And it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand while I pass by:
All Commentaries on Exodus 33:22 Go To Exodus 33
Gregory the Theologian
AD 390
What is this that has happened to me, O friends and initiates and fellow lovers of the truth? I was running to lay hold on God, and thus I went up into the mount and drew aside the curtain of the cloud and entered away from matter and material things. And as far as I could I withdrew within myself. And then when I looked up, I scarce saw the back parts of God, although I was sheltered by the rock, the Word that was made flesh for us. And when I looked a little closer, I saw not the first and unmingled nature known to itself—to the Trinity, I mean; not that which abides within the first veil and is hidden by the cherubim; but only that nature which at last even reaches to us. And that is, as far as I can learn, the majesty or, as holy David calls it, the glory which is manifested among the creatures, which it produced and governs. For these are the back parts of God, which he leaves behind him as tokens of himself, like the shadows and reflection of the sun in the water, which show the sun to our weak eyes, because he is too strong for our power of perception.
