Êxodo 3
Gregory of Nazianzus · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Êxodo 3:5
And as to shoes, let him who is about to touch the holy land which the feet of God have trodden, put them off, as Moses did upon the mount, that he may bring there nothing dead; nothing to come between man and God. — ORATION 45.19
Êxodo 3:6
Of the other titles, some are evidently names of his authority, others of his government of the world, and of this viewed under a twofold aspect: the one before, the other in, the incarnation. For instance, the Almighty, the King of Glory, or of the Ages, or of the Powers, or of the Beloved or of Kings. Or again, the Lord of Sabaoth, that is, of hosts, or of powers or of lords; these are clearly titles belonging to his authority. But the God either of salvation or of vengeance, or of peace, or of righteousness, or of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of all the spiritual Israel that sees God—these belong to his government. For since we are governed by these three things, the fear of punishment, the hope of salvation and of glory besides, and the practice of the virtues by which these are attained, the name of the God of vengeance governs fear, and that of the God of salvation our hope, and that of the God of virtues our practice; that whoever attains to any of these may, as carrying God in himself, press on yet more unto perfection and to that affinity which arises out of virtues. Now these are names common to the Godhead, but the proper name of the unoriginate is "Father," and that of the unoriginately begotten is "Son" and that of the unbegottenly proceeding or going forth is "the Holy Ghost." — THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4:19
Êxodo 3:14
As far then as we can reach, "He who is" and "God" are the special names of his essence; and of these especially "He who is," not only because when he spoke to Moses in the mount, and Moses asked what his name was, this was what he called himself, bidding him say to the people, "I am has sent me," but also because we find that this name is the more strictly appropriate. For the name theos ["God"], even if, as those who are skillful in these matters say, it were derived from theein ["to run"] or from aithein ["to blaze"], from continual motion, and because he consumes evil conditions of things (from which fact he is also called a consuming fire) would still be one of the relative names and not an absolute one, as again is the case with "Lord," which also is called a name of God. "I am the Lord your God," he says, "that is my name;" and "The Lord is his name." But we are inquiring into a nature whose being is absolute and not [into being] bound up with something else. But being is in its proper sense peculiar to God and belongs to him entirely, and it is not limited or cut short by any before or after, for indeed in him there is no past or future. — THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4:18