The number of cities to be given, as I was saying in the previous question, the Lord predetermined (Num. 35:6 & 7); and so many were given in this chapter — not more, not fewer. “All the cities of the Levites,” says v. 39, “within the possession of the children of Israel, were forty-eight.” In which number this seems, of all [things], most worthy of admiration: “how a tribe which was, in number, nearly the least of all, received so many cities” — and indeed [cities] which were double, triple, sometimes even quadruple more [numerous] than [those] of certain other tribes. For the Levites [were] numbered, in their last census (Num. 26:62), [as] twenty-three thousand males — and that, [with] boys also reckoned in, nay even little infants who had lived now one [single] month; so that in each of their cities [there] could scarcely be four hundred men. Now the Aserite tribe had only 22 cities (above, ch. 19:30); the Nephtalite 19; the Danite still fewer (same place, v. 40 & following). And yet — to be silent about the other tribes — in that same census, [with] infants and boys up to the twentieth year excluded, the Aserites [numbered] 53,400 (there, v. 47); the Nephtalites 45,400 (same, v. 50); the Simeonites 22,200 (v. 14); the Issacharites 64,300 (v. 25); the Danites 64,400 (v. 44). [It is] a wonder, therefore, [that] to the Levites — who (as we said above) [were] so few — so many cities [were] attributed, and indeed more than to the tribes [which were] their [own] heirs. But chiefly two causes are noted. One is [that] which [was] also touched above (ch. 14, q. 9): the wondrous benignity [of God] toward the ministers of God, and the prelates of his sacred [rites], whom [he] most abundantly heaps with the things necessary for food and clothing — so that [they] be held by no too-troublesome care of these things, and [may] devote themselves wholly, most diligently, to his worship, ceremonies, and service; which [is] assuredly most just. And this cause — concerning the abundant supply of the things necessary for life — Philo often and expressly pursues; but especially in the book On fugitives, bk. 2 On monarchy, and the book On the honors of the Priests. For just as other mortals — in order to procure the necessaries of life — plow, build, sail, [work as] smiths, or do other works: so [it befits] the Priests, and [those] devoted to the divine worship, to administer the sacred [rites], to celebrate God with praises, [and to offer] prayers for themselves and
(col. 1233)
[…continued from col. 1232.] for the people, to learn thoroughly his law, and to teach others. To clothing, moreover, habitation [a dwelling] belongs. For a house is a certain, as it were, looser garment, which girds and covers us and ours. But the other cause is, that to the other tribes, besides cities, [there] were also given hamlets, and more villages, of which the Levites received none (Abulensis, q. 9, Num. 35). Some add also a third cause: that not all [the cities] were enumerated in the foregoing catalogues of cities which pertained to the individual tribes. But this, although true, satisfies little the admiration and the proposed question. For [it is] not to be thought, although some cities be omitted, [that] many [were] omitted — certainly not as many, or nearly as many, as [those which] were enumerated. But even if we should say [that] as many [were] omitted, and double the number by the imposed cities, [it] will still not come near to the sum of the Levitic cities. For in the Aserite tribe [there] would be only 44; in the Nephtalite 38; in the Simeonite 34; the Issacharite 32; in the Danite, fewer. And therefore that first cause — truly the first and highest of all — which, against all the Calvinist and Lutheran sacrilegious harpies, [I] am pleased to confirm by the one testimony of [a] Calvinist himself, Adrian Saravia. “God,” he says (bk. 2, ch. 14), “in his law, besides tithes and oblations, commanded [that] cities, and the precincts of cities and towns, be given to the Priests and Levites — over which [cities] they had no less authority than the rest of the tribes [had] over the cities and fields which had fallen to them by lot. The Gospel [being] received, our Savior nowhere forbade [that] the ministers of the Gospel possess fields and possessions, by public authority, in the same manner — or [that things] to be possessed be given to them; nor did [he] wish [that], in a Commonwealth which had received the Gospel, [they] be of a worse condition than the Levites and Priests had been of old in Israel. Since the ministers of the Churches must live in the city [state], those aids are necessary to them which civil society needs, and [which] procure authority and favor with the common people — of which kind are wisdom and riches. Whoever despises one of these cannot abide in the city with dignity. The Wise [man] noted this in his Ecclesiastes (ch. 7, v. 11 & 12): ‘Good is wisdom,’ he says, ‘with an inheritance, and [it] is a profit to them that see the sun; because in the shadow of wisdom, and in the shadow of silver [money], man resteth.’” Thus he [Saravia], who (ch. 4), whence he says, “the impiety and ingratitude of certain Magistrates is worthy of greater reproach, who, while [they] wish to seem to favor the Christian religion, defraud the ministers of [their] due honor, and not only bestow nothing of their own, but [even] convert whatever was once destined for pious uses into profane [ones].” And [Saravia] proceeds further to dispute against the avarice, stinginess, impiety, and sacrileges of those Magistrates of his [party] and [their] fellows; and to answer their petty reasonings — trimmed [contrived] for the applause of the people, and [as] a veil for avarice.