Homilies on Joshua — Homily 5
Latin source: Origen, In Iesu Nave homiliae (Rufinus's Latin translation), from the public-domain critical text of W. A. Baehrens, GCS 30 = Origenes Werke VII (Leipzig, 1921); cross-checked against Migne PG 12. This English translation is released into the public domain.On the "two and a half tribes" that crossed the Jordan, and on Jesus, how the Lord "exalted" him "in the sight of the children of Israel," and how he circumcised the people.
[§1] Concerning those, indeed, who crossed the Red Sea, the Apostle said that "all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea." But concerning those who crossed the Jordan, we too can declare in like manner that "all were baptized" into Jesus in the Jordan, so that the things which are related to have been done in the Jordan hold the pattern of the sacrament which is celebrated through baptism. But that which is written—"and the people hastened and crossed the Jordan. And it came to pass, when all the people had passed over, the ark of the Lord's Covenant also passed over"—does not seem to me to have been added idly by the Holy Spirit, when it said that "the people hastened to cross over." Whence I too judge that for us as well, when we come to the saving baptism and receive the sacraments of the word of God, the matter must not be conducted idly nor sluggishly, but we must hasten and press on, until we "cross over" all things. For to "cross over" everything is to fulfill everything that is commanded. Let us hasten therefore to "cross over," that is, to fulfill first what is written: "blessed are the poor in spirit," so that, having laid aside all arrogance and taken up the humility of Christ, we may deserve to arrive at the promised beatitude. But even when we have fulfilled this, we must not stand still nor cease, but the other things that follow must also be crossed over, so that we may "hunger and thirst after righteousness." We must cross over also what follows, that in this world we may "mourn." Quickly too the rest must be crossed over, that we may become "meek" and may deserve to be "peacemakers" and through this may be able to hear ourselves called "sons of God." We must also hasten to cross over the weight of persecutions by the virtue of patience. And when we seek after these several things, which pertain to the glory of virtue, not sluggishly nor slackly but with all urgency and speed, this seems to me to be "to cross the Jordan" with haste. But when we have crossed over and have been able to obtain what we ought to obtain, again there succeeds for us the care of diligence and caution, lest perhaps, advancing too negligently, "our steps be poured out" by some unforeseen slip, as the prophet also says: "my steps had almost been poured out." Nor ought our solicitude to be slacker in preserving virtues than in acquiring them.[§2] Or do these things not seem to you to be indicated in this, when it is said that: "forty thousand men girded"—or "equipped"—"crossed over to battle in the sight of the Lord, to storm the city of Jericho"? Let us inquire who these are whom Scripture calls "girded" or "equipped." I do not dare to presume anything of myself and to declare it; rather, let us be taught in such matters by the letters of the Apostle. Who these "girded" ones are, let us learn as Paul expounds it. Hear what he himself says: "be therefore girded as to your loins in truth." You see, then, that Paul knows those to be "girded" who are girt about with the belt of "truth." Therefore for us too truth ought to be our belt, if indeed we have kept the sacrament of this warfare and of the belt. For if truth is our belt, by which we are girded for the warfare of Christ, whenever we speak falsehood and a lie proceeds from our mouth, we are ungirded from the warfare of Christ and are loosed from the baldric of truth. We are, therefore, "girded" if we are "in truth," but if in falsehood, ungirded. But let us rather imitate those "forty thousand girded men going forth to war in the sight of the Lord," and let us always "be girt about in truth." But I do not even pass idly over this, which Scripture added, that they were "girded in the sight of the Lord." For it is not enough for you to be seen among men to keep the truth. For it is possible to deceive men and to seem truthful, but you are not on that account "girded in truth," unless you have kept the truth also "in the sight of the Lord," that is, not only those things which men hear by the voice, but also those which God perceives in the heart. Let there be nothing "false on the tongue," let there be nothing feigned in the heart, according to what the prophet says of such men: "who speak peace with their neighbor, but evils are in their hearts." Free from all these, then, ought he to be who wishes "to go forth girded in the sight of the Lord to storm Jericho," because in crossing the river Jordan we cross over to combats and wars. Do you wish again to learn what battles, what wars await us after baptism? Learn not from me, but again from the Apostle Paul himself; he himself teaches you, saying: "for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Patterns and figures are the things which are written. For thus says the Apostle: "for all these things happened to them in figure, but they were written for our sake, upon whom the ends of the ages have come." If therefore "they were written for our sake," come, why do you delay? Let us go forth to war, that the first city of this world, malice, may be stormed by us, and the proud walls of sin be destroyed. You look about, perhaps, by what road you must advance, what field of contest must be sought out. It will perhaps seem new to you, what I am about to say, but nevertheless it is true: seek nothing outside, beyond yourself. Within you is the battle that you are to wage; within is that evil edifice which must be overthrown; your enemy "proceeds from" your "heart." This word is not mine, but Christ's; for hear him saying: "for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies." Do you see how great and what kind of an army of your enemies proceeds against you "from" your "heart"? These must be routed by us in the first slaughter, these laid low in the first line of battle. If we can overthrow their walls and cut them down to utter destruction, so that we "leave none of them" who may report back or "breathe," if now none of these bursts forth alive again in our thoughts, then that rest will be given to us through Jesus, so that "each one may rest under his own vine and under his own fig tree, when there is no longer any who may terrify the children of Israel."
[§3] Nevertheless, "forty thousand armed men, girded in the sight of the Lord for war," "cross" the Jordan, and then Scripture says that: "on that day the Lord exalted Jesus in the sight of the whole race of the children of Israel." This exaltation may indeed have belonged to the son of Nave, that as leader of the people he might be held magnificent among those whom he ruled; but let us see how our Jesus, my Lord, the leader and ruler of this people, "is exalted in the sight of the whole race of the children of Israel." I judge that he himself has always been "exalted" and lofty with the Father. But this is what is needed, that "God" may "exalt" him "in" our "sight." And he "is exalted in" my "sight" when the sublimity and loftiness of his divinity is opened to me. When, then, was his lofty divinity revealed to me? Then, assuredly, when I "crossed the Jordan" and was armed with the various defenses of the sacraments for the battles.
[§4] "And they feared Jesus," it says, "as they had feared Moses." Everyone who is under the law "fears Moses"; but when he has crossed over from the law to the gospel, the observance being changed, the fear too is changed, as the Apostle also says: "for I through the law am dead to the law, that I may live to God; I have been crucified together with Christ. Yet I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me."
[§5] After these things the son of Nave is commanded "to make knives of stone and, sitting down, to circumcise the children of Israel a second time." I would in this place inquire of the Jews how anyone can "be circumcised a second time" with a carnal circumcision. For once a person is circumcised, he has nothing further that can be taken away a second time. But by us, to whom it is said that "the law is spiritual," see how worthily and fittingly these things are resolved. For we say that he who has been instructed in the law and taught through Moses has cast off the errors of idolatry and laid aside the superstition and worship of images. This is the first circumcision, through the law. But if he comes from the law and the prophets to the faith of the gospel, then he receives also a second circumcision through "the rock, which is Christ," and there is fulfilled that which the Lord said to Jesus: "today I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from the children of Israel." And just as the Apostle said: "for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ," so also we in this place can fittingly say: they were circumcised "of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ." For unless a person has been cleansed through the gospel by the second circumcision, he cannot lay aside "the reproach of Egypt," that is, the enticements of bodily vices.
[§6] Let us see, however, what this very thing is which is said: "today I have taken away the reproach from the children of Israel." All men, even if they come from the law, even if they have been instructed through Moses, nevertheless have "the reproach of Egypt" in themselves, the "reproach" of sins. Who will be like Paul even according to the observance of the law? Hear then him himself saying: "according to the righteousness which is in the law, having conducted myself without blame." Yet he himself declares and says: "for we too were once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, serving desires and various pleasures, in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." Do these things not seem to you to be "reproaches," and "reproaches of Egypt"? But from the time that Christ came and gave us the second circumcision "through the washing of regeneration" and cleansed our souls, we cast off all these things and in their place took up the pledge of a good conscience toward God. Then through the second circumcision the "reproaches of Egypt" were taken away from us and the vices of sins were cleansed. Let no one, therefore, if he has been wholly converted, if he has repented from the heart, if he has faithfully departed from the streams of the Jordan, if he has been cleansed by the second circumcision through the gospel, fear the "reproaches" of past transgressions. You hear that "today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt." This the Lord signifies also in the Gospels, when he says: "your sins are forgiven you," "but now sin no more, lest something worse befall you." For if after the remission of sins you sin no more, truly "the reproach of Egypt has been taken away from you." But if you sin again, again the old reproaches are rolled back upon you, all the more so as it is a much greater crime "to trample the Son of God underfoot and to count the blood of the covenant a polluted thing" than to neglect the law of Moses. For much greater is the reproach of him who fornicates after the gospel than of him who, being placed under the law, does so, because this one, taking away "the members of Christ, makes them members of a harlot." You see, then, how much graver and more heaped-up are the reproaches that are rolled back upon you, if you have been negligent. Indeed, now no one accuses you as guilty of debauchery, but condemns you for the crime of sacrilege, because it is said to you: "know you not that your bodies are the temple of God?"; "but if any man violate the temple of God, God shall destroy him." Even if you were formerly ignorant of these things, yet now, from the time that these words are spoken in your ears and a doctrine of this kind is poured into your heart, know that, having heard these things, you have now been made "the temple of God" and "a member of Christ." See how much you have advanced from an earthly little man: you have without doubt progressed into "the temple of God," in which God ought to dwell, and you who were flesh and blood have advanced so as to be "a member of Christ." But just as this advance is great, so also the departure is terrible and the fall irremediable. For now it is not permitted to you to use "the temple of God" except in holiness, nor to recall "the members of Christ" to an unworthy business. And therefore, if ever the enticement of some evil concupiscence assails you, mindful of these things which you now hear, go to meet that enemy who "proceeds from" your very self, that is, "from your heart," and resist him in such words as these; say: "I am not my own, for I have been bought with a price," "the blood of Christ," and I have been made "a member" of him—it is not permitted to me "to take a member of Christ and make it a member of a harlot." Say to him that I have been made "the temple of God"—it is not permitted to me to bring anything unclean in there, nor is it lawful for me to violate "the temple of God." But add this too, that "he who fornicates sins against his own body," not only against this body which has been made "the temple of God," but also against that which is spoken of, that the whole "church is the body of Christ," and he seems to offend against the whole church who defiles his own body, because through one member the stain is diffused into the whole body. There is also that "reproach of Egypt" which, if you have been negligent, is suggested even after the crossing of the Jordan and after the second circumcision of baptism by the branding of old habit: to observe auguries, to inquire into the courses of the stars and to search out the outcomes of future events from these, to keep omens, and to become entangled in the other superstitions of this kind. For Egypt is the mother of idolatry, from which it is certain that "reproaches" of this kind sprout up; and if, when the Jordan has already been crossed, you take these up and again bind yourself in these snares, you without doubt drag "the reproaches of Egypt" along with you. But if ever such curiosity accosts you and an enemy of this kind bursts forth "from" your "heart," say to him that I follow Jesus as my leader, in whose power are the things that are to come. What need have I to know the things that are to come, since the things which he wills are the things that shall be? Therefore, in order that in us the second circumcision may be truly completed, through which we may lay aside the old "reproaches of Egypt," we ought to be utterly separated from all these things, so that, purified in body and heart, we may also "lift up pure hands" to God, and with a pure mouth also and cleansed lips and a sincere mind, we may by prayer and deeds glorify God in Christ Jesus our Lord, "whose is the power and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."