29Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
The Greek and Hebrew that is typically translated as “covenant” or “testimony” in English and refers to the stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai are translated in Kupsabiny as “two stones (that are flat-and-thin) on which the law is written,” in Hiligaynon as “the wide stone on which is-written the Law.” (Source: Kupsabiny and Hiligaynon Back-Translations), and in the interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) as miyala iŵiri ija yolembedwapo mau a chipangano or “those two stones on which are written the words of the agreement” (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 110).
In the EnglishTranslation for Translators it is translated as stone slabs and in the New English Bible as Tokens (source: Elizabeth Lewis).
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 34:29:
Kupsabiny: “And/But Moses when descended down the Mountain of Sinai while carrying the two stones with the commandments, he did not know that his face was glittering much because he had just come from talking with God.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “When Moses came down from Sinai holding the two tablets of the Testimony he was unaware that his face was radiant because of speaking with the Lord.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When Moises came-down from Mount Sinai, he was carrying the two wide stone where the command of God was written. He did not know that his face was bright because he had talked with the LORD.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “In the day in which Moses climbed down from Sainai mountain, he was holding the two stones of the law and went down. But he didn’t know that his face was very shiny. His face was doing like that because he [had been] talking together with God.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “When Moses had climbed [this direction] down from top of Mountain of Sinay, he was carrying stone be flat two which they write word of covenant of God on it. And his face flash, because he speak with God, but he not it see.” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “When Moses/I came back down the mountain, carrying in his/my hand the two stone slabs on which were written the Ten Commandments, his/my face was shining because he/I had been talking with Yahweh, but he/I did not know that his/my face was shining.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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).
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).
In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the eye make up he would have worn as the adopted son of an Egyptian princess. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)
“Moses” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL
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