Homilies on Numbers — Homily 25
Latin source: Origen, In Numeros homiliae (Rufinus's Latin translation), from the public-domain critical text of W. A. Baehrens, GCS 30 = Origenes Werke VII (Leipzig, 1921). This English translation is released into the public domain.On the vengeance that was executed upon the Midianites.
[§1] In the passages above, the sons of Israel committed fornication with the women of the Midianites, and this was a stumbling-block to the sons of Israel, in which they offended the Lord and provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. Now therefore, after Israel had suffered what it suffered, "the Lord spoke," it says, "to Moses, saying: Avenge the vengeance of the sons of Israel upon the Midianites, and afterward you shall be added to your people." Therefore, as for the stumbling-blocks that had befallen the Israelites, since they had befallen them through the treachery of the Midianites — for they themselves had suborned the women who were to deceive them, so that they might sin before the Lord — those men indeed suffered punishment for their sin, yet more moderately and more sparingly, whereas these, who were the cause of their sinning, are subjected to a far more severe vengeance. Whence we are taught that it is far graver to furnish others the occasion of sin than for each one himself to sin, just as the Lord also indicates, when He says that: "It were better for a man not to have been born, or that an ass's millstone be tied about his neck and that he be cast into the depth of the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones." And at the same time it must be noted that the name of "scandal" is improperly assumed by some — that a scandal is said to be there, where for one walking on the straight road some deception toward sin is contrived and the cause of sinning is put beneath him, just as also the Midianites, for the Israelites walking in the law of the Lord and keeping chastity, suborned the women who were to deceive them into sinning. Therefore to furnish the cause of sin, this is to scandalize. And yet punishment is given, but far graver upon those who scandalized, who furnished the cause of sin, than upon those who sinned. At the same time observe also that which He added to these things: "but at the last," He says, "you also shall be added to your people." If ever we have discourse with the Samaritans, since indeed they deny the resurrection of the dead and do not accept the faith of the age to come, let us press them hard from these words, in which the Lord says to Moses that he is to be added to his people. For no one is added to those who do not exist. Whence it is established that there is some people to which Moses is said to be joined after the departure from this life. Since therefore the Samaritans do not believe the prophets, from whom the faith of the resurrection of the dead could be more amply proved, at least from these books of Moses, which they receive and whose authority they confess, they are to be convicted and cured — if indeed even Babylon ought to be cured. This passage, then, is one that evidently shows the resurrection of the dead. For it indicates that there is a people to whom Moses is to be joined after his death, and to whom he is to be transferred according to his merits.[§2] After these things Moses spoke to the people, saying: "Arm men of yourselves and make war against Midian, to render vengeance from the Lord upon Midian; a thousand from a tribe and a thousand from a tribe; from all the tribes of Israel send men to make war." Attend to the reading; for the mind must be directed not only to the hearing of words, but to the consideration of the realities. Recall the things past, hear the things present, mark the things that follow. Compare the earlier things with the later, and contemplate the magnificence of the divine powers. The sons of Israel some time ago had been six hundred thousand armed men who had gone forth against Midian, and all these were conquered, because sin was in them. But now the Midianites, the victors, who had put to flight six hundred thousand, are conquered by twelve thousand, that you may know that Israel conquers not in a multitude nor in the number of soldiers, but there is righteousness and piety in those who conquer. Therefore, finally, it is also said in their blessings that, if they keep the law of the Lord, one of them shall pursue a thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight. You see, then, that one holy man praying avails much more than innumerable sinners doing battle. The prayer of a holy man penetrates heaven: how should it not also conquer the enemy on earth? And therefore we must strive in every way to seek first and to keep the righteousness of God. And if you obtain and keep it, it will subject all your enemies to you; if you are clothed, as the Apostle says, in the breastplate of righteousness and girded with truth, if you have taken the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit and above all the shield of faith, in which you can quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. For, equipped with such arms, you will put to flight all the camps of the devil and all his army, and with confidence you will sing: "If camps stand against me, my heart shall not fear; if battle rise up against me, in this will I hope." Therefore twelve thousand engage against the Midianites, and "they slay," it says, "all their males; and their kings and Balaam, the son of Beor, they slew with the sword together with the rest of their wounded." That which in the passages above we were inquiring — how it could be proved from the Scriptures that the women of the Midianites, who deceived the sons of Israel into fornicating, had been suborned by the counsel of Balaam — this present passage of Scripture evidently shows, saying that he was slain by the sword as the author of the scandal that was brought upon the sons of Israel. And it is said of him in what follows still more evidently in this way: "and Moses said to them: why have you preserved every woman alive? For it is they who, according to the word of Balaam, made the sons of Israel apostates." And the kings of the Midianites are also slain, and those who were formerly conquered by the women now, expiation being had and repentance performed, conquer even the kings. From this let us understand how much conversion to God avails, how much the amendment of sins profits. Every male, all the kings of the Midianites, are conquered and destroyed by those who through the correction of the Lord and through the repentance for their deeds were corrected and amended. Five kings of the Midianites, therefore, are reported to have been overcome by the Israelite soldiers.
[§3] But the divine Scripture was also careful to record their names. "Evi," it says, "and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba." These are they who reign among the Midianites, whom everyone who serves God as a soldier ought to overcome and utterly to destroy. For Evi is interpreted "beastly" or "wild." And how will you be able to please Him who has approved you, if you do not cut off from yourself and utterly destroy beastly and wild ways? How will you be able to attain to the beatitude of the meek, unless first you slay Evi and hand over to death the wildness of all anger? I think that the divine Scripture did not narrate these names for the sake of history, but fitted them for the sake of causes and realities. For do you suppose there would have been anyone so foolish as to impose on his son the name "Beastly"? But I judge rather that the divine word looked to the instruction of souls, wishing to show us that we ought to make war against vices of this kind and to drive them from the dwellings of our flesh, to put these kings to flight from the kingdom of our body; which the Apostle more evidently indicates, saying: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body." But do you wish to see that not only among the saints are names fitted to realities, but also among the Gentiles and Barbarians? Concerning the saints indeed it is known why Abram was called Abraham, and Sarah Sarra, and Jacob Israel. But let us show that this custom is held also among the Barbarians. Had not one of the sons of Israel received from his parents the name Joseph? But when he passed into Egypt and stood before Pharaoh, he changed his name and from Joseph surnamed him Zaphenath-paneah, which Pharaoh in his own tongue composed from the revelation of secrets or of dreams. And not only is a name fitted to Joseph from the reality before Pharaoh, but Daniel too in Babylon is named Belteshazzar, and Hananiah and Azariah and Mishael are called Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. You see, then, that both the names of Israelite men and even of barbarian men are fitted in the law not by chance, but for the sake of realities and causes. Therefore Moses called the king of the Midianites as he himself judged he should be called. "It is a beastly wildness," he says, "that reigns among the Midianites, and not that alone, but there is also among them another king by the name of Rekem, which in our tongue is 'emptiness.'" Emptiness, then, also reigns among the nation of the Midianites; for there is in truth much emptiness and vanity in this world — nay, "vanity of vanities, and all is vanity" — which the soldier of God ought to overcome and conquer. But he conquers emptiness who does nothing emptily, nothing superfluous and that pertains not to the matter; who remembers that command of the Lord, in which He says that: "even for an idle word men shall render account in the day of judgment." But in this life almost everything men speak, everything they do, is idle and empty; for every act and every word is called empty in which there is not within something for God or for the commandment of God. There is also another king of Midian, Hur, and this is interpreted "provocation." You see what sort they are who reign among the Midianites, all of whom must be opposed, nay, whom it is fitting to be destroyed by those who follow God, and to be slain. For it is not so much the names of kings as of vices, which reign in men, that are reported in the law, and not so much the wars of nations as of carnal concupiscences, which do battle against the soul, that are described. Finally, those who reign in the vices are said to be five kings, that we may be most evidently taught that every vice which reigns in the body depends on the five senses. These five senses, then, are to be destroyed out of the kingdom of the Midianites, that no longer may vices reign over them, but righteousness, and that they may not look for a scandal at the things they see, but for edification. For among the Midianites these senses reigned unto scandalizing, that they might scandalize and deceive. And therefore the Lord commanded that, if your eye scandalize you, you pluck it out; if your hand or foot, you cut it off. You see, then, that He Himself commands the kings of those who scandalize to be cut off and destroyed. "It is better," He says, "for you one-eyed to enter into the kingdom of God, and maimed or lame, than with these to be cast into Gehenna." In which He by no means commands the eye of our body to be dug out, nor the hand or foot to be cut off, but He commands the sense that perceives carnal things and wantons in carnal concupiscences to be cut off, that our eyes may see right things and our ears hear right things and our taste taste the word of God and our hands handle and touch of the Word of life. And this is that in which, the kings of the Midianites being destroyed and the affections of scandal amputated, there reigns in us as righteousness our very Lord Jesus Christ, who was made for us righteousness from God, and peace, and redemption. Therefore, by the command of the Lord, the wars against the Midianites were carried through by the sons of Israel; abundant spoils are brought back from them, an immense weight of gold and silver and of the other movable goods, a very great number of beasts and of captives. But since among the Israelites all these things are reckoned unclean, a purification suited to each several thing is applied; and those things indeed which consist of metals, fire purifies, but those which are more fragile and do not bear the fire are commanded to be purified by water. Therefore from all the spoils two equal parts are made, that one may be of those who had gone forth to war and the other of those who had remained in the camps. They are also commanded to offer from these into the gifts of God: those indeed who had gone forth to war, one head out of five hundred; but those who had remained in the camps, one out of fifty; and the number of all, collected together into one, is reported. This is the tenor of the history.
[§4] But let us see what the spiritual sense indicates in these things. In the people of God there are certain ones, as the Apostle says, who serve God as soldiers — those without doubt who do not entangle themselves in secular affairs; and these are they who go forth to war and fight against the enemy nations and against the spiritual wickednesses on behalf of the rest of the people and on behalf of those who are weaker, whether by age or by sex or by resolve. And these fight with prayers and fastings, with righteousness and piety, with meekness and chastity and all the virtues of continence, fortified as with weapons of war; and when they have returned to the camps as victors, even the unwarlike enjoy their labors, and those who either are not called to the fight or cannot go out. Yet it must be known that all things that are taken from these nations are unclean; and perhaps everything whatsoever is taken up in this world or captured in battle is unclean and needs purification; and certain of these things will pass through fire, but for others the purification of water will suffice. And there are taken up from the battle even men and beasts, when every understanding is taken captive to obey Christ. For unless we fight in the word of God, we shall not be able to take captive the understanding of those who think differently from Christ, and to lead them to the obedience of Christ. Yet few are they who can fight and carry through these battles; out of six hundred thousand and more armed men who seem to serve God as soldiers, only twelve thousand are chosen; the rest are left in the camps. Behold for me now the people of God that is in the Church, how many there are of those who can fight for the truth, who can resist those who contradict, who know how to handle the wars of the word. Blessed are these, who can fight for the whole people and defend the people of God and bring back abundant spoils from the enemy. Yet the remaining part of the people also, which seems unwarlike, if it reside quietly in the camps, if it act in silence and depart not from Moses but remain in the law of God, will itself also receive a part of the spoils. For an equal portion shall be made — not indeed by number, but as much as is given to all the rest of the people, so much also to those twelve thousand, by whose conquering the spoils were taken. Who, hearing these things, is not invited to the warfare of God? Who is not animated to fight for the Church and to resist against the enemies of truth — those, namely, who teach men either to oppose the doctrines of the Church, or to give their effort to pleasure and luxury? He, then, who overcomes these, and who destroys the vices either in himself or in his neighbors, this man will receive many spoils, multiplied fiftyfold beyond the others; for the quantity seems to be increased into so great a number, when twelve thousand are compared with six hundred thousand. Yet each part is commanded to offer to God. And those indeed who conquered, one out of five hundred; but those who remained at home, one out of fifty. And that the number of five hundred and of fifty is holy, Scripture testifies; whence also the Savior said in the Gospels: "A certain moneylender had two debtors; one of them owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. When they had not the means to pay, he forgave both." But also seven weeks, a monad — that is, one — being added, make the fiftieth day, which is called the festival of Pentecost. Likewise also seventy weeks, the perfection of one decade being added, render the number of five hundred. But by as much as seventy weeks are more than seven, by so much is the number of five hundred more excellent and more perfect than fifty. Hence, finally, also in the parable of the Gospel, which we set forth above, our Savior declares that he loves more to whom the five hundred denarii which he owed were forgiven, than he to whom fifty were.
[§5] Finally, in the present reading, Eleazar the priest is not written as speaking to all the people, but only to those who return from the battle. For it says: "and Eleazar the priest said to the men of valor, who were returning from the battle." You see, then, how the word of God speaks to the men of valor. For men of valor are they who go forth to war. But if anyone is unwilling to fight and to be a soldier, if anyone is unwilling to have the contest of divine studies and of abstinence, this man is unwilling to fulfill that which the Apostle said: "but he who contends in the contest is continent from all things." He, then, who does not contend in the contest and is not continent from all things, nor wishes to be exercised in the word of God and to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, this man, even if he be called a man, cannot nevertheless be called a man of valor. But this one, of whom now the divine Scripture speaks, who brings back spoils from the enemy, is called a man of valor; for this is the mark of his praise, that Scripture says: "Eleazar the priest spoke to the men of valor, who were returning from the battle." Which of us is so prepared that he may go forth to war and fight against the adversaries, so that he too may be able to be called a man of valor? But as a continent life and the labor of abstinence and the struggles of contests make each one to be called a man of valor, so on the contrary a life relaxed and negligent and slothful makes a man to be called a man of sloth. If, then, you wish to be called a man of valor, clothe yourself with Christ the Lord, who is the power (virtus) of God and the wisdom of God, and in all things join yourself to the Lord so that you become one spirit with Him, and then you will be made a man of valor. For the time of war is for us in this world; the fight is against the Midianites, whether against the vices of our flesh, or against the contrary powers. The choir of angels and of the heavenly powers watches us; a devout expectation, therefore, hangs upon us as to when or how we may return from this battle, what each one of us may bring back of the spoils, and they look on more curiously and search more anxiously as to which of us bears from here more of gold, which also displays there a weight of silver, which too carries down precious stones. They inquire also, whether anyone bears down bronze or iron or lead, but also a wooden vessel, if perhaps anyone, or an earthen one, or another of this kind necessary for the uses of a great house. For in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of clay. It is diligently inquired, therefore, when we shall have gone thither, what each one of us brings down, and according to the things he has brought down, according as his labor is proved by the contemplation of the spoils, the merit also of his abode will be reckoned to him. Yet all these things are tested — those through fire, by fire, and those through water, by water; for what sort each one's work is, the fire will prove.
[§6] Therefore it says: "This is the justification of the law which the Lord established for Moses: besides gold and silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin, every thing that passes through fire, pass it through fire and it shall be cleansed, but it shall also be purified in the water of purification; all things whatsoever that do not pass through fire shall pass through water. And you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and after these things you shall enter into the camps." You see how everyone who has gone out of the battle of this life needs purification. And if this is so, that I may dare to say something according to the authority of Scripture, everyone who goes out of this life cannot be clean. For consider diligently what the text of the history indicates. These men went out to fight for the sons of Israel, they slew the Midianites; and in slaying them, as far as concerns the order of the history and the letter of the law, they pleased God — for they fulfilled the will of God. Yet by this very fact, that they slew the adversaries, they are said to have been made unclean, and therefore it is said to them: "and you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and after these things you shall enter into the camps." Therefore those who fight, for this very reason that they touched the unclean enemies and that they engaged against them and had a contest with them, are polluted. And I too, therefore, even if I shall have been able to conquer the devil, even if the unclean and evil thoughts which he suggests to my heart I either repel as they come or slay them within me once they have entered, lest they come to effect — nay, even if I shall have been able to trample on the head of the dragon, yet by this very fact it is necessary that I be polluted and defiled, in that I strove to trample on him who is polluted and defiled. And I shall indeed be blessed that I was able to overcome him, yet I am unclean and polluted, who touched the polluted one, and on this account I need purification. Therefore, no doubt, Scripture also says that: "no one is clean from filth." All of us, then, need purification — nay, purifications; for many and diverse purifications await us. But these things are mystical and ineffable. For who will be able to narrate to us what are the purifications that are prepared for Paul or Peter or others like these, who fought so much, destroyed so many barbarous nations, laid low so many enemies, took so many spoils, so many triumphs, who return with bloodstained hands from the slaughter of the enemy, whose foot is dipped in blood, and who washed their hands in the blood of sinners? For they slew in the mornings all the sinners of the earth and exterminated their image from the city of the Lord. For they conquered and destroyed diverse nations of demons. For unless they had conquered these, they could not have taken captives from them — all this number of believers — and led them to the obedience of Christ and subjected them to His sweet yoke and laid upon them His light burden. Who, then, is so blessed as to succeed them in these battles and to slay all the Midianites and to be justified from their blood? For he is said to pour out the blood of demons who snatches away those over whom they hold dominion. And he shall be washed from this blood and purified in the kingdom of God, that, purified and made clean, he may be able to enter the holy city of God, Christ Jesus our Lord opening to him the door — nay, He who is the very door of that city of God, to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.