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COMMENTARY ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS This Dutch Commentary on the Ten Commandments is an example of a type of manuscript that developed out of the comments made by important early Churchmen in the margins of key Christian texts. Eventually, these comments evolved into a book of their own, known as a “Gloss”. In the frontispiece to this Commentary Moses is shown with horns, an artistic practice that began in the 11th century and which has been explained as having its origin in a mistake made when the Hebrew Bible was first translated into Latin. |
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Instead of describing Moses as descending from Mount Sinai with “rays of light” coming from his head, the translator chose the word “horns”, which was the other meaning of the Hebrew term used. As some scholars have pointed out, however, the person who translated the Hebrew Bible for Christian use was St. Jerome, one of the most learned men of his time. Ruth Melinkoff has convincingly shown that Jerome deliberately chose the word “horns” because it was a metaphor in ancient Hebrew writing for the aura of holiness that radiated from Moses after he had looked on God. Another interesting aspect of Moses’ appearance in this image is the striking similarity of his face and beard to representations of the youthful Christ in paintings beginning in the 13th century. |
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