Category Archives: Bible Study

Moses’ Shining Face

Posted on by
Reply
  • The Moses Fountain in the Old City of Bern, Switzerland shows Moses with rays of light. But it was common to depict Moses with horns because in Latin, the word for “rays of light” is only one or two letters different from the word for “horns” so the Latin text of Exodus read, “Horns came from Moses’ face” rather than “Rays of light came from Moses’ face.” Whether the original translation was mistaken, or copyists simply made a mistake that got repeated, the result was the same: Moses was usually depicted in Western Christian art with horns.





The Well of Moses by Claus Sluter (a Dutch sculptor) portrays Moses with two small horns outside a monastery in Dijon. The sculpture was carved in 1395–1403.



If the ministry of death, carved with letters on stone, came into being with glory, so much so that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face which was vanishing, surely the ministry of the Spirit will be even more glorious. For if glory belongs to the ministry of condemnation, surely the ministry of righteousness abounds with even more glory! (2 Cor. 3:7-9)

St. Paul is referring to the story in Exodus about Moses and the Ten Commandments. According to the Old Testament, Moses spent 40 days atop Mt. Sinai while God carved the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. The mountaintop was hidden by thick clouds and lightning; none of the people down below could see what was happening. When Moses finally came down the mountain with the stone tablets, no one could look at him because his face was so bright. He had spent time in the presence of God and God’s glory had saturated Moses’ skin. Moses had to cover his face if the people were to be able to look at him. Eventually, the glory began to fade but …. Anytime Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with God, the same thing happened: the glory of God saturated Moses’ flesh and he had to cover his face when he came out because his skin was so bright no one could look at him.

St. Paul says that if the commandments which God revealed on Mt. Sinai and throughout the time of Israel wandering in the wilderness–which had dire punishments attached to them all and only taught people what they could NOT do and condemned them because it was impossible to keep all the commandments–then the commandments of the New Testament and the gift of the Spirit (which makes the people righteous, not condemned) must be even more glorious. (Hebrews 10 points out, “A man who violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of two or three witnesses.”)

The apostles see the glory of God shining around Jesus at the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor. In the cloud of light, they see Moses and Elijah talking with Christ. In the Acts of the Apostles, the face of St. Stephen shines with the glory of God and no one can look at him. Throughout history, saints have been seen shining with the glory of God. Sometimes, it was the disciples of the saints who were also seen shining; just as Moses spent time with God and saturated with divine glory, those who spend time with the saints who are saturated with glory, can also shine with the glory of God themselves.

There was a famous conversation between St. Seraphim of Sarov (d. 1833) and one of his disciples:

I replied: “I cannot look, Father, because your eyes are flashing like lightning. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes ache with pain.”

Father Seraphim said: “Don’t be alarmed, your Godliness! Now you yourself have become as bright as I am. You are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God yourself; otherwise you would not be able to see me as I am.”

After these words I glanced at his face and there came over me an even greater reverent awe. Imagine in the center of the sun, in the dazzling light of its midday rays, the face of a man talking to you. You see the movement of his lips and the changing expression of his eyes, you hear his voice, you feel someone holding your shoulders; yet you do not see his hands, you do not even see yourself or his figure, but only a blinding light spreading far around for several yards and illumining with its glaring sheen both the snow-blanket which covered the forest glade and the snow-flakes which besprinkled me and the great Elder. You can imagine the state I was in!

“How do you feel now?” Father Seraphim asked me.

“Extraordinarily well,” I said.

“But in what way? How exactly do you feel well?”

I answered: “I feel such calmness and peace in my soul that no words can express it.”

Righteousness and light. Divine glory. To be saturated with glory is to be filled with the Peace of God which passes understanding and this is not an experience that was limited only to ancient times or only the great saints. It is an experience that is available to anyone who honestly seeks God.

And where God’s glory and peace are found, the fragrance of his holiness is never far behind!

The Pencil of Christ

Posted on by
Reply
St. Paul writing an epistle in an early 9th century manuscript version of Saint Paul’s letters. The manuscript is said to have been written and illustrated by the scribe Wolfcoz at the Monastery of St. Gallen. The monastery was founded in Switzerland in AD 719.


Do we need a letter of recommendation, as some do, to you or from you? You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, because you show that you are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh. (2 Cor. 3:1-3)

Itinerant preachers needed a letter of recommendation. Wandering prophets who stayed in one place for more than three days were to be rejected. Secular businessmen needed letters of recommendation, as many still do today. St. Paul tells the Corinthian parish that THEY are his letter of recommendation, if anyone needs to know who he is or what he stands for.

Their recommendation is written on his heart, in the very core of his existence. (And in the heart of St. Timothy, his co-worker.) Anyone who knows St. Paul’s heart–anyone who knows him personally–will read the recommendation from the Corinthian church written in his deepest being. St. Paul worked and ministered among the Corinthians and, in return, they wrote him a letter of recommendation.

Evidence of salvation is an epistle itself. The salvation of the Corinthians was in Paul’s heart and in the hearts of those who were with him, for he was always thinking about it….

The things that are promised are eternal and are therefore said to be written with the Spirit of God, unlike temporal things written in ink which fades and loses its power to record anything.

Ambrosiaster, Commentary on Paul’s Epistles (late 4th century)

The letter they wrote was not in ink but “with the Spirit of the living God.” (This is the only place this phrase appears in the Bible.) The spiritual letter they wrote was on St. Paul’s heart, not a tablet of stone–an allusion to the Ten Commandments written on stone by God at Mt. Sinai.

When someone wishes to paint a picture, they first make a sketch with the faint marks of a pencil and outline the proposed figure and insert marks to indicate features to be added later … this preliminary drawing with its faint outline makes the canvas ready to receive the true colors. So it will be with us, if only that faint form and outline is inscribed “on the tablets of our heart” by the pencil of our Lord Jesus Christ …. It is clear, then, that to those who have now in this life a kind of outline of truth and knowledge there shall be added in the future the beauty of the perfect image.

Origen, On First Principles 2.11.4 (second century)

Every priest needs a letter of recommendation if they go to a new diocese. Every bishop needs a letter of recommendation of they go to a new province. The best and most true letter of recommendation that a priest or bishop can have is the parish or diocese they have been serving. The parish is the priest’s letter of recommendation, written on the priest’s heart for anyone to read. The parish–whether in 1st century Corinth or 21st century New York–is the best letter of recommendation a priest or preacher can hope for.

Ink and stone vs. spirit and heart. This contrast or opposition is central to everything that St. Paul ever writes about or says. He stands with Ezekiel and the other prophets who insist that the commandments written on stone are useless if they are not also written in someone’s heart, i.e. the core of a person’s existence.

Aroma of Christ

Posted on by
Reply
Charcoal, incense, and thuribles in the worship of God, who descends as the smoke rises.


But thanks be to God, who in Christ always celebrates his victory over us by a triumphal procession, and through us manifests the fragrance of the knowledge of him in every place. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the latter a fragrance from death to death, to the former a fragrance from life to life. (2 Cor. 2:14-18)

St. Paul says that the Christians are the fragrance, the aroma of Christ in every place. For those who will be saved at the Last Day, the Christians are like the fragrance of incense; for those who will be damned at the Last Day, the Christians are like the stench of a decomposing corpse.

To unbelievers the preaching of the Cross is the smell of death. On hearing the Word of God they receive it as if it were a plague from which death knocks on the door. But to others it is the fragrance of life. To believers the Word of God is a messenger of eternal life.

… Some things are recognized by their smell, even though they are invisible. God, who is invisible, wishes to be understood through Christ. The preaching of Christ reaches our ears just as an aroma reaches our nostrils, bringing God and his only begotten Son right into the midst of his creation. A person who speaks the truth about Christ is … a good aroma from God, worthy of praise from the one who believes. But one who makes erroneous assertions about Christ has a bad smell to believers and unbelievers alike.

(Ambrosiaster, Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistles; written AD 366-384)

Incense, especially frankincense, is commonly found in the Old Testament. Anytime a prophet sees God or the heavenly court, there is a LOT of smoke (i.e. incense) billowing up around the Throne of God. There is a lot of incense filling the air of the Temple–twice a day several shovelfuls of incense are burnt on the altar that stands in front of the Holy of Holies. And on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the Holy of Holies is itself supposed to be so full of fragrant incense smoke that the High Priest should not be able to see his hand in front of his face.

Put an altar of incense in your innermost heart. Be a sweet aroma of Christ.

… so also the prophetic word is “a sweet fragrance” to those who believe, but to the doubting and unbelieving and those who say they belong to Pharoah, it becomes a detestable odor.

Origen, Homilies on Exodus)

In the New Testament, St. John describes in the Book of Revelation (the Apocalypse) how the angels stand swinging thuribles before the Throne of God and that the heavenly throne room is full of billowing clouds of fragrant smoke as the angels and saints offer the incense and prayers to God. Fragrant incense is everywhere God is, according to the Old and New Testaments.

Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, rose up before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar ….

Book of Revelation 8:3-5

Christians are both the fragrance of Christ in the world and the fragrance of prayer offered to Christ. The Holy Spirit descends as the smoke/prayer rises. Who would not want to experience that scriptural scent as they bow down to God?