We heard (ch. 6, qq. 45 & 49) how certain of the Rabbis fabled [that] Rahab the harlot [was] led [in marriage] to Joshua as a wife. But [it] is indeed altogether to be said [that] Joshua left no children, but remained celibate [his] whole life. For so teach St. Ignatius (in [his] Epistle to the Philadelphians), St. Jerome (bk. 1 Against Jovinian), D. Chrysostom (sermon On the Martyrs); and [it] is read in the Roman Breviary (on the 6th day within the octave of All Saints, lesson 5), [and] others. And if [he] had ever had any children, or a wife, how would Scripture have passed over that in silence? Why — [Scripture] which recounts the marriages, spouse, sons, [and] grandsons of Moses, of Caleb, of Eleazar the Pontiff, and of so many and equal others, and [their] offspring — [would it be] so entirely infant and mute concerning Joshua’s marriage and progeny? [Scripture] recounts his ancestors, as we saw (bk. 1, ch. 1): why would [it] affect [touch] his descendants with not even one word? But [he] indeed entirely lacked these: devoid of marriage, [he] led [his] whole life wholly celibate. In this too [he was a figure] of the true JESUS — who never took a wife, and, by his counsel and exhortation, called away innumerable [persons] from a wife [to be] Eunuchs (Matthew 19) — so that [he] might present to us a most beautiful type and figure.
But because this passage is now treated by the cited D. Jerome venerably and usefully, and because [it] contains, as [it were], a certain Epitome and exegesis [exposition] of this book, I shall not be loath to transcribe here a good many [more] of his words. “I shall cross over,” he says, “to Jesus [Joshua] son of Nave, who before was called Ause [Oshea] — or, as [it] is more rightly had in the Hebrew, Osee [Hoshea] — that is, ‘Saviour.’ For he, according to the Epistle of Jude, saved and led out the people of Israel from Egypt, and brought [them] into the land of promise. This Jesus [Joshua], as soon as [he] came to the Jordan, the waters of nuptials [aquae nuptiarum], which always had flowed in the law, were dried up and stood [still]: and with dry and bare feet the whole people crossed over, [and] came into Galgala [Gilgal], and there [was] circumcised a second time. Which [thing], if we take [it] according to the letter, [it] cannot stand at all. For if we had a double foreskin, or if the cut-off skin were born again, [then] rightly a second circumcision would have place. But now this is signified: [that] JESUS, with the knife of the Gospel, circumcised the people which had come through the desert; and [he] circumcised [it] with a stone knife [cultro petrino]: so that [that] which, in Moses’s [successor, the] son [of Nun], was prefigured before in a few, might, under the leadership of Jesus, be fulfilled in all. But the foreskins themselves [were] heaped together into one heap, and buried and covered with earth; and the reproach of Egypt [was] taken away; and the name of the place Galgala — which is interpreted ‘revelation’ — [these] show [this]: [that] while the people walked in the foreskin through the desert, its eyes were blinded. Let us see also the consequences [what follows]. After the circumcision of the Gospel, and the consecration of the twelve stones, in the place of revelation straightway the Pasch [Passover] is celebrated; its lamb is immolated; and the holy land [terra sancta] is fed with foods. Jesus goes out; [there] meets him the Prince of the army [militia], holding a sword — that is, either showing himself [ready] to fight for the circumcised people, or cutting apart the glue [glutinum] of nuptials. Just as [it] had been commanded to Moses, so to this [one] too [it] is commanded:
(col. 1291)
[…so to this one too it is commanded:] ‘Loose [put off] thy shoe. For the place in which thou standest is holy ground.’ Because so was the Lord’s army armed with priestly trumpets, as [it were] for Evangelical preaching, under the type of Jericho, [and] the world is overthrown. And — that I may pass over infinite [things] (for [it] is not now my purpose to open all the mysteries of the Old Testament) — the five Kings who before reigned in the land of promise, and resisted the Evangelical army, are conquered, Jesus fighting [as superior]. This I think [is] clear to the understanding: [that], before the Lord led out his people from Egypt, and circumcised it, sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch reigned; and [that] by these, as [it were] princes, all [things] were subjected. Whom Jesus [Joshua], fleeing to the cave of the body, and entering the dark place — that is, the body itself — slew, so that through that [body] [they] might be killed, through which before [they] reigned. But now [it] is time that we raise the banner of Jesus’s chastity. Moses is written to have had a wife. But Moses — both our Lord, and the Apostle — interpret [as] the law: ‘They have Moses and the Prophets,’ etc. ‘From Adam even unto Moses sin reigned, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam’ [Rom. 5:14]: and there is no doubt [that], in both testaments, Moses signifies the law. As, therefore, we read [that] Moses — that is, the law — had a wife: show me [that] Jesus [Joshua] son of Nave had either a wife or sons. If thou canst show [it], I will confess myself conquered.
‘And certainly [Joshua] received a most beautiful place in the land of Judea, in the division; and [he] dies not in the twentieth [vicenario] number — which in the Scriptures is always ill-omened, in which Jacob served, and Joseph was sold, and which Esau loves, receiving in it certain gifts — but in the tenth, concerning whose praise we have often spoken: and [he] is buried in Thamnathsareth [Timnath-serah], that is, in a most perfect Principate, or in the number of the new covering, so that [it] might signify the flocks of virgins, covered by the Saviour’s aid, in Mount Ephraim — that is, in the fruit-bearing mountain — [and] on the North of Mount Gaas, which is interpreted “commotion.” For Mount Sion [is at] the sides of the North, the city of the great King [Ps. 48:2–3], which [is] always set [opposed] to envy, and, through the several temptations, says: “But my feet were almost moved” [Ps. 73:2]. And when, in Jesus’s [Joshua’s] burial, the book which is called by his name is completed, again, in the volume of Judges, [he] is described [as] living, as [it were], and rising again [resurgens]; and, under a recapitulation [ἀνακεφαλαιώσει, anakephalaiōsei], his works are proclaimed, and [it] is read: “Jesus [Joshua] dismissed the people, and the children of Israel went off, each one into his [own] inheritance, that [they] might possess the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Jesus,” etc. And straightway [it] is subjoined: “And Jesus [Joshua] son of Nave, the servant of the Lord, died, a hundred [and] ten years [old]. Moreover Moses saw only the land of promise, and could not enter [it]: and [he] died in the land of Moab, and the Lord buried him in the valley of the land of Moab, over against the house of Phegor [Peor]: and no man knew his sepulchre unto this day.” Let us compare the burial of both. Moses dies in the land of Moab; Jesus [Joshua] in the land of Judea. That [Moses] is buried in the valley, over against the house of Phegor, which is interpreted “ignominy” (for properly, in the Hebrew tongue, Phegor is called “Priapus”); this [Joshua], here, in Mount Ephraim, on the North of Mount Gaas. And in simple words [there] is always a more august [secret] sense of the divine Scriptures: because among the Jews glory was in births, and in parturitions, and [she was] accursed [and] barren who had no seed in Israel: and blessed [was he] whose seed was in Sion, and [whose] household [were] in Jerusalem, and [who] was placed in the greatest blessing: “Thy wife [is] as a fruitful vine on the sides of thy house: thy sons as new olive-plants round about thy table” [Ps. 128:3]. Therefore his [Moses’s] sepulchre is described [as] placed in the valley, over against the house of Idols — which is consecrated to lust. But we, who serve under Jesus the Leader, unto the present day know not where Moses is buried. For we contend [against] Phegor, and all his ignominy: knowing that [those] who are in the flesh cannot please God [Rom. 8:8]. And the Lord, before the deluge too, had said: “My Spirit shall not remain in those men, because [they] are flesh” [Gen. 6:3]. Wherefore also Moses, dying, is mourned by the people; but Israel [i.e. Joshua], as [it were] about to live, is not mourned. For nuptials are ended in death; virginity, after death, begins to be crowned.’
Nay, Joshua himself, in the Talmudic Tract Pesachim (ch. 10, fol. 116b), says: “Lo Zacithi leben” [לא זכיתי לבן], that is, “I was not worthy of a son”: and therefore [he] is always called “son” — as [was] already noted (bk. 1, ch. 1, q. 8). And that Talmudic passage R. Abraham Zacuth cites and approves (Iuchasin [Yuhasin], fol. 10). But the same [thing], and R. Godolias [Gedaliah] in [his] Schalscheleth [Shalshelet] (fol. 14 & 19), out of the first chapter of Megilla [Megillah], affirm — [that] Joshua had no sons, yet some daughters, from whom were afterward born eight Prophets: namely, Jeremiah; Chelcias [Hilkiah], Machsia [Maaseiah], Chanamel [Hanamel], Salum [Shallum], Baruch, Ezechiel [Ezekiel]; and, according to some, [there was] also from her the Prophetess Holda [Huldah], concerning whom [see] also 4 Kings [2 Kings] 22:14. But indeed Joshua’s stemma [genealogy] is closed in him [himself] (bk. 1 of Paralipomenon [1 Chronicles], ch. 7): and, just as no son is given to him, so also no daughter. Nor can the Rabbis prove [that] the named Prophets, or the Prophetess, drew [their] origin from him. Nay, just as, from Paralipomenon, [they] confirm [that] no son [was] born to him, so also [they] ought to confirm [that] no daughter [was] born to him.