When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him. Exodus 34:30
Of all the features of the human body, the face most fully expresses the imago dei in us. Not only are all the senses concentrated here, but the face is capable of countless modes of expression and communication. Every relationship happens face to face. Whatever is means for God to have a face, we can gain a good idea of it simply by studying the amazing human face.
We have already touched on the “face of God” motif earlier under the first commandment of the Decalogue where we are not to have any other gods in YHWH’s “face,” often translated “before me.” When we love someone, we let that person close to our face. We do not let strangers or people we dislike “in our face.” Moses was given the unique privilege of talking to YHWH “face to face as a man speaks to his friend.” But then, in the same chapter, YHWH tells Moses that he cannot see his face for no one can see it and live. We resolved this difficulty in saying that what Moses saw was not the full glory of the divine “face” but as much as his physical constitution could bear. This was unique to Moses; every other prophet saw God in visions or dreams (cf. Numbers 12:6).
Here as we close out this section of Exodus, we find Moses coming down from the mountain with the tablets of the law in hand and his face shining. At the beginning of this mountain drama Moses came down with the tablets but the people were in full rebellion against him. Here they are in awe; even fearful to approach him. The description of his face is fascinating. The Hebrew word translated “shine” is qāran. This word verb is found only here and in Psalm 69:32, where it means “to bring forth horns.” Indeed, the Hebrew noun for qeren means “horn.” Literally, the phrase could be translated “the skin on his face was ‘horned,’” but this doesn’t make sense when the immediate context demands a meaning like “shine.” This word has been carefully chosen, no doubt, to intentionally contrast Moses and his shining face with the golden calf. Horns were symbolic of power, and this word-play suggests Moses was everything the people wanted when they made the calf, but what the calf could not be, “a leader and mediator of the divine presence” (Moberly, p. 109).
The above discussion helps us to understand a curious feature of Renaissance art, especially Michelangelo’s famous statue of Moses with horns. He was taking his que from the Vulgate which reads, quod cornuta esset facies sua, translated “because his face was horned.” St. Jerome translated the passage literally rendering the Hebrew qāran as “horned.” He was correct philologically, but missed the meaning of the immediate context, which no doubt means “shine” by virtue of the glory Moses beheld, and the fact that the people could not look at Moses’ face just as Moses could not look into YHWH’s face. We become what we see.
Unfortunately for the Israelites, they could not see God’s glory, even as it was reflected in Moses’ face. A veil separated them; it was necessary for Moses to put it on so they could stand in his presence. St. Paul had given much thought to this this veil. From Moses’ perspective, even though he was at first unaware of his glorified state when coming off the mountain, it must have been huge humiliation for his glory to diminish back into a mortal state. So the old covenant was disappointing both to the people who could not see God’s glory, and for Moses whose glory faded. In contrast to this, for us in the new dispensation in Christ, the veil is taken away, and “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:18).
All of what St. Paul is talking about transpires through our desire. Here we quote St. Gregory of Nyssa:
Such an experience [Moses beholding YHWH’s glory] seems to me to belong to the soul which loves what is beautiful. Hope always draws the soul from the beauty which is seen to what is beyond, always kindles the desire for the hidden through what is constantly perceived. Therefore, the ardent lover of beauty, although receiving what is always visible as an image of what he desires, yet longs to be filled with the very stamp of the archetype.
Life of Moses 231
This idea of associating glory with the beautiful dovetails wonderfully with Gregory’s brother St. Basil the Great.
Every soul is beautiful which is considered by the standard of its own virtues. But most beautiful, true and lovely, which can be contemplated by him alone who has a purified mind, is that of the divine and blessed nature. He who gazes steadfastly at the splendor and graces of it receives some share of it, as if from an immersion, tinging his own face with a sort of brilliant radiance. Whence Moses also was made resplendent in face by receiving some share of beauty when he held converse with God. Therefore he who is conscious of his own beauty utters this act of thanksgiving: “O Lord, in your favor, you give strength to my beauty.”
Exegetical Homilies 14:5.
Continuing our allegory, Moses, who represents that deepest part of our being, called by the Eastern Fathers the “intellect,” or what we have been calling the “spirit,” takes command of the flesh, that is, the people. Though Aaron is conspicuously absent in the last part of this section, by virtue of his role as High Priest, he represents the “will,” through which the spirit must work to bring about what is to come in the next and last section of this great book of Exodus.
Takeaway: Moses’ face glowed with God’s glory through divine favor and being in God’s presence. We too can experience something similar on the spiritual level.
Questions:
- Have you ever given much thought about faces, yours and others, and how important they are to our humanity?
- What does it look like for us to gaze on God with our inner eyes of the spirit? How do you think it manifests through our physical faces?
Resources Used:
ACCS, Exodus, p. 156
Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses.