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
And: the transition word here may be very important in some languages. In order to make the connection with the previous verse, it is probably better to say “Then…” (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible) or “Immediately….” Moffatt has “Whereupon…,” which is not common language but indicates that some kind of transition word may be needed.
Brought: the verb here is often translated “brought forward” (as in Good News Translation, New International Version, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and Moffatt). But New Jerusalem Bible renders it more dynamically with “made Aaron and his sons come forward.”
Washed them with water: the words with water may be redundant in many languages. Translators should also be careful not to give the impression that Moses washed his brother and his adult nephews the way a mother washes her baby. Rather he had them bathe themselves in the ritual manner required. Care should be taken not to translate by an expression that will evoke the idea of baptism (“to enter into the water” or “to be plunged into water”), but one must also avoid “take a ritual bath” if such an expression carries negative connotations because of association with indigenous practices. In seeking to avoid wrong meanings, it may be necessary to use a rather neutral translation such as “he had them wash themselves” or “he caused them to wash themselves.”
Note that New American Bible supplies the word “first” (“he first washed them with water”), which is implied but not clearly stated in the source text.
Although the text itself is not altogether clear on this point, it is most probable that Aaron and his sons were not totally naked in the presence of the assembled community. If different words are used in the receptor language for a bath in which one is totally nude and one in which the person is partly covered, then the latter will be more appropriate here.
Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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