Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The uncleanness and purification are described: first, of the one suffering a seminal flux; second, verse 16, of one who lies with a woman; third, verse 19, of a menstruating woman; fourth, verse 25, of a woman with a flow of blood.
Vulgate Text: Leviticus 15:1-33
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2. Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: A man who suffers a flux of seed shall be unclean. 3. And he shall then be judged to be subject to this infirmity, when at every moment the foul discharge has clung to his flesh and thickened. 4. Every bed on which he sleeps shall be unclean, and wherever he sits. 5. If anyone touches his bed, he shall wash his garments; and having himself been washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening. 6. If he sits where the other had sat, he too shall wash his garments; and having been washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening. 7. Whoever touches his flesh shall wash his garments; and having himself been washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening. 8. If such a man spits upon one who is clean, he shall wash his garments; and having been washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening. 9. The saddle on which he has sat shall be unclean; 10. and whatever has been under the one who suffers the flux of seed shall be polluted until evening. Whoever carries any of these things shall wash his garments; and having himself been washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening. 11. Everyone whom such a person touches, without first having washed his hands, shall wash his garments; and having been washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening. 12. An earthen vessel that he touches shall be broken; but a wooden vessel shall be washed with water. 13. If the one who endures such an affliction is healed, he shall count seven days after his cleansing, and having washed his garments and his whole body in living waters, he shall be clean. 14. And on the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and shall come into the presence of the Lord at the entrance of the tabernacle of the testimony, and shall give them to the priest, 15. who shall offer one for a sin offering, and the other as a holocaust: and he shall pray for him before the Lord, that he may be cleansed from the flux of his seed. 16. A man from whom the seed of intercourse goes forth shall wash his whole body with water, and shall be unclean until evening. 17. The garment and skin that he was wearing he shall wash with water, and it shall be unclean until evening. 18. The woman with whom he has lain shall be washed with water, and shall be unclean until evening. 19. A woman who, at the return of her monthly period, suffers a flux of blood shall be separated for seven days. 20. Everyone who touches her shall be unclean until evening; 21. and whatever she has slept or sat on during the days of her separation shall be polluted. 22. Whoever touches her bed shall wash his garments, and having himself been washed with water, he shall be unclean until evening. 23. Any vessel on which she has sat, whoever touches it shall wash his garments; and having himself been washed with water, he shall be polluted until evening. 24. If a man lies with her at the time of her menstrual blood, he shall be unclean for seven days; and every bed on which she sleeps shall be defiled. 25. A woman who suffers a flow of blood for many days outside the time of her menstrual period, or who does not cease to flow blood after her menstrual period, as long as she is subject to this affliction, shall be unclean as though she were in her menstrual period. 26. Every bed on which she sleeps, and every vessel on which she sits, shall be defiled: 27. whoever touches them shall wash his garments; and having himself been washed in water, he shall be unclean until evening. 28. If the blood has stopped and ceased to flow, she shall count seven days of her purification; 29. and on the eighth day she shall offer for herself to the priest two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, at the entrance of the tabernacle of the testimony: 30. and he shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and he shall pray for her before the Lord, and for the flow of her uncleanness. 31. You shall therefore teach the children of Israel to beware of uncleanness, and they shall not die in their filth, when they have defiled my tabernacle which is among them. 32. This is the law of him who suffers a flow of seed, and who is defiled by intercourse, 33. and of her who is separated at her menstrual times, or who flows with continual blood, and of the man who sleeps with her.
Verse 2: The Man Who Suffers a Flow of Seed
2. THE MAN WHO SUFFERS A FLOW OF SEED SHALL BE UNCLEAN. — "Man," in Hebrew is "man man," that is, every man: for the doubling among the Hebrews signifies a universal collection and distributes for "every."
WHO SUFFERS A FLOW OF SEED, — that is, continuously, through the disease of gonorrhea (as physicians call it), which arises from a weakness of nature and of the retentive power, as Galen teaches in On Affected Places, book VI; just as from the same cause nocturnal pollution occurs: for that happens either because of impure imagination and an abundance of seed, or because of the weakness already mentioned; especially if someone has drunk water, particularly warm water, shortly before going to bed: because such water relaxes, dissolves, and weakens the digestive and retentive power; therefore they should be advised to drink nothing shortly before sleep, or rather to drink wine, says Abulensis. Abbot Moses in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter 1, no. 6, used to say: "The affliction of pollution is generated by these four things: first, by an abundance of food and drink; second, by excessive sleep; third, by idleness and jest; fourth, by adornment of clothing;" for this produces softness both in the body itself and in the imagination, which provokes pollution. When pollution is a sin and when it is not, see among others our Father Lessius, book IV On Justice, chapter xiv, who learnedly explains the matter.
Verse 4: Every Bed on Which He Sleeps
4. EVERY BED ON WHICH HE SLEEPS SHALL BE UNCLEAN. — Whoever or whatever touched the one suffering from a flow of seed was defiled and became unclean.
Note here a canon: In the old law, those who were unclean in themselves transferred their uncleanness to those who touched them: such were lepers, those with a seminal flow, menstruating women, and reptiles; but those things which were not unclean in themselves, but only through contact with an unclean thing, did not transfer their uncleanness to those who touched them: so he who had touched a reptile was unclean, but nevertheless did not defile another whom he touched.
Verse 8: If Such a Man Has Spit Upon One Who Is Clean
8. IF SUCH A MAN HAS SPIT UPON ONE WHO IS CLEAN, HE SHALL WASH HIS GARMENTS. — "He shall wash" — not the one who cast the spittle, but the clean person who received it; for he, as though defiled by this spittle of the man with a seminal flow, must be washed and purified.
Verse 9: The Saddle Upon Which He Has Sat
9. THE SADDLE UPON WHICH HE HAS SAT SHALL BE UNCLEAN. — "Sagma," that is, a seat or covering. Hence the Septuagint translates it ἐπίσαγμα, that is, a pack-saddle for a donkey; for in ancient times in Palestine they used donkeys instead of horses: hence everywhere in Scripture we read of those setting out: "He saddled his donkey." The Chaldean translates: every riding-thing upon which he has ridden shall be unclean.
Verse 13: If He Has Been Healed
13. IF HE HAS BEEN HEALED. — Having been cured of gonorrhea, or a flow of seed, he is commanded here for his legal expiation to wash himself and his garments, and on the eighth day to offer two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, one as a sin offering, the second as a burnt offering. 15. Who shall offer (sacrifice) one for sin, — that is, for legal sin, namely for the legal uncleanness contracted from this flow of seed, to be expiated, see Canon 31. Again, secondly, "for sin" also truly and properly so called, if he has any not yet expiated; for the prior legal sin was a symbol of this.
Verse 15: And He Shall Pray for Him Before the Lord
AND HE SHALL PRAY FOR HIM BEFORE THE LORD, THAT HE MAY BE CLEANSED FROM THE FLOW OF HIS SEED. — In Hebrew it is: and the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord from his flow, that is, from the legal uncleanness contracted from the flow of seed, which had already passed and ceased, as is here supposed. The same phrase occurs in verse 30.
Verse 16: The Man from Whom the Seed of Intercourse Comes Forth
16. The man from whom the seed of intercourse comes forth (that is to say, a man who is defiled by intercourse, whether lawful in marriage, or unlawful and illicit outside of marriage), SHALL WASH ALL HIS BODY WITH WATER. — Some think the washing is here prescribed not absolutely, but conditionally, namely if such a person so defiled wished to enter the sanctuary: for all these uncleannesses were established in order and with respect to access to the sanctuary and other sacred things. Hence the Hebrews so defiled do not now wash themselves, because they now have no sanctuary. But Abulensis rightly refutes this, for by the same reasoning in all other things that are here prescribed, the unclean could have waited and deferred their purification until the day they were about to enter the sanctuary. That this is false is clear even from the case of one who has touched a corpse: for he was required on certain days, namely the third and seventh, to be sprinkled with the water of purification, Numbers xix, 19. And so this expiation after intercourse had to be performed immediately the following morning, that is, those so defiled had to wash their whole body. God established this for the sake of modesty and continence, so that the trouble and reluctance of purifying oneself might restrain the frequency of coming together even among married couples, says Theodoret.
Verse 22: Twofold Uncleanness Among the Hebrews
22. AND HAVING HIMSELF BEEN WASHED IN WATER, HE SHALL BE UNCLEAN UNTIL EVENING — not on account of sin, for there is none here if he has lawfully used his wife, but on account of legal uncleanness arising from the conjugal act, which is unclean naturally, and therefore also legally.
Note here that there was a twofold uncleanness among the Hebrews: one was sin, because it was forbidden by God's command; such was eating unclean meats, blood, and fat: for these things are forbidden in Leviticus chapter xi. Likewise, such was eating what had died of itself or had been torn by beasts, Exodus xxii, 31: for that this was a sin is clear from Leviticus xxii, 9. Such also was touching the carcasses of unclean animals, and touching reptiles, as I said at chapter xi, verse 43.
The other uncleanness was one that was not forbidden, but only indicated and established; such was touching a leper, a corpse, or one with a seminal flow. Such also was suffering from leprosy, a flow of seed, or menstruation; for concerning these it is not said: Do not touch them; but rather: Whoever touches them shall be unclean. Hence these were not sins, but only induced a certain legal irregularity in such persons, so that they could not enter the sanctuary before their own expiation, which expiation was prescribed for them; and so such persons did not sin in the contact itself and in the contamination of themselves, but in neglecting the prescribed expiation, namely if they did not purify themselves at the appointed time. Hence it is clear which uncleannesses and expiations the Jews still observe today, and which they do not: for they still keep the former, but not the latter: for these latter were only certain irregularities, barring them from the sanctuary; but now they have no sanctuary; hence there is no longer any irregularity for them, and consequently no purification to remove it: and so the Jews, remaining in their error and erroneous conscience (by which they think they are still bound by Judaism and these laws), are not obligated by their conscience to these latter observances, but only to the former. And so much for the man with a seminal flow.
Tropology: The Seminal Flow as Garrulity
Tropologically: The man with a seminal flow represents an impure, verbose, and importunate teacher and preacher. "For the seed is the word of God," Luke viii, 12; therefore every heretic, and false prophet, and whoever abuses the word of God, suffers a flow of seed; because he luxuriates in sacred words for his own praise and for the applause of the people; thus the Epicureans said of Paul: "What does this seed-scatterer (in Greek, ὁ σπερμολόγος) want to say?" Acts xvii, 18. His bed is human favor; his seat is the pleasure he derives from it; his spittle is the prudence of the flesh: all of which things defile both himself and his disciples. The seed of intercourse is sound and legitimate doctrine: for just as man and woman are one flesh, so in a spiritual conferral, teacher and hearer are united in one spirit. Therefore the man from whom this seed goes forth, let him wash his body, that is, let him make himself irreproachable in all his actions, since it is his office to correct and reprove the faults of others: so also the woman, that is, the hearer, should to the best of his abilities cast off the filth of vices. So say Radulphus and St. Gregory, book XXIII of the Morals, chapter xv. Secondly, St. Augustine, in the book On the Good of Marriage, chapter xx; Cyril, book XV On Adoration, and Rupert take these things more generally. "By the man with a seminal flow," says St. Augustine, "the law wished to signify a mind indecently fluid and dissolute from the form of its own discipline, which it signifies ought to be formed, when it commands such a flow of the body to be purified." And Cyril: "The flow of the body," he says, "which reduces the supply of seed to nothing and weakens the firmness of those parts, signifies the mind which brings forth no fruit of justice, but continually slips toward what is harmful, and falls with a headlong plunge into shameful things." More particularly, Rupert says: "What is it to suffer a flow of seed or blood, but to flow with detracting or even criminal words? Consequently, those with a seminal flow are verbose and garrulous. Truly, Plutarch says in the Morals: 'Just as seed which is immediately poured out is useless for generation, so the speech of the garrulous is good for nothing.'"
Zeno, hearing an excessively garrulous young man, said: "Your ears have flowed into your tongue." He showed thereby that it is for a young man to hear much and speak little. So says Laertius, book VII.
Isocrates, when a certain chatterbox asked why he demanded double the fee from him as a student of the oratorical art, replied: "I ask one fee so that you may learn to speak, and the other so that you may learn to be silent."
Clearchus used to say: "Those things which you do not wish to hear, do not say either; and those things which you do not wish to say, do not even listen to." For there is great danger in the ears and tongue.
Apollonius used to say that "loquacity has many errors, but silence is safe." When asked: "Who are the best of men?" he replied, "Those who are briefest in speaking."
Demosthenes said to someone speaking at great length at a banquet: "If you had been as wise in so many things, you would never have spoken so many things."
The same man, when asked "why we have one tongue but two ears," replied: "Because we should listen twice as much as we speak."
Lycon used to say, "just as swallows by their perpetual chattering lose the pleasure of familiarity, so garrulous people, perpetually stunning others, are burdensome to their listeners;" whence the proverb: "Do not receive swallows (that is, chatterboxes) under your roof."
Archelaus, when asked by a garrulous barber, "How shall I shave you, O king?" replied, "In silence."
Another man said to a loquacious lawyer: "One should not say little in many words, but much in few."
Ausonius said: "Just as empty vessels ring the loudest, so those in whom there is the least mind and learning are the most talkative."
Aesop said: "The end of loquacity is misfortune."
The Greeks relate that the crow was repelled by Pallas, that is, that garrulity is repelled by meditation and wisdom. So says Pierius, Hieroglyphics, 20.
Among the Romans, Citeria was a certain image, clever and talkative, which was carried in the procession for the sake of ridicule. Hence Marcus Cato said against Caecilius: "What more, then, should I say? I believe he will finally be carried about in the procession at the games as a Citeria, and will hold forth to the spectators."
Plutarch wrote a book On Garrulity, in which among other things he says: "Others contain their words, but the garrulous are full of cracks and leak through; then like empty vessels, devoid of mind, they walk about full of sound. They are unhappy in this, that they neither hear nor are heard. The end of speech is to produce belief in the hearers: but no one trusts the talkative, even if they speak the truth. What is in the heart of the sober is on the tongue of the drunk; garrulity is dangerous, hateful, and ridiculous. We have men as masters of speaking, but gods as masters of silence, receiving silence in initiations and mysteries as though handed down. When the king of the Egyptians had sent a sacrificial victim to Pittacus and had ordered him to take out the best and worst piece of meat, he sent back the tongue, as though the tongue were the greatest instrument of both evils and goods. Those who have obtained a noble and royal education first learned to be silent, then to speak. The disciples of Pythagoras kept silent for five years. 'I have often repented of having spoken,' says Simonides, 'but never of having been silent.' Silence not only does not bring thirst, as Hippocrates says, but neither sadness nor grief." Therefore seed-scatterers are men with seminal flows.
Verse 19: The Menstruating Woman
19. A WOMAN WHO, AT THE RETURN OF HER MONTH, SUFFERS A FLOW OF BLOOD (menstrual), SHALL BE SEPARATED FOR SEVEN DAYS — not outside the camp; for there is no mention of this here, as there is regarding one polluted in sleep: for he is commanded to go outside the camp, Deuteronomy xxiii, 10; but she shall be separated from the society of people, and this for seven days, not because the blood flows on all those days, but because it cannot flow beyond that time.
Note: Menstruation is the discharge of women, and the purging of a cold and undigested humor, which nature expels as harmful. They are called "menstrua" because they customarily occur each month to women who are of the age at which they can conceive; hence they are also called "menses" (months). Pliny describes the virulence of menstruation, book VII, chapter xv: "Nothing," he says, "is found more monstrous than the discharge of women; at its approach, new wine turns sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafted plants die, garden buds are burned, the fruits of trees on which they have sat fall off, the brightness of mirrors is dimmed by their very glance, the edge of iron is blunted and the luster of ivory dulled, beehives die, even bronze and iron are immediately seized by rust, a foul odor fills the air, and dogs that taste it are driven to madness, and their bite is infected with an incurable poison." Rightly therefore are menstruation and the menstruating woman considered unclean here. See here what even the most beautiful woman is, namely a vessel of filth, food for worms. "A beautiful woman," says Diogenes, "is a temple built over a sewer."
Thus a certain chaste matron wisely repelled the temptation of lust of a certain monk, saying: "I am now in my menstrual period, and no one can approach me, nor bear the stench." The witness is John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter cxv. Therefore a beautiful woman is a whitewashed sepulcher, splendid on the outside, but full of corruption and filth within: for her rosy and ruddy skin conceals and contains these things.
Verse 20: Everyone Who Touches Her
20. Everyone who touches her shall be unclean — if he is older and in possession of reason; for an infant touching his mother who has just given birth, and nursing at her breasts, was not contaminated by contact with her: for here necessity excuses, and the piety of nature, and the age of infancy.
Verse 23: Every Vessel
23. Every vessel — every instrument: thus St. Paul is called a vessel of election, that is, a chosen instrument; thus the sacraments are called vessels, that is, instruments of grace.
Verse 24: If a Man Shall Have Intercourse with Her
24. IF A MAN SHALL HAVE INTERCOURSE WITH HER AT THE TIME OF HER MENSTRUAL BLOOD, HE SHALL BE UNCLEAN FOR SEVEN DAYS — if, that is, the matter remains hidden: for then he can be purified secretly; but if the matter becomes known, and he is accused and convicted, then together with the woman he must be put to death, as is prescribed in chapter xx, 18.
Verse 25: A Woman Who Suffers a Flow of Blood for Many Days
25. A WOMAN WHO SUFFERS A FLOW OF BLOOD FOR MANY DAYS — for example hemorrhoids, such as was the woman with a hemorrhage who was healed by Christ, Mark chapter v, verse 26; she was unclean both naturally and legally.
Verse 27: Whoever Shall Touch Them
Verse 27. WHOEVER SHALL TOUCH THEM — "them," namely the bed and the vessel. So read the Roman, Hebrew, and Chaldean editions; therefore the Plantin edition incorrectly reads "her."
Verse 30: He Shall Offer One for Sin
30. He (the priest) shall offer (sacrifice) one (turtledove or young pigeon) for sin. — Not that the flow of menstruation is truly a sin, but that it is a legal uncleanness and a legal sin: such a sin was also leprosy and the flow of seed. See Canon 31.
AND HE SHALL PRAY FOR HER BEFORE THE LORD, AND FOR THE FLOW OF HER UNCLEANNESS — that is, so that she may be freed from the legal uncleanness which she contracted from this flow. Hence in Hebrew it is: he shall make atonement for her from the flow; for throughout this chapter and the preceding one, this purgation from sin must be understood as referring to such legal uncleanness. Therefore Abulensis does not correctly explain this verse, and similar passages in verse 15, in this way, as if to say: He shall pray concerning the flow of blood and seed, namely that it may stop and not return.
Tropology: The Flow of Blood as Idolatry
Tropologically, the flow both of menstruation and of blood signifies in part idolatry, both because in it the soul, having abandoned God, slips away through the innumerable monstrosities of the gods; and because sacrifices were offered to idols even with human blood: so says Hesychius; and in part those who, through the earthly and carnal desires by which they burn, flow out into various concupiscences: this flow makes us weak, and renders us unable to resist the devil when he tries to cast us down: hence Jeremiah says of such a soul, chapter ii, 24: "All who seek her shall not fail, in her menstrual periods they shall find her." So says Radulphus.
Abulensis in chapter xxi of Leviticus, Question II, applies these things differently: "Lepers," he says, "those flowing with seed, and menstruating women signify those excommunicated with the greater excommunication; but those who touch them signify those who contract the lesser excommunication by associating with them." Hence the judgment of leprosy, that is, of excommunication, pertains only to the priests.
Verse 31: You Shall Teach the Children of Israel
31. YOU SHALL THEREFORE TEACH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL TO BEWARE OF UNCLEANNESS, AND THEY SHALL NOT DIE IN THEIR FILTH, WHEN THEY HAVE DEFILED MY TABERNACLE — that is to say: Let the unclean beware of entering My tabernacle; otherwise I shall punish them with death on account of their filth, namely because, while suffering from a sordid flow of seed or blood, they have dared to enter My tabernacle and to infect and defile it by this entrance and by their uncleanness.
The Septuagint translates: ἐυλαβεῖς ποιήσατε ἀπό τῶν ἀκαθαρσίων αὐτῶν, that is, "you shall make the children of Israel religiously cautious concerning their uncleannesses"; for the word signifies both religious and cautious and watchful.