Letter 78. To Fabiola.

A treatise on the Forty-two Mansions or Halting-places of the Israelites, originally intended for Fabiola but not completed until after her death. Sent to Oceanus along with the preceding letter. These Mansions are made an emblem of the Christian's pilgrimage, the true Hebrew hastening to pass from earth to heaven.

The below translation made by ChatGPT 3.5 from this Latin text.

1. In the seventy-seventh Psalm, which we believe was spoken by the Lord's person according to the Evangelist Matthew (Chapter 13, verse 35), the story is narrated of the ten plagues in Egypt and the departure of Israel into the wilderness. And since it is certain that what has been written has been done, as if one letter sounds one thing, while the closed spirit holds another: 'I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter propositions from the beginning. What we have heard and seen, the same we have received and our fathers have told us' (Psalm 77, 2 and 3). And so the Apostle in the same words, because of the same spirit: "Now all these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1 Corinthians 10:11); and "For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: And all did eat the same spiritual food, And all drank the same spiritual drink; (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.)" (I Corinthians 10:1 et seqq.). Therefore, if a part of the history of the journey from Egypt is understood spiritually, and the other things which were omitted by the Apostle due to the shortage of time are understood to be of the same meaning. For the same Prophet who said in another place, "I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar: My soul has been too long a sojourner" (Psalm 119:5): not being able to bear the absence of the Holy Land, he laments most bitterly and says: "I remembered these things, and poured out my soul within me, that I might pass into the place of the wondrous tabernacle, even to the house of God: With the voice of joy and praise, of the multitude keeping holiday" (Psalm 41:5). And in another Psalm: "Open my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law" (Psalm 118:18). Paul also said, "The law is spiritual" (Rom. 7:14). And the Lord himself said, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me" (John 5:47). And the Gospel according to Luke: "Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). Therefore, let Jewish children and those who cannot swallow solid food, but are still nourished by milk in infancy (1 Cor. 3), read about Pharaoh's flesh and the Red Sea, through which one sails to India: and the manna like coriander: and let them hear all that is written, the leprosy of houses and of skin, and of fabric; the ox that kills and the animal guilty of adultery; and the Hebrews who, because they desire to serve a wife and children, have their ears pierced with a bodkin. But we, abandoning Capernaum, once a beautiful land, and going with Jesus into the wilderness, are fed by his loaves (Matthew 14; and Mark 6): if we are foolish and like beasts, [we eat] barley; but if rational animals, [we eat] wheat, and [bread] made from the corn. The [grain], when it falls to the ground and dies, brings forth many fruits. Egypt was struck by nine plagues, and Pharaoh was broken, so that he might dismiss the people of God. At last the firstborn were destroyed so that the firstborn of Israel might be consecrated to the Lord. Those who before desired to possess them, instantly expelled them. The exterminator passes by, and he does not dare to touch the land of Goshen, the pastoral land that had been watered by rains; for their doorposts were marked with the blood of the lamb, and they spoke by their deeds: "The light of Your countenance, O Lord, is marked upon us" (Ps. 4:7). Hence it is that the feast itself is called the Passover, which we can also call the passage, because, advancing from worse to better things, we leave dark Egypt. But now the time has come for us to fulfill the promises and follow the order of the Israelite dwellings.

2. It is written in the last part of the book of Numbers (Chapter 33), which is called Vaydabber among the Hebrews: 'These are the encampments of the children of Israel, who came out of the land of Egypt by their troops in the hand of Moses and Aaron'; which the Greeks call ἀπάρσεις, we, because of the property of the language, more significantly turned to 'mansions,' or because it is said of the army, we translate 'camps.' However, there is a list of Mansions from the first to the last; and altogether forty-two are numbered, of which Matthew speaks: "From Abraham to David there were fourteen generations, and from David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the exile to Babylon to Christ fourteen generations, that is, altogether forty-two generations" (Matthew 1.17). Through these, the true Hebrew runs, who hastens to pass from earth to heaven: and having forsaken the world of Egypt, he enters the land of promise. It is not surprising if we arrive at the kingdom of heaven by means of the sacrament of numbers in that [sacrament], under which the Lord and Savior came from the first Patriarch to the Virgin, as if to the Jordan, which, flowing in a full stream, was overflowing with the graces of the Holy Spirit. What is written as having come forth from the hand of Moses and Aaron, understand as the law and the priesthood, the works, and the worship of God; one needs the other. For exercising virtues is useless, if you do not know the Creator; and the worship of God does not benefit salvation, if you do not fulfill the precepts of the Creator. With these two hands, as if with two Seraphim, we burst forth in confession of the Holy Trinity, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts.