Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Numbers 33-34 and Origen's De Principiis: Book One: 8-9

Numbers 33 - Recounts in detail the route the Israelites take into the Promised Land and the division of that land: Egypt to Sinai (42 stations in all).

Sinai to Kadesh; then Mt. Hor to Ezion-geber; and finally, Ezion-geber to the Plains of Moab.   Moses tells the people when they enter the lands the Lord is giving them and destroy the stone figures and images of the people whose land they will be taking.  “[I]f you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them (33:55-56).

Numbers 34 - The boundaries of the land are to run on the south along the border of Edom and run up the east beginning at the Salt Sea.  The western boundary will be the Mediterranean, or Great Sea and on the north a line from the Great Sea to Mt. Hor and onward touching upon several other northern points not shown on the map.

Eleazar and Joshua are to divide the land among the tribes of Israel. The leaders of the tribes are named.

Origen (185-254 AD)

De Principiis (First Principles)

Book One

8 – For those who seek to be instructed by the Holy Scriptures, Origen points out what the Scripture says about how we are to understand the “nature of Christ. Citing Colossians 1:15, he quotes Paul saying “’He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature.’” The New Living Translation is even better for Origen’s purposes: “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.”

Origen insists it is not the “nature of God” that is visible in Christ. He would argue that God is simply not “visible” – not even to His only Begotten Son. There is a difference between being seen and being “known.” “It is one thing to see, and another to know: to see and to be seen is a property of bodies; to know and to be known, an attribute of intellectual being. Whatever, therefore, is a property of bodies, cannot be predicated wither of the Father or of the Son; but what belongs to the nature of deity is common to the Father and the Son. Finally, even He Himself, in the Gospel, did not say that no one has seen the Father, save the Son, nor any one the Son, save the Father; but His words are: ‘No one knoweth the Son, save the Father; nor any one the Father, save the Son.’”

9 – “Here, if anyone lay before us the passage where it is said, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,’ from that very passage, in my opinion, will our position derive additional strength; for what else is seeing God in heart, but, according to our exposition as above, understanding and knowing Him with the mind? For the names of the organs of sense are frequently applied to the soul, so that it may be said to see with the eyes of the heart, i.e., to perform an intellectual act by means of the power of intelligence.”

“By this divine sense, therefore, not of the eyes, but of a pure heart, which is the mind, God may be seen by those who are worthy. For you will certainly find in all the Scriptures, both old and new, the term ‘heart’ repeatedly used instead of ‘mind,’ i.e. intellectual power. In this manner, therefor, although far below the dignity of the subject, have we spoken of the nature of God, as those who understand it under the limitation of the human understanding. In the next place, let us see that is meant by the name of Christ.”

Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 4-5 and John 10:1-18

Ezekiel 4 – God tells Ezekiel how he is to embody or act out the prophecy God has given him: he lays a brick in front of him and scratches on it the name “Jerusalem.” Then he is to surround it with “siege works” - an iron pan that will fill the role of a wall between him, the besieger, and the city.

He is told to “lie down on your left side and take the sin of the House of Israel on yourself” (4:4). He must lie on his left side for 190 days, and then on his right side for 40 days. The Jerusalem Bible note says the “sides” of his body and the “days” have to do with the respective periods of exile Israel and Judah suffered.

He is then to make bread to live on during this time and bake it on a fire made from human dung. The prophet objects to this and says he has never defiled his soul with unclean eating. God relents and lets him use cow dung, a natural fuel for this region of the world. Inside Jerusalem, the people will “pine and waste away as a result of their sins” (4:17).

Ezekiel 5 – The prophet is told he must cut off his hair and beard, weigh the hair and set fire to a third of it in the middle of the city during the siege. Then another third and toss it from a sword all around the city and the last third he is to scatter – a sword will take this third down.

A little “remnant” of hair will yet remain. These are to be wrapped in the folds of his cloak. From this tiny remnant, he is to take a few and throw them on a fire. From these a fire shall again issue – it is a mystery what exactly this “fire” will be, but it could be the fire of the prophet’s message, coming as it is from the small remnant in exile. It does sound like his message.

And this is the message: “This is Jerusalem, which I have placed in the middle of the nations, surrounded with foreign countries. She is so perverse that she has rebelled more against my observances than the nations and more against my laws than the surrounding countries . . . Therefore, the Lord Yahweh says this: Since you are more rebellious than the nations around you, since you do not keep my laws or respect my observances . . . I have now set myself against you. I will inflict punishments upon you for all the nations to see” ” (5:6-8). One third of Jerusalem’s inhabitant “shall die of plague or starve to death . . . a third shall fall by the sword, outside you; a third I will scatter to every wind, while I unsheathe the sword behind them” (5:12). They will become an object of contempt and shame (5:14), an example to all the nations.

John 10:1-18 – Anyone who does not “enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit” (10:1). The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd . . .The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out . . .the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers” (10:3-5).

“I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep took no notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture”(10:7-9).

Jesus is not only the gate; he is also the shepherd who can lead them through the gate. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (10:11).

“I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (10:14-15). The Jerusalem Bible note here indicates that “knowing” here is not just mental; it is experiential knowing.

Interestingly, Jesus says also that he has “other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.  So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (10:16). Mormons think this is a reference to God’s work among other peoples in other parts of the world.

The Jews remain divided about him.