I would not indeed have persuaded myself to think this was recorded in writing only because he was his minister. For very many ministers of very many others — and of Moses himself too — are passed over in silence. And then, this [is set down] as an epithet, not once only, but again and again (Exod. 24 and 33; Num. 11, v. 28; Deut. 1, v. 38; Joshua ch. 1) — and indeed even by God himself, saying to Moses, “Joshua the son of Nun, thy minister.” Several other causes therefore come to mind. The first: Joshua is written [as] “minister” of Moses in order that some great praise and commendation of him be signified — and that in two ways. First, because he was deemed worthy by that very man to live with, minister to, and attend such a man. Next, because he is handed down not [as] just any sort of minister of Moses, but the chief of all, [his] intimate, most dear, most familiar. For therefore [it] is said so pointedly, before all others, “his minister.” And [it] is very clearly noted also [in] Num. 11, v. 28, where he is said [to be] “chosen out of many” — or, that we may express the Hebrew more literally, “Moses’s minister, [chosen] before his young men, his chosen ones”; in the Septuagint, ὁ παρεστηκὼς Μωυσῆ, ὁ ἐκλεκτὸς, “he who stood by Moses, the chosen one,” or, as other Greek books have [it], ὁ ἐκλεκτὸς αὐτοῦ, “his chosen one.” But if Phaedo of Elis once attained great glory because he had been Plato’s slave; Pompylus, Theophrastus’s; Persaeus, Zeno’s; and others, others’ (in Gellius, book 2, ch. 18); and certain Rabbis of certain Rabbis (in Zacuth’s Yuhasin) — how much more glorious [is] our Joshua, who was of such and so great a man not the slave — in the sense, that is, of serving a servitude properly so called, by necessity of birth or of condition — but a minister, a free-born attendant, and an intimate? [It] seems a great [thing] to most [men] to be some prince’s minister, to be some king’s chamberlain, [his] hand, [his] feet. But far greater indeed [is it] to have ministered to Moses, who was the true king of his own self, God’s highest friend, high priest, and prophet. The other cause: that it might be understood whence Joshua turned out so great a man, and of such remarkable virtue.
For just as those who attend impious lords are nearly [always] steeped in their ways — and “they that touch pitch” are defiled by it [Ecclus. 13:1] — so those who serve the pious, the God-fearing, the industrious, and the wise learn thoroughly and imitate something of their piety, fear of the Lord, industry, and wisdom. How [could Joshua] daily behold so great a model of all the virtues
(col. 104)
…[in Moses himself], and profit nothing thereby? How [could he] have always before his eyes so great a light of religion, justice, wisdom, [and] courtesy set forth, and not have his life and all his manners illumined by it? He saw, then, the assiduity and ardor of Moses in prayer; he saw, in judging matters, [his] skill and equity; in dispatching business, [his] care and industry; in giving answers and handling men’s minds, [his] prudence and gentleness; in short, he beheld with his own eyes, perpetually, that man’s whole domestic and intimate way of life, at home and abroad, in acting, conversing, eating, and sleeping — and thus [beheld] what, [being] present, he then admired, and afterward, in [his] whole life, imitated. St. Ambrose (book 2 On Duties, ch. 20): “Young men,” he says, “show themselves to be imitators of those to whom they have clung; and that opinion grows strong, that from those [with] whom they took up the manner of living, they drew the desire of associating [with them] in likeness. Hence [came] so great a Jesus [Joshua] son of Nave — because Moses’s company not only trained him unto the science of the Law, but also sanctified [him] unto grace. In short, when in his [Moses’s] tabernacle the divine presence shone and the majesty of the Lord was seen, Jesus [Joshua] the son of Nave alone was in the tabernacle. Moses spoke with God; Jesus [Joshua] likewise was covered by the sacred cloud. The elders and the people stood below; Jesus [Joshua] went up with Moses to receive the Law. All the people was within the camp; Jesus [Joshua was] outside the camp, in the tabernacle of the testimony. When the pillar of cloud came down and spoke with Moses, he stood by as a faithful minister. Nor did the young man go out of the tabernacle, while the elders, stationed far off, trembled at the divine miracles. Everywhere, therefore, amid the wondrous works and the reverend secrets, he clung inseparably to holy Moses. Whence it came to pass that he who had been the companion of [his] converse became the successor of [his] power. Deservedly, then, did such a man turn out — [one] to withstand the courses of rivers, to say ‘Sun, stand,’ and the Sun stood, as though its beholder, [one] to defer the night of victory and prolong the day. Which indeed was denied to Moses — [that] he alone be chosen to lead the people into the land of promise. Great [was] the man in the miracles of faith, great in triumphs. The [former’s] works [were] more august, the [latter’s] more prosperous. Each, therefore, upheld by divine grace, advanced beyond the human condition. The one commanded the sea, the other the heaven. A beautiful pairing, then, of elder and youth. Some are for witness, some for solace, some for teaching, some for delight.”
The third [cause]: that we may learn what kind of ministers lords ought to choose — [those] on whom to impose the chief offices in their households, and whom to keep as [their] intimates and closer [companions] — namely those who are of a better nature, fear God more, [and] seem likely to make progress in virtue. And why should not that be granted to such [men] which Libanius and Seneca urged in certain epistles? Of whom the latter, in [Epistle] 47: “Live,” he says, “with thy slave mercifully. Admit [him] also to thy journey and conversation, and to thy counsel, and to thy table.” And this indeed all the more, the less these of whom I speak are slaves — [being] rather free and well-born [men], who of their own accord take up this familiar service. The fourth: that men may be eager to minister to their betters,…
(col. 105)
…[to minister] to their betters and their wiser [superiors], and [that those] to whom this befalls should heartily congratulate themselves. For this it was that made that Phaedo a Philosopher, and so great a one that Plato dedicated to his name that divine book of his “On the Immortality of the Soul.” For if, as Aristotle says (Politics book 1, ch. [5]), it is useful for beasts of burden to serve men, and profitable for barbarians and ruder [peoples] to obey those who excel in humanity and prudence, it will also be profitable for all — even for those born in the highest freedom — to render some attendance and service to those who surpass other mortals in wisdom, virtue, and experience of affairs. And therefore, among those [things] which greatly aid the pursuit of wisdom, is enumerated shimmush chakhamim [שימוש חכמים] — that is, “the attendance and service which is rendered to the wise” (Pirke Avoth, ch. 6; and in my earlier Rabbinus, ch. 28; and the examples of Elijah and Elisha adduced above, q. 2). The fifth, at last, cause is that in Joshua that true JESUS of ours might be expressed, who said he had come “not to be ministered to, but to minister” (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:[45]), and again (Luke 22, v. 27), “Which is greater, he that sitteth at table, or he that serveth? Is it not he that sitteth at table? But I am in the midst of you, as he that serveth.” And (ch. 12, v. 37), “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down, and passing, will minister to them.” And Joshua ministered to Moses — because our JESUS too was “a minister of the circumcision” (Romans 15, v. 8). First indeed, and according to the mind of the text itself, because he gave the greatest care to the salvation of the Jews, who were circumcised (just as St. Peter too was “a minister of the circumcision,” Gal. 2, v. 7). Next, because he strove for this one [thing]: that circumcision itself might attain its true end — that is, that we be circumcised truly in mind and spirit, not in flesh only and the material foreskin. “For the law brought nothing to perfection” (Heb. 7:19); and that bodily “circumcision is nothing, and the foreskin is nothing, but the observance of the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor. 7, v. 19). Likewise, “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision: but faith that worketh by charity” (Gal. 5, v. 6). To those who refused the ministry of our Jesus [it] was cried: “Stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in hearts and ears” (Acts 7, v. 51); but to us, who received and take up that ministry with most grateful minds: “You are circumcised with a circumcision not made by hand, in the stripping-off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of CHRIST” [Col. 2:11].