“His name,” says our Interpreter (v. 27), “was noised abroad in all the land.” Masius says the sentence is here ambiguous, because that “his” can be referred either to God or to Joshua. But it is certain [it is] referred to Joshua, since, from the fact that “God was with him,” Scripture wishes to indicate how much good befell him. And so all understand [it], both Hebrews and Greeks and Latins. But our [Interpreter] renders “name” [for] what in Hebrew is “a hearing,” or “a report,” which is heard concerning him; and that too is in the Seventy [LXX], but without “noised abroad,” thus: ἦν τὸ ὄνομα αὐτῆς κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν [ēn to onoma autēs kata pasan tēn gēn, “his name was throughout all the land”]. But how could Joshua’s glory be spread and scattered through all the earth? Some, in Abulensis (q. 70), answer that it was done because the standing-still of the sun made by him was seen in the whole world. But of that [we] treat not now; and afterward, in its own place below (ch. 10), it will be proved that it was not seen in the whole world. It is more truly said that here “all the land” is called that very [land] of which Jericho seemed, as it were, the Metropolis: namely Canaan, and its neighborhood. For in the same way it is said [in] Genesis 41: All the provinces came into Egypt, to buy food. [Were] all the provinces from the whole world? [Were they] from Spain, Gaul, India, and Mexico? No. But “all the provinces” [means those] which [were] nearer to Egypt — such as Arabia, [and] Palestine. And if anywhere this [phrase] must have a modification of the “whole earth” phrases applied to it, then certainly it must above all be applied when there is question of a name propagated far and wide — as, in the most beautiful [passage] in Cicero, in the Dream [of Scipio], that most renowned Africanus [Scipio] instructs his [grandson] Scipio: “Look ever,” he says, “upon the heavenly things; despise the human. For what celebrity of men’s speech, or what glory to be sought, can you attain? You see that [the earth] is inhabited in few and narrow places, and that, in those very [places], as it were spots where [men] dwell, vast solitudes lie between; and that those who inhabit the earth are not only so cut off that nothing can flow among them from some to others, but stand partly aslant, partly athwart, partly even opposite to us: from whom you certainly can hope for no glory. But you discern that same earth as if girt and surrounded by certain belts [zones]: of which you see [that] two, most diverse from each other, and propped from either side upon the very poles of heaven, have stiffened with frost; but that middle and greatest [zone] is scorched with the sun’s heat. Two are habitable: of which that Southern one, in which they who stand press footprints opposite to us, [is] nothing to your race; but this other, subject to the North wind [Aquilo], which you inhabit — [see] certainly with how thin a part it touches you. For all the earth which is inhabited by you, narrow at the poles, broader at the sides, is a certain small island, surrounded by that sea which on earth you call the Atlantic, the Great [sea], the Ocean: which, [though] with so great a name, you see how small it is. From these very cultivated and known lands, could your name, or that of any of us, cross this Caucasus which you behold, or swim across that Ganges? Who in the remaining [parts] of the East, or the utmost [West] of the setting sun, or of the North, or the Southern regions, shall hear your name? These being cut off, you see indeed within what narrow bounds your glory would spread itself.” [Cicero, Dream of Scipio = De Re Publica 6] Which passage I have copied out the more gladly, because Boethius both praised it and imitated it (bk. 2 On Consolation, prose 7): “How slight,” he says, “(is glory), and void of all weight, thus consider. The whole compass of the earth (as you have learned from astronomical demonstrations) is known to hold the ratio of a point to the space of the heavens; that is, so that, if you compare it to the magnitude of the celestial globe, you would judge it to have no extent at all. And of this so tiny a region of the world, scarcely a fourth part (as you have learned, with Ptolemy proving it) is inhabited by living beings known to us. If from this fourth part you subtract in thought as much as the seas and marshes press upon, and as much as the vast desert region stretches itself out, scarcely the narrowest area for men to dwell in will be left. In this smallest [point], then, of a point, fenced round and shut in, do you think of publishing [your] fame, of spreading [your] name? But what has glory ample and magnificent, cramped within such narrow and scanty limits? Add that this very enclosure of a brief dwelling-place many nations inhabit, differing in language, in customs, in the whole manner of life — to whom, both by the difficulty of journeys, and the diversity of speech, and the rarity of commerce, not only the fame of individual men, but not even [that] of cities, can reach. In the age, finally, of Marcus Tullius [Cicero] (as he himself signifies in a certain place), the fame of the Roman Republic had not yet crossed the Caucasus mountain; and it was then grown up, formidable even to the Parthians and the other nations of those parts. Do you see, then, how narrow, how compressed [is] the glory which you labor to spread and propagate? Or where the fame of the Roman name cannot pass, shall the glory of a Roman man advance? [And] what of [the fact] that the customs and institutions of diverse nations disagree among themselves — so that what among some is judged worthy of praise, among others is judged worthy of punishment? Whence it comes about that, if the proclamation of fame delight
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it is in no way expedient to spread [his] name among very many peoples.
But this celebrity of the Joshuan name was begotten, not — at this time — by the standing-still Sun (as was said by some a little before), nor by a coinage stamped with the emblems of Joshua (as the Jewish Rabbis fable, in Bereshith Rabbah [the midrash on Genesis]), but by two other causes. One, particular and less principal: namely, the destruction of Jericho, so sudden, so marvelous, and the recent crossing of the river Jordan, so unheard-of. The other, general and principal — which alone is expressed here — [is] because the Lord was with Joshua. This, indeed, [is] the fount of true glory: this the soil and foundation of solid fame. “All [men],” says Ennius, “wish to be praised”: and St. Augustine indeed reproves this very [wish] (bk. 13 On the Trinity, ch. 3); yet in all [men there is] a certain inborn desire of glory. But some pursue that [glory] in vain; some employ vain modes of attaining it. They think that they will be glorious and of excellent fame, if there be at hand for them wealth, beauty, learning, a throng of clients, the favor of peoples, the grace and familiarity of Princes. But vain, vain [are] all these things. A name — even if [a man] neither works for it nor looks to it — that one most ample and most constant [name] will he attain, who will be with God. But what it is “to be with someone [i.e. God]” was said above, ch. 1, q. 12. Truly, God is with him who believes in Him, fears Him, worships Him, [and] prefers Him to all things. In 1 Sam. ch. 18, v. 30, “David’s deed made his name exceedingly [great],” or “very [great].” Why so? Twice before it is said, in the same place (vv. 12 and 28), “The Lord was with David.” There exists a witty poem of some more recent poet — I know not whose — which truly paints Virtue [as] the mother of true glory, and teaches that, without her, it [glory] cleaves to no one:
ON PAINTED GLORY. “What goddess [art thou]? — I am Glory, the daughter of Virtue. — What [is] that throng [about thee]? — Those [are] suitors, a wicked crowd, wooers. — Whom, about to wed, dost thou favor? — [I hold] all in disdain. — Why? — Secretly, because I will not give my mother [Virtue] in marriage to a man. — Whom worthy will she give [thee] to embrace, as a welcome husband? — [One] of perpetual faith — though he flee me.”
Indeed, one of the ancients said: “No renown is lacking, if prudence be with thee.” But I [say]: “No renown is lacking, if the presence of the Godhead be with thee.”
“Thou,” says King and Prophet David (Ps. 3[:4]), “O LORD, art my upholder: my glory, and the lifter-up of my head.” So profuse and so overflowing toward the race of men [is] the goodness of GOD, that in this age too He bestows upon His own servants not only various endowments and ornaments of the soul — not only the most divine form and beauty of His heavenly grace — but a name also, and the light and dignity of fame and glory. “I,” He says (2 Sam. 7:9), “took thee from the pastures, following the flocks, that thou shouldest be Leader over my people Israel: and I was with thee in all things, wheresoever thou didst walk; and I made thee a GREAT NAME, according to the name of the great ones who are on the earth.” “I have,” says the Apostle (Rom. 15:17 [printed “Romanæ c. 17. v. 16”]), “glory in CHRIST JESUS toward God.” And ch. 2[:10]: “Glory, and honor, and peace to everyone that worketh good.” Yet because this celebrity of name and glory is of that kind of goods which we can abuse, and by which the less attentive and less wary are most easily puffed up, the Lord gives it to whom and when He wills. To me, O LORD, grant that [glory] which is looked for in the age to come. Now be Thou ever with me, by grace and help; but then, indeed, [be with me] also by glory and charity. AMEN.