Exodus 34:29-35 tells that after meeting with God the skin of Moses' face became radiant, frightening the Israelites and leading Moses to wear a veil. Jonathan Kirsch, in his book Moses: A Life, thought that, since he subsequently had to wear a veil to hide it, Moses' face was disfigured by a sort of "divine radiation burn".

This passage has led to one longstanding tradition that Moses grew horns. This is derived from a misinterpretation of the Hebrew phrase qarnu `owr panayv (קָרַן עֹור פָּנָיו). The root קרן Q-R-N (qof, resh, nun) may be read as either "horn" or "ray [of light]", depending on vocalization. `Owr panayv (עֹור פָּנָיו) translates to "the skin of his face".

Interpreted correctly, these two words form an expression meaning that Moses was enlightened, that "the skin of his face shone" (as with a gloriole), as the KJV has it. Many rabbinical studies[citation needed] explain that the knowledge revealed to him made his face metaphorically shine with enlightenment.

The Septuagint properly translates the Hebrew phrase as δεδόξασται ἡ ὄψις, "his face was glorified"; but Jerome translated the phrase into Latin as cornuta esset facies sua "his face was horned".

With apparent Biblical authority, and the added convenience of giving Moses a unique and easily identifiable visual attribute (something the other Old Testament prophets notably lacked), it remained standard in Western art to depict Moses with small horns until well after the mistranslation was realized by the Renaissance. Michelangelo's Moses, is probably the best-known example.

Not all the Renaissance Italian painters gave horns to Moses. The Venetian artist Tintoretto depicts Moses' face as radiating light, in his series about the life of the prophet in the Scuola di San Rocco.

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