Question I. About the 12 men taking up the 12 stones from the Jordan: were they now chosen for the first time? and from which tribes?

Above (ch. [3], p. 1 q. 15) [it was] said [that] some interpreters, in that chapter, make of these [things] an anticipation, others [make], at the beginning of this [chapter], a recapitulation — [and] different [interpreters hold] different [things]. Now I say briefly [that] both the matter narrated before, in that chapter, was in its own order, and [that it] is narrated again here. For then, by the Lord’s command, the 12 were chosen — and indeed for this very work. For unless they had known for what business they were to be picked, whom could they [have] pick[ed] as suitable? For [otherwise] they would have named [men] weaker in strength, or in some other way unfit for bearing the burdens. Meanwhile, however, when, and whence, these stones were to be taken up, was not yet settled. Now this very [thing] is added; and because the command briefly narrated before is here repeated a little more fully — and therefore, as [if] they had already been chosen before, they are not here said to be “chosen,” but [to be] “called” by Joshua (v. 4). But [they] were chosen from the 12 tribes, taking them in such a way that the tribe of Levi held its own place among them, and one [tribe] of those [tribes] which would be called “Joseph” made up [both] Ephraim and Manasseh. For this benefit of the crossing of the Jordan had been given no less to the Levites than to the other Israelites; and therefore [it] was fitting [that] some monument of this thing too should be set up by that tribe. But since the 12 tribes were so numbered that Levi made up [one of] the number, those two [tribes] which were otherwise wont to be separated, [it] was the custom to join into one, lest there be 13 tribes — as [was] done in the onyx stones (Exod. 28); and Abulensis shows this in this place (quest. 3), saying [that] one of those two was chosen, either by lot, or rather taken from Ephraim, because it surpassed Manasseh in multitude and dignity (Gen. 48). But Josephus (bk. 5) says [that] these [men] were the phylarchs [tribe-chiefs] themselves, who bore the stones on [their] shoulders. Hence, moreover, [it] appears [that] St. Ephrem (vol. 3, sermon on the 40 Martyrs) speaks improperly, saying [that] these stones were brought by the Levites.