Paulinus of Nola

In his own words on Joshua

• Joshua 3:16

  Then there are the deeds of Joshua, who was marked out with Christ's name; under his guidance the Jordan kept its stream stationary and its waters still as it recoiled from the countenance of the divine ark. A strange power divided the river. One section came to a halt, its stream flowing back, while another section hastened in its gliding course to the sea, leaving the river bed exposed. Where the current surged strongly from its source, it held back and piled high its waves, so that a threatening mountain of water hung poised in quivering formation and looked down to see human feet passing across the dry, deep bed, and grimy soles hastening over the congealed mud, dry-footed in mid-river.

  POEM 27.511

• Joshua 3:17

  Then there are the deeds of Joshua, who was marked out with Christ's name; under his guidance the Jordan kept its stream stationary and its waters still as it recoiled from the countenance of the divine ark. A strange power divided the river. One section came to a halt, its stream flowing back, while another section hastened in its gliding course to the sea, leaving the river bed exposed. Where the current surged strongly from its source, it held back and piled high its waves, so that a threatening mountain of water hung poised in quivering formation and looked down to see human feet passing across the dry, deep bed, and grimy soles hastening over the congealed mud, dry-footed in mid-river.

  POEM 27.511

• Joshua 6:2-5

  Though we appear unarmed in body, we nonetheless are bearing arms with which even in time of sunny peace we grapple in spirit against the unsubstantial foe. Now we need God to help us, and him only we must fear; without him our armor falls from us, but with him our armor gains strength. He will be your tower within the walls; he will be your wall where there are no walls.Let us hereafter recall the deeds of our ancestors recorded in the consecrated books. Observe who had the better protection—those enclosed in a city girded by great walls but without God, or those defended by God's strength and friendly support but without city walls. I refer to the city destroyed by the eager Joshua, whose own name was changed to delineate his power. He did not subdue it in the usual military way, by conducting the regular long and weary blockade. No, through God's help his army in sacred symbolism performed a lustration, brandishing its weapons without using them. It withdrew its violence; its arms were silent. For seven days they made seven repeated circuits round the walls. By the strength of this powerful number and by the fearful din of the priests' trumpets, which aped the flashing thunder of divine wrath, they laid hold of the enemy trapped within. Then that people which trusted in its wealth and city perished, and their graves were mingled with their houses.

  POEM 26.99-114

• Joshua 6:20

  Human salvation is useless, and my strength lends me no strength if I lack the strength of God. What good was the boundless vigor of giants? Or the kings of Egypt? Or mighty Jericho? Their own inflated glory was the cause of death for all of them, and God's power broke them not by the strength of heroes but by that of the weak. The famed giant died like a dog, felled by a shepherd boy's sling. The din of trumpets shook down the famous city. The renowned and haughty king lay dead on the sand of the shore, and the riches of the kingdom were equated with his naked corpse. So wherever Christ is with us, a web is a wall; for the person without Christ, a wall will become a web.

  POEM 16.129