Trypho said: We do not understand this from the words that have been brought before us, but that He who was seen in a flame of fire was an Angel, and He who conversed with Moses was God, so that both an Angel and God, two together, were in that vision.
I answered again: Even though this took place then, my Friends, that both an Angel and God were present together in the vision offered to Moses, as has already been proved to you by the words already written down, the Maker of the universe will not be the God who said to Moses that He was the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, but He who was proved to you to have been seen of Abraham and Jacob, ministering to the will of the Maker of the universe, and having likewise ministered to His purpose in the judgment of Sodom. So that, even if there were two, as you say is the fact, both an Angel and God, no person whatever, even though he be of slight intelligence, will dare to say that the Maker and Father of the universe left all that is above heaven, and appeared on a little section of earth.
Trypho: It has already been proved that He who was seen of Abraham, and was named God and Lord by the Lord who is in the heavens, received and inflicted the punishment that fell on the land of Sodom. So now, even if an Angel were present with the God who appeared to Moses, we shall not understand the God who conversed with Moses from the bush to have been the Maker of the universe, but Him who was proved to have appeared to Abraham [and Isaac] and Jacob, who also is called an Angel of the God who was the Maker of the universe, and is understood to be so from His announcing to men the commands received from the Father and Maker of all things.
Then I again: Now in truth, Trypho, will I prove that at the vision to Moses He Himself alone who was called an Angel and yet all the time was God, was seen of Moses and conversed with him. For thus said the word: Now an Angel of the Lord was seen of him in a flame of fire from a bush. And he sees that the bush burns with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said: I will go by and see this great sight, that the bush is not consumed. But when the Lord saw that he drew nigh to see, the Lord called him out of the bush.Exodus 3:2-4
In the same way therefore that the word speaks of Him who was seen of Jacob in sleep as an Angel, and then says that the Angel Himself who was seen in sleep said to him; I am the God who appeared to thee when thou wast fleeing from the face of Esau thy brother, and that in the time of Abraham in the judgment of Sodom the Lord inflicted the judgment from the Lord who was in the heavens, so here also the word, saying that an Angel of the Lord was seen of Moses, and afterwards indicating Him as being Lord and God, says that He is the same person as He whom it indicates, by the many statements already quoted, as ministering to God who is above the world, above Whom there is no other.