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In the Book of Exodus, the 'burning bush' is a miracle performed by God (YHWH) on Mount Horeb to inform Moses of his divine calling. God appeared to Moses from a bush which was aflame, but which was not consumed by the fire.^[1]
Burning bush is also a common name applied to several different, unrelated plants (see below).

Contents

God's promises

St Catherine's Monastery

Eastern Orthodox teaching

Symbolic use of the burning bush

Other uses of the term

Notes

See also

External links

God's promises

In the Book of Exodus, Moses was forced to flee Egypt and came to live with Jethro. Moses, who shepherded Jethro's flocks, discovered the burning bush while tending the sheep.
Moses approached the bush, and discovered that the bush was on fire, but the flames did not consume it (). God's spirit, in the bush, then declared "I am your father's God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (). God then commanded Moses to remove his sandals, as the land was considered holy.
God then ordered Moses to speak to Pharaoh, because He had "heard the people's cries" (). God promised that the Israelites, then enslaved by Pharaoh, would live in a land "flowing with milk and honey" (). When Moses expressed doubt that he would be believed, God gave Moses three "signs": his staff turned to a snake, his hand turned leprous as snow (and was cured) and Moses was told that if these did not work, he would be able to turn water into blood. God then added that "He would be with [Moses]", which finally encouraged him to demand the release of the Israelites.

St Catherine's Monastery

In Byzantine times, Saint Catherine's Eastern Orthodox monastery was built on a traditional site of the biblical event. A bramble, scientific name ''Rubus sanctus''[1], said to be the original bush, was transplanted several yards away to a courtyard of the monastery, and a chapel dedicated to the Annunciation was built on the traditional site of the miracle, with a silver star marking where the roots of the bush come out of the ground. Anyone entering this chapel is required to remove their shoes, just as Moses was in the biblical account. The Monks at St. Catherine's in Mount Sinai hold with church tradition that this bush is, in fact, the original bush seen by Moses.

Eastern Orthodox teaching

Eastern Orthodoxy maintains the tradition of the Orthodox Fathers of the Church and its Ecumenical Synods (or Councils) that the flame Moses saw was in fact God's Uncreated Energies or Glory, as Light (compare with the Transfiguration of Jesus), which is why the bush was not consumed. It was not a miracle in the sense that God created something and then destroyed it when He was finished using it, but rather, He allowed Moses to see His Glory, i.e., His Energies, which, like His Essence, are eternal. At the same time, when God spoke to Moses, Moses heard the pre-Incarnate Word, i.e., Logos, of God, appearing as He frequently did throughout the Old Testament, as an angel (literally "messenger") as mentioned in the text (compare ), specifically, the "Angel of Great Counsel" (Is. 9:6 LXX) or "Angel of Glory" - which Orthodoxy affirms, among other reasons, because He spoke in the first person as God. The vision of God's Glory as Light in this life and the next is the Orthodox definition of salvation, even moving after death "from glory to glory" () eternally. (On the other hand, the experience of God's Glory as painful purifying fire eternally is the Orthodox definition of absence of salvation.) This understanding is a recurring theme most recently in the work of the late Fr. John S. Romanides, an American-raised Greek Orthodox theologian.
In Eastern Orthodox parlance, the preferred name of the miracle is the "Unburnt Bush," and it is understood in the theology and hymnography of the church as a prefiguring of the virgin birth of Christ: the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) gave birth to the Incarnate God without suffering harm, just as the bush was burnt without being consumend. "...as the bush was wrapped in flame but did not burn, so the Virgin gave birth and yet remained a virgin."^[2] There is an Icon of the Theotokos by the name of "the Unburnt Bush", the feastday of which is September 4.

Symbolic use of the burning bush

The motto of the Church of Scotland is ''Nec tamen consumebatur'' (Latin) - 'Yet it was not consumed', an allusion to Exodus 3:2 and the burning bush. A stylised depiction of the burning bush is the symbol of the Church of Scotland. The Burning Bush is also used as the basis of the symbol of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, which uses the motto ''Ardens sed virens'' (Latin) - 'Burning but flourishing', based on the same passage.
In addition, the logo of the Jewish Theological Seminary is an image of the Burning Bush with the phrase "and the bush was not consumed" in English and in Hebrew "והשנה איננו אכל."

Other uses of the term

'Burning bush' is also a common name applied to several different, unrelated plants:

★ The herb ''Dictamnus albus'', also known as false dittany, white dittany, or gas plant, belonging to the family Rutaceae. It gets its name from comparison to the Bible account; the whole plant produces aromatic oils that can catch fire readily on hot days, though (unlike the plant in the biblical account) not without injury to the plant.

★ Shrubs in the genus ''Euonymus'', mostly known as spindles, in the family Celastraceae, are also called burning bush in North America, because of their bright red foliage in fall.

★ Plants in the genera ''Bassia'' (Chenopodiaceae) and ''Combretum'' (Combretaceae) are also sometimes known as burning bush.

Notes

1. What is a Menorah?
2. ''The Octoechos'', Volume II (St. John of Kronstadt Press, Liberty, TN, 1999), Dogmaticon, Tone II.

See also

★ Biblical Mount Sinai

External links

★ Icon of the Mother of God "the Unburnt Bush" Icon and Synaxarion of the feast