“The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.”
'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look - the divine self-identification ('I am the God of your fathers') reaches back to the patriarchal promise, grounding present action in covenant continuity. Moses's trembling (entos, trembling with fear) is the numinous fear appropriate to encountering the holy (cf. Luke 1:12). The refusal to look is reverent awe.
Church Fathers on Acts 7:19
And Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem. But when the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!