Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Exodus 33
There are 86 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 140, footnote 21 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Barnabas (HTML)
The Epistle of Barnabas (HTML)
Chapter VI.—The sufferings of Christ, and the new covenant, were announced by the prophets. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1506 (In-Text, Margin)
... therefore, He was about to be manifested and to suffer in the flesh, His suffering was foreshown. For the prophet speaks against Israel, “Woe to their soul, because they have counselled an evil counsel against themselves, saying, Let us bind the just one, because he is displeasing to us.” And Moses also says to them, “Behold these things, saith the Lord God: 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.”[Exodus 33:1] What, then, says Knowledge? Learn: “Trust,” she says, “in Him who is to be manifested to you in the flesh—that is, Jesus.” For man is earth in a suffering state, for the formation of Adam was from the face of the earth. What, then, meaneth this: ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 141, footnote 1 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Barnabas (HTML)
The Epistle of Barnabas (HTML)
Chapter VI.—The sufferings of Christ, and the new covenant, were announced by the prophets. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1516 (In-Text, Margin)
... and the fowls of heaven, and the fishes of the sea.” And the Lord said, on beholding the fair creature man, “Increase, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” These things [were spoken] to the Son. 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.”[Exodus 33:3] Behold, therefore, we have been refashioned, as again He says in another prophet, “Behold, saith the Lord, I will take away from these, that is, from those whom the Spirit of the Lord foresaw, their stony hearts, and I will put hearts of flesh ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 344, footnote 20 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book I (HTML)
Chapter XIX.—Passages of Scripture by which they attempt to prove that the Supreme Father was unknown before the coming of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2909 (In-Text, Margin)
... and My people have not understood Me,” they pervert his words to mean ignorance of the invisible Bythus. And that which is spoken by Hosea, “There is no truth in them, nor the knowledge of God,” they strive to give the same reference. 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,”[Exodus 33:20] has, as they would persuade us, the same reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 480, footnote 5 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XV.—At first God deemed it sufficient to inscribe the natural law, or the Decalogue, upon the hearts of men; but afterwards He found it necessary to bridle, with the yoke of the Mosaic law, the desires of the Jews, who were abusing their liberty; and even to add some special commands, because of the hardness of their hearts. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3975 (In-Text, Margin)
... oblations for forty years in the wilderness? And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of the god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them;” pointing out plainly, that the law being such, was not given to them by another God, but that, adapted to their condition of servitude, [it originated] from the very same [God as we worship]. 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.”[Exodus 33:2-3]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 489, footnote 2 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XX.—That one God formed all things in the world, by means of the Word and the Holy Spirit: and that although He is to us in this life invisible and incomprehensible, nevertheless He is not unknown; inasmuch as His works do declare Him, and His Word has shown that in many modes He may be seen and known. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4077 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Father of all being invisible. Yet this is what those [heretics] declare, who are altogether ignorant of the nature of prophecy. For prophecy is a prediction of things future, that is, a setting forth beforehand of those things which shall be afterwards. 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,”[Exodus 33:20] for the Father is incomprehensible; but in regard to His love, and kindness, and as to His infinite power, even this He grants to those who love Him, that is, to see God, which thing the prophets did also predict. “For those things that are ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 490, footnote 6 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XX.—That one God formed all things in the world, by means of the Word and the Holy Spirit: and that although He is to us in this life invisible and incomprehensible, nevertheless He is not unknown; inasmuch as His works do declare Him, and His Word has shown that in many modes He may be seen and known. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4090 (In-Text, Margin)
9. And the Word spake to Moses, appearing before him, “just as any one might speak to his friend.” But Moses desired to see Him openly who was speaking with him, and was thus addressed: “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.”[Exodus 33:20-22] Two facts are thus signified: that it is impossible for man to see God; and that, through the wisdom of God, man shall see Him in the last times, in the depth of a rock, that is, in His coming as a man. And for this reason did He [the Lord] confer with him face to face on the top of a mountain, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 491, footnote 10 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XX.—That one God formed all things in the world, by means of the Word and the Holy Spirit: and that although He is to us in this life invisible and incomprehensible, nevertheless He is not unknown; inasmuch as His works do declare Him, and His Word has shown that in many modes He may be seen and known. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4103 (In-Text, Margin)
... to the feet. And this was the reason why Moses vested the high priest after this fashion. Something also alludes to the end [of all things], as [where He speaks of] the fine brass burning in the fire, which denotes the power of faith, and the continuing instant in prayer, because of the consuming fire which is to come at the end of time. 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”[Exodus 33:20]), and the Word reviving him, and reminding him that it was He upon whose bosom he had leaned at supper, when he put the question as to who should betray Him, declared: “I am the first and the last, and He who liveth, and was dead, and behold I am ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 348, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter II.—The Knowledge of God Can Be Attained Only Through Faith. (HTML)
... near. “I am a God that draws near,” says the Lord. He is in essence remote; “for how is it that what is begotten can have approached the Unbegotten?” But He is very near in virtue of that power which holds all things in its embrace. “Shall one do aught in secret, and I see him not?” For the power of God is always present, in contact with us, in the exercise of inspection, of beneficence, of instruction. Whence Moses, persuaded that God is not to be known by human wisdom, said, “Show me Thy glory;”[Exodus 33:18] and into the thick darkness where God’s voice was, pressed to enter—that is, into the inaccessible and invisible ideas respecting Existence. For God is not in darkness or in place, but above both space and time, and qualities of objects. Wherefore ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 351, footnote 11 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter V.—He Proves by Several Examples that the Greeks Drew from the Sacred Writers. (HTML)
Now among the Greeks, Minos the king of nine years’ reign, and familiar friend of Zeus, is celebrated in song; they having heard how once God conversed with Moses, “as one speaking with his friend.”[Exodus 33:11] Moses, then, was a sage, king, legislator. But our Saviour surpasses all human nature. He is so lovely, as to be alone loved by us, whose hearts are set on the true beauty, for “He was the true light.” He is shown to be a King, as such hailed by unsophisticated children and by the unbelieving and ignorant Jews, and heralded by the prophets. So rich is He, that He despised the whole earth, and the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 366, footnote 9 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter XVIII.—The Mosaic Law the Fountain of All Ethics, and the Source from Which the Greeks Drew Theirs. (HTML)
... to grasp everything, but to communicate gifts of kindness to one’s neighbours. For it was from these, I reckon, and from the first-fruits that the priests were maintained. We now therefore understand that we are instructed in piety, and in liberality, and in justice, and in humanity by the law. For does it not command the land to be left fallow in the seventh year, and bids the poor fearlessly use the fruits that grow by divine agency, nature cultivating the ground for behoof of all and sundry?[Exodus 33:10-11] How, then, can it be maintained that the law is not humane, and the teacher of righteousness? Again, in the fiftieth year, it ordered the same things to be performed as in the seventh; besides restoring to each one his own land, if from any ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 410, footnote 5 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter III.—The True Excellence of Man. (HTML)
... immortality; as also the faculty of contemplation and of self-restraint, one of the two being more excellent. On this ground Pythagoras seems to me to have said that God alone is wise, since also the apostle writes in the Epistle to the Romans, “For the obedience of the faith among all nations, being made known to the only wise God through Jesus Christ;” and that he himself was a philosopher, on account of his friendship with God. Accordingly it is said, “God talked with Moses as a friend with a friend.”[Exodus 33:11] That, then, which is true being clear to God, forthwith generates truth. And the gnostic loves the truth. “Go,” it is said, “to the ant, thou sluggard, and be the disciple of the bee;” thus speaks Solomon. For if there is one function belonging to ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 446, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chap. I.—On Faith. (HTML)
... Spiritually, therefore, the apostle writes respecting the knowledge of God, “For now we see as through a glass, but then face to face.” For the vision of the truth is given but to few. Accordingly, Plato says in the Epinomis, “I do not say that it is possible for all to be blessed and happy; only a few. Whilst we live, I pronounce this to be the case. But there is a good hope that after death I shall attain all.” To the same effect is what we find in Moses: “No man shall see My face, and live.”[Exodus 33:20] For it is evident that no one during the period of life has been able to apprehend God clearly. But “the pure in heart shall see God,” when they arrive at the final perfection. For since the soul became too enfeebled for the apprehension of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 459, footnote 7 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter X.—The Opinion of the Apostles on Veiling the Mysteries of the Faith. (HTML)
Barnabas, too, who in person preached the word along with the apostle in the ministry of the Gentiles, says, “I write to you most simply, that ye may understand.” Then below, exhibiting already a clearer trace of gnostic tradition, he says, “What says the other prophet Moses to them? Lo, thus saith the Lord God, Enter ye into the good land which the Lord God sware, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and ye received for an inheritance that land, flowing with milk and honey.”[Exodus 33:1] What says knowledge? Learn, hope, it says, in Jesus, who is to be manifested to you in the flesh. For man is the suffering land; for from the face of the ground was the formation of Adam. What, then, does it say in reference to the good land, flowing with ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 461, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter XI.—Abstraction from Material Things Necessary in Order to Attain to the True Knowledge of God. (HTML)
Wherefore also Moses says, “Show Thyself to me,”[Exodus 33:18] —intimating most clearly that God is not capable of being taught by man, or expressed in speech, but to be known only by His own power. For inquiry was obscure and dim; but the grace of knowledge is from Him by the Son. Most clearly Solomon shall testify to us, speaking thus: “The prudence of man is not in me: but God giveth me wisdom, and I know holy things.” Now Moses, describing allegorically the divine prudence, called it the tree of life planted in Paradise; which ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 163, footnote 15 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)
Of the Prophecies of the Birth and Achievements of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1295 (In-Text, Margin)
... discipline), but through Joshua (that is, through the new law’s grace), after our circumcision with “a knife of rock” (that is, with Christ’s precepts, for Christ is in many ways and figures predicted as a rock); 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.[Exodus 33:20] And accordingly it is agreed that the Son of God Himself spake to Moses, and said to the people, “Behold, I send mine angel before thy”—that is, the people’s—“face, to guard thee on the march, and to introduce thee into the land which I have ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 319, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book II. Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God. (HTML)
Other Objections Considered. God's Condescension in the Incarnation. Nothing Derogatory to the Divine Being in This Economy. The Divine Majesty Worthily Sustained by the Almighty Father, Never Visible to Man. Perverseness of the Marcionite Cavils. (HTML)
... those very respects which you blame as human; from the very beginning learning, even then, (that state of a) man which He was destined in the end to become. 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.”[Exodus 33:20] He means that the Father is invisible, in whose authority and in whose name was He God who appeared as the Son of God. But with us Christ is received in the person of Christ, because even in this manner is He our God. Whatever attributes ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 385, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
The Same Conclusion Supported by the Transfiguration. Marcion Inconsistent in Associating with Christ in Glory Two Such Eminent Servants of the Creator as Moses and Elijah. St. Peter's Ignorance Accounted for on Montanist Principle. (HTML)
... the sight which he desired to have was of that condition which he was to assume as man, and which as a prophet he knew was to occur. Respecting the face of God, however, he had already heard, “No man shall see me, and live.” “This thing,” said He, “which thou hast spoken, will I do unto thee.” Then Moses said, “Show me Thy glory.” And the Lord, with like reference to the future, replied, “I will pass before thee in my glory,” etc. Then at the last He says, “And then thou shalt see my back.”[Exodus 33:13-23] Not loins, or calves of the legs, did he want to behold, but the glory which was to be revealed in the latter days. He had promised that He would make Himself thus face to face visible to him, when He said to Aaron, “If there shall be a prophet ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 385, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
The Same Conclusion Supported by the Transfiguration. Marcion Inconsistent in Associating with Christ in Glory Two Such Eminent Servants of the Creator as Moses and Elijah. St. Peter's Ignorance Accounted for on Montanist Principle. (HTML)
... was to occur. Respecting the face of God, however, he had already heard, “No man shall see me, and live.” “This thing,” said He, “which thou hast spoken, will I do unto thee.” Then Moses said, “Show me Thy glory.” And the Lord, with like reference to the future, replied, “I will pass before thee in my glory,” etc. 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.[Exodus 33:23] He had promised that He would make Himself thus face to face visible to him, when He said to Aaron, “If there shall be a prophet among you, I will make myself known to him by vision, and by vision will I speak with him; but not so is my manner to ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 470, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
The Epistle to the Colossians. Time the Criterion of Truth and Heresy. Application of the Canon. The Image of the Invisible God Explained. Pre-Existence of Our Christ in the Creator's Ancient Dispensations. What is Included in the Fulness of Christ. The Epicurean Character of Marcion's God. The Catholic Truth in Opposition Thereto. The Law is to Christ What the Shadow is to the Substance. (HTML)
... world.” He calls Christ “the image of the invisible God.” We in like manner say that the Father of Christ is invisible, for we know that it was the Son who was seen in ancient times (whenever any appearance was vouchsafed to men in the name of God) as the image of (the Father) Himself. 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.”[Exodus 33:20] If Christ is not “the first-begotten before every creature,” as that “Word of God by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made;” if “all things were” not “in Him created, whether in heaven or on earth, visible and invisible, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 609, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Against Praxeas. (HTML)
The Natural Invisibility of the Father, and the Visibility of the Son Witnessed in Many Passages of the Old Testament. Arguments of Their Distinctness, Thus Supplied. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7920 (In-Text, Margin)
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,”[Exodus 33:13] God said, “Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live:” in other words, he who sees me shall die. Now we find that God has been seen by many persons, and yet that no one who saw Him died (at the sight). The truth is, they saw God according to the faculties of men, but not in accordance ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 609, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Against Praxeas. (HTML)
The Natural Invisibility of the Father, and the Visibility of the Son Witnessed in Many Passages of the Old Testament. Arguments of Their Distinctness, Thus Supplied. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7924 (In-Text, Margin)
... He must mean it of Himself that His face was visible to no one, because He was Himself indeed the invisible Father in the name of the Son. And by this means they will have it that the Visible and the Invisible are one and the same, just as the Father and the Son are the same; (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;”[Exodus 33:11] just as Jacob also says, “I have seen God face to face.” Therefore the Visible and the Invisible are one and the same; and both being thus the same, it follows that He is invisible as the Father, and visible as the Son. As if the Scripture, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 610, footnote 10 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Against Praxeas. (HTML)
New Testament Passages Quoted. They Attest the Same Truth of the Son's Visibility Contrasted with the Father's Invisibility. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7940 (In-Text, Margin)
... the) apostles a visible and an invisible God (revealed to us), under a manifest and personal distinction in the condition of both. There is a certain emphatic saying by John: “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.[Exodus 33:20] But the very same apostles testify that they had both seen and “handled” Christ. Now, if Christ is Himself both the Father and the Son, how can He be both the Visible and the Invisible? In order, however, to reconcile this diversity between the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 611, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Against Praxeas. (HTML)
New Testament Passages Quoted. They Attest the Same Truth of the Son's Visibility Contrasted with the Father's Invisibility. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7956 (In-Text, Margin)
... that “He was seen by himself last of all,” —by means, of course, of the light which was accessible, although it was not without imperilling his sight that he experienced that light. A like danger to which also befell Peter, and John, and James, (who confronted not the same light) without risking the loss of their reason and mind; and if they, who were unable to endure the glory of the Son, had only seen the Father, they must have died then and there: “For no man shall see God, and live.”[Exodus 33:20] This being the case, it is evident that He was always seen from the beginning, who became visible in the end; and that He, (on the contrary,) was not seen in the end who had never been visible from the beginning; and that accordingly there are ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 620, footnote 13 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Against Praxeas. (HTML)
On St. Philip's Conversation with Christ. He that Hath Seen Me, Hath Seen the Father. This Text Explained in an Anti-Praxean Sense. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8104 (In-Text, Margin)
... quickeneth (the dead), so also doth the Son;” and again, “If ye had known me, ye would have known the Father also.” For in all these passages He had shown Himself to be the Father’s Commissioner, through whose agency even the Father could be seen in His works, and heard in His words, and recognised in the Son’s administration of the Father’s words and deeds. 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.”[Exodus 33:20] So he is reproved for desiring to see the Father, as if He were a visible Being, and is taught that He only becomes visible in the Son from His mighty works, and not in the manifestation of His person. If, indeed, He meant the Father to be ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 684, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Prayer. (HTML)
The Sixth Clause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8811 (In-Text, Margin)
... the liberality of God, we should likewise address His clemency. For what will aliments profit us, if we are really consigned to them, as it were a bull destined for a victim? The Lord knew Himself to be the only guiltless One, and so He teaches that we beg “to have our debts remitted us.” A petition for pardon is a full confession; because he who begs for pardon fully admits his guilt. Thus, too, penitence is demonstrated acceptable to God who desires it rather than the death of the sinner.[Exodus 33:11] Moreover, debt is, in the Scriptures, a figure of guilt; because it is equally due to the sentence of judgment, and is exacted by it: nor does it evade the justice of exaction, unless the exaction be remitted, just as the lord remitted ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 105, footnote 15 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Fasting. (HTML)
The Physical Tendencies of Fasting and Feeding Considered. The Cases of Moses and Elijah. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1041 (In-Text, Margin)
... fast above the power of human nature, while spiritual faith subministered strength (to his body), both saw with his eyes God’s glory, and heard with his ears God’s voice, and understood with his heart God’s law: 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![Exodus 33:18-19] Deservedly, therefore, even while in the flesh, did the Lord show Himself to him, the colleague of His own fasts, no less than to Elijah. For Elijah withal had, by this fact primarily, that he had imprecated a famine, already sufficiently devoted ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 277, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The God of the Law and the Prophets, and the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Same God. (HTML)
... very hard, were the expression not understood by us more correctly of understanding, and not of seeing. For he who has understood the Son will understand the Father also. 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.”[Exodus 33:20] These words are, of course, to be understood in that mystical sense which is befitting divine words, those old wives’ fables being rejected and despised which are invented by ignorant persons respecting the anterior and posterior parts of God. Let ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 183, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)
Exegetical. (HTML)
On Daniel. (HTML)
28. And who was he that spake, but the angel who was given to the people, as he says in the law of Moses: “I will not go with you, because the people is stiff-necked; but my angel shall go before along with you?”[Exodus 33:3] This (angel) withstood Moses at the inn, when he was bringing the child uncircumcised into Egypt. For it was not allowed Moses, who was the elder (or legate) and mediator of the law, and who proclaimed the covenant of the fathers, to introduce a child uncircumcised, lest he should be deemed a false prophet and deceiver by the people. “And now,” says he, “will I show the truth to thee.” ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 627, footnote 9 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)
Moreover Also, from the Fact that He Who Was Seen of Abraham is Called God; Which Cannot Be Understood of the Father, Whom No Man Hath Seen at Any Time; But of the Son in the Likeness of an Angel. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5148 (In-Text, Margin)
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.”[Exodus 33:20] If God cannot be seen, how was God seen? Or if He was seen, how is it that He cannot be seen? For John also says, “No man hath seen God at any time;” and the Apostle Paul, “Whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” But certainly the Scripture does not lie; therefore, truly, God was seen. Whence it may be understood that it was not the Father who was seen, seeing that He never was seen; but the Son, who has both been ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 451, footnote 8 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Sec. I.—On Heresies (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3176 (In-Text, Margin)
... were thirsty; and had given them manna out of heaven, and had distributed flesh to them out of the air; and had afforded them a pillar of fire in the night to enlighten and conduct them, and a pillar of a cloud to shadow them in the day, by reason of the violent heat of the sun; and had exhibited to them the law of God, engraven from the mouth, and hand, and writing of God, in tables of stone, the perfect number of ten commandments; “to whom God spake face to face, as if a man spake to his friend;”[Exodus 33:11] of whom He said, “And there arose not a prophet like unto Moses.” Against him arose the followers of Corah, and the Reubenites, and threw stones at Moses, who prayed, and said: “Accept not Thou their offering.” And the glory of God appeared, and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 499, footnote 5 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book VIII. Concerning Gifts, and Ordinations, and the Ecclesiastical Canons (HTML)
Sec. V.—All the Apostles Urge the Observance of the Order of the Church (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3757 (In-Text, Margin)
... the sacrifices and eucharistical offices which will arise from their being impiously offered by those who ought not to offer them; who think the honour of the high-priesthood, which is an imitation of the great High Priest Jesus Christ our King, to be a matter of sport; we have found it necessary to give you warning in this matter also. For some are already turned aside after their own vanity. We say that Moses the servant of God (“to whom God spake face to face, as if a man spake to his friend;”[Exodus 33:11] to whom He said, “I know thee above all men;” to whom He spake directly, and not by obscure methods, or dreams, or angels, or riddles),—this person, when he made constitutions and divine laws, distinguished what things were to be performed by the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 499, footnote 5 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book VIII. Concerning Gifts, and Ordinations, and the Ecclesiastical Canons (HTML)
Sec. V.—All the Apostles Urge the Observance of the Order of the Church (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3757 (In-Text, Margin)
... the sacrifices and eucharistical offices which will arise from their being impiously offered by those who ought not to offer them; who think the honour of the high-priesthood, which is an imitation of the great High Priest Jesus Christ our King, to be a matter of sport; we have found it necessary to give you warning in this matter also. For some are already turned aside after their own vanity. We say that Moses the servant of God (“to whom God spake face to face, as if a man spake to his friend;”[Exodus 33:17] to whom He said, “I know thee above all men;” to whom He spake directly, and not by obscure methods, or dreams, or angels, or riddles),—this person, when he made constitutions and divine laws, distinguished what things were to be performed by the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 122, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Recognitions of Clement. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Corruptible and Temporary Things Made by the Incorruptible and Eternal. (HTML)
... will be the things which He creates. For the power of God is not subject to law, but His will is law to His creatures.” Then Simon answered: “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.’”[Exodus 33:20]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 323, footnote 14 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Clementine Homilies. (HTML)
Homily XVII. (HTML)
The Nature of Revelation. (HTML)
... instruction, and without apparition and dreams. And this is indeed the case. For in the soul which has been placed in us by God, there is all the truth; but it is covered and revealed by the hand of God, who works so far as each one through his knowledge deserves. But the declaration of anything by means of apparitions and dreams from without is a proof, not that it comes from revelation, but from wrath. Finally, then, it is written in the law, that God, being angry, said to Aaron and Miriam,[Exodus 33:11] ‘If a prophet arise from amongst you, I shall make myself known to him through visions and dreams, but not so as to my servant Moses; because I shall speak to him in an outward appearance, and not through dreams, just as one will speak to his ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 572, footnote 3 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)
Revelation of Esdras. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2499 (In-Text, Margin)
... guard the food of the tree of life; and thereafter he became disobedient, and did this in transgression. And the prophet said: Was he not protected by an angel? and was not his life guarded by the cherubim to endless ages? and how was he deceived who was guarded by angels? for Thou didst command all to be present, and to attend to what was said by Thee. But if Thou hadst not given him Eve, the serpent would not have deceived her; but whom Thou wilt Thou savest, and whom Thou wilt Thou destroyest.[Exodus 33:19] And the prophet said: Let us come, my Lord, to a second judgment. And God said: I cast fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah. And the prophet said: Lord, Thou dealest with us according to our deserts. And God said: Your sins transcend my clemency. And the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 573, footnote 9 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)
Revelation of Esdras. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2518 (In-Text, Margin)
... entrusted to thee. And the prophet said: And whence can you bring forth my soul? And the angels said: We can put it forth through the mouth. And the prophet said: Mouth to mouth have I spoken with God, and it comes not forth thence. And the angels said: Let us bring it out through thy nostrils. And the prophet said: My nostrils have smelled the sweet savour of the glory of God. And the angels said: We can bring it out through thine eyes. And the prophet said: Mine eyes have seen the back parts of God.[Exodus 33:23] And the angels said: We can bring it out through the crown of thy head. And the prophet said: I walked about with Moses also on the mountain, and it comes not forth thence. And the angels said: We can put it forth through the points of thy nails. ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 638, footnote 3 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
The Decretals. (HTML)
The Epistles of Pope Fabian. (HTML)
To Bishop Hilary. (HTML)
On the question of an accused bishop appealing to the seat of the apostles. (HTML)
... from themselves. For he offers (libat) things prosperous to the Lord who keeps off things adverse from the afflicted. Whence it is written, “A brother aiding a brother shall be exalted.” For the Church of God ought to be without spot or wrinkle, and therefore it ought not to be trodden and defiled by certain persons; 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.”[Exodus 33:21] What place is there that belongs not to the Lord, seeing that all things consist in Him by whom they were created? There is a place, however, with God—to wit, the unity of the holy Church—in which there is a standing upon a rock, while the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 760, footnote 18 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Remains of the Second and Third Centuries. (HTML)
Melito, the Philosopher. (HTML)
From 'The Key.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3649 (In-Text, Margin)
The face of the Lord —His manifestation. In Exodus, “My face shall go before thee;”[Exodus 33:14] and in the prophet, “The face of the Lord divided them.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 490, footnote 10 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book XIII. (HTML)
The Little Ones and Their Angels. (HTML)
... daughters, and whether from them are the nursing-fathers who are called kings, and the nursing-mothers who are called princesses. And since the little 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.”[Exodus 33:15] For though the little one even be an heir, yet as being a child he differs nothing from a servant when he is a child, and to the extent to which he is little “has the spirit of bondage to fear;” but he who is not at all any longer such has no longer ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 46, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Commencing with the invocation of God, Augustin relates in detail the beginning of his life, his infancy and boyhood, up to his fifteenth year; at which age he acknowledges that he was more inclined to all youthful pleasures and vices than to the study of letters. (HTML)
He Seeks Rest in God, and Pardon of His Sins. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 139 (In-Text, Margin)
... love, and unless I give it Thee art angry, and threatenest me with great sorrows? Is it, then, a light sorrow not to love Thee? Alas! alas! tell me of Thy compassion, O Lord my God, what Thou art to me. “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.[Exodus 33:20]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 189, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Porphyry’s doctrine of redemption. (HTML)
Of the Invisible God, Who Has Often Made Himself Visible, Not as He Really Is, But as the Beholders Could Bear the Sight. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 406 (In-Text, Margin)
... in the silence of the mind is not the thought itself, so the form by which God, invisible in His own nature, became visible, was not God Himself. 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.”[Exodus 33:13] And as it was fit that the law, which was given, not to one man or a few enlightened men, but to the whole of a populous nation, should be accompanied by awe-inspiring signs, great marvels were wrought, by the ministry of angels, before the people ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 50, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
In What Manner Moses Saw God. (HTML)
28. Add, too, that which the Lord afterward said to Moses, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see my face, and live. 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.”[Exodus 33:11-23]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 268, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
Predestination to Eternal Life is Wholly of God’s Free Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1283 (In-Text, Margin)
... would never have said, “not of works,” but, “of future works,” and in that way would have solved the difficulty, or rather there would then have been no difficulty to solve. 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.”[Exodus 33:19] Now, who but a fool would think that God was unrighteous, either in inflicting penal justice on those who had earned it, or in extending mercy to the unworthy? Then he draws his conclusion: “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 533, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
Section 18 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2680 (In-Text, Margin)
... (which thing Christ is unto us,) were justified; believing this to come which we believe come: and they themselves by grace were saved through faith, not of themselves, but by the gift of God, not of works, lest haply they should be lifted up. 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.”[Exodus 33:19] From which words of God the Apostle Paul, should so long after say; “It is not therefore of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” It is also their own voice, long ere Christ was come in the flesh, “My God, His ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 233, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
Ambrose Teaches that It is God that Does for Man What Pelagius Attributes to Free Will. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1910 (In-Text, Margin)
... go to Jerusalem.’ But His disciples had a strong wish that He should be received into the Samaritan town. God, however, calls whomsoever He deigns, and whom He wills He makes religious.” What wise insight of the man of God, drawn from the very fountain of God’s grace! “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;”[Exodus 33:19] and the apostle’s deduction therefrom: “So then,” says he, “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” Now, when even his model man of our own times says, that “whomsoever God deigns He calls, and whom He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 395, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Why the Pelagians Falsely Accuse Catholics of Maintaining Fate Under the Name of Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2636 (In-Text, Margin)
... yet that it does not infuse the love of virtue into a reluctant one, because there is no acceptance of persons with God.” From these words of 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.”[Exodus 33:19] Where, by way of consequence, it is added, “Therefore it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” Here any one might be equally foolish in thinking or saying that the apostle is an assertor of fate. But ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 23, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter I. 15–18. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 63 (In-Text, Margin)
... Father is called the bosom of the Father. And He who knew the Father, being in the secret of the Father, He declared Him. “For no man hath seen God at any time.” He then came and narrated whatever He saw. 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.”[Exodus 33:11] Following the same scripture, thou findest Moses saying: “If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thyself plainly, that I may see Thee.” And it is little that he said this: he received the reply, “Thou canst not see my face.” An angel then spake ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 23, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter I. 15–18. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 63 (In-Text, Margin)
... Father is called the bosom of the Father. And He who knew the Father, being in the secret of the Father, He declared Him. “For no man hath seen God at any time.” He then came and narrated whatever He saw. 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.”[Exodus 33:13] Following the same scripture, thou findest Moses saying: “If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thyself plainly, that I may see Thee.” And it is little that he said this: he received the reply, “Thou canst not see my face.” An angel then spake ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 23, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter I. 15–18. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 63 (In-Text, Margin)
... Father is called the bosom of the Father. And He who knew the Father, being in the secret of the Father, He declared Him. “For no man hath seen God at any time.” He then came and narrated whatever He saw. 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.”[Exodus 33:20] Following the same scripture, thou findest Moses saying: “If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thyself plainly, that I may see Thee.” And it is little that he said this: he received the reply, “Thou canst not see my face.” An angel then spake ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 295, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XII. 37–43. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1098 (In-Text, Margin)
12. “These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him.” What Isaiah saw, and how it refers to Christ the Lord, are to be read and learned in his book. 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;”[Exodus 33:13] for he saw Him not as He is. But the time when this shall yet be our experience, that same Saint John the Evangelist tells us in his Epistle: “Dearly beloved, [now] are we the sons of God; and it hath not yet become manifest what we shall be: because we know that, when ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 636, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5722 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall not be able to attain unto it” (ver. 6). Listen now and hear somewhat, which is obscure indeed, yet bringeth no small pleasure in the understanding thereon. 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.”[Exodus 33:13] When this he desired vehemently, and would extort from God in that sort of friendly familiarity, if we may so speak, wherewith God deigned to treat him, that he might see His Glory and His Face, in such wise as we can speak of God’s Face, He said ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 637, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5723 (In-Text, Margin)
... 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.” When this he desired vehemently, and would extort from God in that sort of friendly familiarity, if we may so speak, wherewith God deigned to treat him, that he might see His Glory and His Face, in such wise as we can speak of God’s Face, He said unto him, “Thou canst not see My Face; for no one hath seen My Face, and lived;”[Exodus 33:20] but I will place thee in a clift of the rock, and will pass by, and will set My hand upon thee; and when I have passed by, thou shalt see My back parts. And from these words there ariseth another enigma, that is, an obscure figure of the truth. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 62, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 137 (In-Text, Margin)
... but they too who come to it through the ambitious desire of others; for truly if those persons who have been chosen for this high office by God 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,[Exodus 33:11] hardly shall we who fall so infinitely short of the excellence of that great man, be able to plead as a sufficient excuse the consciousness that we have never been ambitious of the dignity, more especially when many of the ordinations now-a-days do ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 503, footnote 5 (Image)
Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine
The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius. (HTML)
The Life of Constantine. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
How Constantine, after praying in his Tabernacle, obtained the Victory. (HTML)
... these impieties, rushed blindly towards the gulf of destruction, the emperor on the other hand, when he saw that he must meet his enemies in a second battle, devoted the intervening time to his Saviour. 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.[Exodus 33:7] He was attended only by a few, whose faith and pious devotion he highly esteemed. And this custom he continued to observe whenever he meditated an engagement with the enemy. For he was deliberate in his measures, the better to insure safety, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 166, footnote 6 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)
The Immutable. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1010 (In-Text, Margin)
Orth. —But the Lord said again, “Not that any man hath seen the Father save he which is of God, he hath 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.”[Exodus 33:20]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 166, footnote 9 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)
The Immutable. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1013 (In-Text, Margin)
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,”[Exodus 33:11] and the God of the universe Himself said, “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches.” What then shall we say; did they behold the divine nature?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 248, footnote 3 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)
Demonstrations by Syllogisms. (HTML)
Proofs that the Union was without Confusion. (HTML)
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,”[Exodus 33:20] and both are true, then He will come with the body with which He ascended into heaven. For that body is visible, and of this the angel spoke to the Apostles “This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven.” If this is true, as true it is, then there is not one nature of flesh and Godhead, but the union is without confusion.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 321, footnote 14 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)
To John the Œconomus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2126 (In-Text, Margin)
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.”[Exodus 33:20]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 360, footnote 5 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Discourse II (HTML)
Chapter XVI.--Introductory to Proverbs viii. 22, that the Son is not a Creature. Arian formula, a creature but not as one of the creatures; but each creature is unlike all other creatures; and no creature can create. The Word then differs from all creatures in that in which they, though otherwise differing, all agree together, as creatures; viz. in being an efficient cause; in being the one medium or instrumental agent in creation; moreover in being the revealer of the Father; and in being the object of worship. (HTML)
... is one of the creatures too and of things which once were not, how does He alone reveal the Father, and none else but He know the Father? For could He, a work, possibly know the Father, then must the Father be also known by all according to the proportion of the measures of each: 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[Exodus 33:20] ’), yet the Son has declared, ‘No one knoweth the Father, save the Son,’ therefore the Word is different from all things originate, in that He alone knows and alone sees the Father, as He says, ‘Not that any one hath seen the Father, save He that is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 396, footnote 9 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Discourse III (HTML)
Texts Explained; Seventhly, John xiv. 10. Introduction. The doctrine of the coinherence. The Father and the Son Each whole and perfect God. They are in Each Other, because their Essence is One and the Same. They are Each Perfect and have One Essence, because the Second Person is the Son of the First. Asterius's evasive explanation of the text under review; refuted. Since the Son has all that the Father has, He is His Image; and the Father is the One God, because the Son is in the Father. (HTML)
6. And this is what is said, ‘Who being in the form of God,’ and ‘the Father in Me.’ Nor is this Form of the Godhead partial merely, but the fulness of the Father’s Godhead is the Being of the Son, and the Son is whole God. 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[Exodus 33:23], this is what He says, ‘I in the Father.’ Thus ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself;’ for the propriety of the Father’s Essence is that Son, in whom the creation was then reconciled with God. Thus what things the Son then wrought are the Father’s works, for the Son is the Form of that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 106, footnote 6 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Furia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1585 (In-Text, Margin)
... weaving. After the holy scriptures you should read the writings of learned men; of those at any rate whose faith is well known. You need not go into the mire to seek for gold; 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.[Exodus 33:3] Eat fine flour and oil. Let your clothing be, like Joseph’s, of many colors. Let your ears like those of Jerusalem be pierced by the word of God that the precious grains of new corn may hang from them. In that reverend man Exuperius you have a man ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 479, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5332 (In-Text, Margin)
... wife Sara shall bear you a son, and before she conceives, before he is born, I will give the boy a name. For, from your error in secretly laughing, your son shall be called Isaac, that is laughter. 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,[Exodus 33:20] “Thou canst not see My face. For man shall not see My face, and live.” Wherefore also the Apostle calls Him the only invisible God, Who dwells in light unapproachable, and Whom no man hath seen, nor can see. And the Evangelist John in holy accents ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 51, footnote 4 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Words, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of All Things Visible and Invisible. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1061 (In-Text, Margin)
... saw the likeness of the glory of the Lord; not the Lord Himself, but the likeness of His glory, not the glory itself, as it really is. 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[Exodus 33:20]. For this cause God of His great loving-kindness spread out the heaven as a veil of His proper Godhead, that we should not perish. The word is not mine, but the Prophet’s. If Thou shalt rend the heavens, trembling will take hold of the mountains ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 59, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1151 (In-Text, Margin)
... hear Paul’s testimony, when he says, For they all drank of a spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ. 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[Exodus 33:13]. But He saith, There shall no man see My face, and live. For this reason then, because no man could see the face of the Godhead and live, He took on Him the face of human nature, that we might see this and live. And yet when He wished to shew ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 59, footnote 9 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1152 (In-Text, Margin)
... a spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ. 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. But He saith, There shall no man see My face, and live[Exodus 33:20]. For this reason then, because no man could see the face of the Godhead and live, He took on Him the face of human nature, that we might see this and live. And yet when He wished to shew even that with a little majesty, when His face did shine as ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 59, footnote 11 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1154 (In-Text, Margin)
... wished to shew even that with a little majesty, when His face did shine as the sun, the disciples fell down affrighted. If then His bodily countenance, shining not in the full power of Him that wrought, but according to the capacity of the Disciples, affrighted them, so that even thus they could not bear it, how could any man gaze upon the majesty of the Godhead? ‘A great thing,’ saith the Lord, ‘thou desirest, O Moses: and I approve thine insatiable desire, and I will do this thing[Exodus 33:17] for thee, but according as thou art able. Behold, I will put thee in the clift of the rock: for as being little, thou shalt lodge in a little space.’
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 59, footnote 12 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1155 (In-Text, Margin)
... disciples fell down affrighted. If then His bodily countenance, shining not in the full power of Him that wrought, but according to the capacity of the Disciples, affrighted them, so that even thus they could not bear it, how could any man gaze upon the majesty of the Godhead? ‘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[Exodus 33:22]: for as being little, thou shalt lodge in a little space.’
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 59, footnote 13 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1156 (In-Text, Margin)
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[Exodus 33:19]. Being Himself the Lord, what Lord doth He proclaim? Thou seest how He was covertly teaching the godly doctrine of the Father and the Son. And again, in what follows it is written word for word: And the Lord descended in the cloud, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 76, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the words Incarnate, and Made Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1412 (In-Text, Margin)
... disbelieve, let us hold this forth to them: What strange thing do we announce in saying that God was made Man, when yourselves say that Abraham received the Lord as a guest? 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[Exodus 33:22], and Elias was once in a clift of the rock: they being present with Him at His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, spoke to the Disciples of His decease which fire should accomplish at Jerusalem. But, as I said before, it has been proved ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 220, footnote 17 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2780 (In-Text, Margin)
76. This depressed and kept me humble, and persuaded me that it was better to hear the voice of praise than to be an expounder of truths beyond my power; 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,[Exodus 33:19] and beyond all goodness; Who enlightens the mind, and escapes the quickness and height of the mind, ever retiring as much as He is apprehended, and by His flight and stealing away when grasped, withdrawing to the things above one who is enamoured of Him.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 289, footnote 9 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Second Theological Oration. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3427 (In-Text, Margin)
III. What is this that has happened to me, O friends, and initiates, and fellow-lovers of the truth? 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;[Exodus 33:23] although I was sheltered by the Rock, the Word that was made flesh for us. And when I looked a little closer, I saw, not the First and unmingled Nature, known to Itself—to the Trinity, I mean; not That which abideth within the first veil, and is hidden by the Cherubim; but only that Nature, which at last even ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 339, footnote 1 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
On the Words of the Gospel, 'When Jesus Had Finished These Sayings,' Etc.--S. Matt. xix. 1. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3815 (In-Text, Margin)
III. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there, where the multitude was greater. If He had abode upon His own eminence, if He had not condescended to infirmity, if He had remained what He was, keeping Himself unapproachable and incomprehensible, a few perhaps would have followed Him—perhaps not even a few, possibly only Moses—and He only so far as to see with difficulty the Back Parts of God.[Exodus 33:20] For He penetrated the cloud, either being placed outside the weight of the body or being withdrawn from his senses; for how could he have gazed upon the subtlety, or the incorporeity, or I know not how one should call it, of God, being incorporate and using material eyes? But inasmuch as He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 339, footnote 1 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
On the Words of the Gospel, 'When Jesus Had Finished These Sayings,' Etc.--S. Matt. xix. 1. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3815 (In-Text, Margin)
III. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there, where the multitude was greater. If He had abode upon His own eminence, if He had not condescended to infirmity, if He had remained what He was, keeping Himself unapproachable and incomprehensible, a few perhaps would have followed Him—perhaps not even a few, possibly only Moses—and He only so far as to see with difficulty the Back Parts of God.[Exodus 33:23] For He penetrated the cloud, either being placed outside the weight of the body or being withdrawn from his senses; for how could he have gazed upon the subtlety, or the incorporeity, or I know not how one should call it, of God, being incorporate and using material eyes? But inasmuch as He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 39, footnote 6 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
That the word “in,” in as many senses as it bears, is understood of the Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1248 (In-Text, Margin)
... the place of them that are being sanctified, and it will become evident that even by this figure the Spirit, so far from being degraded, is rather glorified. 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.”[Exodus 33:21] Plainly meaning the place or contemplation in the Spirit wherein, after Moses had entered thither, he was able to see God intelligibly manifested to him. This is the special and peculiar place of true worship; for it is said “Take heed to thyself ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 88b, footnote 5 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Concerning Images. (HTML)
... rest of the saints and servants of Christ, let them remember that in the beginning God created man after His own image. On what grounds, then, do we shew reverence to each other unless because we are made after God’s image? 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[Exodus 33:10] which bore an image and type of heavenly things, or rather of the whole creation? God indeed said to Moses, Look that thou make them after their pattern which was shewed thee in the mount. The Cherubim, too, which o’ershadow the mercy seat, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 111, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XIII. St. Ambrose shows from the Scriptures that the Name of the Three Divine Persons is one, and first the unity of the Name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as each is called Paraclete and Truth. (HTML)
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.”[Exodus 33:19] So, then, the Lord said that He would call the Lord by His Name. The Lord, then, is the Name of the Father and of the Son.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 139, footnote 12 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter V. The writer sums up the argument he had commenced, and confirms the statement that unity is signified by the terms finger and right hand, from the fact that the works of God are the same as are the works of hands; and that those of hands are the same as those of fingers; and lastly, that the term hand applies equally to the Son and the Spirit, and that of finger applies to the Spirit and the Son. (HTML)
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,”[Exodus 33:22] which refers to the mystery of the Incarnation, because the eternal Power of God took on Itself the covering of a body), it is certainly clear that Scripture used the term hand both of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 314, footnote 10 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Chapter XIX. The Saint having turned to God the Father, explains why he does not deride that the Son is inferior to the Father, then he declares it is not for him to measure the Son of God, since it was given to an angel--nay, perhaps even to Christ as man--to measure merely Jerusalem. Arius, he says, has shown himself to be an imitator of Satan. It is a rash thing to hold discussions on the divine Generation. Since so great a sign of human generation has been given by Isaiah, we ought not to make comparisons in divine things. Lastly he shows how carefully we ought to avoid the pride of Arius, by putting before us various examples of Scriptures. (HTML)
236. Moses is prevented from seeing the face of God;[Exodus 33:23] 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.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 314, footnote 11 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Chapter XIX. The Saint having turned to God the Father, explains why he does not deride that the Son is inferior to the Father, then he declares it is not for him to measure the Son of God, since it was given to an angel--nay, perhaps even to Christ as man--to measure merely Jerusalem. Arius, he says, has shown himself to be an imitator of Satan. It is a rash thing to hold discussions on the divine Generation. Since so great a sign of human generation has been given by Isaiah, we ought not to make comparisons in divine things. Lastly he shows how carefully we ought to avoid the pride of Arius, by putting before us various examples of Scriptures. (HTML)
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.”[Exodus 33:20]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 472, footnote 6 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3796 (In-Text, Margin)
104. And for the rest, most dear brethren, consider that Jesus suffered without the gate, and do you go forth out of this earthly city, for your city is Jerusalem which is above. 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;[Exodus 33:7] and the blood indeed of the victims which were offered for sin, was brought to the altar, but the bodies were burnt without the camp; for no one placed amidst the evil of this world can lay aside sin, nor is his blood accepted of God, except he go forth from the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 303, footnote 2 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)
Conference I. First Conference of Abbot Moses. (HTML)
Chapter XV. How we must meditate on God. (HTML)
... Incarnation for our salvation, and extended the marvels of His sacraments to all nations. But there are numberless other considerations of this sort, which arise in our minds according to the character of our life and the purity of our heart, by which God is either seen by pure eyes or embraced: 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;”[Exodus 33:20] viz., to this world and to earthly affections.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 589, footnote 10 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Chapter XIII. Of the longing with which the old patriarchs desired to see the revelation of that mystery. (HTML)
... saints of old longed to see in the flesh, as they foresaw it in the spirit. For “Verily,” saith the Lord, “I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them; 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.”[Exodus 33:13] No one ever approached nearer to God speaking out of the clouds, and to the very presence of His glory than Moses who received the law. And if no one ever saw more closely into God than he did, why did he ask for a still clearer vision, saying, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 205, footnote 3 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
A Homily on the Beatitudes, St. Matt. v. 1-9. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1248 (In-Text, Margin)
... 8..” Great is the happiness, beloved, of him for whom so great a reward is prepared. What, then, is it to have the heart pure, but to strive after those virtues which are mentioned above? 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[Exodus 33:20]; and through the unspeakable joy of eternal contemplation obtains that “which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man.” Rightly is this blessedness promised to purity of heart. For the brightness of the true light ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 234, footnote 1 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh. (HTML)
Hymn III. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 439 (In-Text, Margin)
... flocks as Creator, and yet asked sacrifices as though in need. He made the water wine as Maker: and yet he drank of it as a poor man. Of His own He mingled [wine] in the marriage feast, His wine He mingled and gave to drink when He was a guest. 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,[Exodus 33:22] and received it in the midst of the river from John. In the power of His gifts John was enabled to baptize, though earthy, the heavenly. By power from Him the earth supported Him: it was nigh to being dissolved, and His might strengthened it. Martha ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 317, footnote 4 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Ephraim Syrus: Three Homilies. (HTML)
On Our Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 591 (In-Text, Margin)
29. But what shall we say about the Lord of the Angel, Who said to Moses,— No man shall see Me and live?[Exodus 33:20] Is it on account of the fury of His anger, that whoso shall see Him shall die? Or on account of the splendour of His Being? For that Being was not made and was not created: so that eyes which have been made and created cannot look upon it. For if it is on account of His fury that whoso shall look upon Him shall not live, lo! He would have granted to Moses to see Him because of His great love to him. Accordingly, the Self-Existent by His ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 366, footnote 6 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations. (HTML)
Of Monks. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 891 (In-Text, Margin)
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.[Exodus 33:11] And of Joshua again it is thus written concerning him, that he used not to depart from the tabernacle. And the temporal tabernacle was not ministered to by a woman, because the Law did not allow women to enter the temporal tabernacle, but even when they came to pray, they used to pray at the door of the temporal tabernacle, and then turn ...