Irenaeus : Luke also has recorded that Stephen, who was the first elected into the diaconate by the apostles, and who was the first slain for the testimony of Christ, spoke regarding Moses as follows: "This man did indeed receive the commandments of the living God to give to us, whom your fathers would not obey, but thrust Him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us; for we do not know what has happened to this Moses, who led us from the land of Egypt. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifices to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their own hands. But God turned, and gave them up to worship the hosts of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets: O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to Me sacrifices and oblations for forty years in the wilderness? And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of the god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them;" pointing out plainly, that the law being such, was not given to them by another God, but that, adapted to their condition of servitude, it originated from the very same God as we worship. Wherefore also He says to Moses in Exodus: "I will send forth My angel before thee; for I will not go up with thee, because thou art a stiff-necked people." — Against Heresies Book 4 John Chrysostom : "This is he, that was in the Church in the wilderness with the Angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us." Again no mention of temple, none of sacrifice. "With the Angel," it says, "he received the lively oracles to give unto the fathers." It shows, that he not only wrought miracles, but also gave a law, as Christ did. Just as Christ first works miracles, and then legislates: so did Moses. — Homily on Acts 17 John Chrysostom : "This is he that was in the Church in the wilderness, and, that said unto the children of Israel." Do you mark that thence comes the root, and that "salvation is from the Jews?" "With the Angel," it says, "which spake unto him." Lo, again he affirms that it was He (Christ) that gave the Law, seeing Moses was with "Him" in the Church in the wilderness. And here he puts them in mind of a great marvel, of the things done in the Mount: "Who received living oracles to give unto us." On all occasions Moses is wonderful, and (so) when need was to legislate. What means the expression, "Living oracles"? Those, whereof the end was shown by words: in other words, he means the prophecies. — Homily on Acts 17 Oecumenius : Consider that at first they brought them offering sacrifices, and then that they offered them to idols. For previously the name "sacrifices" is nowhere found, but there were precepts concerning living and rational animals. The testimony, however, does not introduce this randomly, but so as to show that there is no necessity for sacrifices, in that he says: "Did you not offer me victims and sacrifices," etc., as if he says: You cannot say that when you were sacrificing to God you also offered them to those idols, but that you first slaughtered them for those idols. And this indeed was in the desert where your delay was longest. See moreover the whole discourse, how boldly and without malice he perseveres throughout the accusation of them, almost saying: And if I were to say the temple ought to be dissolved, and the instituted sacrifices to be changed, I have said nothing new. For Moses, in whom you seem to boast most, for forty years neither offered sacrifices nor built a temple, nor did David, nor any one of the others placed in the midst of you, although the land was given to you. But the prophets also pronounce concerning these things as about unnecessary matters. In what way then do you now pretend to avenge Moses, whom both your fathers and you rejected? And to say it in one word, the whole discourse shows how wisely and at the same time modestly and keenly their accusation is unraveled. — Commentary on Acts Tertullian : " And when the gold out of the necklaces of the women and the rings of the men had been wholly smelted by fire, and there had come forth a calf-like head, to this figment Israel with one consent (abandoning God) gave honour, saying, "These are the gods who brought us from the land of Egypt." For thus, in the later times in which kings were governing them, did they again, in conjunction with Jeroboam, worship golden kine, and groves, and enslave themselves to Baal. — An Answer to the Jews Tertullian : " This was, indeed, the Creator's customary region. It was proper that the Word should there appear in body, where He had aforetime, wrought in a cloud. — Against Marcion Book IV