O That All the People Might Prophesy: The Spirit on the Seventy and the Spirit on All Flesh
Old Testament: Numbers 11:25-29
And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, taking away of the spirit that was in Moses, and giving to the seventy men. And when the spirit had rested on them they prophesied, nor did they cease afterwards. ... Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp. Forthwith Josue the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and chosen out of many, said: My lord Moses forbid them. But he said: Why hast thou emulation for me? O that all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his spirit!
Old Testament, also: Joel 2:28
And it shall come to pass after this, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
New Testament: Acts 2:4, 16-17
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. ... But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass, in the last days, (saith the Lord,) I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
The connection
Moses could not carry the people alone, and the Lord shared out what rested on him. He came down in a cloud, "taking away of the spirit that was in Moses, and giving to the seventy men. And when the spirit had rested on them they prophesied" (Numbers 11:25). Two who had stayed in the camp prophesied as well, and Josue wanted them silenced. Moses answered with a wish larger than the camp: "O that all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his spirit!" (Numbers 11:29). Joel turns the wish into a promise: "I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Joel 2:28). At Pentecost Peter stands up and says the promise has come: "this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel", "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh" (Acts 2:16-17), and the apostles "were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:4). The Greek keeps the shape of the first gift: in the Septuagint the Lord takes "of the spirit" on Moses, apo tou pneumatos, and at Pentecost He pours out "of my Spirit", apo tou pneumatos mou. What was a share for seventy elders becomes a share for all flesh, and Joel's old men, presbyteroi, bear the name the seventy bore. Cyril of Jerusalem reads Moses' wish as a prophecy spoken without knowing it. Moses means "give it upon all; as yet indeed the grace is partial, then it shall be given lavishly", and "he secretly alluded to what was to happen among us on the day of Pentecost". Cyril names the method in the same breath: "Thou seest the figure everywhere the same in the Old and New Testament" (Catechetical Lecture 16.26).
Moral sense
The first response to the gift was jealousy on another's behalf. Josue, loyal and chosen, cried "My lord Moses forbid them" (Numbers 11:28), and Moses would not have it: "Why hast thou emulation for me?" (Numbers 11:29). Cyril hears the reproof gently: "I think not, however, that thou hast said this in envy". The Gospel sets the same scene again. John tells Christ, "we saw a certain man casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us", and Christ answers as Moses did: "Forbid him not; for he that is not against you, is for you" (Luke 9:49-50). In the Septuagint the young minister who says "forbid them" is named Iesous, and in the Gospel it is Jesus who says "forbid him not"; the Greek verb is the same, koluo, in both. Grace is not rationed, and the soul that wants it kept for its own circle has not yet understood the Giver. "All these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he will" (1 Corinthians 12:11). The remedy for envy of another's gift is Moses' prayer: that the Lord would give it to all.
Anagogical sense
The pouring out did not stop at the upper room. When Peter preached to Cornelius, "the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word", and the faithful were astonished "that the grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Gentiles also" (Acts 10:44-45), far from the tabernacle, like Eldad and Medad. The Catechism reads these oracles to their end: at the "end time" the Lord's Spirit "will renew the hearts of men, engraving a new law in them" and "will gather and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples" (CCC 715). Moses asked that all the people might prophesy; the last page of Scripture shows the answer, a whole people speaking with one voice as the Spirit gives: "the spirit and the bride say: Come" (Apocalypse 22:17).
The Fathers
St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 16.26: "give it upon all; as yet indeed the grace is partial, then it shall be given lavishly." And: "he secretly alluded to what was to happen among us on the day of Pentecost; for He Himself came down among us." And: "Thou seest the figure everywhere the same in the Old and New Testament."
Warrant
Patristic because Acts quotes Joel, not Numbers, and no New Testament verse cites Moses' wish; the reading of Numbers 11 as a figure of Pentecost is drawn by Cyril of Jerusalem, who names it a figure. The index finds no other Father citing Numbers 11 with Joel 2 or Acts 2, so the tier rests on Cyril. The wording supports it: the Septuagint of Numbers 11:25 has the Lord take apo tou pneumatos, of the spirit, and Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17 have ekcheo apo tou pneumatos mou; the Vulgate keeps the partitive in Numbers 11:25, de spiritu, and Acts 2:17, de Spiritu meo. The seventy are presbyterous in Numbers 11:25 and Joel's old men presbyteroi. The echo of Numbers 11:28-29 in Luke 9:49-50, prohibe eos against nolite prohibere and koluson against me kolyete, is my own reading, not a Father's; so is the note that the Septuagint names Josue Iesous.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 715.
The verses
Numbers 11:25 · Numbers 11:26 · Numbers 11:27 · Numbers 11:28 · Numbers 11:29 · Joel 2:28 · Acts 2:4 · Acts 2:16 · Acts 2:17
