Commentaria in Josue
Fourthly, I say, therefore, with St. Augustine here, Question vi, and Abulensis, that it is not here commanded that the same man be circumcised a second time, but the same people, which had first been circumcised in their parents in Egypt, and that at the nod and exhortation of Moses, as Tertullian thinks, book Against the Jews, Rabbi Levi and others. The same people, however, is commanded to be circumcised a second time in their sons, who had remained uncircumcised for the forty years in which they wandered in the desert; these, therefore, resumed in Chanaan the circumcision interrupted for so many years. That this is the genuine sense is clear from what follows, especially verses 3, 5 and 6. For this was the same people which, led out of Egypt by Moses, was brought into the promised land by Josue; which was first circumcised in Egypt in the time of Moses, indeed all who were not yet circumcised were circumcised a little before the exodus from Egypt. For at the exodus they celebrated the Phase and ate the Paschal lamb; and no one could eat this unless circumcised, Exodus chapter xii. Then the circumcision of the people ceased on account of the wandering in the desert for forty years: but when this wandering was ended, and Israel had now entered Chanaan, all who until then were uncircumcised were circumcised by Josue, and therefore this is called the second circumcision of the people. So Masius, Lyranus, Pereira, Serarius and others.
Tropologically our James Alvarez, tract On Mortification: The first circumcision, he says, made in Egypt, designates external mortification; but the second, effected at the crossing of the Jordan, signifies internal mortification, which fittingly is done in the hill of the foreskins: because he who dares to mortify the interior has already ascended a hill, that is, some degree of perfection. Of these the first, the exterior, if taken alone with no regard to the second, is of no great moment, since it leaves the mind uncircumcised and subject to vices.
3. HE CIRCUMCISED THEM IN THE HILL OF THE FORESKINS,—that is, in the place and hill so called from the circumcision of the foreskins done there by Josue, as the same place for the same reason was called Galgal, verse 9.
5. ALL THESE WERE CIRCUMCISED.—Hence probably conversely some gather that of the others, who were not circumcised and had not rebelled against God by murmuring, none died in the desert; and the Psalmist hints this, Psalm cv, 31, and Moses, Deuteronomy xxix, 5.
6. BUT THE PEOPLE THAT WERE BORN IN THE DESERT, DURING THE FORTY YEARS OF THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE VAST WILDERNESS, WERE UNCIRCUMCISED.—It is asked, for what reason was circumcision omitted in the desert, when it had been commanded by God, Genesis xvii?
First, the Talmudists, tract On the Levitical Law, and Rabbi David here, assert that for the forty years in which the Hebrews wandered in the desert the North wind, the wind hostile to clouds, did not blow, and that this was so lest it should scatter the pillar of cloud, the guide of the journey. And that for this reason the Hebrews abstained from circumcision, because they think that wind is to be observed by them, as healing wounds. But these are the inventions of those fabulists, indeed mere trifles and nursery-songs.
Secondly, Theodoret here, Question ii; St. Jerome, book i on the Epistle to the Galatians; Damascene, book iv On the Faith, chapter xxv, and others give this reason, that in the desert the people of Israel was of itself and by the nature of the place sufficiently distinct and separate from the other nations, and therefore there was no need for it to be circumcised. For circumcision was instituted for this reason, that by it Israel might be distinguished from others. This reason is fitting, but insufficient. For in Judea also the Jews were divided from the other nations, and yet they had to be circumcised for other, weightier ends, namely on account of God’s precept, and that thereby they might give their name to the Synagogue, and become sons of Abraham and the people of God, as is now done by baptism.
Thirdly, St. Augustine here, Question vi, thinks that circumcision was omitted through the disobedience of the people: that in omitting it they sinned; but Moses and Scripture would have rebuked this sin in the people, which yet they nowhere do.
Fourthly, Gabriel Vasquez in part iii, disputation clxiv, chapter ii, suspects that these sons remained uncircumcised in the desert on account of the fault and murmuring of their parents; for on this account God punished the parents themselves with death, and their sons with uncircumcision. Masius and Pereira on Genesis chapter xvii suspect the same. But Scripture hints nothing of the sort, nay it hints the contrary, namely that God, the rebellious fathers being rejected, substituted their sons, and made with them a new covenant (whose symbol was circumcision), and brought them into the promised land, from which he had excluded their parents for their rebellion.
Fifthly, I say, therefore: The genuine cause of the omission of circumcision in the desert was that the Hebrews were excused from it by their continual wandering, because in it they had no stable and certain rest: but as often as the pillar of cloud, the guide of the way, moved, so often the Hebrews had to follow it and break camp.
But this they could not have done if on that day, or a little before, they had been circumcised. For circumcision inflicted a grave wound on the body and sharp pain, so that one could neither fight nor walk, as is clear in the Sichemites, who were therefore slain by Simeon and Levi to avenge the rape of Dina, Genesis xxxiv. Wherefore, on account of the frequent and uncertain moving of the camp, the Hebrews were excused from circumcision, lest through it they should incur danger of life. So Abulensis, Lyranus, Masius, Serarius and St. Thomas, part iii, Question lxx, article 4.
But in Chanaan, where their seat was to be fixed, they were circumcised, soon at the very entrance, namely at Galgal; and this first, because circumcision was the condition of the covenant entered into between God and Abraham and his posterity about giving them Chanaan: and the beginning and as it were the gate of the law was circumcision, as baptism is of Christianity: it was fitting, therefore, that they should take possession of the promised land by circumcision; secondly, because a little after, namely on the 14th day of the month at evening, by God’s command the Paschal lamb was to be eaten, verse 10; and it was not lawful for anyone to eat this unless first circumcised, and so admitted into the family of Abraham and the Synagogue of Israel; thirdly, because at the very threshold of Chanaan the Hebrew commonwealth, both civil and sacred, was at once to be established, and consequently all the laws of God, even the ceremonial (among which circumcision was first) and judicial, were to be observed by the Hebrews. Hence they at once celebrated the Phase, that they might holily and religiously begin the possession of the promised land. On the tenth day, therefore, of the first month Nisan they crossed the Jordan and pitched camp at Galgal, and on the following eleventh day, circumcised there, on account of the stroke of the wound they rested three days, and at last on the fourth day, which was the 14th of Nisan, at evening, they celebrated the Pasch.
Morally, let the founders and governors of commonwealths learn here to begin their government from God, and his law and worship, as Josue begins here; for God, propitiated, will prosper it. Let every faithful man too learn to begin his duties and actions with God and from God, according to the saying: “Begin from God.”
Moreover the Septuagint, here and in Numbers xiv, 33, wrongly have for forty years of wandering in the desert two and forty years. For it is certain that they were precisely only forty.
Again, the Septuagint wrongly have a certain word, in which by a transposition of letters another is to be read, a name which, borrowed from the Hebrew midbar, that is desert, they inflected to the Greek idiom. The desert called madbaritis, therefore, is the desert of the Hebrews, or what the Hebrews called their midbar, that is desert.
Finally, this circumcision of the people could be accomplished in one day, namely the eleventh of Nisan, because any circumcised man could circumcise, even if he were not a priest or Levite, but a layman: and one could circumcise many in a day. Now those were then circumcised, and survivors, who had been circumcised when they left Egypt, not having yet reached the twentieth year: for those who had reached it all died in the desert on account of their murmuring. Again, those who were first circumcised here on the eleventh day could soon circumcise many others.
THAT HE WOULD NOT SHEW THEM THE LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY.—Correct with the Roman, Hebrew and Septuagint, that he would not shew. For God had sworn that he would slay all the murmurers in the desert, Numbers xiv.