The burning bush before Moses is an example. Within Eastern orthodoxy there is the belief of uncreated light. The halo was viewed as the uncreated light. Within Christianity the early church fathers regarded God as the source of light. The Greek Orthodox depict Jesus in their Icons with a halo with a cross within to suggest the trinity with the Greek letters omicron, omega and upsilon forming the word ho-on or the existing one. Persian kings were said to give off a hvarena or a divine luster. Roman art shows Apollo with a radiant halo with rays suggesting movement of this light. Chola Nataraja is surrounded with a halo of flames. The god Ra is often picture with a red solar disc right above his head, Vishnu the Hindu’s god has his whole body surrounded by a halo. Halos are picture among religious figures throughout the world religions including Buddhist, Hinduism and Islam. Sumerian literature often speaks of a melam which is a loan word from the Akkadian melammu which is a brilliant visible light exuded by gods, heroes and sometimes kings. They are often depicted as golden, yellow, white or even red when flames are depicted. This is a ring of light that surrounds the person. Medieval artist often depicted saintly individuals with a halo or nimbus, aureole or glory. It still cannot be measured by a light meter but if you look at them through spiritual eyes, you will see a literal light around them. In other words they really do give off a glow, a light because it is the light of God. What the Targum is saying is that by looking up to the Lord his light is reflected off of them. The Jewish Targum says that they looked up to God in prayer and their faces were enlightened. We have no problem praying to God but if God should speak to us well that is just mystical, yet the Bible does say that God does speak to us. But what is wrong with a little mysticism. But to me to call this a metaphor is just a way to not take this literally as such a thing would be too mystical for many Christians. We just say they are radiant or lighted metaphorically. I mean you can hold a light meter up to that person and nothing will register. They are not literally glowing or giving off some light. When we say radiant we think of someone who is just happy and smiling it is as if they are glowing. Hence the idea of a spinning halo comes to mind. Nahar is more of a light that is not sending out rays but it is moving nonetheless. When Moses stepped off the mountain his face was radiant but that word is qaran which is to send out rays. Nahar comes from a Semitic root which has the idea of flowing or a running stream. This is a literal light not a metaphor, although there are no rules that say it cannot be metaphoric. The word for radiant in Hebrew is nahar which means to shine be radiant to burn or to sparkle. This is just a translator’s opinion which I personally do not share. To be radiant is not necessarily being enlightened nor happy. These words have a difference in nuances to many of us. There are a couple translations that say enlightened. “They looked upon him and were radiant.” Now what the duce does that mean? Every translation I read uses the word radiant, a few say lightened and one says happy that is strictly a paraphrase for happiness is only implied in the Hebrew word. Psalms 34:5: “They looked unto him, and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed.”
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