Josué 1
Origen of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Josué 1:1-2
The book does not so much indicate to us the deeds of the son of Nun as it represents for us the mysteries of Jesus my Lord. For he himself is the one who assumes power after the death of Moses; he is the one who leads the army and fights against Amalek. What was foreshadowed there on the mountain by lifted hands was the time when "he attaches [them] to his cross, triumphing over the principalities and powers on it."2Thus Moses is dead; for the law has ceased, because "the law and the prophets extend only up to John." Do you want me to bring forth proofs from the Scriptures that the law is called Moses? Hear what he says in the Gospel: "They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them." Here, without any doubt, he calls the law Moses. Therefore "Moses, the servant of God, is dead"; for the law is dead, and the legal precepts are now invalid. — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.3
Josué 1:3
But let us consider what is promised to us in these words.There are certain diabolical races of powerful adversaries against whom we wage a battle and against whom we struggle in this life. However many of these races we set under our feet, however many we conquer in battle, we shall seize their territories, their provinces and their realms, as Jesus our Lord apportions them to us. For they were once angels; they were glorified in the kingdom of God. Or do we not read that Isaiah says of one of them, "How did Lucifer fall, the one who rose in the morning?" That Lucifer, without a doubt, had a throne in the heavens until he became a fugitive angel. If I should conquer him and set him under my feet, if I should deserve that the Lord Jesus "crush Satan under my feet," I shall be ready as a consequence to receive the place of Lucifer in heaven. Thus we understand the promise to us from our Lord Jesus that "every place we set the soles of our feet" will be ours. But let us not imagine that we may be able to enter into this inheritance yawning and drowsy, through ease and negligence. The wrath of his own race possesses the angel [Lucifer]. Unless you vanquish this [wrath] in yourself and cut off all violent impulses of anger and rage, you will not be able to claim as an inheritance the place that angel once had. For you will not expel him from the land of promise by your slothfulness. In like manner, some angels incite pride, jealousy, greed and lust and instigate these evil things. Unless you gain the mastery over their vices in yourself and exterminate them from your land—which now through the grace of baptism has been sanctified—you will not receive the fullness of the promised inheritance. — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 1.6
Josué 1:3
What are the places we ascend with the soles of our feet? The letter of the law is placed on the ground and lies down below. On no occasion, then, does the one who follows the letter of the law ascend. But if you are able to rise from the letter to the spirit and also ascend from history to a higher understanding, then truly you have ascended the lofty and high place that you will receive from God as your inheritance. For if in these things that are written you perceive types and observe figures of heavenly things, and with reflection and intuitive feeling "you seek those things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God," then you will receive this place as your inheritance. For our Lord and Savior says, "Where I am, there also will be my servant."19If therefore you have arrived all the way to Christ, who sits at the right hand of God, by your faith, life, purity and virtue, and by those "soles of your feet" that Jesus washed, you have approached that place. God will give it to you. Then not only "will you be made heirs of God" but also "co-heirs with Christ." — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 2.3
Josué 1:8
I fear, however, lest by too much negligence and dullness of heart the divine volumes be not only veiled to us but also sealed, so that "if a book should be put into the hands of a man who cannot read, he would say, 'I cannot read'; if it should be put into the hands of a man who can read, he would say, 'It is sealed.' " Whence it is shown that we must not only employ zeal to learn the sacred literature, but we must also pray to the Lord and entreat "day and night" that the lamb "of the tribe of Judah" may come and himself taking "the sealed book" may deign to open it. — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 12.4
Josué 1:12
Let us look closely at what sign those two and a half tribes hold who receive the land of inheritance through Moses, and what sign the remainder of the nine and a half tribes hold who receive the promise of the holy land through Jesus [Joshua].First of all, I think it is impossible for it to have happened accidentally that those who receive a portion through Moses were all firstborn. For Reuben was the firstborn of Leah; Gad, the firstborn of Zilpah; and Manasseh, the firstborn of Asenath the Egyptian whom Joseph married, the daughter of Potiphar the priest of Heliopolis. For myself, I can never be persuaded that it was by chance that the firstborn were the only ones whose inheritance was determined through Moses. Rather, I believe that in these things the design of two groups of people was already foreshadowed at that time: One would seem to be the firstborn according to the order of nature; the other, the people who would receive the blessing of their inheritance through faith and grace. — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.1
Josué 1:14
Rest is not given first to those who through Moses receive the inheritance—that is, those who pleased God through the law—unless they assist their brothers in the battles. Only women and infants receive rest through Moses. The others do not rest but go out to the aid of their brothers.…Thus those who are strong men, their loins armed and girded with truth, go forth to our aid and fight with us. But "infants and women" do not go out to our battle. This is not an astonishing thing, for an infant is said to be one who does not speak. How is a person able to assist me who has spoken nothing, the one of whom I discover nothing that I may read, the one who does not instruct me by a word? But the apostle says that a woman is a "weak vessel." Suitably, therefore, a weak vessel does not come to the conflict lest it be broken in pieces and destroyed. For concerning our Lord Jesus, it is also said in the Gospels that "he did not break a bruised reed." — HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 3.1