Commentaria in Josue
9. THIS DAY HAVE I TAKEN AWAY THE REPROACH OF EGYPT FROM YOU, (because today, by circumcision, I have transferred you from the life and manners of the uncircumcised into the nation, the Synagogue, my holy law and religion. Therefore) THE NAME OF THAT PLACE WAS CALLED GALGAL,—that is, removal, namely of the foreskin, and consequently of the reproach of the Egyptians: for galal signifies to roll, roll away, remove, take away; from galal by doubling the first syllable comes gilgal and galgala. Hence this place was called Gilgal, Galgal, Galgala, by St. Jerome Golgal, which was once a famous city on the direct road from the Jordan to Jericho: distant from the Jordan fifty stadia, from Jericho ten: at Galgal Saul was anointed by Samuel as first king, 1 Kings x, 1. There the twelve stones were fixed, witnesses of the crossing of the Hebrews through the divided Jordan. At Galgal also dwelt Eliseus the prophet, 4 Kings iv, 38. Again St. Jerome, Bede and Lyranus translate Galgala as wheel, revolution, circulation. Hence from galal and gilgal is formed gulgolet, and in Chaldee gulgolta, and thence Golgotha, that is Calvary or skull, so called from rolling together, because it is round. Hence the mount of Calvary, so called from the skulls of criminals beheaded there, on which Christ was crucified. Wherefore Josephus, interpreting Galgala as liberty, wished to consult the modesty of the Hebrews in his manner, and to please, if not flatter, the ears of Vespasian and the Romans.
Tropologically Origen, homily 5: “If,” he says, “after the remission (as it were circumcision) of sins thou sin no more, truly the reproach of Egypt is taken away from thee. But if thou sin again, again the old reproaches are rolled back upon thee, and the more so, as it is a much greater crime to trample on the Son of God and to count the blood of the testament unclean, than to neglect the law of Moses.” For the Egyptians in the time of Josue were uncircumcised; Gentiles, addicted to idols and vices. Afterwards, however, they accepted circumcision, as Jeremias teaches, chapter ix, last verse. See what was said there. Some think they accepted it in the time of Solomon, when he married the daughter of Pharao king of Egypt, 3 Kings iii.
Again, our Alvarez, tract On Mortification, takes reproach actively, as that with which the Egyptians reproached the Hebrews leaving Egypt, that they were going to hunger and death, as if to say: Surely you have seen that the Jordan being dried you crossed into this region, and occupied the land promised to you, and in it as in a land peaceful to you were circumcised, and for three days without any fear rested until you were healed: I did not lead you out of Egypt to death, as your oppressors said, but that you might live free and secure. So also from us who cultivate spiritual circumcision, that is mortification, the reproach of the world will be taken away; because worldly men will see that by self-denial we have in no way lost life, but have exchanged a carnal life, hateful to God, for a spiritual life pleasing to God.
10. AND KEPT THE PHASE ON THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF THE MONTH (the first, Nisan) AT EVENING,—for the reasons given in verse 6: this was the third Pasch of the Hebrews. For they celebrated the first the day before they left Egypt, Exodus xii; the second the following year, after the law was received and the tabernacle erected at Sinai, Numbers ix, 2; the third here. Allegorically Josue, here celebrating the new and first Pasch in the holy land, represents Jesus Christ instituting the new Pasch, that is the Eucharist, at the Last Supper.
11. AND THEY ATE OF THE CORN OF THE LAND ON THE NEXT DAY, UNLEAVENED BREAD, AND FRIED MEAL OF THE SAME YEAR,—“of the fruits,” either old and of the past year, as Rabbi David and Vatablus will, to which the Hebrew word abur alludes, from the root abar, that is to pass over, to pass by; or rather new ones of the present year, as the Septuagint express. Moreover the Hebrew abur, and the Chaldee ebbura, signify any fruits whether of the present year or of the past. So Masius.
ON THE NEXT DAY.—In Hebrew, on the morrow of the Pasch, that is the day after the first day of the unleavened bread, namely the second day of the unleavened bread, or the sixteenth day of the month Nisan; for on that day they were first to offer to God a sheaf of ears, before they ate of the fruits of the present year, according to the law of Leviticus xxiii, 14.
But Rabbi David takes by the morrow of the Pasch the first day of the unleavened bread, or the fifteenth of Nisan. For on the day before it, namely the fourteenth at evening, they ate the Paschal lamb. He himself, as I said, takes the fruits to be of the old, that is of the past year, which it was lawful to eat before the offering of the sheaf of ears on the second day of the unleavened bread; for this was offered as the firstfruits of the new crops of the present year, not of the past.
FRIED MEAL.—In Hebrew kali, that is parched grain. See Leviticus ii, 14.
12. AND THE MANNA CEASED,—namely to rain or snow from heaven. For God, who had bestowed manna on the Hebrews on account of lack of food, withdrew the manna when a supply of other food was offered: just as birds bring food to their young in the nest while they are tender, but when growing stronger they can suffice for themselves, they leave them to provide their own food. For God, as he is not wanting in necessaries, so does not abound in superfluities.
An illustrious example is in Theodoret in the Philotheus, chapter x. Theodosius the Abbot, he says, praying like Moses, and striking the rock with a rod, drew from it a fountain of perennial water, to irrigate the monastery built by him in a dry place. This fountain dried up when a bath was afterwards built in the monastery, but when it was destroyed began to flow again, as if succouring necessity, and when that ceased.
Tropologically, those who seek and taste the pleasures of earth are deprived of the heavenly: for God gives the spirit of prayer and contemplation to those who remain in the desert, those namely who leave the pleasures of the flesh and the ambition of the world; and hides it from those who return in heart to the world. These gradually from spiritual become carnal, and cease to taste the sweetness of this manna; but the others daily become more pure and spiritual: for when the spirit is tasted all flesh is insipid. And conversely, to whom the flesh is savoury, to him the spirit is insipid. Hear St. Bernard, epistle 3 to Fulco: “As fire and water cannot be together, so spiritual and carnal delights do not suffer one another in the same place. Where Christ has perceived the surfeit of one belching among his cups, he deigns not to offer to the mind his wines sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Where there is a curious diversity of foods, where the varied colour of rich furniture feeds eyes and belly alike, the heavenly bread leaves the mind fasting.” The same, sermon 6 On the Ascension: “He errs altogether,” he says, “who thinks that heavenly sweetness can be mingled with this ash, that divine balsam with this poison, those charisms of the spirit with allurements of this sort.” Hear St. Jerome also, epistle 4 to Julian: “It is difficult, nay impossible, for anyone to enjoy both present and future goods, to be first here in the belly and there in the mind, to be first in both ages, to appear glorious in heaven and on earth.”
Anagogically Rupert here, chapter xvi: The earthly manna, he says, that is the Eucharist, will fail when Christ shall give us the solid fruits of heaven. For there he will feed us with himself as with the bread of life, and as with divine wine will inebriate us, according to the saying: “They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure,” Psalm xxxv, 9.
Hear Rupert: “We are fed in mind by reading or hearing the word of God, we are fed also with the mouth by eating at the table of the Lord the bread of eternal life, and drinking the chalice of everlasting salvation. But when we shall have come to that land of the living, to that blessed Sion, where the God of gods will be seen in his own form, we shall need neither the word of doctrine, nor these species of bread and wine, but by seeing we shall eat the bread of Angels in its own substance. Therefore after they ate the fruits of the land, the manna ceased, because namely when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.”
Allegorically the manna ceased, that is, the goods of the old law failed, when Jesus substituted for them the Eucharist, who is truly the bread of Angels and the manna of the heavens. So Nyssen in the Life of Moses.
13. AND WHEN JOSUE WAS IN THE FIELD OF THE CITY OF JERICHO,—In Hebrew, when he was in Jericho, that is, in the district or field of the city of Jericho, unless you prefer that the preposition “in” be taken for “near” by the enallage usual with the Hebrews. Similar is chapter x, verse 19.
Whether, therefore, Josue moved camp from Galgal into the field of Jericho, or the camp remaining at Galgal (for Galgal was only ten stadia from Jericho, that is scarcely half a league), Josue, the ever-watchful leader, anxious about first destroying Jericho which lay in the way, and turning in mind the plans and manner of its destruction, and praying to God, went out into the field of Jericho, or even went to scout a place suitable for assaulting the city: there this vision was presented to him, to add courage to him for accomplishing the matter: so while we plan great and holy things in mind, God insinuates himself into our counsels, and shows the strength and means of carrying them out.