Why Does Moses have Horns?

In old artforms including illustrations and statues, Moses will often be depicted as having horns on his head. Michelangelo’s statue of Moses is one of those examples (pictured above).

Why does Moses have horns?

So why does Moses have horns? Does the Bible say that Moses had horns?

The answer lies in Exodus 34 which says,

“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two stone slabs with the 10 Commandments on them, he didn’t realize that his face shone because he had spoken with God.”

—Exodus 34:29 (simplified)

Moses’s shiny face scared the Israelites, so he started wearing a veil to cover his face. The rest of that passage makes it seem like Moses’s face continued to shine for the rest of his life (or at least for a good long while.)

“Qaran” can mean “shone” or “grew horns”

When this passage says that Moses’s face “shone,” that word in the original Hebrew is:

qaran (verb)

1. to send out rays
2. to display or grow horns, be horned

Those two definitions seem pretty different, but my guess is that when rays come out of something, they are kind of shaped like horns.

So the reason why Moses is sometimes depicted as having horns is because scripture says that after he saw God his face “qaran” (which can either mean “shone” or “grew horns”).

Horns in the Bible

When I was in college, we went through Revelation, which sometimes mentions “horns.” This may be unrelated to Moses, but in that study I learned that horns in the Bible usually symbolize power. Horns are also mentioned in Daniel which also contains prophecies about the end times.

I wonder if this passage about Moses suggests that he received power?