In looking for the spiritual sense of Numbers 33, Origen sees two lines of interpretation emerging from the story that begins with an “exodus” from Egypt and concludes with the Israelites poised to enter the Promised Land. The “exodus” may refer to a person’s departure from his or her old life as he or she moves towards Christian perfection, or the “exodus” may refer to one’s departure from this life as he or she moves towards union with God in the next life. “Thus, employing a double line of interpretation, we must examine the entire order of stages as it is narrated, so that our soul may make progress by both interpretations, when we learn from them either how we ought to live the life that turns from error and follows the Law of God or how great an expectation that we have of the future hope that is promised on the basis of the resurrection.”109 Origen finds further evidence for this “double line of interpretation” in the fact that the name of each site at which the Israelites stop is mentioned twice. “The stages are repeated twice in order to show two journeys for the soul. One is the means of training the soul in virtues through the Law of God when it is placed in flesh; and by ascending through certain steps it makes progress, as we have said, from virtue to virtue, and uses these progressions as stages. And the other journey is the one by which the soul, in gradually ascending to the heavens after the resurrection, does not reach the highest point unseasonably, but is led through many stages.”110
The key to understanding the journey, according to Origen, is to be found in the biblical delineation of forty-two stages in both the exodus from Egypt (Num 33) and the genealogy of Christ (Matt 1).111 “Therefore, in descending to the Egypt of this world Christ passed those forty-two generations as stages; and those who ascend from Egypt pass by the same number, forty-two stages . . . And so, the person who ascends, ascends with Him who descended from there to us, so that he may arrive at the place from which He descended . . . .”112 The first and most obvious theme to arise from this is that Origen is giving a very christological form to his reading of a portion of Old Testament history. The classic descent–ascent Christology expressed, for example, in the Philippians hymn (Phil 2:6–11) is the context for a Christian reading of the Israelites’ journey. Second, the journey is an ascent. There is a movement from earthly to heavenly that requires the sojourner to pass through each of the stages in a certain sequence. Origen admonishes his hearers to leave behind the adoration of idols and fix their attention on Christ. “After this,” he continues, “let us strive to go forward and to ascend one by one each of the steps of faith and the virtues. If we persist in them until we come to perfection, we shall be said to have made a stage at each of the steps of the virtues until, when we attain the height of our instruction and the summit of our progress, the promised inheritance is fulfilled.”113 Third, the logic of the arduous journey will only be revealed when we reach our destination. Commenting on Origen’s Homily XXVII, the patristic scholar Rowan Greer notes, “The remarkable feature of his treatment is that the journey does not proceed in a straight line. As for the children of Israel, the Christian’s journey to the promised land is not by the easiest or the shortest route (cf. Exod 13:17). The long and convoluted journey has its own logic and is meant to train and prepare the soul for its destiny.”114 Origen assures his audience, “We understand these pilgrimages only dully and darkly so long as the pilgrimage still lasts. But when the soul has returned to its rest, that is, to the fatherland in paradise, it will be taught more truly and will understand more truly what the meaning of its pilgrimage was.”115
Origen offers a detailed analysis of each of the early stages of the journey, but then realizes that time does not permit him to offer commentary with that level of detail for each of the forty-two stages, so beginning with the staging site of Alush (Num 13:13) his comments on each stage are much briefer. We will first follow Origen’s more extended commentary. The Israelites start out from Ramesse [Rameses], which means “confused agitation” and travel to Sochoth [Succoth]. “Sochoth is interpreted ‘tents.’ Thus, the first progress of the soul is to be taken away from earthly agitation and to learn that it must dwell in tents like a wanderer, so that it can be, as it were, ready for battle and meet those who lie in wait for it unhindered and free.”116 The Israelites move on to Buthan [Etham] which means “valley.” A progress in the life of virtue requires testing and the valley provides that. “And a virtue is not acquired without training and hard work, nor is it tested as much as in prosperity as in adversity. So the soul comes to a valley. For in valleys and in low places the struggle against the devil and the opposing powers takes place.”117 From Buthan they travel to the border of the Iroth [Pi-hahiroth] which means “villages.” Symbolically the soul has not yet reached the city, “nor is the perfect already held, but first and for the moment some small places are taken. For progress consists in coming to great things from small ones. So the soul comes to Iroth, that is to the great entrance of a village, which is the beginning of conversion and of a moderate self-control.”118 In the distance to one side is Beelsephon [Baal-zephon] (“the ascent of the watchtower or citadel”) and to the other is Magdalum [Migdol] which means “grandeur.” Both sites represent the things to come in the journey. Passing through the Red Sea, the Israelites camp at Bitter Waters [Marah]. Here we are reminded that it is not “possible to attain the promised land unless we pass through bitterness.” After the temptations comes Helim [Elim], with its twelve springs of water and seventy (or seventy-two) palm trees. God “put some places of refreshment into the midst of toils so that the soul may be refreshed and restored by them,” but the soul must not tarry, but once again continue on the way.119 From Helim, the Israelites camp alongside the Red Sea and then move into the desert of Sin. While this again suggests temptation, the soul has become able to discern between spirits (1 Cor 12:10). After Sin, the Israelites camp at Raphia [Dophkah] which means “health.” “You see the order of the progresses, how when the soul is once made spiritual and begins to have the discernment of heavenly visions, it arrives at health.”120 At this point in his homily Origen breaks off his more detailed commentary and offers a brief observation about each of the succeeding stages on the journey.
We will confine our attention to a few more stages discussed by Origen. There are later stages which clearly mark progress, but temptations continue to appear. At Ressa [Rissah] Origen comments, “Here it becomes clear that temptations are brought to it as a kind of protection and defense. For just as meat, if it is nor sprinkled with salt, no matter how great and social it is, becomes rotten, so also the soul, unless it is somehow salted with constant temptations immediately becomes feeble and soft.”121 Interestingly, when Origen comes to Oboth, he confesses that its meaning eludes him. “Although we have not found an interpretation of this name, nonetheless we do not doubt that in this name as in all the others the logic of the progresses is preserved.”122 The penultimate stage of Abrarim opposite Nabau [Nebo] suggests “separation” (Nebo). The person at this stage has spiritually “separated” him or herself from the world. The person is in the world, but not of the world. At the final stage, Moab, the soul stands ready for entrance into the promised land. “For the whole journey takes place, the whole course is run for the purpose of arriving at the river of God, so that we may be made neighbors of the flowing Wisdom and may be watered by the waves of divine knowledge, and so that purified by them all we may be made worthy to enter the promised land.”123
Achard of St. Victor, Sermon XV
The monastic communities of both the East and the West employed and expanded the method of biblical interpretation outlined by Origen. In the twelfth century a community of Augustinian canons at the abbey of St. Victor on the outskirts of Paris produced a series of masters (e.g., Hugh, Richard, Andrew, and Achard of St. Victor) who composed an impressive collection of biblical commentaries, sermons, and theological treatises. Because the Augustinian canons were trained with a broad education in the liberal arts and had pastoral responsibilities outside the abbey, they brought both scholarly knowledge and practical wisdom to their theological work. Franklin Harkins and Frans van Liere describe “the Victorine model of scriptural exegesis [as one that] sought to embrace both scientific and spiritual culture, learning and wisdom, scientia and sapientia. It emphasized the scholarly examination of the biblical text, but always in the context of the deeper, spiritual formation of the reader.”124 In Achard’s Sermon XV we have a fine example of the Victorine model of scriptural interpretation in which wisdom and knowledge, theology and spirituality, and