Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The penalty of death, namely stoning, is decreed for idolaters, those who consult magicians, those who curse their parents, and those guilty of incestuous and unnatural lust; these laws, therefore, are judicial and capital.
Vulgate Text: Leviticus 20:1-27
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2. Say these things to the children of Israel: Any man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, if he gives of his seed to the idol Moloch, let him die the death; the people of the land shall stone him. 3. And I will set My face against him, and will cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given of his seed to Moloch, and has defiled My sanctuary, and has polluted My holy name. 4. But if the people of the land, being negligent and as it were making light of My commandment, let go the man who has given of his seed to Moloch, and will not kill him: 5. I will set My face against that man and against his kindred, and will cut off both him and all who consented with him to commit fornication with Moloch, from the midst of their people. 6. The soul that shall turn to magicians and soothsayers, and shall commit fornication with them, I will set My face against that soul, and will destroy it from the midst of its people. 7. Sanctify yourselves, and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. 8. Keep My precepts, and do them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 9. He who curses his father or mother, let him die the death: he has cursed his father and mother, let his blood be upon him. 10. If any man commits adultery with the wife of another, and commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, let both the adulterer and the adulteress be put to death. 11. He who lies with his stepmother, and reveals the shame of his father, let them both die: their blood be upon them. 12. If any man lies with his daughter-in-law, let both die, because they have committed a crime: their blood be upon them. 13. He who lies with a male as with a woman, both have committed an abomination: let them die the death: their blood be upon them. 14. He who, besides marrying the daughter, takes also her mother, has committed a crime: he shall be burned alive with them, nor shall so great a wickedness remain in the midst of you. 15. He who copulates with any beast or cattle, let him die the death: kill the beast also. 16. The woman who lies with any beast shall be killed together with it: their blood be upon them. 17. He who takes his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother, and sees her shame, and she beholds her brother's disgrace, they have committed a wicked thing: they shall be slain in the sight of their people, because they have mutually revealed their shame, and they shall bear their iniquity. 18. He who lies with a woman during her menstrual flow, and reveals her shame, and she opens the fountain of her blood, both shall be destroyed from the midst of their people. 19. You shall not uncover the shame of your maternal aunt or your paternal aunt: he who does this has laid bare the shame of his own flesh, both shall bear their iniquity. 20. He who lies with the wife of his paternal or maternal uncle, and reveals the shame of his kindred, both shall bear their sin; they shall die without children. 21. He who marries his brother's wife does an unlawful thing: he has revealed his brother's shame; they shall be without children. 22. Keep My laws and My judgments, and do them, lest the land into which you are to enter and dwell vomit you out also. 23. Walk not in the ordinances of the nations which I will drive out before you. For they have done all these things, and I have abhorred them. 24. But to you I say: Possess their land, which I will give to you for an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey; I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from other peoples. 25. Therefore do you also separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the clean bird from the unclean; do not defile your souls with cattle, or birds, or any things that move on the earth, and which I have shown you to be polluted. 26. You shall be holy to Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other peoples, that you should be Mine. 27. A man, or woman, in whom there is a pythonic or divining spirit, let them die the death: they shall stone them; their blood be upon them.
Verse 2: Giving Seed to Moloch
A man of the children of Israel and of the strangers — that is, of the Gentiles converted to Judaism and circumcised: for these had by circumcision passed into the law and Church of the Jews, and consequently were bound by all the ceremonial and judicial precepts of the Jews. So Abulensis.
The people of the land (the common people) shall stone him.
Verse 3: I Will Cut Him Off
And I will cut him off from the midst of his people. — If, that is, the judges have neglected to punish and stone him (as follows), then I as a watchful avenger will strike him with an accidental death and cut him off. See the remarks on chapter XVII, 10.
Because he has given of his seed to Moloch, and has defiled My sanctuary (for such a one held My tabernacle and temple as defiled, and despised it, and inflicted a grave injury and disgrace upon it, when from it and its worship he turned to Moloch and Topheth), and has polluted My holy name — by giving the name of God to the idol Moloch itself. How great a sin it is to profane the name of God, the Hebrews teach with these two axioms: First: "Whoever violates the name of God in secret, from him punishment will be exacted publicly." Second: "Other sins and their punishment are suspended through repentance and the day of expiation; but in whomever a violation of the divine name is found, repentance, the day of expiation, and chastisement suspend, but death alone purges."
Verse 4: If the People Be Negligent
And if the people of the land be negligent. — He repeats, explains, and drives home what He said in the preceding verse, as if to say: What I said, "I will cut him off," understand this to mean if the people have neglected to punish him: for then I will not neglect it, but will cut him off. So Vatablus.
Verse 6: The Soul That Turns to Magicians
The soul (person) that turns to magicians and soothsayers — in Hebrew, to pythons and diviners. See the remarks on chapter XIX, 31.
And has committed fornication with them — that is, has clung to them, and consequently to the devil, having abandoned Me, the true God and the Bridegroom of the soul.
Verse 8: I Am the Lord Who Sanctifies You
I am the Lord who sanctifies you — who commands and wills you to be holy: for here a real verb is used for a mental one, according to Canon 11.
Verse 9: He Who Curses His Father
He who curses his father, his blood be upon him. — "Blood," that is, the guilt and penalty of blood, that is, of the death he has deserved, as if to say: By his own fault let him perish, and be punished with death by the sentence of the judge.
Verse 10: The Adulterer and the Adulteress
Let both the adulterer and the adulteress be put to death. — Here the penalty of death is established for adulterers, namely stoning, as is expressed in Deuteronomy XXII, 23 and 24. For the penalty of stoning which is enacted against those who give their seed to Moloch in verse 2, being placed first, seems to be applied to the other following cases, and consequently to these adulterers, because no other penalty is afterwards added or expressed, as I shall show more clearly at the last verse. And this is what the Jews say to Christ concerning the adulteress, John VIII, 5: "In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women." The same is clear from Ezekiel XVI, 38, taken together with verse 40. And Hieronymus Prado expressly teaches this in the same place.
Verse 11: He Who Sleeps with His Stepmother
He who has slept with his stepmother, and has uncovered the shame of his father. — For the shame of the stepmother is the shame of the father; for through marriage they have become as one flesh. See the remarks on chapter XVIII, 8.
Their blood — the penalty of blood, that is, of death, as I said at verse 9.
Verse 14: Burned Alive
He who, besides his wife the daughter, has married her mother, has committed a crime; he shall be burned alive with them — that is, with the daughter and the mother whom he married, if indeed both consented to the other being taken as a second wife, or if they married him at the same time: for if the one previously married had opposed the second marriage entered into with the mother or daughter, she was innocent and could not be punished. The penalty of burning is established for this incest, whereas for other even more serious crimes only the penalty of stoning is established, because the Jews were more inclined to this incest: hence it had to be forbidden to them with a heavier penalty.
Hear of Gentile maidens who avenged incest by parricide: Plutarch relates the tragedy from Aristides in the Parallels: "At Rovace, when the Liberalia were being celebrated, Aruntius, who had been abstemious from birth, held the power of Liber in contempt. Driven by him into drunkenness, he forcibly seized the virginity of his daughter Medullina. She, recognizing the violator by his ring, meditating a deed greater than her age, made her father drunk and crowned him; and leading him to the altar of Jupiter Fulminans, she weeping slew him who had plotted against her virginity." Plutarch adds a similar, indeed a double tragedy: "Cyanippus, a Syracusan, while drunk violated his daughter Cyane. When a plague arose, and Apollo Pythius responded that the incestuous man must be sacrificed to the gods who avert evils, Cyane perceiving the meaning of the oracle which deceived the others, by the hair dragged her father forth, and slew both him and herself." He adds a third about Valerius, who, having had intercourse with his daughter, thinking she was another, when the matter was discovered, threw himself from a precipice in grief. Likewise a fourth: "Papirius, he says, a Roman, overcome by love made his sister Canulia pregnant. Papirius Tolucer the father, when the matter was discovered, sent a sword to his daughter; she stabbed herself, and the Roman did the same." In like manner: "Macareus, he says, mingled his body with his sister; when she had borne a little boy, the father sent her a sword to kill the child: she, judging this impious, killed herself."
Verse 17: He Who Takes His Sister
He who takes his sister (even from only one parent; for this is what follows) the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother, and sees her shame, etc., they shall be put to death — because this display of these members is most shameless, and is a prelude and incitement to intercourse.
Second, Saint Augustine rightly, in Question LXXII, explains "has seen" by "has touched and lain with." For there precedes: "He who has taken;" and there follows: "Because they have mutually revealed their shame;" which phrase throughout here and in chapter XVIII signifies not only looking, but also intercourse. See the remarks on Exodus XX, 18.
They shall bear their iniquity — the penalty of their iniquity, namely stoning and death.
Verse 18: Intercourse During Menstruation
He who has lain with a woman during her menstrual flow, and she has opened the fountain of her blood (that is, the genital member, through which menstrual blood flows), both shall be put to death — because this intercourse is shameful and harmful to offspring. Note: To have intercourse with a menstruating woman does not seem from natural law alone to be so grave an evil and sin, nor so harmful to the offspring to be generated, that it should be punished with death. Hence the more weighty theologians (although some hold the contrary) teach that in the new law it is not a mortal sin if a husband has intercourse with his wife during her menstrual period. So teaches Navarrus, chapter XVI of the Enchiridion, number 32; the same is taught by Saint Antoninus, Paludanus, Abulensis, Soto, Cajetan, and others whom Thomas Sanchez cites and follows, book IX On Marriage, disputation 21. Hence it follows that intercourse with a menstruating woman is forbidden here to the Jews so severely, by a law not so much natural as positive and ceremonial, just as the eating of fat and blood was likewise forbidden to them under penalty of death, chapter VII, 25 and 27. Therefore in the same way the penalty of death is threatened here against the menstruating woman and the one who has intercourse with her, not so much on account of a violation of natural law, as of the ceremonial law so rigidly forbidding this uncleanness, because God wanted the Jews to be most pure in body.
You will say: If this law is ceremonial, why then is it placed here among other natural precepts? I respond: Because all these things concern intercourse and lust, and because this intercourse with a menstruating woman is by natural law evil and forbidden, and at least a venial sin; but with this positive precept of God added, it was a mortal sin; nor is it surprising that a natural precept should be combined with a positive one, to be intermixed: for thus these precepts are intermixed in the preceding chapter, Exodus verse 20, and elsewhere.
Verse 19: The Shame of His Flesh
He who has done this has uncovered the shame of his flesh (of his blood-relative, namely his maternal or paternal aunt, as is clear from the Hebrew and the Chaldean).
Verse 20: They Shall Die Without Children
Of his kindred — namely of his paternal uncle or maternal uncle, as preceded.
They shall die without children. — In Hebrew it is, they shall die childless, as if to say: These incestuous persons will not be allowed to remain in this crime until they can have children, but as soon as it is known, they will be put to death by the sentence of the judge. For this is what "they shall bear their iniquity" means, that is, the penalty of their iniquity, namely death; which in the following verse and case, where it likewise says "they shall be without children," must be repeated in the same way; for the penalty of death is decreed for that incest as well as for this, and that immediately, so that the offspring they seek from it will not be allowed to be conceived. So Abulensis. To which add that God seems here to threaten the incestuous particularly with the penalty of childlessness, as if He Himself by His particular providence would bring it about that no offspring should spring from such incest. For thus we frequently observe even today that such persons remain without children, and Saint Gregory asserts that he himself experienced the same thing, in response to the question of Saint Augustine, Bishop of the English, chapter VI.
Saint Augustine, Radulphus, and Cajetan explain "they shall be without children" differently, as if to say: If any children have been born to them, let them be considered illegitimate, not children, and let them succeed their parent by no right.
Verse 21: An Unlawful Thing
He does an unlawful thing. — In Hebrew nidda, that is, something to be shunned, detested, abominated.
Verse 23: The Customs of the Nations
Do not walk in the customs of the nations (in the manner of living of the Gentiles) whom I am about to drive out before you — before you, as you enter into their land, namely Canaan.
Verse 24: A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey
A land flowing with milk and honey — a most fertile land; it is hyperbole.
Verse 25: Separate Clean from Unclean
Separate therefore you also the beast (animal or cattle; so the Hebrew and the Chaldean) clean from unclean. — See on this distinction of animals the remarks at chapter XI.
Do not defile (partly through disobedience, partly through legal irregularity) your souls — that is, yourselves.
Verse 26: You Shall Be Holy to Me
You shall be holy to Me, because I am holy, the Lord. — Here God speaks to all the Israelites, not only to priests, but also to laypeople. Adam Sasbout devoutly treats this statement in homilies 1 and 2, and applies it in the first to laypeople, in the second to priests.
Note: "Holy" in Hebrew is called cados, that is, separated from profane uses, and destined and as it were consecrated to the worship of God, who therefore must be pure from vices, chaste, uncontaminated, and clean from defilement. Second, "holy" in Greek is called agios, or osios. Origen thinks agios is derived as if from a-ge, that is, "without earth." But the privative a, meaning "without," lacks the aspiration that is in agios. Therefore others more correctly derive agios from agauo, that is, I venerate, as if you should say: To be revered and venerated on account of virtue and purity. Third, the Latins derive sanctum (holy) from sancio, which comes from sanguis (blood), because covenants used to be confirmed — that is, ratified — with the blood of slaughtered victims. Hence Servius, explaining that passage of Aeneid XII: "Let the Father hear this, who ratifies covenants with His thunderbolt:" says: "Sanctum is said to be, as it were, ratified and consecrated by blood." Hence also sanctio is the name for a law by which a penalty is prescribed for violators. From this, holy is said of what is sacred, so that it may not be violated. Holy therefore is said first of what is pure and undefiled. Hence Virgil, Aeneid XII: "A holy soul, and innocent of this crime, I shall descend to you." And: "And you, O most holy (that is, most pure) wife." Second, of what is sacred and divine, and therefore inviolable. Third, of what is firm and perpetual. For hence covenants ratified by blood were held sacred, because they were to be maintained firmly and inviolably, even unto blood and death.
So therefore the Jews, and much more so Christians, must be holy before God in all their acts and conduct; holy, I say, according to all the etymologies and all the modes just mentioned. For it is said to the Jews by Moses, Exodus XIX, 6, as much as to Christians by Saint Peter, 1 Peter II, 9: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition." So Christ is the Holy of Holies, Daniel IX, 14. So the most holy, that is, the most pure, was the Blessed Virgin Mother of God. So David says, Psalm LXXXV, 2: "Preserve my soul, for I am holy." So Jeremiah I, 5, it is said: "Before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you." So Saint John the Baptist was sanctified in the womb, who, in order to preserve this holiness inviolate, withdrew into the desert, "lest he should stain his life with even a slight blemish." So a virgin is holy, that is, pure in body and spirit, 1 Corinthians VII, 34. So holy, that is, chaste, were Saint Agnes, Lucy, Agatha, and other holy virgins. Second, holy, that is, separated from the world and devoted and consecrated to God, were the holy Hermits, Religious, and Priests. Third, holy, that is, venerable on account of piety and virtue, were the holy Patriarchs, Prophets, and Bishops. Fourth, holy, that is, faithful to God, even unto death, were the Apostles and Martyrs.
Verse 27: They Shall Stone Them
They shall overwhelm them with stones. — Abulensis probably considers that this penalty of stoning pertains to all the cases and crimes of this chapter (except that of incest in verse 14, where another penalty, namely fire, is assigned), because stoning is placed and expressed here both at the beginning of the chapter and at the end. Hence it seems to embrace by way of summary all the other intermediate cases (in which therefore no specific kind of punishment is expressed); and this is confirmed from verse 16, compared with John VIII, 5, where adulteresses are said to be stoned according to the law of Moses. Nor is this surprising; for all these cases are enormous crimes, such that they deserve the severe penalty of stoning.
For in lesser crimes the common kind of punishment, where no other is expressed, was hanging, or the cross, Abulensis thinks, and this is hinted at in Deuteronomy XXI, 22. But this opinion is hardly probable: for the cross seems to have been a punishment only for enormous crimes among the Jews; for in Deuteronomy XXI, 23, it is said that one who is hanged is cursed by God. Hence the cross and the crucified were supremely execrable to the Jews; and therefore they had to be covered with earth and buried on the same day. Hence also Christ was crucified, on account of the supreme torment of the cross, and equally its infamy; for this is what the Jews say in Wisdom II: "Let us condemn him to a most shameful death." See Jansenius on chapter CXLIII of the Evangelical Concordance.
More truly therefore the common punishment for lesser crimes was the sword or the axe, although we find this nowhere expressed and decreed in the old law; for this kind of death is the lightest, and accepted by usage among very many peoples: and so John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod. Finally, Carolus Sigonius notes, in book VI On the Hebrew Commonwealth, last chapter, that these punishments are found decreed in the old law: a fine, retaliation, scourging, exile, sale into slavery, and death; but only three kinds of death, namely stoning here, burning in verse 14, and crucifixion in Deuteronomy XXI. So among the Romans, Cicero wrote that eight kinds of penalties are contained in the laws, namely damage, chains, scourging, retaliation, disgrace, exile, slavery, and death, says Isidore, book II of the Etymologies.