From the same author, on #Ex 24:13.
He is most manifestly offended with those who being near thought, out of their impiety or folly, that the motions of the Deity were those of peace, and belonging to the act of changing his abode; for behold he says expressly, not that the God who exists in essence, and who is duly thought of in respect of his existence, came down, but that his glory came down. And the acceptation of the word glory may be twofold; for in one sense it may signify the presence of his powers, since the power of his army is spoken of as the glory of a king; and in another sense it may refer to the appearance of him alone, and to the apprehension of his divine glory; so that an idea of the actual arrival of God may have been created in the minds of those who were present, as if he had come in order to give a most undeniable information to the laws which were about to be given.
From the same author, on #Ex 24:17.
But he says that the appearance of the glory of the Lord is very like unto flame, or rather not that it is so, but that it appears like it to the beholders; since God shows what he chose to appear to be, in order to strike the beholders with amazement without in reality being what he appeared. Accordingly he brings him before the face of the children of Israel, affirming in the plainest language that it was an appearance as of flame, but not a real flame. But as flame consumes every material which is exposed to it, so also when the true conception of God once enters into the soul, it destroys all the heterodox reasonings of impiety, and purifies and sanctifies the whole mind.
From the same author, on #Ex 24:18.
Because the generation which had thus quitted its former abode was about to be condemned, and to wander in a state of desolation for forty years, having received innumerable benefits, but having displayed its ingratitude in still more countless instances.
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