Joshua 5

Joshua 5:2

John Damascene: Now, this was a figure of baptism, for, just as circumcision cuts off from the body a part which is not useful but a useless superfluity, so by holy baptism are we circumcised of sin. It is obvious that sin is a superfluity of concupiscence and of no use. For it is impossible for anyone not to have any concupiscence at all or to be entirely without any taste for pleasure, but the useless part of pleasure, this is the sin which holy baptism circumcises. — ORTHODOX FAITH 4.25

Justin Martyr: The former is said to have circumcised the people a second time with knives of stone (which was a sign of this circumcision with which Jesus Christ Himself has circumcised us from the idols made of stone and of other materials), and to have collected together those who were circumcised from the uncircumcision, i.e., from the error of the world, in every place by the knives of stone, to wit, the words of our Lord Jesus. For I have shown that Christ was proclaimed by the prophets in parables a Stone and a Rock. Accordingly the knives of stone we shall take to mean His words, by means of which so many who were in error have been circumcised from uncircumcision with the circumcision of the heart, with which God by Jesus commanded those from that time to be circumcised who derived their circumcision from Abraham, saying that Jesus (Joshua) would circumcise a second time with knives of stone those who entered into that holy land. — Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter CXIII

Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius: Also Moses himself: “In the last days the Lord God will circumcise your heart that you may love the Lord your God.” And in like manner in Jesus [Joshua], the son of Nun, the successor of Moses, we note: “And the Lord said to Jesus [Joshua]: Make for yourself knives of stone exceedingly sharp and sit and circumcise a second time the children of Israel.” He said that this second circumcision would not be of the flesh as was the first, which the Jews still practice, but of the heart and spirit, which Christ, who was the true Jesus, gave. — EPITOME OF THE DIVINE INSTITUTES 4.17

Origen of Alexandria: After these things the son of Nave is commanded “to make knives of stone and, sitting down, to circumcise the children of Israel a second time.” I would in this place inquire of the Jews how anyone can “be circumcised a second time” with a carnal circumcision. For once a person is circumcised, he has nothing further that can be taken away a second time. But by us, to whom it is said that “the law is spiritual,” see how worthily and fittingly these things are resolved. For we say that he who has been instructed in the law and taught through Moses has cast off the errors of idolatry and laid aside the superstition and worship of images. This is the first circumcision, through the law. But if he comes from the law and the prophets to the faith of the gospel, then he receives also a second circumcision through “the rock, which is Christ,” and there is fulfilled that which the Lord said to Jesus: “today I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from the children of Israel.” And just as the Apostle said: “for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ,” so also we in this place can fittingly say: they were circumcised “of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.” For unless a person has been cleansed through the gospel by the second circumcision, he cannot lay aside “the reproach of Egypt,” that is, the enticements of bodily vices. — HOMILIES ON Joshua 5.5

Origen of Alexandria: What does it profit, if we fast for our sins and again commit sins? What does it profit to have washed and again to wallow in the mire? Have you fasted for some time? It is as though in the meantime you had departed from Egypt. You have crossed the Red Sea, you have followed Moses, observing that is to say the precepts and commandments of the law; but now Jesus has received you from Moses, who also “circumcises you a second time,” in the place which is called “the hill of foreskins.” You must therefore be circumcised not only of the worship of idols, which you cast away in the beginning, but again avarice too must be circumcised from you, which is the subtler worship of idols. Finally Jesus, circumcising the people with a second circumcision, speaks thus: “Today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt.” So long as we sin, so long as the vices of the passions reign in us, even though, having abandoned the images, we seem to have departed from Egypt, yet the “reproach of Egypt” has not been taken away from us. If therefore you receive this second circumcision of the vices and cut away from yourself every vice of anger, pride, envy, lust, avarice, iniquity and the rest of the like, then the “reproaches of Egypt” will be wiped away from you, and, carried over into the land of promise, you will receive the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, through the true Jesus, Christ our Lord and Savior, “to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.” — HOMILIES ON Joshua 1.7

Tertullian: In the course of the appointing of a successor to Moses, Hoshea the son of Nun is certainly transferred from his pristine name and begins to be called Jesus [Joshua]. Certainly, you say. This we first assert to have been a figure of the future. For, because Jesus Christ was to introduce the second people (which is composed of us nations, lingering deserted in the world previously) into the land of promise, “flowing with milk and honey” (that is, into the possession of eternal life, than which nothing is sweeter). This had to come about not through Moses (that is, not through the law’s discipline) but through Joshua (that is, through the new law’s grace), after our circumcision with “a knife of rock” (that is, with Christ’s precepts, for Christ is in many ways and figures predicted as a rock). Therefore the man who was being prepared to act as images of this sacrament was inaugurated under the figure of the Lord’s name, even so as to be named Jesus [Joshua]. — AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 9

Augustine of Hippo: The Lord said to Joshua, “Make yourselves sharp stone knives, or, as the Greek says, of sharp stone and start circumcising the children of Israel again.” In relation to this precept, the question arises of knowing why it was said again, when no man had to be circumcised twice. Well, it is said again because the people were circumcised in some of their individuals and not in others. And so it is said that the circumcised is circumcised again; not man, but the people. What follows demonstrates what we affirm. The Scripture says: And Joshua made himself sharp knives of stone and circumcised the children of Israel in the place called Collado de los Prepucios. For this reason Joshua circumcised the children of Israel. To all those who had been on the journey, and to those who were uncircumcised of those who had left Egypt, all of these were circumcised by Joshua. For Israel had lived forty-two years in the wilderness of Mabdarit and, therefore, they were uncircumcised from among them many of the warriors who had left the land of Egypt, who had disobeyed the commands of God, and the Lord He had promised that they would not see the land he had sworn to give his parents, land that flows with milk and honey. Instead of these he put his sons, whom Joshua circumcised, since they had not been circumcised on the road (Joshua 5,2-7). It is evident, therefore, that not everyone was uncircumcised, but only some. Some children of those who had left Egypt had not been circumcised in that town, and Joshua could circumcise them. It is about the children of those who begot in the wilderness and despised circumcising them because they were disobedient to the law of God. There is no reason to think that this testimony of the law serves those who believe that baptism should be repeated to those who have already received the sacrament of Christian baptism, because in reality no man was circumcised twice. Only the people were circumcised, who had already been circumcised in some of its members, but in others not yet. And if it were possible for God to somehow command a man to be circumcised twice, could anyone say that this was commanded because those Israelites had been circumcised by the Egyptians or by some heretics, separated from the Israelite community? Well, as the motive for which God commanded it appears quite clearly, men can find no defense here of their error. — QUESTIONS ON JOSHUA, Q. 6 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Joshua 5:4

John Damascene: The circumcision was given to Abraham before the law, after the blessings and after the promise, as a sign to set him and those born of him and those of his household apart from the Gentiles in whose midst he was living. And this is obvious, because, when Israel spent forty years alone by themselves in the desert without mixing with any other nation, all those who were born in the desert were not circumcised. However, when Joshua brought them across the Jordan, they were circumcised and a second law of circumcision was made. For, under Abraham a law of circumcision was given, and then it was inoperative for forty years in the desert. Then, after the crossing of the Jordan, God again gave the law for a second time, as is written in the book of Joshua, son of Nave [Nun]: “At that time the Lord said to Joshua: make knives of stone from the sharpest rock, and sitting down circumcise the second time the children of Israel”; and a little further on: “for during forty-two years Israel dwelt in the wilderness of Midbar, and for this reason very many were uncircumcised of the sons of the fighting men who had come out of Egypt, who had disobeyed the commandments of God and to whom he declared that they should not see the good land which he had sworn to give to their fathers, the land flowing with milk and honey. The children of these he made to succeed in their place whom Joshua circumcised because of their not having been circumcised in the way.” Hence, circumcision was a sign by which Israel was set apart from the Gentiles among whom they lived. — ORTHODOX FAITH 4.25

Joshua 5:8

Origen of Alexandria: Those who were disobedient to the commands of the Lord are called uncircumcised. From this it is understood that those are named uncircumcised who do not obey the commandments of God. But nevertheless both the circumcised and the uncircumcised — because God loves every soul — he does not utterly abandon. For he sent Jesus, who would circumcise all at once, both the worthy and the unworthy — not Jesus the son of Nave, for that man did not circumcise the people with a true and perfect circumcision — but Jesus our Lord and Savior. For it is he who truly cuts away from us the pollution of the flesh and purges from our heart and soul the defilements of sins. Listen, then, to what Scripture says in those things which were prefigured through the son of Nave. “But the children of Israel, having been circumcised,” it says, “rested, sitting in the same place in the camp, until they were healed. And then the Lord said to Jesus: this day I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you.” For it is not enough for us to be “circumcised,” but also after circumcision to be “healed,” that is, until the very wound of circumcision closes over with a scar. When, then, is the scar closed over the wound of our circumcision? I judge it thus, that to be circumcised through our Jesus is to lack vices, to lay aside evil habits and the worst practices, to cut away foul and disordered manners and whatever shrinks back from the rule of honor and piety. But when we do this in the beginnings, we are constrained by the very difficulty, so to speak, of the newness, and as though with a certain labor and grief of soul we change the faults of our old habit by a new practice. And therefore there is, as I said, a certain difficulty in the beginnings, and only with hardship and pain are we able to amputate the first things and take up the second. This, then, seems to me to be the time in which, as though in the pain of our circumcision, we are said “to remain, until,” the scar having closed, “we are healed.” And we close the scar when we now fulfill the new practices without difficulty, and what before seemed difficult, as being unaccustomed, turns into a habit for us. And then indeed we are said truly to be “healed,” when, lacking vices, by a new practice we turn virtue into nature. — HOMILIES ON Joshua 6.1

Joshua 5:9

Origen of Alexandria: Let us see, however, what this very thing is which is said: “today I have taken away the reproach from the children of Israel.” All men, even if they come from the law, even if they have been instructed through Moses, nevertheless have “the reproach of Egypt” in themselves, the “reproach” of sins. Who will be like Paul even according to the observance of the law? Hear then him himself saying: “according to the righteousness which is in the law, having conducted myself without blame.” Yet he himself declares and says: “for we too were once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, serving desires and various pleasures, in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” Do these things not seem to you to be “reproaches,” and “reproaches of Egypt”? But from the time that Christ came and gave us the second circumcision “through the washing of regeneration” and cleansed our souls, we cast off all these things and in their place took up the pledge of a good conscience toward God. Then through the second circumcision the “reproaches of Egypt” were taken away from us and the vices of sins were cleansed. Let no one, therefore, if he has been wholly converted, if he has repented from the heart, if he has faithfully departed from the streams of the Jordan, if he has been cleansed by the second circumcision through the gospel, fear the “reproaches” of past transgressions. You hear that “today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt.” This the Lord signifies also in the Gospels, when he says: “your sins are forgiven you,” “but now sin no more, lest something worse befall you.” For if after the remission of sins you sin no more, truly “the reproach of Egypt has been taken away from you.” But if you sin again, again the old reproaches are rolled back upon you, all the more so as it is a much greater crime “to trample the Son of God underfoot and to count the blood of the covenant a polluted thing” than to neglect the law of Moses. For much greater is the reproach of him who fornicates after the gospel than of him who, being placed under the law, does so, because this one, taking away “the members of Christ, makes them members of a harlot.” You see, then, how much graver and more heaped-up are the reproaches that are rolled back upon you, if you have been negligent. Indeed, now no one accuses you as guilty of debauchery, but condemns you for the crime of sacrilege, because it is said to you: “know you not that your bodies are the temple of God?”; “but if any man violate the temple of God, God shall destroy him.” Even if you were formerly ignorant of these things, yet now, from the time that these words are spoken in your ears and a doctrine of this kind is poured into your heart, know that, having heard these things, you have now been made “the temple of God” and “a member of Christ.” See how much you have advanced from an earthly little man: you have without doubt progressed into “the temple of God,” in which God ought to dwell, and you who were flesh and blood have advanced so as to be “a member of Christ.” But just as this advance is great, so also the departure is terrible and the fall irremediable. For now it is not permitted to you to use “the temple of God” except in holiness, nor to recall “the members of Christ” to an unworthy business. And therefore, if ever the enticement of some evil concupiscence assails you, mindful of these things which you now hear, go to meet that enemy who “proceeds from” your very self, that is, “from your heart,” and resist him in such words as these; say: “I am not my own, for I have been bought with a price,” “the blood of Christ,” and I have been made “a member” of him—it is not permitted to me “to take a member of Christ and make it a member of a harlot.” Say to him that I have been made “the temple of God”—it is not permitted to me to bring anything unclean in there, nor is it lawful for me to violate “the temple of God.” But add this too, that “he who fornicates sins against his own body,” not only against this body which has been made “the temple of God,” but also against that which is spoken of, that the whole “church is the body of Christ,” and he seems to offend against the whole church who defiles his own body, because through one member the stain is diffused into the whole body. There is also that “reproach of Egypt” which, if you have been negligent, is suggested even after the crossing of the Jordan and after the second circumcision of baptism by the branding of old habit: to observe auguries, to inquire into the courses of the stars and to search out the outcomes of future events from these, to keep omens, and to become entangled in the other superstitions of this kind. For Egypt is the mother of idolatry, from which it is certain that “reproaches” of this kind sprout up; and if, when the Jordan has already been crossed, you take these up and again bind yourself in these snares, you without doubt drag “the reproaches of Egypt” along with you. But if ever such curiosity accosts you and an enemy of this kind bursts forth “from” your “heart,” say to him that I follow Jesus as my leader, in whose power are the things that are to come. What need have I to know the things that are to come, since the things which he wills are the things that shall be? Therefore, in order that in us the second circumcision may be truly completed, through which we may lay aside the old “reproaches of Egypt,” we ought to be utterly separated from all these things, so that, purified in body and heart, we may also “lift up pure hands” to God, and with a pure mouth also and cleansed lips and a sincere mind, we may by prayer and deeds glorify God in Christ Jesus our Lord, “whose is the power and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.” — HOMILIES ON Joshua 5.6

Origen of Alexandria: What does it profit, if we fast for our sins and again commit sins? What does it profit to have washed and again to wallow in the mire? Have you fasted for some time? It is as though in the meantime you had departed from Egypt. You have crossed the Red Sea, you have followed Moses, observing that is to say the precepts and commandments of the law; but now Jesus has received you from Moses, who also “circumcises you a second time,” in the place which is called “the hill of foreskins.” You must therefore be circumcised not only of the worship of idols, which you cast away in the beginning, but again avarice too must be circumcised from you, which is the subtler worship of idols. Finally Jesus, circumcising the people with a second circumcision, speaks thus: “Today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt.” So long as we sin, so long as the vices of the passions reign in us, even though, having abandoned the images, we seem to have departed from Egypt, yet the “reproach of Egypt” has not been taken away from us. If therefore you receive this second circumcision of the vices and cut away from yourself every vice of anger, pride, envy, lust, avarice, iniquity and the rest of the like, then the “reproaches of Egypt” will be wiped away from you, and, carried over into the land of promise, you will receive the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, through the true Jesus, Christ our Lord and Savior, “to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.” — HOMILIES ON Joshua 1.7

Joshua 5:10

Origen of Alexandria: After they observed the Passover in Egypt, they began the exodus. In the book of Joshua, however, after the crossing of the Jordan, on the tenth day of the first month they encamped in Gilgal.…Then the sons of Israel observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month much more cheerfully than the one in Egypt, seeing that they also “ate unleavened bread and fresh from the grain of the holy land,” a food better than the manna. For God does not feed them on lesser foods when they have received the land according to promise, nor do they obtain inferior bread through Jesus [Joshua] who is so great. This will be clear to the one who has perceived the true holy land and the Jerusalem above. — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF John 6.233-35

Origen of Alexandria: And so at last the divine word rightly says to us those things which follow: “this day I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you,” because, after “the reproach of Egypt was taken away,” it is then said: “and the children of Israel kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month.” For they could not “keep the Passover” before circumcision, nor eat the flesh of the lamb immediately after circumcision, before they were “healed.” But after they “were healed,” it is said that: “the children of Israel kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month.” You see, then, that no one unclean “keeps the Passover,” no one uncircumcised, but whoever is clean and circumcised, just as the Apostle also interprets it, saying: “for indeed Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” … But meanwhile, after Jesus led his people into the holy land, then, when all had been conquered, he celebrates the Passover. — HOMILIES ON Joshua 6.1

Joshua 5:11

Origen of Alexandria: But at that time, indeed, when the people went out from the land of Egypt, “each carried, sprinkled in his garments,” what was strewn. But when what was strewn had run out and they had no bread, God “rained down manna” for them. But when they came to the holy land and “took the fruits of the province of the palms,” the “manna failed” them, and then they began to eat of the fruits of the land. And so three kinds of food are described in general. The first, indeed, is that on which we feed as we go out from the land of Egypt, but this suffices for a little time. After this, however, the manna succeeds. But the third we now “take” as “fruit” from the holy land. In which differences, as far as the understanding of my littleness reaches, I judge this to be indicated: that the first food, which we carried with us as we went out from Egypt, is this small schoolboy learning (or even, if perhaps someone has attained something of liberal letters), which can help us but a little. But placed in the desert — that is, in this state of life in which we now are — we feed on the manna through this, that we are instructed by the teachings of the divine law. But whoever has deserved to enter the “land of promise” — that is, to attain those things which have been promised by the Savior — he will eat the “fruits from the region of the palms.” For truly he will find the “fruit of the palm” who, having overcome the enemy, has arrived at the things promised. For it is certain that, however great those things are which we can now understand or perceive in the law of God or in the divine writings, far more sublime and lofty will be those which, when the “riddle” ceases, all the saints will deserve to “see” “face to face,” because “the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have ascended into the heart of man, these has God prepared for those who love him.” — HOMILIES ON Joshua 6.1

Origen of Alexandria: But see what fruits he first receives in the land of promise: then, it says, “they ate” first “of the fruits” from the region of palms, and “they ate” first “the unleavened bread.” You see, therefore, that when we have first departed from the journey of this world, if we rightly follow Jesus, the first thing that meets us is the palm of victory, and, when the “leaven of malice and wickedness” has been cast away, the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” is prepared for us. — HOMILIES ON Joshua 1.4

Joshua 5:12

Bede: “And Jesus said to them: ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.’ " He desired first of all to eat the typical Passover with his disciples and thus to reveal the mystery of his passion to the world, so that the judge of the ancient and lawful Passover would emerge and forbid this to be displayed to have pertained to the type of its dispensation by further carnal teaching but would demonstrate instead through the passing shadow that the light of the true Passover has now come. The time and order of Joshua finishing the manna beautifully prefigures this, where it is written: “And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho, and they ate from the fruit of the earth on the next day, unleavened bread from the grain of the land of the same year. And the manna ceased after they ate of the fruit of the earth, nor did the children of Israel use that food any more.” For, when Moses died, Joshua restored the people whom he had provided with manna for a time across the Jordan, by which food he himself was also restored, even though he knew and formerly tasted of the fruit of the promised land. Thereafter, he crossed the Jordan, circumcised with knives made of stone and did not take the customary manna for three and one half months, until the day of Passover. In fact, Joshua was ordained leader when Moses died because Christ was incarnated when the law had been corrupted by the traditions of the Pharisees. Joshua fed with and was fed by manna across the Jordan because, until the time of his baptism, the Lord observed the ceremonies of the law and wanted them to be observed by everyone else. After they had crossed the Jordan, Joshua circumcised the people with knives made from stone because the Savior celebrated the grace of baptism with thoughts that the law, in its severity, had been unable to cut off the attractions of faith. And for three and one half years [after his baptism], although provoking gradual movement toward the promised heaven, Christ does not cease to observe the sacraments of the law, as though to be nourished with the customary manna, until, while eating the desired Passover with his disciples at a foreordained time, as morning was breaking, he finally offers the most pure sacrament of his body and blood, consecrated on the altar of the cross for imbuing the faithful, as though it were the unleavened bread of the promised land. — On the Gospel of Luke 6.22

Origen of Alexandria: But if the law is to be understood according to the letter alone, the children of Israel will without doubt be found — when they were using better things, for they were taking manna from heaven — to have received worse things from the promise, whereas, when the Egyptian foods first failed them, a better food had succeeded, the manna from heaven. And how now will it be thought that, when the better food ceased, a worse succeeded, unless because a greater and truer meaning is grasped in the spiritual understanding than in the text of the letter? — HOMILIES ON Joshua 6.1

Origen of Alexandria: But see what fruits he first receives in the land of promise: then, it says, “they ate” first “of the fruits” from the region of palms, and “they ate” first “the unleavened bread.” You see, therefore, that when we have first departed from the journey of this world, if we rightly follow Jesus, the first thing that meets us is the palm of victory, and, when the “leaven of malice and wickedness” has been cast away, the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” is prepared for us. — HOMILIES ON Joshua 1.4

Joshua 5:13

Eusebius of Caesarea: Joshua, the successor of Moses, calls the leader of the heavenly angels and archangels and of the supernal powers and as if he were the power and wisdom of the Father, entrusted with the second rank of sovereignty and rule over all, “prince of the host of the Lord,” although he saw him only in the form and shape of a man. At any rate, it is written: “And it came to pass, when Joshua was in the field of the city of Jericho, he lifted up his eyes, and saw a man standing over against him, holding a drawn sword, and he went to him and said: ‘Are you one of ours, or of our adversaries?’ And he said to him, ‘I am prince of the host of the Lord and I have now come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the ground and said to him, ‘What does my Lord command to his servant?’ And the prince of the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Loose your shoe from off your feet, for the place on which you stand is a holy place.’ " Here, too, you will perceive from the identity of words that this is no other than he who also spoke to Moses. — ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 1.2

Isaac of Nineveh: Divine providence surrounds all persons at all times, but it is not visible except to those who have purified their souls of sin and think about God at all times. To these it is luminously revealed at that time; because when they have undergone great temptations for the sake of truth, then they receive the faculty to perceive sensibly as if with eyes of flesh also when necessary, even palpably, according to the kind and cause of the temptation, as if for greater encouragement.So it was with Jacob and Joshua son of Nun, Hananiah and his companions, Peter and others to whom the form of a man appeared to encourage them and to console their faith. — ASCETICAL HOMILIES 5.31-32

John Damascene: Joshua, the son of Nun, and Daniel bowed in veneration before an angel of God, but they did not adore him. For adoration is one thing, and that which is offered in order to honor something of great excellence is another. — ON DIVINE IMAGES 1.8

John Damascene: Joshua the son of Nun did not see the angel as he is by nature, but an image, for an angel by nature is not visible to bodily eyes, yet he fell down and worshiped, and Daniel did likewise. Yet an angel is a creature, a servant and minister of God, but not God. And they fell down in worship before the angels, not as God, but as God’s ministering spirits. Shall I not make images of friends? Shall I not honor them, not as gods but as the images of God’s friends? Neither Joshua nor Daniel worshiped the angels they saw as gods. Neither do I worship an image as god, but through the images of Christ and of the holy Theotokos and of the saints, I bring worship and honor to God, because of the reverence with which I honor his friends. God did not unite himself with angelic nature but with human nature. God did not become an angel; he became a man by nature and in truth. — ON DIVINE IMAGES 3.26

Origen of Alexandria: And therefore one must beware and act carefully, so that you may knowingly discern the kind of visions, just as Joshua the son of Nun also, when he saw a vision, knowing that there was temptation in this, at once inquires of him who appeared and says: “Are you ours or of our adversaries?” So then the advancing soul also, when it has come to this point, that it now begins to have discernment of visions, will thereby be proved to be spiritual, if it knows how to discern all things. Finally, therefore, among the spiritual gifts as well, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is said to be the discernment of spirits. — HOMILIES ON Numbers 27.11

Origen of Alexandria: “And it came to pass,” it says, “when Jesus was at Jericho, that looking up with his eyes he saw a man standing over against him, and a drawn sword was in his hand. And Jesus, drawing near, said to him: are you ours, or of our adversaries? And he said: I am the prince of the host of the Lord’s power; now I have come.” “Looking up,” then, “with his eyes he sees the prince of the Lord’s host,” as one who had not “looked up” before, but only then, when he was about to see the “prince of the Lord’s host.” Yet when Jesus had seen him, he did not see him as a common man, but understood that he was a certain power. Nevertheless he is not yet certain whether the one who appears is one from the divine powers or from the contrary ones, and therefore he asks and inquires, saying: “are you ours, or of our adversaries?” — HOMILIES ON Joshua 6.2

Augustine of Hippo: When Joshua saw a man in front of him with his sword unsheathed, and when he answered him, he told him that he was the leader of the army of the Lord’s army, and Joshua, prostrate on the ground, replied: “What do you command your servant? (Joshua 5,15), we can ask if Joshua prostrated himself before an angel and called him Lord or, rather, understanding who had sent him, called him Lord and prostrated himself before him. Joshua, as the text says, was in Jericho, not in the city itself, whose walls had not yet fallen, which would happen immediately, so that the Israelites could enter the city, but was in the field adjoining the city, as the translation of the Hebrew says. — QUESTIONS ON JOSHUA, Q. 7 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Joshua 5:14

Desert Fathers: A brother asked a hermit, ‘Is it good to be always repenting?’ He answered, ‘We have seen Joshua the son of Nun; it was when he was lying prostrate on his face that God appeared to him’ (cf. Josh. 5:14). — The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

Eusebius of Caesarea: The same words, you will remember, were said by the same Lord to Moses at the beginning of the vision of the Bush, for Scripture says: “And when the Lord saw that he drew nigh to see, He called him from the midst of the Bush, saying, Moses, Moses, come not near here; loose thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

So, then, the command that was given shews that the God Who answered on both occasions was one and the same. Though here He prophesies through the Chief and Captain of His power, and to Moses by the vision of the angel. And of the heavenly armies, celestial powers and invisible spirits, holy angels and archangels ministering to God the King of kings and the Lord of lords (as Daniel says: “Thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him”), what other could be highest of all but the Word of God, His Firstborn Wisdom, His Divine Offspring? Rightly, then, He is here called Chief Captain of the Power of the Lord, as also elsewhere “Angel of Great Counsel,” “Throned with the Father,” “Eternal and Great High Priest.” And it has been proved that the same Being is both Lord and God, and Christ anointed by the Father with the oil of gladness. Thus, appearing to Abraham by the oak in human form, He reveals Himself in a calm and peaceful guise, foreshowing by it His future Coming to save mankind; He appeared to Jacob, as to an athlete and a champion destined to wrestle with enemies, in the form of a man, and to Moses and the people in the form of cloud and fire, and led them, shewing Himself terrible and shadowy.

And as Joshua, the successor of Moses, was about to fight against the former possessors of Palestine his enemies, foreign and most ungodly races, He rightly appears to him with a sword drawn and pointed against the enemy, shewing by the vision that He Himself is about to attack the ungodly with an unseen sword and with divine power, the fellow-soldier and the fellow-combatant of His people. Wherefore He gives Himself the name of Chief and Captain of the Lord to suit the occasion. — The Proof of the Gospel (Book V), Chapter 19

Origen of Alexandria: And he says: “I am the prince of the host of the Lord’s power; now I have come.” And when he had heard this, Jesus worshiped and said: “Lord, what do you command your servant?” What is it that Jesus teaches us through this? That, without doubt, which the Apostle says: “do not believe every spirit, but test whether it is of God.” Jesus, then, recognized not only that “he is of God,” but that he is God; for he would not have worshiped had he not recognized God. For who else is the “prince of the host of the Lord’s powers” but our Lord Jesus Christ? For all the host of heaven, whether angels or archangels, or powers “or dominions or principalities or authorities,” all these, which were made through him, do military service under him as prince, who is the prince of princes and who bestows principalities upon princes. For it is he who says in the Gospel: “be one having authority over ten cities,” and to another: “be one having authority over five cities.” It is he who, “having received the kingdom, returned.” — HOMILIES ON Joshua 6.2

Joshua 5:15

Jerome: Now, grasp the mystical meaning of Holy Writ. As long as we are walking through the wilderness, it is necessary that we wear sandals to cover and protect our feet, but when we shall have entered the Land of Promise, we shall hear with Jesus [Joshua], the son of Nave [Nun]: “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place upon which you are standing is holy.” When, therefore, we enter into the kingdom of heaven, we shall have no need of sandals or for protection against this world, but—to give you a new thought—we shall follow the Lamb that has been slain for us. — HOMILY ON THE Exodus 91

Origen of Alexandria: But meanwhile let us see what the present reading suggests. Jesus is at Jericho; the enemies still hold the city and are not yet conquered. Yet already it is said to Jesus: “loose the shoe from your feet; for the place in which you stand is holy ground.” And how is Jericho “holy ground,” which is held by the enemies? But perhaps this is what is indicated: that wherever the “prince of the host of the Lord’s power” comes, he sanctifies the place, because Jericho itself was not a holy place; but because the “prince of the Lord’s host” came there, the place is called “holy.” I even dare something further, and say that even where Moses stood, of itself it was not a holy place, but because the Lord stood with Moses, the presence of the Lord had sanctified the place, and therefore it is said to him: “loose the strap of your shoe: for the place in which you stand is holy ground.” Whence we too, if by our life and merits we draw near to the Lord and are made worthy for God to stand by us, it is said also to us that we should loose from the feet of our soul whatever bond of mortality is bound to them. For these are the “feet” which Jesus “washes”; which, “unless he washes them, we shall have no part with him.” So then, if we loose from our soul and senses every bond of mortal care, immediately God too will gladly be present and stand by us. — HOMILIES ON Joshua 6.3