Funny story about translation.  Forgive the title...I couldn't help it.

Many of us have heard the story about Jerome's translational efforts in the Vulgate concerning the plant which Jonah sits under...is it a vine?  A gourd?  Jerome went with the least popular option, which resulted in his harassment.  But, I think, most modern biblical scholars would probably say he was going in the right direction.

And then I come to Exodus 34, where Moses' face is shining after coming away from such a long encounter with God.  Did you know that the verb in the Hebrew, qrn (excuse the transliteration...I'm not in the mood at the moment to figure out the Hebrew keyboard settings on this thing), is a verbal form of the  noun for "horn" (qeren)?  Even though "shine" doesn't off-hand seem to relate to "horn," I think most commentators nowadays would draw the connection between a spiky sort of radiance and the use of horn-terminology...but not Jerome.  Good ol' Jerome translated "horned" instead of "shone."  A textual error can be forgiven, I suppose...but then Michelangelo had to go and sculpt Moses with horns.

So let that be a lesson...be careful not to make translation errors, lest they end up sitting in a church in Rome.

(This was spurred on by my present research on 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, by the way...look it up!)