Original Douay–Rheims AnnotationsExodus 3
English College of Douai–Rheims
Read Exodus 3 in the BibleExodus 3:14
I am which am.
All other things, besides God, once were not; and being are limited in nature; neither could persist unless God conserved them; many things also have lost, or shall lose their proper essence & being, and whiles they remain have continual alterations. Only God eternally is without beginning, ending, limitation, dependence, or mutation, consisting only of himself, & all other things are of him. therefore this name, Qui Est, He Which Is, is most proper to God ◦, not determining any manner, but indeterminately signifying all manners of being, for so it importeth the very infinite immensity of God's substance. S. Damascen. li. 1. c. 12. Orthodoxæ fidei. S. Tho. p. 1. q. 13. a. 11.
- ◦ The most proper name of God, is HE WHICH IS.
Original Douay–Rheims Annotations — English College of Douai–Rheims. CC0 1.0
Exodus 3:2
Our Lord appeared.
S. Steven reciting this vision saith [1], an Angel appeared to Moyses: and so it is in the Hebrew text, in the Chaldee Paraphrasis, and in the Septuagint Interpreters. Neither is the Latin Edition (reading Lord ) contrary to the other which read Angel, no more than one place of holy Scripture is contrary to another in the same language, but very consonant in sense, sometimes attributing the same apparitions and other woks to God [2], as the author and principal Agent, and sometimes to Angels, the next and immediate ministers of God. For so not only S. Steven in the place alleged, but also S. Paul saith plainly (Gal. 3.) that the Law was delivered by Angels. And in his Epistle to the Hebrews [3], proveth the excellency of Christ's Law above the old law, by the difference of the persons by whom both were given: affirming that the former was spoken by Angels, the other declared by our Lord Jesus Christ. [4] Whereof S. Cyril of Alexandria discourseth largely (li. 8. c. 2. Thesau.) shewing that indeed Angels delivered the law, yet not by their own authority, but as servants and legates of God. And before him S. Dionyse of Ariopagite (li. coelest. Hierar. c. 4.) taught the very same, the law (saith he) as holy writs testify, was given to us by Angels: yea all apparitions made to the ancient fathers before the law, and after it, were made by Angels. A little after objecting to himself, that divine Scriptures also testify [5], that the law was given and granted to Moyses by God, to teach us that indeed it hath the form of sacred and divine law, answereth, eam Angelorum ad nos opera pervenisse, that it came to us (from God) by the means of Angels. In like manner S. Justinus Martyr (in explic. qq. necess q. 142.) saith, all those Angels, which have appeared in God's place, or have spoken with men, have also been called by the name of God, as he that spoke with Job, and with Moyses. S. Augustine after a large discourse of this matter, in his second, third, and fourth books de Trinitate, hath these words (li. 4. c. ulti.) If it be demanded of me how either the voices, or sensible forms, & shews were made before the incarnation of the Word of God, which prefigured the same, I answer that God wrought them by Angels, which also I suppose I have sufficiently shewed by testimonies of holy Scriptures. Likewise S. Greg. (Prefat. in Job. c. 2.) saith plainly, that an Angel appeared to Moyses in the fiery bush, yet is called God, because he was the legate of God, & therefore spoke, as if God himself had spoke in divine Person, explicating the same by two examples [6]: David said, My people attend my law [7], yet neither the people nor law was Davids, but God's. And the reader daily amidst the people proclaimeth: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob [8]. Neither doth he truly say, that he is God, nor by that he saith, doth he go from the rule of truth. He also confirmeth the same doctrine, li. 28. Moral. c. 5. And further teacheth that Angels protect men, and provinces, & execute God's will in this inferior world [9]. And so do the other Doctors of the Church S. Gregory Nazianzen, orat. ad 150. Episcop. & orat 2. de Theologia, in fine utriusque. S. Basil li. 3. cont. Eunom. S. Athanasius. ser. 4. cont. Arian, longius a princ. & Epist. de senten. Dionisij Alexan. in fine. S. Ambrose ser. 1. in Psal. 118. S. Chrysost. ho. 6. and S. Hierom. li. 3. comment. in Mat. 18.