch’il nahalingo bilátah da’iichiihée “Aaron his-stick plant it-being-like its-top-along plural-something- (unidentified subject) -were-becoming-yellowish-red-the-former-one.” (Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff.)
The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is transliterated as “Levi” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign that signifies a menorah referring to the temple service of the tribe of the Levites. The same sign is also used for the tribe. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The name that is transliterated as “Aaron” in English is translated in Catalan Sign Language and Spanish Sign Language as “stones on chest plate” (according to Exodus 28:15-30) (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff.)
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.)
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:
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).
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