Far Eastern and Classical Antiquity 15 



skin of his face shone while he talked. . . . And when Aaron and all the 

 children of Israel saw Moses, behold the skin of his face shone; and 

 they were afraid to come nigh him. 



Thomas Bartholin, in the most important early work on lumi- 

 nescence, De Luce Animalium (1647) , discussed ^* the shining face 

 of Moses at length and suggested that the effect was due to sunlight 

 or moonlight. It is highly probable that the word " shining " ^* 

 implies a sign of godliness rather than any type of luminescence. In 

 most religions, light is a symbol of knowledge, truth, and holiness 

 as contrasted with darkness, which signifies ignorance and sin. 



Perhaps the story of the burning bush ^^ that was not consumed ^^ 

 had its origin in electrical discharges akin to St. Elmo's fire, and the 

 " pillar of cloud " by day, that became a " pillar of fire " by night 

 and accompanied the children of Israel in their exodus from Egypt,^^ 

 owed its light to electrical discharges also. Luminous clouds have 

 been frequently reported " but nothing would be gained by dis- 

 cussing this Biblical story, which leads too far into the realm of 

 conjecture. 



There is also the rabbinical tradition that Noah had a luminous 

 stone in the Ark which shone more brightly by night than by day, 

 thus serving to distinguish day and night when the sun and moon 

 were shrouded by dense clouds. Such a legend may have been based 

 on the well-known phosphorescence of certain diamonds or of fluor- 

 spar, but this view is unlikely. Later stories of the miraculous shin- 

 ing of jewels in churches are common but are probably to be 

 explained by reflection rather than emission of light. Thus, the 

 possible records of luminescence from Biblical lands and neighbor- 

 ing regions appear all too indefinite to be listed with the more 

 certain examples from other cultures. 



^* Book I, Chap. 12, " De facie Moysis lucente." 



^^ In the Vulgate translation into Latin, made by St. Jerome in a. d. 385-405, the 

 Hebrew verb Kdran, " to shine," is connected with Keren, a " horn," and was rendered, 

 " sent forth horns," rather than " sent forth beams of light," an interpretation re- 

 tained in the English translation from the Latin, made at Douay in 1609. More 

 modern translations refer to Moses face as " irradiated with glory " or " radiant." 



^^ There are three common explanations of the "burning bush." (1) A mistletoe, 

 Loranthus acaciae, which grows on low shrubs and is covered with fiery, flame-colored 

 flowers at certain seasons; (2) a shrub with prickly spines like Acacia seyal; (3) the 

 gasplant, Dictamus albus, with numerous oil glands on the foliage exuding so much 

 oily vapor, that a match brought near will cause a flash of flame. See H. N. Moldenke 

 and A. J. Moldenke, Plants of the Bible, Waltham, Massachusetts, 1953. 



1' Exodus 3: 2. 



"Exodus 13:21-22. 



^* Luminous clouds due to reflection of sunlight from volcanic dust have been ob- 

 served in recent times by C. Stormer {Nature 135: 103, 1935) and J. Paton {Nature 

 164: 192, 1949) . Older instances will be found in Phipson (1862: 52-55) . 



