Questions on the Octateuch 1 part 12/17

He also calls the tithes a wage, for the benefit of the people.

"For while you," he says, "are farming, or trading, or staying at home, these men, on behalf of all of you, attend continually to my service."

For this is what he meant: that this is your wage in return for your services which are due in the tabernacle of testimony.

How are the things prescribed concerning the red heifer to be understood? He legislated that it be offered on account of the sin of the people;

and it prefigures the saving Passion, which took away the sin of the whole world.

He commands that a red heifer be brought, so that it might prefigure the earthly body;

for indeed the name "Adam" hints at the red earth out of which his body was formed.

And the heifer's being without blemish signifies beforehand the sinlessness of the Master Christ.

And the heifer's being unyoked alludes to the freedom of our Savior.

For the yoke signifies slavery;

and when the Lord was asked for the two-drachma tax, he said, "Then the sons are free."

And the slaughtering of the heifer outside the camp signifies the Savior's Passion, which took place outside the gate.

And the divine Apostle teaches these things more clearly in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

He commanded that the whole heifer be burned up, together with its hide and everything else;

since all things belonging to the Master Christ are pure.

And the cedar wood was a symbol of the cross;

for just as the one [wood] does not decay, so the other [cross] gives life.

And the scarlet [wool signified] the Master's blood;

and the hyssop, that the living warmth dissolved the coldness of death.

He says, however, that the one who burns the heifer is unclean until evening, as a type of those who crucified the Master Christ.

He commanded that those who approach a dead body, or touch bones, or are defiled by anything else of this kind, use this ash together with water and be sprinkled with it.

"And the man," he says, "who is not purified, that soul shall be utterly cut off from the midst of the congregation, because the water of sprinkling was not sprinkled upon him."

So also the Lord said in the holy Gospels, "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Therefore purification belongs, in truth, to Christ;

for purification comes through Christ;

whereas uncleanness belongs to the law;

and the law prefigured grace.

And these too were unclean until evening, that is, until the end of the law.

For the Master's coming resembles the dawn;

for upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death a light has dawned, as the prophet Isaiah says; and elsewhere God himself has also said:

"But for those who fear me, the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings."

"Behold, a man whose name is the Dayspring."

Why in the world did the Master God become angry with Moses and Aaron, when they brought water out of the rock? While they were despondent over the death of their sister, the people pressed upon them, rebelling on account of the lack of water.

In bringing forth the water, they made use of certain words.

For the lawgiver spoke as follows:

"Hear me, you rebellious ones; shall I bring water out of this rock for you?" For this reason the Master God pronounced sentence against them:

"Because you did not believe me, to sanctify me before the sons of Israel..."

"...therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them."

And Moses was afflicted on their account, because they embittered his spirit, and he spoke rashly with his lips.

For being angry with them, he uttered the word ambiguously;

and the ambiguity lay not in the soul, but in the tongue.

For this is what Scripture meant in saying: he spoke rashly with his lips.

It should be known, however, that God pronounced this sentence while ordering another matter in his providence;

which we shall explain at the proper time.

Why in the world did God command that the bites of serpents be healed by means of the bronze serpent? This too prefigures the saving Passion.

For through the serpent sin sprang forth;

whence it also received the curse from the God of all.

The serpent, then, is a type both of sin and of the curse.

Since, then, the Master Christ appeared "in the likeness of sinful flesh," as the divine Apostle says,

for he truly took a body, yet he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth;

The saving passion is prefigured in the bronze serpent.

For just as the bronze serpent was a likeness of serpents, yet did not have the venom of serpents,

so the only-begotten Son had a human body, but had no stain of sins.

And just as those bitten by serpents, by looking upon the bronze serpent, obtained salvation, so those struck by sin, believing without hesitation in the passion of our Savior, prove themselves stronger than death, and enjoy eternal life.

If Balaam was a diviner, why then did he ask the Lord? He was not, indeed, asking the true God;

but the one who answered him was not the one he was calling upon, but the one he did not know.

For it says, 'God came to Balaam and said to him:'

'Who are these men with you?' — not because he was ignorant of the reason for their presence, but so that, taking occasion from the diviner himself, he might command what was to be done.

For what reason, having commanded him not to go, did he again command him to go? Because Balaam, having grown enamored of the money reported to him, asked again whether he should go along with those who had been sent; and supposing that the sovereign God had changed his mind, He permitted him to go, saying in effect:

'Go, then, since you long to do this; know, however, that you shall speak only whatever I wish.'

Some say that the angel was Michael, who stands as protector of the people.

And what power did the diviner's curse have, when God was unwilling? It had no power at all;

for the opinion held about him was false.

But since the people, through their continual transgression, were suffering plagues sent from God, the sovereign God arranged the affair concerning Balaam with a view to their weakness.

For lest, while being disciplined by God, they should suppose that they were falling into calamities because of the diviner's curses, He did not allow the diviner to make use of his curses, thereby cutting off every occasion for the foolish.

For that, even if the diviner's curses had some power, it would have been easy for the Fashioner of all things to render them vain, is clear to those instructed in divine things.

For it says, 'The Lord scatters the counsels of the nations, and brings to nothing the reasonings of peoples, and brings to nothing the counsels of rulers;'

'but the counsel of the Lord abides forever.'

Balaam, however, though he had learned of God's providential care, still attempts by sacrifices to change His mind;

supposing him to be one of the falsely-named gods, whom their devotees also call mutable.

For this reason his unclean mouth received the working of the all-holy Spirit, and utters what he does not wish;

and he cries out, 'How shall I curse whom the Lord does not curse? And how shall I execrate whom God does not execrate?' And he foretells what is to come:

'Behold, a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.'

'Who has exactly numbered the seed of Jacob, and who shall count the tribes of Israel?' Then he asks to share in their fellowship:

'Let my soul die among the souls of the righteous;'

'and let my seed become as their seed.'

But since Balak, being vexed and supposing that it was because he had seen the multitude of the Hebrews that Balaam had offered the blessing, led him away to another place, from which it was possible to see only a part of the people, fittingly the all-holy Spirit again speaks through him:

'God is not as a man, that He should waver, nor as a son of man, that He should be threatened;'

'Has He said, and shall He not do it? Shall He speak, and not abide by it?' Unchangeable, he says, O Balak, and unalterable is the nature of God;

He does not have a mutable disposition like men.

'Behold, I have been appointed to bless;'

'I shall bless, and I will not turn it back.'

What is meant by, 'his glory is like that of a unicorn'? The unicorn is an animal having one horn on its head.

Concerning this the sovereign God also spoke to Job:

'Will the unicorn be willing to serve you?' — by this teaching both the strength of the animal and its refusal to be enslaved.

Some, then, have likened the sovereign God to this animal;

but I think that this was said concerning the people — that just as the unicorn has one horn, so the pious people worship one God.

How the one God is to be understood, we have often stated.

As for 'there shall be no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel,'

'in due season it shall be told to Jacob and to Israel what God will accomplish;'

thus it is to be understood, that against Israel neither divination has any power, nor the observance of omens.

For the sovereign God, through his own prophets, both foretells to it what is to come and prescribes what must be done.

What is meant by, 'Balaam did not go, as was his custom, to encounter the omens'? Having learned by experience that he gained nothing by practicing his vain art;

for immeasurably more powerful is He who turns the diviner's tongue to whatever He wills;

he no longer employed his customary signs, but set apart his tongue for the service of God.

It should be known, however, that some have thought he foretold nothing at all concerning our Savior — but they ought to have considered that even to Nebuchadnezzar, though he was exceedingly impious, God revealed the coming of our God and Savior.

For he saw a stone cut out without hands, which struck the image and crushed the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, and the clay, and became a great mountain and covered the whole earth.

He, then, who foretold those things through Nebuchadnezzar, has also foretold through this man the salvation of the world;

so that such predictions might be preserved even among the nations.

And the outcome of events bears witness to the prediction.

For he who sprang forth from Judah according to the flesh plundered not only the chiefs of Moab, but also all the sons of Seth;

and the sons of Seth are all of mankind.

For Noah is a descendant of Seth;

and from Noah comes the whole nature of mankind.

He also foretold the victory of the Macedonians over the Persians;

for it says, 'one shall come forth from the hand of Kittim, and they shall afflict Asshur, and they shall afflict the Hebrews.'

For Alexander overthrew the kingdom of the Persians;

and Antiochus, having made war upon the Jews, both took their mother-city and made the divine temple desolate.

These predictions, however, were not of false divination, but of the working of the all-holy Spirit;

for He who commanded the donkey, contrary to nature, to use a human voice, is the very one who also foretold through the diviner's tongue the things that were to come.

For it says, 'the Spirit of God came upon him.'

This happened also in the case of the lawless Saul;

He devised schemes against God.

For having perceived that, while fortified by God, they possessed invincible power, he contrived for them a form of impiety through licentiousness;

so that, through impiety, being stripped of divine assistance, they might become easy prey.

And he counseled the Midianites to arm, not their men against them, but their women — making the beauty of the body and the allurement of speech their weapon — so that, once enticed by beauty and beguiled by words, they might serve their idols.

And this the blessed Moses taught us, when, after the victory over the Midianites, he rebuked those who had taken the women captive alive:

'Why have you kept every female alive? For it was these who, at the word of Balaam, caused the sons of Israel to fall away and disregard the word of the Lord because of Peor, and a plague came upon the congregation of the Lord.'

Now Phogor is the name of the idol.

'And they joined themselves to Baal-Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead.'

For this reason God also commanded them to be hostile to the Midianites, because, he says, 'they are hostile to you in treachery on account of Peor.'

Yet although it was the people who had sinned, the rulers were hanged, as Symmachus said, because they had not removed the evil from among them.

As for 'his kingdom shall be exalted above Gog,' Symmachus interpreted it thus:

'And his king shall be exalted above Og.'

The saying indicates that even if Og should march against them in war, they will prevail on account of the king who would spring from them according to the flesh.

For what reason did God again command the people to be numbered? Because he had already pronounced sentence against those who had been numbered, and was about to bring their children into the promised land — the very children concerning whom those former ones had said that they would become captives.

He commanded that these also be numbered, so as to show the power of his own blessing, namely that even though the fathers had perished, the same number remained.

Why did God command that the land be divided by lot? So as to extinguish all strife and contention, since it was God who was apportioning the land through the lot.

For thus he commanded that the matter be entrusted to a kind of casting of lots.

This the divine apostles also did before the all-holy Spirit came upon them.

For having cast lots, they besought him who clearly knows all things to show the one more worthy.

Thus also the divine Paul said concerning us:

'In whom we also obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.'

Why, after the Lord God had testified concerning Joshua that he has the Spirit of God in him, did he command Moses to lay his hands on him? This same thing also happened in the case of Cornelius.

For after receiving the grace of the Spirit, they were then deemed worthy of baptism.

And indeed the Lord Christ too, having received according to his humanity all the gifts of the Spirit even before his birth, came forward to the baptism of John, and commanded the hand of his servant to be laid upon his head;

and he showed the all-holy Spirit coming upon him in the form of a dove.

And the apostles too, having received the Holy Spirit through the Lord's breathing upon them, received the grace that came down from heaven.

This also happened in the case of Joshua the son of Nun.

For he indeed had the grace of the Spirit;

but so that the people too might believe that he had received his appointment to leadership from God, the hands of the lawgiver were laid upon him; and the divine Moses did this, having been commanded by God:

'You shall lay,' he says, 'your hands upon him,'

'and you shall set him before Eleazar the priest, and give him a charge before the whole congregation,'

'and you shall put some of your glory upon him, so that the sons of Israel may obey him.'

'And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest' — that is, he shall hold equal honor with him, and by means of the oracle of judgment which lay upon that man's breast he shall learn what must be done.

From this we learn how those who receive ordination from the high priests come to share in spiritual grace.

For here too the Lord God said:

'You shall put some of your glory upon him.'

And although he had sons, a brother, and a nephew, he put forward none of these as leader, but inquired of God, and ordained the one chosen by him.

After this, having reminded them of the feasts and the sacrifices, he legislates concerning those who vow to offer something to the Lord God.

And first he ordained that every man who makes a vow should confirm the promise by deed;

but in the case of a woman still under her father's authority who makes a vow, that the father should confirm the vow.

And if the father, when she makes the vow, refuses it, the one who made the vow is not liable to blame; but if, when she makes the promise, the father either consents or remains silent, the things promised are to be fulfilled.

This same law he also enacted concerning a woman joined to a husband, commanding that the husband's consent should confirm the vow.

For having led them through trackless and waterless regions, he abundantly supplied them with the necessities they needed.

Why does he ordain that the one who has killed involuntarily may return home only after the death of the high priest? Because the death of the high priest according to the order of Melchizedek became the release of mankind's sin.

He brought back into paradise the one who had been exiled from there.

And even at that time, the flight of the manslayer would soften the wrath of the avenging kinsmen, and would rein in their murderous impulse.

And the fact that, after the death of the high priest, the punishment was lifted from those who had fled was sufficient to persuade the kinsmen to extinguish their anger for good, since the high priest, in whose time the offense had occurred, had now died;

the lawgiver having thus set a term of release both for the offense and for the punishment.

For what reason did he command that the tribes be kept distinct? So that the seed of Judah, through which God promised the blessing to the nations, might be preserved intact.

The royal tribe and the priestly tribe, however, did share a bond with one another,

since the Lord Christ, according to his humanity, is both high priest and king.

Then in the second year he commanded them to take possession of the land which he had promised to give to their forefathers.

But when they refused and were unwilling to do this, he swore that he would give that land to none of those who had been numbered by the lawgiver, but that he would consume all of them in the wilderness.

So then, when forty years had passed, and those men had perished according to the divine sentence, he commanded that their children be numbered, being of the same age which those men had been when they were numbered.

As God was about to bring these into the land which he had promised, he taught them, through the prophet, the law which he had given to their transgressing fathers.

'Beyond the Jordan,' it says, 'in the wilderness, toward the west, in the fortieth year, in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, after he had struck down Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan.'

That he is reminding them of the legislation, the very preface of the book itself teaches us.

'Moses began,' it says, 'to expound this law, saying, The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb.'

Then, having told also how he commanded them, upon entering, to inherit the land, he added that he had said at that time: 'I alone am not able to govern so many myriads, and for this reason,' he says, 'I appointed commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, so that they might be sharers with me in the rule.'

He recalled these words because he had appointed Joshua the son of Nun as his successor to the leadership,

teaching that even while he himself still lived, he had entrusted the leadership to another, and that they must also obey this one readily and do what was commanded.

And he reminds them how God commanded them to take possession of the land which he had promised;

and how they were permitted to send spies ahead of themselves, and that when those spies returned and had reported concerning the land, they disbelieved the God who had saved them and were unwilling to take possession of the land;

so that the Lord God became angry and pronounced against all those myriads that none of them should enter into that land, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

'This man,' he says, 'shall see it, and to him I will give the land upon which he set foot, and to his sons, because he was devoted to the things of the Lord.'

He mentioned, however, only this man;

and he appointed Joshua as ruler and general and prophet.

For having said, 'Even against me the Lord God was angry on your account' —

'for when you troubled me, I did not carry out the divine command as I ought, and for this reason I have been prevented from bringing you into that land' —

he recalled the things spoken to him by God:

'Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there;

strengthen him, for he shall give it as an inheritance to Israel.'

He says these things, teaching them that the general received his appointment from God, so that they might not rebel again concerning the leadership.

And he relates to them how afterward, having repented, they wished to make war against the Canaanites;

and how God forbade them, and that being emboldened and going up against the divine command, they returned defeated;

and how much time they spent in the wilderness, going about in that trackless and waterless land, and what message they declared to the Edomites and the Moabites, from whom, since they were quarrelsome, they received no answer;

and how they delivered Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, together with their whole army and those who inhabited their cities and villages, to utter destruction.

And he also mentioned the size of his (Og's) body.

'For the bed of Og,' it says, 'was of iron, nine cubits its length, and four cubits its breadth.'

Then he exhorted and counseled them to keep carefully the commandments of the Master.

'Hear, therefore, O Israel,' it says, 'the statutes and the judgments which I teach you this day to do, that you may live, and going in may inherit the land which the Lord God of your fathers gives you.'

Then he necessarily brings up the memory of Baal-peor, and of those who perished in the wilderness on account of that impiety.

Then, by way of comparison, he sets forth the divine benefactions.

'For what great nation is there,' it says, 'that has a god drawing near to it, as the Lord our God is near us in everything for which we call upon him?' He commands them not only to keep the laws of God themselves, but also to rear their children and grandchildren in piety, and to instruct them in the divine commandments from childhood.

Then again he reminded them how the God of all appeared to them, sending forth words through fire, yet displaying no form.

'Out of the midst of the fire you heard the sound of words, but you saw no likeness, only a voice.'

He says these things to teach them to fashion no image whatsoever, nor ever to attempt to make a divine likeness, since they have not seen the form of the archetype.

'The likeness of any winged bird that flies beneath the heaven.'

'The likeness of any creeping thing that creeps on the earth, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.'

'All these things,' it says, 'God has made for your use.'

It is, therefore, the height of folly to deify the images of things subject to us.

He has also added the following words.

'Lest, looking up to heaven and seeing the sun and the moon and all the array of heaven, you be led astray and worship them, which the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.'

'These things,' it says, 'the Maker has made for the use of mankind.'

Do not, then, suppose that the things which the God of all has set apart to minister to the needs of men are gods.

For thus also the other translators rendered it.

'Which your God has arranged for the peoples under the whole heaven.'

Then he frightens them with threats, saying that if they should dare to transgress the divine law and fashion a likeness of anything that exists and deify it, he will scatter them over the whole earth, and, reduced to servitude, they will worship the falsely-named gods.

Then again, by comparison, he demonstrates the omnipotence of God.

'Ask,' it says, 'of the former days that were before you, from the day that God created man upon the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened, or whether such a thing has been heard of; whether a nation has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire, as you have heard, and lived.'

He also told how he freed them from the bitter slavery of the Egyptians.

Indeed he continually teaches them both that the God of all spoke with them from heaven, and, employing a voice out of the midst of the fire, gave them the law that they should fashion no image of the invisible God.

He also teaches that it is altogether impossible to fashion a divine image.

For he has a nature not only invisible, but also altogether without circumscription.

'For the Lord your God,' it says, 'he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath, and there is none besides him.'

One must know, however, that the prophet did not speak all these things to the people in a single day, but delivered his teaching to them over the course of many days.

Hence he often repeats the same words, so that through this continual repetition he might fix the memory firmly.

At any rate, immediately after this discourse he recounted the matter of the cities to which he commanded those who had fallen into involuntary homicide to flee.

Then he related that he again assembled the people, and reminded them of the God-given laws.

And that he gave not a different law, but again instructs in the former one those who, on account of the immaturity of their age, had not been able to hear that legislation — this the very words of the prophet will show.

'The Lord our God,' it says, 'made a covenant with us at Horeb.'

'The Lord did not make this covenant with your fathers, but with you.'

For since those fathers had transgressed and perished, while to these he was giving the land promised to their fathers —

he said that the law was given to these.

Then he sets forth the commandments, the meaning of which we have already expounded in interpreting Exodus.

And here too he taught the purpose of the rest of the sabbath.

For he said, 'that your manservant and your maidservant may rest, and your beast of burden.'

'Just as,' it says, 'you continually enjoy these things, so let the manservants and maidservants and the beasts of burden also enjoy rest at least once in the seven days of the week.'

Then, through the remembrance of the slavery in Egypt, he cultivates compassion.

'For you were a servant,' it says, 'in Egypt, and the Lord brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.'

'Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day, and to sanctify it.'

By experience you have learned the bitterness of slavery.

Remembering these things, be gentle and mild toward those under you, and on the seventh day of the week share with them the rest which you continually enjoy.

But in what follows he did not forbid spiritual labor.

Except whatever is done for the sake of the soul — such as reading, the hearing of the divine oracles, psalmody, sacred ministrations, and things akin to these.

How is one to understand the saying, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one'? We have often said that the names 'Lord' and 'God' signify the divine nature, not the distinction of the persons.

But 'Father' and 'Son' and 'Holy Spirit' signify the [personal] properties.

But it was not possible for exact theology to be set before the immature Jews.

For they would have taken this as an occasion for polytheism.

For this reason the divine name is presented in the singular throughout the Old Testament.

Yet it nevertheless contains hints of the Trinity.

For 'the Lord your God, the Lord, is one' both teaches the oneness of the essence, and intimates the number of the persons.

For it has set down 'God' once, but 'Lord' twice.

What is the meaning of, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,' and so on?

The Lord clearly taught us that no one can serve two masters, and here likewise we are taught not to divide our love between God and gold, God and a wife, God and children, but to consecrate the whole force of our love to God the Maker, and, after the Maker, to render to each what is fitting — to children, brothers, and friends — for even this fulfills the love of God.

'He who loves me,' it says, 'will keep my commandments.'

And the commandments of God speak concerning these very matters.

Why in the world does the law prescribe swearing by God? So that they might not swear by the falsely-named gods.

For this he also said through the prophet.