Abstract
Three times in Scripture, God is explicitly called a fire (Deut 4:24; 9:3; Heb 12:29).' A few other times he is compared to a fire (Exod 24:17; Isa 30:27, 30; 33:14[?]). The church fathers often quote or allude to this notion of God as a fire. In particular, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine do so a number of times.2 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. In his Hexaemeron Ambrose, in the context of God and fire, apparently quotes our verse(s) as God's words, sum ignis consumens (I am a consuming fire);3 again, in De officiis, Pater Deus dixit, ego sum ignis consumens (God the Father has said, 'I am a consuming fire' ).4 Jerome in his Commentary on Obadiah verse
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