Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2013, Blaðsíða 29

haec itaque magna omnino prop-
hetia est.
non poteris», inquit, «uidere
faciem meam. non enim uidebit
homo faciem meam et uiuet»,
ostendens huic uitae, quae
agitur in sensibus mortalibus
corruptibilis carnis, deum sicuti
est adparere non posse; id est:
sicut est, uideri in illa uita potest,
ubi ut uiuatur, huic uitae mori-
endum est.
sed ecclesiam significat dicendo:
«ecce locus penes me», tamquam
templum suum commendans...
hoc enim factum est in eis, quos
tunc significabat persona Moysi,
id est Israhelitis, qui in dominum
Iesum, sicut actus apostolorum
indicant, postea crediderunt, id
est statim ut transiit eius gloria.
hoc est ergo «cum transiero, tunc
uidebis posteriora mea»: transiero
de hoc mundo ad patrem; post-
erius in me credituri sunt quorum
typum geris.
Thus, this is a most significant prop-
hecy...
He [the Lord] says: “You will not be
able to see my face. For no human
being can see my face and remain
alive.” Thus he shows that God cannot
show himself as he is to a human being
in this life, which is lived within the
mortal senses of perishable flesh. That
means, God can only be seen in that
other life that is so constituted that
one must first die to the present life in
order to live in that other life...
But with the words “There, beside me
is a place”, God is speaking in advance
of the Church and is praising it as his
temple...
This promise came to be realized for
those who were symbolized by Moses’s
role at the time of the Exodus, namely
for the Israelites who according to the
Acts of the Apostles would come to
believe in the [risen] Lord Jesus, i.e.
after he had passed into his glory.
Thus the statement „When I have
passed by, you ivill see my back “ means
that when I have passed out of this
world to the Father, then this promise
will be fulfilled in those for whom you
stand as a symbol, namely those who
come to believe.
In his epistula 147 and in De Genesi ad litteram, however, Augustine
dared to go a step further.16There, he combined Ex 33:13.18 with YHWH’s
statement to Aaron and Mirjam in Num 12:8:
16 Here I follow Erich Naab, Augustinus. Uber Schau und Gegenwart des unsichtbaren Gottes.Texte
mit Einfiihrung und Ubersetzung (Mystik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Abt. I: Christliche
Mystik. Bd. 14), Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1998, 42-62.
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