Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The second kind of sacrifice is described, namely the mincha, that is, the grain offering, and it is threefold: first, of fine flour, verse 1; second, of breads — and this again is threefold: namely of breads from the oven, from the griddle, and from the grill, verse 4; third, of ears of grain, verse 14.
Vulgate Text: Leviticus 2:1-16
1. When a soul offers an oblation of sacrifice to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil upon it, and shall put frankincense, 2. and shall bring it to the sons of Aaron the priests: of whom one shall take a handful of the fine flour and oil, and all the frankincense, and shall place the memorial upon the altar as a most sweet odor to the Lord; 3. but whatever is left over from the sacrifice shall belong to Aaron and his sons, a holy of holies from the offerings of the Lord. 4. But when you offer a sacrifice baked in an oven, of fine flour — namely unleavened loaves mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. 5. If your offering is from a griddle, of fine flour mixed with oil and without leaven, 6. you shall divide it into small pieces and pour oil upon it. 7. But if the sacrifice is from a grill, the fine flour shall likewise be sprinkled with oil; 8. and offering it to the Lord, you shall deliver it into the hands of the priest. 9. When he has offered it, he shall take the memorial from the sacrifice and burn it upon the altar as an odor of sweetness to the Lord; 10. and whatever is left over shall belong to Aaron and his sons, a holy of holies from the offerings of the Lord. 11. Every offering that is offered to the Lord shall be made without leaven, nor shall anything of leaven or honey be burned in sacrifice to the Lord. 12. You shall offer only the first-fruits of these and gifts; but they shall not be placed upon the altar as an odor of sweetness. 13. Whatever sacrifice you offer, you shall season it with salt, nor shall you remove the salt of the covenant of your God from your sacrifice. In every offering of yours you shall offer salt. 14. But if you offer a gift of the first-fruits of your crops to the Lord, from ears of grain still green, you shall toast them with fire and break them in the manner of groats, and so you shall offer your first-fruits to the Lord, 15. pouring oil upon them and placing frankincense, because it is an offering of the Lord. 16. Of which the priest shall burn as a memorial of the gift a part of the broken groats and of the oil, and all the frankincense.
Verse 1: When a Soul Offers an Oblation of Sacrifice to the Lord, His Offering Shall Be of Fine Flour
"Soul" means man by synecdoche. So "soul" is taken in chapters 4 and 5, and often elsewhere. By a similar figure, "flesh," which is the other part of man, often signifies the whole man, as in Genesis chapter 6: "All flesh" — that is, man — "had corrupted its way." John 1:14: "The Word was made flesh" — that is, man. Isaiah 40:5-6: "All flesh" — that is, man — "is grass." Note here that Scripture uses the word "soul" when there is consideration of the acts of the soul or of human dignity; but "flesh" when it regards man's lowliness.
An Oblation of Sacrifice
In Hebrew it is, an oblation of mincha, which Aquila, as Hesychius testifies in chapter 10, translates as "a gift of grain"; Vatablus translates it as "a food sacrifice"; Andreas Masius in chapter 22 of Joshua, verse 23, translates it as fertum (an offering cake). For mincha among the Hebrews is properly the sacrifice that is made from spelt or fine flour, whether it be pure fine flour, or baked in an oven, on a griddle, or on a grill. And because the other sacrifices have their own particular names, our Interpreter throughout Leviticus calls the sacrifice of fine flour, or mincha, simply "sacrifice" — which note carefully.
You ask, why did God institute this sacrifice of mincha, that is, of grain?
I answer: first, for the sake of the poor, for not everyone could buy and offer animals. So Lycurgus, the lawgiver of the Spartans, when asked why he had instituted such modest and meager sacrifices, answered: "So that the worship of the gods among us may never fail"; Plutarch testifies to this in his Life of Lycurgus. Second, to provide bread and provisions for the priests, for a large part of this sacrifice went to the priests. Third, so that, just as the Hebrews worshipped God with animals, they might also give thanks, so also they might worship with the fruits of the earth, and learn in every need and nourishment to look to God. Fourth, because a sacrifice was like a banquet in which God feasted with men, and the victims were like the food of God; but bread, whose material is spelt or fine flour, is a necessary food for men. Hence God equally required fine flour or bread in His sacrifice. That this is so is evident: first, from the fact that the victim is called "bread" — that is, the food of God — in Leviticus 21:21 and chapter 22, verse 25. Second, from the fact that the altar is called the "table of God" in Malachi 1:7 and 12. For God, whose delight is to be with the sons of men, wished by this manner to show His condescension toward men, presenting Himself as so familiar to them that He might share with them the same table and meal. Hence among the Roman Gentiles, at the banquet of Jupiter — which the seven Epulones celebrated on the Capitol — Jupiter was invited to a couch, Juno and Minerva to chairs for the dinner. From this Valerius Maximus draws the conclusion that in ancient times men reclined only on couches, while women sat in chairs.
Third, from the fact that the Seventy generally call the sacrifice karposin or karpoma, that is, "fruit," by which God feeds and enjoys Himself. Hence they call the holocaust holokarpoma, because the whole goes into fruit and the food of God. Fourth, because for this reason God commanded that in every animal sacrifice fine flour and wine should be offered, as is evident from Numbers 15, verses 4, 7, and 10; likewise salt, as is evident from this chapter, verse 13 — so that, namely, the banquet of God might be full and complete: for in every banquet there is required meat and bread for food, wine for drink, and salt for seasoning.
The Gentiles imitated the same in their sacrifices, who sprinkled the head of the victim with ground spelt (which they accordingly called mola salsa — salted meal), toasted and mixed with salt. From this mola and its rite the word immolo (I sacrifice) is derived; Lucan, Book I, is a witness to this mola:
He had already begun to pour Bacchus (wine),
And to spread the meal with the angled knife.
And Virgil, Eclogue 8: "Sprinkle the meal;" and Horace, Book II, Satires 3:
When you set the sweet daughter at Aulis in place of a heifer
Before the altars, and impiously sprinkle her head with salted meal.
And Plautus, Amphitryon: "Today one ought to have prayed with salted meal or with incense." And this from ancient times. For Numa Pompilius, who succeeded Romulus in the kingdom of Rome, decreed that "no sacrifice should be offered without flour," and he added a symbolic reason: so that, he said, by this symbol I might signify that "no small part of piety consists in taming the manners and composing them to gentleness." For flour, being soft and pliable, is a symbol of gentleness. So Plutarch in his Life of Numa. See more in Pliny, Book 12, chapter 18, and Cicero, Book 2 of On Divination. From this rite the word mactare (to sacrifice/slay) is derived, meaning "to increase more"; and victima macta, that is, "a victim more increased." For whenever flour, wine, or incense was poured over the victim, they would say: "The bull is mactus with incense or wine" — that is, the victim is heaped up and made greater with incense or wine. So Isidore, Book 10, and Giraldus, Syntagma 17.
The allegorical reason for this grain sacrifice was to signify that the flesh and sacrifice of Christ also involved and involves the nature of bread and wine in the Eucharist. Hence the flesh of Christ is also called bread, Jeremiah 11:19; John 6, verses 35, 47, 51, 58. For this is the sacrifice of mincha which Malachi predicted would be offered by Christian nations in every place and throughout the whole world, chapter 1, verse 11. For just as the victims of slaughtered animals signified the sacrifice of Christ slain on the cross, so the sacrifice of mincha signified the sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist, under the species of bread and wine.
From this it follows that this oblation of mincha, whether of bread or fine flour, was a true and properly so-called sacrifice. Although Abulensis denies this, the word mincha refutes him, which both Malachi and the Seventy and our Interpreter translate as "sacrifice." And it is evident from the rite of mincha, in which bread or fine flour was burned or otherwise changed in honor of God; for this plainly proves that the mincha was a true sacrifice, not merely a simple oblation. For in a simple oblation the thing is not destroyed or cut up, but is offered whole — for example, whole crops, fruits, nuts, leavened breads, and cooked dishes, as is evident from Numbers 15:19 and Leviticus 19:24.
You will say: The mincha was not a holocaust, nor a peace offering, nor a sin offering; therefore it was not a sacrifice. So Abulensis.
I answer by denying the consequence; for those three — namely the holocaust, the peace offering, and the sin offering — are only the division and species of the animal victim, that is, of living sacrifice, not of the inanimate. Therefore, sacrifice in general must be divided into animate and inanimate; the animate is then divided into holocaust, peace offering, and sin offering; the inanimate, however, was of two kinds: one was solid, namely of spelt and breads; the other liquid, namely the libation of oil and wine.
I add, however, that the fine flour which always had to be offered together with the animal victim was not a sacrifice distinct from it, but was as it were a libation — that is, an addition and adornment to the sacrifice, about which see Numbers 15.
His Offering Shall Be of Fine Flour
As if to say: He shall offer pure fine flour without bran, if he wishes to offer the sacrifice that is called mincha, as was stated above.
Tropologically, fine flour is the purity of conscience, says Radulphus, for this is the sacrifice most pleasing to God.
And He Shall Pour Oil upon It
God commanded oil to be poured upon the fine flour as a kind of seasoning for flavor; for bread with oil is more savory, and the most savory and choicest food must be offered to God.
The allegorical reason was that the oil might signify the charity and mercy of Christ, which He Himself showed us in His sacrifice, both of the cross and of the Eucharist. So St. Bernard on that verse of Song of Songs 1: "Your name is oil poured out."
Tropologically, we must imitate the same with cheerfulness (for oil makes the face glad); for it befits us to cling to Christian life not as sad and mournful people, but as joyful and cheerful ones, says Cyril, Book 11 of On Adoration, folio 233, and Book 15, folio 315. For the olive tree and oil are symbols: first, of reconciliation; second, of mercy; third, of peace and covenant; fourth, of cheerfulness, as I said on Genesis 8:11. The Gentiles imitated this, and their gods — or rather, demons. For, as Plutarch says at the end of his Parallels: "When Hegesistratus of Ephesus, having committed a civil murder, fled to Delphi, he asked the god where he should establish his home. Apollo answered: there, where he would see country-folk dancing crowned with olive branches. When he discovered this in a certain region of Asia, he founded a city there and named it Eleuntum (for elaion in Greek means oil); just as Ulysses, founding a city in Italy according to an oracle at the place where he had seen colonists crowned with branches of holm-oak, called it Prinistum (which is now called Praeneste); for prinos in Greek means holm-oak." So Plutarch.
Leontius relates in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver that there appeared to him at night in a dream Mercy, in the form of a most beautiful maiden more radiant than the sun, who wore a crown of olive branches on her head; and she said to him: "I am the first of the daughters of the King. If you gain me as your friend, I will lead you into the presence of the Emperor. For no one has power with Him as I do. For I indeed made Him become man on earth and save mankind." In addition, he relates that the monk Sabinus saw that the same maiden, so resplendent and crowned with olive, received John at his death and led him to God, and from this he knew that John had died at that same hour and had been taken to heaven on account of his almsgiving.
And He Shall Place Frankincense
God commands frankincense to be placed upon the fine flour to be offered, so that in this quasi-banquet of God there may be present not only a pleasant taste but also a sweet fragrance. Second, because frankincense, by the common sense of mankind, is customarily burned for God and almost for Him alone, and therefore God here commands that all of it be burned for Him. Hence Ovid, Book 14 of the Metamorphoses:
I will set up temples for you, I will pay you the honors of incense,
— divine honors, that is — as if to say: I will worship and honor you as God with frankincense. Hence also some derive thus (frankincense) from the Greek thyein, that is, from "sacrificing," because frankincense is usually sacrificed to God and used among His sacrifices. So the three Magi, adoring Christ, Matthew 2:11, by offering frankincense to the Christ child, signified and professed His divinity, as St. Ambrose, Basil, Gregory, Jerome, and Juvencus teach when he sings:
Frankincense, gold, and myrrh — gifts to the King, the Man, and God —
They bear.
Some think that in ancient times, from the earliest men, there was offered to God in sacrifice the vapor of fragrant trees, which the Greeks call thymiasis; and from this was derived thysia, that is, "sacrifice," because the first thysia, or the first sacrifice, was thymiasis — that is, the burning of incense and the kindling of fragrances. But Arnobius denies that frankincense was used in sacred rites from the most ancient times; for we read that among the heroes of the Etruscans, Romulus, Remus, and Numa, burning of incense was unknown, but the inspection of entrails was observed, and then the entrails, roasted or boiled, were customarily burned for the gods — and Giraldus teaches this from Apuleius, Syntagma 17. Nor is this surprising, since they were so far distant from Arabia, which alone is productive of frankincense. Therefore the discovery of offering frankincense to God must be attributed to Moses — indeed, to God here commanding it — for Moses was dwelling with the Hebrews in Arabia. So Hieronymus Prado on Ezekiel 8, page 119.
Note: Frankincense agrees with fine flour and the mincha in color and brightness; for frankincense is white — hence it is called lebona by the Hebrews and libanos by the Greeks, meaning "white" and "bright." Hence Scripture calls frankincense "pure" and "most bright," Exodus 30:34. And therefore, both on account of its vapor and on account of its brightness, it is most fitting to be burned for God, to whom all the brightest things are pleasing.
Pliny notes, secondly, in Book 12, chapter 14, that frankincense grows in Arabia Felix, and that it is, as it were, brought forth and cooked in summer by the summer heat, and gathered in autumn already concocted, white and most pure. But what is gathered in winter or spring, from incisions in the bark of the incense-bearing tree, is reddish, and not to be compared with the former, which emanated from the heat of summer.
Hence tropologically, frankincense and the burning of incense signify holy works, as if liquefied and smoking with the fervor of charity, which are burned for God in the fire of that same charity, and therefore emit a most sweet fragrance, most pleasing to God.
Second, frankincense signifies the virtue of religion and prayer, Psalm 141:2: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in Your sight." Hence in sacred rites the burning of incense is employed, so that those present may be reminded of interior devotion and prayer. So Hesychius, Radulphus, Bede, and others.
Third, frankincense signifies the fragrance of a good life. "Frankincense," says St. Cyril, Book 12 of On Adoration, "and fine flour steeped in oil suggest that fragrant and pure life."
Verse 2: He Shall Take a Handful of Fine Flour and Oil
Namely, a full handful of fine flour sprinkled with oil, or oiled fine flour; it is a hendiadys.
And He Shall Place the Memorial upon the Altar. — In Hebrew it is: he shall burn, or shall consume by fire, its memorial — that is, the handful of fine flour which he took, together with all the frankincense, he shall burn, so that this may be as it were a memorial and sign that this fine flour was offered as a mincha — that is, a grain sacrifice — not to the priest but to God.
Second, so that this mincha of fine flour might renew in God the memory of the one offering, and obtain from Him what the offerer requests; for thus our Interpreter explains this phrase in chapter 5, verse 12. Therefore this handful of fine flour was burned for God; but the remainder of the fine flour went to the priest. Hence it follows:
Verse 3: Whatever Is Left Over from the Sacrifice Shall Belong to Aaron and His Sons, a Holy of Holies from the Offerings of the Lord
In Hebrew it is: "a holiness of holinesses it shall be from the fire-offerings" — that is, from the offerings made by fire to the Lord — as if to say: The remainder of the fine flour offered to God shall be and shall be regarded as most holy, because it is a part of the thing — namely, the fine flour — that was sacrificed to God through fire. Hence it could not be eaten except by sacred persons, namely by the family of the priest, as is evident from Leviticus 22:10-11.
Verse 4: When You Offer a Sacrifice Baked in an Oven, of Fine Flour
Supply: you shall offer it. So Vatablus. Up to this point Moses described the mincha, or sacrifice of pure and uncooked fine flour; here he describes the mincha made from fine flour kneaded and cooked, which was the second kind of mincha. Note here: God wished that flour and bread be sacrificed to Him in as many ways as they are cooked. Therefore, just as bread is cooked in three ways — namely in an oven, on a griddle, and on a grill — so also the mincha of breads was threefold: namely of the oven, of the griddle, and of the grill.
Allegorically, the mincha is the flesh of Christ: first, cooked in the oven — that is, in the womb of the Blessed Virgin at the Incarnation; second, fried on the griddle — that is, in the suffering of the cross; third, dead on the grill of that same cross, so that, thoroughly baked, He might provide for us bread and nourishment in the venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist. So Hesychius. Second, the mincha or fine flour is the Church of Christ, says Bede, which is His body composed of many members, as if gathered from many grains, ground by the millstone of the Law and the Gospel, moistened by the water of Baptism, anointed with the oil of chrism, and solidified by the Holy Spirit. Hence the same Bede and Origen, Homily 5, by the grill, the griddle, and the oven understand the three senses of Sacred Scripture — namely the literal, moral, and mystical — by which this bread of the Church is baked.
Tropologically, the oven is the pressure of this world — namely, affliction and persecution by tyrants. Hence God is said to have freed the Hebrews from the iron furnace — that is, the servitude and affliction of Egypt. Those who are baked in this oven become the breads of Christ. Such was St. Ignatius, who, hearing the lions prepared to devour him roaring, said: "I am the wheat of Christ; let me be ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may become pure bread." Second, the griddle is the frying of minds, and the zeal of the Saints on account of the sins of men or the troubles of their neighbors, which fry and torture them through compassion. Third, the grill is the daily cross of each person, upon which the just man, placed over it, is tortured by a slow but constant heat. But oil — that is, charity toward God and neighbor — receives all these things bravely and offers thence a sacrifice to God, saying with Paul, Philippians 2:17: "But even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and congratulate you all;" and 1 Corinthians 15:31: "I die daily, brothers, by your glory." So Radulphus, Bede, and St. Gregory, Homily 12 on Ezekiel: "Fine flour," he says, "on the griddle is the pure mind of the just man in the affliction of spiritual zeal, which is fried through concern for souls, and is accounted not only a sacrifice but also a holocaust to the Lord."
Moreover, the literal victims of the griddle were the seven Maccabee brothers, fried in a griddle by Antiochus for the faith and law of God, 2 Maccabees 7. The victims of the oven were the three youths, cast into the Babylonian furnace by Nebuchadnezzar for worshipping the one God, Daniel 3. Likewise St. Eustace, thrust into a glowing bronze bull, which was the torture device of the tyrant Phalaris. Also Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum, whom St. John mentions, Apocalypse 2:13, who under the Emperor Domitian was similarly cast into a bronze bull and died a glorious martyrdom, whose memory the Church recalls on the eleventh of April. Also the three hundred Martyrs who leaped into a lime furnace for the faith of Christ at Carthage under Valerian, and were thence called the Massa Candida (White Mass), in the Martyrology on August 24. The victim of the grill was St. Lawrence, who, chaste and pure like fine flour, kindled with the oil of mercy and divine love, was a living and burning sacrifice to God, so that the Psalmist, looking upon him, rightly said: "You have tested me by fire, and no iniquity has been found in me," Psalm 16:3. A harsh trial indeed, and bitter, but light and sweet to the fiery soul of Lawrence. For, as St. Leo says in his Sermon on Lawrence: "The flame of charity could not be overcome; the fire that burned from without was more sluggish than the one that burned within." Indeed — what is like a miracle — the external fire kindled the internal fire in the mind of Lawrence, and the internal fire extinguished the external. For Lawrence thirsted for this fire more than a panting deer thirsts for water — indeed, more than Valerian thirsted for his blood and burning. O how powerful is the flame of Christ! "My soul clung after You, because my flesh has been burned by fire for You, my God."
Mixed with Oil — kneaded with oil in place of water; for this is what the Hebrew belulot signifies.
And Unleavened Wafers Anointed with Oil — "Lagana" are cakes not thick but thin and spread out, such as our cakes made from millet: for this is what the Hebrew rekike signifies. Elsewhere they are called challot, as if the first-fruits or beginnings of kneaded dough, as mothers, when they are kneading, are accustomed first, before they make and bake the loaves, to make little cakes for the children, which they bake over coals. So Oleaster and Ribera.
Note: He says "anointed with oil," not "mixed with oil," but smeared on top with oil. For Scripture distinguishes these so that some things it calls "mixed" — that is, kneaded with oil in the manner of water — and others it calls "anointed" or "smeared" with oil, which are not kneaded but daubed on top with oil. So Abulensis and Ribera, and it is evident from the Hebrew, the Chaldean, and the Septuagint.
Verse 5: If Your Offering Is from a Griddle, You Shall Divide It into Small Pieces and Pour Oil upon It
"Into small pieces," so that the parts thus divided might better absorb the oil to be poured over them; second, so that some of them might be sacrificed to God.
Verse 9: When He Has Offered It
In Hebrew: he shall cause it to approach, or he shall bring it to the altar — namely, the offerer himself, as is evident from the Hebrew and especially from the Septuagint.
He Shall Take the Memorial from the Sacrifice. — He shall take — namely, the one whose duty it is to take, that is, the priest. And he shall take from all the sacrifices already mentioned — namely of the oven, the griddle, and the grill. Again, "memorial" here is generally the name for that part of the grain sacrifice which was burned and sacrificed to God, by which they testified that the whole mincha had been offered to God; for the whole was considered to be sacrificed to God through this part of it. See what was said on verse 2.
Verse 11: Every Offering That Is Offered to the Lord Shall Be Made without Leaven
Although bread seasoned with leaven, on account of the sourness it has, is more flavorful and easier to digest, God nonetheless did not wish the Hebrews to use it in sacrifice, but rather unleavened bread. First, on account of the purity of the sacrifice; for unleavened bread is purer. Second, so that the Hebrews would have a perpetual remembrance of their liberation from Egypt, when on account of their haste they used unleavened bread, Exodus 12:34. Wherefore unleavened bread, Deuteronomy 16:3, is called the bread of affliction.
Tropologically, leaven signifies oldness, wickedness, and every vice and corruption, which ought to be far removed from the sacred things of God, 1 Corinthians 5:3. Hence also in Plautus, a woman lying in leaven is called a woman puffed up and angry.
Second, St. Cyril, in Book XV of De Adoratione, folio 302, by leaven understands craftiness, which is indifferent to good and evil. And therefore leaven could be offered, but not burned or set on fire and sacrificed: because the craftiness of a virtuous soul, says Cyril, although it is not rejected by God, if it is applied opportunely for the sake of piety, is nevertheless not reckoned as a spiritual sacrifice and a sweet odor.
Nor Shall Anything of Leaven or Honey Be Burned in Sacrifice. — Honey here, equally with leaven, is forbidden in sacrifice; but why? Rabbi Solomon by honey understands sweet fruits, such as figs and dates; but this is far-fetched and forced. Philo, in the book De Victimis, thinks honey was forbidden in sacred rites by God because the bee that collects honey is an impure animal, born from the rotting carcasses of oxen; but this is not absolutely true. For it is established that bees are begotten by bees in hives, and that purely and chastely without intercourse.
I say therefore: the reason for the prohibition of honey is the same as that of leaven; for honey is to bread like leaven: for cooked honey contracts sourness; and it ferments the bread with which it is mixed. Second, honey is hostile to the stomach, both because it is flatulent and because it increases bile; for, as Horace says: "Sweet things turn to bile." On the contrary, wormwood benefits the stomach; for it purges all the filth of the intestines.
Third, honey is forbidden to the Jews because the Gentiles offered honey and sweet things to Bacchus: hear Ovid, Book III of the Fasti:
"Cakes are made for the god, because he delights in sweet juices,
And they say honey was discovered by Bacchus."
Add from Plutarch, Book V of the Symposiacs, Question V, that wine is corrupted by the admixture of honey, because honey has a nature most contrary to wine; whence also, after tasting honey, wine loses its flavor. But wine had to be used in sacrifices, and libations had to be made with it: for wine was, as it were, the drink of God; therefore it was fitting that honey be kept away from them.
The allegorical and principal reason was that it might be signified that in the sacrifice of the cross of Christ, all honey, that is, all sweetness and joy, would be absent.
The tropological reason was that it might be signified that honey, that is, vain and carnal pleasure, as being displeasing to God, ought to be absent from sacred things, and that those who are dissolved by the blandishments of delights, or by the sweetness of pleasures, cannot be partakers of the mysteries of God. Whence the Passover lamb had to be eaten with wild lettuces, or, as the Hebrew has it, bitter herbs, because "the strictness of truth is always austere," says Eucherius; for, as the Psalmist says, Psalm 51:19, "the sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit." For honey is a symbol first, of the pleasure-seeking man; second, of the flatterer, who has honey on his lips, but in secret carries in his tail a stinger that strikes and wounds. Whence the Wise Man compares the lips of a harlot to a honeycomb, Proverbs 5:3. So Procopius, Eucherius, Radulphus, Rupertus, Bede, and Cyril, Book XV of De Adoratione.
Verse 12: Only the First-Fruits of Them Shall You Offer as Gifts
In Hebrew it is "gift," that is, you shall offer an offering of first-fruits, namely of leaven and honey, and that as food for the priests, as will be said in Numbers 15. The mystical reason for this is that it belongs to the priests to eat, cook, and digest the sins of the people through confession, so that they may pray for them, counsel them, and absolve them through the sacrament of penance: so Serranus, who by the first-fruits of leaven and honey understands the confession of sins, the restitution of ill-gotten goods, penance, etc. For sins themselves are honey and leaven, because they bring a honey-sweet pleasure to man, which is soon converted into gall and ferment. Radulphus also alludes to this.
Verse 13: Whatever You Offer of Sacrifice, You Shall Season with Salt
For salt is the seasoning of all food. And so, in order that the sacrifice, which is as it were a banquet of God, might be properly furnished, God commands that the breads and fine flour be offered not tasteless, but seasoned with salt. So also the Gentiles performed no sacred rites without salted meal, as I said at verse 1. For without salt human life cannot subsist. For salt preserves flesh from putrefying; wine, from becoming flat, or degenerating into vinegar; it so protects dead and putrefying bodies from corruption that they endure for ages; it renders food flavorful and pleasing. Whence the axiom of the ancients: "Nothing is more useful to bodies than salt and sun."
Again, salt is the artificial life of bloodless meats; for by corroding and drying them, it preserves them from corruption; and mystically it aptly signifies the life of the spirit, which in comparison with animal life is adventitious. Hence also Ovid in the Fasti:
"Before men had anything that could conciliate the gods,
There was spelt, and a bright grain of pure salt."
Indeed, the ancients used to anoint drunkards and delirious persons with oil and salt, which Aristophanes implies in the Clouds.
Tropologically, salt is a symbol of wisdom, prudence, and discretion, which must be employed in every sacrifice and every work, even of penance and mortification, that is done for the service of God. Hence the Apostle, Romans 12:1, admonishes that our service be reasonable; and Christ, Mark 9:48: "Every (spiritual victim pleasing to God)," He says, "shall be salted with fire, and every victim shall be salted with salt," namely with the fire of tribulation and the salt of wisdom. So Theodoretus, Procopius, Radulphus, Bede, Rupertus, Eucherius, and Cyril, Book XV of De Adoratione; for, as St. Bernard says, Sermon 49 on the Canticle: "Discretion is the moderator and charioteer of virtues, affections, and morals; it establishes order for every virtue; order bestows measure and beauty, and perpetuity: take this away, and virtue will be vice."
Hence second, salt was a symbol and type of evangelical doctrine and apostolic preaching: for this is the highest wisdom, with which we ought to season all our actions and offerings. For every action of ours should correspond to this wisdom as to a rule, and be conformed to it in all things. Hence Christ said to His Apostles: "You are the salt of the earth."
Third, by salt is signified eternal durability: salt therefore is a symbol both of the eternity of God, which those offering sacred victims professed through salt; and of the integrity and incorruption of soul and body, which God requires in the one offering. For, as Philo says first, in the book De Victimis, the first preserver of bodies is the soul; the second is salt: for salt preserves bodies for a very long time, and renders them in a certain way immortal: therefore, says Philo, the altar is called thysiastêrion, from preserving the victims; but the flesh of victims is consumed by fire: whence it is gathered that this victim seasoned and preserved with salt must be taken mystically, namely as the mind of the one offering, confirmed and strengthened by virtues: for this preserves and maintains the purity and incorruption of the soul. So Philo.
Hence allegorically and anagogically, the heavenly salt is Christ, who by His grace and glory seasons and preserves both bodies and souls for eternity, that they may rise again to immortal life.
Nor Shall You Remove the Salt of the Covenant of Your God from Your Sacrifice. — As to why it is called "the salt of the covenant," Rabbi Solomon gives a tasteless and foolish reason, namely this: The terrestrial waters, he says, at the beginning of the creation of all things, were grieved to be separated from the heavenly waters by the interposed firmament: therefore, to placate them, God promised that He would bring it about that the sacred use of waters would be in the tabernacle of the covenant; and then that salt, which is made from waters, would perpetually be employed in sacrifices. So says this buffoon, who here has not a grain of salt, and lacking brains, is in need of hellebore.
I say therefore: it is called "the salt of the covenant," that is, the salt of this law by which I command that salt be used in the mincha. For the law was the reason, condition, and conciliation of the covenant and pact between God and the Hebrews. Whence the tablets of the law were called the tablets of the covenant, and often elsewhere the law itself is called a covenant. And it is said peculiarly of this law of salt that it is the salt of the covenant, because by salt was signified the firmness of the law and the covenant; and therefore salt was customarily employed in covenants, for victims were slaughtered with salted meal to ratify a covenant. And it is likely that this was done in the covenant of the Hebrews with God, Exodus 24:5; whence 2 Paralipomenon 15:5 and Numbers 18:19, it is called a covenant of salt; a firm and stable covenant. For just as salt preserves flesh from putrefaction, so a covenant of salt metaphorically signifies a covenant free from corruption and violation, a firm and perpetual covenant. The salt of the covenant, therefore, is the same as the salt that confirms the covenant, or the symbol of a firm and stable covenant.
For the same reason, salt was customarily set before guests in ancient times, before other foods, so that by salt might be signified the firmness and perseverance of friendship: wherefore many Gentiles considered it ominous if salt happened to be spilled on the table, as if by this the overthrow or dissolution of friendship were portended. So Pierius in the Hieroglyphics of salt.
Note: In every flesh sacrifice, in which was slain, for example, an ox, sheep, or goat, there was employed a grain offering; but not conversely: for the mincha, that is, spelt and fine flour, could be offered alone without flesh. In every flesh sacrifice, therefore, oil, frankincense, fine flour, and salt had to be used; but no leaven or honey could be used in a sacrifice, whether it was a flesh offering or a grain offering.
The rite of flesh sacrifices was therefore as follows: The priest placed the flesh of the victim to be burned on the altar; then from fine flour seasoned and mixed with oil and salt, he took a handful and placed it on the victim to be burned, and at the same time poured wine over the victim; finally he placed frankincense on the fine flour, then applied fire, and burned and consumed the victim with these its libations for God, as will be evident in Numbers 15:4 and following.
Verse 14: If You Offer a Gift of the First-Fruits of Your Produce to the Lord, of Ears Still Green, You Shall Roast Them with Fire and Break Them after the Manner of Spelt
This is the third species of mincha or grain offering: for the first species was the offering of fine flour; the second was the offering of breads; this third was the offering of green ears.
God speaks here of the first-fruits of the harvest, that is, of the barley harvest, a sheaf of which was offered at the Passover on the second day of unleavened bread: for the Hebrews could not reap anything of barley or of crops, unless they had first offered this sheaf of ears as first-fruits to God.
Note: The Hebrews owed God a threefold first-fruits offering. First, this offering of ears at the Passover; second, the first-fruits of breads from the wheat harvest at Pentecost, as is clear from chapter 23, verses 15 and 17. Third, the first-fruits of all produce at the Feast of Tabernacles, as is clear from Exodus 23:16 and 19.
Note second, that these ears were green, not entirely, but at the same time whitening and ripening; otherwise they could not have been broken into crushed spelt, since no grains of spelt had yet been formed. The Septuagint for "green," here and elsewhere translate "new," that is, new.
Breaking after the Manner of Spelt — In Hebrew it is geres carmel, which Vatablus translates as "what the most fertile field has poured forth"; for this is called carmel in Hebrew. But better, our Interpreter, the Septuagint, and the Chaldean translate it as the crushing or breaking of the ear, or of grain, that is, crushed grain; or spelt, supply "you shall offer," as follows: for it could not be flour, since the ears were still green.
Note: All these things were done not by the priest, but by the lay person offering. For he himself crushed the first-fruits of his ears after the manner of spelt, then poured oil over them, and finally placed frankincense on them, and so offered them to the priest, so that the priest might burn a part of them for God, and keep the rest for himself; whence it follows:
Verse 16: Of Which the Priest Shall Burn a Part as a Memorial of the Gift
That is, so that this part burned for God may be a memorial and sign that this whole gift, that is, sacrifice, was offered to God. See what was said at verse 2.
Allegorically, the first-fruits of the harvest at the Passover is Christ rising at the Passover, as the firstborn of the dead. So Cyril, Book XVII of De Adoratione, chapter 23.
Tropologically, the offering of green ears signifies neophytes in the service of God and in the way of perfection; these roast ears with fire when they mortify the body and subject it to the spirit; they break them into spelt when they deny their own will; they place oil, that is, cheerfulness of heart; and frankincense, that is, prayers; finally they always bear in their soul the memorial of God, that is, the fear of God, and therefore refer all things to Him. So Radulphus.
Cassian, Book IV of the Institutes on Renunciation, chapter 8: "A novice about to renounce the world, in the monastery," he says, "is first taught to conquer his own will, and they take care to command him more often those things which they perceive to be contrary to his disposition. For they declare that a monk can in no way prevail over anger, or sadness, or the spirit of fornication, unless he has first learned to mortify his own will through obedience; and that he cannot maintain true humility of heart, nor firm concord with the brethren, nor remain long in the monastery, who has not learned to overcome his own will."
Again, it is the novice's duty, says Rufinus, to strive for purity of heart, and for that which the Psalmist says, Psalm 46: "Be still and see that I am God;" and finally to strive to return to infancy and original innocence.
Pachomius, from the rule delivered to him by an angel, ordered novices to work with their hands, and to perform their tasks simply, and to be kept from more sacred studies.
Abbot Pinufius, in Cassian, Book IV of the Institutes, chapter 32, teaches the novice that he ought to imitate and put on Jesus crucified, so that the fear of God may be for him a perpetual cross, by which he may crucify his appetites, especially those of ambition and pride, through true and constant humility and humiliation.
Cassian, Book IV, chapter 41, teaches the novice that in the monastery, according to the Psalmist's saying, "he should be as one deaf and not hearing, and as one dumb not opening his mouth, discerning nothing, judging nothing of those things that are commanded him. Therefore, he says, you ought not to base your patience on the virtue of others, that is, so that you possess it only when you have been provoked by no one."