Numbers 12

Miriam the prophetess herself, who with her brothers had crossed the straits of the sea on foot, because, being still ignorant of the mystery of the Ethiopian woman, she had murmured against her brother Moses, broke out with leprous spots, so that she would scarcely have been freed from so great a plague, unless Moses had prayed for her. Although this murmuring refers to the type of the Synagogue, which is ignorant of the mystery of that Ethiopian woman, that is the Church gathered out of the nations, and murmurs with daily reproaches, and envies that people through whose faith itself also shall be delivered from the leprosy of its unbelief, according to what we read that: "blindness in part has happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved."

Aaron and Miriam murmur, because Moses has an Ethiopian woman for a wife. And now Moses takes an Ethiopian woman for a wife, since his law has passed over to this Ethiopian woman of ours. Let Aaron murmur — the priesthood of the Jews; let Miriam also murmur — their Synagogue: Moses cares nothing for the murmuring; he loves his Ethiopian woman, of whom it is also said elsewhere through the Prophet: From the ends of the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring offerings; and again: Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God before others. Beautifully, "before others." For just as, in the Gospel, that woman with the issue of blood anticipated the healing of the synagogue-ruler's daughter, so Ethiopia, while Israel was sick, was healed. By their offense, salvation came to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.

But in what follows also the reading which was recited contains this, that Moses took the Ethiopian woman as his wife, and that Miriam and Aaron disparaged Moses, because he had taken the Ethiopian woman, and they say: "Has God spoken to Moses alone? Has He not also spoken to us?" "And the Lord heard," it says. And after these things He orders them to go out to the tabernacle of the testimony, and there, a certain judgment having been held, Miriam is made leprous until a fixed time, and thus is called back into the camp. That we may explain this more concisely, we say that Miriam had the figure of the former people, and that Moses, that is, the law of the Lord, passed over to marriage with this Ethiopian woman, who was gathered from among the nations. Her, therefore, Moses, that is, the spiritual law, took as wife; and on account of this deed Miriam, who is now the synagogue, is indignant and disparages together with Aaron, that is, with the priests and Pharisees. That people, therefore, disparages even to this day Moses, who is placed with us, and he seems base to them, because among us he does not teach the circumcision of the flesh, nor the observance of the sabbath, nor of the new moon, nor sacrifices of blood, but the circumcision of the heart, and rest from sinning, and feast days in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and sacrifices of praise, and admonishes that now not victims of cattle, but of vices, should be slain. God therefore judges concerning these things, and confirms the marriage of the Ethiopian woman, and indeed permits Moses gladly to dwell with her and to rest, but casts Miriam outside the camp and puts her far from the tabernacle of the testimony, with whom Aaron also is cast out. Moreover, Miriam is also made leprous. Look now upon that people and see how great in it is the leprosy of sin, how great the darkness of understanding, how great the foulness of observance, how great the baseness of aspect. Nevertheless this leprosy does not remain forever, but when the week of the world shall have begun to be completed, she shall be called back to the camp. For at the end of the world, when the fullness of the nations shall have entered in, then also all Israel shall be saved, and that is when the leprosy shall cease from the face of Miriam; for she shall receive the glory of faith, and shall receive the splendor of the knowledge of Christ, and her countenance shall be restored, when both shall become one flock and one shepherd. In which it must truly be said: "O the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God"; who so shut up all under sin, that He might have mercy upon all, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Just as the Apostle says: "all these things happened to them as figures, but they were written for our admonition," I ask what admonition we may receive from that which has been read to us, namely that Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses and on account of this were rebuked, and Miriam indeed was even made a leper. And so great was the concern of this rebuke that, while Miriam was completing the space of a week in leprosy, the people of God did not make their journey toward the land of promise, nor was the tabernacle of testimony moved. First of all, meanwhile, I am admonished, and usefully and necessarily admonished, from this deed, not to disparage my brother, not to speak evil of my neighbor, not to open my mouth to detract not only from the saints but even from any of my neighbors whatsoever, seeing how great was the indignation of God from this, how great a vengeance proceeded. Indeed, against this sin we see God likewise moved with similar indignation even in the Psalms, and saying: "sitting you spoke against your brother, and against the son of your mother you laid a stumbling-block." And likewise also in another Psalm, from the person of the just man, who knows that this displeases God most greatly, it is said: "him that secretly detracted against his neighbor I persecuted." From all these words, therefore, of divine Scripture, as though from certain swords sharpened on both sides, let us cut away the vice of disparaging our brothers and detracting from the saints: for leprosy follows those who detract and speak evil. But after these things let us pass over from the moral matters to the mystical understanding; although in the earlier treatise a few things have already been said, nevertheless we will add what seems to have been lacking. Let us see, then, who it is that detracts from Moses, who speaks evil of him. Not only the Jew, but also the heretics, who do not receive the law and the prophets, they too detract from Moses. Indeed, they are accustomed even to fasten a charge upon him, saying that Moses was a murderer, for he killed an Egyptian, and they contrive many other things with blasphemous mouth either against him or against the prophets. These men, therefore, because they detract from Moses, have leprosy in their soul and are lepers in the inner man, and for that reason are held to be outside the camp of the Church of God. Whether, then, it be heretics who detract from Moses, or those who are of the Church who disparage their brothers and speak evil of their neighbors, all who are driven by this vice — there is no room for doubt that they are lepers in their soul. And Miriam indeed, by the intervention of Aaron the high priest, is healed on the seventh day; but we, if by the vice of disparagement we fall into the leprosy of the soul, until the end of the week of the world, that is, until the time of the resurrection, will remain lepers in soul and unclean; unless, while there is time for repentance, we are corrected and, turned to the Lord Jesus and supplicating him through repentance, we are cleansed from the uncleanness of our leprosy. But I think that not only that former people, nor only the heretics whom we mentioned above, detract from Moses, but also everyone who understands his writings badly and who receives the spiritual law carnally detracts from Moses, because he teaches men carnally concerning the words of the Spirit. You have heard what judgment the disparagers and evil-speakers gain for themselves, and what condemnation; hear now also how great a benefit they confer upon those whom they disparage. Never do we find that God spoke such great praises about Moses his servant as we now see said, when he was detracted from by men.

Moses, then, is found in Numbers to take a dark, or black, Ethiopian woman to wife, on whose account Miriam and Aaron disparage him, and, indignant, say: "Has the Lord spoken to Moses alone? Has he not spoken also to us?" … In which it seems to me too that, according to the mystery, they understood rather what was being done, and saw that Moses — that is, the spiritual law — was now passing over into the nuptials and wedlock of the Church gathered from the nations; and that Miriam, who held the form of the forsaken Synagogue, and Aaron, who held the image of the carnal priesthood, seeing that the kingdom was taken away from themselves, and given to a nation bringing forth its fruits, said: "Has God spoken to Moses alone? Has he not spoken also to us?"

[T]here are men in whom this struggle has ended in success; it was so with Moses, as we know; he was superior both to anger and to desire; the history testifying of him in both respects, that he was meek beyond all men (and by meekness it indicates the absence of all anger and a mind quite devoid of resentment), and that he desired none of those things about which we see the desiring faculty in the generality so active. This could not have been so, if these faculties were nature, and were referable to the contents of man's essence. For it is impossible for one who has come quite outside of his nature to be in Existence at all. But if Moses was at one and the same time in Existence and not in these conditions, then it follows that these conditions are something other than nature and not nature itself. For if, on the one hand, that is truly nature in which the essence of the being is found, and, on the other, the removal of these conditions is in our power, so that their removal not only does no harm, but is even beneficial to the nature, it is clear that these conditions are to be numbered amongst externals, and are affections, rather than the essence, of the nature; for the essence is that thing only which it is.

What was the characteristic of Moses of old? "Moses was the meekest of all men on earth." One would not be wrong in describing this other Moses [i.e., Christ] in these same terms, for certainly the meekest of spirits is with him, being related to him by consubstantiality. In those days Moses stretched forth his hands to heaven and brought down the bread of angels, manna. This second Moses stretches forth his hands to heaven and brings down the food of eternal life. Moses struck the rock and made streams of water flow. This second Moses touches the table, strikes the spiritual board and makes the fountains of the Spirit gush forth. Consequently the table, like the fountain, lies in the middle, in order that the flocks may surround the fountain on every side and enjoy the benefit of the saving waters.

To learn the power of gentleness and restraint, and how virtue alone suffices to render the person who practices it devotedly worthy of those ineffable encomiums, listen to the eulogy bestowed to blessed Moses. The crown was awarded him for this reason: "Moses was the mildest of all people on the earth," Scripture says. Do you see the greatness of the encomium, which conferred on him equality of esteem with the whole human race—or, rather, gave him precedence over all humankind?

Finally, though such and so magnificent works of faith and patience of Moses are related, never was he exalted by God with such praises as now, when he took the Ethiopian woman to wife. Now it is said of him, that "Moses was a man exceedingly meek above all men who are upon the earth."

Hear, then, in what follows, what the Holy Spirit relates and with what praises he extols Moses. "And the Lord came down," he says, "in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tabernacle of testimony; and Aaron and Miriam were called, and both stood forth. And he said to them: hear my words; if there be a prophet of yours to the Lord, I will be known to him in visions and I will speak to him in dreams. Not so with my servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house; mouth to mouth will I speak to him, in his form and not in a riddle, and he saw the glory of the Lord; and why were you not afraid to detract from my servant Moses?" And the wrath of the Lord's fury was made upon them, and they departed. And the cloud withdrew from the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam was made leprous as snow. You see what penalty the disparagers brought upon themselves, but what praise they sought out for him whom they had disparaged. For themselves they sought foulness, for him splendor; for themselves leprosy, for him glory; for themselves reproach, for him magnificence. Yet Moses, before he received the Ethiopian woman, it is not written that God spoke to him in his form and not in a riddle; but when he received the Ethiopian woman, then God says concerning him: "mouth to mouth will I speak to him, in his form and not in a riddle." For now, when Moses has come to us and has been joined to this our Ethiopian woman, the law of God is now recognized no longer in figures and in images as before, but in the very form of truth; and the things which before were signified in a riddle are now fulfilled in form and truth. And therefore he who expounded the forms of the figures and riddles says: "but we know that our fathers were all under the cloud, and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock following them; and the rock was Christ." You see how Paul resolves the riddles of the law and teaches the forms of the riddles, and says that the rock was in a riddle with Moses, before it was joined to this our Ethiopian woman. Now in form the rock is Christ; for now God speaks mouth to mouth through the law. Before, the baptism in the cloud and in the sea was in a riddle, but now in form there is regeneration in water and the Holy Spirit. Then in a riddle the manna was food, but now in form the flesh of the Word of God is the true food, as he himself says: "my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink." Thus, therefore, now already Moses, placed among us and joined to this Ethiopian woman, whether he himself to us or God to him, speaks not in a riddle, but in form. And to this is added: "and he saw," he says, "the glory of the Lord." When did Moses see the glory of the Lord? I say, then, when the Lord was transformed on the mountain and Moses was present with him together with Elijah and they conversed with him. And therefore in what follows he rightly adds: "and why were you not afraid to detract from my servant Moses?" Which is evidently directed, at any rate, against those who seem indeed to receive the Gospels, but detract from Moses, and are deservedly reproved, because, when they learn through the Gospel that Moses together with Elijah saw the glory of the Lord, they have dared to detract from the law and the prophets. And therefore let us not detract from Moses nor disparage the law, but let us be not only hearers of the law, but also doers, that with Moses himself we may be counted worthy to be glorified together. But I think that they too furnish material for detracting from Moses who, for example, when the book of Leviticus or the reading of Numbers is read, do not show how these things, which are written in a riddle, ought to be understood through the form — that is, those who do not spiritually expound the things which are read in the law. For necessarily those who hear the rite of sacrifices or the observance of sabbaths or of the other like things recited in the church are offended, and say: what need is there that this be read in the church? What profit to us are the Jewish precepts and the observances of a rejected people? These things are of the Jews, and let the Jews see to them. Therefore, lest offenses of this kind befall the hearers, effort must be given to the knowledge of the law, and, according to this, that the law is spiritual, the things which are read must be understood and explained, lest by the fault of the teachers — nay rather, by their sloth and negligence — Moses be detracted from by the unskilled and unlearned; but let us turn to the Lord, that he may take away from us the veil of the letter, so that not a disfigured countenance of Moses, but a glorious and comely one may appear to us, so that we not only do not disparage him, but even, for the greatness of his meanings, confer praise and glory upon him. "And the wrath of the Lord's fury was made upon them, and they departed. And the cloud withdrew from the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam was made leprous as snow." The wrath of the Lord's fury is brought about upon those who speak evil and detract. But what he says: "the cloud withdrew from the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam was made leprous as snow," must be considered more diligently, that first the cloud withdraws and thus the leprosy fills her: so that it may be shown that, even if there is in someone the grace of the Holy Spirit and he disparages and detracts, it withdraws from him after the disparagement, and thus his soul is filled with leprosy. For that former people too had in itself the grace of God, but after they stretched forth the tongues of their blasphemy against the true Moses, our Lord Jesus Christ, the cloud departed from them, and passed over to us onto the high mountain, when our Savior was transformed and the shining cloud overshadowed his disciples and a voice came from the cloud saying: "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." After this, therefore, Miriam was made leprous as snow. While the cloud was present, Miriam was not leprous, but when it departed. For while the visitation of God was in that people, it was not leprous; but when it departed, the ignominy of its own countenance covered it. But let us also fear, lest perhaps we put this cloud to flight from us by speaking evil, by acting evilly, by thinking evilly; and then the leprosy of sin will appear in us, when the grace of God has deserted us.

The purely intellectual vision existed in the minds of the angels and of the Lawmaker. Moses was raised up to this vision more completely than any other prophet, for it is written: Should there be a prophet among you, in visions will I reveal Myself to him, in dreams will I speak to him; not so with my servant Moses! Throughout My house he bears My trust: face to face I speak to him, plainly and not in riddles. The presence of the Lord he beholds.

Moses was called "faithful in all God's house." God used him to bring his judgment on Egypt with scourges and torments. Yet even he, despite the great glory he was given, did not boast. But when he was granted an oracle from the bush, he said, "Who am I that you send me? I have a feeble voice and a slow tongue." And again he says, "I am but steam from a pot."

As I started to say, it is shown later in the book of Numbers that even what he asked was granted to his desire, for thereby the Lord rebuked the sister of Moses for her obstinacy. The Lord appeared to the other prophets in visions and dreams but to Moses plainly and not by riddles. He added the words "And he saw the glory of the Lord." Why then did God make such an exception of him, if not perhaps that he considered him such a ruler of his people, so faithful a minister of his whole house, that he was worthy, even then, of that contemplation, so that, as he desired, he saw God as he is—a contemplation promised to all his sons at the end of life?

"And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses: I pray, Lord, do not lay upon us the sin, since we did not know that we sinned. Let her not be made like death, and like a miscarriage cast out from the mother's womb, and it has consumed half of her flesh." He wishes in this to show that that people was indeed formed in the womb of its mother the synagogue, yet could not arrive at a perfect and whole birth. For just as a miscarriage is an imperfect and unformed birth, so also that people was for a certain time indeed placed within its mother's womb, that is, within the instruction of the synagogue; but, with sins intervening, it could not be formed to completeness and quickened, and therefore they were cast off like an imperfect and untimely miscarriage, sin, as he says, consuming half of its flesh. Yet there is sometimes even a good miscarriage. And it is called a good miscarriage when it is compared with others, just as Ecclesiastes too says: "and I said: a miscarriage is better than that one." Than which one? "He who," he says, "goes forward in vanity and walks in darkness." He does not then call a miscarriage good absolutely, but better than a life which is led in vanity and in the darkness of ignorance. And with him there is a certain comparison of individuals; for the same Ecclesiastes says also elsewhere that the dead are better than the living. And if again you compare a miscarriage with these, you would say it is better than both. If therefore you consider who are the living and who are the dead, than whom a miscarriage is better in that it has not even tasted the beginnings of the life of this world, you will find what the differences are in this comparison. Consider, then, that he there names as living none other than those of whom it is said in the Psalms: "yet truly every living man is vanity." Every man, therefore, who lives in vanity. For not every life is in vanity, but that life which is according to the flesh and according to the errors and pleasures of the world — this is the life of vanity, and above this is everyone who is dead to this life and who says: "but to me the world is crucified, and I to the world," and of whom it is said: "you are therefore dead with Christ." These, therefore, are better than those living. But above these a miscarriage is said to be, because, although it may seem to have come in the flesh, yet it has taken up no beginnings of the vanity of this life. Yet Ecclesiastes introduces also a certain other, as it seems, even better than this one, of whom he says: "and best above these is he who has not yet been born," that is, he who has not even come to the confinement of the fleshly womb and to the injury of a bodily nativity. But this very thing, too, which Ecclesiastes says: "I praised all the dead more than the living, those who live up to now," how does it not evidently show that he calls those better who are dead to the world, and pronounces those inferior who live to the world? For if you wish to understand it according to the letter, how are the dead to be praised more than the living? For one is usually praised in that which he does by good will and purpose. But this common death comes to no one by will nor by purpose. How, then, will anyone seem worthy of praise in that which he suffers against his purpose? Otherwise Pharaoh king of Egypt, who was submerged in the sea, will be praised above Moses, who escaped alive from the sea. And the Egyptians, who died in the waters, will be praised more than the people of God, who passed over on dry ground in the midst of the sea. Do not, then, understand it thus, but know that you are to be praised as dead when you can say: "I am crucified together with Christ. But now it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me." If you have renounced the world, if you have cast off vices, if you are now no longer moved to sin, but are dead to sin, you are better than he who lives to sin, and that death will be praiseworthy in you. For on account of this common death, which comes to each one by the law of nature, no one is praised. These things, although by way of digression, yet it was fitting to call to mind in that place where the word of God says that Miriam, on account of the fault of disparagement and on account of the blow of rebuke, was made a miscarriage, so that we might show that there is both a blameworthy and a praiseworthy miscarriage. Indeed, the Apostle too, knowing that in those ranks of which we spoke above there is a certain praiseworthy rank of miscarriage, says even concerning himself: "and last of all, as by one born out of due time, he was seen also by me," reckoning himself indeed above the living and above the dead, yet after those who have not yet been born. Miriam therefore becomes as a miscarriage; for that people could not be formed to completeness in the law, just as Paul too pronounces, saying: "for the law brought no one to completeness." Indeed the same Apostle, concerning certain ones whom, fallen from the faith and, as it were, turned into a miscarriage, he was restoring again to the institutions of a perfect nativity, says: "my little children, of whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you."

Miriam and her company spake evil of Moses, and he immediately begged them off from their punishment; nay, would not so much as let it be known that his cause was avenged. But not so we: on the contrary, this is what we most desire; to have all men know that they have not passed unpunished.

"And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying: God, I pray you, heal her." And whom did it behoove to pray to the Lord for the healing of that people except Moses? Moses prays for them; and perhaps this was what he was conversing about with the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was transformed on the mountain, asking of him that, when the fullness of the Gentiles had entered in, then all Israel might be saved. "And the Lord said to Moses: if her father had spat in her face, would she not be ashamed for seven days? Let her be separated for seven days outside the camp, and after this she shall enter in." What is it, "if her father had spat in her face, she would be ashamed for seven days"? We placed Miriam in the place of the synagogue; upon her, her father spat in the face. It is a sign of repudiation to be spat upon in the face. Indeed, it is written in the law, where it is commanded that a neighbor should marry the widow left by his neighbor, that if the neighbor should wish to repudiate the marriage, he should, unshod, be spat upon in the face, and this was given as a sign of repudiation. Hence therefore Miriam, that is, that people, when she is repudiated by God, is said to be spat upon in the face. We have also in another place the signification of spittle, when Isaiah says: "all the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are reckoned as spittle." It is shown therefore in this that that people too, like the other nations which are reckoned as spittle, has been cast off. And truly, if you consider that former honor, when the pontifical order flourished among them, when there were the insignia of priests, when the Levitical ministries, when the majesty of the temple, when the prophetic splendor, and when they enjoyed fellowships with the heavenly ones upon the earth — what an honor that was, what glory! And again, if you now look at how they bristle with such great disgrace, without temple, without altar, without sacrifice, without prophet, without priesthood, without any heavenly visitation, scattered through all the earth and living as fugitives: who would not evidently recognize that their father spat in their face and drenched their countenance with ignominy? Seven days, therefore, she is separated outside the camp. We have already said in the earlier passages too that these seven days designate the week of this world; for in the week of days the substances of all the visible creation seem to have been brought forth; for then the things which were not came to be. But in the week of the whole world, by a certain dispensation secret and known to God alone, the things which were then brought forth are unfolded. Meanwhile in this week, in which Miriam is sequestered, the camp of the children of Israel is not moved, but they stand shut up in one place and there is no advance whatever for them, until Miriam is cleansed from her leprosy.

Every kind of honour and happiness was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that which is written, "My beloved ate and drank, and was enlarged and became fat, and kicked." [Deuteronomy 32:15] Hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and sedition, persecution and disorder, war and captivity. So the worthless rose up against the honoured, those of no reputation against such as were renowned, the foolish against the wise, the young against those advanced in years. For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as every one abandons the fear of God, and has become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world. [Wisdom 2:24]

For thus it is written: "And it came to pass after certain days, that Cain brought of the fruits of the earth a sacrifice unto God; and Abel also brought of the firstlings of his sheep, and of the fat thereof. And God had respect to Abel and to his offerings, but Cain and his sacrifices He did not regard. And Cain was deeply grieved, and his countenance fell. And God said to Cain, Why are you grieved, and why is your countenance fallen? If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, have you not sinned? Be at peace: your offering returns to yourself, and you shall again possess it. And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go into the field. And it came to pass, while they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." [Genesis 4:3-8] You see, brethren, how envy and jealousy led to the murder of a brother. Through envy, also, our father Jacob fled from the face of Esau his brother [Genesis 27:41-45]. Envy made Joseph be persecuted unto death, and to come into bondage. [Genesis 37:18-28] Envy compelled Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he heard these words from his fellow-countryman, "Who made you a judge or a ruler over us? Will you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?" [Exodus 2:14] On account of envy, Aaron and Miriam had to make their abode without the camp. [Numbers 12:14-15] Envy brought down Dathan and Abiram alive to Hades, through the sedition which they excited against God's servant Moses. [Numbers 16:33] Through envy, David not only underwent the hatred of foreigners, but was also persecuted by Saul king of Israel. [1 Samuel 21:10-15]