Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
An angel from Sinai proclaims and promulgates the Decalogue to the entire Hebrew people. Second, in verse 21, Moses ascends to God hidden in the darkness of the summit of Sinai, and is commanded by Him to make an altar of earth or unhewn stone.
Vulgate Text: Exodus 20:1-26
1. And the Lord spoke all these words: 2. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3. You shall not have strange gods before Me. 4. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is on the earth below, nor of those things which are in the waters under the earth. 5. You shall not adore them, nor worship them: I am the Lord your God, strong, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me: 6. and showing mercy to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments. 7. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes the name of the Lord his God in vain. 8. Remember to keep holy the sabbath day. 9. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God: you shall do no work on it, you, and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, your beast, and the stranger who is within your gates. 11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and He rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it. 12. Honor your father and your mother, that you may be long-lived upon the land which the Lord your God will give you. 13. You shall not kill. 14. You shall not commit adultery. 15. You shall not steal. 16. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17. You shall not covet your neighbor's house: nor shall you desire his wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to him. 18. Now all the people saw the voices and the lamps, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and being terrified and struck with fear, they stood afar off, 19. saying to Moses: Speak to us, and we will hear: let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die. 20. And Moses said to the people: Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His terror might be upon you, and that you might not sin. 21. And the people stood afar off. But Moses drew near to the darkness in which God was. 22. And the Lord said further to Moses: Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. 23. You shall not make gods of silver, nor shall you make gods of gold for yourselves. 24. You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall offer upon it your holocausts and peace offerings, your sheep and cattle, in every place where the memory of My name shall be: I will come to you and bless you. 25. But if you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of hewn stones: for if you lift a chisel upon it, it shall be polluted. 26. You shall not go up by steps to My altar, lest your nakedness be revealed.
Verse 1: And the Lord Spoke All These Words
1. AND THE LORD SPOKE ALL THESE WORDS. — The trumpet, which until now had given the confused sound of a bugle, now, with the angel distinguishing the sounds, gave an articulate sound of the following words, namely the Decalogue. For the angel representing God here, as a legislator, promulgated it with a trumpet-like voice that could be heard by all the people (by three million persons). So say Gregory of Nyssa, Philo, and others.
The angel therefore says: "I am the Lord your God," etc., because he speaks in the person of God; just as the Viceroy of Naples in his edicts says and writes: "We, King Philip, command," etc., because he issues commands and orders in the name of King Philip.
Hence Prosper, book 1 of the Promises, last chapter, thinks the Jews were so called because they received the "jus" (law) of God, that is, the law of God. But this is merely a fitting allusion to the Latin name; for otherwise it is certain that the Jews in Hebrew are called and named after the patriarch Judah, Genesis 49:8.
Verse 2: I Am the Lord
2. I AM THE LORD. — Here begins the Decalogue, which I shall more conveniently explain in its entirety at Deuteronomy 5:6; for there it is found complete in a better order.
Verse 18: All the People Saw the Voices
Verse 18. AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAW THE VOICES. — "Saw" means perceived not by sight but by hearing, that is, heard. For the Hebrews often interchange one sense with another, and especially use "seeing" for any sense, because sight is the most excellent and certain of all the senses, says St. Augustine, Question 72: see Canon 5. To "see" voices here therefore is the same as to know the voices: for, as Philo says, in his book On the Decalogue, this voice presented itself to the Hebrews so clearly and sonorously that they thought they saw it rather than heard it.
AND LAMPS — lightning flashing and flaming like lamps. See chapter 19, verse 16.
AND THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET. — The trumpet, which before the promulgation of the Decalogue had blared like a bugle and summoned the Hebrews to hear the law of God, had fallen silent while the angel proclaimed the Decalogue in articulate speech; but when the promulgation of the Decalogue was finished, it soon began again to blare and resound like a trumpet. Whence the people, fearing that God would again speak with His loud and terrible voice, asked Moses to be the intermediary himself and speak in God's place, and convey God's commands and words to the people: indeed, struck by this trumpet sound and fear, the people fell back from Sinai and stood at a distance, as is stated here.
Verse 20: To Test You
Verse 20. TO TEST — to put to the proof your fear, reverence, and obedience.
Verse 21: The People Stood Afar Off
Verse 21. AND THE PEOPLE STOOD AFAR OFF. — Understand from the preceding chapter, verse 24, that Moses with Aaron had ascended beyond the base of Mount Sinai; and that the people, or the leaders of the people, terrified by the voice of God, cried out to Moses and asked that God not speak to them, but Moses; hearing which, the Lord approved the people's petition and ordered them to return to their tents with Aaron; but He ordered Moses to remain on the mountain and to ascend to its summit, so that there he might hear the other commandments of God that follow, and report them to the people. See Deuteronomy 5:23 and following.
Verse 22: Moses Drew Near to the Darkness
BUT MOSES DREW NEAR TO THE DARKNESS IN WHICH GOD WAS. — By this darkness was signified God and the divine nature, which immeasurably transcends all knowledge of men and angels. God therefore is to Himself the supreme light, but to us He is supreme darkness: just as the sun is bright in itself, yet to the weak and feeble eye of the owl it is dim, dark, and invisible. See Pseudo-Dionysius, On Mystical Theology, chapter 1, Gregory of Nyssa here, and St. Thomas on that passage of 1 Timothy 6: "Who dwells in inaccessible light." Thus the Egyptians, signifying the immense obscurity of the divine nature, used to say that the first principle of all things was darkness, placed above all understanding. Moreover, in their sacred rites they called God three times "the unknown darkness," as Nicolaus Causinus teaches from Damascus the Platonist in the Polyhistor of Symbols, book 1, chapter 1. And truly the Psalmist, Psalm 17:12: "He made darkness His hiding place. Before the brightness of His presence the clouds passed away."
Verse 23: You Shall Not Make Gods of Silver
23. YOU SHALL NOT MAKE GODS OF SILVER. — In Hebrew there is added "with Me," that is, gods that you would worship together with Me. God here reiterates the first precept of the Decalogue, as He often does elsewhere, and insists on one God alone, because the Hebrews, accustomed to idols in Egypt, were greatly inclined toward idols. Lactantius teaches, book 1, chapter 15, that the ancients enrolled among the gods men who had served the state well, both to show themselves grateful to them, and to sharpen the virtue of others by this example and reward. Hence the lyre made Apollo, medicine made Aesculapius, agriculture made Saturn and Ceres, the vine and wine made Liber or Bacchus, and craftsmanship made Vulcan into gods. Hence Egypt worshipped Isis, and Athens, that learned city, worshipped Minerva, because the former is said to have discovered the use of linen, and the latter the use of oil and the art of wool-working. The same author, chapter 22, reports that among the Romans the originator of this superstition was Sabinus, who, to persuade the people of it, pretended to have nightly meetings with the goddess Egeria. See St. Augustine, book 4 of the City of God and following.
Tropologically, the gods of gold and silver are for the avaricious their riches and gold coins: whence avarice is called by the Apostle the worship of idols. For, as Pope Innocent III says in his book On the Wretchedness of the Human Condition: "Just as the idolater serves a statue, so the miser serves his treasure. For the former diligently expands the worship of idolatry, and the latter willingly increases his pile of money. The former carefully tends his statue, and the latter guards his treasure with every care. The former places his hope in idolatry, and the latter places his hope in money. The former fears to mutilate his statue, and the latter fears to diminish his treasure."
Verse 24: You Shall Make an Altar of Earth for Me
24. YOU SHALL MAKE AN ALTAR OF EARTH FOR ME — that is to say: You shall not make an altar of gold or silver, from which the nations make their gods and altars; but of earth, either raw, or rather baked and formed into bricks, that is to say: You shall make for Me an altar not elegant, not golden, not costly, but simple and of brick. So says Cajetan, and the Hebrew word suggests this: for in Hebrew it is not erets, but adama, which means red and clayey earth, from which bricks are made.
Such also were the ancient altars of the Romans, about which Tertullian says in his Apologeticus: "For although religion was established by Numa, not yet did divine worship among the Romans consist of either statues or temples, and there were no Capitols rivaling heaven, but only makeshift altars of turf, and vessels still of Samian ware, and the god himself nowhere." But afterwards, what temples Rome had! What altars! Hear Silius, in whom Jupiter prophesies about that Domitian:
"He shall found the golden Capitol on the Tarpeian rock, And join the summits of his temples to our heaven."
You may ask, why God wished an altar to be erected for Himself from earth or unhewn stone, and not of marble, gold or silver?
First, Rabbi Abraham responds that God forbade the stones of the altar to be smoothed, polished, or touched at all with iron, because, he says, it was unlawful for particles scraped off by a chisel from stones that were employed for so sacred a purpose to fall to the ground or onto a dung-heap. Second, Rabbi Moses Maimonides gives this reason: so that idolaters would not form idols for themselves from fragments of sacred stones for superstitious worship or magical arts. Third, Rabbi Simeon and Rabbi Moses of Gerona, as well as Diodorus, and from him Theodoret, in Question 44, give this reason: The altar, they say, was designed for salvation and for extending and prolonging human life; but this is cut short by iron: for many people are slaughtered by iron; therefore iron, which brings such destruction upon people, was not fitting to be used; hence also in the temple of Solomon there was no use of iron either as material or as a tool, to such an extent that not even iron nails were used, but bronze ones, which would otherwise have been more suitable if made of iron. Hence also Cicero, in book 2 of On the Laws, keeps bronze and iron from shrines as instruments of warfare, not of the temple. Fourth, some Latin authors give this reason: God commanded, they say, those altars that would be made in the meantime while He Himself dwelt in tents, that is, before the temple was built by Solomon in a place chosen in perpetuity, to be constructed either of heaped-up earth or only of rough stones, so that either they would quickly crumble, or the carelessly piled masses would seem more like mounds than altars, lest confusion of religions, arising from diverse altars at which ancestors had sacrificed, should follow among posterity: the Israelites feared such an evil when they heard that the Reubenites had erected a great altar near the Jordan, Joshua 22. This explanation is true, but not complete or adequate. For who would doubt that in the most polished temple of Solomon, where the other stones were cut and most finely polished, the stones of the altar were also cut and most finely polished? Especially since concerning the very floor of the temple Scripture expressly says: "Solomon also paved the floor of the temple with most precious marble, of great beauty," 2 Chronicles 3:6; and concerning the court itself it is said: "He built the inner court of polished stones," 1 Kings 6:36; and chapter 7, verse 42: "And the greater court, round about, of three rows of hewn stones." If the court was of hewn and polished stone, much more so the altar. Fifth, Andreas Masius on Joshua 8, number 43: The ancients, he says, both Jews and Christians, made the simplest altars, so that in them we would admire nothing but the victim, namely the body and blood of Christ offered by Christians, and foreshadowed by the Jews. Hence, he says, they detested it if any image were placed on the altar. But this is one of two passages which the censors of Masius noted, and judged that they should be corrected and censured. For it is certain that in ancient times there were images in the churches and on the altars of Christians; for Prudentius teaches this in his hymn on St. Cassian, where he writes that in the church of Cassian he saw his image above the altar. Thus the younger Valentinian, admonished by Pope Sixtus (as Anastasius records in the Life of Sixtus, Platina, and others), placed in the church of St. Peter upon the tomb, that is upon the altar of Blessed Peter, a golden image of the Savior.
St. Basil says similar things, in his oration on Barlaam, near the end; Gregory of Nyssa, in his oration on Theodore; Paulinus in the Life of Felix; Lactantius in his Poem on the Crucified; Evodius, book 2 of the Miracles of St. Stephen; Athanasius to Antiochus, Question 6. Masius cites Augustine and Optatus in his favor, but incorrectly, as is clear to anyone examining the passages themselves. See Bellarmine, book 2 On Images, chapter 9; yet Serarius interprets and excuses Masius in Joshua 8, Question 16.
I say therefore: The true reason why God wanted an altar made for Himself of earth, or unhewn and unpolished stone, was to call the Hebrews, who were prone to idols, as far as possible from the sculptures and paintings of idols, and from the worship and rites of the nations. For the nations were accustomed to construct splendid and magnificent altars of marble or metals for their idols (as the idolatrous king Ahaz did, 4 Kings 16:10 and 15), having removed and taken away the altar of Solomon; and on them to carve or paint images, symbols, or characters of their idols. Therefore God wanted by this law to call the Hebrews away from these things; for this law is an appendix pertaining to the first precept of the Decalogue, about not making idols and graven images: hence it is immediately appended to it, as is clear from verses 23 and 24. Therefore, lest the dull Hebrews should think that either in the skillfully made carvings of the altar, or in the precious material itself, namely gold or silver, some divine power was hidden, God wanted the altar to be made rough, from earth or from unhewn stone: for this reason Baruch, chapter 6, so earnestly exalts and despises the material, elegance, and ornaments of the idols and altars which the captive Hebrews would see in Babylon, lest, carried away by them, they should turn aside to venerate and worship them. So say St. Thomas, I-II, Question 102, article 4, ad 7, Abulensis, Cajetan, Lipomanus, and others.
To this reason Serarius adds other probable ones in chapter 8 of Joshua, Question 16. God, he says, rightly wanted the altar to be made of earth, or of rough stone: First, to signify that the sacrifices and victims of the Old Testament were rough and unformed, being types and figures of the one sacrifice of Christ Jesus, which, once offered bloodily on the altar of the cross, is customarily repeated unbloody every day. Second, to show how rough, unpolished, and hard was the altar of Christ the Lord Himself, namely the cross itself, as Procopius indicates. Third, to suggest that none of the old altars would be permanent; but just as they were easily constructed from earth and rough stones, so also they would easily be destroyed. Fourth, so that suddenly and everywhere, whenever God wished, there would be an occasion for erecting an altar to Him, since it required the least labor or skill. Fifth, to show that the Lord looked at the victims rather than the altars, and was delighted more by their purity and holiness than by the cost and art of the altars.
Symbolically, Rabbi Levi ben Gerson holds that in the temple and altar, both of Moses and of Solomon, chisels were forbidden for this reason: that from it people would understand that God is by His own nature perfect and supremely good, and does not receive any file or anything external for His own completion and perfection, just as God's altar was perfect not by any workmanship, file, or craft, but by its own material: for the altar represented God Himself.
An allegorical reason is given by St. Gregory, book 3 of the Moralia, chapter 20, and Rupert. By earth, they say, the Lord's incarnation is designated: for whatever we offer to God, we confirm on an earthen altar, that is, in faith in the Lord's incarnation. The same is signified by an altar of native and unhewn stone. And so "to make an altar of earth for God is to await the incarnation of the Mediator. On the altar of earth, therefore, we offer our gift, if we confirm our actions by faith in the Lord's incarnation," says Ansbertus, following St. Gregory, book 5 on the Apocalypse, near the beginning.
Tropologically, Isidore says: The unhewn stones are the faithful, firm in faith and in the whole and holy unity of their morals, cut and divided by no schism; of whom the Apostle says: "You are living stones, built together into spiritual houses."
AND YOU SHALL OFFER UPON IT HOLOCAUSTS AND PEACE OFFERINGS. — "Peace offerings" are victims offered for the peace and safety of the household or the state, about which see Leviticus 3.
IN EVERY PLACE WHERE THE MEMORY OF MY NAME SHALL BE. — In Hebrew: where I shall have caused My name to be remembered: for God Himself chose a definite place for His temple, altar, and sacrifice, lest, if it were permitted for anyone to sacrifice anywhere at random, schism, a new religion, idolatry, or superstition might easily creep in among the Hebrews.
The place therefore appointed by God for the altar and sacrifice was that where the ark or the tabernacle was situated at that time; but sometimes altars for sacrificing were also erected elsewhere by certain prophets or kings through God's dispensation and inspiration, or for some serious reason. For thus Samuel sacrificed at Mizpah, 1 Kings 7:9, and at Ramah, in the same chapter verse 17, and at Bethlehem, 1 Kings chapter 16, verse 5. Thus also Absalom sacrificed at Hebron, 2 Kings 15:7 and 12, even though the ark was not then in Hebron, Mizpah, Ramah, or Bethlehem, but in Kiriath-jearim, 1 Kings 7:1; while the tabernacle was first in Shiloh, then in Nob, 2 Kings 21:4 and 7; but when Nob was destroyed by Saul, the tabernacle was transferred to Gibeon; whence it was brought by Solomon to the temple he had built, and there was stored together with the ark, as is stated in 2 Chronicles 1:3, 5 and 13, and chapter 6, verse 11.
I WILL COME TO YOU AND BLESS YOU. — We rightly connect this with the preceding passage along with the Chaldee, who interprets these words thus: In every place where I shall have caused My glory to dwell (namely in the tabernacle or temple, the area, and the altar), there I will send My blessing, and I will bless you, namely by hearing your prayers, and by answering your doubts and questions, and teaching what must be done in this or that matter: God speaks here not to Moses, but to the people.
Verse 25: You Shall Not Build It of Hewn Stones
25. BUT IF YOU MAKE AN ALTAR OF STONE FOR ME, YOU SHALL NOT BUILD IT OF HEWN STONES. — This is an exception to verse 24: for there God commanded the altar to be made of earth, but here He makes an exception for unhewn stone, and commands the altar to be made either of earth or of unhewn and unpolished stone; however, He commands this stone, or earth, that is the altar itself, to be overlaid with bronze, Exodus chapter 27:2: hence the altar that Solomon made is called bronze by Scripture.
Inside, therefore, the old altar was full either of earth, as Abulensis holds in Exodus 29, Question 6; Hugo and Richard, in their book On the Tabernacle, chapter 11; or (which is more likely) of unhewn stones; for 1 Maccabees 4:47, Judas Maccabeus, rebuilding the altar destroyed by Antiochus as it had been before, is said to have placed in it whole stones according to the law; but the law here commands that unhewn stone be used, or "unshorn" as the Hebrew has it, that is unpolished, which the book of Maccabees calls "whole." Likewise the saints who erected altars elsewhere outside the regular order by God's inspiration made them of unpolished stone, as is clear from the altar of Elijah, 1 Kings chapter 18, verses 31 and 32, and from the altar of Manoah, Judges chapter 13, verse 19: whence the same is to be understood of the rest. So says Ribera, book 2 On the Temple, chapter 20.
FOR IF YOU LIFT A CHISEL UPON IT (UPON that altar), IT SHALL BE POLLUTED. — By "chisel" He means a file, or any other instrument fit for cutting, hewing, or polishing stone: for the Hebrews use "chisel" for any iron instrument, says Vatablus. "It shall be polluted," that is, it will be contaminated because of the precept and the reason already stated in verse 24, and consequently it will be unfit for victims and sacrifices.
Verse 26: You Shall Not Go Up by Steps to My Altar
26. YOU SHALL NOT GO UP BY STEPS TO MY ALTAR, LEST YOUR NAKEDNESS BE REVEALED — lest, namely, in ascending, your private parts, says Vatablus, or even your linen undergarments themselves (for priests wore only these, and they extended only to the knees: so the sacrificing priest was barefoot, as is clear from Exodus 28:42), O priest, might be seen, so that through this both the people and the priest might be reminded of chastity and of the most chaste reverence that must be observed in sacred rites.
Therefore, since the ordinary priests under their outermost linen tunic, described in chapter 28, verse 29, wore only linen undergarments, in ascending steps their undergarments could easily have been seen, or even, if these were open or parted, their private parts themselves; for this reason God here forbids these steps.
The contrary of this was done in the impure rites of Priapus, to which the Jews were very much inclined, as is clear from 1 Kings chapter 15, verses 12 and 13. Hence St. Thomas, I-II, Question 102, article 4, ad 6, and following him Nicholas of Lyra, think that steps in the altar are here forbidden to exclude idolatry. For in the rites of Priapus, they say, the Gentiles bared their private parts to the people. Vilalpando pursues this reason at length, book 4 On the Temple, chapter 79.
Indeed he explains these very words: "You shall not go up by steps to My altar, lest your nakedness be revealed," thus, as if to say: "You shall not go up by steps," not after the manner of the Gentiles, "lest," that is, with this purpose and in this manner, that from the high steps of the altar you might reveal and display your nakedness, namely your genitals, as the impure and abominable Ithyphalli did in the rites of Priapus, as Athenaeus testifies, book 14, chapter 8. But in that case, instead of "lest it be revealed," it should have said "lest you reveal." For these two seem opposed: the one is active, the other passive. Moreover, the danger of this obscenity, as well as of the worship of Priapus, was near at hand for the Hebrews in this time of Moses, and for this reason it is forbidden and guarded against by this statute. For the Hebrews were about to pass with Moses through Moabite territory, where Baal-peor, that is Priapus, was zealously worshipped, and they themselves were to be solicited by the Moabites to his worship. For thus we read in Numbers 25 that the Hebrews, lured by the girls of Moab into fornication, were initiated into the worship of Baal-peor, that is, worshipped Priapus: for which reason a plague raged against them, which Phinehas stopped by killing the prince of the tribe of Simeon, the ringleader of this crime.
You will object: 2 Chronicles 4:1 says of Solomon: "He also made a bronze altar ten cubits in height." But to ascend to this height steps were necessary; therefore Solomon made these steps, which however are here forbidden.
Abulensis and Ribera, book 2 On the Temple, chapter 20, at the end, respond that in Solomon's altar there were not wooden or stone steps, but a continuous ascent from the ground, which gradually rose uniformly upward: and so there were no distinct steps in the ascent of which the priest's nakedness could be exposed and seen by the people. Cajetan, however, thinks that not absolutely all steps are prohibited in the altar, but many and high ones, by which the nakedness of the priest could be seen: therefore a few are here permitted, especially if they ascended gradually and moderately; and so God, by forbidding steps in the altar, at the same time forbade that they make the altar too tall and lofty; yet the altar had to have a moderate height, so that the sacrifices offered on it could be seen by the people.
But I respond that this precept was temporary and lasted only during the time of the Mosaic tabernacle, namely when God dwelt with the Hebrews in tents, that is, before the stable temple was built by Solomon in a place chosen in perpetuity. For since Moses was to travel continuously with the Hebrews through the desert for forty years until Canaan, and therefore was to construct for God not a solid temple but a movable, camp-like tabernacle; God likewise wanted the altar to be movable, and therefore small, namely three cubits high, so that steps and an ascent to it would not be necessary. But Solomon, building a magnificent temple for God in the supreme peace of the state, just as he built it far larger and more magnificent than Moses' tabernacle, so likewise he built a larger and more magnificent altar, ten cubits high, to which therefore it was necessary to ascend by steps. That this is so is clear from Ezekiel 43:17, where concerning the temple of Ezekiel, which was modeled after Solomon's, it says: "Its steps faced toward the east," where, although Rabbi David and Rabbi Solomon reply that these steps were flat, namely an incline ascending smoothly and evenly like a ramp; and others say that these steps were outside the court, and were the very steps of the court by which one ascended to it: nevertheless others generally judge that these were true and magnificent steps, not of the court, but of the magnificent altar ten cubits high; and this is clear from the text. They can be seen excellently depicted in an illustration in Vilalpando, page 388. Therefore, just as Solomon's temple differed from the tabernacle and Mosaic altar in its Cherubim, porticoes, courts, columns, bronze sea, tables, lampstands, and many other things, so also in its altar and its steps it was different from the Mosaic altar, and far superior to it, although Solomon built his temple, altar, etc. on the model of Moses', preserving as far as possible the proper proportion of the structure. Moreover, it is entirely probable that Solomon made these steps of the altar so wide, close together, and well-fitted that there was no danger of the priest falling on them, and if by some chance he had fallen, his private parts would not have been exposed, nor could they have been seen by the people, since the width of the steps would have covered him and blocked the people's view. Finally, some reconcile these passages by saying that the altar of Solomon, taken precisely, was only three cubits in height, as was the Mosaic altar, and therefore had no steps by which one would ascend to it. It is said, however, in Paralipomenon that it was eight cubits in height, namely if you measure the altar together with its substructures, on which it rested as on foundations, and above which it magnificently towered. Therefore it was necessary to ascend to those substructures by steps, but from the substructures to the altar itself, taken precisely, steps were not needed. But even if this is true, this answer does not avoid the difficulty of the case. For on the steps of the substructure, the priest's private parts could have been seen, just as on the steps of the altar.
Christ gave similar temporary precepts to the primitive Church, that is to the Apostles, when He first sent them to evangelize throughout Judea, namely that they go in pairs, that they go to the Jews, not to the Gentiles nor to the Samaritans, that they not carry a staff, etc., Matthew 10:5 and following; which after Christ's death it is clear they did not observe, nor could they have observed, when they were sent to evangelize all nations throughout the whole world.
Hence an altar is said to derive its name from height, says Festus, as if it were a high platform. For the ancients offered sacrifices to the gods above in buildings raised from the earth, but to terrestrial gods they offered sacrifices on the ground, and finally to the infernal gods they offered sacrifices in excavated earth.
Allegorically, in the Most Holy Trinity no steps of inequality are to be established, as Arius did, teaching that the Son is less than the Father; and Macedonius, denying the divinity of the Holy Spirit: these therefore ascended to the altar by steps, that is, to God, and therefore were rejected and condemned by God.
Tropologically: "On the altar of your heart do not make steps, that is, do not exalt yourself on account of your progress, otherwise your shame will be revealed, because the disgrace of the flesh accompanies the pride of the mind," says Rupert. For God is accustomed to punish pride through falls of the flesh and lust, so that through such shameful and disgraceful sin, those who thought too highly of themselves may recognize themselves and their weakness, and be humbled.