Hebrews 12:21
And so terrible was that which was seen, Moses said: I am frighted, and tremble.
Open Hebrews 12:21 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et ita terribile erat quod videbatur. Moyses dixit : Exterritus sum, et tremebundus.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- καί, οὕτω φοβερὸν ἦν τὸ φανταζόμενον, Μωϋσῆς εἶπεν· Ἔκφοβός εἰμι καὶ ἔντρομος.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter IX. “That Those Grievously Sin Who Despise or Neglect God’s Gracious Calling.”
I could adduce ten thousand Scriptures of which not “one tittle shall pass away,” without being fulfilled; for the mouth of the Lord the Holy Spirit hath spoken these things. “Do not any longer,” he says, “my son, despise the chastening of the Lord , nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” O surpassing love for man! Not as a teacher speaking to his pupils, not as a master to his domestics, nor as God to men, but as a father, does the Lord gently admonish his children. Thus Moses confesses that “he was filled with quaking and terror” while he listened to God speaking concerning the Word. …
St Athanasius Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life, (For 371.)
Of us, then, whose also is the Passover, the calling is from above, and ‘our conversation is in heaven,’ as Paul says; ‘For we have here no abiding city, but we seek that which is to come,’ whereto, also, looking forward, we properly keep the feast. ( And again, afterwards: ) Heaven truly is high, and its distance from us infinite; for ‘the heaven of heavens,’ says he, ‘is the Lord’s.’ But not, on that account, are we to be negligent or fearful, as though the way thereto were impossible; but rather should we be zealous. Yet not, as in the case of those who formerly, removing from the east and finding a plain in Senaar, began [to build a tower], is there need for us to bake bricks with fire, and to seek slime for mortar; for their tongues were confounded, and their work was destroyed. But for us the Lord has consecrated a way through His blood, and has made it easy. …
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).