The typological [figurative] genealogy of Joshua has no small difficulties, as we have seen; the true genealogy of Joshua has [them] too. Concerning which, besides the ancients, [there are] many of our own among the more recent [writers] — Maldonatus, Barradius, Toletus (on Luke), Alphonsus Salmerón.
(col. 16)
Now Joshua is a type, from the tribe in which there was also a kingdom — but much more unhappily than that [kingdom] which [was] in the tribe of Judah, from which [came] our Lord. And the tribe was Ephraim, which — although otherwise here the younger in age — was divinely preferred before Manasseh himself (Genesis 49 [48]); Judah too, though later as to birth, was set before Reuben, and adorned with the highest wealth and prerogatives of the birthright. The Ephraimites [were] harassed by the Gethites, and many of their brothers slaughtered by them. What [of] the Gethite Goliath (1 Kings [1 Samuel] 17)? Did he not harass the Israelites with the greatest injury and infamy? Was not the terror of these [Gethites] the greatest? But, so many being slain and routed by one of the ancestors of the true Joshua — namely, David — that one [Goliath] was at last laid low and thrust out of life. Sara, a most noble woman of the Ephraimites, built three cities; and one of the women of the Jews built, in her womb, the head and metropolis of all cities — the humanity of our most holy Lord. What [of] Beria? He was born in the bereavement, grief, and squalor of the Ephraimite house, yet in such a way that he brought consolation and the remedy of a most numerous posterity. Amid the huge evils of the whole world, amid the most bitter slaughters of innumerable souls, in the utmost despair of all things, [there] arose from the Tribe of Judah — Mathanes, of Jacob, and of Joseph; and she too was born, who (as I said [on] Exodus 1) may seem to have received her name from bitterness: Mary — so that from these might arise the expectation of the Gentiles and the salvation of the whole world. But Joshua’s father is always Nun — namely, the son of another man, and himself much increased in fame and celebrity through his son. But the true Father of our Joshua [Christ] is not the son of any man, but Father only — from whom [is] all paternity in heaven and on earth (Ephesians 3). Yet He Himself is, in a certain way (as I said above), “sonned” through this His Son, since through Him He has been increased with an innumerable offspring of sons and of heirs of the heavenly inheritance — when the Son gave “power to men to become sons of God” (John 1). But Joseph [Nun] is, in both ways, a true “Nun,” since he is both the son of another and, on account of that son, is praised by all, and is borne about with great praise in the memory and mouth of all — [being] made, in a certain way, the father of all the sons of God, and himself a most blessed father.