Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T23:45:34.910Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

God as Consuming Fire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2005

Howard Jacobson
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana

Extract

Three times in Scripture, God is explicitly called a “consuming fire” (Deut 4:24; 9:3; Heb 12:29). A few other times he is compared to a “consuming fire” (Exod 24:17; Isa 30:27, 30; 33:14[?]). The church fathers often quote or allude to this notion of God as a “consuming fire.” In particular, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine do so a number of times. I want here only to point out that on several occasions these words (“God is a consuming fire”) are strangely misquoted and commentators refrain from discussing the peculiarity. My purpose is to call scholars' attention to this strange quotation and in addition to offer possible solutions to the problem.

Type
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)