'For I am a pilgrim before you, as all my fathers were.' 'Pilgrim' (peregrinus) is so called from 'peregre,' that is, from setting out far off: for 'to travel abroad' (peragrare) we call 'to walk through' (perambulare): for they dwelt in tents, who bought sepulchres with money. It is well known how they were pilgrims, insomuch that they had not even a place where to bury their dead. Wherefore, first, it is more just to be a pilgrim and guest of this world, and to have nothing in common with the kings of this age, to be removed from them, like a pilgrim. 'Therefore He is not confounded'—that is, He is not ashamed—'God, to be called their God. For He has prepared for them a city.'
'Therefore,' he says, because they believed God, and presumed nothing for themselves from earthly things so as to place their hope in them, therefore the almighty God is not ashamed to be called their God. For thus He Himself said: 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'—namely by faith and by the merit of their life. For thus He is glorified, when He is called the God of kindly and most excellent men, and of those who cherish virtue: so, on the contrary, He is confounded and ashamed by the follies of wicked men, if He is invoked by them: whence He says through the prophet: 'Through you my name is blasphemed among the nations.' But those men were so illustrious in virtues, so full of confidence, that He was not confounded, but rather glorified, when He was called their God.
But He is called generally the God of earth and the God of heaven, since He is both the God of the nations, and not only of the nations, but of the whole world, in that He Himself founded all things. But of those saints He is not so called God merely by creation, but as a friend. Now He is also called the Lord God of Christians. 'He prepared,' he says, 'a city for them'—namely the heavenly Jerusalem—and therefore He did not give them an inheritance in the present Church. Or He is also not ashamed to be called their God for this reason, because He predestined them to reign with Him in the heavenly city. 'By faith Abraham offered Isaac when he was tried; and he was offering his only-begotten, in whom he had received the promises.' To whom it was said: 'Because in Isaac shall your seed be called:'
'reckoning that God is able to raise up even from the dead.' What is it that the blessed James, making mention of Abraham in his Epistle, praises him highly from his works, while the blessed Apostle commends most attentively not his works but his faith? Rightly, therefore, the blessed James praises from works him whom he knew to be also perfect in faith, since he was writing to those who seemed indeed to have faith, but did not adorn that same faith with good works. But the blessed Paul, who was writing to those who seemed to have the good works of the law, but did not have perfect faith, with reason more attentively recalls the faith of Abraham, that they might strive to imitate him;
whence assuredly, in order that they might show that whoever wish to be sons of Abraham must have both faith and works, deservedly the one praised him from faith, the other no less from works. 'By faith,' he says, 'Abraham offered Isaac when he was tried,' although he had no free-born son except him, and in him he had received the promises that he was to be the father of many nations: yet he was not therefore disobedient to God; and although he heard again contrary things, the Lord saying to him, 'Offer Isaac your son to me'—from whom he had already heard, 'Because in Isaac shall your seed be called'—he did not hesitate concerning the promises, believing that God could raise him from the dead, and from him multiply a multitude of peoples.
Wherefore he was willing at once to offer his son, because he believed him to be immediately raised up by God. But lest anyone could say that he had another son, from whom he hoped the promise would be fulfilled, therefore, confident, he offered this one; the Apostle says: 'Abraham himself, who had received the promises concerning him, offered even his only-begotten son.' Why, then, did God try him? Was He perhaps ignorant that he was a man strong in faith and proven? He knew it indeed; but He tried him not that He Himself might know, but that He might demonstrate to others and make manifest his fortitude, as He Himself shows, saying: 'Now I know that you fear the Lord'—that is, I have made others to know that you fear God. Whence also He received him back in a parable.
'Parable,' a Greek word, in Latin is called 'likeness' or 'figure.' He received him in a parable from death—God, who said to him: 'Do not stretch out your hand upon the boy'—because, the ram being slain, this one was saved. Isaac was slain, as far as pertains to the will of the father. Then God gave him back to the patriarch in a parable, that is, in a figure and likeness of the passion of Christ. In a likeness were all the things that were then done in Abraham, which the true Abraham—namely God the Father, creator of all nations—had disposed to do for us at the end of the age. For Abraham bore the figure of God the Father, but Isaac the figure of Christ. Abraham carried, as Scripture says, fire and sword:
because God the Father in a certain manner bore the sword of Christ's passion, when He permitted Him to be slain: whence the Son says in the psalm to Him: 'Because him whom you have struck'—that is, permitted to be struck—'they have persecuted.' And God the Father through Zacharias: 'I will strike the shepherd'—that is, I will permit him to be struck. The fire too which he carried is the heat and warmth of that supreme love with which He loves us, of which it is said: 'So God loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten for us.' For as Abraham offered his only and beloved son to God as a victim, so God the Father delivered up His only Son for us all. But Isaac himself carried the wood upon which he was to be laid, because Christ too bore the wood of the cross on which He was to be crucified.
The ram signified the flesh of Christ. Isaac was offered, and was not slain, but only the ram: because Christ was offered in His passion, but His divinity remained impassible. 'By faith also Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.' By faith he blessed them concerning things to come, because, according to what he invoked upon them, he believed that all these things would afterward come to pass for them, and the things that were to be for them he desired by blessing. It can be understood otherwise: concerning future mysteries he blessed them, because Jacob bore the figure of Christ or of the Christian people, but Esau of the Jewish. 'By faith Jacob, dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and adored the top of his rod.'
We read in Genesis that Joseph, hearing his father to be sick, came to him and offered him his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to be blessed; and he, having faith that all things would come to pass for them according to what he entreated for them, blessed them. But he is said to have blessed each of them because he poured out upon each his own proper blessing, and set the younger before the elder, because he foresaw that things would thus come to pass. And as to what follows: 'And he adored the top of his rod'—that is, of the rod of Joseph—it can be understood in two ways: for Jacob, breathed upon by the prophetic spirit, recognized that by that rod of Joseph was designated the kingdom of Christ; but by the top, that is, the summit of the rod, the power and honor of Christ's kingdom, of which the Psalmist says:
'A right rod is the rod of your kingdom.' Therefore he did not adore the rod as God, after the rite of the gentiles who worshipped idols, but in the rod Christ, whose kingdom and power he foresaw to be prefigured in it. But as far as pertains to the letter, perhaps according to the custom of that time he adored the rod of Joseph, whom he saw to be lord of the whole kingdom of the land of Egypt: in that same manner Esther is read to have adored the rod of Ahasuerus. 'By faith Joseph, dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.' He spoke of the departure of the children of Israel, believing all things to be true which He had promised to their fathers; especially what He had said to Abraham:
'Know as one foreknowing that your seed shall be a pilgrim in a land not their own, and they shall ill-treat them for four hundred years; nevertheless the nation whom they shall serve I will judge, says the Lord, and after these things they shall return to the land of their fathers.' Joseph, therefore, would by no means have given commandment concerning his bones, unless with full faith he had hoped for their return into the land of promise. For he says to them: 'The Lord, visiting, shall visit you after many days: carry my bones from here with you'; and not only the tribe of Joseph carried the bones of their father with them through the desert into the land of promise; but the remaining tribes also brought all the bones of the patriarchs, and buried them in Shechem, which fell to the possession of the tribe of Joseph.
For Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were buried in the double cave of Arbe, which Abraham had bought from the sons of Heth, together with Sara, and Rebecca, and Leah; where also Adam rested, buried with Eve. But perhaps someone asks what the reason was that all those holy fathers preferred to be buried in the land of promise rather than in another place. To whom it is to be answered:
they did this not out of care for their sepulchres, but rather because by the Holy Spirit they foresaw that the Lord would in that land redeem the human race through death and there rise again, and with the highest desire they wished to be buried together there, that when He rose they might rise together with Him. But we ought not to become faint-hearted wherever we may be buried, since of very many martyrs we do not know where their glorious bodies lie buried. 'By faith Moses, being born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they had seen him a comely infant, and they did not fear the king's edict.' Moses was not hidden by his own faith, who as yet could not reason;
But by the faith of his parents, namely his father and mother, who, having faith that Almighty God could deliver and protect him, kept him for three months; and afterward, when they could no longer hide him because of his crying, they placed him in a basket made of rushes and set him among the reeds of the river. For the king's edict was of this kind, that all male children should be cast into the river. But what does it mean when it says that they did not fear the king's edict? If they did not fear it, why did they hide him? In this, then, they feared, because they did not dare to keep him.
Yet in this respect they were as if they did not fear, because they did not cast him openly into the river, but placed him in a basket and thus committed him to the reeds of the river, having hope and confidence that Almighty God would protect him; wherefore it is reckoned to them as though they had not been afraid. Whence, then, did these people hope that the child would be saved, except by faith? They saw, it says, that he was a fair infant; for from the very moment of his birth a great grace of comeliness had been poured into him—not because nature so wrought that the little one was born handsome, but by a gift of divine favour, which also stirred that barbarian Egyptian woman, namely Pharaoh's daughter, to this: that she loved him, took him up, and nourished him.
By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be afflicted with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians; for he looked toward the reward. As if he said to those to whom he wrote these things: None of us has forsaken a royal court so spacious and splendid, nor such treasures, nor, when he could be the king's son, has despised it, as Moses did—who not only despised it but even renounced it: for with heaven set before him, he was unwilling to admire the beauty of the Egyptian kingdom, choosing rather to be afflicted with the people of God than to have the pleasure of sin.
For he counted it sin if he should remain in the king's court enjoying the pleasures of the time and leave his own brethren in tribulation. Not to be afflicted, I say, together with the others, he judged to be sin. If, therefore, he judged it sin not to be gladly afflicted along with the others, how great a heap of sin will they have who desert the assembly of the faithful? You, it says, suffer for your own selves; but he, not only for himself, looking to the reward, but also for others, chose this, that he might receive a greater reward, and of his own accord cast himself into such great perils, though it was permitted him both to live piously and to enjoy worldly goods. Esteeming, it says, the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of the Egyptians.
He says 'the reproach of Christ,' because Moses endured reproach for Christ's sake, who according to His divinity is of one essence with the Father. Or he says 'the reproach of Christ' in this sense: such reproach as Christ endured from His own kinsmen. For just as Christ endured reproach from His own, whom He had come to redeem, when they said to Him, 'You have a demon,' and inflicted upon Him other evils even unto His Passion, so also Moses endured reproach among his brethren, whom he wished to deliver; for they said to him, 'Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'
Likewise, whenever anyone suffers reproach from his own household, or from those on whom he has bestowed a benefit, he suffers the reproach of Christ. He looked, it says, to his own reward and that of the people. And so, whenever anyone suffers something adverse, he ought to call to mind what reward he is to receive from the Lord on that account. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as though seeing Him who is invisible present. We read in Exodus that, when it was said to Moses by a certain Hebrew who was wronging his brother, whom Moses wished to rebuke, 'Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'—Moses fled at this word, because Pharaoh, hearing of it, sought to kill him.
But since it is manifest that he fled into Midian, what does the blessed Apostle mean when he says, 'not fearing the wrath of the king'? For if he did not fear, why did he flee? His flight, then, was of the mind, believing that he would be delivered by God; and he displayed fear outwardly, though inwardly he had none: and so it is reckoned to him as if he had not been afraid. He was unwilling to remain there for this reason: lest, for the sake of boasting, he should seem to hurl himself into open danger and tempt the Lord his God, which is by no means permitted. For the saints, so long as they have something they can do, ought not to tempt God, but ought to imitate their Lord, who often gave way to the Jews, obeying what He Himself commanded, saying:
'When they persecute you in one city, flee to another.' Moses' flight, therefore, was wholly outward, since he had the greatest faith in God's help. Whence the Apostle says, 'He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible as though present.' Which is to say: he was so confident of God's aid, and so always secure in His protection, that he beheld Almighty God—who is by nature invisible—as ever present. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By the faith whereby Moses believed that the people would be saved through that blood, he kept the Passover.
By the sprinkling of blood he kept the Passover, wherewith he anointed the doorposts, lest the angel who was destroying the firstborn of the Egyptians should afflict the Israelites: as if he said to them, 'If the blood of the typical lamb, in the midst of the Egyptians and in so great a devastation, preserved the Jews unharmed, whose doorposts were afterward sprinkled with that blood, how much more shall the blood of the true Lamb, that is, of Christ, save us'—whose victims, that is, whose foreheads, are guarded with the sign of Christ's Passion. For the angel feared that blood, understanding therein the Lord's death; and therefore he did not touch the doorposts, although what was done was nothing in itself, but what was signified thereby was great. With the blood of the lamb are the doorposts of the Israelites smeared, that the destroying angel might not dare to inflict death:
the faithful peoples are marked on their foreheads with the sign of the Lord's death for the safeguard of salvation, that they may be delivered from destruction. By faith they crossed the Red Sea as through dry land, which the Egyptians, attempting, were swallowed up. As if he said to those to whom he wrote these things: We ought to hold our faith so firmly that, when our soul is tossed into some despair, then also we may be of such faith that we are delivered, even if we should come to the very point of death, even if all should despair of us. What hope could they have had? For on one side was the sea, on another they were girt about with the highest mountains, on a third were the enemies: if they wished to flee, they would either perish in the sea or fall into the hands of the Egyptians:
but having faith, they conquered all things. For by the faith whereby Moses believed God, at His word he struck the sea and divided it into twelve divisions, according to what is said in the Psalm. And all those tribes, believing that they could cross over with dry foot, entered the sea, but the tribe of Judah first; according to what is read in Hosea: 'Praise, O prince,' it says, 'with God in the sea': for on account of that sea it stood as a wall for the Hebrews on the right and on the left, affording them a dry path, while it drowned the Egyptians. Whence the Apostle says: 'Which the Egyptians, attempting, were swallowed up.' For they perceived that it was the sea; for from this it appeared to be water, because those who entered were absorbed; and from this it appeared that it was no phantasm, but the truth of the matter:
for the Egyptians, attempting, were swallowed up. Allegorically, however, the Red Sea is baptism, consecrated by the redness of Christ's blood. The Hebrews who came out of Egypt and passed through the Red Sea are the faithful, who, leaving the darkness of unbelief, passed through the font of baptism. Pharaoh and the Egyptians died in the sea, because in the font of baptism the devil is put to death, losing the power he had; and there die also both original and actual sins, if any there were before. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after being encircled for seven days. For it was not by the sound of trumpets that he cast down the stones of the walls—even if one were to sound the trumpets for ten thousand years—but by the faith whereby they believed God, they cast them down.
We read that the Lord had commanded Joshua that the ark should be carried for seven days around Jericho, and that they should sound the trumpets in this manner. On the seventh day, when they had blown the trumpets, the walls of Jericho fell down—which is not devoid of a great mystery. Jericho, which is interpreted 'Moon,' represents the appearance of this world; because just as the moon wanes with its monthly cycles, so this world falls away with its daily failings. In the ark, moreover, the Church is figured. In the brazen trumpets are understood the mighty preachers. Joshua, who leads the ark around, is Christ, who governs His Church throughout this world.
The Israelites, carrying the ark for seven days, with the brazen trumpets blaring, encircle this city of Jericho, and its walls fall through the presence of the ark and the sound of the brazen trumpets: because in this present time, which revolves through the alternation of seven days, while the ark is carried—that is, while the Church, going around the world, is renewed at the voices of the preachers, as at the sound of trumpets—the walls of Jericho, that is, the pride of this world, and its princes, and the arrogant obstacles of unbelief, fall down: until at the end of the ages the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with the unbelieving, having received the spies in peace. The blessed Apostle in this passage offers great consolation and exhortation to all:
that if a harlot and an idolatress was saved by faith alone, much more shall those be saved who have not fallen into graver sins: as if he openly said, 'It is shameful if you are more unbelieving than a harlot.' She merely heard men bringing tidings, and straightway believed; but you not only hear men, but also the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath; and moreover you do not acknowledge the Son of God Himself sent to you: for in Rahab too the effect of faith followed; for while all others perished, she alone was saved. Rahab, moreover, which is interpreted 'enlarged,' bears a figure of the Church, which has been enlarged from the East to the West, from the north to the south;
and it has the breadth of charity, so much that it pours out prayer even for its very enemies. And that Rahab the harlot was, and rightly so, of foreign and alien nations, serving young men in the desires of the flesh and in fornications: because the Church, before the Lord's coming, was alien from God, living according to the desires of the flesh, given over to fornication and idolatry: but after the true Jesus sent to her two spies—that is, Peter and Paul, or the two Testaments—she, being made faithful, forsook the fornication of idolatry, and thus was saved, and is saved daily, lest she perish with the unbelieving. Thus far he has told of the lawgiver and of the fathers of old;
now he is about to speak of the judges who came after Joshua, mentioning only their names, for the sake of brevity of speech: who by faith fought and conquered very many nations. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me in the telling. That is, the time allotted for writing the epistle would fail me, if I should wish to recount all the deeds of those whom I have thus far mentioned, or the things I could tell of those who were their successors. Of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms. What he mentions of all in common is this: that the works of each were done by the same faith, because all of them together, through faith, conquered kingdoms.
Gideon indeed, receiving a sign from the Lord, with the three hundred men who lapped water, and concerning whom the Lord said to him, 'By these you shall overcome Midian.' By the fleece too—now wet, now dry—he laid low Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the victory from his enemies. Allegorically, however, Gideon, which is interpreted 'going about in the womb,' signifies the Lord Jesus Christ, who through the mystery of the Incarnation was placed in the womb of the Virgin, and by the fullness of the Godhead, wherewith He fills all things, encompasses the whole world: because by filling all things, He encompasses all things.
The three hundred men who drew water with their hands, and who, having taken fire in pitchers, went forth against Midian, and when the pitchers were broken the fire shone out and they blew the trumpets, and at once the enemies were put to flight, bear the type of the holy preachers, who, having the faith of the Holy Trinity, were marked with the sign of the Lord's Passion; which is designated by the letter Tau, which by its numeral expresses three hundred, and which among the ancient Jews bore the likeness of a cross. The pitchers, moreover, which are earthen vessels, signify the frail bodies of these same preachers, of which the same excellent preacher says: 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels.' The sound of the trumpets expresses the voice of the preachers.
那用手捧水喝、又拿著瓶內盛火出去攻打米甸的三百人——當瓶子摔破時火光發出，他們吹響號角，仇敵立時逃跑——預表聖潔的傳道者，他們有聖三位一體的信德，並蓋上了主受難的記號；這記號由 Tau 字母所標明，此字母以其數值表示三百，並且在古猶太人中具有十字架的形狀。而那些瓶子，即瓦器，預表這些傳道者軟弱的身體，正如那位卓越的傳道者論到這身體所說：「我們有這寶貝放在瓦器裡。」號角的聲音表明傳道者的聲音。
So when the pitchers were broken the fire shone out, and the Midianites—who bear the type of princes—were put to flight: because after the holy martyrs pass away from this world, miracles increase; and thus, being shaken by the power of the miracles, they are turned to flight, that is, either by submitting themselves to the faith, or even by ceasing from their torments, overcome by fear of the signs. Nor is that without mystery, that while Gideon prayed, the fleece was at first wet and the ground dry; but the second time the fleece was dry and the whole ground wet. For the fleece bears the figure of the Jewish people, and the ground of all the nations. Rightly, then, was the fleece at first wet, and the ground remained dry:
because when the Jewish people was moistened with the dew of heavenly wisdom before the Lord's coming, all the nations were dried up with the drought of faith and wisdom. Again, when after the Lord's coming all the nations were made wet with the dew of wisdom, Judea perished in dryness. Barak. He is Lapidoth the husband of Deborah, who by the faith whereby he believed the prophetess overcame Sisera and all his chariots. Samson, by the faith whereby he believed he could obtain from God what he prayed for, slew more in dying than in living: for he said, 'O Lord God, remember me, and restore to me now my former strength, O my God, that I may avenge myself on my enemies; and for the loss of my two eyes let me receive one vengeance.'
Jephthah had faith in fighting against the sons of Ammon and in offering up his daughter, though in this he acted foolishly, in that he thought to appease Almighty God by shedding human blood; for he vowed that, if the Lord should give him victory over the sons of Ammon, he would offer to Him whoever should first meet him from his house—which he indeed did, for his daughter met him, whom, after her virginity had been bewailed, he slew. But it may be asked for what cause the custom grew up that every year the virgins of the Hebrews should mourn the daughter of Jephthah: and this is known to be the reason, that while they see her bewailed by their daughters, no one may dare to rush into such folly and so great a crime as to shed human blood to God.
David, full of faith, went forth against the Philistine and slew him; and because he believed God, he merited many promises concerning Christ. Samuel, prophet and priest, had perfect faith, because he anointed David as king at the word of the Lord, and in slaying King Agag. They wrought righteousness. Because what they believed they fulfilled in deed, adorning that same faith. They obtained the promises. Concerning Christ, or concerning the heavenly homeland. For Abraham received a promise concerning Christ, the Lord saying to him, 'In your seed'—that is, in Christ—'shall all nations be blessed.' David too received very many, to whom the Lord said: