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.And, behold, I am with thee, keeping thee in every waywherein thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will notleave thee, until I have done all that I have spoken to thee of.And Jacobawaked out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and Iknew it not.And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! thisis none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.AndJacob rose up in the morning, and took the stone which he had placedunder his head, and he set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top ofit; and Jacob called the name of the place The House of God, and the nameof the city formerly was Ulammaus. 435CHAPTER 59GOD DISTINCT FROM THE FATHERCONVERSED WITH MOSESWhen I had spoken these words, I continued: Permit me, further, to showyou from the book of Exodus how this same One, who is both Angel, andGod, and Lord, and man, and who appeared in human form to Abrahamand Isaac, appeared in a flame of fire from the bush, and conversed withMoses. And after they said they would listen cheerfully, patiently, andeagerly, I went on: These words are in the book which bears the title ofExodus: And after many days the king of Egypt died, and the children ofIsrael groaned by reason of the works; and so on until, Go and gather theelders of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them, The Lord God of yourfathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hathappeared to me, saying, I am surely beholding you, and the things whichhave befallen you in Egypt. In addition to these words, I went on: Haveyou perceived, sirs, that this very God whom Moses speaks of as anAngel that talked to him in the flame of fire, declares to Moses that He isthe God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob? CHAPTER 60OPINIONS OF THE JEWS WITH REGARDTO HIM WHO APPEARED IN THE BUSHThen Trypho said, We do not perceive this from the passage quoted byyou, but [only this], that it was an angel who appeared in the flame of fire,but God who conversed with Moses; so that there were really twopersons in company with each other, an angel and God, that appeared inthat vision. I again replied, Even if this were so, my friends, that an angel and Godwere together in the vision seen by Moses, yet, as has already been provedto you by the passages previously quoted, it will not be the Creator of allthings that is the God that said to Moses that He was the God of 436Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, but it will be Hewho has been proved to you to have appeared to Abraham, ministering tothe will of the Maker of all things, and likewise carrying into execution Hiscounsel in the judgment of Sodom; so that, even though it be as you say,that there were two an angel and God he who has but the smallestintelligence will not venture to assert that the Maker and Father of allthings, having left all supercelestial matters, was visible on a little portionof the earth. And Trypho said, Since it has been previously proved that He who iscalled God and Lord, and appeared to Abraham, received from the Lord,who is in the heavens, that which He inflicted on the land of Sodom, evenalthough an angel had accompanied the God who appeared to Moses, weshall perceive that the God who communed with Moses from the bushwas not the Maker of all things, but He who has been shown to havemanifested Himself to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob; who also iscalled and is perceived to be the Angel of God the Maker of all things,because He publishes to men the commands of the Father and Maker of allthings. And I replied, Now assuredly, Trypho, I shall show that, in the vision ofMoses, this same One alone who is called an Angel, and who is God,appeared to and communed with Moses.For the Scripture says thus: TheAngel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the bush; and hesees that the bush burns with fire, but the bush was not consumed.AndMoses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight, for the bush is notburnt.And when the Lord saw that he is turning aside to behold, the Lordcalled to him out of the bush. In the same manner, therefore, in which theScripture calls Him who appeared to Jacob in the dream an Angel, then[says] that the same Angel who appeared in the dream spoke to him,saying, I am the God that appeared to thee when thou didst flee from theface of Esau thy brother; and [again] says that, in the judgment whichbefell Sodom in the days of Abraham, the Lord had inflicted thepunishment of the Lord who [dwells] in the heavens; even so here, theScripture, in announcing that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses,and in afterwards declaring him to be Lord and God, speaks of the sameOne, whom it declares by the many testimonies already quoted to be 437minister to God, who is above the world, above whom there is no other[God].CHAPTER 61WISDOM IS BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER,AS FIRE FROM FIRE I shall give you another testimony, my friends, said I, from theScriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning, [who was] acertain rational power [proceeding] from Himself, who is called by theHoly Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, againan Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos; and on another occasion Hecalls Himself Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua the sonof Nave (Nun).For He can be called by all those names, since He ministersto the Father s will, and since He was begotten of the Father by an act ofwill; just as we see happening among ourselves: for when we give out someword, we beget the word; yet not by abscission, so as to lessen the word[which remains] in us, when we give it out: and just as we see alsohappening in the case of a fire, which is not lessened when it has kindled[another], but remains the same; and that which has been kindled by itlikewise appears to exist by itself, not diminishing that from which it waskindled.The Word of Wisdom, who is Himself this God begotten of theFather of all things, and Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and the Glory ofthe Begetter, will bear evidence to me, when He speaks by Solomon thefollowing: If I shall declare to you what happens daily, I shall call to mindevents from everlasting, and review them.The Lord made me the beginningof His ways for His works.From everlasting He established me in thebeginning, before He had made the earth, and before He had made thedeeps, before the springs of the waters had issued forth, before themountains had been established.Before all the hills He begets me.Godmade the country, and the desert, and the highest inhabited places underthe sky
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