Homilies on Joshua 16.1–18.3

Some before us too have observed and noted in the Scriptures that presbyters, or elders, are so called not because they have led a long life, but that they are honored with this venerable title for maturity of understanding and gravity of life; especially when the word that follows is added to “presbyter”: “full of days.” For if one were to be called a presbyter or elder for length of age, who should have been reckoned by this name rather than the first man Adam, or certainly Methuselah, or Noah, who are said to have lived in this world far more years than all the rest? But now let us note that Scripture does not relate that any of them was called a presbyter or elder; rather, the one who led a life of far shorter span, Abraham, is the first to be called presbyter or elder in the holy Scriptures. It was also said to Moses by the Lord: “Choose for yourself from all the people presbyters whom you know to be presbyters.” But you too, O hearer, observe throughout Scripture whether you can find anywhere this title “elder” and “full of days” given to a sinner. Now, then, it is the voice of the Holy Spirit declaring Jesus a presbyter or elder and advanced in days. For so it says: “For Jesus,” it says, “was a presbyter or elder and advanced in days.” This certainly could not be said of a sinner, because a sinner is not advanced in days. For he does not stretch himself out to what lies ahead, forgetting what lies behind, but always turns back and returns to his vomit, and therefore he is not fit for the kingdom of heaven. But he who always stretches out to what lies ahead and is carried on toward perfection is advanced in his days. And now, then, the Lord says to Jesus: “You are advanced in your days.” I do not know whether in this place it can seem that the Lord was telling Jesus what all could see and all knew about his old age. And what kind of great divine answers are these, delivered to men, if they tell an old man, “You are old,” which all could see and all knew? But it seems to me that some great testimony is given by the Lord to the son of Nun when it is said to him, “You are advanced in days.” And as far as it is permitted to us to speak out or to open the divine mysteries, I think that, as this sun makes days for this world, so the Sun of righteousness makes certain spiritual days, which are lit by the brightness of truth and the lamp of wisdom. If, then, anyone passes this present life in the commandments of God — a life which, as Jacob said, is of few and evil days — and keeps himself unstained from this world, and subdues all his spiritual adversaries and enemies, he is advanced and promoted from these few and evil days to those eternal and good days, marked by the light of the eternal sun. In some such way, then, we must understand that Jesus too is declared by the divine answer to be advanced in days.

But since we have undertaken to refer what is said of Jesus also to our Lord and Saviour: who is understood to be a presbyter and elder advanced in days as truly as he who is the beginning, the firstborn of all creation? That is perhaps why he alone is truly and fully called presbyter, before whom there is no one. Therefore, although there are those who are called in the Scriptures presbyters or elders, or high priests, yet the Lord Jesus, as among high priests he is the prince of high priests and as among shepherds he is the prince of shepherds, so also among presbyters or elders he is to be thought the prince of presbyters, and among bishops the prince of bishops; and whatever title of honor there is, the Saviour is to be believed first in it and its prince, because he himself is the head of all.

But the divine answer adds further and says: “You are advanced in days, and very much land remains.” Above it was said, as we observed, that the land rested from wars, and that Jesus took all the land; and here it is written that very much land remains. Do you think that Scripture contains things contrary to each other? This must not even be lightly suspected. But let us return to the spiritual understanding, and in it you will find nothing contradictory. Consider how, at the first coming of our Lord and Saviour, when he came to sow his word in the world, he took all the land by the mere casting of the seed, and how he drove out of it the adverse powers and renegade angels that had besieged the minds of the Gentiles, and meanwhile sowed the word and spread the churches. This is his first possession of the whole land. But follow me, O hearer, along the fine lines of the word, and I will show you how he also takes this land a second time, the land which Jesus is now told remains in great measure. Hear Paul saying of him: “For he must reign until he puts all his enemies as a footstool under his feet.” This, then, is the land that is now said to remain in great measure, until all are wholly subjected under his feet and he thereby takes all as his inheritance. “And this,” it says, “is the land that remains: all the borders of the Philistines,” and very many others that follow. Many still remain, as far as our own times are concerned, which we see are not yet subjected to the feet of Jesus, who must surely gain possession of all things. For there could be no end of things unless all were first subjected to him. For so the prophet too says that all nations will serve him: “From the ends of the rivers to the ends of the earth, the Ethiopians will fall down before him”; and: “From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they will offer sacrifices.” Hence it is clear that at the second coming Jesus will gain possession of this great land that remains; but blessed are those who were gained at his first coming. For they will truly be pleasing who receive the inheritance of the land of promise by war and arms, while many adversaries resist and many enemies attack. But when anyone is subjected by necessity, at the time when even the last enemy, death, must be destroyed, there will no longer be any favor for those who are subjected.

After this, when he had listed very many nations, he said of the Sidonians alone: “And all the Sidonians I will exterminate from before the sons of Israel.” The Canaanites were named, and also those who are over against Egypt, and those from the borders of Ekron, and the left-hand parts of the rivers, and very many other nations; and of the Sidonians alone the Lord says that he will overthrow them. Now the Sidonians, as we said before, are called “hunters.” Who, then, are understood to be these evil hunters whom the Lord exterminates, if not those contrary powers of which the prophet says, “They prepared snares for my feet,” with which, that is, they hunt souls and deceive them into sin? These, then, the Lord exterminates; because if such hunters have perished, when there is no longer anyone to stretch out snares and nets to deceive souls into sin, then each one will rest under his vine and under his fig tree.

This too was read to us today, that Moses gave an inheritance to some; and after this we read that Jesus too, according to the Lord’s command, distributed the inheritance. Moses, then, first distributed the inheritance, and Jesus second. Here understand Moses as the law. Those, then, who lived according to the law received their inheritance first, but outside the land of promise. Then, when they had received the land of inheritance, they do not possess it or divide it among themselves, but wait until it is distributed to them by lot through Jesus. Is this not plainly what the Apostle says to the Hebrews, writing of the earlier fathers, who he said pleased God by faith? And he adds, saying: “And all these, though they received testimony through faith, did not yet obtain the promises, since God provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” They already have their promise, then, and have rested, and have been judged worthy to receive their inheritance through Moses; yet they too are still fighting, and are in the contest on behalf of those who serve as soldiers under Jesus. But you ask who these are who fight, and what that battle is which they wage. I think it is this: that all those fathers who have fallen asleep before us fight with us and help us by their prayers. For I also heard one of the older teachers say this, on that passage where it is written in Numbers that this assembly will lick up that assembly “as a calf licks up the green grass in the field.” He said, then: Why was such a comparison chosen, if not because this is what is to be understood in this place: that the assembly of the Lord which has gone before us among the saints consumes the opposing assembly with mouth and tongue, that is, consumes our adversaries with prayers and supplications? We must not fight, then, with weapons against our invisible enemies, but with prayers and meditations on the word of God, with works and with right thoughts. For so the fathers too were armed, conquering by faith and works. See, finally, that it is written of them: “They believed God,” it says, “and Moses his servant. And then Moses sang this song and said: Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honored.” So, then, let us too, cultivating full faith and perfect works, unceasing prayers, meditation on the divine word, and spiritual understanding, and fortified with all these as with the armor of God, stand against the wiles of the devil, calling on God our helper in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

As those who receive the law, which is the shadow of that true law, serve the shadow and pattern of heavenly things, so those who divide the land by inheritance in Judea follow the pattern and shadow of the heavenly division. The truth, then, was in heaven, but the shadow and pattern of the truth on earth. And as long as this shadow stood on earth, there was an earthly Jerusalem, there was a temple, there was an altar, there was visible worship, there were high priests and priests; the cities and villages of Judea also stood, and all the things that are now read as described in this book. But when, at the coming of our Saviour God, the truth descended from heaven and sprang up from the earth, and righteousness looked down from heaven, the shadows and patterns ceased (for Jerusalem fell, the temple fell, the altar was taken away), so that there is no longer a place either on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem where one must worship, but the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and truth. So, then, now that the truth is present, type and shadow ceased; and when the temple was present which was built by the Spirit of God and the power of the Most High in the womb of the virgin, the temple built of stones was destroyed. The high priest of the good things to come was present; the high priests of bulls and goats ceased. The Lamb of God came, who takes away the sin of the world; the lamb taken from the flock and slaughtered in vain for so many ages ceased. If, then, all these things that had been given in shadow to those before us ceased when the truth was present and at hand, it followed without doubt that, once the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven had been revealed, the earthly inheritance should cease. And the reason why all these things came to an end is this: that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become subject to God; lest perhaps any of the unbelieving people should take occasions for their unbelief, and, having the shadows handed down to them from of old, whether of the temple, the altar, the high priests, or the priests, should think that, as long as the state of the ancient worship remained, they would be transgressing the order of religion if they passed over to the faith. That is why divine providence arranged for all these things which had long been foreshadowed on earth to be taken away, so that, when the types ceased, they might in a way receive a road for seeking the truth. If, then, O Jew, coming to Jerusalem, the earthly city, you find it overthrown and reduced to ashes and embers, do not weep, as you now do, like children in understanding; do not lament, but instead of the earthly city seek the heavenly. Look up, and there you will find the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of all. If you see the altar abandoned, I do not want you to be saddened. If you do not find a high priest, I do not want you to despair. There is an altar in heaven, and the high priest of the good things to come stands by it, chosen by God after the order of Melchizedek. So, then, by the kindness and mercy of God the earthly inheritance too has been taken away from you, so that you may seek your inheritance in heaven.

Yet let us see what is described through the shadow, since in the shadow of the law the truth is sketched. A first and a second division of the inheritance is related. The first is described as made through Moses, but the second, which is more powerful, through Jesus. And Moses assigns the possession beyond the Jordan to the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh; but all the rest receive their inheritance through Jesus. We have already spoken of these before: how those who pleased God through the law, preceding in time those who come to the promises through faith in Jesus, have not yet attained what is perfect, waiting for those who come later, at a different time indeed, but who please God by one faith, as the Apostle says, so that they should not attain perfection apart from us. Meanwhile, neither Moses nor Jesus gave an inheritance to the Levites, because the Lord God himself is their inheritance. What else are we to understand by this, if not that there are some in the church of the Lord who surpass all the others in strength of mind and grace of merits, and for whom the Lord himself is said to be the inheritance? And if it is permitted to be bold in such matters and to open something of the hidden secret, let us see whether perhaps this is what secretly shows the figure of the priests or Levites: that in the whole people (I mean of those who are saved) the greater part by far, and far more numerous, are those who, believing simply in the fear of God, please the Lord by good works, honest habits, and commendable acts. But few are they, and very rare, who, devoting themselves to wisdom and knowledge, keeping their mind clean and pure, and cultivating their souls with all excellent virtues, by the grace of their teaching light up for the other, simpler believers the road by which they walk and come to salvation. These are perhaps now signified under the name of Levites and priests, whose inheritance is said to be the Lord himself, who is wisdom, which they have loved above all else. Yet I find a certain difference between what Moses distributed and what Jesus distributed. For Moses, when he distributed land beyond the Jordan to the two and a half tribes, did not give the Levites the portion of dwelling that belonged to them; but Jesus gave it, not only in the tribes that he himself provides for, but also in those that had been settled by Moses beyond the Jordan. For dwellings are assigned to the Levites in each tribe, so that through this we might learn a far more magnificent mystery. For this Levitical or priestly order, which devotes itself to the wisdom and knowledge of God, could not receive a lot of dwelling from Moses, because Moses was a minister not of the truth but of the shadow and pattern. But Jesus our Lord, who was the Wisdom of God, himself provides dwellings for the wise. For Moses could not say: “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” For this is to give a portion to the Levites. Nor could Moses say that he who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple. Nor could Moses say: “Everyone who does not hate father or mother, and brothers and sisters and children, and his own soul as well, cannot be my disciple.” Moses could not say this; therefore he himself could not assign the dwellings of the priests and Levites. Blessed, then, is he who shows himself such, and is found perfect in all these things that Jesus commanded, so that he may receive from Jesus the lot of a heavenly dwelling in the future; of whom the Lord Jesus himself says: “Father, I desire that where I am, these too may be with me”; and: “As I am in you and you in me, and we are one, so that these too may be one in us.”

But if, hearing that the Lord is said to be the inheritance of the perfect and more eminent, you do not know and are unsure what is signified by this name, hear that the Lord is wisdom. He, then, of whom it is said that the Lord is his inheritance will receive wisdom as his inheritance. The Lord is called righteousness. He, then, whose inheritance is the Lord will obtain righteousness as his inheritance. The Lord is peace, the Lord is redemption, the Lord is salvation; in the Lord are hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Hence he whose inheritance is the Lord will receive all things as his inheritance. Yet those too, whose inheritance is said to be the Wisdom of God, the Word of God, truth and righteousness, meanwhile receive a dwelling among those whose inheritance is on earth; so that through fellowship with them those who are not yet strong enough by themselves may be made sharers through them in the wisdom and knowledge of God, and in his truth and Word. And so the divine dispensation reaches even to the very least, so that those who cannot themselves be directly capable of divine grace may be found worthy to be enlightened through fellowship with these, and what is written may be fulfilled: “He who had much did not have too much, and he who had little did not have too little”; and also what the Apostle says to the Corinthians about the saints at Jerusalem: “That your abundance,” he says, “may supply their need, and their abundance may supply your need.” So, then, the Levite and the priest who have no land are now commanded to dwell together with the Israelite who has land, so that the priest and the Levite may receive from the Israelite the earthly things they do not have, and the Israelite in turn may receive from the priest and the Levite the heavenly and divine things he does not have. For the law of God has been entrusted to the priests and Levites, so that they may devote themselves to it alone and give their time to the word of God without any anxiety. But in order to be able to give their time to it, they must make use of the services of the laity. For if the layman does not provide the priests and Levites with what is necessary, they will be occupied with such things, that is, with bodily cares, and will give less time to the law of God. And if they do not give their time and effort to the law of God, it is you who are in danger. For the light of knowledge that is in them will be darkened if you do not supply oil for the lamp; and through your fault that will happen which the Lord said, that “when the blind leads the blind, both fall into the pit.” And in you too will be fulfilled what the Lord said: “For if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” So that the light of knowledge may shine in the priests, then, and their lamp may always be lit, fulfill your duty, carry out God’s command concerning service to the priests. But if perhaps, having received from you what is necessary — and that not as an exaction but as a blessing — they neglect to apply themselves to learning, to give their time to the word of God, and to meditate on the law of God day and night, they will see for themselves how they are to render account to the Lord for your souls. But let us rather pray to the mercy of almighty God that he may deign to enlighten us all with his light, his truth, and his splendor, and to give us his word as a lamp for our feet and as a light for our paths, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is the true light of the world, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

Let us learn from the law how necessarily the division of the land is described, which is said to have been made first through Moses and second through Jesus — not that we should keep both, but that, learning the reason for both, we may hold only that which is handed down by Jesus our Lord. Moses, then, distributed the land beyond the Jordan; but this land, which is the holy land and the good land, Jesus distributed together with the princes of the tribes of Israel. You see, then, that when that true inheritance of the holy land began to be distributed by the Saviour, the princes of the tribes of the true and spiritual Israel were also brought in. And whom do we think to be the princes of our tribes, or the princes of the church, if not the holy apostles, to whom the Saviour says, “You too will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”? Yet the priest too is brought in for the division, the priest who is the secret and mystical word of God. For so it says, that Jesus and Eleazar came together to divide the land.

And let us see who first received an inheritance from Jesus. “Caleb,” it says, “son of Jephunneh.” For he is the first to ask, and he asks with certain reasons and words that are recorded; and these words too can instruct us for salvation. First of all, Caleb is interpreted “as a heart.” Who, then, is “as a heart,” if not one who in all things applies himself to understanding, and who is said to be no other member of the body of the church than that which is more excellent in us, the heart: that is, one who does everything with reason and prudence and so manages all things as if he were nothing but heart? And his father Jephunneh is interpreted “turning.” This Caleb, then, is the son of turning. Why, unless because, having turned to God, he brought forth such fruit from himself that he begot a son, the heart? Everyone, then, who gives his time to divine thoughts and does all things prudently and reasonably is a Caleb. He, taught first by Moses and then by Jesus, at whose side he stood, says: “You know the word that the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God.” You know the word that the Lord spoke. For who else can know the word that the Lord spoke to Moses but Jesus alone? No one has understood the law as Jesus taught it. For he taught and opened all things; he revealed to Paul that “the law is spiritual.” “As he spoke,” it says, “concerning me and concerning you.” Moses spoke, he says, concerning me and concerning you. Concerning you: this is what the Lord said, “If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also; for he wrote of me.” And as for “concerning me,” that is, concerning Caleb, who is the heart, it is certain that Moses wrote concerning the heart, since he wrote everything prudently and wisely. He says, then: “Today I am as strong as I was then.” For the saint is equally strong in present things and in past, in new and in old, in the Gospels and in the law. This, then, is what he says, that he is as strong today under Jesus as he was then under Moses, because the watchful heart is strong in the mysteries of both testaments.

But let us also see the first request that Caleb son of Jephunneh made of Jesus. “I ask of you this mountain,” he says, “as the Lord said on that day.” The saint asks for nothing low or cast down, nothing that lies in sunken valleys, but asks for a lofty mountain, a mountain on which there are great and fortified cities. For it is written that “there are the Anakim, great and fortified cities.” And he asked for these because he knew how to make war, as it is written: “The wise man will take fortified cities and destroy the stronghold in which the ungodly trusted.” Do you think that when Solomon said this he wanted to teach us that the wise man would take cities and destroy strongholds built of stones? Or does it not rather indicate that the cities and walls are the doctrines of the ungodly and the syllogisms of the philosophers, by which they build up all kinds of impious things contrary to the divine law that are observed among pagans or barbarians? Among these too must be reckoned as fortified cities, set on mountains, the things that heretics set up on assertions drawn from the Scriptures as on high mountains. These cities, then, every wise man who preaches the word has destroyed, and has overthrown the cities of falsehood with the battering ram of truth, as the apostle Paul said: “Destroying arguments and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” So, then, now too this most wise Caleb stands before Jesus and promises that he is strong for war and ready for battle; and therefore he asks to be granted, as it were, the faculty of disputation, so that he may engage with the dialecticians of this world, with those who uphold falsehoods as truths, in order to refute and overcome them and overthrow everything they have built with false assertions. That is why, seeing his eagerness, “he blessed him,” it says, namely because he asks for and dares such things. And you too, if you are willing to apply yourself to study, to meditate prudently on the law of God, and to become a heart in the law of God, can overthrow these great and fortified cities, that is, the assertions of falsehood, so that you too may be worthy to be blessed by Jesus and to receive Hebron from him. Hebron is interpreted “joining” or “marriage.” By this perhaps it may be shown that in it is the double cave bought by the patriarch Abraham, in which lie the married couples of the fathers and their remains, that is, Abraham with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, Jacob with Leah. Caleb, then, was worthy to receive the remains of the fathers as his inheritance, undoubtedly because by the wisdom that was in him, by which he was strong both under Moses and under Jesus, he had understood the reason for that joining itself and had perceived why Sarah alone lay there with Abraham, and neither Hagar nor Keturah was worthy to be joined to him; or why Leah alone was seen to lie with Jacob, and neither Rachel, who had been more loved, nor any of the concubines was joined to him in the tomb. He, then, the prudent and wise Caleb, takes his inheritance among the tombs of the fathers. To him Jesus gives Hebron, the chief city of the race of the Anakim, and it becomes his lot until this day. Would that the lot of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob might be given to me too, and that my God might become my God as he became the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.