“God Never Appeared to Moses:” Eusebius of Caesarea’s Peculiar Exegesis of the Burning Bush Theophany

Abstract

Abstract The exegesis of the burning bush theophany set forth in Eusebius of Caesarea’s Prophetic Extracts and Proof of the Gospel adds a distinctive and original voice to the rich chorus of Jewish and Christian interpreters of Exodus 3. Eusebius posits a disjunction between the visual and the auditory aspects of the theophany – the angel appears, the Lord speaks – and departs from the mainstream of Jewish and Christian tradition by depicting Moses as a spiritual neophyte whose attunement to God ranks much lower than that of the patriarchs of old. Even though scholars point to the overall anti-Jewish context of this exegesis, it is difficult to find satisfactory terms of comparison for some of its details. It appears, therefore, that Eusebius’ understudied Prophetic Extracts and Proof of the Gospel offer a surprisingly original interpretation that should enrich the scholarly account of the Wirkungsgeschichte of the famous burning bush episode.