Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 18 and Irenaeus Selections: The New Creation in Christ “Recapitulates” the Old

Numbers 18 - In this chapter it is made very explicit that for all times only the Levites are to do service at the tent of meeting and of the Levites only those of Aaron’s family are to be priests of the sanctuary.  Out of the offerings and sacrifices established the Levites shall be entitled to the meat. 

They are also entitled to every first-born male but he is to be ransomed by payment of five shekels of silver.  The Levites are entitled to this tithe because of their service to the Lord and because the work of service will prevent them from having a share in the Promised Land.  And out of all the tithes contributed by the people, the house of Aaron will be entitled to a tithe of the tithes. 

The Lord calls the arrangement he makes with the tribe of Levi and “inviolable covenant to last forever before the Lord, for you and for your descendants” (18:19). Schocken editors translate it a “covenant of salt” because salt prevents decay. So we see the entire religious establishment assigned its duties and stations and the whole placed at the center of Israeli life and culture, both physically and economically the Levites are at the center of the community for in a very real sense they are responsible for holding it together and holding it under the protection of the Lord.

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180 AD)

Selections from the Work Against Heresies

Book V – Redemption and the World to Come

The New Creation in Christ “Recapitulates” the Old

Some Glimpses of Irenaeus’ Teaching on the Last Things

33 – It is “[b]ecause of this, when he came to his Passion, that he might declare to Abraham and those with him the glad tidings of the opening of the inheritance, after ha had given thanks as he held the cup, and had drunk of it, and given to the disciples, he said to them: ‘Drink of this, all of you. For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. For I say to you that I will not drink of the produce of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it with you new in the Kingdom of my Father.’”

There will be “hundredfold” rewards for the faithful in the “times of the Kingdom, that is, on the seventh day, which is sanctified, in which, in which God rested from all his works which he made; this is the true Sabbath of the just, in which they will have no earthly work to do, but will have a table prepared before them by God, who will feed them with dainties of all kinds.”

Just like references to the Promised Land to Abraham, later promises to Isaac and Jacob, also are metaphorical and relate primarily to the ultimate restoration of all the earth to God’s original plan. When Isaac blesses his son Jacob, he says “’Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a rich field, which God has blessed.’ The field [here referred to] is the world—and therefore he added: ‘God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fertility of the earth, abundance of grain and of wine. And the nations will serve you, and princes will worship you, and you will be Lord over your brother, and the sons of your father will worship you. . . If one does not take this as referring to the destined [times] of the Kingdom, he finds himself in great contradiction and confusion . . . For not only did the nations not serve Jacob in his life, but he, when he set forth after this blessing, served his uncle Laban the Syrian for twenty years. Not only was he not made lord of his brother, but he himself worshiped Esau his brother, when he came back from Mesopotamia to his father and offered many gifts to him.”

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 17 and Irenaeus Selections: The New Creation in Christ “Recapitulates” the Old

Numbers 17 - The Lord tells Moses to have the people bring him twelve wooden staffs, “one from each leader of Israel’s ancestral tribes, and inscribe each leader’s name on his staff” (17:1). Aaron’s name is to be placed on the staff of the tribe of Levi.

The staffs are to be placed in the Tabernacle “in front of the Ark containing the tablets of the Covenant. Buds will sprout on the staff belonging to the man I choose. Then I will finally put an end to the people’s murmuring and complaining against you” (17:4-5). When Moses goes in the next day, he sees it is Aaron’s staff that has blossomed.  He brings the staffs out to the people and the leaders collect their staffs. Aaron’s staff, though, is to be placed “permanently before the Ark of the Covenant to serve as a warning to rebels. This should put an end to their complaints against me and prevent any further deaths” (17:10).

All of these stories tend to show that the desire of God was not to satisfy the yearning of the people for equality of position in society or interchangeability of roles in Israeli society.  They show that the Lord’s order is to put Moses and Aaron in the leadership and to designate roles for each of the tribes commensurate with a great dignity but not entirely in keeping with their human way of looking at things.  Today we have the very same striving amongst people in society and in the church. Women complain that they are just as much vehicles of God’s spirit as men and should be able to be priests, etc.  People in all walks of life claim parity with those in leadership.  Nothing in fact is harder in our society and in the church than to establish legitimacy of authority, for it is the human nature to vie against all authority.  This creates great problems for our society and hampers our ability to accomplish the goals we set for our institutions. Maybe it is the fact that this narrative serves to justify limits on the desire of communities to make democratic changes in how we structure things that makes it less appealing and interesting to us.

The chapter ends with a reprise of something we’ve heard before—the growing fear people are getting for going near the Meeting Tent.  Every time someone goes near it, it seems they are consumed.  The access to the holy is becoming more restricted - First Aaron’s own two sons; then Korah and the 250 men with him.

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180 AD)

Selections from the Work Against Heresies

Book V – Redemption and the World to Come

The New Creation in Christ “Recapitulates” the Old

Some Glimpses of Irenaeus’ Teaching on the Last Things

32 – Since there are some among us who have been influenced by the heretics we are addressing in these writings; they are therefore “ignorant of the dispensations of God . . . by which . . . those who are worthy will gradually be accustomed to receive [the fullness of] God.”

“[T]he righteous must first rise again at the appearance of God to receive in this created order, . . .made new, the promise of the inheritance which God promised to the Fathers, and will reign in this order. After this will come the judgment.”

“God is rich in all things and all things are his. It is right, therefor, for this created order to be restored to its pristine state, and to serve the just without restraint.”

“So, then, God’s promise which he promised to Abraham remains firm. For he said, ‘Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you now are, to the north and south and east and west; for all this land which you see I will give to you and to your seed forever.’ And again he says, ‘Arise and go through the land in its length and its breadth, for I will give it to you.’” But we know Abraham got “not even a footprint, but was always a pilgrim and a stranger in it.” He was able to buy a tomb for Sarah when she died, but the Promised Land – the fullness of which seems in Irenaeus’ mind to not end with the lands of Israel but reaches to the ends of the earth, the entire created earth, -- will eventually belong to Abraham’s “seed” – not now but “they will receive it at the resurrection of the just. For God is true and faithful, and therefore he says, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’” I find these very interesting NEW takes on words I have read many, many times, but never placed in the same intellectual context.

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 16 and Irenaeus Selections: The New Creation in Christ “Recapitulates” the Old

Numbers 16 – Two new rebellions—a) Korah’s rebellion and b) a rebellion led by Dathan and Abiram—The rebellions are conflated here, but they clearly are distinct.  Korah, a Levite and Moses’ first cousin, leads 250 “men of note” (16:2) to Moses, complaining as follows: “’Enough from you! The whole community, all of them, are holy; the Lord is in their midst.  Why then should you set yourselves over the Lord’s congregation?” This is the same old story—now the rebellion is from the leaders, jealous of Moses’s particular leadership role, even though they too have positions of importance, of honor even. Moses “prostrates” himself again, and tells Korah that the Lord will decide the matter the next day, that they should all bring their censers with incense to off to God and that somehow he will decide the matter. 

In a different rebellion, Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab (and Reubenites—perhaps angry because of their position in the camp) tell Moses, “Are you not satisfied with having led us here away from a land flowing with mild and honey, to make us perish in the desert, that must now lord it over us” (16:13).  Moses is furious.  His conscience is clear regarding their accusations.

Dathan and Abiram are sucked down to the nether world with everything they owned--the earth closed over them and they perished from the community (16:33-34).

As for Korah and the 250, fire comes down from the Lord and consumes them all—the story ends at 17:27 where the people express fear that every time someone approaches the Meeting Tent, he is consumed.

The story of Korah’s rebellion is hardly ever referred to today in sermons or in Christian writings, but it has always been interesting to me that it played such an important part of George Fox’s vision of the Old Testament narrative. He spends a lot of time discussing it. AND what is most interesting to me is that in his writings it intersects with an idea, which he develops that I first see in early Christian writings in Irenaeus (below) – the idea that the narrative of the Old Testament is “recapitulating” itself in the story of Christ and His redemption of all creation.

Irenaeus doesn’t do with it quite what Fox does – make it into a part of the recapitulation that happens in every believer, but he is the first I am away of who instead of just seeing predictions of what will happen in Christ, sees a recapitulation of the entire narrative line. And just to top it off – I had no plan to include these selections together on my site – it just happened!!

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180 AD)

Selections from the Work Against Heresies

Book V – Redemption and the World to Come

The New Creation in Christ “Recapitulates” the Old

19 – “So the Lord now manifestly came to his own, and, born by his own created order which he himself bears, he by his obedience on the tree renewed [and reversed] what was done by disobedience in [connection with] a tree; and [the power of] that seduction by which the virgin Eve, already betrothed to a man, had been wickedly seduced was broken when the angel in truth brought good tidings to the Virgin Mary, who already [by her betrothal] belonged to a man. For as Eve was seduced by the word of an angel to flee from God, having rebelled against his Word, so Mary by the word of an angel received the glad tidings that she would bear God by obeying his Word. The former was seduced to disobey God [and so fell], but the latter was persuaded to obey God, so that the Virgin Mary might become the advocate of the virgin Eve.”

20 – “Therefore he renews these things in himself, uniting man to the Spirit; and placing the Spirit in man, he himself is made the head of the Spirit, and gives the Spirit to be the head of man, for by him we see and hear and speak.”

21 – “He therefore completely renewed all things, both taking up the battle against our enemy, and crushing him who at the beginning had led us captive in Adam, trampling on his head, as you find in Genesis that God said to the serpent, ‘And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he will be on the watch for our head, and you will be on the watch for his heel.’ From then on it was proclaimed that he who was to be born of a virgin, after the likeness of Adam, would be on the watch for the serpent’s head—this is the seed of which the apostle says in the Letter to the Galatians, ‘The law of works was established until the seed should come to whom the promise was made.’”

If you want to see what I came to see in this, you could check out the article entitled John and Genesis.

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 14-15 and Irenaeus Selections: Doctrine of Redemption in Reply to the Gnostics

Numbers 14 – The exaggerated reports of the scouts—that the Anakim are giants, etc—bring threats of revolt from the people.  Again they yearn for the old slavery: “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt. . .Why is the Lord bringing us into this land only to have us fall by the sword?” (14:2-3)

They even agitate to appoint another leader who will bring them back! What does Moses do? He (and Aaron) prostrate themselves before the community, reassure them that the land is good, and that if they will only do what the Lord has commanded, they will be settled on the land.  But the people only “threaten to stone them” (14:10). They are afraid to trust in God; the palpable dangers ahead are more real to them than the promises they hear through Moses. 

But then there is some manifestation of the Lord’s presence among them at the Meeting Tent and once again Moses must wrestle with God for His support!  God wants to abandon them, but Moses says to God, “Are the Egyptians to hear of this? . . . by your power you brought out this people from among them. . .If now you slay this whole people, the nations . . .will say, ‘The Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them; that is why he slaughtered them in the desert’” (14:13-16) And he asks the Lord to pardon . . .the wickedness of this people in keeping with your great kindness, even as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now” (14:19). And He does—but he will not let anyone who deserted Him after having witnessed his saving presence see the land into which He is bringing the people; only Caleb will see it because he “has a different spirit and follows me unreservedly” (14:24). Joshua is also exempted.

For the present, however, the Lord tells them to turn away and set out on the Red Sea road. [This is great stuff here. I love it] Moses recounts all this to the people and they feel remorse; in their remorse, they disobey again—they go ahead with the assault rather than turning back temporarily—but they do not take the ark or Moses; this is equivalent to leaving God behind, so of course, they do not succeed.  The Amalakites and Canaanites defeat them and drive them back to Hormah (14:44-45).

Numbers 15 – Supplemental instructions are given on offerings to the Lord.  With every meat offering, there should also be a cereal offering and a libation. Also, the rules for aliens living amongst them is the same as for them (15:15).

Sin offerings for inadvertent violations are prescribed.  The main focus seems to be application of all regulations equally on Jews and aliens alike.  A Sabbath breaker is stoned. Schocken editors speculate that this could be here because it constitutes an individual act of rebellion.  And tassels are prescribed for the corners of Israeli garments to remind them of the commandments.

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180 AD)

Selections from the Work Against Heresies

Book V – Redemption and the World to Come

Doctrine of Redemption in Reply to the Gnostics

2 – The Gnostic message that the Christ came into a world that His God had nothing to do with, in order to bring man to a god who neither made nor created him” is vain and wrong. And Jesus could not have redeemed us “by his blood if he had not been truly made man.”

“For since we are his members, and are nourished by [his] creation—and he himself gives us this creation, making the sun to rise, and sending the rain as he wills—he declares that the cup, [taken] from the creation, is his own blood, by which he strengthens our blood, and he has firmly assured us that the bread, [taken] from the creation, is his own body, by which our bodies grow. For when the mixed cup and the bread that has been prepared receive the Word of God, and become the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ, and by these our flesh grows and is confirmed, how can they say that flesh cannot receive the free gift of God, which is eternal life, since it is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and made a member of him?” This is pretty deep stuff. I don’t think most modern Christians appreciate how deeply intelligent people were two thousand years ago.

“And just as the wooden branch of the vine, placed in the earth, bears fruit in its own time—and as the grain of wheat, falling into the ground and there dissolved, rises with great increase by the Spirit of God, who sustains all things, and then by the wisdom of God serves for the use of men and when it receives the Word of God becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ—so also our bodies which are nourished by it, and then fall into the earth and are dissolved therein, shall rise at the proper time, the Word of God bestowing on them this rising again, to the glory of God the Father.”

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 12-13 and Irenaeus Selections: Redemption and the World to Come

Numbers 12 – Miriam and Aaron both complain to Moses of his marriage to Zipporah, whom they consider a “despised foreigner.”

But the complaint is a pretext for their jealousy of him. “The complained, ‘Is it through Moses alone that the Lord speaks?  Does he not speak through us also?’” (12:2) The Lord orders the three of them to come out to the meeting tent where he has this to say: “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.  Why, then, did you not fear to speak against my servant Moses?” (12:6-8)

The result of it is that Miriam is afflicted with a skin disease (leprosy?) for seven days (as a result of Moses’ supplication to God to go easy on her).  God compares what he did to a father spitting in the face of a daughter—that it brings her shame that would last for a week at least (12:14).

In this interesting chapter, we see Moses’ brother and sister jealous of Moses’ intimacy with the Lord and wishing to assert their own “right” to be intermediaries between God and he people.  Schocken editors suggest this might have been inspired by the coming of the spirit on the elders in the previous chapter. How many times in the history of God’s people have people had this competitive spirit that makes them say “Is it through Moses alone that the Lord speaks?  Does he not speak through us also?” 

So it is that even those who have every reason to know and appreciate the gifts of those who seem especially called to help us know and understand God’s will, choose to challenge God’s own call by asserting their right to be treated as equals.   I guess people have always had trouble with leadership.  But God does not totally reject their assertion.  He simply maintains that Moses sees the Lord and his will more clearly.  The lovely sentence, “Now, Moses himself was by far the meekest man on the face of the earth” seems to negate any thought we might entertain that Moses sought some kind of personal authority to exalt himself.   Miriam is further punished by a week-long episode of a leprosy-like condition, but then we hear no more of this family strife among the three. 

Certainly it must not have been easy to be the sibling of Moses.  From his childhood he seemed to have been chosen for God’s special favor.  Miriam, who must have been seven or eight years his senior, stood beside the basket as it drifted along the shore near the dwelling of the Pharaoh, so she could be there when the little bundle was discovered.   It was her suggestion that reunited the baby with its mother and permitted the family to rest assured that Moses would escape the fate assigned to all the other little Hebrew boys.  And later Moses looked to Aaron to help him speak to the Pharaoh, so shy or hesitant was he in delivering God’s message to the mighty one.  Certainly they who were most likely to know the frailties and humanity of God’s prophet were also the most likely to wonder why he should be given so much authority in the gathering of God’s people.  They understood that in a human sense there was little distance between them and him.  They were therefore most likely to wonder why God’s wisdom and authority were present in him in such a large measure.

Numbers 13 - Moses sends out scouts from the tribes to ascertain the strength and character of the inhabitants of the Promised Land.  Hoshea, son of Nun of the tribe of Ephraim, Moses’ own household, is called Joshua by Moses. 

They reconnoiter the land for 40 days and find the land to be all that God promised, but the word that the inhabitants are fierce and the towns fortified, is not received well and some try to exaggerate the Israelites disadvantages so as to discourage the people and create ill-feeling towards Moses.  So Moses faces rebellion not only from his family but from some of the leaders of the tribes.

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180 AD)

Selections from the Work Against Heresies

Book V – Redemption and the World to Come

Doctrine of Redemption in Reply to the Gnostics

1 – “We could in no other way have learned the things of God unless our Teacher, being the Word, had been made man. For none could declare to us the things of the Father, except his own Word. For who else has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor? Nor again could we have learned in any other way than by seeing our Teacher, that we might become imitators of his works and doers of his words, and so have communion with him, receiving our increase from him who is perfect and before all creation.”

He is the “true man” – “redeeming us by his blood in accordance with his reasonable [Logos-like] nature, he gave himself a ransom for those who had been led into captivity. Since the apostasy tyrannized over us unjustly, and when we belonged by nature to God Almighty had unnaturally alienated us, God’s Word, mighty in all things, [reclaimed us], making us his own disciples.”

“[H]e acted justly against the apostasy itself, not redeeming his own from it by force, although it at the beginning had merely tyrannized over us, greedily seizing the things that were not its own, but by persuasion, as it is fitting for God to receive what he wishes by gentleness and not by force.” This is pretty amazing language, language brought to us in the 20^th century by men like Gandhi and M.L. King, Jr.

“So, then, since the Lord redeemed us by his own blood, and gave his soul for our souls, and his flesh for our bodies, and poured out the Spirit of the Father to bring about the union and communion of God and man—bring God down to men by [the working of] the Spirit, and again raising man to God by his incarnation—and by his coming firmly and truly giving us incorruption, by our communion with God, all the teachings of the heretics are destroyed.”

“These things did not take place fictitiously but in reality.” “He would not have had real flesh and blood, by which he paid the price [of our salvation], unless he had indeed recapitulated in himself the ancient making of Adam.” This puts to rest some of the assertions of Valentinus.

The Ebionites, “who do not accept in their souls by faith the union of God and man; but remain in the old leaven of [merely] human birth—not wishing to understand that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, and so what was born [of her] is holy and the Son of God Most High, the Father of all who thus brought about his incarnation and displayed the new birth, so that as we by the former birth were heirs of death, by this birth we should be heirs of life.”

Ebionites were a Jewish-Christian sect that regarded Jesus as the Messiah but thought they had to retain the Jewish law and rites, They looked to a separate Gospel, which is cited by other writers but has disappeared. It was said to be similar to Matthew’s Gospel but rejected the Virgin Birth.

“”They do not reflect that as at the beginning of our creation in Adam the breath of life from God, united with the created substance, animated man and made him a rational animal, so at the end of the Word of the Father and the Spirit of God, united with the ancient substance of the creation of Adam, made a living and perfect man, receiving the perfect Father, so that as in the animal we were all dead, in the spiritual we are all made alive. For Adam never escaped those hands of God, to whom the Father said, ‘Let us make man after our image and likeness.’ “

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 11 and Irenaeus Selections: The Unity and Number of the Gospels

Numbers 11 – The first of what Schocken Bible editors call “rebellion narratives,” [there will be six] the people become discontented in the year following the second Passover celebration, angering God, so that “the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp” (11:1).

Despite the organization of the people and the establishment of a kind of community order; despite the loving care of the Lord in providing manna and water for the people, a spirit of discontent and longing for the comforts of the life of slavery in Egypt comes upon the people and angers the Lord.  The immediate cause of the people’s discontent is the memory of the good foods they can no longer get: the meat, the cucumbers and melons.  They are tired of the simple sustenance God has provided them with.  But beyond the immediate causes, one senses that there is just a conflicted spirit in the people.

They are ambivalent about the freedom God has brought them into.  The desire for freedom is not unequivocal.  We desire also the things that satisfy our appetites.  If we look into the universal meaning of this story we see that we too are not single minded in our desire for the kind of freedom that comes from God. 

As George Fox puts it in his journal, “I found there were two thirsts in me, the one after the creatures, to have gotten help and strength there, and the other after the Lord the creator and his Son Jesus Christ.  And I saw all the world could do me no good.  If I had had a king’s diet, palace, and attendance, all would have been as nothing, for nothing gave me comfort but the Lord by his power.  And I saw professors, priests, and people were whole and at ease in that condition which was my misery, and they loved that which I would have been rid of.  But the Lord did stay my desires upon himself from whom my help came, and my care was cast upon him alone” (12).

We who are in the process of deliverance, the time of conversion must be stayed upon the presence of the Lord and be satisfied with the simple food he gives us.  It may not be a feast at first; we may feel ourselves called strongly by desires more superficial and more likely to lead us backward, but we should not be surprised by our ambivalence either.  The people of Israel felt restless and ungrateful at times; they even fell into complete apostasy.  The time in the desert is a time of drama, not a time of unceasing rejoicing.  It is only the power of the Lord that can bring us through.

The Lord tells Moses to assemble 70 elders: “I will . . .take some of the spirit that is on you and will bestow it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you.  You will then not have to bear it by yourself” (11:17).

But he also tells him that He will provide meat for the people—for a month, until they’re sick of meat (11:20). The sated appetite cloys after a while. Moses doubts the Lord can bring them victory, seeing there are 600,000 soldiers. 

The burdens of leadership are dramatized throughout the story of Moses’ life—he is set apart, he is alone, rejected by his people for trying to help them; he must run away, yet his “call” to lead will not leave. He feels overwhelmed by the burden God puts on him; he feels ill-equipped humanly speaking.  He is asked to do the impossible—confront the most powerful ruler on earth on behalf of an enslaved group of people.  He must deal with the frustrations of failure, the logistics of success and the burdens of leading; now he must contend with the venality of the people he wants to save, and the wrath of the God, who is angry that the people are ungrateful.  He must wrestle with God for His support and help on a number of occasions and later he will be challenged by others who feel they too should share in leading, even by members of his own family.  In the end, he will not even get to enjoy the reward of entry into the land he has labored to bring his people into.

The spirit does come down on the elders (11:25), but two men who had been asked to come, were not there. Still the spirit came to them in camp, and they prophesied [or as Schocken translates, “acted like prophets”].  Moses is told and people ask him to stop them, but he says: “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” (11:29). Then the quail come. 

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180 AD)

Selections from the Work Against Heresies

Book III – The Faith in Scripture and Tradition

The Unity and Number of the Gospels – “These, then, are the principles of the gospel. They declare one God, the maker of this universe, who was proclaimed by the Prophets, and who through Moses established the dispensation of the Law, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and besides him they know no other God, nor any other Father.”

The Gnostics know that the Gospels refute them. That is why they dispute them or cut them up [Marcion]. The followers of Valentinus turn to John, but Irenaeus repeats that the preface of John totally undermines Valentinus’ views.

Then he gets into a little Christian “numerology” – he argues that there is a reason why there are only four gospels; they correspond to the “four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is spread over all the earth, and the pillar and foundation of the Church is the gospel, and the Spirit of life, it fittingly has four pillars, everywhere breathing out incorruption and revivifying men.”

He goes on to make reference to Psalm 80, thought to have been written by David, to emphasize the “fullness” of the number four. He says, “the cherubim have four faces, and their faces are images of the activity of the Son of God. For the first living creature, it says, was like a lion, signifying his active and princely and royal character; the second was like an ox, showing his sacrificial and priestly order; the third had the face of man, indicating very clearly his coming in human guise; and the fourth was like a flying eagle, making plain the giving of the Spirit who broods over the Church. Now the Gospels, in which Christ is enthroned, are like these.” This is “the first appearance of the creatures of Ezek., ch. 1, and Rev. 4:7, 8, as symbols of the Evangelists; later the lion is assigned to Saint Mark and the eagle to Saint John” (note in online text).

The Gospel of John corresponds to the first “face” – the lion – for he “signif[ies] his active and princely and royal character.” The second, Luke, shows “his sacrificial and priestly order.” Matthew, the man’s “face” tells of his human birth, and Mark represents the eagle, for he “takes his beginning from the prophetic Spirit who comes on human beings from on high, saying, ‘The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet,’ showing a winged image of the gospel.” 

He also points out that there were four covenants “given to mankind: one was that of Noah’s deluge, by the bow; the second was Abraham’s, by the sign of circumcision; the third was the giving of the Law by Moses; and the fourth is that of the Gospel, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 9-10 and Irenaeus' Work Against Heresies: The Apostolic Tradition

Numbers 9 – The second Passover is celebrated and Moses, after consulting with the Lord, decides that uncleanness due to contact with the dead or absence on a journey will not totally prevent celebration of the holiday, but it will need to be celebrated in the second month, fourteenth day—not the first month.

The Israelites have been organized into the various offices, both military and religious that will characterize it during the time in the desert.  We see in this chapter the importance of the cloud, called a fiery cloud in directing the movements of the Israelites during their time in the desert.  The presence of the Lord for the community as a whole is made known by the presence of this fiery cloud.  The cloud comes and goes.  When it hovers over the Dwelling, the Israelites are to stay.  When it departs, the camp is to be broken and moved.  There are times when the cloud lingers over the Dwelling for days or months, and times when it lingers only for the night.  In this way the Israelites make their way around the desert and finally to the Promised Land.  The critical thing is that whether we are speaking of the leadership or of the community as a whole, the delivered people stay close to the presence of the Lord and are directed by Him in all things.  The Lord comes through the voice and through the cloud.  

It is interesting to think that the cloud of the presence may also reappear in the New Testament stories of the ascension of our Lord.  In the tradition of the church also, Mary was said to be taken up into heaven on a cloud and the Lord is believed to destined to return to us on the clouds (Matt.24: 30).

Numbers 10 – Two silver trumpets are made to be used in gathering the community—one for everyone, two for just the leaders.  When there is a signal of alarm the order of march will be as follows:  first the east side of the camp, then the south, then the west and lastly the north. They shall also have a role in signaling the start of celebrations and festivals (10:10).

The narrative continues—second year, twentieth day—the cloud rose and they set out until “the cloud came to rest in the desert of Paran” (10:12). Moses’ brother-in-law, Hobab—brother of Zipporah—is the guide; they are in the region north-west of Midian. Moses begs him to come with them since he knows the region so well, but at first he says he doesn’t want to.  Moses persists though and chances are he did go with them. (10:29-32).

Moses says, when they set out: “Arise, O Lord, [Schocken translates this, “Arise to attack, O YHWH”] that your enemies may be scattered, and those who hate you may fee before you.” And when they stop, he says, “Return, O Lord, you who ride upon the clouds, to the troops of Israel” (10:35-36).

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180 AD)

Selections from the Work Against Heresies

Book III – The Faith in Scripture and Tradition

The Apostolic Tradition

11 – John, the Lord’s disciple, proclaimed the faith and “wished by the proclamation of the gospel to destroy the error which had been planted among men by Cerinthus, and much earlier by those who are called Nicolaitans.”

“It is not true, as they say, that the Fashioner is one and the Father of the Lord another, and the Son of the Fashioner one being, the Christ form on high another, who remained free from suffering, descending on Jesus the Son of the Fashioner and returning again to his Pleroma; [they allege] that the Beginning was the Only-begotten, and Logos the true Son of the Only-begotten, and that this world order in which we live was not made by the supreme God but by some power fare inferior to him and cut off from contact with those things which are invisible and ineffable.”

“The disciple of the Lord [John] wished to cut off all such ideas and to establish the rule of truth in the Church, that there is one God Almighty who made all things by his Word, both visible and invisible, and also to indicate that through the same Word through whom God made this world order he also bestowed salvation on the men who belong to this order.” And so he starts his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God; this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made . . .” The word “All” in this preface includes this physical world we live in, not just the Pleroma they talk about.

“John himself indeed takes away all our disputes on this matter when he says; ‘He was in this world, and the world was made by him, and the world know him not.’”

“According the some of the Gnostics, this world was made by angels and not through the Word of God. According to the followers of Valentinus again, it was not made through him, but through the Demiurge.” They insist that the Word/Christ “never came into this world, and that the Savior was neither incarnate nore suffered, but that he descended as a dove upon that Jesus who was made by [higher] dispensation, and when he had proclaimed the unknown Father, ascended again into the Pleroma.”

The wine that was made from water in Jesus’ first miracle at Cana was also real and physical. And though “the Lord could have provided wine for the feasters and satisfied the hungry with food without using any object of the created order, he did not do so; but taking loaves which came from the earth, and giving thanks, and again making water into wine, he satisfied those who lay down to eat, and he gave drink to those who were invited to the wedding.” In these times too, “his Son gives to the human race the blessing of food and the favor of drink [in the Eucharist], the incomprehensible [acting] through the comprehensible and the invisible through the visible, since there is none beyond him, but he is in the bosom of the Father.” 

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 6-8 and Irenaeus Selections: The Apostolic Tradition

Numbers 6 – Nazirite vows - nazir means “set apart as sacred, dedicated.” Those who take the vow may not drink wine or strong drink (anything from grapes). He may not cut his hair or enter where a dead person is—even family.  If someone dies suddenly in his presence he must cut his hair seven days after, bring two turtle doves or pigeons to the priest to offer as sin offering and holocaust and renew his vow.

        

When the period of dedication is over, he shall go to the Meeting Tent, bring a yearling lamb for a holocaust, and unblemished yearling ewe for a sin offering, a ram as a peace offering along with cereal offering and libations with unleavened cakes and wafers.  He shall then shave his head, collect his hair and put it in the fire that is under the peace offering.  He shall then take a part of each offering and give it to the priest.  Then he may drink wine again.

        

Moses passes on a priestly blessing from the Lord for Aaron and his sons to use: “The Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you.  The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace” (6:24-26).

Numbers 7 – The princes (“exalted leaders” in Schocken) of the twelve tribes present their gifts—six baggage (litter) wagons (one for every two princes) and twelve oxen to pull them (for transporting the Tent and everything). Then follows the individual offerings of individual princes for the dedication of the altar (7:88)—one each day--emphasizes the importance of the ceremony, but is repetitious. It describes the offerings and the sacrifices given by all the tribes over a period of twelve days.

        

Of special interest is Moses’ entrance into the Dwelling in verse 89 and his hearing of God’s voice speaking from the ark between the two cherubim that decorate the ark. As the prophet of the Lord, Moses has access to the voice of the Lord and it is to this voice that Moses continually resorts for guidance.

Numbers 8 – The setting up of the lampstand and purification of the Levites. Only the priests were “consecrated”—made sacred and set aside for the Lord. Purification meant being “sprinkle[d] with the water of remission [hattat or decontamination]” (8:7); then they must shave their whole body and wash their clothes; make a sin offering. When the community is assembled before the Meeting Tent, they shall “lay their hands” on the Levites before the Lord. 

The Levites themselves are a “wave offering” (elevation-offering) made on behalf of the people (8:11). Then the Levites lay their hands on the heads of the bulls – one a sin offering, the other a holocaust “in atonement for the Levites.”  Then they shall enter into service, as substitutes for all the first-born rightfully considered God’s - those saved in the passover.  They served from age 25 to age 50.

Irenaeus of Lyons (c.180 AD)

Selections from the Work Against Heresies

Book III – The Faith in Scripture and Tradition

The Apostolic Tradition

5 – Irenaeus begins his discourse with an examination of the Writings of “those apostles who recorded the gospel.”

These apostles did not “name any other being as God.” There is only One who is Lord of all. And they did not, as the Gnostics claim, “adjust their teaching to the capacity of their hearers, . . . telling blind fables to the blind according to their blindness, to the sick according to their sickness, and to those who were going astray according to their error, and to those who thought that the Demiurge was the only God declaring that this was the case, but to those who can understand the ineffable Father expounding the unspeakable mystery by parables and riddles.”

“The is not the behavior of those who heal and give life, but rather of those who aggravate disease and increase ignorance.” “The apostles were sent to find those who were lost, and to bring sight to those who did not see, and healing to the sick, and so they did not speak to them in accordance with their previous opinions but manifestation of the truth.”

The Lord “displayed the Son of God to those of the circumcision, the Christ who was predicted by the prophets—that is, he showed himself, who restored freedom to men and gave them the heritage of incorruption. Then the apostles taught the Gentiles that they should leave the vain sticks and stones which they thought of as gods, and worship the true God, who had established and made the whole human race, and by his ordinance nourished, increased, and preserved them, and gave them their being; and that they should look for his Son Jesus Christ—who redeemed us from the apostasy by his blood, that we also might be made a holy people—who is to come down from heaven in the power of the Father, and who is to execute judgment upon all, and give the good things that come from God to those who have kept his commandments.”