I said (q. 10), concerning the end [final cause] of this division, [that] a little more remained to be said. That now I will pursue. First, therefore, the Lord willed to establish a holy concord in his whole people. For [that] which the immense lust of wealth, and the excessive cupidity of extending boundaries — and, that I may say [it] in a word, “MEUM ET TUUM [MINE AND THINE]” — often dissolves and dissipates, even among the most friendly [men]: since [now] all should understand [that] not rashly, or by chance, not by the will and judgment of certain men only, but by an oracle — and, as it were, by the divine hand — his own portion fell to each; and [that] the same [portion was] always a fixed and ratified dwelling, and could not, the Jubilee-cycles forbidding [it], be increased or diminished — [that] which, among them, over the further extending, or the defending, of the bounds, war and discord could be (Deut. 19, v. 14). Second: that all envy among these same [people] might be repressed. For [there is] that well-known [word] of Horace:
“How comes it, Maecenas, that no one lives content with that lot which either reason has given him, or chance has thrown [upon him]?”
And that [word] from the crowd:
“Always another’s goat bears a more distended udder.”
But [he] who has [it] persuaded [to himself] [that] to another indeed [there] is a little something more than to himself, but [that] this [is] most justly, and comes about altogether by the divine nod — what [reason] is [there], why he could envy that one? Third: that it might be shown [that] not all goods must necessarily be common among all, but [that] the division of things is approved by God too — as D. Thomas ([Summa] 2a-2ae, on qq. 57, 58) is wont to teach amply. Fourth: that of what tribe, nation, [and] house the most longed-for Savior of the world — CHRIST the Lord, the promised Seed of Abraham — should derive his origin, might be far most clear to all, even to those looking [only] moderately. Fifth: that a certain image of the heavenly land and inheritance might be set before our eyes, and we might understand it [to be] divided variously. “For in the house of my Father [there] are many mansions,” says the Lord (John 14, v. 2). And all the true Israelites will indeed receive their portion and mansion — some [a] greater and [more] splendid [one], namely according to the reckoning of the multitude and magnitude of those [things] which they once did well in the body. “All of us,” says the Apostle (2 Cor. 5:10), “must be manifested before the Tribunal of CHRIST, that each may report the proper [deeds] of the body, according as he did, whether good or evil.” And Rom. 2, v. 6: “God will render to each according to his works.” Origen (on this book, homily 25): “Perhaps, just as God ordered the stars of heaven, and placed them by certain wondrous and ineffable reckonings — and set some of them in the northern axis, others in the parts of the East — so believe [that] those too, who by the resurrection of the dead shall be such [as] the stars of heaven in multitude and brightness (coming, namely, from the seed of Abraham), God will order in the kingdom of heaven according to the order of the stars and of the parts of heaven; and will give to some a lot toward the East, to others toward the West, to others toward the South; and whom he himself knows, he will set toward the North — since indeed many will come from East and West, from the four parts of the world, and will recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” Sixth: But just as, of any of the tribes, not only the portion and inheritance which was given to them, but the very first cause too — on account of which so-and-so-great [a portion] was given to this [tribe] or that, [namely] the multitude, I say, and the greater number — was from God; so also the chief cause, on account of which a greater and happier beatitude exists for one than for another, is the Gift of God. For “to each one of us grace is given according to the measure of the donation of CHRIST” (Eph. 4, v. 7). And his holy charismata “the Spirit divides as he wills” (1 Cor. 12, v. 11). “What is [it],” says Rupert (on Joshua ch. 23), “that — the nations being cast out from before their face (as the psalmist too sings, Ps. 77) — he divided the land to them by lot, in the cord of distribution, except [to signify] that the blessed fatherland (from which the apostate Angels, growing proud, were cast out) — all those mansions, which are many in the Father’s house — will be distributed by the grace of God, and not from merits?” For “it is the gift of God, and not from us,” says the Apostle (Eph. 2), “lest anyone should glory.” Rightly, therefore, was that land divided by lot — in which not man’s choice, but God’s hidden disposition, does all — because, namely, the grace of God, which no merits preceded, [is] our land of the living, to be hoped for and possessed by us. Seventh: that it might be signified [that] all [are] toward
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[all are] to be called by God to the possession of the heavens — not the Jews only, but the Gentiles too. “If indeed,” says Theodoret (q. 15), “those who received possessions on this side [of] the Jordan, Moses divided the land [to them]; but those who obtained parts beyond the Jordan, Joshua [did]. And those indeed who received the inheritance through Moses figure the [type] of the Jews; but those [who received it] through the hand of Joshua represent the Gentiles who believed. But since Israel is the firstborn, [it is] by the hand of Moses [that] the firstborn [tribes] obtained [their] lots — namely Ruben, Gad, Manasseh; who, however, themselves too, as [it were] strenuous soldiers, go before the rest — since indeed [those] who believed from the Jews brought salvation to the Gentiles. Nevertheless [there] were assumed [taken in] also the Jebusites, and Canaanites, and other foreign nations, and they dwelt with Israel.” Let homilies 16 & 18 of Origen be read.
Eighth: “The Lord shows,” says St. Augustine (discourse 1 on Ps. 34), “that all these [things] pertain to himself — money, wife, sons, and the like; and [that they] are in his own power, not only the eternal [things] which he promised for the future, but also the temporal [things] which he gives on earth to whom he wills, and when he wills — opportunely knowing to whom to give and to whom not to give, like a physician [knowing] the medicines, knowing the sick man’s disease better than the sick man himself. So that, therefore, God might show this, he distributed the times of the old and new testament: in the old testament the promises are of earthly things, but in the new, of the kingdom of heaven. Most [things] are precepts of worshipping God and of living rightly. These same [things] are both there and here; but because the promise there seems [to be] one [thing], here another, the command and obedience of the servant is the same — but the reward, as it were, is not the same. For there it was said: You shall receive the land of promise, that you may reign in it, that you may overcome your enemies, that you may not be subjected by them, that all things may abound to you in this land, that you may procreate sons. These are earthly [things] promised — but yet figured [types].”
Ninth: That we may weigh how far the New Testament surpasses the Old, [how far] the Gospel [surpasses] the law of Moses, [how far] CHRIST [surpasses] Moses. For Moses, with his law and testament, sent only two and a half tribes into the possession of the land; but Jesus [sent] nine and a half, and made the Levitical [tribe] too approach the Lord’s inheritance and possession. Nor did Moses send those two and a half [tribes] into the possession of the land simply and absolutely, but with a condition — [namely] if, forsooth, thus, after the Canaanite wars were finished, Eleazar the Pontiff and our Jesus [Joshua] should judge [it] (Num. 34, v. 28) — so that these [tribes] seem rather to have placed these tribes too in that possession of the land. Moses, through the law, [blessed] few; but Jesus [Joshua], CHRIST, through the Gospel, blessed very many, from every nation, region, and tongue, with the heavenly goods. And whoever were made safe under the old law, the salvation of them all hung from the highest Priest according to the order of Melchisedech, and from him whose name is full of salvation — JESUS CHRIST, the Lord and Savior of the world (Acts 4, v. 12; & to the Hebrews ch. 11). And although those two and a half tribes, to which Moses had given a portion, seemed to have held the first [place] in the inheritance to be discerned and taken, yet they did not hold [it]; but they had
to wait until the others should be masters [compotes] of their [own] parts, and only after those [others] to possess [enjoy] their own — because the Gentiles, called to the faith by JESUS CHRIST, surpassed the Jews in alacrity, constancy, and fervor of believing (Matt. 8, vv. 10, 11, 12); nor [were] those [Jews] admitted into the eternal domiciles of the heavens before the same [domiciles] should be entered [by those] who believed from the Gentiles — as the Apostle explains (to Heb. 11), and, from him, Origen [in commenting] on this book (homily 16). And Moses gave only that land which they were already surveying with [their] eyes, treading with [their] feet, [and] which they had, by force and arms, subjoined into their dominion. But Jesus [son of] Nave both divided that [land] which was already discerned by the eyes, traversed by the feet, [and] subdued by war, and [also] that which was not yet seen by all, not yet gone about with the feet, not yet conquered and occupied by arms — so that, as was said before from Augustine, JESUS CHRIST might be perceived [as] the Lord of earthly and heavenly, of perishable and eternal, of present and future goods. And therefore also Moses is read to have employed, in the partition, no oracle, no lot, no dividers with himself, no explorers who should measure out the land. But Jesus [Joshua] employs all these — so that in CHRIST JESUS we may recognize an altogether divine oracle, and divinity itself, and [his] highest benignity toward men, whom — as [he honors] themselves, so also, through their work, very many others — he honors, adorns, and heaps with the greatest merits, [and whom] he takes into partnership of the sacred actions of which he himself is the author and perfecter. For he himself, according to the order of Melchisedech, in eternal priestly power invests others. He sends the Apostles into the whole globe of lands; he constitutes Pastors and Doctors, who should distribute the heavenly gifts to mortals, [who] should call all to the heavenly inheritance, [and who] should prescribe to all — opportunely, and share by share — all [the things] which are to be done. O holy cords, by which the most holy Geometers, sent by CHRIST JESUS, measure out those most ample and most blessed vast-estates of the heavens! O fortunate and joyful lots! O the distributors — to be venerated, and embraced with all love and joy — by whom are distributed those rich fields of the heavens, the vines heavy with nectarous grapes, the trees laden with honeyed fruits, the halls shining with gold, [and] the patrimonies never to perish by any time or chance! Tenth, finally: that we might certainly persuade ourselves [that] the true Sabbaticals and Jubilees — in which [is] the redemption of all, the recovery of liberty, the continuation of rest, the restitution to the pristine state (from which we fell through Adam’s lapse), and the most blessed felicitation of all — [were] begun from the times of JESUS CHRIST, [and are] to be perpetuated thenceforth unto all eternity. “Come,” therefore, “let us exult and jubilate to God our Savior; let us anticipate his face in confession, and in Psalms let us jubilate to him” (Ps. 94[95]).
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