The people mourn for their sin. Moses pitcheth the tabernacle without the camp. He converseth familiarly with God. Desireth to see his glory.
Gods wrath being mitigated by Moyses, the people mourne for their sinne, 7. Moyses pitcheth the tabernacle vvithout the campe, and therin conuerseth familiarly vvith God. 18. desiring to see his glorie.
1And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get thee up from this place, thou and thy people which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, into the land concerning which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: To thy seed I will give it:E il Signore parlò a Mosè, e disse: Va', parti da questo luogo tu, e il popol tuo cavato da te dalla terra d'Egitto, verso la terra, che io promisi con giuramento ad Abramo, ad Isacco, e a Giacobbe, quando dissi: Daralla alla tua stirpe:AND our Lord spake to Moyses, saying: Goe, get thee vp from this place, thou and thy people which thou hast brought out of the Land of Aegypt, into the land wherof I sware to Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob, saying: To thy seede I wil giue it:Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen, dicens: Vade, ascende de loco isto tu, et populus tuus quem eduxisti de terra Ægypti, in terram quam juravi Abraham, Isaac et Jacob, dicens: Semini tuo dabo eam: 2And I will send an angel before thee, that I may cast out the Chanaanite, and the Amorrhite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite,E manderò tuo precursore l'Angelo per cacciarne il Chananeo, e l'Amorrheo, e l'Hetheo, e il Pherezeo, e l'Heveo, e 'l Jebuseo;and I wil send an Angel thy precusor, that I may cast out the Chananeite, and Amorrheite, and Hetheite, and Pherezeite, and Heueite, and Iebuseite,mittam præcursorem tui angelum, ut ejiciam Chananæum, et Amorrhæum, et Hethæum, et Pherezæum, et Hevæum, et Jebusæum, 3That thou mayst enter into the land that floweth with milk and honey. For I will not go up with thee, because thou art a stiffnecked people; lest I destroy thee in the way.Onde tu entri nella terra, che scorre latte e miele. Imperocché io non verrò teco, dappoiché tu sei un popolo di dura cervice: perché io non abbia a sterminarti nel viaggio.and thou maiest enter into the land that floweth with milke and honey: for I wil not goe vp with thee, because thou art a stiffenecked people: lest perhappes I destroie thee in the way.et intres in terram fluentem lacte et melle. Non enim ascendam tecum, quia populus duræ cervicis es: ne forte disperdam te in via. 4And the people hearing these very bad tidings, mourned: and no man put on his ornaments according to custom.Ma avendo udito il popolo queste dolorose parole pianse: e nissuno si vestì de' soliti suoi ornamenti.And the people hearing this verie il saying, mourned: and no man put on his ornamentes after the custome.Audiensque populus sermonem hunc pessimum, luxit: et nullus ex more indutus est cultu suo.
5And the Lord said to Moses: Say to the children of Israel: Thou art a stiffnecked people, once I shall come up in the midst of thee, and shall destroy thee. Now presently lay aside thy ornaments, that I may know what to do to thee.E il Signore disse a Mosè: Di' a' figliuoli d'Israele: Popolo di dura cervice sei tu: se io mi porrò una volta in mezzo a te, io ti sterminerò. Su via, deponi i tuoi ornamenti affinché io sappia, come ho da trattarti.And our Lord sayd to Moyses: Speake to the children of Israel: Thou art a stiffenecked people, once I shal goe vp in the middes of thee, and shal destroy thee. Now presently lay away thy ornamentes, that I may know what to doe vnto thee.Dixitque Dominus ad Moysen: Loquere filiis Israël: Populus duræ cervicis es: semel ascendam in medio tui, et delebo te. Jam nunc depone ornatum tuum, ut sciam quid faciam tibi. 6So the children of Israel laid aside their ornaments by Mount Horeb.Deposero adunque i figliuoli d'Israele i loro ornamenti appiè del monte Horeb.Therfore the children of Israel layd away their ornamentes from mount Horeb.Deposuerunt ergo filii Israël ornatum suum a monte Horeb. 7Moses also taking the tabernacle, pitched it without the camp afar off, and called the name thereof, The tabernacle of the covenant. And all the people, that had any question, went forth to the tabernacle of the covenant, without the camp.E Mosè deposto il tabernacolo, lo tese in lontananza fuor degli alloggiamenti, e chiamollo il tabernacolo dell'alleanza. E tutti quelli del popolo, che avean qualche disputa, andavano al tabernacolo dell'alleanza fuori degli alloggiamenti.Moyses also taking the tabernacle, pitched it without the campe a farre of, and called the name thereof, The Tabernacle of couenant. And al the people, that had anie question, went forth to the Tabernacle of couenant, without the campe.Moyses quoque tollens tabernaculum, tetendit extra castra procul, vocavitque nomen ejus, Tabernaculum fœderis. Et omnis populus, qui habebat aliquam quæstionem, egrediebatur ad tabernaculum fœderis, extra castra. 8And when Moses went forth to the tabernacle, all the people rose up, and every one stood in the door of his pavilion, and they beheld the back of Moses, till he went into the tabernacle.E allorché Mosè usciva per andare al tabernacolo, si alzava tutta la moltitudine, e ognuno se ne stava ritto sulla porta della sua tenda, e tenevan dietro cogli occhi a Mosè, fino a che non era entrato nel tabernacolo.And when Moyses went forth to the tabernacle, al the people rose vp, and euerie one stoode in the dore of his pauilion, and they beheld the backe of Moyses, til he entred into the tabernacle.Cumque egrederetur Moyses ad tabernaculum, surgebat universa plebs, et stabat unusquisque in ostio papilionis sui, aspiciebantque tergum Moysi, donec ingrederetur tentorium.
9And when he was gone into the tabernacle of the covenant, the pillar of the cloud came down, and stood at the door, and he spoke with Moses.E quando questi era entrato nel tabernacolo dell'alleanza, la colonna della nuvola calava, e stava alla porta, e Dio parlava con Mosè,And when he was entred into the Tabernacle of couenant, the piller of the cloude came downe, and stoode at the doore, and he spake with Moyses,Ingresso autem illo tabernaculum fœderis, descendebat columna nubis, et stabat ad ostium, loquebaturque cum Moyse, 10And all saw that the pillar of the cloud stood at the door of the tabernacle. And they stood and worshipped at the doors of their tent.Veggendo tutti, come la colonna della nuvola era ferma alla porta del tabernacolo. Eglino poi si stavan sulle porte delle loro tende, e adoravano il Signore.al they beholding that the piller of the cloud stoode at the doore of the Tabernacle. And they stoode, and adored at the doores of their tabernacles.cernentibus universis quod columna nubis staret ad ostium tabernaculi. Stabantque ipsi, et adorabant per fores tabernaculorum suorum. 11And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend. And when he returned into the camp, his servant Josue, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not from the tabernacle.E il Signore parlava con Mosè faccia a faccia, come suole un uomo parlare col proprio amico. E quando egli se ne tornava agli alloggiamenti, il suo giovine ministro Giosuè figliuolo di Nun non si dipartiva dal tabernacolo.And our Lord spake vnto Moyses face to face, as a man is wont to speake to his frend. And when he returned into the campe, his minister Iosue the sōne of Nun, a yong man, departed not from the Tabernacle.Loquebatur autem Dominus ad Moysen facie ad faciem, sicut solet loqui homo ad amicum suum. Cumque ille reverteretur in castra, minister ejus Josue filius Nun, puer, non recedebat de tabernaculo. 12And Moses said to the Lord: Thou commandest me to lead forth this people; and thou dost not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, especially whereas thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast found favour in my sight.E Mosè disse al Signore: Tu mi comandi di esser guida di questo popolo, e non mi fai sapere, chi sia colui, che tu manderai con me, e ciò anche dopo che hai detto: Ti conosco per nome, e tu hai trovato grazia dinanzi a me.And Moyses said to our Lord: Thou commandest me to leade forth this people: and doest not shew me whom thou wilt send with me, especially wheras thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.Dixit autem Moyses ad Dominum: Præcipis ut educam populum istum: et non indicas mihi quem missurus es mecum, præsertim cum dixeris: Novi te ex nomine, et invenisti gratiam coram me.
13If therefore I have found favour in thy sight, shew me thy face, that I may know thee, and may find grace before thy eyes: look upon thy people this nation.Se adunque io ho trovato grazia nel tuo cospetto, fammi veder la tua faccia, affinché io ti conosca, e trovi grazia dinanzi a' tuoi occhi: getta il tuo sguardo sopra questo popolo, e sopra questa nazione.If therfore I haue found grace in thy sight, shew me thy face, that I may know thee, and may find grace before thine eyes, looke vpon thy people this nation.Si ergo inveni gratiam in conspectu tuo, ostende mihi faciem tuam, ut sciam te, et inveniam gratiam ante oculos tuos: respice populum tuum gentem hanc. 14And the Lord said: My face shall go before thee, and I will give thee rest.E il Signore disse: La mia presenza ti precederà, e io darotti requie.And our Lord said: My face shal goe before thee, and I wil giue thee rest.Dixitque Dominus: Facies mea præcedet te, et requiem dabo tibi. 15And Moses said: If thou thyself dost not go before, bring us not out of this place.E Mosè disse: Se tu stesso non vai innanzi a noi, non ci far partire da questo luogo.And Moyses sayd: If thy selfe doest not goe before, bring vs not out of this place.Et ait Moyses: Si non tu ipse præcedas, ne educas nos de loco isto. 16For how shall we be able to know, I and thy people, that we have found grace in thy sight, unless thou walk with us, that we may be glorified by all people that dwell upon the earth?Imperocché come mai potrem conoscere io, e il popolo di aver trovato grazia nel tuo cospetto, se non vieni con noi, affinché siamo rispettati da tutti i popoli, che abitano la terra?For whereby shal we be able to know I and thy people, that we haue found grace in thy sight, vnles thou walke with vs, that we may be glorified of al peoples, that dwel vpon the earth?In quo enim scire poterimus ego et populus tuus invenisse nos gratiam in conspectu tuo, nisi ambulaveris nobiscum, ut glorificemur ab omnibus populis qui habitant super terram ? 17And the Lord said to Moses: This word also, which thou hast spoken, will I do; for thou hast found grace before me, and thee I have known by name.E il Signore disse a Mosè: Quello pure, che tu hai detto, io lo farò: perché tu hai trovato grazia dinanzi a me, e ti conosco per nome,And our Lord said to Moyses: This word also, which thou hast spoken, wil I doe: for thou hast found grace before me, and thy selfe I haue knowen by name.Dixit autem Dominus ad Moysen: Et verbum istud, quod locutus es, faciam: invenisti enim gratiam coram me, et teipsum novi ex nomine. 18And he said: Shew me thy glory.E quegli disse: Fammi veder la tua gloria.Who said: Shew me thy glorie.Qui ait: Ostende mihi gloriam tuam.
19He answered: I will shew thee all good, and I will proclaim in the name of the Lord before thee: and I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me.Rispose: Io ti mostrerò tutto il bene, e pronunzierò il nome di Signore dinanzi a te: come io avrò misericordia di chi vorrò, e sarò clemente verso di chi mi piace.He answered: I wil shew thee al good, and wil cal in the name of the Lord before thee: and I wil haue mercie on whom I wil, and I wil be merciful to whom it shal please me.Respondit: Ego ostendam omne bonum tibi, et vocabo in nomine Domini coram te: et miserebor cui voluero, et clemens ero in quem mihi placuerit. 20And again he said: Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me, and live.E soggiunse: Non potrai vedere la mia faccia; perocché non viverà uomo dopo avermi veduto.And againe he sayd: Thou canst not see my face: for man shal not see me, and liue.Rursumque ait: Non poteris videre faciem meam: non enim videbit me homo et vivet. 21And again he said: Behold there is a place with me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock.E di poi: Ecco, disse, che io ho un luogo, dove mi sto, e tu starai su quel masso.And againe: Behold, quoth he, there is a place with me, and thou shalt stand vpon the rocke.Et iterum: Ecce, inquit, est locus apud me, et stabis supra petram. 22And when my glory shall pass, I will set thee in a hole of the rock, and protect thee with my right hand till I pass:E quando passerà (per colà) la mia gloria, io ti porrò nella bocca di quel masso, e ti adombrerò colla mia destra, fin a tanto ch'io sia passato.And when my glorie shal passe, I wil sette thee in a hole of the rocke, and protect thee with my right hand, vntil I passe:Cumque transibit gloria mea, ponam te in foramine petræ, et protegam dextera mea, donec transeam: 23And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face thou canst not see.E ritirerò la mia mano, e vedrai il mio tergo: ma la faccia mia non potrai vederla.and I wil take away my hand, and thou shalt see my backe-partes: but my face thou canst not see.tollamque manum meam, et videbis posteriora mea: faciem autem meam videre non poteris.
33:1
Calmet
This place. Mount Sinai, (Menochius) or the tabernacle, ver. 7. (Calmet)
33:3
Haydock
I will not go: "in majesty" (Chaldean) and "brightness," Arabic. The angel shall go in his own name, and shall not perform such great miracles. My tabernacle shall be removed to a respectful distance, lest, not being able to endure the barefaced impiety of the people, I slay you in my fury. God addresses Moses, as the representative of the nation, (Menochius) and adopts the language of men, appearing as a king, who cannot bear to be insulted to his face. (Haydock)
33:4
Menochius
Ornaments. Chaldean and Syriac, "arms." They had brought jewels, etc., out of Egypt. (Menochius)
33:5
Pagnin
Once, etc. "In a moment." (Pagnin.)
Shall destroy, if you prove rebellious any more, as I foresee you will.
Lay aside, as you have done.
Menochius
To thee, according to the measure of your repentance or negligence. (Menochius)
33:6
Salien
By Horeb, or at the foot of the mount. Some think they put them on no more in the wilderness; (Calmet) or at least till they had obtained the tables of the law again, in testimony of God's reconciliation with them. (Salien.)
33:7
Menochius
Tabernacle: not that which God had described, which was set up later, (chap. 40.) but one destined for public and private prayer. (Menochius)
Thalmud and Villet
Afar, a thousand yards. (Thalmud and Villet.)
Tirinus
Covenant; or alliance, which God had entered into with the people. (Tirinus)
The Hebrew may signify, "of the assembly or congregation," because there the people met to hear the divine doctrine explained, and to offer up their prayers.
Haydock
Camp. Thus were the people reminded of their excommunication, or separation, from the God whom they had so wantonly abandoned, and whose protection and presence were their only support and comfort. (Haydock)
Tirinus
The record of the covenant was also probably torn, as Moses was ordered to write it again, Exodus 34:27. (Tirinus)
33:8
Haydock
Rose up, out of respect to their prince, who was not their mediator also. (Haydock)
33:9
Menochius
He spoke. The angel, conducting the pillar, spoke in God's name. (Menochius)
33:10
Calmet
And worshipped. This the Samaritan copy omits. The people bowed towards Moses and the angel. (Calmet)
33:11
Challoner
Face to face. That is, in a most familiar manner. Though, as we learn from this very chapter, Moses could not see the face of the Lord. (Challoner)
Haydock
The angel assumed a human form, (Menochius) which Moses knew could not fully display the majesty of God; and hence he begs to see his face, or his glory, (ver. 13, 18,) which God declares is impossible for any mortal to do, ver. 20. (Haydock)
He addresses him, however, with unusual condescension, and speaks to him without any ambiguity, "without any medium," as the Arabic expresses it. Other prophets were instructed by visions, and were filled with terror, Daniel 10:8.
Tirinus
Young man, though 50 years old, and the general who defeated the Amalecites, Exodus 17:13. Puer means a servant also, in which capacity Josue waited on Moses, and was alone allowed to be present with him in the tabernacle. He did not sleep there, (Calmet) but guarded it from all profanation. Some say he was still called young, because he was unmarried; in which sense the Chaldean styles him hullema, which corresponds with the Hebrew halma, a virgin. (Serarius) (Tirinus)
33:12
Haydock
To the Lord. This conversation probably took place on Mount Horeb, (ver. 22,) after God had threatened that he would not go up with the people, Exodus 32:34. And here (ver. 3,) Moses, considering that God would thus withdraw his special providence from his people, begins to expostulate with him; and first, having mentioned with gratitude, the repeated kindnesses of God towards himself, he begs to be informed what angel shall accompany him, and then proceeds to beg that God would still shew his wonted favour to the penitent Hebrews, and conduct them himself, as he had done before the transgression. We do not read before, that God said to Moses, I know thee by name; (St. Augustine, q. 193,) but he had used that expression in some conversation with him, as he did afterwards, ver. 17. (Haydock)
33:13
Face. Hebrew, "way." Be thou our guide.
Salien
Thy people. Acknowledge them again. Moses begs not for any special favour for himself, but only for the Hebrews. (Salien.)
33:14
Face. Arabic, "light." Syriac, "walk in my presence," and fear not. The Messias is called the angel of his face, Isaias 63:9.
Calmet
Rest. I will grant thy request. (Calmet)
33:15
Thyself. Moses desires a farther explanation, or a positive assurance that God would conduct them.
By all, ab omnibus, distinguished in glory from all others. (Chaldean)
33:18
Calmet
Glory, or face, ver. 13, 20. The angel was robed in darkness, which Moses begs may be removed. Tertullian supposes, he wished to behold the Messias. Many think he desired to contemplate the divine essence. (St. Augustine, q. 161.; Philo; etc.) But, could he be ignorant that such a request could not be granted? (Calmet)
Haydock
God promised to shew him all good, or the beatific vision after death. (Haydock)
33:19
Calmet
All good, that could reasonably be desired. "I will pass before thee in all my glory," (Septuagint) and principally in my beneficence, Exodus 34:6, 7. (Calmet)
Menochius
I will shew thee what great favours I have in reserve for Israel. Divines dispute whether Moses saw the divine essence. (St. Thomas Aquinas, 1. p, q. 12, a. 11.) (Menochius)
Tirinus
If he requested to do so now, it seems to be denied, ver. 20. and John 1:17. (Tirinus)
Menochius
Proclaim, etc. When I pass, I will repeat some of my glorious titles, and particularly that I am merciful. (Menochius)
Calmet
Yet I will shew mercy with discretion, and will punish some of you. (Calmet)
33:20
Menochius
My face, even in my assumed form. (Menochius)
Haydock
The effulgence would cause death, as was commonly believed, Genesis 13:16. To behold the divine essence, we must be divested of our mortal body, 1 Corinthians 2:9. (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, or. 49.) (Haydock)
33:23
Challoner
See my back parts. The Lord, by his angel, usually spoke to Moses in the pillar of the cloud, so that he could not see the glory of Him that spoke familiarly with him. In the vision here mentioned, he was allowed to see something of Him, in an assumed corporeal form: not in the face, the rays of which were too bright for mortal eye to bear, but to view Him as it were behind, when his face was turned from him. (Challoner)
Du Hamel
Thus our curiosity is repressed. (Du Hamel)
Iliad. N. Grotius
Servius observes, on Virgil, that the "gods mostly declare themselves by suddenly disappearing. They will not shew their faces." (Iliad. N. Grotius)
Haydock
The rock was Christ, (Du Hamel) in whose sacred humanity we discern, at a distance, the majesty of God. (St. Augustine, q. 154.) Moses saw the hinder parts of God, or what should happen to Jesus Christ in the latter days of the synagogue. (Origen, hom. 12.) By this wonderful vision, God was pleased to declare that he was appeased. (Haydock)
33:11
Face to face.... That is, in a most familiar manner. Though as we learn from this very chapter, Moses could not see the face of the Lord.
33:12
I know thee by name.... In the language of the scriptures, God is said to know such as he approves and loves: and to know by name, those whom he favours in a most singular manner, as he did his servant Moses.
33:23
See my back parts.... The Lord by his angel, usually spoke to Moses in the pillar of the cloud; so that he could not see the glory of him that spoke familiarly with him. In the vision here mentioned he was allowed to see something of him, in an assumed corporeal form: not in the face, the rays of which were too bright for mortal eye to bear, but to view him as it were behind, when his face was turned from him.
33:3
God would not in this passage worke such miracles, as he did, bringing them forth of Aegypt. So it is a comination because they werest ubborne and stiffe necked.
33:19
The vision of God in gloric, is algo•d.
God by his grace maketh his seruants to cal vpon his name. S. Aug. q 154. in Exod.
33:20
None in this life can see God as Saincts do in glorie. 1. Ioan. 3.
33:22
Concordance Rom 9.
33:23
Moyses saw more glorious workes & effectes of God, then other Prophets, yet not his substance and diuine nature. Theodoret. q. 68. in Exod S Hier. de verb. Isa. vidi. Dom. S. Chrysost. ho. 4. de in copie, Dei natura.
33:1
St Barnabas † AD 61 The Epistle of Barnabas 6
… Enter into the good land which the Lord swore [to give] to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and inherit ye it, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
33:2
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.15
… Wherefore also He says to Moses in Exodus: “I will send forth My angel before thee; for I will not go up with thee, because thou art a stiff-necked people.”
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 11.3
… The passage runs thus: God is speaking, “Go, get thee down, guide this people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold Mine Angel shall go before thee in the day when I visit .” And a little while after He says again, “And I will send Mine Angel before thee
33:3
St Barnabas † AD 61 The Epistle of Barnabas 6
… Again, I will show thee how, in respect to us, He has accomplished a second fashioning in these last days. The Lord says, “Behold, I will make the last like the first.” In reference to this, then, the prophet proclaimed, “Enter ye into the land flowing with milk and honey, and have dominion over it.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 54.11
… you have many pearls, buy the one pearl with these. Stand, as Jeremiah says, in more ways than one that so you may come on the true way that leads to the Father. Exchange your love of necklaces and of gems and of silk dresses for earnestness in studying the scriptures. Enter the land of promise that flows with milk and honey.
33:7
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Life of Constantine 2.12
… He pitched the tabernacle of the cross outside and at a distance from his camp, and there passed his time in a pure and holy manner, offering up prayers to God; following thus the example of his ancient prophet, of whom the sacred oracles testify, that he pitched the tabernacle without the camp.
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 63.24
… Let your conversation be there, that you may say: “But our conversation is in heaven.” Therefore did Jesus go forth out of the city, that you going out of this world may be above the world. Moses alone, who saw God, had his tabernacle without the camp when he talked with God;
33:10
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.16
… For as Basil, that much-versed expounder of divine things, says, the honour given to the image passes over to the prototype . Now a prototype is that which is imaged, from which the derivative is obtained. Why was it that the Mosaic people honoured on all hands the tabernacle
33:11
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 14
… (and this they maintain) because in a preceding passage, before He had refused (the sight of) His face to Moses, the Scripture informs us that “the Lord spake face to face with Moses, even as a man speaketh unto his friend;”
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 6.5
5. For thus it is written, my beloved, concerning Moses, that from the time the Holy One was revealed to him, he also loved holiness. And from the time he was sanctified, his wife ministered not to him. But it is thus written:— Joshua, the son of Nun, was the minister of Moses from his childhood .
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood 4
… himself, though they have never so often refused it, have paid such heavy penalties, and if nothing has availed to deliver any of them from this danger, neither Aaron nor Eli, nor that holy man the Saint, the prophet, the wonder worker, the meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth, who spake with God, as a man speaketh unto his friend,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.16
… And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shall stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee into a watch-tower of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 3
… What did Moses see? Moses saw a cloud, he saw an angel, he saw a fire. All that is the creature: it bore the type of its Lord, but did not manifest the presence of the Lord Himself. For thou hast it plainly stated in the law: “And Moses spake with the Lord face to face, as a friend with his friend.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
Eran. —Yet we hear the divine scripture saying God appeared unto Abraham at the oak of Mamre; and Isaiah says “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up,” and the same thing is said by Micah, by Daniel and Ezekiel. And of the lawgiver Moses it is related that “The Lord spake to Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend,”
33:12
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 20.1
… but “knowledge” is not always to be understood of skill and acquaintance with anything, but of the disposition towards what is agreeable,—as “the Lord knoweth them that are His ”; and He says to Moses, “I knew thee above all
33:13
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.22
… Then at the last He says, “And then thou shalt see my back.”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 14
Moreover, there comes to our aid, when we insist upon the Father and the Son as being Two , that regulating principle which has determined God to be invisible. When Moses in Egypt desired to see the face of the Lord, saying, “If therefore I have found grace in Thy sight, manifest Thyself unto me, that I may see Thee and know Thee,”
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 10.7
… And again: By faith Moses forsook Egypt , and shortly after he says, accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt . This Moses says to Him, Shew me Thyself . Thou seest that the Prophets also in those times saw the Christ, that is, as far as each was able. Shew me Thyself, that I may see Thee with understanding
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 15
… ( c. xii. 41 .) What also to Ezekiel? for he too beheld Him sitting above the Cherubim. ( Ezek. i. and x .) What to Daniel? for he too saith, “The Ancient of days did sit” ( Dan. vii. 9 .) What to Moses himself, saying, “Show me Thy Glory, that I may see Thee so as to know Thee.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 10.13
… Nevertheless it is He Himself who was seen under that form, as that thought itself is heard in the sound of the voice; and the patriarchs recognized that, though the bodily form was not God, they saw the invisible God. For, though Moses conversed with God, yet he said, “If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thyself, that I may see and know Thee.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 53.12
… For he saw Him, not as He is, but in some symbolical way to suit the form that the vision of the prophet had itself to assume. For Moses likewise saw Him, and yet we find him saying to Him whom he saw, “If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thyself, that I may clearly see Thee;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 139.6
… Moses, the holy servant of God, with whom God spake by a cloud, for, speaking after human fashion, He must needs speak to His servant through some work of His hands which He assumed,…longed and desired to see the true appearance of God, and said to God, who was conversing with him, “If now I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thyself.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius 5.13
… and to hear the things which ye hear and have not heard them.” And so the prophet Isaiah says: “O that Thou, Lord, would rend the heavens and come down,” and David too: “O Lord, bow the heavens and come down.” Moses also says: “Show me Thyself that I may see Thee plainly.”
33:14
St Melito of Sardis † AD 180 Melito, the Philosopher 9
The face of the Lord —His manifestation. In Exodus, “My face shall go before thee;”
33:15
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 13.26
… ones, pointed out by our Saviour, are under the stewardship as of nursing-fathers and nursing-mothers, on this account I think that Moses, who believed that he had been already assigned a place among the ranks of the great, said, with regard to the promise, “My angel shall go before you,” “If thou thyself do not go along with me, carry me not up hence.”
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 11.3
… day when I visit .” And a little while after He says again, “And I will send Mine Angel before thee .” Then, a little after what immediately follows, comes the supplication to God on the part of His servant, running on this wise, “If I have found grace in Thy sight, let my Lord go among us ,” and again, “If Thou Thyself go not with us, carry me not up hence
33:17
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 10.7
… ‘A great thing,’ saith the Lord, ‘thou desirest, O Moses: and I approve thine insatiable desire, and I will do this thing
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 11.3
… and then the answer of God to Moses, “I will do for thee this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee above all men
33:18
Tertullian † AD 220 On Fasting 6
… while He taught him even then (by experience) that man liveth not upon bread alone, but upon every word of God; in that the People, though fatter than he, could not constantly contemplate even Moses himself, fed as he had been upon God, nor his leanness, sated as it had been with His glory!
33:19
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 10.8
8. Now here I wish you to make safe what I am going to say, because of the Jews. For our object is to prove that the Lord Jesus Christ was with the Father. The Lord then says to Moses, I will pass by before thee with My glory, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.76
… the majesty, and the height, and the dignity, and the pure natures scarce able to contain the brightness of God, Whom the deep covers, Whose secret place is darkness, since He is the purest light, which most men cannot approach unto; Who is in all this universe, and again is beyond the universe; Who is all goodness,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 1.13
133. And Scripture makes clear that that which is the Father’s Name, the same is also that of the Son, for the Lord said in Exodus: “I will go before thee in My Name, and will call by My Name the Lord before thee.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 16
Ver. 15 . “For I will have mercy, He says, on whom I will have mercy, and I will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Enchiridion 98
… As it is, however, after answering, “God forbid;” that is, God forbid that there should be unrighteousness with God; he goes on to prove that there is no unrighteousness in God’s doing this, and says: “For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Patience 18
… For their good works did not come before God’s mercy, but followed it. For to them was it said, and by them written, long ere Christ was come in the flesh, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 1.51
… “God,” says he, “calls whomsoever He deigns, and whom He wills He makes religious.” See whether this is not the prophet’s own declaration: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and will show pity on whom I will be pitiful;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.10
… theirs, I perceived that for this reason they either think, or wish it to be thought, that we assert fate under the name of grace, because we say that God’s grace is not given in respect of our merits, but according to His own most merciful will, in that He said, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
33:20
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 1.19
… And, “There is none that understandeth, or that seeketh after God: they have all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable,” they maintain to be said concerning ignorance of Bythus. Also that which is spoken by Moses, “No man shall see God and live,”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.20.5
… The prophets, then, indicated beforehand that God should be seen by men; as the Lord also says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” But in respect to His greatness, and His wonderful glory, “no man shall see God and live,”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.20.9
… “Stand in the deep place of the rock, and with My hand I will cover thee. But when My splendour shall pass by, then thou shalt see My back parts, but My face thou shalt not see: for no man sees My face, and shall live.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.20.11
… But when John could not endure the sight (for he says, “I fell at his feet as dead;” that what was written might come to pass: “No man sees God, and shall live”
Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 9
… therefore the man who was being prepared to act as images of this sacrament was inaugurated under the figure of the Lord’s name, even so as to be named Jesus. For He who ever spake to Moses was the Son of God Himself; who, too, was always seen . For God the Father none ever saw, and lived.
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.27
… It is He who descends, He who interrogates, He who demands, He who swears. With regard, however, to the Father, the very gospel which is common to us will testify that He was never visible, according to the word of Christ: “No man knoweth the Father, save the Son.” For even in the Old Testament He had declared, “No man shall see me, and live.”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.19
… He must not be regarded, however, as making any difference between a visible and an invisible God; because long before he wrote this we find a description of our God to this effect: “No man can see the Lord, and live.”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 14
… When Moses in Egypt desired to see the face of the Lord, saying, “If therefore I have found grace in Thy sight, manifest Thyself unto me, that I may see Thee and know Thee,” God said, “Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live:”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 15
… “No man hath seen God at any time;” meaning, of course, at any previous time. But he has indeed taken away all question of time, by saying that God had never been seen. The apostle confirms this statement; for, speaking of God, he says, “Whom no man hath seen, nor can see;” because the man indeed would die who should see Him.
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 24
… The Father indeed was invisible, as Philip had learnt in the law, and ought at the moment to have remembered: “No man shall see God, and live.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 2.4.3
… In this way, then, Moses too must be supposed to have seen God, not beholding Him with the bodily eye, but understanding Him with the vision of the heart and the perception of the mind, and that only in some degree. For it is manifest that He, viz., who gave answers to Moses, said, “You shall not see My face, but My hinder parts.”
Novatian † AD 258 A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity 18
Behold, the same Moses tells us in another place that “God was seen of Abraham.” And yet the same Moses hears from God, that “no man can see God and live.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.16
… for all of them are works as He is. But if it be impossible for things originate either to see or to know, for the sight and the knowledge of Him surpasses all (since God Himself says, ‘No one shall see My face and live
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Three Homilies 1.29
29. But what shall we say about the Lord of the Angel, Who said to Moses,— No man shall see Me and live ?
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 9.1
… And when he saw merely the likeness of the glory , and not the glory itself, he fell to the earth from fear. Now if the sight of the likeness of the glory brought fear and distress upon the prophets, any one who should attempt to behold God Himself would to a certainty lose his life, according to the saying, No man shall see My face and live
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 10.7
… This Moses says to Him, Shew me Thyself . Thou seest that the Prophets also in those times saw the Christ, that is, as far as each was able. Shew me Thyself, that I may see Thee with understanding . But He saith, There shall no man see My face, and live
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 10.1
… And how can the word hold good, “No man hath seen God at any time ” and, “Whom no man hath seen nor can see ” and, “There shall no man see the face of the Lord and live
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.19
236. Moses is prevented from seeing the face of God; Arius merited to see it in secret. Moses and Aaron among His Priests. Moses who appeared with the Lord in glory, that Moses then saw only the back parts of God in appearance; Arius beholds God wholly face to face! But “no one,” it says, “can see My face and live.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 74
… Wherefore Christ said, “No man hath seen God at any time” ( c. i. 18 ); and again, “Every man that hath heard and hath learned from God cometh unto Me.” ( c. vi. 45 .) “Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape.” ( c. v. 37 .) And in the Old Testament, “No man shall see My face, and live.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 3.6
… But if you think that God is seen by those who are pure in heart in this world, why did Moses, who had previously said, “I have seen the Lord face to face, and my life is preserved,” afterwards entreat that he might see him distinctly? And because he said that he had seen God, the Lord told him,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 1.5
… “Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” So speak that I may hear. Behold, Lord, the ears of my heart are before Thee; open Thou them, and “say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” When I hear, may I run and lay hold on Thee. Hide not Thy face from me. Let me die, lest I die, if only I may see Thy face.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 139.6
… for no one hath seen My Face, and lived;”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 1.15
… which considerations certainly no one will preserve lastingly, if anything of carnal affections still survives in him, because “thou canst not,” saith the Lord, “see My face: for no man shall see Me and live;”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
… seen the Father.” Wherefore the evangelist plainly exclaims, “No man hath seen God at any time,” and confirms the word of the Lord, for he says, “The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him,” and the great Moses, when he desired to see the invisible nature, heard the Lord God saying, “There shall no man see me and live.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 4.2.12
12. If all mankind shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven, according to the Lord’s own words, and He said to Moses “No man shall see me and live,”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 147
And after the immortality and incorruptibility of His body He called Himself Son of Man, naming Himself from the nature which was seen, inasmuch as the divine nature is indeed invisible to angels, as the Lord Himself had said “No one hath seen God at any time.” And to the great Moses He said “There shall no man see me and live.”
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Sermons 95
… And how great the blessedness of seeing God , what mind can conceive, what tongue declare? And yet this shall ensue when man’s nature is transformed, so that no longer “in a mirror,” nor “in a riddle,” but “face to face ” it sees the very Godhead “as He is ,” which no man could see
Pseudo-Clement The Recognitions of Clement 3.29
… “I call you back to the first question. You said now that God is visible to no one; but when that heaven shall be dissolved, and that superior condition of the heavenly kingdom shall shine forth, then those who are pure in heart shall see God; which statement is contrary to the law, for there it is written that God said, ‘None shall see my face and live.’”
33:21
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 26
… For words applicable to the body are, for the sake of clearness, frequently transferred in scripture to spiritual conceptions. Accordingly we find the Psalmist, even in reference to God, saying “Be Thou to me a champion God and a strong place to save me” and concerning the Spirit “behold there is place by me, and stand upon a rock.”
Early Popes (Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals) The Epistles of Pope Fabian 3.5
… for it is written, “My dove, my undefiled, is but one.” Hence, again, the Lord says to Moses, “There is a place with me ( penes me ), and thou shalt stand upon a rock.”
33:22
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 3
… In His love He multiplied [the days of] the aged Simeon; that he, a mortal, might present Him who quickeneth all. By power from Him did Simeon carry Him; he that presented Him, was by Him presented [to God]. He gave imposition of hands to Moses in the Mount,
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 10.7
… ‘A great thing,’ saith the Lord, ‘thou desirest, O Moses: and I approve thine insatiable desire, and I will do this thing for thee, but according as thou art able. Behold, I will put thee in the clift of the rock
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 12.16
… What strange thing do we announce, when Jacob says, For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved ? The Lord, who ate with Abraham, ate also with us. What strange thing then do we announce? Nay more, we produce two witnesses, those who stood before Lord on Mount Sinai: Moses was in a clift of the rock
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 3.5
33. And yet since we read that the Son is the hand (for it is written: “Hath not My Hand made all these things?” and elsewhere: “I will place thee in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover thee with Mine hand, I have placed My hand under the covering of the rock,”
33:23
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.22
… Then at the last He says, “And then thou shalt see my back.” Not loins, or calves of the legs, did he want to behold, but the glory which was to be revealed in the latter days.
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.23.6
… Therefore also, being equal to God, He ‘thought it not a prize to be equal to God;’ and again since the Godhead and the Form of the Son is none other’s than the Father’s
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 28
… I was running to lay hold on God, and thus I went up into the Mount, and drew aside the curtain of the Cloud, and entered away from matter and material things, and as far as I could I withdrew within myself. And then when I looked up, I scarce saw the back parts of God;
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.19
236. Moses is prevented from seeing the face of God;
33:1
Namely, when Moses had now ascended into Mount Sinai a second time, as was said in chapter xxxii, verse 31, in which he remained continuously for as many days as he had remained before, namely 40, seeking pardon for the sin of the people, and at the end of these second 40 days he received the second tablets of the law (for he had already broken the first ones in chapter xxxii, verse 19), as is evident from chapter xxxiv, verse 28, and Deuteronomy ix, 18, and x, 1. Go, etc., into the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God expressly swore to Abraham alone that He would give him Chanaan; but to Isaac and Jacob He only promised it, yet in a similar form as to Abraham, or by referring back to what had been done with Abraham: therefore by promising them the same thing which He had promised to Abraham, and by ratifying and confirming that, He implicitly swore to them the same thing which He had sworn to Abraham.
33:2
It is an apostrophe of God to the people; for a little before God had spoken to Moses: but here He turns Himself to the people, and speaks to Moses as if to the intermediary of the people and sustaining his person. A precursor angel, who shall go before thee in the pillar of cloud and fire, and who, going before thee, shall terrify the Chanaanites, and shall prepare for thee against them a way to victory, so namely that this angel shall not represent the person of God, as he has done hitherto, but shall represent his own person, and shall be called an angel, not God, and consequently shall accompany thee only in an angelic manner, and with simple guardianship, as thy guardian; but shall not perform those illustrious miracles, which he has hitherto performed by the power and might of God, as sustaining and representing the name and person of God.
33:3
I will not accompany thee, I will not be present to thee as I have been hitherto, namely through that singular patronage, and through the operation of so many signs and miracles. For spiritual things are most felt to be present through their own operation and that which is commensurate to them. Thus Abulensis, and it is gathered from the Chaldean in verse 16. Thou art a stiff-necked people, that is to say, Thou art a stubborn people, disobedient, refractory: hence lest thou provoke me to anger, I am unwilling to accompany thee, but I will send an angel who shall lead thee. This is an enallage of persons and a change of discourse, which is frequently obvious among the Hebrews. Lest perhaps I destroy thee, lest I avenge upon thee thy great ingratitude, and the irreverence toward me and my majesty, as the Chaldean has it, which thou hast committed, if namely I, by so many miracles showing myself present to thee, and so clement, and caring for thee and loving thee, am nevertheless neglected by thee, despised, and put after idols, as I was already put after the calf.
33:4
Mourned: And no one put on his ornaments according to custom. What is here said of the people is inserted not in its proper order. For they interrupt the continuous discourse of God with Moses, which took place during those second 40 days on the mountain. And so Moses here, in his manner, intersperses into the discourse of God a narrative consonant with the words of God, namely what the people said and did in response to the words of the Lord, when they heard them: which happened not on the same day on which the Lord had said these things to Moses, but after 40 days of Moses' discourse with God on Sinai, when namely, those days having elapsed, Moses came down from the mountain, and told the people what he had done with the Lord, and what God had said. For hearing these things, the people, knowing that God was still hostile to them on account of the idol of the calf, mourned, and put off their ornament, and, as the Septuagint translates, they mourned in mourning garments, that is, they mourned in mournful, namely garments. There is therefore here a hysteron proteron: for Moses remained on the mountain with the Lord for full 40 days, and did not come down from it except on the 39th day, so that he might grieve over the tablets; and immediately on the same day he ascended into the mountain again, and on the following 40th day, God inscribed the Decalogue on the tablets, as will be evident in the following chapter. Thus Abulensis.
33:5
Namely at the same time as verses 1, 2, 3, He spoke to Moses: whence also God repeats and impresses upon them here the same things He had said there, so that He might bend the Hebrews more toward repentance; it is evident from what is said in verse 4. Once I shall ascend, and I will destroy thee. This is a grave rebuke, as if to say: If I once rush upon thee, I will utterly destroy thee. Now therefore put off thy ornament. From this it is evident that the Hebrews shortly before verse 4 had not put off their ornament, but it is said there by anticipation; otherwise indeed afterwards they would not be commanded in this verse to put off their ornament, if they had already put it off. This ornament consisted of clean and festive garments, which they had put on when about to receive the law at Sinai, chapter xix, verse 10, and up to this point they had not put off, inasmuch as God was still speaking with them through Moses. Whence the Septuagint translates: Take away the stoles of your glory. Thus Oleaster and others. The Chaldean, however, explains it thus: Put off thy ornament, that is thy weapons of war. Hieronymus Prado adds in Ezech. XXIV, page 312, and others, as I said in chapter xxxii, 25, that by ornament here is understood golden or linen crowns, which the Hebrews had placed upon themselves at Sinai, so that they might be a symbol of their espousal with God. Whence the Hebrew עָדִי adi, stoles, veils, silken garments, necklaces, crowns, and similar ornament, which is affixed and applied to garments, signifies more than the garments themselves adorned, that is elegant, precious and festive. Note: Just as a master commands a servant who has sinned, whom he has determined to beat, to be stripped: so here God wished Israel to strip itself as it were, and present itself naked to God to be beaten with scourges, so that in this habit of humility and repentance, it might obtain pardon. Thus those who formerly did public penance in the Church, having put off their ornament and clothed themselves in haircloth, offered themselves to the priests as guilty parties for punishment and discipline. That I may know what to do to thee. That, seeing thy repentance, I may determine what punishment, whether light or more severe, I ought to inflict upon thee hereafter.
33:6
Both from their spontaneous mourning, and urged by the command of the Lord. Again here the discourse of God with Moses is interrupted by the historical narration of what God had commanded: for this putting off of ornament took place after 40 days, when Moses returned from the mountain and from God to the people. From the mount Horeb to the mount Horeb (there is an enallage of the preposition), namely standing near Horeb or Sinai, where God, offended on account of the calf, appeared.
33:7
Note, these things also and the following up to verse 12 are said by anticipation, and should be inserted in their proper order after chapter xxxiv. That this is so is evident first from the fact that these are connected to the preceding putting off of ornament, as if these things were done at the same time: but the putting off of ornament took place after 40 days, namely when Moses had already come down from the mountain. For Moses wished to narrate and join these things together, as signs of repentance, by which the people showed that it repented of its idol. For by the very fact that the tabernacle was pitched outside the camp, the camp was stripped of its highest splendor, and appeared to be as it were excommunicated. The same thing is evident, secondly, from the fact that it is said here that at that time this tabernacle of the covenant was called by that name, namely from the second tablets of the law, by which the covenant was renewed, which Moses deposited in this tabernacle, as God's dwelling place. For it is certain that Moses did not receive these second tablets of the covenant confirming it before the 40 days already mentioned. Thirdly, because Moses ascended a second time to the mountain in the preceding chapter, verse 31; and there remained for 40 continuous days, as is evident in the following chapter, verse 28. Therefore the things which are interjected here took place after these 40 days, when Moses had already come down from the mountain; unless you say that these 40 days were interrupted by one day, on which Moses came down from the mountain and did with the people those things which are narrated here from verse 4 to 12. But this is not probable: for Moses, in the following chapter, verse 28, indicates sufficiently that he was with God in the mountain for 40 continuous days and nights. Thus Abulensis. Tabernacle. This tabernacle was not that which the Lord commanded to be made in chapter xxvi, and which is narrated to have been made and erected after this in chapter XL, in which the urn with manna, the ark and the Cherubim were deposited: for none of these things had been fabricated at this time; but this was a small tent of Moses, inasmuch as he was the leader of the people: whence the elders were accustomed to gather in it to hold council with Moses; over this tabernacle also the pillar of cloud rested, which was the guide of the journey. Finally, God exhibited Himself to be seen at the door of this tabernacle by a cloud, and there spoke with Moses in the sight of the people, and gave answers, as is said here. When this tabernacle was made is uncertain. From what has been said it is credible that it was made at the same time as the pillar of cloud was given by God to the camp of the Hebrews, chapter xiii, 21. The use of this tabernacle ceased when the other splendid one was made, which the Lord commanded to be made in chapter xxvi, and which was made and erected in chapter XL. Whence the Chaldean calls this tabernacle the house of doctrine, because in it Moses was taught by God in matters and cases concerning which he consulted Him.
33:8
All the people rose up, as if by rising and standing showing reverence to God, and to Moses holding the place of God, and to their head and ruler.
33:9
Namely, the pillar of cloud which went before, that is, the angel, who was covered by the pillar of cloud; and this one bore the place of God. Whence in verse 11 it is said the Lord spoke, namely not by himself, but through this angel who presided over the cloud. But this was done so that the people would revere Moses, and would know that he was uttering not his own, but God's commandments.
33:10
That is to say, each one adored God standing, or rather falling upon his knees at the entrance of his tabernacle, turning himself toward the tabernacle of Moses, in which the angel in the place of God was speaking with Moses through the pillar of cloud.
33:11
The Chaldean: word to word; the Septuagint: ἐνώπιος ἐνωπίῳ, face to face, facial to facial. Wherefore it is probable that this angel appeared to Moses in bodily and human form, and spoke with him; whom nevertheless Moses, recognizing him not to be a man, but an angel bearing the place of God, heard with the greatest humility and reverence and answered him. Tropologically, St. Jerome in Psalm cxxxiii: The Lord Jesus has, he says, those who minister to him as it were face to face, namely monks and virgins; he has others serving him as it were in the fields, namely the laity. His minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a boy, did not depart from the tabernacle. Joshua is called here "a boy," not in age: for he had already presided over the war against Amalec in chapter xvii; but in obedience, innocence and discipline: for he was a disciple of Moses, and was being instructed by him as the future successor of Moses in the governance of the people. Thus throughout Scripture disciples and servants are called boys, because they are lesser and inferior to the master or lord; and conversely lords and masters are called fathers. Thus Eliseus calls Elias father, saying: "My father, thou art the chariot of Israel and the charioteer thereof;"; thus the servants of Naaman call him father, IV Kings v, 13; thus the servant of Abraham is called a boy, Genesis xviii, 7; thus Giezi is called the boy of Eliseus; thus David speaks to boys, that is to his servants, and throughout the books of Kings servants are called boys. Joshua therefore did not depart from the tabernacle, so that he might as it were guard the sacred place in Moses' absence, and so that he might preserve the tables of the law; at the same time he was devoted to prayer and contemplation. Concerning the departure of Moses from the tabernacle to the camp, see the tropology in St. Gregory, part II of the Pastoral, chapter v: "Those," he says, "who preside over others ought often to consult the Lord, and yet not so desire the Lord in contemplation that they do not also descend downward with mercy to his members."
33:12
Scripture returns to the interrupted narrative of the colloquy of the Lord with Moses; therefore these things are to be connected with verse 5. Thou commandest me to lead forth this people; and thou dost not show me whom thou wilt send with me. The Lord had said to Moses: "My angel shall go before thee," but he had not designated a certain one. But Moses, not content with the guidance and company of an angel, wished that God himself would accompany him, and would be the leader of the camps: this Moses here asks modestly, and therefore ambiguously and in general terms, saying: "Thou dost not show me whom thou wilt send"; and with the discourse growing and his spirit likewise, and with greater freedom he explains it more clearly when he adds in verse 13: "Show me thy face," that is to say, Send that one with us, let thy face lead us, and go before us on the way. Rupertus and Lipomanus think that Moses is asking that God send Christ: for he is the one who is to be sent. But this is not the literal sense. Especially since thou hast said: I know thee by name: the Septuagint: I know thee beyond all, that is to say, I have chosen thee before all and love thee, and thou pleasest me.
33:13
Hebrew: show me thy way, that is, so that thou thyself and thy face may go before us on the way and show it to us: for this is thy way. Whence the Septuagint translates it, show me thyself manifestly, or, knowably. Wherefore Eugubinus unjustly criticizes the Septuagint and our Interpreter here. Hence it is clear that Moses did not ask here for a vision of God, or of the divine essence, as St. Augustine seems to wish, in epistle 112, and in book II on the Trinity, chapter xvi, and St. Gregory, book XVIII of the Morals, xxxvi, and St. Thomas, in II Corinthians xii; for shortly after Moses will ask for a clearer vision of God, which God will deny to him, since he grants these prior petitions of his. That I may know thee, that I may know thee to be placated and propitious and present to me and the people.
33:14
That is, I myself will go before thee; for this is what Moses had asked in verse 13, namely that not an angel, but God himself would be present and would go before the camp of the Hebrews. God granted this to Moses here, whence the Chaldean translator renders it, my majesty will go before thee. Therefore the interpretation of Rupert and Abulensis is foreign to the mind of Scripture, who understand by face some primary angel, who is called the angel of faces, because he stands near to God. God uses the name of face; for he does not say I, but, "my face will go before thee." First, because, as St. Gregory says, in book XVIII of the Morals, II, by face is designated knowledge and familiarity, as if to say, I will go before thee with my face familiarly and continually through whatever difficulties, and the way, however impassable it may seem, I will show easy and open. Second, because by the name of face the respect of grace is designated, which was about to lead the Hebrews happily into the promised land. Here therefore God granted to Moses what he had asked, and indeed here he shows himself altogether reconciled to the people, and grants his former presence for illustrious victories, and for great and miraculous and divine works to be done for the Hebrews; but God accomplished these things not immediately by himself, but through an angel presiding over the column, and leader of the army of the Hebrews, to whom he delegated his functions, and whom he so equipped with his power and authority, that not an angel, but God is said and seen to go before the camp; for this alone Moses asked, and this he obtained. And I will give thee rest, so that, supported in the midst of enemies by my presence, by signs and miracles, secure in my aid thou mayest rest, and at length as victor thou mayest arrive at the promised land, and possess it in peace.
33:15
For if thou thyself dost not go before, the Hebrew, Chaldean and Septuagint have: If thy face do not go before; whence it is clear that Moses here asked for nothing other than confirmation of what the Lord had already granted; but to explain it more fully and urgently, both because he was delighted by divine conversation, and desired to enjoy it longer, concerning which see St. Ambrose, book III, epistle 11 to Irenaeus, discoursing piously and beautifully; and because the vehemence of his desire for the salvation of the people incited him to this: for Moses feared lest in some way the Lord, angered again, would deny and revoke what he had promised: whence also in the following chapter, verse 9, he asks the same thing again; and finally because Moses was laboring with another petition in verse 18, to which in order to pave the way, he insists on this longer.
33:16
The Chaldean translator renders it, whereby we shall know that we have found grace before thee, unless thy majesty shall walk with us, so that miracles may be done for us, and we may be separated from every people of the earth? Thou seest here that Moses by "the face of God" asked for nothing other than illustrious miracles and works of God; whence also it follows: That we may be glorified by all peoples. Hebr. niphlinu can be translated in three ways: first, that we may be glorified; second, that we may be separated; third, that we may be made wonderful: whence the Chaldean translator renders it aptly and beautifully, so that miracles may be done for us; for to this end Moses asked not for an angel, but for God himself as leader of the way: and God granted this to him, giving him an angel, who would bear and exercise not the name, person and power of an angel, but of God.
33:17
That is to say, I confirm more expressly here what you asked for more expressly and repeated, although I had already conceded the same thing tacitly before, namely that I may glorify you through signs and miracles, in the sight of all nations, and this from now on, so that you do not depart from this place except under my guidance, direction and protection, but through an angel, to whom I entrust my authority. Let princes and Prelates learn here morally, and each of the faithful, how much they ought to seek God's guidance and direction in all things, as Moses does here: for thus all things will turn out prosperously for them. Thus David prays, Psalm 118, 133: "Direct my steps according to thy word;" and Psalm 24, verse 4: "Show me thy ways, O Lord, and teach me thy paths;" whence I Kings 18, 14, it is said of him: "And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him." While Saul was persecuting him, he composed many psalms, in which he begs to be protected and guided by God; and thus he escaped the hand of Saul, was made king, and most happily defeated the Syrians, Philistines, Ammonites and all his enemies. Thus Solomon begs to be guided by God: "Give me wisdom, the seat-mate of thy throne, for I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid, a weak man," etc. Wisdom 9, 4. He likewise admonishes, saying: "In all thy ways think upon him (God), and he shall direct thy steps," Proverbs 3, verse 6; and chapter 16, verse 9: "The heart of man disposeth his way: but the Lord must direct his steps." Thus King Jehoshaphat, surrounded by enemies, prays: "As we know not what to do, we have only this left, that we direct our eyes to thee;" and thus he obtained a remarkable victory from God, II Paralipomenon 20, 12. Let us imitate him when placed in dangers, in straits, in doubts and perplexities, and let us have recourse to God with our whole heart, and we shall experience a like help, light and direction from God. For this reason Tobias teaches his son, saying chapter 4, verse 20: "Bless God at all times; and ask of him that thy ways may be directed, and that all thy counsels may abide in him;" and thus the son, taking Raphael the angel as his guide on the way, obtained Sarah as a wife, great riches and all prosperity, and moreover his father's sight was restored. Hence also Cassian admonishes us to pray before each action: "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me." Whence the Church herself prays this very thing at the beginning of each of the canonical Hours; and in the morning daily at Prime with David she prays: "Let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us, and direct the works of our hands upon us, and direct the work of our hands." And at Prime, Terce, Sext, None, she recites Psalm 118, in which the Psalmist prays that God may direct our ways in his law. The reason is, first, because, as Solomon says, Wisdom 9, 14: "The thoughts of mortal men are fearful, and our counsels are uncertain:" therefore they must be directed by the supreme prudence of God, and his direction must be earnestly sought. Secondly, because it pertains to God's providence to direct the actions of all creatures, especially of men: and this is his object. Wherefore he who arrogates this to himself, as if he could be wise without God and could wisely direct himself and his actions, usurps God's office and does him injury. Thirdly, because God alone knows future events, both absolutely and conditionally, that is to say, what will happen if I do this or that, or do not do it; what I would do in this or that matter, in this or that place, time, state, condition, and especially whether I would live well, persevere, and be saved, or live badly and be damned. Therefore let him who is wise have recourse to God, and pray continually: O Lord, who hast foreknowledge and providence of all things, direct me rightly unto salvation, through those ways which have no stumbling-block of sin, through those paths by which thou knowest I shall surely come to the glory to which thou hast created me; and turn away and keep from me those ways which, if I should enter upon them, thou knowest I would sin and be damned; for on this hinges the pivot of salvation, on this depends my election or reprobation, my glory or damnation. Thus the pious Abraham was directed by God, safe and blessed through all the ways of his pilgrimage. Thus Jacob was directed, concerning whom the Wise Man says, chapter x: "This (wisdom of God) led the just man through right ways, and showed him the kingdom of God (in Bethel), and gave him knowledge of holy things, and honored (that is, enriched) him in his labors, and completed his labors." Thus Joseph was directed by God, concerning whom in the same chapter it is said: "This (wisdom) did not forsake the just man when sold, etc., until it brought him the scepter of the kingdom, etc., and gave him eternal glory." Thus Moses was directed with the Hebrews through the Red Sea, through the desert with an angel as guide, the pillar presiding for 40 years, until they reached the promised land. Thus Joshua was directed in all the wars by which he destroyed the Canaanites. Thus Judas Maccabaeus was directed, fighting with few against many, and always conquering, because he always implored God's guidance before battle, except in the last one in which he fell. Thus Gregory Thaumaturgus was directed, who, relying on faith in God, successfully accomplished all that he undertook, and often through miracles: and so when he came to Neocaesarea as bishop, finding there only 17 faithful, when he died he left in it only 17 infidels. Thus Theodosius, Charlemagne, Charles V, and other pious kings and princes were directed in wars, which they waged most successfully against the Church's and their own enemies.
33:18
Moses had asked, verse 13, saying: "Show me thy face:" God granted this to him; here he asks further, saying: "Show me thy glory;" but God denies and refuses this. You will ask, what glory of God does Moses seek to see here? Philo, On Monarchy, understands by glory the ideas and powers which are in God and in the mind of God. Secondly, Tertullian understands by it the glory of the humanity of Christ, which he himself showed in the transfiguration, on Mount Tabor before Moses and Elijah, concerning which more will be said shortly. Thirdly, others understand by glory the divine essence, as if Moses had asked to see this. Thus St. Jerome, or whoever is the author of the Commentary on St. Mark, last chapter; Rupert, Lipomanus and St. Augustine, book XII On Genesis according to the letter, chapter xxvii, and Suarez, On God triune and one, book II, chapter xxx, number 13. Indeed St. Ambrose, in Psalm cxviii, sermon 8, seems to hold that Moses asked to see the essence of God with bodily eyes: "The holy prophet of the Lord knew, he says, that he could not see the invisible God face to face; but holy devotion exceeds measure. He thought therefore that even this was possible for God, that he would make what is incorporeal to be comprehended by bodily eyes. A grateful and insatiable desire, that he wished to hold his Lord in his hand, and to see him with the gaze of his eyes." But St. Ambrose seems to speak of the vision of the divine essence, not in itself, but in some idea, form or embodied figure. For he himself seems to have held that God's substance cannot be seen by anyone, not even by the Blessed, immediately as it is in itself, but only by means of some light, shadow, veil, or form. This also seems to have been held by St. Chrysostom Against the Anomaeans, and St. Basil, book I Against Eunomius: for he reproves him because he taught that God's substance as it is in itself can be seen by man: although some limit this, and add "by the powers of nature, and in this life." For this is what Eunomius wanted, namely that he and similar wise men could see, indeed comprehend God as he is in himself by their intellectual acuity and their powers in this life, which the Saints Basil, Chrysostom and Ambrose rightly impugn. But I say, Moses here only asked that the Lord, that is the angel of the Lord sustaining the person, who was covered with darkness while speaking with him, would remove it, so that he could clearly see the glory of him, that is the outward form of his glory; and this so that he might obtain a clearer knowledge of the divine majesty from this vision, and so that he could report and proclaim this glory of God to the people. Thus we saw in chapter III, verse 13, the same Moses asking God to reveal to him the name of God, so that he might set it before the people. For the Lord spoke with Moses in a bodily voice, but was not seen by him because of the darkness: Moses therefore desired to see the form of him who was speaking with him. That Moses asked only this is evident from the Lord's response, saying: "Thou canst not see my face," namely my glory, which thou, O Moses, so greatly desirest to see. Glory therefore is the glorious face, or the glorious body of God, which Moses could not see in the face, but only in the back, as I shall say shortly. Thus Abulensis, Oleaster and others.
33:19
In Hebrew, I will show thee my goodness. Many by this goodness understand the divine essence (for this is all good), which they think Moses saw in this life. Thus feel St. Augustine, epistle 112, chapters xii and xiii; Basil, homily 4 on the Hexaemeron, who nevertheless revokes this in book I Against Eunomius; Ambrose, book I on the Hexaemeron, chapter ii; Lyra, Abulensis, Bede, Hugh, St. Thomas, II II, Question CXXXIV, article 3; Durandus, in IV, distinction 46, Question vi; Sixtus Senensis, book V, chapter xli. But, as I shall show at the end of the chapter, nothing for this opinion of theirs can be gathered from this place. Whence I say: God here grants to Moses that which he himself had asked, saying: "Show me thy glory;" for he calls this here the goodness of God, or all good; therefore good here is the same as excellence, eminence and beauty, that is the glory of God appearing in an assumed body, which in some way reflects the majesty of God, and which is as great as the mortal eye of Moses can receive, as if to say: Thou askest, O Moses, to see my glorious body; I will show it to thee, not in the face, but in the back. Whence the Chaldean renders it, I will cause all my glory to pass over thy face; the Hebrew texts have, I will cause all my goodness to pass before thy face, which is without doubt nothing other than that which is added shortly after: "When my glory shall pass, I will set thee in a cleft of the rock, and thou shalt see my back parts." Thus Abulensis, Oleaster and Molina, who explains it thus: "I will show thee all my goodness," that is the most perfect and most excellent something. And I will call in the name of the Lord. Some read, and I shall be called, that is, and I shall cause myself to be called your God and leader by the miracles which I shall do for you, says Hugh. But the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint and Roman Latin have, and I will call, and this is the true reading, as if to say: "I will call in the name of the Lord," that is I will cry out the name of the Lord; when namely I shall pass before thee hidden and concealed in the rock, I will cry out, that thou mayest know me to pass, and mayest look upon me, and see my back parts; I will cry out, I say, the epithets of the name of God, saying, as it is said in chapter xxxiv, verse 6: "Lord God, merciful and gracious, patient and true," etc., and this that I may teach thee the manner of invoking and beseeching me, and of addressing me by these epithets. This is evident from the Septuagint which renders, I will call, the Lord before thee; and from chapter xxxiv, verse 6, where the Lord grants to Moses that which he here promises to him, which is most clear in the Hebrew, in which in both places the same phrase is: "I will call in the name of the Lord," that is I will call and cry out the epithets already mentioned of the name of the Lord, and by calling them I will teach thee and thine to invoke them. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. The Hebrew, Septuagint, and from them St. Paul, Romans ix, 15, have: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," that is I will have mercy on whom I will, whom it shall please me or I shall wish. This first, thus Abulensis, Vatable and Lipomanus explain it, as if to say: I will show thee all my goodness, not on account of thy merits, but from my liberal clemency and mercy. Second, St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Theodoret, Oecumenius in chapter ix to the Romans thus explain it, as if to say: I the worshippers of the calf, whom I will, through the Levites or by myself will slay; but to others, whom I will spare, I will have mercy and pardon. But I say: the genuine sense of this place is this: I God passing before thee, O Moses, will call and cry out the name of the Lord, saying: "Lord God," and other epithets of God, but especially this: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," that is, I am both merciful and compassionate, but most freely; for I have mercy on whom I will. For this epithet of clemency is expressed in many voices in this passing of God, chapter xxxiv, verse 6, where this voice or calling of God is recounted; for there is fulfilled that which is here promised: for God wills especially by this name of clemency to be invoked by us, and that we strive for it, not by our merits. For it befits and adorns a prince, a royal and divine mind especially with clemency. Therefore both I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me, is to be taken technically or materially: for it depends as it were as an object from the verb I will call. Morally, note here that clemency is a great and divine thing. "Nothing befits clemency more than a prince," says Seneca, in the book On Clemency, in which see many excellent things on this matter; and Cicero, book I of Duties: "Nothing," he says, "is more praiseworthy, nothing more worthy of a great and excellent man than placability and clemency." And Ovid, book III of Tristia, elegy 5: Whoever is greater, is more easily appeased from anger, And a noble mind receives easy movements. It is enough for a magnanimous lion to have prostrated bodies: The fight has its end when the enemy lies fallen. But the wolf and base bears press upon the dying, And whatever beast is lesser in nobility. Julius Caesar used such great clemency toward enemies and rebels that Marius said more than once: "Caesar, those who dare to speak before you are ignorant of your greatness; those who do not dare are ignorant of your humanity and clemency." Augustus Caesar, calling to him Cinna, who was plotting his death: "I," said he, "saved you when found in the camp of enemies, I granted you your entire patrimony, I adorned you with the priesthood: why did you wish to kill me?" When Cinna was disturbed, he ended his speech thus: "I give you life, Cinna, again, first as an enemy, now as a conspirator and parricide. From this day forward let friendship begin between us; let us contend which of us has acted in better faith, whether I in giving you life, or you in owing me life." And he offered him the consulship. Do you wish to know the outcome? He had Cinna as his most devoted friend forever; Cinna alone was his heir. Thus Suetonius in the Life of Augustus. Alexander the Great was as clement a victor as he was a fierce warrior, says Plutarch. Nero the Emperor was so clement at the beginning of his reign that when he had to subscribe to a sentence condemning someone to death, he exclaimed: "Would that I did not know how to write!" Titus the Emperor did not avenge his brother Domitian, who was plotting against him, but admonished him with these words: "Why do you seek to kill me by parricide, when it will come to you by my will, or rather, which you already have, as a sharer of the empire?" Did not Claudian rightly say: When we are overcome by every other gift, clemency alone makes us equal to the gods? Aurelian the Emperor, according to Vopiscus, when he came to Tyana and found it closed, said in anger: "I will not leave a dog in this city." At this word the soldiers were roused in hope of plunder; but when the city was taken, he answered the soldiers: "Come; I said I would not leave a dog, so kill all the dogs," and thus he satisfied his promise and treated his enemies clemently. A certain man had sold glass gems to the wife of the younger Emperor Gallienus as if they were real; when the matter was discovered, the woman demanded vengeance. The Caesar ordered the man to be seized, as if about to throw him to a lion. Then into the arena, while the impostor and the people awaited a terrible lion, a goat leaped out. While all marveled at so ridiculous a thing, he ordered it to be announced by a herald: "He committed a fraud, and he has suffered." By the same clemency he both refuted the impostor and mocked the wife. Thus Trebellius Pollio. Alexander Severus the Emperor, when his wife Memmia and his mother Mammaea objected to him "that his power was cheapened by excessive clemency," answered: "But it is more secure and more lasting." The same Lampridius says that he made Ovimius Camillus, a rebellious senator and one aspiring to tyranny, a partner of the empire and created him Caesar. Rudolph the Emperor, when after a change of character he seemed too clement to his people, said: "I have sometimes repented of being severe and harsh, never of being mild and placable." Thus Aeneas Sylvius, book II of the Commentary on the Deeds of Alfonso. Alonso the king, according to the testimony of Panormitanus, used to say: "I prefer to save many by my clemency than to destroy few by my severity." And to the more rigid: "Do you wish," said he, "that lions and bears should reign?" The same: "The wicked," said he, "are recalled to the path of virtue more quickly by benevolence than by severity. I," said he, "am grateful to the good by justice, but to the wicked by clemency." Sigismund Caesar, according to Aeneas Sylvius in his Life, "used to say that those kings were blessed who, having expelled the proud from the court, gathered the meek to themselves."
33:20
For man shall not see me and live. He speaks of the corporeal and assumed face (for Moses was seeking to see this, as I have said), by which the majesty and glory of God is in some way represented and made visible. That the discourse here concerns this face, not the face, that is, the essence of the Godhead, is clear from what follows: "Thou shalt see my back parts, but my face thou canst not see." The sense therefore is, as if to say: O Moses, thou dost desire to see the brightness of my face, so that in the face thou mayest see him who speaks with thee, whose voice thou hearest; but know that this cannot happen: for this brightness of my face, although corporeal and assumed, yet because it must in some way reflect, shadow forth and represent the brightness of my essence and majesty, is therefore of such a kind and so great that a mortal eye cannot bear it, but would immediately be blinded by this brightness, indeed would be deprived of life and would die; this is what he means by saying: "Man shall not see me and live." Thus Abulensis. Symbolically Nyssenus: "Man shall not see me and live," because present knowledge, he says, is finite, but God is infinite. Tropologically St. Gregory, book XVIII of the Morals, chapter xxxvii: No one ever sees God spiritually and lives carnally in the world: for we cannot at the same time enjoy God and the world. How God is seen by chaste minds in this life, see St. Bernard, sermon 31 in the Canticles, and St. Ambrose, book On the Good of Death, chapter xi.
33:21
And thou shalt stand upon the rock. And when my glory shall pass, I will set thee in a hole of the rock, and I will cover thee with my right hand, till I pass: and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face thou canst not see. St. Augustine, Question CLIV on Exodus, denies that a corporeal form of God, or of an angel, was promised by God here, or seen by Moses, but that it was merely a prophecy, because afterwards we do not read that Moses actually saw God corporeally. The back parts of God, therefore, seen by Moses, he judges to be the mysteries of Christ believed by the Jews after his ascension. For when Peter was preaching, they said: What shall we do? and they were baptized, and received the Holy Ghost, Acts ii, 37; finally at the end of the world all Israel shall be saved. St. Augustine is followed by Cajetan, saying: Not a thing to be done is promised, but it is a parable: the rock signifies the upright and fixed mind, by which Moses was elevated, that he might know God intelligibly; the hand of God applied to the rock signifies that certain attributes were veiled from him, and only those things were shown which God willed, through the hand as it were shining forth with his light, to demonstrate to him. But this is a mystical sense. It is certain that literally a vision of God is promised to Moses, that is, of the angel, God's vicar in an assumed body, and that this actually happened to him will be evident in the following chapter, verses 5 and 6. Moreover, that this rock is that very one from which Moses at God's command drew forth water for the people, Exodus xvii, 6, St. Augustine judges here in Question CLIV, so that water from the rock in Sinai flowed for four miles to Raphidim, where the camps of the Hebrews were. The same is judged by Ferdinand, vision 7, section 2, who also adds that this rock accompanied the Hebrews in the desert for forty years, either by itself, or by the flow of water. But these things are uncertain. Allegorically, the rock is the solidity of the Church and faith, without which no one can know God, concerning which Christ said to Peter, Matthew xvi: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." Thus Theodoret and St. Gregory, book XXXV of the Morals, chapter vi. But Nyssenus says: "Christ, he says, is a place and a way for those running, a stone for the weak, a house for those resting." Furthermore, St. Thomas, II II, Question CLXXI, article 2, by the application of the hand to the hole judges there to be signified the manner in which the light of prophecy is communicated to the Prophets, namely, only so much as God wills. Whence the Prophets often say: The hand of the Lord was upon me; because the light of prophecy is not permanent, nor complete, but transient, and tempered by the hand of God. This is mystical, as I said a little before in the exposition of Cajetan, who seems to have drawn it from St. Thomas. The Rabbis feign that the epithets of God were written on his back: "Lord God, merciful," etc., which are enumerated in chapter xxxiv, verse 6. God therefore says: In Sinai there is a hollow rock, in whose cavity thou canst hide, O Moses, and which can be covered in front; I will therefore place thee in it, and cover thee with a cloud, until my glorious face passes by, then I will remove the cloud, that thou mayest see my back parts, that is, my back; for thou canst not see my face, lest straightway, with the splendors of my majesty vibrating from it, thou shouldst be struck dead. That this was done thus is evident in chapter xxxiv, verses 5 and 6. I will protect thee with my right hand, till I pass (verse 22). That is to say, I will place my right hand, or some other opaque body, and oppose it to the cavern, in which thou shalt hide, O Moses, and that thou mayest not see the glory of my face, passing before thee, and die. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts (verse 23). That is to say, When my face shall have passed, I will remove the cloud which covers thee in the cavern, that thou mayest behold my back. Hence it appears that this body in which God appeared to Moses was composed and adorned by God alone, not by an angel, with so much light in front, that it far surpassed the sun: but on the back this light was so tempered, that the sight of Moses could bear it, and would be wonderfully refreshed by it; yet so much was this light sprinkled and poured over the face of Moses, that from it rays began to shine forth, and it became horned, as I shall say in the following chapter. I say this luminous body was formed by God alone, not by an angel, because it is not probable that angels can by themselves immediately produce light, or heap together so much light as would be equal to the sun. Note: This luminous body thus composed by God was entered and occupied by an angel, and he moved it, that it might pass before the cavern in which Moses was hiding. Second, this angel was the same as he who led the Hebrews out of Egypt, and went before them in a pillar of cloud, and who then presided over the people and the Synagogue, but now presides over the Church, namely St. Michael. That this is the literal sense of this place, the whole series of the discourse declares; likewise that in the following chapter, verses 5 and 6, the Lord fulfilling what He here promises to Moses, truly and corporally passes before Moses, showing him his back. In a similar manner St. Pachomius saw the glory of the Lord with corporeal eyes, as his Life relates. Allegorically, however, this sense is more excellent and more intended by the Holy Spirit. Whence St. Augustine, Question 154, says there is here a prophecy concerning Christ: for the face of the Lord signifies the divinity of Christ: this the Jews did not see when they crucified Christ, but after Christ passed through death and resurrection to the Father; then many of them saw these latter things of his, and believed. Tropologically Nyssenus says: In this life, he says, we cannot see God; yet he sees the back of God, who stands upon the rock, that is Christ, and who always follows God in heart and mind, whithersoever He leads, according to that of the Psalmist: "My soul hath stuck close to thee, thy right hand hath upheld me;" and of Christ: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself." Again: "Come, follow me." For to follow God in mind, will and action, always and everywhere whithersoever He leads, that itself is to see God. Symbolically, the back of God are the effects and creatures of God, from which alone to Moses and to us in this life is it granted to contemplate God. Thus Philo, Anastasius in Questions of Holy Scripture, Question 23; Irenaeus, book IV, chapter 37, Hilary on Psalm 113. "From the perpetuity," says St. Augustine, "of creatures the eternal Creator is understood, from the magnitude the almighty, from the order and disposition the wise, from the governance the good." Symbolically also, others think that there is here prefigured and promised to Moses the vision of the humanity of Christ in the transfiguration, on Mount Tabor; for the humanity is the inferior and posterior part of Christ, but the divinity is the prior and superior. Thus Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion 22; Nazianzenus, oration 2 On Theology; Origen here homily 12, and homily 7 on Numbers: concerning which see St. Augustine, book II On the Trinity, chapter 17, and Bernard, sermon 61 on the Canticles. Again St. Ambrose on Psalm 43, 24: Moses, he says, saw the back of Christ; he saw his splendor as he is man, he saw the glory of his passion, through which he restored to us the heavenly kingdom. Whence Fernandius concludes, vision 7, section 3, that Moses saw Christ scourged and crowned with thorns, as Pilate exhibited him to the people, saying: "Behold the man;" likewise that he saw him affixed to the cross. Whence he exclaimed, chapter 34, verse 6: "Merciful, clement, of great compassion," etc. And to this St. Peter alluded, epistle I, chapter 1, verse 11, when he says that the Prophets by the Spirit of God foretold those things "which are in Christ, the sufferings and the glories that should follow," where also he signifies, that is, as if to say, The sufferings of Christ are posterior to his glory, which namely were shown on the back of the glorious Lord to Moses. But this is symbolic and mystical, not literal, and therefore uncertain and conjectural. From what has been said it is clear that in no way from this chapter can it be gathered that Moses saw the divine essence; for neither did Moses ask this, nor if he asked, did he obtain it. For the Lord answers him expressly and says: "Thou canst not see my face;" and this is the opinion of almost all the other Fathers, whom L. Molina, Valencia and others cite, I part., Question XII.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
33:1
v. 1 « Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen dicens : Vade, ascende de loco isto, tu et populus tuus », — pronomen possessivum (ef. 32,7) ignorant Hebr. Sam. Chald.; cf. Aug. — « quem eduxisti de terra Aegypti, in terram, quam iuravi Abraham, Isaac et lacob dicens : Seminz tuo dabo eam ». v. 9 « Et mittam praecursorem (ut » — Hebr. : ante faciem tuam — « angelum, ut » — verte et — « ettciam Chananaewum et Amorrhaeum et Hethaeum et Pherezaeum et Hevaeum et Iebusaeum »,
33:3
v. 3 « [et intres] 2n terram fluentem lacte et melle », cf. 3,8. 17; 13,5. « Non enim ascendam tecum, quia populus durae cervicis es, ne forte disperdam te in via ». Recte Ps. Ion., Itup., Cai., Bonfr. Mud. Non ascendam in medio tui connectunt cum 29,42 sqq., ubi Deus tam solemniter promiserat, habitaturum se 2n medzo HUMMELAUER. — IN EX. ET LEV. —- 2Í Israelis in tabernaculo foederis. Concedit ergo Deus populo praesentiam angeli, columna nubis variisque miraculis manifestandam usque ad tempus ingressus in terram sanctam; at revocat perpetuam illam promissam praesentiam, et peculiarem cultum a gentium religionibus toto coelo distinctum. Angeli praesentia a Dei cum populo habitatione eo certe differt, 1) quod illa efferatur ut temporanea, duratura usque ad plene subactam terram promissam, haec vero futura sit in V. T. perpetua; 2) quod angelus ante faciem Hebraeorum incedat, dum habitatio futura sit 7n med?o eorum; 3) quod angelusante faciem populiincedens certe cum illo non conversetur facte ad faciem , dum Deus in medio populi habitans utique cum illo intime et amice sit conversaturus (cf, 99,42 sqq.). Rationem porro, nonunicam quidem, cur non in medio populi ascensurus sit, eam effert Deus : ne forte disperdam te in via. Sanctius quid (Tost.) futura erat illa Dei in medio populo habitatio, quam merus angeli ante faciem incessus; severius punienda delicta ante faciem Dei inhabitantis, quam post tergum angeli praeeuntis commissa. Ceterum non negat Deus, forte se populo terram sanctam ingresso aliquando largiturum esse gratiosam suam inhabitationem, atque ita Moysen ad preces, populum ad poenitentiae opera sollicitat, quo gratia fortasse differenda tantummodo, illico concedatur. Haud mirum, ad Dei verba summo moerore affectum esse populum : v. ^ « Audiensque populus sermonem hunc pessimum, luxit et nullus |ex
33:5
v. 5 « Dixitque Dominus ad Moysen : Loquere filiis Israel : Populus durae cervicis es, semel ascendam in medio tui, et delebo te ». Bene Vat. sententiam construit conditionate : si »iomento uno (Hebr.), i. e. si vel tantillum ascendam in medio tui, praesens in tabernaculo, aliquo tuo delicto, ut te deleam, compellar. « Jam nunc depone ornatum Luum, ut» « ex magnitudine vel parvitate poenitentiae » (Ians.) « sciam, quid faciam tibi », « decernam, gravemne an levem poenam infligere debeam (Men.). LXX : et monstrabo tibi, quid faciam tibi.
33:6
v. 6 « Deposuerunt ergo filii Israel ornatum suum a monte Horeb ». v. T sqq. non agit de tabernaculo, quod Moyses et familia incolebant (c9 envi» abxoo, LXX ; item Syr.); non agit de tabernaculo cap. 25 sqq. descripto, illud quippe nonnisi serius constructum est, non vero hoc interdicti, si ita fas sit loqui, tempore. Satis communiter statuunt interpretes catholici, ante pretiosum illud tabernaculum Moysi in monte Sinal praemonstratum exstitisse apud Hebraeos tabernaculum aliud, quod illo postmodum constructo. cessaverit (Tost.), quo se homines ad consulendum et fortasse etiam ad colendum Deum reciperent. Confertque 7os/. cum iis, quae v. 7 de quaestionem habentibus traduntur, ea quae cap. 18 de Moyse quaestiones solvente narrabantur, censetque has Moysen quaestiones prope idem tabernaculum solvisse. Nulla est ratio supponendi, in eo tabernaculo fuisse aliquid areae correspondens; et omnino credenda estin illo non fuisse ulla imago numinis ficta. Id quippe à patriarchis traditum accepisse videntur Hebraei, ut nulla 1magine numen venerarentur. Hunc sine imagine cultum itemque sabbati religionem, a maioribus usque servata, Deus per Moysen mandatis sancivit, dum reliqua decalogi mandata in ipsa naturae lege continentur. v. « Moyses quoque tollens tabernaculum », quod ab ipso primum constructum esse nulla est ratio cum Tost., Sylv. affirmandl, « teten-
33:7
dit extra. castra procul ». Antea intra castra fuerat; nune, declarante Deo v. 3 se nolle habitare in medio populi, instar excommunicationis (Tost., lans.) seu interdicti tabernaculum illud e castris removetur. « Vocavitque nomen etus tabernaculum foederis », seu verius conventus, imprimis sane quod illue convenirent habentes quaestionem. Nomen a priore illo tabernaculo transiit in posterius a Moyse confectum (Bonfr.). Gratuito autem infert 7os/., nune primum tabernaculo illud nomen esse inditum : potest enim, uti alias saepe, verbum verti vocavet aliquis, vocabatur. Scribuntur autem verba hebraica forma actionis imperfectae, quia id, quod tum fieri consueverit, refertur. Intellige igitur foedus cum Abraham vel etiam cum Noe factum. « Et omnis populus, qui habebat aliquam quaestionem, egrediebatur ad. tabernaculum foederis extra castra ».
33:8
v. 8 « Cumque egrederetur Moyses ad —— t4abernaculum , surgebat universa plebs , et stabat unusquisque in ostio -— papilionis sui, aspiciebantque tergum Moysi, donec ingrederetur tenlorium ».
33:9
v. 9 « Ingresso autem illo tabernaculum foederis, descen- -. debat columna mubis » (13,24 sq.) « et stabat ad ostium, loguebatur- -. que cum Moyse » ,
33:10
v. 10 « cernentibus universis, quod columna nubis staret ad ostium tabernaculi. Stabantque ipsi et adorabant per fores » — in foribus — « fabernaculorum suorum ».
33:11
v. 41 « Loquebatur autem. Dominus ad Moyen facie ad. faciem , sicut solet logut homo ad amicum suum », « familiariter » (Vat.). Expressionis (cf. 1 Cor. 13, 12) sensum h. l. non eum esse, vidisse Moysen faciem Dei, e v. 13 indubium est : sed loquebatur « praesens praesenti » (Jans.), nullo intercedente legato et, sicut amicicolloquuntur in loco obscuro (Ca?.). « Cumque ille reverteretur n castra, minister eius Iosue, filius Nun, puer, non recedebat de tabernaculo », quod non decebat relinqui sine custode.
33:13
v. 13 « S? ergo inveni gratiam £n conspectu tuo » , quod tu affirmas, « ostende mihi — faciem tuam », — corrige viam tuam (v. s.) : tribue mihi oracula - tua — « ut sciam te », viam tuam, voluntatem tuam, « et inveniam —..— gratiam ante oculos tuos », 1. e. experimento, non sola v. 12 assert1one edocear, me tibi esse carum. Et « respice populum tuum, gentem hanc ». Hebr. : Et vide, quoniam populus tuus gens haec est , 3Ydque videns utique Jespice. Ergo, si revera carus tibi sum, duo fac , quae te rogo : et mihi tua oracula continua et recordare, gentem hane esse populum tuum, non meum tantum, rem tuam abiecto hoe populo te repudiare. | His tandem rationibus placatur Deus.
33:14
v. 14 « Dizitque Dominus : Facies mea praecedet. te », — verte : persona. mea ibit, ego ipse ibo, non solus angelus — « ef requiem dabo tibi », 1pse te in terram promissam introducens (Deut. 3,20; Ios. 1,13. 15; 22,4). De v. 15 sq. versui 14 probabilius anteponendo dicebamus supra. Difficultatem sentiens Sy. V. 14 pro 125! *z2 legebat 45225 (cf. Gen. 17,1), sed falso.
33:15
v. 15 « Et ait Moyses : Si non tu ?pse praecedas » , — h. l. recte vertit Vulg. vocem 25 — « ne educas nos » — Sam. LXX me — « de loco isto ». Potius hic relinque in deserto, quam sine te procedere iubeas.
33:16
v. 16 « In quo enzm scire », facto experiri, « poterimus, ego et populus tuus, invenisse nos gratiam n conspectu tuo », quod tu v. 12 verbis protestabare, « nist ambulaveris nobiscum , ut » — vel potius e£ — « glo-- rificemur », ego et populus tuus, « ab omnibus populis », 1. e. anter illos, « qut habitant super terram ». Sequitur altera sententia (v. s.), qua. Deus Moysi assentitur.
33:17
v. 17 « Dixit autem Dominus ad. Moysen : Et verbum istud, quod locutus es, faciam »; in medio populi habitabo; « Znvenisti enim gratiam coram me, et te ipsum novi ex momine ». Cf. v. 19.
33:18
Arg. — Moyses firmissimum obtentae gratiae et obtinendae, si postmodum necesse fuerit, veniae pignus petit, ut Dei faciem seu gloriam confueri permittatur. Uti Elias 3 Reg. 19,9 sqq. solum Dei tergum contueri permittitur. Qui duo viri ante reliquos antiquiores sanctos ad faciem Domini servatoris transfiguratam in monte Thabor contuendam fuere admissi. Petitionem illud fortasse Moysis menti suggessit, quod eum Deo conversaretur facie ad faciem, quodque Deus promisisset, faciem suam i. e. se ipsum cum Moyse esse incessurum. Hine inauditum divinae faciei contuendae favorem a Deo precibus extorqueri posse suspicatus est. Facies opponitur v. 23 posterioribus : ergo intelli* gitur vera facies. Haec eadem dicitur gloria (cf. v. 18 et 20) : sc. Deus a facie visus suam contuendam praebet gloriam; non item, si à tergo conspiciatur. « Non est enim aliqua pars corporis, per quam homo distincte cognoscatur, sicut per faciem » (Tost.). v. 22 sq. omnino produnt intelligi faciem et tergum apparitionis cuiusdam divinae sub forma humana, qua proxime sensus percellebantur, at iis mediantibus sine dubio anima etiam rapiebatur ad divinam contuendam et amandam excellentiam. Igitur petitionis sensus non est : « Demonstra te mihi laetum », sed potius : « Ostende mihi te ipsum, sicut cognoscibilis a me es » (Tost.). « (uam ». Deus se pro Moyse, quidquid fieri possit, facturum esse asseverat et, quid gratiae concedere possit et concessurus sit, v. 19. 20. 21 triplici e£ dizit solemniter annuntiat.
33:19
v. 19 : « Respondit : Ego ostendam omne bonum » — meum reliqui omnes habent — « ibi ». Deus eam sui sensibilem repraesentationem producet, quae bonitatem eius non ex aliqua parte tantum, sed, quantum fieri possit, totam exhibeat : at eius repraesentationis Moyses non faciem, sed posteriora tantum aspiclet. Hebr. : Ego transire faciam omne bonum meum coram te : 31,6 reapse Deus /ransi/ coram Moyse. Conceditur videri Deus non a facie sed a tergo, neque longiori tempore, sed in transitu tantum (Caz:.). Sensum vere efiam reddit LXX -: Ego transibo ante te gloria mea. « Et vocabo in nomine » — meo soli adscribunt LXX Syr. — « Domini? coram te ». Sensus verborum obvius est, Deum certiorem facturum esse Moysen proxime futurae suae visionis, clamantem : Iahve coram te adest (Sa). Tamen post Aug. plures censuere vocabo h. !. idem sonare, atque « faciam te invocare » ; unde fortasse originem duxit lectio vocabor pro vocabo. At prior versio omuüino praeferenda. « Ef miserebor, Formula haec proxime exprimit Dei libertatem 1n seligendis iis, quibus gratias suas conferat; mediate exprimit Dei libertatem in mensura. etiam gratiae determinanda. Ea igitur h. 1. formula affirmat Deus, se Moysi favorem esse collaturum non solum grandem, nam grande quid generalis haec formula sonat, sed eundem omnino gratuitum, cuius ne post tam assiduas quidem preces intimamque eum Deo familiari- - tatem ullum Moysi sit ius. Illico autem explicat, eum favorem ad faciei visionem non pertingere :
Moyses ad supplicationes rediens, primum ut Deus in medio populo permanenter habitet, cultu speciali honorandus impetrat 33,12-17. Tripli impetrato favore audacior factus efflagitat privilegium nemini mortalium unquam concessum contuendae divinae faciei, ratus eo obtento nihil iam fore, quod a Deo populi delictis aliquando exasperato obtenturus non sit. Divinam faciem salva, quam 32,10 Moysi conservandam affirmaverat, vita conspici haud posse affirmat Deus, posteriora contuenda promittit 33,18-23. Tandem Moyses cap. 34^ foedus cum Deo instaurat. Arg. — Redit Moyses, « dum quadam vice cum Deo esset » (Sy/v.), loquereturque facie ad faciem, i. e. familiariter, ad sermonem illum pessimum, quem locutus erat Dominus 32,3^ (Tost.), et distinctius etiam 33,1-3, concessurum se Hebraeis angelum eos praecedentem, sed non ipsum in medio eorum esse habitaturum. Cuius decreti partem alteram revocari percupiens causatur Moyses, nisi Deus in medio populo praesens adsit, defuturum sibi quem de agendis consulat; angelum quippe non consulebat Moyses, sed itineris ducem sequebatur. Petita concedit Vulg., non aliam atque LXX lectionem prae oeulis habens, perperam textum se; neque v. 14 sq., ubi Q^33 vertendum est persona, ergo ego ipse ibo, praecise illud, quod hae supplicatione Moyses efflagitat. De facie seu gloria primus agit v. 18. Tandem narratio v. 14-17 est mire confusa. Antequam Moyses expresse petiit, ut Deus eum Hebraeis eat (implicite id habet v. 13), Deus v. 14 idem petitum concedit : Ego ipse ibo, et requiem dabo tibi. Quo concesso, verba v. 14 sq., quae procedunt e suppositione nondum concessi eius petiti, lectorem offendunt. Praeterea duplici v. 14. 17 effato idem petitum conceditur. Quibus perpensis crediderim, v. 14-17 duas eiusdem textus recensiones confundi. Versum 13 commode excipiunt verba v. 15 sq., dum v. 14 et v. 17 videntur esse eiusdem divini responsi aut fragmenta duo aut duae recensiones. Sensus planus : Deus petita concedit, sc. praeter angelum praecedentem se ipsum iturum et habitaturum esse in medio populi sui. v. 42 « Dixit autem. Moyses ad. Dominum » : Vide, tu « praecipis, ut educam populum tuum istum, et non indicas mihi, quem missurus es mecum », — Puncta "27 : et non indicas mihi , quo missurus sis populum meum. Deus inde a vituli aurei superstitione Israelem nunquam voeaverat populum suum, sed populum tuum (Moysis 32,7) , populum istum (32,34), populum quem eduxisti (33,1); simul tamen maximum in Moysen profitebatur affectum. Huic agendi rationi Moyses iam suum superstruit argumentum : Singularem in me profiteris affectum, sed non provides populo mo. Est hoc argumentum ad hominem. Dices, in sententia, sicuti nos eam construimus, desiderari adverbium locale mav. Verum eiusmodi adverbium in sententiis localibus quandoque omittitur. Gen. 30,38 : j1Nxà jNa2n 0vCN n"o5 mnpv2, in canalibus aquarum, quo venire consueverant oves. Cf. 3 Reg. 12,2 et V. Baumann : Hebràische Relativsatze, Leipzig 189^ p. 33 sq. Praeterea sententia nostra non est proprie localis; non est de motu locali, sed morali. Locum, quo deducendus esset populus, sexcenties indicaverat est via sua v. 13, constans cum legibus universae genti datis, tum imprimis particularibus dubiorum solutionibus a Deo, non ab angelo per Moysen dandis. Hanc viam indicaverat Moysi Deus 18,90; hanc viam expetebant, quotquot 33,7 quaestionem aliquam habentes egrediebantur ad tabernaculum foederis. — « [praesertim] cum dixeris : novi le ex nomine, et invenisti gratiam coram me ». « Nominatim te cognosco, ef carum prae ceteris » — LXX «zazpk x&wag; — « habeo » (Bonfr.). « Te familiariter utor : nam, qui e solo aspectu sunt noti, ii minus familiares exsistunt » (Mar.). Locutio est anthropomorphiea. Verba (cf. v. 17) aut eadem aut synonyma locutum aliquando esse Deum ad Moysen, e v. 12 indubie docemur, licet ea antea non sint descripta : non omnia se. Dei effata scriptis mandabantur. Duplex 3926 NOVORUM SACRORUM INSTITUTIO. profertur ratio, cur Deum deceat Moysi non denegare constans suae praesentiae oraculum : prima, quod eum deceat ita honorari, quem — — Deus sui populi ducem constituerit; altera, quod idem aequum sit concedere amico omnium familiarissimo, quemque Deus disertis verbis affirmaverit sibi esse apprime carum et gratiosum.
33:20
v. 20 « [Rursumque] ait : Non poteris videre (Cat.). Quo idem favor consistat, positive tandem explicat
33:21
v. 91 : « E/ iterum. : Ecce, inquit, est locus apud me », propius loco, unde ad te loquor : videtur enim, uti 3,5, Deus eousque non proximum Moysi ad se accessum permisisse. « E/ stabis supra petram ».
33:22
v. 99. « Cumque transibit gloria mea, ponam te in foramine petrae » , ne turbine abripiaris, « e£ [protegam] dextera mea , donec transeam », ne videns faciem meam consumaris.
33:23
v. 23 « Tollamque manum meam », postquam transiero, « e£ videbis posteriora mea; faciem autem. meam videre non [poteris] ». Cum ergo Moysi non concedatur videre faciem Dei, certe non vidit divinam essentiam (Aug. De Trin. II. 45 sqq.; M. 42. 801 sqq.), quae est perfectissima Dei visio. At idem S. Doctor (cf. etiam De Genesi ad lit. XII. 27; M. 34. ATi et Epist. 147, al. 112 ad Paulinam cap. 8; M. 33. 605) sentiebat, Moysen concupivisse divinae essentiae visionem, nisus imprimis verbis v. 11, Moysen iam ante loqui consuevisse cum Deo « facie ad faciem ». Clamat autem totus contextus, posse aliquem loqui cum alio facie ad faciem, neque tamen eius faciem videre. Deus Moysi apparere consueverat forma aliqua sensibili, voce humanae vocis simili loquens audiebatur, tamen corpoream formam illi non, aut certe non totam exhibuerat, transibat (v. 19; 34, 6) turbinis instar, nube veluti obvolutus. Moyses petiit clarum aspectum eius formae corporeae, quam in nube latere et voce loqui supponebat, . « excellentissimae formae corporeae, qua apparere possit » Deus (Jonfr.)» aspectum non quemlibet, sed imprimis faciei. Deus id negat fier] posse , non quidem absolute, sed secundum legem universalem a se pro V. T. statutam. Deus, ad superstitionem et idololatriam praecludendam , sapienter statuerat nullam numinis effigiem in V. T. esse permittendam. Quam legem populus erecto vitulo aureo fuerat transgressus. Eandem rursus Deus efficacissime inculcavit, ne Moysi quidem familiarissimo amico concedens aspectum sui in forma aliqua sensibili. Arg. — Monetur Moyses, ut sequenti mane cum novis tabulis montem conscendat solus v. 1-^. Dei adventum persentiens invocato Iahve nomine se munit v. 5; Deus vero se lahven esse, foederis deum , inelamat v. 6 sq. Moyse, ut Deus concessam ante veniam solemniter confirmet, supplicante v. 8 sq., Deus pactum confirmat, quo ipse populi proteetionem in se suscipit et vicissim mandatorum observationem exigit v. 10 sq. Inculcat v. 12-26 potissima in Deum officia, ne dii alieni adorentur, ne dii conflatiles fabricentur, ut festa et sabbata observentur. Moyses post quadraginta dies ad populum revertitur radiante facie v. 27-35. Cap. XXXIV v. 4 « Ac deinceps » : — Hebr. - et dizit Dominus ad Moysen; e contra 33,19. 20. 21 : et dizit. Prolixiore formula novum narrationis caput incipit, fortasse etiam Deus haec non immediate post 33,23 prolocutus est — « Praecide , ait, tib duas tabulas lapideas instar priorum, et scribam super eas verba, quae habuerunt tabulae, quas [registi ». At v. 27 sq. Moyses et scribere iubetur et scribit. Ad quae assería componenda, variae et ingeniosae excogitatae sunt rationes. simplicissima est, ut supponas voci *n2n2* literam 10d accrevisse scribae euiusdam incuria, et ob memoriam textus.32,16. Ergo priores tabulae excisae et inscriptae erant opere Dei, posteriores opere Moysis, monumentum perpetuum divini in superstitionem odii. Simul Deus secundo concedens tabulas manifestat, se foederi ante inito plene adhaerere, et tabernaculum et reliqua, qualia cap. 25-31 descripserat, eonfici velle (Ca?.).
33:1
… Chosen as priest (ibid. 33:1), he received anointing together with Aaron and his brothers (Lev. 7:2-36). A culpable negligence caused his death and that of his brother Abihu: they used profane fire for their …
… In Sacred Scripture, in fact, it is often said that God swears (e.g., Gen. 26:3; Ex. 6:8; 13:5; 33:1; Num. 32:11; Deut. 31:20; etc.); now certainly one cannot admit that God swears in the first sense indicated. …
33:2
… 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 the covenant" (Mal. 3:1). Sometimes the angel of Yahweh is clearly distinct from Yahweh (Ex. 33:2-6; Num. 22:31; II Sam. 24:16). After St. Irenaeus (Adv. …
33:3
… 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.
33:7
Eldad ('Eldād, "God Has Loved")
E. together with Medad was absent when those around the tent, far from the camp (Ex. 33:7), received from Yahweh the investiture of their office, with manifestations of mystical exaltation (prophetic charism: I Sam. 10:10-13; Acts 10:44-46; 19:6); but he "prophesied" in …
Tabernacle (Tent) of Meeting (Hebrew 'Ohel, usually followed by Me'eth: "Tabernacle of Convene")
It was probably preceded by a sacred tent (Ex. 33:7-11), a provisional sanctuary, carried by Moses outside the camp as a punishment for the adoration of the golden calf. …
33:14
1. Scriptural sources. - In the Old Testament see, for example, Ex. 22:1-3; Tob. 2:21; Ex. 33:14-15. In the first two passages indicated, it is even required to give back something more than what was taken: Si quis furatus fuerit boves, aut ovem, et occiderit vel vendiderit, quinque …
33:18
… In the word of Jesus that the a. protectors of children "always see the face of the Father" (Mt. 18, 10, bearing in mind Ex. 33, 18 ff. and the discussions to which this question had given rise among the rabbis; cf. H. Strack-P. …
33:20
… "A man cannot see my face and live," says the Lord (Ex. 33:20).
33:23
A late clarification that does not prevent grouping under the same subject the different prophecies in which the one chosen to accomplish the great work of Yahweh is called: "David my servant" (Ex. 37:25), "Yahweh our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6; 33:16), "servant of Yahweh" (Is. 52:13), "Shepherd" (Ex. 33:23; cf. Mic. 5:3), "shoot, branch" (Is. 4:2; 11:1; Jer. 23:5) (M.-J. …
Consequently sin can be defined as: factum vel dictum vel concupitum aliquid contra legem aeternam (St. Augustine, Contra Faustum, 20, 27: PL 42, 418). This is indeed the aspect of sin most frequently recalled in Revelation (cf. Gen. 39, 9; 13, 13; 38, 10; Ex. 33, 23; Jud. 10, 7; 19, 25; Rom. 5, 19; 2, 29; 4, 16; etc.). …
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.