Deuteronomy 5:26
What is all flesh, that it should hear the voice of the living God, who speaketh out of the midst of the fire, as we have heard, and be able to live?
Open Deuteronomy 5:26 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quid est omnis caro, ut audiat vocem Dei viventis, qui de medio ignis loquitur sicut nos audivimus, et possit vivere ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τίς γὰρ σὰρξ ἥτις ἤκουσεν φωνὴν θεοῦ ζῶντος λαλοῦντος ἐκ μέσου τοῦ πυρὸς ὡς ἡμεῖς, καὶ ζήσεται;
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כִּ֣י מִ֣י כָל בָּשָׂ֡ר אֲשֶׁ֣ר שָׁמַ֣ע קוֹל֩ אֱלֹהִ֨ים חַיִּ֜ים מְדַבֵּ֧ר מִתּוֹךְ הָאֵ֛שׁ כָּמֹ֖נוּ וַיֶּֽחִי
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian Against Praxeas, New Testament Passages Quoted. They Attest the Same Truth of the Son's Visibility Contrasted with the Father's Invisibility
If I fail in resolving this article (of our faith) by passages which may admit of dispute out of the Old Testament, I will take out of the New Testament a confirmation of our view, that you may not straightway attribute to the Father every possible (relation and condition) which I ascribe to the Son. Behold, then, I find both in the Gospels and in the (writings of the) apostles a visible and an invisible God (revealed to us), under a manifest and personal distinction in the condition of both. There is a certain emphatic saying by John: “No man hath seen God at any time;” meaning, of course, at any previous time. But he has indeed taken away all question of time, by saying that God had never been seen. The apostle confirms this statement; for, speaking of God, he says, “Whom no man hath seen, nor can see;” because the man indeed would die who should see Him. …
St Cyril of Jerusalem On the words Incarnate, and Made Man
13. These things the Jews read, but hear not: for they have stopped the ears of their heart, that they may not hear. But let us believe in Jesus Christ, as having come in the flesh and been made Man , because we could not receive Him otherwise. For since we could not look upon or enjoy Him as He was, He became what we are, that so we might be permitted to enjoy Him. For if we cannot look full on the sun, which was made on the fourth day, could we behold God its Creator? The Lord came down in fire on Mount Sinai, and the people could not bear it, but said to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; and let not God speak to us, lest we die : and again, For who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, and shall live ? If to hear the voice of God speaking is a cause of death, how shall not the sight of God Himself bring deat …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).