Exodus 34
ECFExodus 34:7
Paterius: What does it mean that the Lord now says through Moses, “You visit the iniquity of fathers on their sons and grandsons”? In these two passages a different sense is found, but the mind of the hearer is taught to inquire subtly along the path of discernment. We inherit original sin from our parents, and unless we are washed by the grace of baptism, we bear even our parents’ sins, because up to that point we are one with them. So God will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their sons, for, through original sin, the soul of the offspring is stained by the guilt of the parent. But then God does not visit the iniquity of fathers on their sons, because, when we are freed from original guilt through baptism, we no longer have our parents’ guilt but only the guilt for sins we ourselves committed. This passage can also be understood in another way, because when each one imitates the iniquity of his sinful parent, he is rendered guilty through his parent’s fault. But whoever does not imitate the iniquity of his parent is not burdened with his sin. Thus it happens that the sinful son of a sinful father pays the penalty not only for his own sins, which he committed, but also for his father’s sins. For he does not fear to add his own malice to his father’s vices, even though he knows that the Lord is angered by them. It is just that a man who does not fear to imitate the ways of his wicked father before a busy judge is forced in this present life to pay the penalty for the faults of his wicked father. So Scripture says, “The soul of my father is mine; … the soul that sins, that one will die.” For in the flesh sons sometimes perish for their father’s sin. But when the original sin that comes from the parents’ iniquity is forgiven, it is no longer kept in the soul. What does it mean that small children are often snatched away by demons, unless the son’s flesh suffers to punish the father? For the wicked father is struck at in his very self and refuses to sense the force of the blow. Generally he is struck in his sons, so that he burns painfully, and the father’s sorrow is visited on the son’s flesh, insofar as the father’s evil heart is punished by the son’s suffering. But when the sons who are punished for their fathers’ guilt are not little children but already grown, what else should we understand except that they are suffering the punishments of those people whose deeds they imitated? Thus Scripture says rightly, “To the third and fourth generation.” For the sons can see the lives of the parents they imitate up to the third and fourth generation. Punishment extends up to them, for they saw what they would imitate sinfully. — EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT, Exodus 60
Augustine of Hippo: What does the phrase say that the Lord will not purify the accused, but will not declare him innocent? — QUESTIONS ON EXODUS, Q. 155 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Exodus 34:10
Augustine of Hippo: God says to Moses on the mountain, where he was going to write again the two tablets of stone, among other things, the following: In front of all your people I will do wonders. He still does not deign to say: In front of all my people. Or perhaps your people say, as if referring to any man of that same people, that is, of the people to whom you belong, as we say “your city”, which is not a city that you dominate or the one you founded, but of which you are a citizen? A little further on it also says: All the town you are in. What has been said definitively but “your people”? But this did not say it. “Where you are” is a way of speaking. — QUESTIONS ON EXODUS, Q. 156 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Exodus 34:12
Caesarius of Arles: When the Lord handed over to you the land of the Canaanites, he said, “Take care, therefore, not to make a covenant with these inhabitants of the land that you are to enter; else they will immediately become a snare among you.” Now we believe that by the grace of baptism all sins and offenses have been banished from us. If we afterward make a covenant with those same sins and vices, doubtless this covenant will become a snare for us because of our consent to avarice or dissipation. — SERMON 81.4
Augustine of Hippo: What does what is said to Moses mean: Beware that he makes a covenant with those who are established in the country? The Greek does not have “that you ever do,” but rather that he does. Does it refer perhaps to the people, of whom Moses is the chief? But Moses did not lead the people to that land, where God forbids making an alliance with those who lived there. It is, in short, a kind of rare expression and that I have not yet found or I have not noticed, if it is really some speech and not some special meaning. — QUESTIONS ON EXODUS, Q. 157 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Exodus 34:13
Augustine of Hippo: When God sends Moses, once he grants him possession of the land, destroys all idolatry and the people does not worship any other God, he says: For the Lord is a God whose name is Jealous, he is a jealous God (Exodus 34,14). This means that the very name by which the Lord God is designated is Jealous, because He is a jealous God. This quality, distinct from the vice of human disturbance, always and in all circumstances God is immutable and calm. But with that word it is indicated that God will not leave his people unpunished if he is not faithful to him, worshiping other gods. The word is taken in a metaphorical sense of marital zeal, by means of which the husband keeps the chastity of the wife, which is useful to us, but not to God. Because who could harm God with that kind of fornication? On the other hand, it causes great harm to oneself, because it leads to perdition. God forbids this infidelity with a very serious terror, calling himself Jealous. Of him it is said in the psalm: You have caused all who are unfaithful to perish; but for me it is a good to be united to God (Ps. 72,27.28). Finally, the text says: Lest you make an alliance with those who are established in the country and prostitute themselves by following their gods (Exodus 34,15). 159 (Exodus 34.20). What does it mean: You will not appear before me empty-handed? As the context indicates, appearing before God is appearing in his tabernacle. And you will not appear before him with empty hands means that you should never enter without some offering. This, taken in a spiritual sense, is a great mystery. For these things were said as shadows of future realities. 160 (Exodus 34.21). Speaking of Saturday, what does it mean? What will you add: Will you rest from sowing and harvesting? It seems to mean: “in the time of sowing and harvesting.” Or perhaps send observing the sabbatical rest so that they do not even have excuse those seasons that are very necessary for the farmers so they can eat and live? The Scripture, therefore, commands that even at the time of sowing and harvesting, when labor is urgently needed, sabbath rest is observed. And so, alluding to these times that demand a lot of work, it is indicated that at all times work should be suspended on Saturday. 161 (Exodus 34.24). The Scripture says: No one will covet your land (and) when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times a year. This means that anyone could come up quiet and should not be worried about their land, since God promises custody so that no one covets anything. And this God promised to the one who went up to the sanctuary, so that he would not be afraid in his absence. And here it is clearly demonstrated what was said before: You will not appear before the Lord your God with empty hands (Exodus 34,20). For they refer to that place where God was to dwell in the tabernacle or in the temple. 162 (Exodus 34.25). What does it mean: You will not sacrifice the blood of my victims on fermented bread? Do you call in this place “your victims” to those who sacrifice at Easter, and commanded that there be no then fermented bread at home, because they are the days of unleavened bread? 163 (Exodus 34.25). What does it mean: And it will not sleep until the morning the immolation of the solemnity of the Passover, but what it sent above, that is to say, that there will be nothing left for the morning of the breast of the animal that immolated itself? But the expression is something dark: sleep will be “will be”. 164 (Exodus 34.26). You will not bake the lamb in its mother’s milk. He goes back to saying again what I do not know how it can be understood. But it is a great prophecy about Christ, whether it could be fulfilled literally, especially if it could not be fulfilled. Because in the words of God we must not refer everything to the property of things, as in the case of the rock and the cavern and the laying of the hand (Cf Exodus 33,22). But what must certainly be demanded of the narrator’s fidelity is that what he says happened has actually happened, and what he says was said has actually been said. Which is also required of the writers of the Gospel. Because when they say that Christ said certain things, in parables, that he said those things is not a parable, but a historical narrative. 165 (Exodus 34.28). And Moses was there in the presence of the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did not eat bread or drink water. What he had said before, when taking the tables he broke, he repeats it now again, not recapitulating what happened, but remembering that something else happened again. And we have said what the repetition of the law means. The phrase: He did not eat bread or drink water means that he “fasted”, taking the part for the whole; that is to say, the Scripture means bread for all kinds of food, and for water all kinds of drink. 166 (Exodus 34.28). And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. Now it is said that Moses himself wrote. A little before God had told him: Write these words (Exodus 34,28). But when he received the law for the first time and threw away the boards, he was not told that he had made them, as it is now said: Wash two tables of stone, (Exodus 34,1) and he was not commanded to write them, as the Scripture says: the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. The previous time it was said: And he gave Moses, as soon as he stopped talking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the covenant, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God (Exodus 31,18 ). And shortly afterwards he adds: And Moses turned and came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tables of stone written on both sides; they were written by one and on the other; and the tablets were the work of God, and the writing, engraved on the tablets, was the writing of God (Exodus 32,15.15). That is why a serious question arises of knowing how those tablets that Moses was going to break, knowing God in advance, are said to be not the work of man, but of God, and that they were not written by man, but by God, the finger of God. On the other hand, the other tablets that were to last so long and that were to be in the tabernacle and in the temple, by God’s command, were carved by man and written by man. In those first were meant the grace of God, not the work of man, grace from which the Hebrews became unworthy, returning with desire to Egypt and becoming the idol-for which they were deprived of that benefit and Moses broke The tables? Was it meant in these second ones to those who boast about their works that is why the Apostle says: Ignoring the justice of God and wanting to establish his own, they did not submit to the justice of God (Rm 10, 3) and that is why tables were given engraved and written by the work of man, that they remain with men to signify those who would boast of their works, not of the finger of God, that is, of the Spirit of God? Certainly, the handing over of the law for the second time means the New Testament-the Old Testament signified that first law, whose tables were broken and the law abolished-especially since when the law is given a second time, it is given without any terror, as when that first occurred in the midst of so much noise of fire, clouds and trumpets, for which the people, terrified, exclaimed: That God does not speak to us, lest we die. (Exodus 20,19) Where it is meant that in the Old Testament there is fear, and in the New, love. But how does the question of knowing why these tablets were God’s work, and these, the work of man; those, written by the finger of God, and these, written by man? Is it perhaps that the former meant the Old Testament, precisely because God in them imposed his precepts and man did not fulfill them? The law was given in the Old Testament to convince the transgressors, a law that entered so that the crime would abound. Evidently, this law was not fulfilled by fear, which can not be fulfilled except by love. But it is called the work of God, because the law was established by God, God wrote it, it was not the work of man, because man did not obey God, and the law made him guilty. In the second tables, man, with the help of God, makes the tables and writes them, because the love of the New Testament fulfills the law. Therefore the Lord says: I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And the Apostle adds: Love is the fullness of the law (Rm 13,10) and faith that acts by love (Galatians 5,6). Thus, what in the Old Testament was difficult, in the New Testament it is easy for the man who has the faith who acts by love and when the finger of God, the Spirit of God, has written it in, in the heart, not outside, on a stone. That is why the Apostle says: Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh of the heart, (2 Corinthians 3,3) because the love of God, through which the precept is truly fulfilled, has been poured out in your hearts by the Holy Spirit, who He has given us (Rm 5,5). Therefore, the law was first given-in which the Old Testament is represented, which is the work of God alone and which was written by the finger of God. And that is why the Apostle says: Thus, the law is certainly holy and the command is holy, and just and good (Rm 7,12). Then the holy and good law is the work of God, in which man does nothing, because he does not obey, but rather becomes guilty under the threat and condemnation of the law. Therefore the Apostle says: Sin, so that it appears as sin, by means of a good thing, procured death for me (Rm 7,13). But man is happy when this holy and just and good command is also his work, but through the grace of God. — QUESTIONS ON EXODUS, Q. 158 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)
Exodus 34:17
John Damascene: “You shall make for yourself no molten gods.” You see that he forbids the making of images because of idolatry and that it is impossible to make an image of the bodiless, invisible and uncircumscribed God. “You saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke.…” And St. Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, says, “Being therefore God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man.” — ON DIVINE IMAGES 8
Exodus 34:19
Jerome: All the heretics have gone astray by not understanding the mystery of his nativity. The statement “He who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord” is more applicable to the special nativity of the Savior than to that of all humanity. For Christ alone opened the closed doors of the womb of virginity, which nevertheless remained permanently closed. This is the closed east door, through which only the high priest enters and leaves, and nevertheless it is always closed. — Against the Pelagians 2.4
Exodus 34:28
Augustine of Hippo: The forty-day fast of Lent draws its authority from the Old Testament, from the fasts of Moses and Elijah, and from the gospel, because the Lord fasted that many days, showing that the gospel is not at variance with the Law and the Prophets. The Law is personified by Moses, the Prophets by Elijah, between whom the Lord appeared transfigured on the mountain. — LETTER 55
Philoxenus of Mabbug: And like this holy man the blessed Moses also was twice deemed worthy to go unto the thick darkness and to receive the law upon the tablets; and he was made pure by fasting like unto this, and then he was deemed worthy of the terrible sight. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 – On Abstinence
Exodus 34:29
Basil of Caesarea: Every soul is beautiful which is considered by the standard of its own virtues. But most beautiful, true and lovely, which can be contemplated by him alone who has purified his mind, is that of the divine and blessed nature. He who gazes steadfastly at the splendor and graces of it receives some share from it, as if from an immersion, tinging his own face with a sort of brilliant radiance. Whence Moses also was made resplendent in face by receiving some share of beauty when he held converse with God. Therefore he who is conscious of his own beauty utters this act of thanksgiving: “O Lord, in your favor, you gave strength to my beauty.” — EXEGETIC HOMILIES 14.5
Ephrem the Syrian: In Moses he depicted for you a parable: his cheeks, ashen with age, became shining and fair, a symbol of old age that in Eden again becomes young. — HYMNS ON PARADISE 7.10
Exodus 34:33
Cyril of Alexandria: The shadows bring forth the truth, even if they are not at all the truth themselves. Because of this, the divinely inspired Moses placed a veil upon his face and spoke thus to the children of Israel, all but shouting by this act that a person might behold the beauty of the utterances made through him, not in outwardly appearing figures but in meditations hidden within us. — LETTER 41.7
Origen of Alexandria: For so long as a man does not attend to the spiritual meaning “a veil lies upon his heart,” in consequence of which veil, in other words his duller understanding, the Scripture itself is said or thought to be veiled. This is the explanation of the veil which is said to have covered the face of Moses when he was speaking to the people, that is, when the law is read in public. But if we turn to the Lord, where also the Word of God is and where the Holy Spirit reveals spiritual knowledge, the veil will be taken away, and we shall then with unveiled face behold in the holy Scriptures the glory of the Lord. — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.1.2
Exodus 34:34
Gregory the Dialogist: But the preacher should know how to avoid drawing the mind of his hearer beyond its strength, lest, so to speak, the string of the soul, when stretched more than it can bear, should be broken. For all deep things should be covered up before a multitude of hearers, and scarcely opened to a few. For hence the Truth in person says, “Who, thinkest thou, is the faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord has appointed over his household, to give them their measure of wheat in due season?” Now by a measure of wheat is expressed a portion of the Word, lest, when anything is given to a narrow heart beyond its capacity, it be spill. Hence Paul says, “I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. As it were to babes in Christ, I have given you milk to drink, and not meat.” Hence Moses, when he comes on from the sanctuary of God, veils his shining face before the people; because in truth He shews not to multitudes the secrets of inmost brightness. Hence it is enjoined on him by the Divine voice that if any one should dig a cistern, and not cover it, and an ox or ass should fall into it, he should pay the price, because when one who has arrived at the deep streams of knowledge covers them not up before the brutish hearts of his hearers, he is adjudged as liable to penalty, if through his words a soul, whether clean or unclean, be caught on a stumbling-stone. Hence it is said to the blessed Job, “Who hath given understanding unto the cock?” — The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 39