Commentary on Deuteronomy

Cyril of Jerusalem (313–386)

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?

Moses anticipates the name of the ecclesia once again when he says of the tablets: "And on them were inscribed all the words that the Lord spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly." It is as if he might have said more plainly: "you were called and gathered together."

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