Exodus 33:20

Hebrew Bible

19 And the Lord said, “I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will proclaim the Lord by name before you; I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious; I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” 20 But he added, “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.” 21 The Lord said, “Here is a place by me; you will station yourself on a rock.

1 Enoch 14:20

Pseudepigrapha

18 And from underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire so that I could not look thereon. 19 And the Great Glory sat thereon, and His raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. 20 None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence and glory and no flesh could behold Him. 21 The flaming fire was round about Him, and a great fire stood before Him, and none around could draw nigh Him: ten thousand times ten thousand (stood) before Him, yet He needed no counselor.

 Notes and References

"... The description appears to intentionally take readers to the idea that no one could behold the unveiled, unfiltered presence of God. In Exodus 33:20, this privilege was denied to Moses. In Isaiah 6, the seraphim cover their faces in God’s presence (Isaiah 6:2). I say “unveiled, unfiltered” because God does appear to humans as a man in the Old Testament, most often as the Angel of Yahweh, where no indication is given that the conversations are not face to face (Genesis 18; 32:22–32; compare Genesis 48:15–16) ..."

Heiser, Michael S. A Companion to the Book of Enoch: A Reader’s Commentary, Vol. 1 (p. 152) Defender Publishing, 2019

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.