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🎧 Dialogue with Trypho
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Chapter 127: These Scripture Verses Do Not Refer to the Father, But to the Word.

These and similar sayings are recorded by the lawgiver and the prophets; and I believe I have explained enough that whenever it is written, 'God went up from Abraham,' or 'The Lord spoke to Moses,' and 'The Lord came down to see the tower the sons of men had built,' or when 'God shut Noah into the ark,' you should not think that the unbegotten God Himself came down or went up from any place. For the indescribable Father and Lord of all neither comes to any place, nor walks, nor sleeps, nor rises up, but remains in His own place, wherever that is, quick to see and quick to hear, having neither eyes nor ears, but possessing indescribable power; He sees all things, knows all things, and none of us escapes His notice.

HE IS NOT MOVED OR CONFINED TO A SPOT ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD: for He existed before the world was created. How, then, could He talk with anyone, or be seen by anyone, or appear on the smallest part of the earth, when the people at Sinai were not able to look even at the glory of Him who was sent from Him; and Moses himself could not enter the tabernacle he had built when it was filled with the glory of God; and the priest could not bear to stand before the temple when Solomon brought the ark into the house in Jerusalem which he had built for it? Therefore, neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor any other person saw the Father and indescribable Lord of all, and also of Christ, but saw Him who, according to His will, was His Son, being God, and the Angel because He served His will; whom He also pleased to have born as a man by the Virgin; who also was fire when He spoke with Moses from the bush.

Unless we understand the Scriptures this way, it would mean the Father and Lord of all had not been in heaven when what Moses wrote happened: 'And the Lord rained on Sodom fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven;' and again, when David says: 'Lift up your gates, rulers; and be lifted up, everlasting gates; and the King of glory shall enter;' and again, when He says: 'The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool.'

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