Burning Bush

Exod. iii. 2.BURNING BUSH, wherein the Lord appeared to Moses at the foot of Mount Horeb. Not far from hence Moses was feeding his Father-in-law Jethro’s flocks, when he perceived a Bush all on fire without consuming. Hereupon he said within himself, I will go near that I may see this great vision; but as he approached, God called out to him from amidst the Bush, and said, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. This nakedness of the Feet is a Ceremony which has been imitated by several people, as a mark of their respect when they enter into their Temples. The Egyptians, Mahometans, Indians, and Ethiopians practise it still at this day, when they go into their places of Prayer. God injoined the Hebrew Priests to wash their feet and hands, when they approached the Altar, and entered Exod. xxx. 19.into the Sanctuary. The Rabbins¹ believe, that even the common people among the Israelites left their shoes behind them, when they went into the Temple. Juvenal seems to say the same thing².

Reges.

But I do not know whether these Authors were rightly informed; for I see nothing like it appointed in the Law.

As to the person that appeared in the Exod. iii. 2, 6, 13, 14, &c.Bush, the Scripture in several places calls him by the name of God. He says himself, that he is the Lord, the God, who is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who was to deliver his people out of bondage in Egypt; Deut. xxxiii. 16.and Moses blessing Joseph, says, Let the blessing of him that dwelt in the Bush come upon the head of Joseph. But in the places of Exodus, which we are examining, instead of the Lord appeared to him, the Hebrew and the Septuagint import, the Angel of the Lord appeared Acts vii. 3.to him. S. Stephen in the Acts reads it in the same manner; S. Paul Gal. iii. 19.writing to the Galatians says, that the Law was given by Angels. S. Jerom³, S. Austin⁴, and S. Gregory the Great⁵ teach the same thing. It was an Angel who represented the Lord, and spoke in his name: Angelorum vocabulo exprimuntur, qui exterius ministrabant, & appellatione Domini ostenditur, qui eis interius præerat, says S. Gregory. It is nevertheless true, that the Ancients generally hold the Son of God to be the person who appeared in the Bush⁶, and S. Austin⁷ acknowledges, that both opinions may be maintained without any prejudice to the true Faith. Duæ sunt sententiæ quarum quælibet vera sit, ambæ secundùm fidem sunt.

The Mahometans believe, that one of Moses’s Shoes put off by him as he drew near towards the burning Bush, was placed in the Ark of the Covenant, in order to preserve the memory of this Miracle.

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