5:8–12 Washing in the Jordan
Elisha’s Order to Wash in the Jordan Prefigures Baptism. Ephrem the
Syrian: Naaman was suffering from leprosy, and when he heard that a prophet who
lived under the command of Jehoram, king of Israel, could cure him, he left and
proceeded to the country of the healer and went to the house of Elisha, because
he had learned that he was the prophet who could aid him in his distress and
that he had to ask him to be healed. But Elisha did not go out to meet him or
speak to him. He informed him through a messenger: If he wanted to be healed,
he had to wash his body in the Jordan seven times. Now a question rises: Why
did Elisha prevent Naaman from seeing him and did not allow him to come into
his house? In the first place, because he had served Ben-hadad in his wars. In
fact, the prophet knew that the king of Aram had killed many children of
Israel, and how Naaman had destroyed their lands and how his hands were stained
with innocent blood, for he was the commander of the army and had received full
authority over the Arameans. In the second place, because he was stopped by the
corruption of leprosy. Elisha knew that the Law prescribed that no leper could
be approached or touched.
Naaman, as a consequence, was
enraged. Blaming and accusing Elisha, he left [saying] that he would have never
thought to come to a prophet just in order to see him act mysteriously and that
he certainly did not expect such words. He believed that his healing would be
accomplished through a simple imposition of the hands. So he blamed Elisha and
said, “Why did he not come out to meet a man of power who had come to his
house? And why did he prevent me from seeing him, and why did he not judge me
worthy of speaking to him? And why did he not heal me with the remedy he uses
and which is easy and effortless for me? On the contrary, he sends me to the
Jordan, as though that river may really purify me; but are not the rivers of my
land, the Amana and the Pharpar, sufficient for such purification?”
It is not surprising that he had
such thoughts and rebelled, the man who had heard with his own ears and
compared the words of the prophet. A man who had made his career in the army
could not have access to the mystery hidden in that unusual healing.
Therefore Naaman was sent to the
Jordan as to the remedy capable to heal a human being. Indeed, sin is the
leprosy of the soul, which is not perceived by the senses, but intelligence has
the proof of it, and human nature must be delivered from this disease by
Christ’s power which is hidden in baptism. It was necessary that Naaman, in
order to be purified from two diseases, that of the soul and that of the body,
might represent in his own person the purification of all the nations through
the bath of regeneration, whose beginning was in the river Jordan, the mother
and originator of baptism. On the Second Book of Kings 5:10–11.
Naaman Does Not Understand the Great Mystery of the Jordan. Origen:
But in addition, that we may accept the interpretation of the Jordan, that
river that is so fresh and grants so much grace, it is useful to present both
Naaman the Syrian, who was cleansed from leprosy, and the comments made about
the rivers by the enemies of religion. It is written of Naaman, therefore: “He
came with his horse and chariot and stood at the doors of the house of Elisha.
And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go and wash seven times in the
Jordan, and your flesh will return to you, and you will be cleansed.’ ”
Then Naaman becomes angry because he does not perceive that it is our Jordan,
and not the prophet, that removes the uncleanness of those who are unclean
because of leprosy and heals them. For the work of a prophet is to send one to
that which heals.
Since, therefore, Naaman does not
understand the great mystery of the Jordan, he says, “Behold, I said that he
will assuredly come out to me and will stand and call on the name of the Lord
his God and will place his hand on the place and the leprosy will recover,” for
placing the hand on leprosy and cleansing it was the work of my Lord Jesus
alone. To the man who asked with faith, “If you will, you can make me clean, he
not only said “I will, be made clean,” but in addition to the word that he
spoke, he also touched him, and he was cleansed from leprosy.
Naaman, who is still in error and
does not see how inferior the other rivers are to the Jordan for healing the
suffering, praises the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Pharphar, saying, “Are not
the Abana and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of
Israel? Shall I not go and wash in them and be cleansed?” Commentary on the
Gospel of John 6.242–45.
5:14–16 Naaman’s Flesh Restored
A Type of the Healing Granted by the Lord to All Nations. Ephrem
the Syrian: After Naaman had been persuaded by the prophet and had washed seven
times in the Jordan, he eventually acknowledged his error. He was astonished,
and a deep bewilderment took him when he realized that he had been delivered
from his filthiness. And he thanked God for his healing and testified that the
Lord of the universe, in his profound care for him, had conceded him that
extraordinary power by simply using water. He also proclaimed that his healing
could not have derived from the water of the river but had been caused by
Elisha’s command. That is why he offered royal presents, but the prophet did
not accept them and was not persuaded by the donor, even though he had pressed
him many times. For that magnificently and very clearly prefigured the mystery
of the healing, which is freely granted to all nations of the earth by our Lord
through the intercession of the apostles. And this had been promised in advance
to those masters by the prophet Isaiah, when he said, “You were sold for nothing,
and you shall be redeemed without money.”
Since all diseases are a sort of
bondage, the prophet necessarily fixed the healing at the seventh bath, in
parallel with the fact that the Law, too, orders and promises freedom for the
slave at the seventh year. On the Second Book of Kings 5:15.
The Regeneration of the Gentiles Through the Baptism of Christ.
Caesarius of Arles: Let us further see what blessed Elisha commanded Naaman the
Syrian. “Go,” he says, “and wash seven times in the Jordan.” When Naaman heard
that he was to wash seven times in the Jordan, he was indignant and did not
want to comply, but accepting the advice of his friends, he consented to be
washed and was cleansed. This signified that before Christ was crucified, the
Gentiles did not believe in Christ when he spoke in his own person, but
afterwards they devoutly came to the sacrament of baptism after the preaching
of the apostles. For this reason Elisha told Naaman to wash seven times in the
Jordan. See, brothers: Elisha sent Naaman to the river Jordan because Christ
was to send the Gentiles to baptism. Moreover, the fact that Elisha did not
touch Naaman himself or baptize him showed that Christ did not come to the
Gentiles himself but through his apostles to whom he said, “Go, and baptize all
nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Notice further that Naaman, who prefigured the Gentiles, recovered his health
in the same river that later Christ consecrated by his baptism. However, when
Naaman heard that he was to wash seven times in the Jordan, he became angry and
said, “Are not the waters of my region better, the rivers of Damascus, the
Abana and the Pharphar, that I may wash in them and be made clean?” When he had
said this, his servants advised him to agree to the counsel of the prophet.
Carefully notice what this means, brothers.
Holy Elisha, as we said, typified
our Lord and Savior, while Naaman prefigured the Gentiles. The fact that Naaman
believed he would recover his health as the result of his own rivers indicates
that the human race presumed on its free will and its own merits; but without
the grace of Christ their own merits cannot possess health, although they can
have leprosy. For this reason if the human race had not followed the example of
Naaman and listened to the advice of Elisha, with humility receiving the gift of
baptism through the grace of Christ, they could not be freed from the leprosy
of the original and actual sins. “Wash seven times,” he said, because of the
sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, which reposed in Christ our Lord. Moreover,
when our Lord was baptized in this river, the Holy Spirit came on him in the
form of a dove. When Naaman descended into the river as a figure of baptism,
“his flesh became like the flesh of a little child.” Notice, beloved brothers,
that this likeness was perfected in the Christian people, for you know that all
who are baptized are still called infants, whether they are old or young. Those
who are born old through Adam and Eve are reborn as young people to death, the
second one to life. The former produces children of wrath; the latter generates
them again as vessels of mercy. The apostle says, “In Adam all die; in Christ
all will be made to live.” Therefore, just as Naaman, although he was an old
man, became like a boy by washing seven times, so the Gentiles, although old by
reason of their former sins and covered with the many spots of iniquity as with
leprosy, are renewed by the grace of baptism in such a way that no leprosy of
either original or actual sin remains in them. Thus, following the example of
Naaman, they are renewed like little children by salutary baptism, although
they have always been bent down under the weight of sins. Sermon 129.4–5. (1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah,
Esther, ed. Marco Conti and Gianluca Pilara [Ancient Christian
Commentary on Scripture; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2008], 167-69)
