Moses and Limitations

Donec esset Moyses in Aegypto et erudiretur omni sapientia Aegyptiorum, non erat gracili voce nec tardus lingua, nec profitebatur se esse ineloquentem. Erat enim quantum ad Aegyptios, et sonorae vocis, et eloquentiae incomparabilis. Ubi autem coepit audire vocem Dei et eloquia divina suscipere, tunc sensit exilem et gracilem vocem suam, tardamque et impeditam esse suam intelligit linguam; tunc se pronuntiat mutum, cum coepit agnoscere verum illud Verbum, quod 'erat in principio apud Deum.' Sed quo facilius quod dicimus possit adverti, utamur hujusmodi similtudine. Mutis animalibus quamvis sit imperitus et indoctus, rationabilis homo si comparetur, videbitur eloquens ad comparationem eorum quae et rationis et vocis expertia sunt; si vero eruditis et eloquentibus viris, atque in omni sapientia probatissimis conferatur, et ineloquens et mutus videbitur. At si ipsum quis contemplatur divinum Verbum, ipsamque divinam respiciat sapientiam, quantaevis sit eruditionis et quantaecunque sapientiae, multo amplius quam apud nos sunt pecudes, ipse  apud Deum mutum se animal profitebitur. Hoc nimirum erat Moyses. Quod et beatus David intuens, et tali ordine semetipsum ad divinam sapientiam librans, dicebat:' Ut jumentum factus sum apud te.'  Secundum hoc ergo et propetarum maximus Moyses in praesenti lectione dicit ad eum, quod gracili voce sit, et tardus lingua, quod et non sit eloquens. Omnes enim homines ad comparationem Verbi divini, non solum ineloquentes, sed et muti putandi sunt. Origenes, In Exodum Homilia III, Interprete Rufino Aquileiense

While Moses was in Egypt and was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians he was not weak voiced nor slow of tongue nor did he admit to be ineloquent. For as much as it concerned the Egyptians he was sonorous of voice and of incomparable eloquence. But when he began to hear the voice of God and receive Divine speech then he felt his own voice to be weak and poor and he understood his own tongue to be slow and hindered; then he proclaimed himself dumb, when he began to know that true word, 'who was in the beginning with God.1' But that what we are referring to may be more easily grasped let us employ an analogy. If a rational man, though inexperienced and untaught, is compared to dumb animals he will appear eloquent in comparison to those lacking reason and speech, but if he is compared to learned and eloquent men who are most knowledgeable in every sort of wisdom, he will seem inarticulate and dumb. But if someone contemplates the Divine Word and looks at the Divine Wisdom itself, however educated and wise he is, to a much greater extent than cattle are to us, he will admit himself a dumb animal. This was evidently what Moses was doing. And the blessed David was also thinking of this, weighing himself in the scales of the Divine Wisdom, when he said, 'I am become a beast before you.'2 It is therefore in this sense that the great Moses in the present text says to God that he is weak of voice and slow of tongue and that he is not eloquent. All men compared to the Divine Word must be thought not only inarticulate but even dumb. Origen, First Homily on Genesis, Translated by Rufinus of Aquileia. 1 1 Jn 1.1 2 Ps 72.23