Commentaria in Numeros
Hear St. Basil, in the homily On Reading the Books of the Gentiles: “A certain man in the forum assailed Pericles with all manner of abuse; he, seeming not to care, endured it the whole day; then in the evening, as the man was departing, he accompanied him with a light. Again, a certain man swore to Euclid that he would kill him; but Euclid swore in return that he would bear it patiently and be reconciled to him, however hostile. A certain man struck Socrates on the face with violent force; Socrates, not at all moved, did nothing else but write on his own forehead: Such a one did it, as the name of the author is inscribed on a statue.” Aristotle, as Aelian testifies, advised Alexander the Great, who was naturally irascible, to esteem himself superior to all and so despise insults. These things the Gentiles did; what will Christians do? But far higher than all these, purer, braver and more constant was the meekness of Moses, who for 40 years bore with so rebellious a people. Some examples of the faithful I shall presently add.
Moses wrote this praise of himself as the pen of the Holy Spirit, who impelled him to write it: as St. John wrote of himself that he was the disciple whom Jesus loved. Secondly, and more truly, these words seem to have been added after Moses, and inserted, by some other hagiographer, who arranged these his diaries, as I said in the preface to Genesis.
Morally, Origen says: There is a certain family of the meek, over which Moses presides; a certain family of the patient, over which Job presides; a certain family of the continent, over which Daniel presides; and each one at death will be gathered to his own family, the meek with the meek, the virgin with virgins, the wrathful with the wrathful, the luxurious with the luxurious, according to what is said in Leviticus xxv, 10: “Every man shall return to his ancient family, because it is the jubilee.” Again, meekness is the proper virtue of the Saints: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.” Hear the Wise Man, Ecclesiasticus iii, 19: “My son, do thy works in meekness, and thou shalt be beloved above the glory of men.” Hear Christ: “Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest.”
That holy old man in Cassian, vexed by the unbelieving Alexandrians, and asked what marvellous things above nature Christ had done, said: “This, that I, provoked by your abuse and injuries, am not moved to indignation.”
Another, in the Lives of the Fathers, prescribed to his disciple this discipline and way to perfection: first, that for a whole three years he should bear the burdens of others; second, that for another three years he should pay a price to those by whom he should be assailed with insults and abuse: the disciple did as commanded; then the old man said: Come now, that I may try what progress you have made. Led to Athens, when he was assailed with insults at the gate, the young man began to laugh. The other, astonished, said: What is this, that you laugh when mocked and hooted at by me? Should I not laugh? said the disciple; for three years I paid a price to those who loaded me with curses; to-day I suffer the same from you for nothing. The Athenian, amazed, said: Enter the city, you are worthy of the company of the wise.
A third said: Teach me, Father, one thing that I may keep, that I may gain heaven. “Canst thou,” said the old man, “bear insults?” as though the head of salvation consisted in the meek endurance of contempt and disdain; and rightly, since Christ says: “In your patience you shall possess your souls.”
Fourth, St. Amma, in a monastery of virgins, as one foolish, was exposed to the laughter and mockery of all; and when she bore it meekly and cheerfully, she was declared by St. Pitirion, by God’s inspiration, to be the wisest and likewise the holiest of the whole monastery, as Palladius relates in the Lausiac History, chap. xli.
Fifth, Abbot Pimenius in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chap. xxxvii: “To bear an injury, and not to return the like, is to lay down one’s life for one’s neighbour.”
Sixth, Abbot Macarius in the same place: “It is the monk’s fault if, when injured by the brethren, he does not first meet them in charity with a purified heart. For as the Sunamite received Eliseus because she had no cause of quarrel with anyone, so the quiet soul receives the Holy Spirit if it keeps no strife or offence with anyone.”
Seventh, Abbot John in the same place, book VI, chap. iv, no. 12: “The gate of heaven,” he says, “is the endurance of injuries, and our fathers entered by it rejoicing through many injuries.”
Eighth, another old man, asked by a disciple: “Give me, Father, one thing to keep, and be saved by it.” he answered: “If thou canst be injured and loaded with abuse, and bear it and be silent: this is a great thing, and above the other commandments.” In the same place, book III, no. 83.
Ninth, Abbot Antony tried a brother who was praised by others, and found that he could not bear an injury, and said to him: “Thou art like a building which, although it has an adorned entrance, is nevertheless stormed by robbers through the back doors.” In the same place, no. 88.
Tenth, a monk, after being abused and struck on the cheek by a philosopher, presently offered him the other cheek; then the philosopher adored him, saying: “Truly a monk.”
Eleventh, Ammonius heard it said to him: “That thou mayest think no injury done to thee, but become insensible to everything, like a stone.” In the same place, book VII, chap. ix.
Verse 6. “If there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream.” “In a vision,” that is, in an imaginary or intellectual representation and rapture. God tacitly intimates here that Mary and Aaron were Prophets, and that they received some visions and revelations from God, but not so many, nor of such a kind, as Moses received daily.
Eugubinus notes that five species of prophecy are distinguished here: the first is that which is made in the Hebrew bemareh, that is, in vision; the second, by dream; the third, in enigma, when one thing is seen and another is signified, as when Jeremias, chap. i, saw a boiling pot, and when Ezechiel, chap. iii, 8, and St. John, Apocalypse x, 10, ate the book; the fourth, by figures, when we behold images of things, when we see armies, choirs, processions, and certain most splendid sights: these four take place by an abstraction from the senses, by which it comes about that we neither hear nor touch, but the whole mind is given to these visions; the fifth is when, the sense and state of the body being unchanged, a divine address is made to man: in which manner God speaks to the angels, and spoke to Moses and a few others.
In this, therefore, Moses is said to have surpassed the Prophets of his time, that openly and mouth to mouth, present with one present, he conversed freely and familiarly with God, and, as appears from this place, saw God also in a bodily form (that is, an angel representing God), especially after the other forms and figures which he presented to the Prophets.
The Jews, in their Creed of faith, which Genebrard published at the end of the Chronology, last edition, assert that Moses excelled the other Prophets in these four things: first, that God spoke to Moses by himself, but to the others by an angel; second, that he spoke to the others by night, to Moses by day; third, that all the others, hearing the angel, were shaken with horror and trembling, so that they were almost deprived of life, as happened to Daniel, chap. x, verse 8, while Moses suffered nothing of the kind; fourth, that Moses prophesied whenever he wished, the others only at the time when they were inspired by the Spirit of God: whence they often ceased for many months and years, because they were not taught by the Spirit. But these things are partly false, partly futile and Jewish: yet some true things are, as is their custom, mixed with them.
From what has been said it is plain that no argument can be drawn from this place for the opinion of those who hold that Moses here saw the divine essence. For nothing new is said here of Moses, nor is any new vision of his here brought forward, but his usual converse with God (which is described in Exodus xxxiv, 6, and often elsewhere) is here mentioned again; see what I said on Exodus xxxiii and xxxiv.