Bible with Ordinary Gloss and Nicholas of Lyra

Titus 3

continues from previous page: are useful for a testimony in the place of the second circumcision, to signify to us that when we arise from the washing, we ought to carry with us the firmest examples of an apostolic life, because they are spiritual; thus these things are worthily and conveniently solved. For he who is educated in the law through Moses has put aside the error and guilt of idolatry. This is the first circumcision through the law. If, however, he arrives at the Gospel, he will receive the second circumcision through the rock, which is Christ the Anointed One; he will remove from him the reproach of Egypt. For those who were purged by the Gospel through a second circumcision do not put aside the reproach of Egypt. For even if all come from the law and are educated through Moses, they still have the reproach of sins. Whence the Apostle Paul says: We were also once foolish and incredulous, erring in desires and pleasures. But after Christ came, who through baptism circumcised and purged our souls a second time, we cast away all these things, and through this, we took up the questioning of a good conscience toward God. Therefore, let no one fear the reproach of sins if he has been entirely converted and has repented from the heart, has faithfully crossed the Jordan, and has received the second circumcision, hearing: "Today I have taken away from you the reproach of Egypt" Job 8. Whence elsewhere: "Your sins have been remitted, now do not sin, lest something worse befall you." For if after the remission of sins you do not sin again, the reproach of Egypt has been taken away from you. If, however, you sin again, the reproaches of Egypt will roll back upon you, all the more so because it is a greater crime to trample upon the Son of God, to hold the blood of the covenant as polluted, and to neglect the law of Moses Hebrews 10. For it is a much greater reproach for one who is under the Gospel to commit fornication than for one who is under the law, for one who takes the members of Christ and makes them the members of a prostitute 1 Corinthians 6. Finally, no one charges him with debauchery, but condemns him for a sacrilegious crime, because he says to him: "Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of God?" If anyone violates the temple of God, God will destroy him. Furthermore, he who commits fornication sins against his own body. Not only this body, which through hearing and retaining the word of God in the heart has been made a temple of God, but also that of which it is said: "Because the whole Church is the body of Christ," and he who has stained his own body is seen to offend against the whole Church, because through one member the stain is diffused into the whole body Ephesians 1.

a to the people. i.e., not one man.
Gods, and circumcise the sons of Israel. ¶ He did what the Lord had commanded, and he circumcised the sons of Israel on the hill of foreskins. b This is the cause of the second circumcision. All the people who came out of Egypt, those of the male gender, all the fighting men, died in the desert through the long circuits of the way; they were all circumcised. But the people who were born in the desert through the forty years of the journey of the vast wilderness, were uncircumcised until they should presume, they who had not heard the voice of the Lord, and to whom He had sworn before that He would show them the land flowing with milk and honey. Their sons succeeded to the place of their fathers, and they were circumcised by Joshua, because as they had been born, they were in the foreskin, and no one had circumcised them on the way. b After all were circumcised, they remained in the same place of the camp until they were healed. And the Lord said to Joshua: f "Today I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you." And the name of that place was called Galgala a circle/revelation: because while one walks in the foreskin of infidelity through the desert of this life, he is blind; but once he has been circumcised, his eyes are immediately revealed until this present day. c And the sons of Israel remained in Galgala and...

born in Egypt; for then (as they say) many were circumcised, since many Egyptians moved to Judaism and went out with the sons of Israel from Egypt, as is held in Exodus 12. But this view does not seem true. First, because it has no authority from the Scripture, which makes no mention of this circumcision. Second, because a journey was imminent, with the Egyptians compelling them to leave, and therefore if circumcision was delayed in the desert, following the imminent journey, as will be seen, by the same logic and more strongly, circumcision would have been delayed then. Also, at that time they had no time for leavening, because the Egyptians were compelling them to leave, as is said in Exodus 12, and therefore they would have had much less time to circumcise such a great multitude. Therefore, it is said otherwise: that this circumcision is solemn in a second respect to that which Abraham performed at the command of the Lord, then he was circumcised with all the males of his house, as is held in Genesis 17. b On the hill of foreskins: that place is named because there the foreskins were removed from the sons of Israel. c All the people: as mentioned, except for those who were of the tribe of Levi, as is said in Numbers 3. d The people who were born in the desert, etc., follows: were uncircumcised. For the people of Israel moved their camp at whatever hour the cloud moved, providing them with guidance. And because the movement of the cloud was uncertain to them, therefore it was done dispensatorily that those who had been born in the desert remained uncircumcised until this time, because it is dangerous for those newly circumcised to travel or be carried on a journey. e To whom He swore before. From this, it seems that God did not keep His oath, because they did not see the land of promise. It must be said that the oath was conditional, i.e., if they did not offend God with such an offense that they deserved to be punished by death. Or it must be said that if they did not enter the land of promise in their own persons, they did enter it in their sons, in whom in a certain way the fathers remain. f And the Lord said to Joshua, etc. This is explained in two ways by our expositors. In one way, so that "reproach of Egypt" is taken passively: that is, what the Egyptians suffered from the sons of Israel, by reproachfully calling them uncircumcised. But this does not seem a reasonable statement, because the sons of Israel were subject to the Egyptians and in great depravity, as is held in Exodus 1, and therefore it is not credible that they reproached the Egyptians. In another way, taking "reproach of Egypt" actively: that is, what the Egyptians brought upon the sons of Israel, i.e., the reproach of depravity. Because in the exit from Egypt they were freed from the servitude of the Egyptians, yet this liberty was perfectly declared when they were in the land of promise, and therefore it is said that that place was called Galgala, which signifies liberty. But this statement does not seem to fit the text, because the taking away of the reproach is seen to be referred to the circumcision, when it says: "Today I have taken away," etc., because on that day they were all circumcised. Also, what is taken as the proper meaning of Galgala is not true, because neither Jerome nor Remigius interpret this name in such a way. Therefore, it is interpreted otherwise, as will be seen; it is interpreted otherwise according to the Hebrew, namely that while the sons of Israel were asking the king of Egypt to leave his kingdom, as is held in Exodus, the Egyptians, who observed the stars, said to them: "Where do you wish to go? Behold, the constellation shows the future shedding of your blood if you depart." In the circumcision performed by Joshua, the blood of the circumcised people was shed, which shedding was not for their disgrace and evil, but rather for their good, because circumcision was a signet of faith. And thus the word of the Lord is explained, saying: "Today I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you," as if to say: The shedding of your blood, which the Egyptians said would be to your disgrace and evil, I have turned to your praise and good through circumcision. g That place is named Galgala, which is interpreted as wheel or circulation, because the skin that is cut off through circumcision has a circular shape. h And they did, etc. This deals with the celebration of the Passover, when it is said: c And they did the phase Passover.

Nicholas of Lyra

a c Circumcised the second time. And some said this, that the same man can be baptized twice, and likewise circumcised. But this is false, because the same persons were not circumcised who had been circumcised before; for the children who were born in the desert remained uncircumcised, as is clear in the text. And therefore when it says: "Circumcise the second time," it is understood as "solemnly," because this was the second solemn circumcision, i.e., with respect to which it is called "second," it is said in various ways. For the Hebrews say that it is second with respect to that circumcision which was performed that night in Egypt when the Lord went through the firstborns.
a c And circumcise the second time, etc. Through this, that the circumcision performed by Joshua is the second, it is shown that it was a figure of spiritual circumcision. For legal circumcision was the first; spiritual, however, is the second and true; and the first was a shadow, Romans 2: "For he is not a Jew who is one in the manifest, nor is circumcision that which is manifest in the flesh, but he is a Jew in the hidden, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in the letter." b c And they did, etc., the phase. Through the phase the sacrament of the Eucharist was signified, as has been said. But it is said in the book of Exodus 12, then truly through this, that the circumcised performed the phase, it was signified that those who are spiritually circumcised ought to partake of the sacrament of the Eucharist.