God appeareth to Moses in a bush, and sendeth him to deliver Israel.
God appeareth to Moyses in a bush burning but not consuming, 7. designeth him the Gouernour of the children of Israel, 10. with commission to tel them, that they shal be deliuered from Aegypt: 21. and shal spoile the Aegyptians.
1Now Moses fed the sheep of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Madian: and he drove the flock to the inner parts of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.Or Mosè pasceva le pecore di Jetro sacerdote di Madian, suo suocero: e avendo condotto il gregge al fondo del deserto, giunse al monte di Dio Horeb.AND Moyses fed the sheepe of Iethro his father in law the priest of Madian: and hauing driuen the flock to the inner partes of the desert, he came to the mountaine of God, Horeb.Moyses autem pascebat oves Jethro soceri sui sacerdotis Madian: cumque minasset gregem ad interiora deserti, venit ad montem Dei Horeb. 2And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire, and was not burnt.E gli apparve il Signore in una fiamma ardente di mezzo ad un roveto: ed egli vedeva, che il roveto ardeva, e non si consumava.And our Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middes of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire, and was not burnt.Apparuitque ei Dominus in flamma ignis de medio rubi: et videbat quod rubus arderet, et non combureretur. 3And Moses said: I will go, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.Disse adunque Mosè: Anderò ad osservare questa visione grande, come mai il roveto non si consumi.Moyses therfore said: I wil goe, and see this great vision, why the bush is not burnt.Dixit ergo Moyses: Vadam, et videbo visionem hanc magnam, quare non comburatur rubus. 4And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, he called to him out of the midst of the bush. and said: Moses, Moses. And he answered: Here I am.Ma il Signore veggendo, come egli si movea per andare a vedere, chiamollo di mezzo al roveto, e disse: Mosè, Mosè. Ed ei rispose: Son qui.And our Lord seeing that he went forward to see, he called him out of the middes of the bush, and said: Moyses, Moyses. Who answered: Here I am.Cernens autem Dominus quod pergeret ad videndum, vocavit eum de medio rubi, et ait: Moyses, Moyses. Qui respondit: Adsum. 5And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet; for the place, whereon thou standest, is holy ground.E quegli: Non avvicinarti, disse, a questo luogo: sciogli da tuoi piedi i calzari: perocché santa è la terra dove tu hai i piedi.But he said: Approch not hither, loose of thy shoe from thy feet: for the place, wherin thou standest, is holie ground.At ille: Ne appropies, inquit, huc: solve calceamentum de pedibus tuis: locus enim, in quo stas, terra sancta est.
6And he said: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face: for he durst not look at God.E disse: Io sono il Dio del padre tuo, il Dio d'Abramo, il Dio d'Isacco, e il Dio di Giacobbe. Si coperse Mosè la faccia: perocché non ardiva di mirare verso Dio.And he said: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Iacob. Moyses hid his face: for he durst nor looke against God.Et ait: Ego sum Deus patris tui, Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac et Deus Jacob. Abscondit Moyses faciem suam: non enim audebat aspicere contra Deum. 7And the Lord said to him: I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of the rigour of them that are over the works;E il Signore gli disse: Ho veduto l'afflizione del popol mio in Egitto, e ho udite le sue grida cagionate dalla durezza di coloro, che soprintendono a' lavori:To whom our Lord said: I haue sene the affliction of my people in Aegypt, and I haue heard their crye because of their rigour that ouersee the workes:Cui ait Dominus: Vidi afflictionem populi mei in Ægypto, et clamorem ejus audivi propter duritiam eorum qui præsunt operibus: 8And knowing their sorrow, I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, into a land that floweth with milk and honey, to the places of the Chanaanite, and Hethite, and Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite.E conoscendo i suoi affanni son disceso a liberarlo dalle mani degli Egiziani, per trarlo di quella terra ad una terra buona, e spaziosa, ad una terra, che scorre latte, e miele, alle regioni del Chananeo, e dell'Hetheo, e dell'Amorrheo, e del Pherezeo, e dell'Heveo, e del Jebuseo.and knowing their sorow, I am descended to deliuer them out of the handes of the Aegyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a land good, and large, into a land that floweth with milke and honie, to the places of the Chananeite, and Hetheite, and Amorrheite, and Pherezeite, and Heueite, and Iebuseite.et sciens dolorem ejus, descendi ut liberem eum de manibus Ægyptiorum, et educam de terra illa in terram bonam, et spatiosam, in terram quæ fluit lacte et melle, ad loca Chananæi et Hethæi, et Amorrhæi, et Pherezæi, et Hevæi, et Jebusæi. 9For the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have seen their affliction, wherewith they are oppressed by the Egyptians.Le grida, io dico, de' figliuoli d'Israele sono pervenute a me: e ho mirata l'afflizione loro, sotto di cui sono oppressi dagli Egiziani.Therfore the crye of the children of Israel is come vnto me and I haue sene their affliction, wherwith they are oppressed by the Aegyptians.Clamor ergo filiorum Israël venit ad me: vidique afflictionem eorum, qua ab Ægyptiis opprimuntur.
10But come, and I will send thee to Pharao, that thou mayst bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.Ma vieni, e io ti spedirò a Faraone, affinché tu tragga il popolo mio, i figliuoli di Israele dall'Egitto,But come, and I wil send thee to Pharao, that thou mayest being forth my people, the children of Israel out of Aegypt.Sed veni, et mittam te ad Pharaonem, ut educas populum meum, filios Israël, de Ægypto. 11And Moses said to God: Who am I that I should go to Pharao, and should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?Disse Mosè a Dio: Chi son io per andare a trovar Faraone, e per trarre i figliuoli d'Israele dall'Egitto?And moyses said to God: Who am I that I shal •oe to Pharao, and bring forth the children of Israel out of Aegypt?Dixitque Moyses ad Deum: Quis sum ego ut vadam ad Pharaonem, et educam filios Israël de Ægypto ? 12And he said to him: I will be with thee; and this thou shalt have for a sign that I have sent thee: When thou shalt have brought my people out of Egypt, thou shalt offer sacrifice to God upon this mountain.Ed ei gli disse: Io sarò con te: e il segno, che tu avrai dell'averti io mandato, sarà questo: Quando avrai tratto il mio popolo fuor dell'Egitto, offrirai sacrifizii a Dio sopra di questo monte.Who said to him: I wil be with thee: and this thou shalt haue for a signe, that I haue sent thee: When thou shalt haue brought my people out of Aegypt, thou shalt sacrifice to God vpon this mountaine.Qui dixit ei: Ego ero tecum: et hoc habebis signum, quod miserim te: cum eduxeris populum meum de Ægypto, immolabis Deo super montem istum. 13Moses said to God: Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they shall say to me: What is his name? What shall I say to them?Disse Mosè a Dio: Ecco ch'io anderò a trovare i figliuoli d'Israele, e dirò loro: Il Dio dei padri vostri mi ha spedito a voi. S'ei mi diranno: Qual è il suo nome? che dovrò io dir loro?Moyses said to God: Loe I shal goe to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they shal say to me: What is his name? What shal I say to them?Ait Moyses ad Deum: Ecce ego vadam ad filios Israël, et dicam eis: Deus patrum vestrorum misit me ad vos. Si dixerint mihi: Quod est nomen ejus ? quid dicam eis ? 14God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you.Disse Dio a Mosè: io sono quegli, che sono. Così dirai a' figliuoli di Israele: colui, che è, mi ha spedito a voi.God said to Moyses: I AM WHICH AM. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHICH IS, hath sent me to you.Dixit Deus ad Moysen: Ego sum qui sum. Ait: Sic dices filiis Israël: Qui est, misit me ad vos.
15And God said again to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath sent me to you; this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.E di nuovo disse Dio a Mosè: Queste cose dirai a' figliuoli d'Israele: Il Signore Dio de' padri vostri, il Dio di Abramo, il Dio d'Isacco, e il Dio di Giacobbe mi ha mandato a voi. Questo nome io ho in eterno, e con questo mi rammenteranno per tutte le generazioni.And God said againe to Moyses: These thinges shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Iacob hath sent me, to you: this is my name for euer, and this is my memorial into generation and to generation.Dixitque iterum Deus ad Moysen: Hæc dices filiis Israël: Dominus Deus patrum vestrorum, Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac et Deus Jacob, misit me ad vos: hoc nomen mihi est in æternum, et hoc memoriale meum in generationem et generationem. 16Go and gather together the ancients of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying: Visiting I have visited you; and I have seen all that hath befallen you in Egypt.Va', e raduna i seniori d'Israele, e dirai loro: Il Signore Dio dei padri vostri mi è apparito, il Dio d'Abramo, il Dio d'Isacco, il Dio di Giacobbe, e ha detto: Io vi ho visitati attentamente, e ho veduto tutto quel che è stato di voi nell'Egitto.Goe, and geather together the ancients of Israel, and thou shalt say to them The Lord God of your fathers hath appeared to me the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Iacob, saying: Visiting I haue visited you: and I haue sene al thinges that haue chanced to you in Aegypt:Vade, et congrega seniores Israël, et dices ad eos: Dominus Deus patrum vestrorum apparuit mihi, Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac et Deus Jacob, dicens: Visitans visitavi vos: et vidi omnia quæ acciderunt vobis in Ægypto. 17And I have said the word to bring you forth out of the affliction of Egypt, into the land of the Chanaanite, and Hethite, and Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite, to a land that floweth with milk and honey.E ho decretato di trarvi dalla oppressione d'Egitto alla terra del Chananeo, e dell'Hetheo, e dell'Amorrheo, e del Pherezeo e dell'Heveo, e del Jebuseo, a una terra, che scorre latte, e miele.and I haue said the word to bring you forth out of the affliction of Aegypt, into the land of the Chananeite, and Hetheite, and Amorrheite, and Pherezeite, and Heueite, and Iebuseite, to a Land that floweth with milke & honie.Et dixi ut educam vos de afflictione Ægypti in terram Chananæi, et Hethæi, et Amorrhæi, et Pherezæi, et Hevæi, et Jebusæi, ad terram fluentem lacte et melle. 18And they shall hear thy voice; and thou shalt go in, thou and the ancients of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrews hath called us; we will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, to sacrifice unto the Lord our God.Eglino ascolteranno la tua voce: e anderai tu co' seniori d'Israele dinanzi al re d'Egitto, e gli dirai: Il Signore Dio degli Ebrei ci ha chiamati: noi faremo tre giornate di viaggio nella solitudine per offerir sacrifizio al Signore Dio nostro.And they shal heare thy voice: and thou shalt enter in, thou and the ancientes of Israel to the king of Aegypt, and thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrewes hath called vs: We wil goe three dayes iourney into the wildernes, to sacrifice vnto the Lord our God.Et audient vocem tuam: ingredierisque tu, et seniores Israël, ad regem Ægypti, et dices ad eum: Dominus Deus Hebræorum vocavit nos: ibimus viam trium dierum in solitudinem, ut immolemus Domino Deo nostro.
19But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, but by a mighty hand.Ma io so, che il re di Egitto non vi lascerà andare, se non forzato da mano potente.But I know that the king of Aegypt wil not dismisse you to goe but by mightie hand.Sed ego scio quod non dimittet vos rex Ægypti ut eatis nisi per manum validam. 20For I will stretch forth my hand, and will strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst of them: after these he will let you go.Perocché io stenderò la mia mano, e flagellerò l'Egitto con tutti i prodigi, che io sono per fare tra di loro: dopo questi vi lascerà andare.For I wil stretch forth my hand, and wil strike Aegypt in al my marueils, which I wil doe in the middes of them: after these he wil dismisse you.Extendam enim manum meam, et percutiam Ægyptum in cunctis mirabilibus meis, quæ facturus sum in medio eorum: post hæc dimittet vos. 21And I will give favour to this people, in the sight of the Egyptians: and when you go forth, you shall not depart empty:E farò sì, che questo popolo troverà grazia al cospetto degli Egiziani; e quando partirete, non uscirete con le mani vote:And I wil geue grace to this people, in the sight of the Aegyptians: and when you shal goe forth, you shal not depart emptie:Daboque gratiam populo huic coram Ægyptiis: et cum egrediemini, non exibitis vacui: 22But every woman shall ask of her neighbour, and of her that is in her house, vessels of silver and of gold, and raiment: and you shall put them on your sons and daughters, and shall spoil Egypt.Ma ogni donna chiederà alla sua vicina, e alla sua casigliana, vasi d'argento, e d'oro, e vestimenta: e li porrete addosso a' vostri figliuoli, e alle vostre figlie, e spoglierete l'Egitto.but ech woman shal aske of her neighbour and of her that is in house with her, vessels of siluer and of gold, and rayment: and you shal lay it vpon your sonnes and daughters, and shal spoyle Aegypt.sed postulabit mulier a vicina sua et ab hospita sua, vasa argentea et aurea, ac vestes: ponetisque eas super filios et filias vestras, et spoliabitis Ægyptum.
3:1
Year of the World 2513, Year before Christ 1491.
Theodoret
Fed for the space of forty years. During which time, he composed the books of Genesis and Job, for the consolation of his countrymen; (Menochius) though others believe he wrote all the Pentateuch in the desert. (Theodoret; etc.)
Of God, on account of its height; or on account of God's appearing to Moses.
Calmet
Horeb is so close to Mount Sinai, that the shadow of the latter reaches it when the sun rises. It is watered with three fine springs; and the summit is adorned with fruit trees. (Calmet)
3:2
The Lord appeared. That is, and angel representing God, and speaking in his name. (Challoner) (Acts 7:30; Galatians 3:19.)
Worthington
The apparitions of God to the patriarchs are generally understood in this sense. (St. Augustine, de Trin. 3:11.) (Worthington)
Calmet
Yet many of the Fathers suppose, that this angel was no other than the Son of God, the angel of the great council, (Malachias 3:1,) and St. Augustine (q. 2, in Ex.) does not disapprove of this opinion. (Calmet)
Menochius
Not burnt. Thus the Hebrews were afflicted, but not destroyed. (Menochius)
Calmet
God is styled a consuming fire, Deuteronomy 4:24. He appeared in fire again, Exodus 24:17. (Calmet)
3:5
Du Hamel
Shoes. Juvenal, sat. 6, takes notice of this custom. Observant ubi festa mero pede sabbata reges. (Du Hamel)
Calmet
The Ethiopian Christians and the Turks never enter their churches, or mosques, without putting off their shoes. The priests did the like when they entered the temple of Jerusalem, and God ordered them moreover to wash their feet and hands, Exodus 30:19. (Calmet)
We observe the same ceremony, out of respect for Jesus Christ, when we go to kiss the cross. Pythagoras said, "Offer sacrifice and adoration barefoot." (Jamblic. 24.) On such occasions, we ought to have our hearts disengaged from the world. (Haydock) See Leviticus 2:25.
3:6
Calmet
Hid, out of respect, and perhaps fearing lest he should die, Genesis 16:13. (Calmet)
Menochius
God takes the title of these three patriarchs, because he had promised Chanaan to each of them, and because they were eminent for virtue. God is repeated thrice, to insinuate the mystery of the blessed Trinity, and to shew that the Lord watches over each individual, as if that one alone existed. (Menochius)
3:8
Spacious, compared with that of Gessen. Chanaan was not above 210 miles long, and 70 broad. (Brocard.) St. Jerome does not allow so much. Hecateus says the Jews had three million acres of excellent land.
Milk and honey are still very plentiful in Palestine, (Calmet) though the country has lost much of its ancient beauty and luxuriance, for want of cultivation. The Samaritan and Septuagint number the Gergesites among the rest of the Chanaanites.
3:12
Menochius
A sign. Moses had modestly represented his own inability to perform so great a work, and such God generally selects. He encourages them therefore with a sign; to the splendour of which he was then a witness; and with another, which should appear in future, to convince him and all the world, that the undertaking was from God, when they should see him offering sacrifice in that place, out of the reach of Pharao, Exodus 24:3. Thus a future event is assigned to Achaz and Ezechias, as a sign of something that was to happen first. (Isaias 7; 4 Kings 19:29.) Perhaps the sign here appointed is the presence of God enabling Moses to work miracles. (Menochius)
3:13
Haydock
His name. Many of them had embraced idolatry, and had forgotten God. Moses very properly begs to have his extraordinary mission sanctioned by miracles, without which he might well have been rejected, as heretics are. (Haydock)
3:14
Challoner
I am who am. That is, I am being itself, eternal, self-existent, independent, infinite; without beginning, end, or change; and the source of all other beings. (Challoner)
Cornelius a Lapide
Hebrew agrees with the Vulgate, though it seems to read aeje, "I shall be," etc. (Cornelius a Lapide; etc.)
Calmet
No name can fully explain the divine perfections. As God is alone, he stands in need of no distinctive appellation, as Lactantius, and even the pagans have confessed. (Origen, contra Cels. vi.) (Calmet)
Worthington
All other beings are just nothing, compared with God. He alone is self-existent and infinitely perfect. (Worthington)
3:15
Menochius
Memorial. By this title he is still known among Christians. (Menochius)
Haydock
Hitherto God had generally been called Elohim. But now he assumes the incommunicable name (Tirinus) consisting of four vowels, Jod, He, Vau, He, Jehovah, the essence, or OON,, a word which the Greek Scriptures leave undeclined, to denote the unchangeable nature of the Deity. The word has been pronounced Jehovah by the moderns, and by the ancients Jevo, Jao, Jave, etc. (Haydock)
3:16
Ancients. Perhaps there might be 72 magistrates already among the Hebrews, as there were afterwards in the desert (Grotius); or more probably they were only the chiefs of families, and leading men among their brethren, though without any public authority derived from the king of Egypt.
Calmet
Visiting. So Joseph had foretold, Genesis 50:23. God examines before he punishes, Genesis 18:21. (Calmet)
3:18
Haydock
Called. Samaritan and Septuagint, "hath been invoked upon us." Hebrew, "hath occurred or appeared to us." (Haydock)
Calmet
Journey, to Sinai, which was about this distance, to go straight. But the Israelites spent 48 days in arriving at it by a circuitous road. (Calmet)
Menochius
In Hebrew they ask, "Let us go, we beseech thee." They do not tell a lie, but withhold the truth. (Menochius)
3:21
Haydock
Egyptians, among whom the Hebrews were forced to live, not being now allowed to enjoy the fertile country of Gessen alone, according to Joseph's disposition. The subsequent kings altered that wise regulation. (Haydock)
3:22
Challoner
Shall spoil, etc. That is, you shall strip, and take away the goods of the Egyptians. This was not authorizing theft or injustice: but was a just disposal made by him, who is the great Lord and master of all things; in order to pay the children of Israel some part of what was due to them from the Egyptians for their labours. (Challoner)
Calmet
Wisdom 10:17 rendered to the just the wages of their labours; and (ver. 19,) the just took the spoils of the wicked, in a just war. It is an ancient tradition of the Jews, that the Egyptians appealed to Alexander the Great for the recovery of these spoils; but when the Jews demanded their wages, they were willing to desist from their claims. (Selden, de Ture 7:8; Tertullian, contra Marcion 2:20.) (Calmet)
God had a mind to punish the extravagance of the Egyptians, while he enabled his people to appear with suitable presents before him. It was on this last plea that the Hebrews borrowed precious garments, gold, etc. (Haydock) See St. Clement of Alexandria, strom. 1; St. Augustine, q. 23.
3:2
The Lord appeared.... That is, an angel representing God, and speaking in his name.
3:14
I am who am.... That is, I am being itself, eternal, self-existent, independent, infinite; without beginning, end, or change; and the source of all other beings.
3:22
Shall spoil, etc.... That is, you shall strip, and take away the goods of the Egyptians. This was not authorizing theft or injustice; but was a just disposal made by Him, who is the great lord and master of all things, in order to pay the children of Israel some part of what was due to them from the Egyptians for their labours.
3:1
1. Our Lord appeared.] S Steuen reciting this vision saieth, an Angel appeared Act. 7. to Moyses: and so it is in the Hebrew text, in the Chaldee Paraphrasis, and in the Septuagint Interpreters. Neither is the latin Edition (reading Lord) contrarie to the other which reade Angel, no more then one place of holie Al appatition• to the Patriarches and Prophetes were made by Angels, though sometimes attributed to God. Proued by holie Scriptures and Fathers. Scripture, is contrarie to an other in the same language, but very consonant in sense, sometimes attributing the same apparitions and other workes to God, as the author and principal Agent, and sometimes to Angels, the next and immediate ministers of God. For so not only S. Steuen in the place alleaged, but also S. Paul saith plainly (Gal. 3.) that the Lavv vvas deliuered by Angels. And in his Epistle to the Hebrewes, proueth the excellencie of Christs Law aboue the old law, by the difference of the persons, by whom both were geuen: affirming that the former vvas spoken by Angels, the other declared by our Lord Iesus Heb. 2. Christ. VVherof S. Cyril of Alexandria discourseth largely (li. 8. c. 2. Thesau.) shewing that in deede Angels deliuered the law, yet not by their owne authoritie, but as seruants and legates of God. And before him S. Dionyse of Ariopagite (li. coelest. Hietar. c. 4.) taught the very same, the lavv (sayeth he) as holie vvrittes testifie, vvas geuen to vs by Angels: yea al apparitions, made to the ancient fathers before the law, and after it, were made by Angels. A litle after obiecting to himselfe, that diuine Scriptures also testifie, that the law was geuen Exod. 19. 20. and granted to Moyses by God, to teach vs that in deede it hath the forme of sacred and diuine law, answereth, eam Angelorum ad nos opera peruenisse, that it came to vs [from God] by the meanes of Angels. In like maner S. Iustinus Martyr (inexplic. qq. necess. q. 142.) saieth, al those Angels, which haue appeared in Gods place, or haue spoken with men, haue also benne called by the name of God, as he that spoke with Iob, and with Moyses. S. Augustin after a large discourse of this matter, in his second, third, and fourth bookes de Trinitate, hath these wordes: (li. 4. c. vlti.) If it be demanded of me, how either the voices, or sensible formes, and shewes were made before the incarnation of the vvord of God, which prefigured the same, I answer that God wrought them by Angels, which also I suppose I haue sufficiently shewed by testimonies of holie Scriptures Likwise S. Gregorie (Prefat. in Iob. c. 2) saith plainly, that an Angel appeared to Moyses in the firie bush, yet is called God, because he was the legate of God, and therfore spoke, as if God himselfe had spoke in diuine Person, explicating the same by two examples, Dauid saied: My people attend my Examples. Psal. 77. lavv, yet neither the people, nor law was Dauids, but Gods. And the reader dayly amiddes the people proclameth: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, Exo. 3. and the God of Iacob. Neither doth he truly say, that he is God, nor by that he sayeth, doth he goe from the rule of truth. He also confirmeth the same doctrin, li. 28. Moral. ca. 5. And further teacheth that Angels protect men, and God executeth his wil by Angels. prouinces, and execute Gods wil in this inferior world. And so do the other Doctors of the Church. S. Gregorie Nazianzen, orat. ad 150. Epistop. & orat. 2. de Theologia. in sine vtriusque. S. Basil. li. 3. cont. Funom. S Athanasius ser. 4. cont. Arian, longius a princ. & Epist. de senten. Dioni•ij Alexan. in sine. S. Ambrose, ser. 1. in Psal. 118. S. Chrysost. ho. 6. and S. Hierom. li. 3. comment. in Mat. 18.
The three first lessons on the 4. sunday in Lent.
3:5
See what maner of reuerence and deuotion is prescribed; to goe bare foo•e to holie places..
Of holie places, and of christian deuotion in going to them. S. Hierom writeth largely. Epist. 17. 18. & 27.
3:14
14. I am vvhich am,] Al other things besides God, once were not; and being are limited in nature; neither could persist vnles God conserued them; mame things also haue lost, or shal lose their propet essence and being, and whiles they remaine haue continual alterations. Onlie God eternally is without beginning, ending, limitation, dependence, or mutation, cōsisting only of himselfe, and al other things ar• of him Therfore this name, QVI EST, HE WHICH IS, The most proper name of God is, 〈◊〉 WHICH IS. is most proper to God, not determining anie maner, but indeterminatly signifying al maners of being, for so it importeth the very infinite immensitie of Gods substance. S. Damascen. li. 1. c. 12. Orthodoxae sidei. S. Tho. p. 1. q. 13. a. 11.
3:15
This is the most proper name but the most common is GOD, deriued in manie languages of Good. Mat. 19. v. 17.
3:22
Al that anie man possesseth in this world, is but lent by God. And therfore he iustly taketh away, and lendeth to others; disposing of al as pleaseth him.
3:1
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 43.74
… Or the fair inheritance of Elisha, the sheepskin mantle, accompanied by the spirit of Elijah? You must also praise the life of Basil, spent in the fire. I mean in the multitude of temptations, and his escape through fire, which burnt, but did not consume, the mystery of “the bush,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 30
… For great, yea, very great, is the fruit of hospitality. ( Luke xi. 41 .) Thus too Jethro, and that though he was a foreigner, gained for a relation him who with so great power commanded the sea. ( Dan. iv. 27 ;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.13
… And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
3:2
St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 60
… ‘The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the bush; and he sees that the bush burns with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight, for the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he is turning aside to behold, the Lord called to him out of the bush.’
Tertullian † AD 220 Scorpiace 1
… These, too, have a troublesome littleness, and are of different sorts, and are armed in one manner, and are stirred up at a definite time, and that not another than one of burning heat. This among Christians is a season of persecution. When, therefore, faith is greatly agitated, and the Church burning, as represented by the bush,
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 8.2
… (Now this figure is) a life-giving fire, which is generated from light, from whence the Great Archon originated. And respecting this (Archon) Moses observes: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Moses mentions
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 2.8.3
… For in sacred language God is called a fire, as when Scripture says,” Our God is a consuming fire.” Respecting the substance of the angels also it speaks as follows: “Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a burning fire;” and in another place, “The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire in the bush.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.34
… As for His becoming man no believer has any doubt, but as to His becoming an angel, we shall find reason for believing it was so, if we observe carefully the appearances and the words of the angels, in some of which the powers of the angels seem to belong to Him. In several passages angels speak in such a way as to suggest this, as when
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.20
… And he said, What is it? And He said, Draw not nigh hither, unless thou hast loosed thy shoe from off thy feet; for the place on which thou standest is holy ground. And He said unto him, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.102
… And there appeared to them cloven tongues as if of fire, which also settled upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Also in the sacrifices, whatsoever God accounted accepted, fire descended from heaven, which consumed what was sacrificed. In Exodus: “The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire from the bush.”
Novatian † AD 258 A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity 7
… And therefore, then, God will be made. In which manner also, if, according to Moses, you should receive God to be fire , in saying that He is a creature, you will have declared what is ordained, you will not have taught who is its ordainer. But these things are rather used as figures than as being so in fact. For as, in the Old Testament,
St Methodius † AD 311 Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple 1
… Join thyself to Him with alacrity, and delay not to obey Him. That which is spoken to thee, and held out to thee, savours not of over-boldness. Be not then reluctant, O thou of men the most decorous. The flame of the grace of my Lord does not consume, but illuminates thee, O thou of men most just.
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 4.32
… And the Lord said, Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And He said unto him, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.25
… But if at any time, when the Angel was seen, he who saw it heard God’s voice, as took place at the bush; for ‘the Angel of the Lord was seen in a flame of fire out of the bush, and the Lord called Moses out of the bush, saying, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
… And a Light typical and proportionate to those who were its subjects was the written law, adumbrating the truth and the sacrament of the great Light, for Moses’ face was made glorious by it. And, to mention more Lights—it was Light that appeared out of Fire to Moses, when it burned the bush indeed, but did not consume it,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Letters on the Apollinarian Controversy 101
… If it was in order that God, otherwise incomprehensible, might be comprehended, and might converse with men through His Flesh as through a veil, their mask and the drama which they represent is a pretty one, not to say that it was open to Him to converse with us in other ways, as of old, in the burning bush
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 11.3
… Accordingly, of the two alternatives they must needs admit one, namely, either that the Only-begotten God on no occasion appeared to Moses, or that the Son is Himself the “Existent,” from Whom the word came to His servant. But he contradicts what has been said above, alleging the Scripture itself
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 4
… Observe, how when one is continuing in prayer, when one is in charity, then it is that the Spirit draws near. It put them in mind also of another vision: for as fire did He appear also in the bush. “As the Spirit gave them utterance, ἀποφθέγγεσθαι (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 38
… By the type of Jonah which also Himself alleges, saying, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall also the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” ( Matt. xii. 40 .) By the bush in the desert. For even as that burned, yet was not consumed, (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.6
… or as Isaac was Christ, when he carried the wood for the sacrifice of himself. A particular significative action was added to those already existing things; they did not, as that dove and fire, suddenly come into being in order simply so to signify. The dove and the fire, indeed, seem to me more like that flame which appeared to Moses in the bush,
John Cassian † AD 435 The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 2.4
… For that is most properly said to appear , which is shown by sudden light manifesting it. Just as we read in the gospel that the star appeared to the wise men in the East: and in Exodus: “There appeared ,” he says, “to Moses an angel in a flame of fire in the bush:”
Sozomen † AD 450 The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen 1.1
… And of the rest of the prophets some declared beforehand the birth of Christ, His ineffable conception, the mother remaining a virgin after His birth, His people, and country.
3:3
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 1.14
… “I have seen the wicked exalted above the cedars of Libanus, and I passed by, and lo, he was not.” Pass by things of this world, and you will see that the high places of the wicked have fallen. Moses, too, passing by things of this world, saw a great sight and said: “I will turn aside and see this great sight,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 75.1
1. So overpowered am I by the sad intelligence of the falling asleep of the holy and by me deeply revered Lucinius that I am scarcely able to dictate even a short letter. I do not, it is true, lament his fate, for I know that he has passed to better things: like Moses he can say: “I will now turn aside and see this great sight,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 76.2
… rather you should rejoice that you possess that eye of which it is said in the Song of Songs, “Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes.” This is the eye with which God is seen and to which Moses refers when he says:—“I will now turn aside and see this great sight.”
3:4
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.10
… at one time, indeed, speaking with Abraham, when about to eat with him; at another time with Noah, giving to him the dimensions [of the ark]; at another; inquiring after Adam; at another, bringing down judgment upon the Sodomites; and again, when He becomes visible, and directs Jacob on his journey, and speaks with Moses from the bush.
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 1.2.13
… And he said, What is it? And he said, Draw not nigh hither; loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And he said unto him, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 18.14
14. Nor indeed would anyone disbelieve this who has heard and knows that Moses, when little in the eyes of men, and not yet of any account, was called from the bush which burned but was not consumed, or rather by Him who appeared in the bush,
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 8.1
One mark of the true Godhead is indicated by the words of Holy Scripture, which Moses learnt by the voice from heaven, when He heard Him Who said, “I am He that is
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.26
123. Moses, learned as he was in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, did not approve of those things, but thought that kind of wisdom both harmful and foolish. Turning away therefrom, he sought God with all the desire of his heart, and thus saw, questioned, heard Him when He spoke.
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 1.1.2
… In the ark of the Old Testament the priest’s rod budded; with God it is easy that in Holy Church a flower should spring from our knots also. And why should we despair that God should speak in men, Who spoke in the thorn bush?
3:5
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 6.11
… but it is also hard-pressed by those who use violence to walk in it, for it is not called afflicting, but afflicted. For that way which is a living way, and feels the qualities of those who tread it, is pressed and afflicted, when he travels on it who has not taken off his shoes from off his feet,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 45
XIX. And as to shoes , let him who is about to touch the Holy Land which the feet of God have trodden, put them off, as Moses did upon the Mount,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.10
71. Moses was not the Bridegroom, for to him cometh the word, “Loose thy shoe from off thy foot,”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 2.11
107. We have then learned that we must do penance, and this at a time when the heat of luxury and sin is giving way; and that we, when under the dominion of sin, must show ourselves Godfearing by refraining, rather than allowing ourselves in evil practices. For if it is said to Moses when he was desiring to draw nearer: “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 63.24
41. Stand therefore firm in your hearts, that no one overthrow you, that no one be able to make you fall. The Apostle has taught us what it is “to stand,” that is what was said to Moses: “The place whereon thou standest is holy ground;”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.19
… “His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me.” It agrees, also, with this interpretation that the unclean animals are led into Noah’s ark in pairs, while of the clean an uneven number is taken. Similarly, when Moses and Joshua were bidden to remove their shoes because the ground on which they stood was holy,
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.21
… Joshua went forth, and was met by the Prince of the host, sword in hand, that is either to shew that he was ready to fight for the circumcised people, or to sever the tie of marriage. And in the same way that Moses was commanded, so was he:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 51.7
7. What are “the shoes”? The shoes which we use, are the skins of dead beasts, the coverings of our feet. By this then are we bidden to renounce dead works. This Moses was admonished of in a figure, when the Lord speaking to him said, “Loose thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place wherein thou standest is holy ground.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 1.9
… “Loose the latchet of thy shoe: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
3:6
St Justin Martyr † AD 165 The First Apology 63
… for thus it is written in them, “And the Angel of God spake to Moses, in a flame of fire out of the bush, and said, I am that I am, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of thy fathers; go down into Egypt, and bring forth My people.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.5.2
… dishonour God, and lower the credit of the law, did both indicate a resurrection, and reveal God, saying to them, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” “For, touching the resurrection of the dead,” He says, “have ye not read that which was spoken by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 Against the Heresy of One Noetus 2
2. Now they seek to exhibit the foundation for their dogma by citing the word in the law, “I am the God of your fathers: ye shall have no other gods beside me;”
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 17.5
… But however, the names of God are many and are venerable, as He delivered His names to Moses, saying to him:— I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. This is My Name for ever, and this is My memorial unto generations .
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 22.2
… But when Moses came, he proclaimed the resurrection, and Death knew that his kingdom is to be made void. For Moses said:— Reuben shall live and not die, and shall be in number . And when the Holy One called Moses from the bush he said thus to him:— I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob .
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 7.6
6. We worship, therefore, as the Father of Christ, the Maker of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 18.11
11. Turn now to the Samaritans, who, receiving the Law only, allow not the Prophets. To them the text just now read from Ezekiel appears of no force, for, as I said, they admit no Prophets; whence then shall we persuade the Samaritans also? Let us go to the writings of the Law. Now God says to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 2.5
… Was not Jacob blessed who, leaving his father’s house, endured exile as a shepherd for pay, and mourned for the violated chastity of his daughter, and suffered hunger? Were they not blessed on whose good faith God received witness, as it is written: “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”?
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 1.14
165. For he himself saw the fire in the bush, and had heard God when the voice from the flame of fire came to him saying: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 29
… and answer me. Wherefore was Abraham rich whereas Jacob wanted even bread? Were not both the one and the other righteous? Doth He not say concerning the three alike, “I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob?” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 8
… For He is called “the God of Heaven,” ( Ps. cxxxvi. 26 . &c.) yet is He not the God of Heaven only; and we say, ‘God of the present day;’ yet we say this not as limiting His power to it alone. And moreover He is called the “God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 24
… for a slave has a close relation to his master, and the discredit passes from the one to the other. —But they were so illustrious, so full of confidence, that not only was He “not ashamed to be called” from them, but He even Himself says, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 3.10
… but they are known and easy to them as being their own actions. An angel speaks in the person of God to man, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;” the Scripture having said just before, “The angel of the Lord appeared to him.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 12.41
41. Besides this wonderful agreement between the types and the things typified, the adversary may be convinced by plain prophetic intimations, such as this: "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." This was said to Abraham, and again to Isaac, and again to Jacob. Hence the significance of the words "I am the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 11.7
… Borne by wood, they escaped the flood. Then afterwards great men whom we know, whom Holy Scriptures commends, Moses faithful in all his house. And yet those three are named, just as if they alone deserved well of him: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this is my name for ever.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 12.2
… Isaac, born of a free woman, made heir: Esau, born of a free woman, disinherited; the sons of Jacob, born of bond women, made heirs. Thus, in these three fathers the figure of the whole future people is seen: and not without reason God saith, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this,” saith He, “is my name for ever.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 47.10
10. “The princes of the peoples are gathered together unto the God of Abraham” ( ver. 9 ). The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 102.31
… 27 ). But what are we to those years with these beggarly years? and what are they? Yet we ought not to despair. He had already said in His great and exceeding Wisdom, “I Am That I Am;” and yet He saith to console us, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob:”
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.15
… And further, if the Creator and Lord of all things is called also King of Kings and Lord of Lords and God of Gods, surely also the saints are gods and lords and kings. For of these God is and is called God and Lord and King. For I am the God of Abraham , He said to Moses, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob
3:7
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.7.4
… they being ignorant of that God who spake in human shape to Abraham, and again to Moses, saying, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people in Egypt, and I have come down to deliver them.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.12.4
… For He who has brought in the end has Himself also wrought the beginning; and it is He who does Himself say to Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have come down to deliver them;”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 42.5
… Who turneth night into day, winter into spring, storm into calm, drought into abundance of rain; and often for the sake of the prayers of one righteous man sorely persecuted; Who lifteth up the meek on high, and bringeth the ungodly down to the ground; since God said to Himself, I have surely seen the affliction of Israel;
3:8
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.6.2
… And thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He who is, hath sent me unto you;” and His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who makes those that believe in His name the sons of God. And again, when the Son speaks to Moses, He says, “I am come down to deliver this people.”
Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 9
… Certainly, you say. This we first assert to have been a figure of the future. For, because Jesus Christ was to introduce the second people (which is composed of us nations, lingering deserted in the world aforetime) into the land of promise, “flowing with milk and honey”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 3.5
… For we both read of “the mountains dropping down new wine,” but not as if one might expect “ must ” from the stones, or its decoction from the rocks; and also hear of “a land flowing with milk and honey,”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Fasting 5
… For the first People had withal reproduced the first man’s crime, being found more prone to their belly than to God, when, plucked out from the harshness of Egyptian servitude “by the mighty hand and sublime arm” of God, they were seen to be its lord, destined to the “land flowing with milk and honey;”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 7.28
… But he does not see that Moses, who is much older than the Greek literature, introduces God as promising to those who lived according to His law the holy land, which is “a good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and honey;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 1
What again is “spiritual blessing in the heavenly places?” It is not upon earth, he means, as was the case with the Jews. “Ye shall eat the good of the land.” ( Isa. i. 19 .) “Unto a land flowing with milk and honey.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 106.20
20. “Yea, they thought scorn of that pleasant land” ( ver. 24 ). But had they seen it? How then could they scorn that which they had not seen, except as the following words explain, “and believed not in His words.” Indeed, unless that land which was styled the land that flowed with milk and honey,
3:10
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) 18
… For the Patriarch Jacob who had before fled from Esau, feared not death when it came, but at that very time blessed the Patriarchs, each according to his deserts. And the great Moses, who previously had hid himself from Pharaoh, and had withdrawn into Midian for fear of him, when he received the commandment, ‘Return into Egypt
3:11
Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 17
… and through his instrumentality, God punished Egypt with plagues and tortures. Yet he, though thus greatly honoured, did not adopt lofty language, but said, when the divine oracle came to him out of the bush, “Who am I, that Thou sendest me? I am a man of a feeble voice and a slow tongue.”
3:13
Tertullian † AD 220 On Prayer 3
The name of “God the Father” had been published to none. Even Moses, who had interrogated Him on that very point, had heard a different name.
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.18
… For when God commands others, whether the Angels, or converses with Moses, or commands Abraham, then the hearer answers; and the one says, ‘Whereby shall I know ?’ and the other, ‘Send some one else ;’ and again, ‘If they ask me, what is His Name, what shall I say to them
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 38.8
… The Lord therefore put aside what man could not comprehend, and added what he could; for He said also besides, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
3:14
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.6.2
2. Wherefore, as I have already stated, no other is named as God, or is called Lord, except Him who is God and Lord of all, who also said to Moses, “ I am that I am . And thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He who is, hath sent me unto you;”
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 1.3.6
6. That the working of the Father and the Son operates both in saints and in sinners, is manifest from this, that all who are rational beings are partakers of the word, i.e., of reason, and by this means bear certain seeds, implanted within them, of wisdom and justice, which is Christ. Now, in Him who truly exists, and who said by Moses, “ I Am Who I Am ,”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 2.7
… he says, “called the things that are not as things that are.” And Mardochæus, too, in the Esther of the Septuagint, calls the enemies of Israel “those that are not,” saying, “Deliver not Thy sceptre, O Lord, to those that are not.” We may also notice how evil men, on account of their wickedness, are said not to be, from the name ascribed to God in Exodus:
Novatian † AD 258 A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity 4
… And therefore He says, “I am God, I change not;” in that, what is not born cannot suffer change, holding His condition always. For whatever it be in Him which constitutes Divinity, must necessarily exist always, maintaining itself by its own powers, so that He should always be God. And thus He says, “I am that I am.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 8.3
… For never has any one seen with his eyes the greatness or the form or the beauty of righteousness itself, or of understanding, or of peace; but there, in Him whose name is I AM,
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 1.5
5. While my mind was dwelling on these and on many like thoughts, I chanced upon the books which, according to the tradition of the Hebrew faith, were written by Moses and the prophets, and found in these words spoken by God the Creator testifying of Himself ‘ I Am that I Am , and again, He that is hath sent me unto you
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 4.8
… that He alone abides eternally unborn, for it is written, I Am That I Am , and Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 5.22
… For the Angel Who speaks from the bush is their God eternally. And, lest you insinuate that the name is His only by adoption, it is the absolute God Who speaks to Moses. These are His words:— And the Lord said unto Moses, I Am that I Am; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, He that is hath sent me unto you
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 5.38
… God is in God and beside Him there is no God. Let heresy, if it can, divide the God within from the God within Whom He is, and classify, Each after His kind, the members of that mystic union. For when He says God is in Thee , He teaches that the true nature of God the Father is present in God the Son; for we must understand that it is the God Who is
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 6.14
… being in existence already, He could not possibly come into being by passing through the process of birth, for the very meaning of birth is the entry into existence of the being that is born. Fool and blasphemer! Who dreams of birth in the case of Him Who is the unborn and eternal? How can we think of God, Who is
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 6.36
… for confessing not Christ only, but Christ the Son of God. It would clearly have sufficed for a payment of reverence, had he said, Thou art the Christ , and nothing more. But it would have been a hollow confession, had Peter only hailed Him as Christ, without confessing Him the Son of God. And so his words Thou art
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 6.46
… They describe the Son of God as a creature who came into being out of nothing. If the Father has never asserted this, nor the Son confirmed it, nor the Apostles proclaimed it, then the dating which prompts their allegation is bred not of ignorance, but of hatred for Christ. When the Father says of His Son, This is
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 De Trinitate or On the Trinity 12.24
… For, as we have shewn in the former books, in respect of power and veneration He is as mighty and as worthy of honour as the Father: so also, inasmuch as the Father is always Father, He too, inasmuch as He is the Son, possesses the like property of being always the Son. For according to the words spoken to Moses, He Who is, hath sent Me unto you
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) 5
… For though to comprehend what the essence of God is be impossible, yet if we only understand that God is, and if Scripture indicates Him by means of these titles, we, with the intention of indicating Him and none else, call Him God and Father and Lord. When then He says, ‘I am that I am,’ and ‘I am the Lord God
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.23.6
… and therefore one the honour and one the worship which is paid to the Father in and through the Son. And he who thus worships, worships one God; for there is one God and none other than He. Accordingly when the Father is called the only God, and we read that there is one God , and ‘I am,’ and ‘beside Me there is no God,’ and ‘I the first and I the last
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 4.1.1
… For, according to John, ‘in’ that ‘Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,’ for the Beginning was God; and since He is from It, therefore also ‘the Word was God.’ And as there is one Beginning and therefore one God, so one is that Essence and Subsistence which indeed and truly and really is, and which said ‘I am that I am
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 On the Symbols 'Of the Essence' And 'Coessential.' 1
… which is irreligious, and most shocking even to think of. But if, when we hear it said, ‘I am that I am,’ and, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,’ and, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,’ and, ‘Thus saith the Lord Almighty’ (
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa. (Ad Afros Epistola Synodica.) 4
… But the others, after being deposed again and again, and once more at Ariminum itself, ventured to write that it ought not to be said that the Son had Essence or Subsistence. This enables us to see, brethren, that they of Nicæa breathe the spirit of Scripture, in that God says in Exodus
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 30
XVIII. As far then as we can reach, He Who Is, and God, are the special names of His Essence; and of these especially He Who Is, not only because when He spake to Moses in the mount, and Moses asked what His Name was, this was what He called Himself, bidding him say to the people “I Am hath sent me,”
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 2.4
… But if they do not deny the existence of the Maker of all things, let them be content not to deprive of real existence Him Who is, Who in the Divine appearance to Moses gave Himself the name of Existent, when He said, “I am that I am
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 The Great Catechism 25
That Deity should be born in our nature, ought not reasonably to present any strangeness to the minds of those who do not take too narrow a view of things. For who, when he takes a survey of the universe, is so simple as not to believe that there is Deity in everything, penetrating it, embracing it, and seated in it? For all things depend on Him Who is
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.13
83. He, therefore, Who said, “This is My Son,” said not, “This is a creature of time,” nor “This being is of My creation, My making, My servant,” but “This is My Son, Whom ye see glorified.” This is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, Who appeared to Moses in the bush,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.19
131. Arius declares that the Son of God may change and swerve. How, then, is He God if He is changeable, seeing that He Himself hath said: “I am, I am, and I change not”?
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.1
25. Christ therefore is, and always is; for He, Who is, always is. And Christ always is, of Whom Moses says: “He that is hath sent me.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 6
I said that the “form of a servant” was a true form, and nothing less. Therefore “the form of God” also is perfect, and no less. Why says he not, “being made in the form of God,” but “being in the form of God”? This is the same as the saying, “I am that I am.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 15
Wouldest thou learn also His eternity? Hear what Moses saith concerning the Father. When he asked what he was commanded to answer should the Jews enquire of him, “Who it was that had sent him,” he heard these words: “Say, I AM hath sent me.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 15.4
… For there was a time when they were not, and that which once was not may again cease to be. God alone who is eternal, that is to say, who has no beginning, really deserves to be called an essence. Therefore also He says to Moses from the bush, “I am that I am,” and Moses says of Him, “I am hath sent me.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 25
An explanation of the ten names given to God in the Hebrew Scriptures. The ten names are El, Elohim, Sabaôth, Eliôn, Asher yeheyeh (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.14
… For example, compared with a lamp, a lantern is good for nothing; compared with a star, a lamp does not shine at all; the brightest star pales before the moon; put the moon beside the sun, and it no longer looks bright; compare the sun with Christ, and it is darkness. “I am that I am,” God says;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 7.10
… And I said, “Is Truth, therefore, nothing because it is neither diffused through space, finite, nor infinite?” And Thou criedst to me from afar, “Yea, verily, ‘ I Am that I Am. ’”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 8.11
… for, when he asked what was the name of that God who was commanding him to go and deliver the Hebrew people out of Egypt, this answer was given: “I am who am; and thou shalt say to the children of Israel, He who is sent me unto you;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 12.2
… From the great impiety of this error we shall disentangle ourselves the more readily and easily, the more distinctly we understand that which God spoke by the angel when He sent Moses to the children of Israel: “I am that I am.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Christian Doctrine 1.32
… And, further, because He is also just, we cannot with impunity be evil; and so far as we are evil, so far is our existence less complete. Now He is the first and supreme existence, who is altogether unchangeable, and who could say in the fullest sense of the words, “I AM That I AM,” and “Thou shalt say to them, I AM hath sent me unto you;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 1.1.2
… But the same Scripture rarely employs those things which are spoken properly of God, and are not found in any creature; as, for instance, that which was said to Moses, “I am that I am;” and, “I Am hath sent me to you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 1.8
… For “we are the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” For that which He said to His servant Moses, “I am that I am; thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me to you;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 5.2
… For as wisdom is so called from the being wise, and knowledge from knowing; so from being comes that which we call essence. And who is there that is, more than He who said to His servant Moses, “I am that I am;” and, “Thus shall thou say unto the children of Israel, He who is hath sent me unto you?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 7.5
… so that perhaps it is right that God alone should be called essence. For He is truly alone, because He is unchangeable; and declared this to be His own name to His servant Moses, when He says, “I am that I am;” and, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: He who is hath sent me unto you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Faith and the Creed 4
… For when he asked of Him by whom he should say that he was sent, in the event of the people to whom he was being sent despising him, he received his answer when He spake in this wise: “ I Am that I Am .” Thereafter, too, He added this: “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, He that is ( Qui est ) has sent me unto you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans 19
Magnificently and divinely, therefore, our God said to his servant: "I am that I am," and "Thou shalt say to the children of Israel, He who is sent me to you."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 32
… For in a transcendent, and yet very proper sense, He said of Himself, “ I Am that I Am. ”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 2
… and I trust that God was present, and that even from only thus much speaking something reached your hearts. “In the beginning was the Word.” He is the same, and is in the same manner; as He is, so He is always; He cannot be changed; that is, He is . This His name He spoke to His servant Moses: “I am that I am; and He that is hath sent me.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 39.8
… though superior to the body, yet made. Every soul, then, since it is changeable—that is, sometimes believes, sometimes disbelieves; at one time wishes, at another time refuses; at one time is adulterous, at another chaste; now good, and again wicked,—is changeable. But God is that which is, and so has retained as His own peculiar name, “I am who am.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 40.3
3. The Lord then, recognizing such in that crowd, said, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [He].” You know already what “I am” signifies; and we must not be continually repeating, lest so great a subject beget distaste. Recall that, “I am who am,” and “He who is hath sent me,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 99.5
… For although to that immutable and ineffable nature, there is no proper application of Was and Will be, but only Is: for that nature alone is in truth, because incapable of change; and to it therefore was it exclusively suited to say, “I Am That I Am,” and “Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, He Who Is hath sent me unto you:”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 2.5
… When it is said to the Lord, “To-day have I begotten Thee.” From the eternal Father begotten, from eternity begotten, in eternity begotten: with no beginning, no bound, no space of breadth; because He is what is, because Himself is “He that Is.” This His name He told to Moses: “Thou shalt say unto them, He that Is hath sent me unto you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 1.6
… But it is expressed more plainly that this should be not to be known of the Lord, namely, to “perish;” and this to be known of the Lord, namely, to “abide;” so as that to be should appertain to the knowledge of God, but to His not knowing not to be. For the Lord saith, “ I Am that I Am ,” and, “ I Am hath sent me.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 9.11
… Now it has been said, “The Lord is His Name.” Wherefore whoso willingly submits himself to God as His servant, hath known this name. “And let them who know Thy Name hope in Thee” ( ver. 10 ). Again, the Lord saith to Moses, “I am That I am; and Thou shalt say to the children of Israel, I Am , hath sent me.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 39.7
… Should I say that these days of mine “are;” and shall I rashly apply this word so full of meaning to this course of things passing away? To such a degree have I my own self almost ceased to “be, failing” as I am in my weakness, that He escaped from my memory, who said, “ I AM HE THAT IS .”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 39.22
… And from whom shall I go to all eternity? From Him who said, I Am HE that Am : from Him who said, “Say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 83.12
… Coming to this knowledge, let them be so confounded as to please God: let them so perish, as that they may abide. “Let them know,” he says, “that Thy name is the Lord:” as if whoever else are called lords are named so not truly but by falsehood, for they rule but as servants, and compared with the true Lord are not lords; as it is said, I Am that I Am :
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 90.3
… But he very rightly does not say, Thou wast from ages, and unto ages Thou shalt be: but puts the verb in the present, intimating that the substance of God is altogether immutable. It is not, He was, and Shall be, but only Is. Whence the expression, I Am that I Am ; and, I Am “hath sent me unto you;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 105.4
… 5 ). This passage seemeth like that, “Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you:” an expression which, in ever so small part, scarce a mind taketh in. Then mentioning His own Name, He mercifully mingled in His grace towards men, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; this is My Name for ever.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 144.5
… for it too is a work of His Hand, in its degree. “For,” as it is written, “God filled the earth with His good things.” What is “His”? That accord with Him. But all these things, being earthly, fleeting, transitory, if they be compared to that Truth, where it is said, “I Am That I Am,”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 5.8
… But conscious of His own eternity, He rightly then when in the body, replied to the Jews, with the very words which He had formerly spoken to Moses in the Spirit. For here He says, “Before Abraham came into being, I am.” But to Moses He says, “I am that I am.”
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 1.9
It appears then that the most proper of all the names given to God is “He that is,” as He Himself said in answer to Moses on the mountain, Say to the sons of Israel, He that is hath sent Me
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.1
7. For God and Lord is a name of majesty, a name of power, even as God Himself saith: “The Lord is My name,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 22.3
… the third is now, which is the time of grace. For if He did not visit mankind before the Law, whence was Abel, and Enoch, and Noe, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, whose Lord He was pleased to be called? And He to whom all nations belonged, as though He were the God of three men only, said, “I am the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.”
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St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 59
… of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned by reason of the works;’ and so on until, ‘Go and gather the elders of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying, I am surely beholding you, and the things which have befallen you in Egypt.’ ”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 39.4
… Let not the age nor the authority deceive you of those who, answering to the ancient wickedness of the two elders;
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 On the Symbols 'Of the Essence' And 'Coessential.' 1
… xxxii. 31 , LXX.); and beholding this, and understanding of whom He was Son and Image, the holy Prophets say, ‘The Word of the Lord came to me;’ and recognising the Father, who was beheld and revealed in Him, they made bold to say, ‘The God of our fathers hath appeared unto me, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob’ (
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Tertullian † AD 220 Scorpiace 1
… You who read will at the same time drink. Nor is the draught bitter. If the utterances of the Lord are sweeter than honey and the honeycombs, the juices are from that source. If the promise of God flows with milk and honey,
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.29
… As the Word spake to Moses from the bush: “And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, unless by a mighty hand.”
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Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.20
… Which, however, were the more in number—those who claimed the vessel, or those who dwelt in the palaces and cities? Which, too, the greater—the grievance of the Egyptians against the Hebrews, or “the favour”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 7.9
… For it pleased Thee, O Lord, to take away the reproach of diminution from Jacob, that the elder should serve the younger; and Thou hast called the Gentiles into Thine inheritance. And I had come unto Thee from among the Gentiles, and I strained after that gold which Thou willedst Thy people to take from Egypt, seeing that wheresoever it was it was Thine.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Christian Doctrine 2.40
… also vessels and ornaments of gold and silver, and garments, which the same people when going out of Egypt appropriated to themselves, designing them for a better use, not doing this on their own authority, but by the command of God, the Egyptians themselves, in their ignorance, providing them with things which they themselves were not making a good use of;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.14
24. Also in the going forth of the children of Israel from Egypt it is written, “And the Lord went before them, by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 22.71
71. Then, as for Faustus’ objection to the spoiling of the Egyptians, he knows not what he says. In this Moses not only did not sin, but it would have been sin not to do it. It was by the command of God,
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.30.1
1. Those, again, who cavil and find fault because the people did, by God’s command, upon the eve of their departure, take vessels of all kinds and raiment from the Egyptians,
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.20
… Come, unhappy heretic, I cite even you as a witness; first look at the case of the two nations, and then you will form a judgment of the Author of the command. The Egyptians put in a claim on the Hebrews for these gold and silver vessels.
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MOSES MOREOVER WAS FEEDING THE FLOCKS OF JETHRO. — For 40 years during which he lived in Midian, Moses was a shepherd of flocks; for the same number of years thereafter he was both shepherd and leader of the people. "For the pastoral art," says Philo, "is a prelude to kingship, that is to the governance of men, the most gentle of flocks. He alone can be a king perfectly in all respects, who is well skilled in the art of shepherding, and by caring for lesser animals, has learned how he ought to preside over those of greater excellence." Thus Saul, while tending asses, was anointed king by Samuel; thus also David was called from the flocks to the kingdom: hence Homer also calls Agamemnon the shepherd of peoples. By this threefold period of forty years, as it were, the life of Moses was consecrated: for he lived in the court of Pharaoh for 40 years; then, having escaped in flight, he fed the flocks of Jethro in Midian for another 40 years, as is evident from Acts VII, 30. Thirdly, returning from Midian to Egypt, he was leader of the people in the desert for the last 40 years of his life: thus Eusebius. For Moses died in the 120th year of his age, Deut. last chapter. You may ask, what did Moses accomplish during these 40 years? Philo responds: first, that by feeding flocks he learned to feed and govern the people; second, that he exercised himself in philosophy and wisdom; third, that he devoted himself to virtues and the taming of the affections of the soul. "For philosophy is vain," says Plutarch, "unless it flows forth into action, just as medicine is vain if it does not cure diseases: so also Philosophy, if it does not cure the vices of the soul." Fourth, Moses during these years devoted himself to prayer and contemplation, by which he was being prepared by God for the governance of so great a people, as will soon be evident. Pererius adds a fifth point: It is believed, he says, that Moses at that time wrote the book of Job and the book of Genesis, in order to console and strengthen the Hebrews oppressed in Egypt, both by the example of the patience of Job and of his subsequent consolation and happiness; and by the examples of the fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; and by the promises made to them concerning liberation from Egypt and the possession of the land of Canaan; but I have spoken of this matter elsewhere. JETHRO HIS FATHER-IN-LAW. This is the true reading: for thus the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint and Roman texts have it, both here and in chapter IV, verse 18, and St. Jerome Against Helvidius. Therefore others read wrongly: "Jethro his kinsman." Hence it appears that Sephora, the wife of Moses, was the daughter of Jethro; and since in the same chapter II, verse 21, she is called the daughter of Raguel, it follows that Raguel and Jethro are the same person. WHEN HE LED THE FLOCK. "To lead" is a Latin verb, and the proper term for shepherds directing sheep with a staff; hence the grammarian: "The shepherd leads the sheep with a staff, the wolf threatens with its mouth." TO THE INNER PARTS OF THE DESERT. In Hebrew, "after the desert," that is, following the desert toward its back parts, that is, its inner regions: thus the Chaldean, Septuagint, Vatablus and others. Moses withdrew into the innermost wilderness, for the sake of study of prayer and quieter contemplation, and that he might make vows for his Hebrews more freely and fervently, and that he might exercise himself in the arena of virtue under reason as his teacher: by which he might prepare himself for both kinds of life, namely the active and the contemplative, says Philo. Morally, learn here that solitude is most suitable for prayer, the cultivation of the mind, quiet and perfection; hence David, Psalm LIV, says: "I fled far away, and remained in solitude"; and in Hosea II, the Lord says: "I will lead her into the wilderness, and will speak to her heart." Here we learn to feed and govern three flocks, namely first, the body and the members of the body and its movements; second, the soul, namely all the senses and affections of the soul; third, the spirit, namely the intellect, will, memory, and all the thoughts and affections of the mind, to purge them from all the dregs of errors and vices, and to arrange and conform them to the norm of truth and divine law. And this is the beatitude of this life. # Translation For indeed happiness and the highest good is "a mind that despises chance events, rejoicing in virtue, free from fear and desire, a sound mind, and in perpetual possession of its own health." And, as St. Cyprian says to Donatus: "One peaceful and faithful tranquility, one solid and perpetual security exists, if someone, drawn out from the turbulent whirlwinds of a disturbing world, close in mind to his God, glories that whatever appears sublime and great among others in human affairs lies beneath his conscience: he who is greater than the world can now desire nothing, can now long for nothing from the world." Indeed, even Seneca, in epistle 84: "Abandon," he says, "riches, or the danger of possessing them, or the burden; abandon the pleasures of the body: they soften and enervate; abandon ambition: it is a swollen thing, vain, windy, it has no limit; it is as anxious lest it see someone before itself, as lest it see another after itself; it labors under envy, and indeed a twofold envy. Direct yourself to wisdom, seek the most tranquil things, and at the same time the most ample. If it pleases you to climb this peak, to which fortune has submitted herself, you will indeed behold all things beneath you, which are held to be most exalted." For this reason, in former times so many thousands of Saints went into the desert. Thus Paul the First Hermit lived in the desert for 79 years, Onuphrius for 70, unknown, but they became known at death, when they were transferred from earthly solitude to heavenly renown. Arsenius used to say: "That he could not dwell with God and men at the same time." St. Anthony, called by the Emperor Constantine, was unwilling to go, saying: "If I come to the Emperor, I shall be Anthony: if not, I shall be Abbot Anthony." He used to say the same thing to his followers: "It is not expedient for the servants of Christ to frequent the houses of worldly men: for just as fish taken out of water are accustomed to languish and die; so a monk outside the monastery, devoting himself to conversation, is reduced to tepidity of heart, and becomes slower in spiritual exercises." Suatopluk, king of Bohemia, defeated by the Emperor Arnulf, fled into the desert, and lived unknown among the hermits. Dying, he called them and said: "I am the king of the Bohemians, who, defeated in battle, fled to you; and having experienced both royal and private life, I die: no fortune of the kingdom is to be preferred to the tranquility of the desert. Here secure sleep makes the sweet roots of herbs pleasant: there cares and dangers make no food, no drink not bitter. The life which God gave me among you, I have spent happily: in the kingdom, whatever of it has passed, was death rather than life." Thus Aeneas Silvius, History of Bohemia, cap. XIII. So too the Emperor Charles V used to say that, having resigned the empire, he had perceived more pleasure in his monastic solitude in one day than from all his victories and triumphs, by which he was especially blessed. Hear St. Jerome in the desert: "Whenever," he says, "I beheld the hollow of valleys, the roughness of mountains, the precipitous cliffs, there was the place of my prayer: and, as the Lord himself is my witness, after many tears, after eyes clinging to heaven, I sometimes seemed to myself to be present among the bands of angels, and joyful and rejoicing I sang: After thee in the odor of thy ointments we will run. Thus he himself to Eustochium, On Virginity. Whoever therefore desires to enjoy God and angels, let him say in his cell: "I have fled far away, and remained in the wilderness;" there he will hear God speaking to him: "I will lead him into the wilderness, and will speak to his heart." Rightly therefore St. Jerome to Rusticus the monk: "As long as," he says, "you are in your native land, have a little cell for a paradise, pluck various fruits of Scripture, use these delights." And St. Bernard: "The cell," he says, "is an earthly heaven." Finally St. Jerome to Heliodorus: "O desert, blooming with the flowers of Christ! o solitude in which stones are born, from which in the Apocalypse the city of the great King is built! o wilderness rejoicing more familiarly in God!" HE CAME TO THE MOUNT OF GOD HOREB. — It is called here "the mount of God" by prolepsis: for not then, but afterwards was this mount called "the mount of God" from the glory of God revealed there (as the Chaldean renders it), and the law given there in Exodus XIX. HOREB. — This is Mount Sinai: which is called Horeb from dryness or solitude. It is also called Sinai from the abundance of bushes; for seneh in Hebrew signifies a bush. However, Adrichomius and others note that Horeb properly is a part, or an eminent ridge of Mount Sinai. Note: Eight miracles were wrought in Sinai. First, God appeared here to Moses in the bush. Second, Moses striking the rock there gave water from it to the people, as is evident from chapter XVII, verse 6. Third, Moses praying there and lifting up his hands obtained that Joshua should conquer Amalech, chapter XVII, verse 10. Fourth, the law was given there by God, Exodus XIX. Fifth, Moses lived there for forty days without food conversing with God, and received the tablets of the law. Sixth, the Hebrews there adored the golden calf; and therefore Moses broke the tablets of the law, and slew many of the people. Seventh, Elias there saw God in the whistling of a gentle breeze, III Kings chapter XIX. Eighth, on this mountain the body of Blessed Catherine was buried by angels. Finally, on Sinai was erected that noble monastery, or convent, in which religious men exercised themselves wonderfully in all the labors of penance, prayer and all virtues, over which Blessed John Climacus presided, who there as another Moses, receiving by prayer and meditation from God the tablets of divine law, namely the institutions of monastic life and religious perfection, left them to posterity in writing in that distinguished book which is called the Climax, or Ladder of Paradise.
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2. AND THE LORD APPEARED TO HIM. — This appearance was made to Moses when he had dwelt in Midian for 40 years, in the eightieth year of his life, as is evident from Acts, chapter VII, verse 30. For immediately after this vision he was sent by God into Egypt to Pharaoh for the liberation of the Hebrews: but this happened in the eightieth year of Moses, as is evident from Exodus VII, 7. St. Gregory gives a remarkable mystical reason for this matter, in book XXIII of the Morals, chapter XX, or according to another edition, XII, namely that God wished to withdraw Moses for 40 years from the tumults of restless earthly desires, and as it were to put him to sleep; so that thus he might deserve to perceive the inner voice of God. "Whence also holy men (he says), who are compelled by necessity of office to serve in external ministries, always studiously flee to the secrets of the heart." THE LORD. — In Hebrew, "the angel of the Lord"; so also the Septuagint and the Chaldean. You will ask, who was this? Theodoret thinks it was the Son of God: for this angel, in verse 14, calls himself God; he was therefore both an angel and God; he was therefore the Son of God: for he alone is an angel, that is a messenger and legate sent by the Father; whence in Isaiah IX, he is called "the angel of great counsel." But I say this was a true angel: it is proved, first, because he is simply called an angel here; second, because in Acts VII, 30, St. Stephen expressly asserts that he was an angel; third, because it is the common opinion of theologians with St. Dionysius, chapter IV of the Celestial Hierarchy, that all God's appearances in the Old Testament were made through angels; whence also that most celebrated appearance in Exodus chapter XIX, by which the law was given, was made through angels, as is evident from Galatians III, 19. You will say: How then does this angel call himself God? I answer: Because although he was an angel in service, yet in inspiration, representation and authority he was God; for he sustained and represented the person of God by whom he was sent, and who inspired him with what he said, and spoke through him. Moreover, this angel bore the person and role of the second person of the Holy Trinity: for what he says in verse 8, "I have come down to deliver him," namely the Hebrew people, signified allegorically the Son of God who would one day come down to us, and take on our flesh, that he might free us from sins: just as also that angel, who went before the Hebrews in the way in the desert into Chanaan, bore the person of Christ, who leads us from the earth into heaven. Hence also many Fathers hold that in all the appearances of the Old Testament the Son was represented, not the Father, not the Holy Spirit. Thus St. Justin, Against Trypho; Tertullian, book II Against Marcion; Hilary, book IV On the Trinity; Ambrose, book I On Faith; Chrysostom, in chapter VII of Acts. That this angel was St. Michael is probable: for Michael was formerly the guardian of the Synagogue, as also of the Church; but this Angel appeared to Moses, not as a private person, but as the future leader of the people, and prince of the Synagogue, and instructed him as such, and sent him to Pharaoh: whence the same appeared to Joshua leading the people into the promised land; for when asked who he was, Joshua V, 14, he answered: "I am the prince of the army of the Lord," who is none other than Michael. Michael therefore from the midst of the bush with a brighter flame revealed himself to the eyes, voice, and ears of Moses: for the following passages sufficiently indicate that Moses did not see any certain form of the angel, for example a human one. Moses gives the reason in Deuteronomy IV, lest the Hebrews, being inclined to idols, might fashion an idol of him for themselves. He appeared therefore in fire and bush only, because neither of them, nor from them could a statue or idol be formed, says Anastasius in Questions on Holy Scripture, question XX. Wherefore the true phantom which Philo here invents does not appear, when he says: "From the midst of the bush there shone forth a certain form most beautiful, like nothing visible, truly a divine image, shining with the brightest light, so that Moses might suspect it to be the image of God; let us call it an angel." God therefore exhibited to Moses here no other appearance of himself, except fire; and in that alone, either as it were his throne, or rather as a symbol and hieroglyphic, by which he might be represented and shadowed forth, he appeared. IN A FLAME OF FIRE OUT OF THE MIDST OF THE BUSH. This was not a species or likeness of fire, but true fire; otherwise Moses would have been deceived, thinking it to be true fire. And what, pray, would have been the miracle, if a simulated or disguised fire had not burned the bush? rather it would have been a miracle if it had burned it. Note: This fire was produced by God, or rather by an angel from the air or some other matter near the bush; and it adhered to that matter subjectively, but not to the bush: for if the fire had been subjectively in the bush, the bush would have been converted into fire, and consequently corrupted and consumed. The angel, therefore, who was here God's minister in the usual manner, produced this fire by naturally applying active things to passive things, or brought it from elsewhere; and he nourished and cherished it with sulphur applied to it, or some other matter and fuel; and at the same time prevented it from acting upon the bush, by inducing upon the bush some liquid, or a certain viscous and very cold juice, which would resist the fire or rather the thin flame: by which reasoning some wandering performers are thought to naturally immerse their hands in liquefied lead, because they have beforehand imbued their hands with such a liquid as resists the heat of liquefied lead; or the angel did this in another way and by a natural cause. Yet it can more easily be said that God here suspended the action of the fire, as I shall presently explain. AND HE SAW THAT THE BUSH BURNED, AND WAS NOT CONSUMED. Properly speaking, the bush did not burn, but whoever had seen it would have said it burned: for to burn is to scatter flame from itself; but the bush did not scatter flame, since this is the property of fire alone, which had not penetrated the bush so as to make it ignited: but it was only contiguous to the bush, so closely surrounding its branches and leaves, that it seemed to vomit forth flames when ignited. For Holy Scripture often speaks, especially in phenomena and apparent things, of them not as they are in themselves on the part of the thing, but as they appear, or as men commonly judge and speak of them. Thus therefore here the bush is said to burn, because to men ignorant of the secret cause and reason of the thing, it appeared to burn, and all who saw it would have said it burned. Add that it can be a synecdoche; for the bush is said to have burned, because a part of the bush, namely the dry leaves of the bush and the air mixed with the bush, burned. For the bush, just as a forest is called the whole complex, namely the whole aggregate of thorns, shrubs and trees, together with the air and all other matter which is inserted and mixed with it. Now in this aggregate, even if one part, namely the green branches and leaves, did not burn, yet another part, namely the air mixed here and there, stubble, stems and dry leaves, burned. GOD WAS SUSPENDING THE CONCURRENCE. This appears to have been an illustrious miracle of God: for God here preserved the substance of the fire, but prevented its action and burning (namely by withdrawing his concurrence and influx), lest it should act upon the bush, or even slightly scorch or dry its green leaves. For God, unwilling to concur with the fire so that it might burn, not even the whole bush or tow would have been burned; for it is certain that axiom of theologians: no created thing can operate without the actual concurrence of God with another thing. In a similar manner God preserved the three boys unharmed in the Babylonian furnace, and this is what, says St. Basil in Psalm XXVIII, the Psalmist says: "The voice of the Lord dividing the flame of fire," when to the pious, namely the three boys already mentioned, he gave it the power of shining, not of burning; but to the impious and the damned, he gave it the power of burning, not of shining: for the fire of hell does not illuminate the damned, but burns them, says St. Basil. Hence Philo rightly says: This bush in itself combustible, was not burned by the flame, but rather seemed to burn and consume the flame itself; but the flame which is accustomed to burn the bush, here did not burn, but rather seemed to be burned and consumed by the bush. You ask, what does this fire signify literally, and the bush burning and unconsumed? I answer: This fire signified to the Egyptians God burning the bush, that is the Jews, afflicting and tormenting them, but not consuming them: rather making them more splendid and stronger: for the bush is a weak and thorny shrub, and wounding by mere contact; but this one remained unharmed by the fire, and was superior to it: which thing signifies the present infirmity of the Hebrews to be converted into great strength, and that they themselves through grave and many plagues, as it were through the thorns of the bush, would prick and greatly wound the Egyptians, by whom they were then vexed (says Philo and Theodoretus). The bush therefore here tacitly, says Philo, cried out both to the afflicted Hebrews and to the Egyptians afflicting them: "Do not succumb, O Hebrews! this infirmity of yours is a power that will prick and scourge the Egyptians: those who desire to destroy you will unwillingly preserve you; you will escape so many evils unharmed, and when you shall be seen to be most devastated, then your glory will shine most brightly. You also cruel ones, and like devouring fire, oppressors of the innocent (Egyptians), do not trust too much in your strength; consider that the most invincible riches, which you think you have, will someday be destroyed; behold a flame burning by its own nature, as wood is burned; but wood capable of being burned, burns in the manner of fire." You ask secondly, what does this burning and unconsumed bush signify allegorically? I answer: The fire in the bush is God in flesh, or the Word made flesh. For the bush thorny, rough, humble and vile signifies the humanity of Christ, which He Himself willingly subjected to many hardships and labors, poor, humble and despicable for the sake of our salvation; now just as fire the bush, so divinity the humanity, and its mortality and infirmity did not consume. "Through the burning bush," says St. Gregory, book XXVIII of the Morals, chapter II: "God speaking to Moses, what else did He show, except that from that people would come forth one who in the fire of divinity would take upon himself the sorrows of our flesh, as the thorns of the bush; and would preserve the unconsumed substance of our humanity even in the very flame of divinity?" Hence also Cyril against Eutyches proves that the two natures in Christ remained whole, unharmed and unconfused, just as in this bush both the bush and the fire remained whole. Again the fire in the bush, whatever Calvin may contend, is God conceived in the Blessed Virgin and born with her virginity unharmed. Thus Theodoretus, Rupertus, St. Bernard, sermon On the Blessed Mary, in that passage of the Apocalypse XII: "A great sign appeared," and Gregory of Nyssa, oration On the Nativity of Christ: "As a bush," he says, "kindles fire, and is not burned: likewise also the Virgin bears light, and is not corrupted." Hence the whole Church sings: "The bush which Moses saw unconsumed, we have recognized as the sign of your praiseworthy virginity preserved, holy Mother of God." Where note that virginity is aptly compared to a bush, because it must be preserved through humility and the harshness of life: for in delights, as much as in pride, chastity is in danger. Furthermore St. Jerome, sermon On the Assumption: "The Blessed Virgin," he says, "is the whitest wool, to which when the Holy Spirit had come, as wool dyed with purple turns into purple, so she too was turned into the Mother of God, so that there is nothing which she was before." She burned therefore kindled as it were by divine purple, and surrounded by glowing rays, became a burning unconsumed bush. And St. Leo, sermon I On the Nativity: "Deservedly," he says, "the birth of salvation brought nothing of corruption to virginal integrity; because it was the preservation of modesty, the bringing forth of truth." Wherefore that Abbot who converted Porphyria the harlot, and incurred suspicion of crime committed with her, dying purged himself by her, bearing an unharmed garment through fire, and saying: "Believe, brothers, that just as God preserved the bush unconsumed from fire, just as these coals did not burn this tunic of mine, so neither did I know the sin of the woman, from the time I was born." Thus it is found in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver. So also St. Cunegundis proved her chastity before her husband Henry the Emperor, walking unharmed with bare feet upon glowing iron. Moreover the Word of God in the bush is the Word of God on the cross, where also among thorns. Hear Clement of Alexandria, book II of the Pedagogue, chapter VIII: "So that what was first seen through the bush, the Word might show again through the thorn assumed, that all things are of one power, since there is one Son of the Father, the beginning and end of ages." Note secondly, that fire aptly signifies divinity, and therefore God appeared frequently in the Old Testament in the form of fire: and this for several reasons. First, because fire is the most subtle element; but God is the purest spirit. Second, because fire is most luminous; but God is immense light, illuminating the Blessed, delighting the affection, and directing all the acts of the Saints. Third, because fire is most hot; but God by His heat vivifies, purifies, animates all things, and indeed when He wills, He grows angry, punishes, burns and devastates with the zeal of His wrath. Fourth, because fire is most light; but God dwells in the highest places. Fifth, because fire is unmixed and most simple; such is God also. See St. Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy, chapter XV, and St. Thomas on Isaiah, chapter X. Hence the Persians worshipped fire as God, and the Chaldaeans adored Ur, that is, fire: the Romans also worshipped sacred fire, as it were Vesta. I shall say more about this symbol of fire in Leviticus IX, at the end. You will ask thirdly, what does this fire in the bush signify tropologically? I answer: Fire in the bush is tribulation in a holy, humble and mortified man; for such tribulation does not burn him, does not harm him, but illuminates and strengthens him. Note here: The bush, because it is a vile and rough shrub, aptly signifies a humble and mortified man, in whom fire, that is God, dwells and manifests Himself and His mysteries; just as the bush hedges the vineyard, so humility and mortification hedge the virtues; and just as no one dares to touch the bush, so the devil truly fears and flees the humble and mortified man, as Pererius says. To this pertains what Philo writes in the Life of Moses, namely, that by God's power the bush was made incorruptible in the midst of fire, indeed as if the flame were watered by a spring flowing from above, it appeared more verdant. For this, says St. Chrysostom, is the power of God's omnipotence, that it works contraries through contraries, namely heat through water, cold through fire. Thus to God, when He Himself wills, a raging flame becomes like a torrent, and water has the effect of fire in cooling. So also the Nyssenus: "When," he says, "a light more excellent than solar light shone forth around the eyes in the middle of the day, he saw a bush burning, whose branches nevertheless remained green as if by continuous irrigation." Thus virtue, agitated by adversities, remains green, thrives and shines. Again, this bush signifies a perfect man, in whom fire, that is charity, and the bush, that is humility and austerity of life, are joined. For the perfect man, like fire, not only embraces and receives harsh and difficult things, but also seeks and pursues them. Seneca writes of himself, epistle 65: "In whatever state of mind I am, when I read Sextius, I am pleased to provoke all circumstances, I am pleased to cry out: Why do you delay, Fortune? Come on, I am ready: I put on the mind of him who seeks where he may test himself, where he may show his virtue: And he wishes that foaming boar be given among sluggish cattle, or that a tawny lion descend from the mountain. I wish to have something which I may overcome, by whose endurance I may be exercised." What shall the Christian say here? What shall the Religious say? Let him say indeed: When I behold Christ on the cross, and read: "Do you see how love is carved in His whole body?" I am pleased to cry out with Paul: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ?" Let tribulation come, let anguish come, let hunger, nakedness, contempt come—I am certain that neither death, nor life, etc., shall be able to separate me, etc. Let him say with St. Ignatius: "Let fire, cross, beasts, breaking of bones and all the torments of the devil come upon me, so long as I may enjoy Christ." Anagogically, fire in the bush is the light of glory itself and beatitude and glory in the human soul and flesh. Thus St. Ambrose on Psalm XLIII: "Therefore," he says, "the bush burned and was not consumed, because He was preparing to burn this earth which germinates for us the thorns of sins through the discipline of continence. He revealed therefore in this a certain future indication of bodily splendor, by which through resurrection our flesh would shine forth. For what does harmless fire signify, except the lights of those rising again?" You will ask, fourth, what does fire in the bush signify symbolically? I answer first: Fire in the bush is concupiscence remaining in the just; for by this fire, as it were by great temptation and tribulation (for this fire signifies this here), the just man is surrounded; yet he is not burned by it, because the tinder of sin remains in him, but sin does not reign in him. Secondly, the fire in the bush signifies what Moses ought to be, that is, a ruler of the people: namely, that he ought to be fire, through wisdom, by which he may know how to teach and govern the people; and through charity and compassion, by which he may know how to succor the people's necessities, tolerate their vices, and sympathize with their infirmities. Again, a ruler ought to be a bush, that is, to have wisdom and charity joined together with the thorns of justice and severity for punishing and chastising those who err, especially the disobedient and rebellious. Thirdly, the fire in the bush is a symbol of consummate wisdom, which consists in the knowledge of God (for He is this fire) and of ourselves (for men are the bush); whence St. Francis prayed: "Who art Thou, O Lord, who am I? Let me know Thee, let me know myself; Thou art an abyss of wisdom, goodness, power, virtue, all good, and of all being; I am an abyss of ignorance, malice, infirmity, vices and nothingness: the abyss therefore of my misery calls upon the abyss of Thy mercy, in the voice of Thy cataracts."
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4. AND HE SAID. — The Angel formed this voice in the air, with a certain reason and modulation, striking it in such a way that it plainly produced a true vital and human utterance. MOSES, MOSES. — God shows here that He cares for His own in such a way that He knows them by name, calls them and directs them: and by this repetition of the name, He strikes the ears and mind of Moses more sharply, and stirs him to attention. HERE I AM, — I am present to obey; give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.
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5. LOOSE THY SHOES FROM OFF THY FEET. — You will ask, why did God command this to Moses? Diodorus says, so that Moses by treading this land with bare feet might sanctify it by his holiness; but this is opposed by what follows: "For the place whereon thou standest is holy ground"; therefore this land was not to be sanctified by Moses; but being already holy, it would rather sanctify Moses. Secondly, others explain it thus: loose thy shoes, so that by this symbol thou mayest yield to thy sheep and cattle, and transfer them together with thee to God, so that henceforth thou mayest wholly pass into God's right and obedience; for of old when anyone yielded his right and transferred it to a near brother or kinsman, he would loose his shoes, as appears in Ruth IV, 7. Thus Lipomanus. But this rite and ceremony began after these times, and after the law was given. I say therefore according to the letter: Moses here, since he wished to approach boldly, curiously and with little reverence to investigate this mystery of fire in the bush in the manner of nature, was prohibited by the angel and commanded to loose his shoes, so that he might show reverence to the divine majesty, which was exhibiting its presence in this place, and so that with great submission of mind and veneration he might approach to receive God's oracle from thence. Thus Eusebius, Hugh of St. Victor, Rupert, Cajetan. For this same reason Joshua also in cap. V, vers. 15, was commanded to loose his shoes. This rite descended from slaves; for these went about with bare feet, as if they were subject to masters and revered and feared them; hence to bare the feet was a sign of servitude and reverence. The opposite of this, namely lordly power and dominion, was signified by the shoe. Hence it is said in Ps. LIX, 10: "Upon Edom will I stretch out my shoe; to me the foreigners are made subject." Hence also John the Baptist, to declare the excellence and majesty of Christ, introduces him shod, but himself as it were a servant, who going with bare feet scarcely dares to loose the latchet of his shoes. See here how much reverence we ought to show to temples and places dedicated to God, see also how much God approves, nay demands, external ceremonies. Hence the priests of Aaron in the tabernacle performed their duties with bare feet, as I shall say in cap. XXX, vers. 19. That the Greek Gentiles, priests of idols, did the same, Procopius testifies here. Similarly out of reverence, the priests of Dagon did not tread the threshold of the temple of Dagon, as is said in I Reg. cap. V, vers. 5. Moreover it was a dogma of Pythagoras: "Sacrifice with bare feet," which both others and the Lacedaemonians adopted. Josephus also writes in lib. II of the War, cap. XV, that Berenice, sister of King Agrippa, when she had gone to Jerusalem for the sake of a vow, did the same thing and stood barefoot before the tribunal of Florus the prefect. Hence also that saying of the divine Leo, in his sermon On Fasting: "Let them (the Jews) have their bare feet, and show their face in sadness with idle fastings." Even now the Moors and Saracens do not enter temples in which they are about to perform sacred rites except with shoes removed. Therefore I think Pythagoras warned by this sentiment, so that during sacrifice, leaving behind worldly cares and purified from the stains of sins, they might give themselves to divine matters. For we also say mystically that to wash feet is to purify the mind, concerning which our Theologians also expound the Lord's commandment about the washing of feet; and at the same time that about shaking off the dust from the feet. Euthymius also interprets feet as thoughts in Psalm LXXII. By feet (he says) thoughts are understood, as it were those which rule and sustain our soul's religion, like feet. Symbolically, shoes are made from the hides of dead animals: by the laying aside of shoes therefore God signified to Moses that, laying aside the fear of death, he should boldly undertake the duty of freeing the Hebrew people, which God then wished to impose upon him; and that he should learn to put off body and life as easily as a shoe, for the love and reverence of God, and for the hope of eternal life: for the body is to be used for obedience to God only, not for one's own will or pleasure. Thus St. Ambrose, lib. VII in Luke, cap. X. Some add that Moses was commanded to unshoe himself, so that he might be like the Hebrews, who as servants went about barefoot in Egypt, treading mud and straw, as if to say: Assimilate thyself in appearance to thy people, whose leader I destine thee to be, bear their reproach, nay the reproach of Christ, Hebr. XI, 26. Tropologically, the putting off of shoes signified first that the future leader and teacher of God's people must cast away entirely all earthly affections, thoughts, inclinations and cares, and those adhering to mortal life: for God wills nothing mortal to be in them, says St. Ambrose. For this reason angels are depicted with bare feet, and unshod: "For this signifies that they are free, absolved and unencumbered, and pure from the stain of all external abjection, and strive according to their strength toward the likeness of divine simplicity," says St. Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy cap. XV. Wherefore Nyssenus relates that Moses, after he had put off his shoes, never put them on again. "After," he says, "he once loosed his feet from the covering of dead skins by divine command, at which time he walked on holy ground, he is said never thereafter to have bound his feet with shoes." Secondly, he who approaches divine mysteries and the contemplation of God must put off shoes, that is, passions and affections, together with human and earthly reasonings; hence also Christ before the Eucharist washed the feet of his disciples, so that by this deed he might signify that those about to communicate must be purified in their affections of mind, and must cast away worldly desires and cares. Finally Nyssenus: "Moses," he says, "approaching God, loosed his shoes in the bush, so that he might learn that none of those things which are either comprehended by sense, or by mind apart from the supreme essence, which is the cause of all things, and from which all things depend, truly subsist."
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6. I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB,—that is to say, I am the God whom Abraham, Isaac and Jacob once worshipped, and now also worship; to whom therefore, desiring the salvation of their posterity and praying assiduously for it in limbo, I shall now fulfill the faith which I once gave concerning your liberation. From this place Christ, Matt. XXII, 33, against the Sadducees proves the immortality of the soul, and consequently the resurrection of the dead; for these are connected both according to the opinion of the Sadducees, whom Christ there impugns, and naturally in the nature of the thing itself. For the Sadducees, like many others, denied the resurrection from this chapter, because they denied the immortality of the soul, as is evident from Josephus, lib. II De Bello, VII, and Acts XXIII, 8. Hence Christ says to them: "God is not the God of the dead," whom namely the dead worship, or of whom the dead boast; "but of the living;" therefore these three patriarchs still live with God, who preserves their souls alive, and will shortly clothe them in a revived body. You will ask, why does God here, and hereafter often, call himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, rather than of Abel, Noah and others? I answer first, because these three were the nearest parents and founders of the Hebrew people, of whom Moses was to be the leader, and to whom the whole Old Testament refers. Secondly, because Abraham was the father of believers, and of the faithful people, with whom God made a covenant, in which Isaac and Jacob succeeded Abraham. Thirdly, because to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was promised Chanaan, into which God wished to lead the Hebrews through Moses. Fourthly, because God had been familiar and wonderfully beneficent to these three, and had promised to do good to their posterity. Fifthly, because in these three virtues shone forth eminently: in Abraham faith and obedience, in Isaac purity of mind and innocence, in Jacob patience and constancy in labors and hardships; whence Moses narrates almost only the deeds of these three in Genesis. Hence also the Hebrews in affliction were accustomed to invoke God, and to ask pardon and grace for themselves through the merits of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as is evident from Daniel III, 25. Therefore God sets before their posterity the names of these three, and their virtues as well, as most pleasing and delightful to himself, so that they themselves might imitate them: for a domestic example of virtue has a wonderful power to incite the minds of others to the same: Plutarch relates of Themistocles, that when he was a youth he abstained from symposia and harlots; but as soon as he heard of Miltiades' victory at Marathon, leaving these things, he began to think of other matters entirely. When those wondering at the change asked him, he said: "The trophy of Miltiades does not allow me to sleep, or to be idle." Hence Christ to the Jews boasting: "We are the children of Abraham: If," he says, "you were the children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham." You will ask secondly, why does God here repeat the word "God" three times, namely to each one: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob. The promised land is described as abounding in fruits of every kind, in excellent and choice produce, fruits and delights. Thus Virgil, eclogue 3: Honey shall flow for them, and the rough bramble bear amomum. And eclogue 4: And the hard oaks shall sweat dewy honey. And Ovid, I Metamorph.: Rivers of milk now flowed, now rivers of nectar went, And golden honey dripped from the green oak. This fertility of the promised land was partly from the gift of God, and his beneficence toward the Hebrews, as is evident from Deut. XI, 13; Levit. XXV, 20 and 21; Levit. XXVI, 3; partly it was natural to it, as is evident from Deut. VIII, 7, and this is shown at length here by Pererius from Hecataeus, Josephus and Borchardt, disp. 41.
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Let us perish here for God, lest we perish in the underworld: let affliction destroy us here, lest gehenna destroy us. 10. BUT COME, AND I WILL SEND THEE TO PHARAO. God here invites Moses, struck with reverence and fear by the appearance of the divine nature in the bush, to a more familiar and intimate communion with himself. Thus indeed the humility of him who veiled his face before God merited to be exalted, so that thereafter he would speak with God mouth to mouth, and openly converse with God.
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11. AND MOSES SAID TO GOD: WHO AM I? — that is to say, I am nothing, and plainly unfit for this embassy: it is a confession of his own weakness, modest and humble. Moses knew that he had long ago been chosen by God for this office, as I showed in chapter II, verse 12. Therefore he does not here refuse the vocation of God, but humbly confesses to God his own weakness, or rather his unfitness to obey and satisfy him, so that he might either choose another, or grant him strength and aptitude. Morally learn from this, that the office of ruling and feeding others is to be undertaken hesitantly and with fear, and only when God calls; it is certainly not to be sought after; on which see St. Gregory, Part I of the Pastoral Care.
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12. AND THIS SHALT THOU HAVE FOR A SIGN THAT I HAVE SENT THEE: WHEN THOU SHALT HAVE BROUGHT FORTH MY PEOPLE OUT OF EGYPT, YOU SHALL OFFER SACRIFICE TO GOD UPON THIS MOUNTAIN. Upon Sinai. Hugo of St. Victor explains it thus, as if he said: That which I said, namely that I shall be with thee in the liberation of Israel, have this for a sign, namely that I have destined thee for this, sent thee, and am still sending thee. Secondly, Abulensis also interprets this differently, and understands the sign to be the burning bush, of which verse 2. But our text requires that this sign be referred not to what precedes, but to what follows. The sense therefore is, as if he said: Receive, O Moses, a sign of thy mission, my promise and assurance, that thou, with the people whom thou shalt lead out of Egypt by my guidance, shalt sacrifice to me on this mountain Sinai in thanksgiving for so happy an outcome and liberation from Egypt; and on this mountain I shall then appear to you again: for it can be referred both to God existing on the mountain and about to show himself there, and to the sacrifice: God therefore here, by a new and more express promise, establishes Moses' mission, and as it were seals it with a more certain seal, and confirms and encourages Moses: for it is more to promise than to send; again it is more to promise and send than merely to send. This sign therefore was present as to the promise, but as to the execution it depended on the future event, which God most certainly predicts and promises will come to pass. A similar sign is given to Hezekiah in IV Kings XIX, 29, and to David in I Kings XXI, 13. THOU SHALT OFFER SACRIFICE, namely thou as leader in place of the whole people; whence some read, you shall offer sacrifice. In Hebrew it is, you shall serve, namely with the worship of latria, whose sole external act is to offer sacrifice, or to sacrifice: that this indeed happened in reality is evident from chapter XXIV, verse 3.
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13. IF THEY SAY TO ME: WHAT IS HIS NAME? WHAT SHALL I SAY TO THEM? — God had already satisfied Moses by the sign of the sacrifice given a little before; now Moses labors how he might satisfy the people, and asks the name of him who sends him, which he might put before his words, and by which God especially wishes to be called among the Israelites, so that they might believe him. Note: God has no need of a proper name, both because he is one, and because he is ineffable. Whence Attalus the Martyr, when asked by a tyrant in contempt what name God had, answered: "Those who are many are distinguished by names; but he who is one has no need of a name." Thus Eusebius, book VI of the History, chapter III. But Evagrius the Bishop, when a question about divinity arose, said: "I indeed assert that divinity is not to be defined, and therefore is to be adored only by the prayer of silence, because it is ineffable." Thus Socrates. See therefore here the condescension of God, who lowers himself to our name, as also to conversation.
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14. I AM WHO I AM. — Hugo of St. Victor understood that God here does not declare, but rather with a certain majesty keeps silent about His name, as if some grave person asked about his name should answer: I am who I am, as if to say: I am called as I am called. But this is improbable. For shortly after He commands Moses that this name, "Who is," as God's own name and title for His mission, he should set before them: see verse 15. In Hebrew it is, eie ascer eie, "I will be who I will be," which R. Solomon and Burgensis thus explain, "I will be," supply with you in this tribulation, you being freed from it, "who I will be," supply henceforth always with you in all your affliction; but this is more narrow and colder. I say therefore, "I will be who I will be," that is, I am who I am. Whence also the Septuagint translates, "I am that being"; which St. Justin in the Exhortation to the Gentiles thinks is said to distinguish from idols, as if to say: Idolaters worship idols, that is gods who are not; but I am that being, that is truly existing God, whom you, O Hebrews, worship. But this too is more narrow. Whence I say secondly, the sense is: "I am who I am," as if to say: I God have no proper name distinguishing me from others, but what is most general, being, is proper to me. First, because I am the sum total of all being, and what in others is distinguished in certain degrees, from me as from a universal source flows forth. Therefore "I am who I am" signifies an immense and boundless ocean of essence, says the Nyssene and St. Bernard, book V On Consideration to Eugenius: "God," he says, "is what He is, that is, He is His own being and the being of all other things; He is to Himself, He is to all, and through this in a certain way He alone is." And with some things interjected he teaches that being comprehends all God's and things' attributes. "If you say good," he says, "if great, if wise, in this word is restored, Who is: namely this is to Him to be, which all these are to be. If you say more, you have added nothing; if you do not say it, you have not diminished it." This is what Pindar says in the Pythians, hymn 2: "God is, who contains the beginning, middle and end of all things." And Plato: "God is, who comprehends the universe of all things." Secondly, "I am who I am," that is I am immutable, constant and stable. For that which changes, properly is not so much as ceases to be what it was, and begins to be what it was not. Thus St. Gregory, homily 2 on Ezekiel. Thirdly, "I am who I am," that is I am eternal, I am who I am in the present, lacking past and future; hence in Hebrew it is, "I will be who I will be": for the Hebrews use the future for the present, where custom, continuity, or duration and constancy of a thing is signified. And so "I will be who I will be" to the Hebrews is the same as to the Latins "I am who I am"; for, as the Nazianzene says, "was and will be are segments of our time and its flowing nature; but God always is." Whence "I am who I am" signifies the eternity of God, and is opposed to the flux of time, which is extended and distinguished through future, present and past; for it is proper to eternity always to be immutably. Hence St. Justin above: "τὸ ὤν" comprehends three tenses. Wherefore Plato also says: "God, who, as the ancient saying goes, has the beginning, the end, and the middle of all things." St. John expressed the force of this name, Apocalypse I, 8, when he says: "From him who is, and who was, and who is to come." Thus Thales of Miletus, when asked "what was most ancient?" answered: "God, for he lacks origin; what is greatest? space; what is most beautiful? the world; what is wisest? time: for it discovers some things and will discover the rest; what is most common? hope: for those who lack all else have hope; what is most useful? virtue; what is most harmful? vice of the soul; what is most powerful? necessity: for it alone is unconquerable; what is easiest? that which is consonant with nature." Thus Plutarch relates it in the Banquet of the Seven Sages. The same Thales, according to Laertius in his Life, when asked what God was, answered: "That which lacks beginning and end." For this reason among the Egyptians the hieroglyph of God was a circle, because it has neither beginning nor end, as Pierius says, hieroglyph. 39. "God," says St. Dionysius, cap. V On Divine Names, "is the aeon of aeons, and king of ages, because he himself is being to those who exist, and is himself the being of those who exist, and existing before the ages." Of us it is said: "My days have declined like a shadow, we all flow away like waters." But of God truly: "But thou art always the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail: but thou, O Lord, remainest for ever, and thy memorial unto generation and generation," Psalm CI. To which place St. Augustine, conc. 2: "Eternity," he says, "is God's substance, which has nothing mutable; there nothing is past, as if it were not; nothing is future, as if it were not yet: because there is not there, except what is." God is he of whom it is said: "Thou who lightest wonderfully from the eternal mountains." This is that Ancient of Days, whose hair, says Daniel, was white as clean wool on account of age. "Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him." St. Thomas, I part, Question X, and the Theologians there distinguish these three things: eternity, aevum and time, in this manner. First, that time is the measure of the duration of men and of corruptible things; aevum is the measure of the duration of angels; but eternity is the duration proper to God. Second, that time has a beginning and an end; aevum has a beginning, but not an end; and eternity has neither beginning nor end. Third, that time is the measure of those things which are actually corrupted and perish; aevum is the measure of incorruptible things, which nevertheless can absolutely cease and perish; but eternity is God's, who cannot cease, vary or change. Fourth, that time has succession; eternity has permanence; aevum has partly succession, partly permanence. For although an angel is naturally always stable in his aevum and like to himself, nevertheless he continually depends on God, and is sustained by the continuous influx of God, whom God can withdraw at each moment: and if he were to withdraw it, the angel would as much as any other creature immediately vanish, and relapse into nothingness, from which it came. God therefore is the possessor and Lord of eternity, times and all aevums; and he makes both angels and holy men partakers of this blessed eternity of his. He therefore is to be worshipped, loved and feared by us. Thus St. Fructuosus the Martyr, when compelled by the Emperor Gallienus to worship idols, under penalty of death otherwise, answered: "I will not sacrifice to the gods of Gallienus, but I worship and venerate the eternal God, and the creator of Gallienus himself." To which Prudentius alludes thus singing: It was commanded by the mouth of Caesar Gallienus, that what the prince worships, we all should worship. I worship the chosen prince of days, the Maker, and the Lord of Gallienus. Fourth, St. Jerome in cap. III to the Ephesians: "I am who I am," that is, I alone am, because I alone have being from myself; I alone am, who am not produced or begotten by anyone; but all other things from themselves and by their nature are not, but have being from my will, as much, in what manner, and for as long as I will. Fifth, "I am who I am," because whatever is in me is not an accident, but is my being, or the same as my essence; for my goodness, wisdom, power, are the same as my essence. Whence St. Bernard, lib. V to Eugenius: "God," he says, "loves as charity, knows as truth, sits as equity, rules as majesty, governs as principle, protects as salvation, works as virtue, reveals as light, assists as piety: all which things both angels do, and we do; but in a far inferior manner, not certainly by the good that we are, but by what we participate; but God by this very fact that he is, for he says: I am who I am." Sixth, "I am who I am," that is, I am the most pure and simple act; for if I were composite, I would be posterior to the parts composing me, and I would have my being from them, but now I have my being from myself alone. Seventh, "I am who I am," that is, I have being that is most universal, unlimited and infinite; for since I have being from myself, my being could not be determined for me: hence I am subsisting being itself, incomprehensible, unnameable and infinite. Eighth, "I am who I am," that is, I am the cause of all being which created things participate; for that which is such from itself and through itself is the cause of those things which are such through participation; from that uncreated and immense being of God, therefore, it follows that all things are possible. This is what Boethius sings, book III of the Consolation of Philosophy, meter 6: O thou who dost govern the world by eternal reason, Creator of earth and sky, who commandest time to flow from eternity, remaining stable thou givest all things to move; whom external causes have not compelled to fashion the work of flowing matter, but rather the form inherent in the highest good, free from envy. And Horace, book I of the Odes: Thou who rulest the affairs of men and gods, Who rulest the sea and lands and the world with its varying seasons. Ninth, "I am who I am," that is, I am one, who have being from myself. Rightly therefore Job said in chapter XXIII: "He alone is;" for if there were any other having similar being independent and infinite, that one would be another God, having another nature, another being independent and immense, and consequently our true and one God would not have the nature or being of that other God; and therefore would not have all being, and consequently would not be God. Hence St. Dionysius in chapter V of the Divine Names teaches that God is called being, or rather being than anything else. First, because being comes first to any thing, and is the last to leave it; second, because being is most intimate to any thing; third, it is most independent; fourth, it is most necessary; fifth, it is most universal; sixth, it is most simple; seventh, it is in a certain way infinite; eighth, other things are a participation of being and existence, but being is the participation of nothing; ninth, it is most perfect, because it eminently and by virtue contains other perfections. From which you may rightly conclude that the proper name of God is: "I am who I am." For it signifies the very essence of God, namely the immense ocean of being, from which in our manner of conceiving (for in itself, namely in God's very essence, all things are one most simple thing) all God's attributes flow forth and proceed in their order, just as from the essence of an angel, a man, a horse, all its gifts and properties emanate in their order. Therefore, because God is being itself, or the fullness of being, it necessarily follows that He is one, most perfect, most simple, infinite, independent, most universal, immutable, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, holy, supremely good, most provident, the cause of all things not only existing and future, but also possible. For a thing is possible for this reason, that God can make it and communicate His being to it, or because God's being can be participated in by it. For the root of the possibility of a creature is in God, not in the creature itself. For this root is the imitation, communication and participation of the divine essence, namely that the divine essence can communicate itself to a creature in such a way, and can be participated in by it in such a way, inasmuch as it eminently contains it in itself. For if the divine essence cannot be participated in in such a way, a thing is plainly impossible. For that which God cannot make, or to which He cannot communicate Himself, this is altogether impossible: thus man is possible, because the divine essence can be participated in by man. And God has a practical idea of man in His essence, according to which He can form him and communicate His being to him; but a chimera is impossible, because it cannot participate in the divine essence, nor does God have an idea of it according to which He would form it and communicate His being to it; because namely the divine essence does not contain a chimera in itself, neither formally nor eminently. Wherefore some theologians establish "I am who I am" as the principle of all theology, indeed the sum and compendium of it. Note: Just as the name of God is to be, so conversely the name of creatures is not to be; so that if a man, a stone, an angel be asked: Who are you? What are you called? he can and ought to answer: My name is not to be; I am called, I am not, and this for three reasons. First, because every created thing before it was created had eternal non-being. Second, if it is corruptible, it will have again eternal non-being; but if it is incorruptible, as an angel is, it can always have non-being, because its being is in the power of God freely preserving it, and able to annihilate it every moment. Third, because while it exists, it is variable and mutable, and therefore has admixed with it non-being; for in every change, a certain aspect of its non-being is included. Fourth, because any created thing, as Plato says in the Theaetetus, has more of non-being than of being, for example a man has only the being of a man, but has the non-being of heaven, earth, stone, angel, and all other things. Therefore a man has only one being, and innumerable non-beings. How wise is he who knows himself and his non-being! Thus St. John the Baptist, when asked: Are you the Christ? Are you the Prophet? answered: I am not. Whoever is today, in tomorrow remains not the same. For no one is the same, but every moment is changed about phantasms. For how, if we were the same, would we now rejoice in different things than before? We love and hate in another way, we are moved by different passions, not having the same form, not having the same opinion about things. Finally, Plato in the Timaeus teaches that God alone properly is; but the other things which arise and are changed, more truly are not than are. "Who is, sent me unto you." — In Hebrew again it is eie, that is, "I shall be," or "I am," "sent me unto you." Our translation and the Septuagint, changing the first person into the third, translate more clearly, "who is." To this name God soon adds another, which as a mark or token he bears to the Hebrews through Moses, when he subjoins:
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15. LORD GOD OF YOUR FATHERS. — For "Lord" in Hebrew is the tetragrammaton name Jehova; for "God" in Hebrew is Elohim; the former name is of nature, the latter of grace, care and providence, as if to say: I am God, who am so very being itself (which is Jehova), that I do not wish to be lacking to men, but wish to be present to them, to preside over them and to benefit them (which is Elohim). Thus St. Augustine in his tract on this name of God: "I am who am." Hence it is probable that Eugubinus, Cajetan, Genebrardus, Bellarmine and others conclude that the tetragrammaton name is the same as this: "I am who am." First, because God, who before the sons of Israel through Moses had commanded to be said: "Who is, sent me;" now commands the same to be said to them: "Jehova sent me." But it seems certain that he commanded himself to be called by one and the same name; therefore the nomenclature of his, which God had previously expressed by a word, saying: "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel: Who is, sent me;" here he expresses by a name, saying: "Jehova sent me." Second, because in this chapter Moses always studiously called God "Elohim," until God himself gave to himself the name: "I am who am;"; thereafter, however, he uses the tetragrammaton Jehova, as if now given by God, and the same as "I am who am." The same will be more evident in chapter VI, verse 3. THIS NAME IS MINE FOR EVER, AND THIS IS MY MEMORIAL, — by which namely I shall be remembered, shall be invoked and praised by the sons of the patriarchs according to the flesh, and after them by Christians, who are the true Israelites, and sons of Abraham according to faith and spirit, to whom through Christ the truth of the covenant made with Abraham is exhibited; so that through Christ it is not blotted out, but rather renewed and illustrated, the memory of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. IN GENERATION AND GENERATION. — In Hebrew, "into age of ages," that is, through all ages, in every age.
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16. VISITING I VISITED YOU, — I looked upon and saw you. Thus our author translates with the Septuagint better than the Chaldean, who translates, "I remembered you;" for of present evils it is not so much memory as vision; here God visits for good, elsewhere for evil, as in Psalm LXXXVIII: "I will visit (that is, I will chastise) their iniquities with the rod." Men boast themselves, and wish to be what they are not, and say: "I am rich, I am noble, I am wise;" but those who are humble and wise, who know themselves and God, say: "God is good, is rich, is wise, is holy, I am not;" and through this they merit to become partakers of divine wisdom, goodness, holiness, and all good. Wherefore Christ the Lord appearing to Blessed Catherine of Siena said to her: "Know you, daughter, who I am, what you are? you will be blessed if you know this. I am He who is; you are she who is not." And again: "Daughter, think of me, and I will think of you, and I will always have care of you;" she did this by humbling herself, and annihilating herself and dwelling in her nothingness: and thus she was elevated to the immense ocean of divine being, and of all his perfections, and was wholly inflamed in his love and continuous praise. Beautifully and at length the same "I am not" is treated by Henry Suso, sermon 2. "God," says St. Basil, "made the world: as good, useful; as wise, most beautiful; as powerful, greatest. If we learn these things, we shall know ourselves, we shall know God, we shall adore the Creator, we shall serve the Lord, we shall glorify the Father, we shall love the Nourisher, we shall revere the Benefactor, we shall never cease to worship the Author of present and future life." This knowledge of God and Theology the Gentiles, as it appears, drew from and learned from the Hebrews. Eugubinus relates that in the temples of the Egyptians this emblem of God was inscribed: "I am that which was, which is, and which shall be, my veil no one has ever revealed." So also Plutarch, in the book On Isis, relates that in Egypt the sign, which is Sai of Minerva, whom he thinks to be the same as Isis, had an inscription of this kind: "I am all that was, that is, and that shall be; and my flaming robe no mortal has ever opened." See Goropius in Hermathena, book V, folio 106, where he contends from Plutarch that by Isis divine Wisdom is understood, and that the name of Isis sounds the same as "is, is." Thales also, when asked what God was, answered: "That which always is, having neither beginning nor end." This also Parmenides seems to have regarded, when he says "all things are one immobile being." Hence also on the doors of the temple of Apollo at Delphi was inscribed first, "Know yourself," by which God, as it were greeting those entering the temple, admonished them to know themselves. Second, "you are," by which voice those entering the temple, as it were greeting God himself in return, confessed that he alone truly is. Concerning which matter see from Plutarch in Eusebius, book XI Of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter VII, where among other things he teaches that God alone is; for other things, since they are in flux, are continually changed, and corrupted rather than are: "For," he says, "the young man is corrupted into a man, the man into an old man, the boy into a young man, the infant into a boy; and he who was yesterday becomes he who is today."
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17. AND I SAID, — I determined and decreed with myself.
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Verse 18. AND THEY SHALL HEAR YOUR VOICE, — announcing so joyful and desired news of their liberation, mindful that this time of liberation predicted to Abraham is now being fulfilled, Genesis XV, verse 16; for there it is said: "But in the fourth generation they shall return hither," and now from that time it is the fourth generation. "He called us." — In Hebrew it is, "he met us," that is, he offered himself willingly and appeared to us calling us, namely to sacrifice. God wished the Hebrews to use this appearance of sacrifice before Pharaoh as a pretext for concealing their flight, lest Pharaoh, the departure of the people being made public, and openly demanded, should immediately refuse. Therefore, so that Moses might lead out the people, and obtain permission from Pharaoh for this, he is commanded to say to him that God wishes to be worshipped by the Hebrews outside Egypt in the desert; which was true; for God had said, verse 12: "You shall sacrifice to God upon this mountain (Sinai)." WE WILL GO. — In Hebrew, "and now let us go, I pray," that is, let it be permitted us to go. A JOURNEY OF THREE DAYS, — a moderate request; for if the king were to ask for a longer journey and time, he would seem to be justly refusing the departure, as one who might rightly suspect and fear the flight of the Israelites. Nor is there a lie here, but a silence of the whole truth: for they were going to go a journey of three days, and they said this; but they were going to go further into Chanaan, and they kept silent about this. Mystically, the way of three days is the way of faith, hope and charity. Again, the way of contrition, confession and satisfaction, by which we prepare ourselves and tend toward the sacrifice of the Eucharist. Anagogically, the way of three days to heaven is the way of Christ, whose first day is the day of his passion and death; the second day is his descent to hell; the third is the day of his resurrection. Thus St. Augustine, sermon 90 On the Seasons.
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19. BUT I KNOW THAT HE WILL NOT LET YOU GO. — God forewarns Moses and the Hebrews, lest, having suffered rejection before Pharaoh, they should lose heart and abandon their undertaking. EXCEPT BY A STRONG HAND, — by ten plagues, and especially by the slaughter of the firstborn, which I shall inflict upon them. The Chaldean translator renders it, "except by the strong fear, which I shall strike into them by these plagues."
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22. FROM HER NEIGHBOUR AND FROM HER THAT DWELLETH IN HER HOUSE. — From this it is evident that the Egyptians were mixed together with the Hebrews in the land of Goshen. YOU SHALL DESPOIL EGYPT. — The Chaldean has "and you shall empty Egypt"; for the root ריק in Hebrew and Chaldean signifies to be empty. Note: The Hebrews, departing from Egypt, despoiled it not by robbery, but by the just title of God's gift (who is the lord of all things). God gave them these spoils, first, that He might punish the luxury and injustice of the Egyptians. Second, that He might render to the Hebrews, who had served the Egyptians freely, these spoils in place of wages. Third, that He might give them material, which they would afterwards offer for the building of the tabernacle. Hence in Wisdom X, verse 17, it is said of the Hebrews: "He rendered to the just the reward of their labours." Whence also Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion, chapter XXIV: "The Hebrews," he says, "were instructed not to commit fraud, but to receive compensation for wages, which they could not otherwise exact from their masters." For although this was the tyranny of one king commanding and oppressing the Hebrews, yet the Hebrews suffered injury from the injustice of many obeying him and a people flattering him; and truly, even if the king alone had done violence, yet justly and in a just war would his subjects have been sought after. Tropologically, Egypt is to be despoiled, that is, those things which are elegant in the Pagan Philosophers and Orators, as from unjust possessors, are to be claimed for our use. Thus St. Augustine, book II On Christian Doctrine, chapter XL; Rupertus, Nyssenus and Prosper, book I On Promises and Predestination, chapter XXXVII. "Do we not see with how much gold, silver and clothing laden the most sweet doctor Cyprian departed from Egypt, and the most blessed Martyr? with how much Lactantius? with how much Victorinus, Optatus, Hilarius?" says St. Augustine.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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v. 4 « Moyses autem pascebat » — Hebr. : erat pascens , pastoris officio fungebatur (los.), id muneris susceperat, quando Sephoram nactus est uxorem (Tost.), vel etiam antea — « oves lethro, soceri sui, sacerdotis Madian ». NS, oves vel caprae : eiusmodi tantum hice et 2,16 sq. lethro attribuuntur. Reapse Arabia boves non alit ob pastus penuriam, sed oves, capras, asinos, camelos, equos. Voluit Deus, Moysen quadraginta annis (Act. 7,30) pastorali vita praeparari ad regimen hominum (Clem. Alez.Strom. I. 23; M. 8. 903 sq.). « Cumque minasset gregem ad nteriora deserti, venit ad. montem Dei Horeb ». : AEgyptii tractus ad orientem Nili, imprimis vero Sinaitiden nomine designabant « regionis Dei » , fortasse ab oriente sole seu deo Ra petito (Erman p. 667 sqq.). Quid veri similius, quam altissimum regionis Dei montem nomen habuisse montis Dei? Erat iste mons Horeb, de quo Hier. (Liber de situ et nominibus locorum hebr.; M. 23. 889) : « Mihi autem videtur, quod duplici nomine idem mons nunc Sinai, nunc lloreb vocatur ». « Haec visio rubi ardentis, quae dicitur hic facta in monte Horeb, dieitur Act. 7 facta in deserto montis Sina, et lex quae Act. 7 et alibi dicitur data in monte Sina, Deut. 5,2 et 29,1 dicitur data in monte Ioreb » (Bonfr.). « Ea duo nomina sunt perfecte synonyma » (Ebers p. 381). Dum 1,17. 20; 2,23 sqq.; 3,6. 7. 11-15, i. e. ante revelatum nomen divinum nm, constanter legatur nomen divinum D''ON , post revelatum autem v. 15 nomen min hoc ipsum perpetuo usurpetur, 3, 9:4 deprehenduntur vestigia mutatorum in textu divinorum nominum. v. 2 contra Vulg. Dominus legunt omnes angelus Domini ; et tamen, cum tota secus narratio angelum ignoret, cum aliquando apud Iudaeos certe obtinuerit pruritus substituendi illius angeli in locum ss. nominis, lectio Vulg. minime est spernenda. Rursum v. 4 priore loco legunt n omnes, praeter Sam. Q*539N, ut, si eum solum locum perpendas, illa lectio omnino appareat probabilior. Altero loco Vulg. nomendivinum reticet, at non reticeret, ni idem in suo textu atque priore loco legisset, Ergo habemus Yulg. LXX n contra Hebr. Sam. Syr. nmn5oN, quae lectio critice praevalet. Ceterum in uno v. 4 primitus non duo sane diversa, sed unicum legebatur nomen divinum : ergo, cum priore versus parte lectio non sit plane certa, cum illud e Genesi compertum habeamus, nomen 7n" saepe in locum alterius divini nominis subintrasse, cum analogia Ex. 1 sq., et 3,6-15 suadeat, etiam 3,4 primitus nomen B'5w habuisse : hinc lectio Y? ib. merito in dubium vocatur.
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v. 9 « Apparuitque ei Dominus in flamma ignis de medo rubi; et videbat , quod rubus arderet et non. combureretur ». Apparuit in rubo Deus, quatenus portento rubi ardentis manifestabatur, indeque loquens audiebatur (Tost.).
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v. 3 « Dixit ergo Moyses » « intra se » (Tost.) : « Vadam. et videbo visionem hanc magnam, quare non comburatur rubus ». Non perspexerat agi de portento divino, sed de re insolita, mirabili agi reputabat : voluit igitur propius accedens rei causam indagare (Tost.).
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v. & « Cernens autem Domnus, quod pergeret ad videndum », — hoc membrum pronuntiat Dillm. « profecto superfluum » esse, ergo ex alio scriptore depromptum ; sed num auctor sacer semper maximae, quae fieri possit, brachylogiae studere debet? — « vocavit eum de medio rubi et ait : Moyses, Moyses. Qui respondit : Adsum ». Sensum non infeliciter reddidere LXX : Quid est? Rebatur forte hominem ibi aliquem latere insoliti effectus auctorem.
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v. 5 « Ait ille : Ne appropies, inquit, huc. Solve calceamentum de pedibus tuis ; locus enim, in quo stas , terra sancta est ». Vetatur Moyses propius ad Deum accedere atque in loco, ubi erat, caleeamenta exuere iubetur (cf. los. 5,16; hebr. 15). Mos est orientalibus loca sacra nudis pedibus intrare : cf. Di/Im.
3:6
v. 6 « Et ait : Ego sum Deus patris tui, Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac et Deus Iacob ». Sam. Deus patrum tuo- rum vere sensum reddit et fortasse est verior lectio. Secus cum Cat. dicendum erit, non alios tandem ea expressione designari patres, quam illos tres; non agi de Deo Amram, sed de Deo paterno. Recensentur autem hie, uti alias, illi tres, quia illis promissa erat terra Chanaan, in quam populus iamiam erat introducendus, et quiain his populus hebraeus ab aliis nationibus fuerat segregatus (Sy/v.). Iam indolem portenti plene intelligit Moyses, hine : « Aóscond?t Moyses faciem. suam » ob timorem et reverentiam (Bonfr.), sive declinans in terram, sive uti Elias 3 Reg. 19,13 pallio operiens (Sy/lv.). « Non enim audebat aspicere contra Deum »..—. Pandit porro Deus rationem , cur appareat :
3:7
v. 7 « Cuz ait Dominus : Vidi afflictionem populi mei in. Aegypto, et clamorem etus audivi » a facie oppressorum etus, seu liberius Vulg. : « propter duritiam eorum, qui praesunt operibus »,
3:8
v. 8 « et sciens dolorem eius » — sed hoc membrum trahi oportet ad praecedentia, et *» intelligendum asseverativum : profecto novit afflictionem eius. Hoc *nzT nos revocat ad 31 2,95 : causam cognovit Deus ut iudex et nunc eam oppido novit. « Descendi, ut. liberem eum de manibus Aegyptiorum , et educam de terra. illa 1n terram. bonam et spatiosam »,1i. e. meliorem, magisque spatiosam (T^os£.) : terra Gessen solum pascua offerebat, non agros; in ea Hebraei coarctabantur, cum ob numeros constanter crescentes, tum ob admixtos Aegyptios variarumque tribuum exterarum homines; — « 2n terram, quae fluit lacte et melle, ad loca Chananaei et Hethaei et Amorrhaei et Pherezaei et Hevaei et lebusaet ». Promissa haec fuerant Gen. 15,20 sq., ubi vide de illis gentibus; cf. etiam Ex. 23,93; 33,9; 35,11. « Locutio, etsi hyperbolica sit, indicat tamen summam copiam omnium non tanium necessariorum, sed etiam quae ad delicias et voluptatem faciunt, eamque tantam, ut more fontium et rivulorum quasi fluere viderentur; quod haud dubie dictum est propter pascua optima et uberrima, quae ab armentis depasta optimum lac exprimerent, et frequentia apum examina, quae in summa copia mel praeberent » (Bonfr.). Expressio bene congruit genti pastorum , qui et lac procurant et melle sine labore invento delectantur. Lactis et mellis nomine censet Syío. venire esculenta omnia, ut frumentum, oleum , uvas. Cum v. 9 uti v. 10 a ^nz* ordiatur, hi duo versus intime sunt iungendi: Deus rursum visa et audita commemorat, quo Moysen instrumentum promissae salutis demonstret.
3:9
v. 9 « Clamor ergo filiorum Israel venit ad. me, vidique afflictionem eorum, qua ab Aegyptiis opprüimuntur ». v. 40 « Sed vent », seu potius vade, nam Moysi non est propius ad rubum accedendum, « ez mittam te ad Pharaonem, ut eduEy. 2,10 500. S. AT cas populum meum, filios Israel, de Aegypto ». Moyses, qui dum iunior esset, non dubitaverat causam Israelitae contra percussorem Aegyptium dirimendam suscipere, iam factus humilior et cautior ( Di//m.) suggerit, se, qui Pharaoni sit exosus ob homicidium, Hebraeis vix notus, opibus carens, tanto operi esse omninoimparem :
3:11
v. 11 « Dixitque Moyses ad Deum : Quis sum ego, wt vadam ad Pharaonem et educam filios Israel de Aegypto? » Moysen natura officio esse imparem agnoscit Deus (Tost.) :
3:12
v. 19. « Qui dixit e? : Ego ero tecum; et hoc habebis signum, quod, miserim te : cum eduzeris populum meum de Aegypto, immolabis Deo super montem istum », Hebr. servietis Deo : id refertur ad omnem cultum Deo 1n monte Sinai exhibendum. Quaeritur, quodnam signum h. ]. demonstretur. Tost., Mar. signum interpretantur ipsum rubum ardentem; sed de hoc in immediato contextu nequaquam agitur (Sylv.). Bonfr., Sylv., Tir. signum deprehendunt in constanti divina protectione expressa verbis « Ego ero tecum » ; quae protectio Moysi futura sit signum suae divinae missionis. Sed formula « hoc erit signum », praecedere consuevit verba signum exprimentia ; itemque asyndeticum illud qN'T ostendit, ibi non narrationem continuari, sed signum describi (Dillm.). Ergo signum constat cultu in futuro in monte Sinai Deo persolvendo. Quod signum, quo tempore Deus e rubo loquebatur, nondum exsistebat; habiturum autem erat valorem, ubi primum esset exstituturum. Quo die Moyses cum populo sacra faeturus erat Deo in monte Sinai, eo die.is cultus a Deo e rubo loquente diu ante praenuntiatus illustrissimum futurus erat divinae Moysis missionis signum et argumentum. At, inquies, tali signo in futuro adimplendo nullatenus roboratur Moyses, ut audacter adeat Pharaonem. Neque ad eum finem signum nunc datur, ut sapienter monet Calm., ad Pharaonem adeundum abunde confortabatur Moyses signo rubi ardentis, neque altero ad hoc idem signo opus erat. Signo autem cultus in monte Sinai aliquando obeundi concedetur ipsi illustris suae missionis confirmatio eo praecise tempore, quo ipse in tot legibus sacris ferendis religiosisque institutis stabiliendis speciàli robore et auctoritate indigebit. Roboratur tamen Moyses quadamtenus etiam in praesenti. Cum sc. ob signum rubi Deo iam perfecte fidat, de signo cultus promisso aliquando implendo ne minimum quidem dubitat, atque ita suavi repletur fiducia atque ad generose agendum provocatur. Arg. — Moyses nequit nomine Dei anonymi populi liberationem postulare : ergo Del omen proprium tamquam suae legationis auctoritatem exquirit. Revelatur ei, quod sibi iamiam Deus proprium facit, nomen lahve v. 13-15. Nomine Iahve Dei mandatum Moyses ad populum deferet v. 16-18^, quem habebit obsequentem , et ad Pharaonem v. 18-22, qui portentis ad obsequendum compelletur. Divino promisso auxilio, uti etiam praemonstrato futuro suo cum populo ad montem Sinai glorioso adventu, confortatus Moyses iam omnem mittit pusillanimitatem et confidenter exclamans (Tost.) :
3:13
v. 13 « ait Moyses ad Deum : Ecce ego vadam ad filios Israel et dicam eis : Deus patrum vestrorum misit me ad vos ». Non loquitur h. 1. de adeundo Pharaone, quia perspiciebat sibi primos adeundos fore seniores Israel (S7/v.). Illico autem subiungit interrogationem : « S? dixerint mihi : Quod est nomen eius? quid dicam eis? » Non affirmamus, quod putavit quidam, ante Moysen nullo ab Hebraeis nomine proprio appellatum esse Deum. Eiusmodi nomen proprium fuerat, teste ipsa scriptura 6,3, nomen El Schaddai. At, licet illud exstiterit Dei proprium, non erat idem simul solorum Hebraeorum proprium, ut a solis Hebraeis Deus nomine El Schaddai appellaretur. Eiusmodi autem nomen in votis erat, quod et Deum tamquam speciali prae aliis gentibus titulo Hebraeorum deum efferret, et a reliquarum gentium diis penitus secerneret. Qui numen nomine Ammon appellabat, censebatur illud in sanctuario Thebano venerari et Pharaoni Ammonis filio obsequi. Si Hebraeorum Deus nomine Baal fuisset appellandus, mox Baal Israel aequalis habitus esset Baalis Tyrii , Baalis Sidonii ceterorumque Baalim. Putasne dimissurum fuisse Pharaonem Hebraeos, si nomine Seth, Baalaliusve numinis rogaretur, quorum agmina ante ipse aut anteces- - sores fudissent? Requirebatur nomen Dei proprium nationale, quo ipse a solis Hebraeis appellaretur.
3:14
v. 14 « Dixit. Deus ad. Moysen : Ego sum, qui sum. Ait : Sic dices filiis Israel : Qui est », seu verius Sum, « misit me ad vos ».
3:15
v. 15 « Dixitque iterum Deus ad Moysen : Haec dices filiis Israel : Dominus », quae vox hebraeum /ahve exprimit, « Deus patrum vestrorum, Deus Abraham , Deus Isaac et Deus Iacob , misit me ad vos : hoc nomen mihi est in. aeternum », duraturum tamdiu quamdiu durabit foedus Gen. 11,1 sq. 13.19, « et hoc memoriale meum £n generationem et generationem ». Cf. Os. 12,5 (6). Cum 3:25, memoria seu memoriale, etiam alias nomen significet (Os. 11,8; Ps. 30,5; Cant. 1,3), h. l. ob parallelismum eum voce 207€» eandem sibi vindicat significationem. Est autem nomen memoriale, quatenus appellatum eius, qui illud nomen habet, memoriam et attentionem excitat; iis, qui illud audiunt, eundem in memoriam revocat. Unde etiam sequitur : « sub hoc nomine memorabuntur seu recordabuntur mei meque invocabunt » (Sylv.). Nomen autem illud intelligi nomen /«hve, totus contextus clamat; quare infelicius illud Ps. Jon. h. 1l. suppressit. Responsum ad quaestionem v. 13 indubie habetur v. 15. Quaerebatur : « Quod est nomen eius? » Respondetur : « Iahve... hoc est nomen meum ». Quaerebat v. 13 Moyses nomen, quod Israelitis interrogantibus annuntiaret; respondetur ei v. 15 : « Haee dices filiis Israel ». Reapse nomen Iahve Moyses et Israelitis et Pharaoni annuntiavit. Quid vero sibi vult v. 11? Eius duas partes seorsim considerabimus. Igitur verba « Ego sum, qui sum » locutus est Deus ad solum Moysen , non iussit Israelitis referre, licet sine dubio retulerit. Illis verbis rationem pandit Deus assumpti nominis Iahve : Sum, qui sum : ideo nomine volo vocari Est, Iahve. Fortasse, praeter ea tria verba, plura Deus de sua natura ad Moysen locutus est, quae ille non iudicavit populo esse communicanda. Sed, quid sibi vult altera v. 1*4 pars : « Ait : Sic dices filiis Israel : Sum misit me ad vos »? Sum, nw non est alterum 51 Dei nomen. Duo nomina confusionem peperissent tam apud populum quam apud Pharaonem. Neque populo neque Pharaoni annuntiavit Moyses nomen Sum, ignoratur illud ab universo V. T. Eo ipso, quod v. 15 Est emphatice proclamatur Dei esse nomen. et memoriale, significatur quodlibet aliud nomen non eodem emphatieo sensu esse nomen et memoriale. Verum, annon voce Sw v. 1^ Deus se designat? Omnino, sed non omne id, quo res vel persona designatur, eo ipso est rei vel personae nomen proprium. Nonne Deus etiam designatur vocibus « omnipotens », « antiquus dierum »? Potest quis designari enuntiata proprietate aliqua, quae ipsi prae ceteris competit (« omnipotens »); potest designari voce, quam ipse solus pleno sensu et absoluto iure usurpare potest — et sic Deus v. 14 designatur voce Sum. Nomen Dei proprium interrogatus Moyses primum iubetur suae missionis Israelitis reddere rationem : Swm , misit me ad vos, vobisque mandat, ut nomine Es/ illum colatis. Ita, uti v. 15^ Deus soli Moysi nominis Iahve rationem manifestaverat, 1ía v. 11^ eandem Israelitis item propalat, minus tamen directe et perspicue. Adverte, quantum pondus gravissimae v. 1/4 sq. orationi addat triplex illud. vox" : tres illas tanti momenti sententias, à quibus universa iam gentis Israeliticae fata pendent, Deus singulas singulis, ut ita dicam, respirationibus profatur. Nomen petitum non illico pronuntiat : primum, quis ipse sit, verbis arcanis indicat; deinde voce se ipsum designat, quae licet nomen proprium non sit, tamen uni Deo plene adaptatur nominisque propri mox revelandi sensui intelligendo viam parat; tandem nomen ipsum pronuntiat. Totius vero sermonis duas tertias solummodo partes populo renuntiari iubet, non primam : quo Moysen significet intimius reliquis ad divinorum arcanorum conscientiam adscisci. Deo totus hic sermo est perquam dignus. Ex cuius artificiosa structura illud etiam discas, verba swm qui sum non esse glossam textui insertam aevo aliquo posteriore, quod philosophicis argutiis delectaretur. Arg. — Moyses ad implendum Dei mandatum paratissimus, illico v. 13 de nomine divino quaesierat, cui v. 14 sq. Deus responderat. Nune vero Deus illum edocet et procedendi modum et legationis argumentum. Modus hic est, ut primum seniores alloquatur, et post eos et per eos populum. Neque enim ab omni simul populo exaudiri potuit (Tost.), et seniores merito eum cohibuissent, nisi ipsos priores de divina missione certiores fecisset. Argumentum est, ut eos de sua missione divinoque nomine (v. 15) edoceat, itemque de divino salutis consilio. Argumentum traditur compendio, longe pluribus verbis a Moyse explicandum. Narraturus erat, quomodo sibi Deus patrum apparuisset, populi liberationem promisisset, nomine lahve appellari decrevisset. '
3:16
v. 16 « Vade et congrega seniores Israel », non tam aetate quam auctoritate, principes tribuum et familiarum (cf. quae diximus in Comment. in librum Iud. p. 13 et ad Iud. 2,7), « et dices ad eos : Dominus Deus patrum vestrorum apparuit mihi, Deus Abraham, [Deus| Isaac et [Deus] Iacob , dicens : Visitans visitavit vos », certissime visitabo (Bonfr.) , et nota 1n Hebr. haberi unieum verbum, quod considerandi, videndi, visitandi sensum induat; ipsumque verbum innuit agi iam de implenda praedictione Gen. 50,24; « et vidi omnia, quae acciderunt vobis in Aegypto », v. A1 « et dixi », « proposui » (Tost.), « ut educam vos de afflictione Aegypti in terram. Chananaet et Hethaei et Amorrhaei et. Pherezaei et Hevaei et Iebusaei, ad. terram fluentem lacte et melle ». Cf.
3:18
v. 8. v. 48 « Et audient vocem tuam ». 3. Mandatum Moysi ad Pharaonem datum Ex. 3,18^-92. Arg. — Moyses cum senioribus Pharaonem adibit et nomine Iahve veniam sacrificii in deserto cum populo offerendi rogabit. Portentis fractus tandem assentietur Pharao, donisque pretiosis onusti Aegypto excedent Hebraei. Qua fausti eventus praedictione et Moysi et postmodum toti populo adduntur animi. | « Ingredierisque tu et seniores Israel ad regem Aegypti ». Adsciscuntur seniores ad Moysen honorandum eiusque dictis addendam auctoritatem (Tost.), quo eius petita a toto populo postulari intelligerentur. Ex his perspicias, seniores quoque 5,1 cum Moyse ad Pharaonem esse ingressos : non enim singula semper sunt repetenda, et 5, « ite ad onera vestra » fere supponit quorumdam praesentiam , qui reapse oneribus ferendis essentaddicti. Autumat quidem 7ost. seniores non ivisse, ubi in Aarone alius Moysi provisus est socius. Certe sufficiens ratio non apparet diversorum hic et cap. 5 adstruendorum scriptorum. « E dices ad eum : Dominus Deus Hebraeorum vocavit nos. Ibimus viam trium dierum in solitudinem, ut àmmolemus Domino Deo nostro ». Hebr. : eamus quaeso. Sinai « recta euntibus », inquit Ca/m., trium dierum itinere distabat, neque officit Moysen postea per ambages procedentem et saepe castra ponentem quadraginta dies insumpsisse. Videntur tamen vel « recta euntes » plus tribus diebus insumpturi fuisse a Gessen ad Sinai. Quare potius cum Aug. dicas, voluisse quidem Deum Hebraeis Aegypto eductis perpetuas 1n Chanaanitide sedes tribuere et ab illis in monte Sinai sacrificiis honorari, petiisse tamen a Pharaone, ut praesciebat vel hoc Pharaonem fore negaturum , puniendum irrevocabili Hebraeorum exodo. Sacrificium intra fines Aegypti facile concessurus erat Pharao. Non Aegypto penitus dimitti petivit Moyses : « Petivit modicum, ut, quia'eoncessurus non erat Pharao et Deus puniturus erat eum, punitio valde iusta videretur » (Tost.). — Vulg. LXX hie, uti 5,3, legisse videntur N^pz2 pro n?pz, quod esset vertendum : occurrit Abbis desuper; ergo Run de ids nobis obviam venit. Sed coram Pharaone res enuntiandae erant quam clarissime et simplicissime. Potuit etiam genuina lectio esse 'bN ns (ef. v. 16).
3:19
v. 19 « Sed ego scio, quod non dimittet vos rex Aegypti , ut eatis, nisi per manum validam ». Non solum de argumento legationis, sed de universo eius progressu instruit Deus Moysen (Ca?.), ne repulsam n passus a Pharaone animo concidat (5 ylv. )- Vulg. nisi et LXX ky ví, revocantur ad lectionem Sam. won, i. e. N5n : nonne in manu xime sequens. Hebr. Chald. Syr. s?» hune sensum suggerit : non dimittet vos, ne zn manu quidem valida, in plagis sc. prioribus immissis; sed quando extendero manum meam in eunctis plagis, tunc dimittet. Sensus est correctus, quamvis artificium aliquod sapiat; distinctio illa inter manum validam et validissimam aliena est a textibus parallelis 13,3 et Ps. 135.(136), 12, quibus per manum validam simpliciter omnes simul plagae aegyptiae designantur. Cf. C. Noldii not. 1246. Ergo praeferenda lectio Sam. Vulg. LXX. Tum tandem Deus ipse levabit manum in auxilium populi sui :
3:20
v. 90 « Extendam enim. manum meam, et percutiam. Aegyptum in cunctis mirabilibus meis, quae facturus sum in medio eorum. Post haec dimittet vos ». At neque mendicorum instar exibunt illi, pro quibus Dominus manu extenta pugnaturus est. Mulieres hebraeae occasione festi in Sinaitide celebrandi postulabunt ornamenta et, Deo movente eorda, obtinebunt (Calm.). Sed 11,2 praeter mulieres viri etiam ab amicis postulant, et h. 1. legit Sam. nv ty? nNO vN 5Nvs nnt ns? ete. ; quae leetio si genuina supponatur, non erit quaestio de solo ornatu muliebri , sed potius de pertinentibusad ornatum altaris etc.
3:21
v. 91 « Daboque gratiam populo huic coram Aegyptüis et, cum egrediemint , non exibitis vacui »;
3:22
v. 99 « sed postulabit mulier. a vicina sua et ab hospita sua vasa argentea, et aurea, ac vestes , ponetisque eas super filios et. filias vestras, et spoliabitis Aegyptum », quasi victores capta praeda discedetis. « Hinc patet, quod in terra Gessen Aegyptii habitarent Hebraeis permixti, nec quomodocunque permixti, sed ita ut quidam Aegyptiorum partem domus suae elocarent Hebraeis » A. Signa Moysi pro populo concessa Ex. &,1-9. Arg. — Dixerat Deus 3,18 Moysi : « audient vocem tuam » , neque id factum im ullatenus ambigit Moyses. Sed, ut prudenter credant affirmant se esse divinum legatum ; s2gn?s est opus : ea 1am Moysi fidenter petenti benigne conceduntur. Priora duo facta sunt in ns rebus, quae Moysi in aula quondam enutrito solae supererant, scipione pastorali et manu. His victum comparabat, qui principum ante conviviis interfuerat; ad tantam egestatem suae gentis studium deduxerat virum, qui fide actus negaverat se esse filium filiae Pharaonis (Hebr. 11,24). F. C. Cook (Speaker's Commentary, London 1877) colubrum suggerit h. l. intelligi basiliscum seu uraeum, serpentem maxime venenosum regnique aegypti symbolum, cuius imaginem Pharaones in tiara gestabant. Quod si concesseris, poteris dicere primo portento indicari Pharaonem primum furore exarsurum uti basiliscum, tandem innocuum futurum uti baculum; altero portento significari Hebraeos primum ab Aegyptiis habitos impuros ae vix non leprosos, mox fore portentis 1llustrandos spoliisque Aegypti ditandos. Tertium portentum poteris dicere pro aquis, in quas Moyses aliique pueri fuerint immersi, Aegyptiis minari sanguinis et vitae effusionem. Primum portentum absolute iubetur Moyses coram populo patrare, reliqua conditionate, si praecedentibus non crediderint : duo priora (4,30) utique patravit; an tertium coram solo populo patraverit, non liquet. tua? Respondit : Virga » pastoralis (Tost.).
3:1
… The appearance of Ex. 3:1-6, for example, conditions the whole mission and work of Moses, which without it would be inexplicable. …
Jethro (Hebrew Jithro'; Ex. 4:18 Jether)
JETHRO (Hebrew Jithro'; Ex. 4:18 Jether). - Priest of Midian, father-in-law of Moses (Ex. 2:16; 3:1; 4:18; 18:1, 5, 8, 12, 14, 27). A worshiper of the true God (Ex. 18:11 ff.; Judg. 1:16; 4:11), he is called a Kenite (cineaus).
Midian and Midianites (Hebrew Midhjān; Septuagint Μαδιάμ)
Name of a region south of Palestine (Ex. 2:15) and of its inhabitants (Ex. 3:1; 4:19; 18:1; Num. 24:47), sometimes indicated by the patronymic "Midianites" (Gen. 37:38; Num. 25:17).
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
One day, while pasturing the flock of Jethro near Mount Horeb (v.), the great divine manifestation took place (Ex. 3, 1-22), which transformed the homeless fugitive into a leader. …
2. The forms and content of passive revelation. — Historically it is established that God chose different ways of communicating truths, such as the word addressed to Moses from the burning bush (Ex. 3:1 ff.), or those heard by the disciples at the Transfiguration (Mt. 17:3), or by means of visions, such as that of Peter (Acts 10:19-23), or simply through the communication of ideas that …
3:2
as a divine messenger (of Yahweh or of Elohim) and at the same time speaks and acts as God. He makes promises like Yahweh himself (Gen. 16:10-13; 21:17-19; 22:11-17), identifies himself with God (Gen. 31:11-13; 48:15-16; Ex. 3:2-4, 10 [Act. 7:31-35]; Iud. 2:1-4; 6:11-24; 13:6-23; Zach. 3:1-6). At the end of the "covenant code", Yahweh promises "his angel" who will lead Israel (Ex. 23:20-23), the "angel of …
BURNING BUSH. - The expression recalls the miraculous event of Ex. 3:2-22, containing the account of the "vocation of Moses" (v.). …
The conviction of the Mosaic origin handed down in Israel (Josh. 1:7 ff.; 8:30-35; 1 Kings 2:3) is accepted in the New Testament (Mark 12:16 - Ex. 3:2, 6). The historical authority of Exodus is presupposed and affirmed by the whole Old Testament: the slavery and the miraculous departure from Egypt are often recalled there (e.g. …
… Other hints are found in the messianic texts (Ps. 2 and 109; Is. 7:14; Dan. 7:13 and others), in the Theophanies or divine apparitions, called the "Angel of Yahweh" (for example, that of the burning bush, Ex. 3:2). Even vaguer and more obscure are the indications of the Old Testament concerning the Holy Spirit. …
Horeb (Hebrew Hōrēb, «Drought», «Desolation»)
… In fact, Horeb and Sinai have in common the vision of the burning bush, the divine command to Moses to return there to offer sacrifice after the departure from Egypt (Ex. 3:2-12; Acts 7:30 ff.); the assembly of the people of Israel with the terrible theophany and the so-called Sinaitic covenant (Ex. 19:18 ff.; Deut. 4:10, 15; 5:20; 18:16); the delivery of …
… Marian literature appeals to many other figures, for example: the burning bush (Ex. 3, 2), which burning without being consumed represents M. who conceived and gave birth to the Son without detriment to her virginity; the ark of the covenant, of incorruptible wood like …
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… The concreteness and practicality that M. displays even in the great vision (Ex. 3:2-4:17), when he asks God for the guarantee, the "name," the seal of authenticity, demonstrates that M. was not a wandering agitator. …
3:5
GOD - The Manus Dei; God orders Moses to remove his sandals (Ex. 3, 5).
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… Domitilla (id., ibid., pl. 230, 1); but the most remarkable example is that in the so-called crypt of the little sheep in Callistus (id., ibid., pl. 275, 2), in which above the prophet the hand of God appears among the clouds to express the admonition (Ex. 3:5). In funerary sculpture it occurs both in Roman sarcophagi and in those of Gaul (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pp. 241-44; pls. 86, 3; 205, 4; 206, 1 and 2). The symbolism of the scene was expressed …
… They performed the sacred functions barefoot, out of respect for the place of the divine presence (cf. Ex. 3:5; Josh. 5:15). The priesthood had distinguished personalities, among them Ezra, Mattathias and the Maccabees, the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
3:6
… suffered and died (C. Noet., 1-2). He accused the Catholics of ditheism and interpreted allegorically the prologue of the Gospel of John (C. Noet., 11; 14; 15), while he appealed to the passages of Scripture that inculcate the uniqueness of God (e.g., Ex. 3, 6; Is. 44, 6) and the union of the Son with the Father (e.g., Is. 10, 13; 14, 8 f.; Philos., IX, 10; X, 27). Noetus was examined and then condemned by the "presbyters" of Smyrna (ca. …
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… certainly a monotheist" (W. F. Albright, From the stone age to christianity: monotheism and historical process, Baltimore 1940, p. 271). Constantly the Israelite religious consciousness recognized in the Yahweh preached by M. its God. The God of the Fathers (Ex. 3:6) is at the same time the God of the children of Israel (ibid. 3:7), who revealed himself with a new name when he established with Israel itself a new relationship. …
3:7
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… christianity: monotheism and historical process, Baltimore 1940, p. 271). Constantly the Israelite religious consciousness recognized in the Yahweh preached by M. its God. The God of the Fathers (Ex. 3:6) is at the same time the God of the children of Israel (ibid. 3:7), who revealed himself with a new name when he established with Israel itself a new relationship. …
… The beginning of the prophetic mission is the vocation on the part of God, sudden, which gives a new face to the existence of the one called (Ex. 3:7-4:18; Am. 7:10-15; Is. 6; Jer. 1:4-9; 20:7-18; Ex. 2-3; etc.). …
3:8
… It is always included by the Bible in the enumeration of the pre-Israelite peoples (Gen. 15:21; Ex. 3:8; 13:5; 23:23; 32:2; 34:11; Deut. 7:1; 20:17; Josh. 3:10; 5:1; 9:1; 11:3; 12:8; 24:11; etc.), sometimes as the chief nucleus of the ethnic group alongside the Hittites (Num. 13:30), …
… since open or hidden violence is the prerogative of the masters of the world — these men, who can hope for nothing except from God, "will enter into possession of the land" promised to Abraham (Gen. 15:7-8, 18; Deut. 4:38) and to the people of Israel (Ex. 3:8, 17). This "land" full of delights ("milk and honey": Ex. 13:5; 33:3) represents the messianic Kingdom.
HEVITES (Heb. hā-hīwāš always with the article and in the singular; Septuagint ὁ Εὐαῖος, sometimes οἱ Εὐαῖοι). - A people settled in the land of Canaan and always included in the list of the whole group of peoples dwelling in the land before the Israelite conquest (Ex. 2, 11; 3, 8; 13, 5; 23, 28; Deut. 7, 1; 20, 17; Josh. 3, 10; 9, 1; 12, 8; 24, 11; Judg. 3, 5; 2 Kings 9, 29; 2 Chron. 8, 7; v. CANAAN).
… Chron. 11:6; Zech. 9:7, and in the singular; Septuagint: ὁ Ἰεβουσαῖς), settled in Canaan (Gen. 10:16; I Chron. 1:14), always included, as a secondary group, in the northern list of the peoples that Israel was to conquer (Deut. 7:1; 20:17; cf. Gen. 15:21; Ex. 3:8, 17, etc.). …
Perizei (Heb. Pērizai; Septuagint ΦΕΡΕΙ͂ΑΊΟΙ)
… Pērizai; Septuagint ΦΕΡΕΙ͂ΑΊΟΙ). - One of the ethnic groups that inhabited Palestine before the Hebrew occupation (Gen. 13:7; 15:20; Ex. 3:8, 17; etc.).
3:10
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… This is a religion that does not come from man, but from God, of whom M. was only the "prophet," the spokesman (Ex. 3:10; 4:12; Num. 11:24 ff.; 12:2; Deut. 18:15, 18; 34:10; Hos. 12:4; Ps. 103:7, etc.). …
Ramses ("Râ' Has Generated Him") II
… After his death "after a long time" (ibid. 2:23), his successor Merneptah (v.) would be the pharaoh of the exodus (v.), against whom Moses carried out the divine mission of liberating Israel (ibid. 3:10-15, 19).
3:11
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… His attitude was psychologically oriented in a sense quite different from what the outcome was: he did not know that there was a sacred place at Sinai (ibid. 3:5), he was not inclined to the idea of going to liberate Israel (ibid. 3:11; 4:1-13). The denial of M.'s importance can only be made in contempt of the whole tradition of Israel. …
3:12
But the name that sums up and intensifies all the others is undoubtedly the one that God revealed to Moses as his own (Ex. 3, 12 ff.); this name is the famous tetragrammaton (composed of 4 letters): jh vh, Jahweh, imperfect 3rd pers. qal form of the verb huj or hjh "to be", that is, "He is". This fragile …
Emmanuel (Hebrew 'Immanā'ēl "God [is] with us", Septuagint 'Εμμανουήλ)
EMMANUEL (EMMANUELE; Hebrew 'Immanā'ēl "God [is] with us", Septuagint 'Εμμανουήλ). - Symbolic name (from a customary expression of good wishes: Ex. 3:12; Josh. 1:5, etc.) of the child foretold by Isaiah (7:14) as the "son of the Virgin", to whom the prophet later (8:8) turns ideally, speaking to him of "his land" (in the context = Palestine). …
… God, in extraordinary circumstances, entrusts, with the assurance of his help and the implicit prophecy of a happy outcome (cf. Is. 8:10 and Rom. 8:31), to a person chosen by him, as to the Patriarchs and the leaders of Israel (cf. Gen. 15:1; 26:24; Ex. 3:12; Deut. 31:23; Judg. 6:12, 16; 1 Sam. 10:7), denotes the singular mission of the Virgin in the order of divine redemption: she is the one chosen by God to bring to fulfillment the great …
3:13
I. is the only theophoric name, before the Revelation of Sinai (Ex. 3:13 ff.; 6:2 ff.), in which the element Jā, an abbreviation of Yahweh, appears; but this element could easily have been substituted for 'El or rather for 'El.
John, Apostle, Evangelist, Saint
… Hence the special style "I am" which occurs about 38 times (E. Schweizer, Ἐγώ εἰμι [Forschungen zur Gesch. des N. T., 56], Göttingen 1938, pp. 9-46 [formula from Ex. 3:13]). Christ had to reveal himself fighting against the unbelievers.
YAHWEH. - Divine name, called the "tetragrammaton" because it has 4 letters, the most used in the Hebrew Bible (ca. 6823 times), revealed by God himself to Moses when he established his new relations with Israel, in the covenant of Sinai (Ex. 3, 13-17; 6, 2-4). God himself explains: "I am who I am" (Ex. 3, 14), that is, the eternally existing one, to whom existence belongs by nature, who assists (v. 12) his nation; immutable …
3:14
… celebrated words of the mother of the Maccabean martyrs (2 Macc. 7, 28): "I beseech you, my son, to look at the heaven and the earth and all that is in them and to understand that God made them out of nothing." The very name of Yahweh, taught to Moses (Ex. 3, 14) and which means: "He who is," would not truly be proper to God, if there were a being that had not received being from him and existed by virtue of its own nature.
… contact with the visible world and as it were stretched out in abandonment toward God who draws it. Characteristic in this sense is the "vision at Ostia" described by St. Augustine in the Confessions (IX, 10), where of eternity it is said as of God (Ex. 3, 14) that in it properly there "is no" was or will be, but only is, that is, the simple positing of being in its metaphysical purity: in this sense, while of creatures one must say that …
… In Ex. 3:14-15 God manifests to Moses His proper name expressed in four fragile letters: Jhwh (= Jahweh), 3rd person singular of the imperfect of the verb hwh (= hajah); so that Jahweh = He Who Is. …
… A place of honor belongs to the Alexandrian Jew Philo, who (in accordance with Ex. 3:14) names God solely τὸ ὄν, excluding every determination (ἄποιος; cf. Leg. Alleg., I, 15; ed. Cohn-Wendland, I, Berlin 1896, p. 73, 27). Natural theology is called "wisdom" (σοφία), …
… The interpretation given by Wellhausenism as regards Genesis is that J, supposing the name Jahweh known from the beginning of humanity (Gen. 4, 26), uses it throughout the narrative, while E and P before the revelation of Ex. 3, 14 suppose that name unknown and therefore use 'Elōhim.
… because it has 4 letters, the most used in the Hebrew Bible (ca. 6823 times), revealed by God himself to Moses when he established his new relations with Israel, in the covenant of Sinai (Ex. 3, 13-17; 6, 2-4). God himself explains: "I am who I am" (Ex. 3, 14), that is, the eternally existing one, to whom existence belongs by nature, who assists (v. 12) his nation; immutable and therefore infallible in keeping promises (U. Cassuto [v. bibl.], p. 85).
3:15
'ABIB (Septuagint: μὴν τῶν νεῶν; Vulgate: mensis novorum frugum). - First month of the ancient Hebrew calendar (Ex. 13:4; 23:15; 34:18; Deut. 16:1), called 'abib, "ear of grain" (Ex. 9:31; Lev. 2:14; Ex. 3:15: "Tell Abib"): it coincided with the beginning of spring. …
3:17
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… The mission of leading Israel to settle in the land of Canaan (Ex. 3, 17) was specified to him, assigned to him as his own. To M.'s reluctance, due to a feeling of unfitness for the high office and to a speech defect, God responded by conferring on him …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.