The interpretation timeline

Num 12:8

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Num 12:8 · Douay-Rheims
“For I speak to him mouth to mouth: and plainly, and not by riddles and figures doth he see the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak ill of my servant Moses?”
Patristic before A.D. 750
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“As I started to say, it is shown later in the book of Numbers that even what he asked was granted to his desire, for thereby the Lord rebuked the sister of Moses for her obstinacy. The Lord appeared to the other prophets in visions and dreams but to Moses plainly and not by riddles. He added the words "And he saw the glory of the Lord." Why then did God make such an exception of him, if not perhaps that he considered him such a ruler of his people, so faithful a minister of his whole house, that he was worthy, even then, of that contemplation, so that, as he desired, he saw God as he is—a contemplation promised to all his sons at the end of life?”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.