Commentaria in Josue
4. AND LET THERE BE BETWEEN YOU AND THE ARK THE SPACE OF TWO THOUSAND CUBITS,—or three thousand feet, which make five stadia, that is half an Italian mile, and a hundred and twenty-five paces besides, which is a Sabbath day’s journey, says Josephus, book xx Antiquities, chapter vi; for a stadium is the eighth part of a mile: and a mile is a thousand paces; wherefore five stadia contain six hundred and twenty-five paces. WHY?—It is asked, why did God command so great an interval between the ark and the people? I answer first, for the sake of religion and reverence; for the ark, representing God, presented, indeed as it were bore, him who opened the way to the promised land for the Hebrews and went before them as leader. Secondly, that all might more conveniently behold from afar the ark, and the miracle of the Jordan divided by it, glorifying God with admiration, exultation and thanksgiving, how namely the waters fled from the priestly feet, the bed dried up, and a road was laid through the midst of the waves, says Serarius; and, as St. Augustine says, Question iii, lest if so great a column of the people followed close behind the ark, all would not see it going before, nor know by what way they followed. Both these reasons Josue assigns when he straightway adds: “That you may see it from afar, and know which way you go, etc. And take care you come not near the ark.” From this precept and act it is left to be understood that the pillar of cloud, which was wont to give the signal for moving camp, and by its motion to go before and show the way, had already vanished and no longer appeared: otherwise it, in its manner, would have gone before the camp, not the ark. So St. Augustine, Abulensis, Hugh, Lyranus, Cajetan, Arias, Denis and others. Mystically, under the leadership of Josue, that is of Jesus Christ, there is no cloud, no shadowy darkness, but openly the truth, which the ark of the covenant, that is the new law, brought. Masius adds other reasons, namely that the bed of the Jordan was two thousand cubits wide, so that the ark would be leaving this bed on the farther bank when the Jews were entering it on the near bank. But the geographers of the holy land assert that the Jordan is only about thirty cubits in breadth.
Again, that it might be signified that two thousand years would pass from this crossing of the Jordan to the birth of Christ; but they err in their reckoning: for only 1456 years passed, as is clear from the Chronographic Table which I prefixed to Genesis.
benehem, that is, between them, namely the arks, as the Hebrews know. Mystically the ark signifies the humanity of Christ, from whose excellence and perfection we sinners are very far distant.
5. AND JOSUE SAID TO THE PEOPLE: BE YE SANCTIFIED,—by washing of garments and abstinence from the marriage bed, as if to say: By washing your garments and abstaining from your wives cleanse yourselves, and prepare yourselves religiously for the so wonderful and divine crossing of the Jordan. For this sanctification, or bodily purification, belonged to that rude age and ancient people, and was a type of the spiritual purification by contrition and penance to be brought in by Christ. Hence the same purification was commanded to the Hebrews when God was about to give them the law on Sinai, Exodus chapter xix, 10, and when he was about to overthrow the walls of Jericho, here chapter vii, verse 13, and when David was to be chosen king by Samuel, 1 Kings xvi, 5, and elsewhere. Inwardly, however, “be ye sanctified,” by rousing firm faith and hope of obtaining from God what he himself had promised. Hence he adds: “For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
Learn here that continence and chastity are called sanctity, because they purify soul and body. Hence the Apostle says, 1 Thessalonians iv, 3–4: “That you abstain from fornication, that every one of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification”; and 1 Corinthians vii he says of the virgin: “That she may be holy both in body and spirit.”
FOR TOMORROW THE LORD WILL DO WONDERS AMONG YOU,—namely he will divide the Jordan, dry it up, stay it, raise it, that he may lead you across. Josue speaks, as Moses did, by instinct and command of God, not as prince but as Prophet, and as such, authorized by God, he commands the priests in sacred matters in the next verse, namely to carry the ark with such a rite, which as a mere prince he could not lawfully have done. For, as St. Ambrose teaches, epistle 13 to his sister Marcellina, to the Emperor the care of walls, to the Bishop the care of sacred things has been committed by God. But hear him boldly thundering at the Emperor Valentinian, who was asking a church for the Arians: “Do not burden yourself, Emperor, to think that you have any imperial right over those things that are divine. Do not exalt yourself, but if you wish to reign longer, be subject to God. It is written: The things that are God’s to God, the things that are Cæsar’s to Cæsar. To the Emperor belong the palaces, to the priest the Church. To you the right over public buildings is committed, not over sacred ones.”
8. WHEN YOU SHALL HAVE ENTERED INTO PART OF THE WATER OF THE JORDAN, STAND IN IT.—For “part” the Hebrew has katseh, that is end, extremity, by which Masius understands the farther bank, as if to say: When you have crossed the Jordan, stand at its extremity by the opposite bank, until the people pass over, and the elders take stones from the Jordan and set them as a memorial of this crossing. Hence Pagninus also renders: when you come to the end of the water of Jarden, you shall stand in Jarden.
But Serarius takes the nearer bank (for this katseh signifies, verse 12), as if to say: As soon as you reach the waters of the Jordan, stop there, until the Jordan being divided the water gradually flows off and leaves the bed dry, through which you may pass to the farther bank, as is said in verse 13.
I walk midway between the two, and with Serarius take the nearer bank, but so that the priests are bidden to stand not on it but in the middle of the Jordan.
The Hebrew katseh properly signifies a section and a part cut off from the whole; for this is now the end and extremity of the whole, and for this reason our Vulgate and the Septuagint here always render katseh by part: for the root katsah signifies to cut off, to sever, to truncate, to cut off the extremes. The sense, therefore, is, as if to say: When you come to the Katseh, that is, to the section of the Jordan, where namely the severed Jordan is now ended, and on each side is bounded by its severed extremity, enter this section of it, or part now severed, and stand in the middle of it, both that the people may cross confidently, seeing the ark and the priests standing fearless in the middle of the Jordan now split and dried, and not fear the return and rolling back of the waters into their bed after the ark’s passage; and that there twelve stones may be set up, and twelve others taken up to be set up at Galgal, as a perpetual monument of this miraculous crossing. Hence the Hebrew is word for word: When you come to the section of the Jordan, in the Jordan (the middle) you shall stand. Our Serarius gives the reason: It was fitting, he says, that the ark should stand in that place where the danger was greatest, that the whole people might pass over the more confidently. For if the ark had stood on either bank, the more timid might have feared that, the ark being safe, they themselves in the middle of the bed would be overwhelmed by the waters returning to their place.
This, then, was the order of the event: The priests with the ark went before the line of the people for two thousand cubits toward the Jordan; and when they had come to it, and touched the waters with their feet, immediately the waters, as if venerating the ark, or rather God dwelling in the ark, fled; for the Angel at once cut them asunder, and dried the bed: through it the priests proceeded to the middle of the bed now dried, and there stood, until the whole people passed over, and the stones aforesaid were taken up and set up for a monument: for the people crossed through the bed safely and securely, not doubting that they would be free from the waters when they saw the priests and the ark free from them.
STAND IN IT,—fearless, because you have God present in the ark as your protector, that by this courage you may encourage the rest of the people and strengthen them for the crossing: stand, therefore, because God stands with you.
10. IN THIS YOU SHALL KNOW THAT THE LORD THE LIVING GOD (in Hebrew El chai, that is, the strong living God) IS IN THE MIDST OF YOU.—Who namely, living, active, vigorous, quickening, enlivening and strengthening all things, by his divine skill, providence and omnipotence will carry you across the Jordan, and lead you over unhurt, safe and sound.