Homilies on Joshua — Homily 6
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 Passover which the children of Israel kept in Gilgal, and how "they took the fruits of the land in the region of the palms." And on "the prince of the host of the Lord's army," and on Jericho.
[§1] Those who were disobedient to the commands of the Lord are called uncircumcised. From this it is understood that those are named uncircumcised who do not obey the commandments of God. But nevertheless both the circumcised and the uncircumcised — because God loves every soul — he does not utterly abandon. For he sent Jesus, who would circumcise all at once, both the worthy and the unworthy — not Jesus the son of Nave, for that man did not circumcise the people with a true and perfect circumcision — but Jesus our Lord and Savior. For it is he who truly cuts away from us the pollution of the flesh and purges from our heart and soul the defilements of sins. Listen, then, to what Scripture says in those things which were prefigured through the son of Nave. "But the children of Israel, having been circumcised," it says, "rested, sitting in the same place in the camp, until they were healed. And then the Lord said to Jesus: this day I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you." For it is not enough for us to be "circumcised," but also after circumcision to be "healed," that is, until the very wound of circumcision closes over with a scar. When, then, is the scar closed over the wound of our circumcision? I judge it thus, that to be circumcised through our Jesus is to lack vices, to lay aside evil habits and the worst practices, to cut away foul and disordered manners and whatever shrinks back from the rule of honor and piety. But when we do this in the beginnings, we are constrained by the very difficulty, so to speak, of the newness, and as though with a certain labor and grief of soul we change the faults of our old habit by a new practice. And therefore there is, as I said, a certain difficulty in the beginnings, and only with hardship and pain are we able to amputate the first things and take up the second. This, then, seems to me to be the time in which, as though in the pain of our circumcision, we are said "to remain, until," the scar having closed, "we are healed." And we close the scar when we now fulfill the new practices without difficulty, and what before seemed difficult, as being unaccustomed, turns into a habit for us. And then indeed we are said truly to be "healed," when, lacking vices, by a new practice we turn virtue into nature. And so at last the divine word rightly says to us those things which follow: "this day I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you," because, after "the reproach of Egypt was taken away," it is then said: "and the children of Israel kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month." For they could not "keep the Passover" before circumcision, nor eat the flesh of the lamb immediately after circumcision, before they were "healed." But after they "were healed," it is said that: "the children of Israel kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month." You see, then, that no one unclean "keeps the Passover," no one uncircumcised, but whoever is clean and circumcised, just as the Apostle also interprets it, saying: "for indeed Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." But at that time, indeed, when the people went out from the land of Egypt, "each carried, sprinkled in his garments," what was strewn. But when what was strewn had run out and they had no bread, God "rained down manna" for them. But when they came to the holy land and "took the fruits of the province of the palms," the "manna failed" them, and then they began to eat of the fruits of the land. And so three kinds of food are described in general. The first, indeed, is that on which we feed as we go out from the land of Egypt, but this suffices for a little time. After this, however, the manna succeeds. But the third we now "take" as "fruit" from the holy land. In which differences, as far as the understanding of my littleness reaches, I judge this to be indicated: that the first food, which we carried with us as we went out from Egypt, is this small schoolboy learning (or even, if perhaps someone has attained something of liberal letters), which can help us but a little. But placed in the desert — that is, in this state of life in which we now are — we feed on the manna through this, that we are instructed by the teachings of the divine law. But whoever has deserved to enter the "land of promise" — that is, to attain those things which have been promised by the Savior — he will eat the "fruits from the region of the palms." For truly he will find the "fruit of the palm" who, having overcome the enemy, has arrived at the things promised. For it is certain that, however great those things are which we can now understand or perceive in the law of God or in the divine writings, far more sublime and lofty will be those which, when the "riddle" ceases, all the saints will deserve to "see" "face to face," because "the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have ascended into the heart of man, these has God prepared for those who love him." But if the law is to be understood according to the letter alone, the children of Israel will without doubt be found — when they were using better things, for they were taking manna from heaven — to have received worse things from the promise, whereas, when the Egyptian foods first failed them, a better food had succeeded, the manna from heaven. And how now will it be thought that, when the better food ceased, a worse succeeded, unless because a greater and truer meaning is grasped in the spiritual understanding than in the text of the letter? But meanwhile, after Jesus led his people into the holy land, then, when all had been conquered, he celebrates the Passover.[§2] "And it came to pass," it says, "when Jesus was at Jericho, that looking up with his eyes he saw a man standing over against him, and a drawn sword was in his hand. And Jesus, drawing near, said to him: are you ours, or of our adversaries? And he said: I am the prince of the host of the Lord's power; now I have come." "Looking up," then, "with his eyes he sees the prince of the Lord's host," as one who had not "looked up" before, but only then, when he was about to see the "prince of the Lord's host." Yet when Jesus had seen him, he did not see him as a common man, but understood that he was a certain power. Nevertheless he is not yet certain whether the one who appears is one from the divine powers or from the contrary ones, and therefore he asks and inquires, saying: "are you ours, or of our adversaries?" And he says: "I am the prince of the host of the Lord's power; now I have come." And when he had heard this, Jesus worshiped and said: "Lord, what do you command your servant?" What is it that Jesus teaches us through this? That, without doubt, which the Apostle says: "do not believe every spirit, but test whether it is of God." Jesus, then, recognized not only that "he is of God," but that he is God; for he would not have worshiped had he not recognized God. For who else is the "prince of the host of the Lord's powers" but our Lord Jesus Christ? For all the host of heaven, whether angels or archangels, or powers "or dominions or principalities or authorities," all these, which were made through him, do military service under him as prince, who is the prince of princes and who bestows principalities upon princes. For it is he who says in the Gospel: "be one having authority over ten cities," and to another: "be one having authority over five cities." It is he who, "having received the kingdom, returned."
[§3] But meanwhile let us see what the present reading suggests. Jesus is at Jericho; the enemies still hold the city and are not yet conquered. Yet already it is said to Jesus: "loose the shoe from your feet; for the place in which you stand is holy ground." And how is Jericho "holy ground," which is held by the enemies? But perhaps this is what is indicated: that wherever the "prince of the host of the Lord's power" comes, he sanctifies the place, because Jericho itself was not a holy place; but because the "prince of the Lord's host" came there, the place is called "holy." I even dare something further, and say that even where Moses stood, of itself it was not a holy place, but because the Lord stood with Moses, the presence of the Lord had sanctified the place, and therefore it is said to him: "loose the strap of your shoe: for the place in which you stand is holy ground." Whence we too, if by our life and merits we draw near to the Lord and are made worthy for God to stand by us, it is said also to us that we should loose from the feet of our soul whatever bond of mortality is bound to them. For these are the "feet" which Jesus "washes"; which, "unless he washes them, we shall have no part with him." So then, if we loose from our soul and senses every bond of mortal care, immediately God too will gladly be present and stand by us.
[§4] But let us see what things follow. Jericho is surrounded; it must be taken by storm. How, then, is Jericho stormed? No sword is drawn against it, no battering-ram is directed, nor are missiles hurled; only the priestly trumpets are employed, and by these the walls of Jericho are undermined. We frequently find in the Scriptures that Jericho is set down as a figure of this world. For in the Gospel too, that which is said, that "a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers," was without doubt an image of that Adam who was thrust from paradise into the exile of this world. And the "blind men" too, who were in Jericho, to whom Jesus came to make them see, bore the figure of those who in this world were pressed down by the blindness of ignorance, to whom the Son of God came. This Jericho, then — that is, this world — is to fall; for the consummation of the age has long since been made widely known in the sacred volumes. How, then, will its consummation be given? By what instruments? "By the voices," it says, "of the trumpets." Of which "trumpets"? Let Paul disclose to you the secret of this mystery; listen to what he himself says: "the trumpet shall sound," he says, "and the dead who are in Christ shall rise incorruptible," and: "the Lord himself, at the command, at the voice of the archangel, and at the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven." Then, therefore, Jesus our Lord, with the trumpets, conquers Jericho and lays it low, so that from it the harlot alone is saved, and all her house. "The Lord" our Jesus "shall come," then, "and shall come at the voice of the trumpets." But even now let us pray that he may come and destroy this "world," which "is set in wickedness," and "all the things that are in the world," because "everything that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes." May he destroy those things, may he now, this very moment, dissolve them, but may he save this one alone, who received his spies, who received his Apostles in faith and obedience and set them in the upper rooms, and may he join and unite this harlot with the house of Israel. But let us now not bring up again nor reckon against her the old fault. Once she was a harlot, but now she is joined as "a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ." Hear the Apostle saying of her: "for I have determined this very thing, to present you as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ." From her too was that very one who said: "for we also were once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, serving desires and various pleasures." Do you wish to learn yet more fully how the harlot is now no longer a harlot? Hear Paul saying further: "and such indeed you were; but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." For that she might be able to escape, lest she perish with Jericho, she received from the spies a most powerful "sign" of salvation, the "scarlet cord." For through the blood of Christ this whole Church is saved, in Christ himself our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen!"