Deuteronomy 5

Deuteronomy 5:2

Augustine of Hippo: What do these words mean? The Lord your God has concluded an alliance with you in Horeb. The Lord did not conclude this covenant with your parents, but with you, with you who are all here alive. Face to face did the Lord speak to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire? Is it that those who do not enter the promised land -for all died- do not belong to this alliance, whose recognition was then made when they were counted from twenty years old up to fifty years old as people capable of war? (Cf Numbers 1,20) And how Did the Lord speak to those who live today? Perhaps because those from twenty years down, who could well remember this, could be many then, free from that punishment that God established for those who were counted then, telling them that they would not enter the promised land and says this to those who even though they were not twenty years old or up, when God spoke to them on the mountain, in order to be counted then, however, they could have been from nineteen years old down to childhood, so that they could see, hear and retain in memory the things that were done and said? But what do these words mean: Face to face the Lord spoke to you, who says to those who a short time before he tried to admonish them seriously, warning them that they had not seen any image, but had only heard a voice coming from the midst of the fire? perhaps of those words for the evidence of things and for the presence in some way of the manifestation of divinity, of which no one could doubt? And if this is so, what problem is there in understanding this very thing about Moses, when about him it is said that the Lord spoke with him face to face, (Cf Exodus 33,11) so that even he would not see with his eyes out of the fire? Or is it necessary to think that he saw something else, since it is said that he entered the fog or the cloud where God was? (Cf Exodus 24,18) But even if he had seen something other than what they saw, it can not be deduced that he would have seen the substance of God with his mortal eyes, of the words he addressed to God, saying: If I have found grace before you, show yourself to me, so that I may see you clearly. For the rest, we should not think that this people, to whom Moses spoke, would have seen God face to face, when he spoke on the mountain from the midst of the fire, as the Apostle says that we will see him in the hereafter, with these words: Now we see in a mirror, confusedly; then we will see face to face. He then says what it is and how much it is: Now I know imperfectly; but then I will know how I am known (1 Corinthians 13,12). But this same thing must be taken with caution, so that man does not think that he will have as much knowledge of God as God does now of man, but that, according to his capacity, he will have such perfect knowledge that he will not have to wait that nothing more is added to it. Because with the same perfection with which God now knows man and does it as God with respect to man, so man will know God perfectly and will do as man with God. And although it has been said: Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect, (Matthew 5,58) not for that reason should we expect equality with the Father who has the Only Begotten Word. In spite of everything, there have been those who have thought that this will happen too, unless we misunderstand what they say. 10 (Deuteronomy 5.5). What do these words mean: And I was then between the Lord and you to announce to you the words of the Lord? Is it that the Lord was somewhere, that is, on the mountain, from where they heard the voices? This should not be taken in the sense that by this text we should think that the substance of God is in some bodily place, because God is all everywhere, without approaching or moving away by local distances. The manifestations of God do not show themselves in any other way to the human senses in that creature that is not him. Therefore, the Lord, wanting to turn our minds away from the suspicions by which God is thought to be contained in a place, says: There will come a time when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation comes from the Jews. But there comes a time and it is this, in which the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks those who adore him in this way. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4,21-24). Moses, therefore, said that he was an intermediary, not between the substance of God and the people by a local distance, but because the people preferred to hear through him the remaining words of God, after having been terrified to hear, coming from the midst of the fire, the voice of the Lord that promulgated the Decalogue (Cf Exodus 20,19). But with all reason we can investigate the meaning of these words of Moses collected by Deuteronomy: And I was then between the Lord and you to announce to you the words of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up to the mountain, saying: I am the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 5,5.6), etc. These are already words of the Lord contained in the Decalogue. What, then, means the addition: saying? If we thought that there is hyperbaton and that the order of words would be: And I was then between the Lord and you to announce to you the words of the Lord, saying: “I am the Lord your God”, then this is not true. For the people did not hear these words through Moses, but he heard them from the midst of the fire. The town could not stand this. When he heard the Decalogue, he asked for the rest to be told by Moses. In short, the word: saying, means as if it had been said: when it said. And the meaning would be: I was then between the Lord and you to announce to you the words of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up to the mountain, when he said: “I am the Lord your God.” It is understood: «when the Lord said». When the Lord said these words mentioned below, taking them from the Decalogue, the people were afraid before the fire and did not go up the mountain, and prayed that the Lord would speak to them rather through Moses (Cf 20,18.19). Moses recalls in Deuteronomy that the people said those words to him, because he did not want to hear the voice of the Lord anymore, but they asked God to speak to them through Moses, saying: Look, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire (Deuteronomy 5,24), etc. In the Exodus it does not say exactly the same when the things that are repeated here are counted for the first time (Cf Exodus 20,22). But as we have already recalled some other times, we should not think that we should attribute to a lie the fact that the same decision is expressed by any other words, and this in attention also to the own words of the evangelists, that the ignorant and Slanderers claim that they contradict each other. For Moses, in fact, it was not difficult to attend to what he had written in the Exodus and to repeat it with the same words, if it were not for our holy doctors to suggest this to the disciples, telling them not to seek, in the words of the who speak, nothing other than the intention with which the words have been put to indicate it. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 9 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Deuteronomy 5:3

Eusebius of Caesarea: See how distinctly he alludes to this [Mosaic] covenant when he says God did not give the same covenant to their fathers [Abraham and Noah]. For if he had said that absolutely no covenant was given to their fathers it would have been a false statement. For Holy Scripture testifies that a covenant of some kind was given both to Abraham and Noah. And so Moses adds that one “not the same” was given to their fathers. This points to that other greater and glorious covenant, by which all of these were shown forth as friends of God. — PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 1.6

Deuteronomy 5:22

Augustine of Hippo: There it was on tables of stone that the finger of God operated; here it was on the hearts of men. There the law was given outwardly, so that the unrighteous might be terrified; here it was given inwardly, so that they might be justified. For this, “Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment,"—such, of course, as was written on those tables,—“it is briefly comprehended,” says he, “in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Now this was not written on the tables of stone, but “is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.” God’s law, therefore, is love. “To it the carnal mind is not subject, neither indeed can be;” but when the works of love are written on tables to alarm the carnal mind, there arises the law of works and “the letter which killeth” the transgressor; but when love itself is shed abroad in the hearts of believers, then we have the law of faith, and the spirit which gives life to him that loves. — ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 17.29

Deuteronomy 5:26

Cyril of Jerusalem: If to hear the voice of God speaking is a cause of death, how will the sight of God not cause death? And why wonder? Even Moses himself says, “I am greatly terrified and trembling.” What then? Would you that he who came for our salvation become a minister of destruction because men could not bear him? Or rather that he should temper his grace to our measure? — Catechetical Lecture 12.13-14

Deuteronomy 5:29

Augustine of Hippo: What does it mean what Moses says the Lord told him about the Hebrew people with these words: Who will make his heart so be that they fear me and keep my commandments !? Does the Lord intend to say that we must understand here that this favor is granted by his grace, namely, that the justice of God be in men by faith, not as their own as if it came from the law? (Cf Philip 3,9) This idea it is indicated by the text of the prophet, when the Lord says: I will take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ez 11,19; 36,26). And this is said according to the meaning of the word meat and that does not have the word stone, because this word is used in a metaphorical sense. The prophet says this in another place: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will conclude a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant I made with his parents the day I took his hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Because this will be the covenant I made with them: After those days I will put my laws in his heart and write them on his mind, and I will no longer remember his iniquities or his sins (Jr 38 (31), 31.32.33.34). Here distinguishes the new alliance from the old one, because in the old one the law was given on stone tablets; in the new, however, it occurred in hearts, which is done by grace. That is why the Apostle also says: Not on tablets of stone, but on the tables of flesh of the heart. And in another place he says: He made us qualified ministers for the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3,3.6). — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 11 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Deuteronomy 5:31

Ambrose of Milan: Blessed is that mind which, surpassing the nature and essence itself, deserves to hear what was said to Moses when he was separated from the people: ‘But you stand with me’ (Deut. V, 31)! — On Cain and Abel, Book 1, Chapter 2, Section 7

Origen of Alexandria: [Celsus] continues by making further remarks as if they were what we should agree to, although none of those Christians who have any intelligence would agree to them. Not one of us says that “God participates in shape or color.” Nor does he “partake of movement”; because it is his nature to be established and firm, he calls the righteous man to imitate him in this respect when he says, “But as for you, stand with me.” If, however, some texts suggest that there is movement of some sort on his part, as for example that which says “They heard the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening,” we should understand such sayings in the sense that God is regarded as being moved by those who have sinned. Or we should interpret such texts in the same way as we do when there is a figurative reference to God’s sleep or his anger or anything of this sort. — AGAINST CELSUS 6.64