Homilies on Numbers, Homilia IV
Twenty-two thousand and the mystery of number§1
1It is written that the Levites were found to number twenty-two thousand. Numbers records many differing counts of Israel’s sons; the Levites are tallied apart. The firstborn of Israel come to twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three — an excess of two hundred seventy-three. Twenty-two is a sacred number in the Scriptures: twenty-two Hebrew letters; twenty-two fathers from Adam to Jacob; the kinds of creatures gathered under that count. So both Levites and firstborns are titled with this admirable number. The two hundred seventy-three mark the days of human generation — nine months and three days of the tenth. Thus twenty-two gathers the mystical sum of creatures; the firstborns’ surplus sets forth the mystery of human birth. The sons of Levi are divided into the orders of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari — differences not without mystery.
Latin · §1
Scriptum est viginti duo milia Levitas numero inventos esse. Liber Numerorum multas numerorum differentias de filiis Israel conscribit; Levitae seorsum recensentur. Primogeniti filiorum Israel inveniuntur viginti duo milia ducenti septuaginta tres — abundant ducenti septuaginta tres. Numerus viginti duo in scripturis sacer: viginti duo elementa Hebraeorum, viginti duo patres ab Adam usque ad Iacob, species creaturarum intra hunc numerum. Ideo Levitae et primogeniti hoc numero titulantur. Ducenti septuaginta tres dies generationis humanae significant — novem menses et triduum mensis decimi. Ita in viginti duobus summa creaturarum mystica colligitur; in abundantia primogenitorum mysterium humanae generationis exponitur. Filii Levi in ordines Caath, Gerson, Merari dividuntur diversitatibus non sine mysteriis.
Shadow of the heavenly and the Levite orders§2
2But let us return to the Apostle Paul, who sees these things with an unveiled mind’s eye and, casting off the old covenant’s veil, says that the former people served a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. Let the four camp-orders be an example of those four orders Paul numbers in the heavens when he writes to the Hebrews; add the Levites’ fourfold ministries. Kohath carries the holy of holies on the shoulders; Gershon the courts and skins of the tent; Merari the pillars and bases — strength is required. Take the number of the sons of Kohath: another order of ministry is introduced.
Latin · §2
Sed redeamus ad Apostolum Paulum, qui haec libero oculo mentis adspiciens velamen veteris testamenti abiciens ait prior populus exemplari et umbrae caelestium deservierit. Quattuor ordines castrorum exemplum sint quattuor ordinum quos ad Hebraeos Paulus in caelis numeravit; adice quaternos Levitarum. Caath sancta sanctorum in humeris portant; Gerson tabernaculi atria et pelles; Merari columnas et bases — virtute opus est. Aceipe numerum filiorum Caath: ordo alius introducitur ministeriorum.
The living church’s tabernacle and the royal priesthood§3
3Now let us return to this tabernacle of the church of the living God. The vessels of the holy things should be borne on the shoulders of rational people, not mute beasts; the harder loads are laid on the mute. Merari receives four wagons, Gershon two: more serve the cruder works as if animals; few approach the rational tasks. To the mystic things open only to priests neither the natural man nor the merely learned who have not yet risen to priestly grace may come — they see through a mirror, in a riddle, carry what is veiled on their shoulders, and know more by deed than by unveiled knowledge. Let us be made worthy of the priestly order, lest heavy burdens be laid on us as on the irrational. We are a royal priesthood; let us match received grace with the merits of life, that when we depart we may be taken among God’s priests, with unveiled face behold the Lord’s glory, and enter the holy land through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Latin · §3
Nunc ergo redeamus ad tabernaculum ecclesiae Dei vivi. Vasa sanctorum non mutis animalibus sed rationabilibus hominibus in humeris portanda sunt; duriora mutis imponuntur. Merari quattuor plaustra, Gerson duo: durioribus operibus plures quasi animalia inserviunt; ad rationabilia pauci accedunt. Ad mystica solis sacerdotibus patentia nec animalis homo nec eruditi nondum sacerdotales accedunt — per speculum et in aenigmate, operta in humeris portant, actu magis quam revelatione. Digni efficiamur ordine sacerdotii, ne irrationabilibus onera gravia imponantur. Genus regale sacerdotium sumus; acceptam gratiam vitae meritis adaequemus, ut discedentes adsumamur inter sacerdotes Dei, revelata facie gloriam Domini speculemur, et ingrediamur terram sanctam per Dominum Iesum Christum, cui gloria in saecula. Amen.