Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He describes the Eastern gate of the sanctuary as closed, and decrees that the prince alone shall sit in it, because the Lord has entered through it. Secondly, in verse 5, he decrees that those uncircumcised in flesh and heart are to be barred from the sanctuary. Thirdly, in verse 10, he bars from the ministry of the temple the Levites who served idols, and substitutes for them the Levites who are sons of Sadoc, and priests who never served idols but always served the true God. Fourthly, in verse 17, he decrees their rites and vestments, namely: First, that in the temple they use linen vestments, not woolen. Second, that they not shave their heads, nor let their hair grow long, but trim it. Third, that priests ministering in the temple not drink wine. Fourth, that they marry a virgin, or the widow of a priest. Fifth, that they teach the people what is holy and what is defiled. Sixth, that they not go to a dead person. Finally, in verse 28, as their reward and recompense he promises that He Himself will be their inheritance, giving them His victims, first-fruits, and offerings, as He had decreed in Leviticus, whose precepts, obliterated in the captivity, He here repeats and recalls to memory.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 44:1-31
1. And he brought me back to the way of the gate of the outer sanctuary, which looked toward the East: and it was shut. 2. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut: it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it, and it shall be shut for the prince. 3. The prince himself shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord: he shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the same way. 4. And he brought me by the way of the north gate before the house: and I saw, and behold the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord: and I fell on my face. 5. And the Lord said to me: Son of man, attend with thy heart, and see with thy eyes, and hear with thy ears all that I say to thee concerning all the ceremonies of the house of the Lord, and concerning all its laws: and thou shalt attend with thy heart to the ways of the temple, throughout all the exits of the sanctuary. 6. And thou shalt say to the house of Israel that provokes me: Thus says the Lord God: Let all your abominations suffice you, O house of Israel: 7. in that you bring in strangers uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, and to defile my house: and you offer my bread, the fat and the blood: and you break my covenant by all your crimes. 8. And you have not kept the ordinances of my sanctuary: and you have set keepers of my observances in my sanctuary for yourselves.
9. Thus says the Lord God: No stranger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my sanctuary, any son of a stranger who is in the midst of the children of Israel. 10. Moreover the Levites also, who went far from me in the going astray of the children of Israel, and have wandered from me after their idols, and have borne their iniquity: 11. they shall be servants in my sanctuary, and doorkeepers of the gates of the house, and ministers of the house: they shall slay the holocausts and the victims for the people, and they shall stand in their sight, to minister to them. 12. Because they ministered to them before their idols, and became to the house of Israel a stumbling-block of iniquity: therefore I have lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity: 13. and they shall not come near to me to execute the office of priest to me, neither shall they come near to any of my holy things that are beside the Holy of Holies: but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. 14. And I will make them doorkeepers of the house, for all its service, and for all that shall be done therein. 15. But the priests and Levites, the sons of Sadoc, who kept the ceremonies of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me: and they shall stand in my sight, to offer me the fat and the blood, says the Lord God. 16. They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table to minister to me, and to keep my ceremonies. 17. And when they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments: neither shall any woolen thing come upon them, when they minister in the gates of the inner court and within. 18. They shall have linen mitres on their heads, and linen breeches on their loins, and they shall not be girded with anything that causes sweat. 19. And when they go forth to the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they ministered, and lay them up in the store-chamber of the sanctuary, and shall clothe themselves with other garments: and they shall not sanctify the people with their vestments. 20. And they shall not shave their heads, nor wear long hair: but they shall only trim their heads. 21. And no priest shall drink wine when he is to enter into the inner court. 22. Neither shall they take to wife a widow, or one that is put away, but maidens of the seed of the house of Israel: but they may take a widow also, that is the widow of a priest. 23. And they shall teach my people the difference between holy and profane, and show them how to discern between clean and unclean. 24. And when there shall be a controversy, they shall stand in my judgments, and shall judge: they shall keep my laws and my precepts in all my solemnities, and sanctify my sabbaths. 25. And they shall not go to a dead person lest they be defiled, unless it be father or mother, or son or daughter, or brother, or sister who has not had another husband: in which cases they may be defiled. 26. And after he is cleansed, seven days shall be counted for him. 27. And on the day of his entry into the sanctuary, to the inner court, to minister to me in the sanctuary, he shall offer for his sin, says the Lord God. 28. And they shall have no inheritance, I am their inheritance: and you shall give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession. 29. They shall eat the victim both for sin and for trespass: and every vow in Israel shall be theirs. 30. And the first-fruits of all the firstborn, and all the libations of all things that are offered, shall be for the priests: and you shall give the first-fruits of your foods to the priest, that he may return a blessing upon thy house. 31. The priests shall not eat of anything that is dead of itself, or caught by a beast, whether it be fowl or cattle.
Verse 1: And he brought me (the measurer and architect, namely the Angel, of whom chapter XL, 3) to the way o
1. And he brought me (the measurer and architect, namely the Angel, of whom chapter XL, 3) to the way of the gate of the outer sanctuary, that is, of the court. For the inner sanctuary was the temple itself, namely the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Others understand by the outer sanctuary the Holy Place, by the inner the Holy of Holies. So R. David and Maldonatus. But an objection is that the prince, being a layman, could not enter the Holy Place, indeed not even the court of the priests.
And it was shut, after the glory of God had entered through it. For this was seen by the Prophet as entering through it when it was open, chapter XLIII, 2. 2. It shall be shut (to the people, says Maldonatus; for the priests, who bore the person of God, entered through it. Whence he adds the reason for the closure): because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it. The Arabic translates: This gate shall be shut, and shall not be opened, and no one enters through it; except the Lord God of Israel enters through it, and He shall go out from it. Shut with His seal. And it shall be the dwelling of the governor (leader), and he shall sit (will sit) in it himself at all times before the Lord. And it shall be shut for the prince, that is, for the use of the prince, namely not that he should enter through it, but that he should sit in it. For this is what he adds next:
Verse 3: The prince himself shall sit (that is, shall stand, shall be present: for the Jews stood when prayin
3. The prince himself shall sit (that is, shall stand, shall be present: for the Jews stood when praying and sacrificing. Moreover, it is well known that "to sit" in Hebrew means to stay, remain, stand, be present, whether one sits, stands, or reclines) in it (as if to say: The prince, about to offer sacrifice, shall take his stand on the threshold of this gate, and there shall eat of his peace-offerings; yet he shall not enter nor pass through it, as some suppose; because the Lord has entered by it; but) by the way of the gate of the porch (that is, through the common gate of the laity, together with them) he shall enter, and shall go out. For the prince, since he was as it were God's vicar in temporal affairs, had this privilege, that he might come close to the court of the priests, and at the threshold of this gate, which was opened in his favor, might watch the sacrifices from outside, and eat of them there: yet it was not lawful for him, being a layman, to cross the gate itself, and through it enter the court of the priests, much less the Holy Place. That this is the meaning, and this was the use of this gate for the prince, is explicitly and at length declared in chapter XLVI, 1, 2, 3, 12 and following, where it is said of this gate: "It shall be shut the six days on which work is done; but on the sabbath day it shall be opened. And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate from without, and shall stand at the threshold of the gate, and the priests shall offer his holocausts and his peace-offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate, and shall go out: but the gate shall not be shut till the evening." And verse 12: "But when the prince shall offer a voluntary holocaust, or voluntary peace-offerings to the Lord, the gate that looks toward the East shall be opened to him, and he shall offer his holocaust and his peace-offerings, as is wont to be done on the sabbath day: and he shall go out, and the gate shall be shut after he has gone out."
Allegorically, and more properly, this closed gate is the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whom the prince sat, that is, Christ the Lord, when, conceived from her most pure blood in her sacred womb as in His bridal chamber and temple, He dwelt for nine months, because the Lord God of Israel entered through it, namely: God the Father betrothing and wedding her to Himself; God the Holy Spirit overshadowing and making her fruitful; God the Son assuming flesh in her. For "she is at once mother, daughter, and spouse of God;" for she is the daughter of God the Father, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and the mother of the Son, that is, of Christ. So all the Fathers and Christian interpreters, of whom very many consider this to be the literal sense. Certainly it is the primary sense, and most intended by the Holy Spirit. So the Greek Scholiast, briefly and at the same time subtly: "Christ alone," he says, "supernaturally opened this gate which was not yet opened, and naturally kept it shut." See what was said in Exodus XIII, 2.
St. Augustine, sermon 2 On the Nativity: "The closed gate," he says, "is the seal of modesty, the immaculate integrity of the flesh: for she was not violated by giving birth, she who was rather sanctified by conceiving." And St. Bernard, homily 2 on the Missus est: "It befitted God," he says, "to have such a birth, by which He would be born only of a virgin: and such a birth was fitting for the Virgin, that she would give birth to none but God." And St. Cyril of Jerusalem, catechesis 12: "It was indeed fitting," he says, "that the most pure teacher of purity should come forth from a pure bridal chamber." St. Jerome and St. Ambrose also explain it thus; the latter, in his book On the Institution of Virgins, chapter VIII: "The closed gate," he says, "is virginity, and the enclosed garden is virginity, and the sealed fountain is virginity."
Likewise Epiphanius, in his sermon On the Praises of the Virgin, Cyprian (or rather Rufinus) in his Exposition of the Creed, Chrysostom, in his Homily on John the Baptist, volume III, and others everywhere. Hence it is added: "And it shall be shut for the prince," since the prince has passed through it; it shall be and remain shut. Pagninus translates: And it shall be the shut gate of the prince, as if to say: The prince has many gates, but this is par excellence called the perpetually closed gate, and therefore the gate of the prince, who passed through it while it remained closed. Whence the Septuagint translate: And it shall be shut, because this leader shall sit in it. From these passages it is evident that it is a matter of faith that the Blessed Virgin was and remained always a virgin; because it is said here that even for the prince Himself, namely Christ, it shall be closed, and by no means to be opened in His conception and birth through the opening of the virginal enclosure and seal, and therefore it shall be called the gate of the prince, as Pagninus translates.
Therefore a threefold heresy is overthrown here. First, that of Ebion and Cerinthus, who, as Irenaeus testifies (book I, chapter XXV), impiously taught that the Blessed Virgin conceived from Joseph. Second, that of Jovinian, who asserted that the Blessed Virgin was corrupted in childbirth: the witness is St. Augustine, in his book On Heresies. Third, that of others who, although they acknowledged her as a virgin before and during the birth of Christ, nevertheless said that after the birth she conceived several sons from Joseph, who are therefore called the brothers of the Lord in the Gospel. The proponent of this error was Helvidius, against whom St. Jerome learnedly wrote an entire book. Indeed Zwingli also, from this passage, proves the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mary, as Canisius testifies (book II of his Mariale, chapter VI). Therefore this gate is here said three times to be closed, to signify that the God-bearer would be a virgin before childbirth, during childbirth, and after childbirth, says Galatinus (book VII of the Secrets of the Faith, chapter XIV).
Hell was emptied, the ruins of the heavenly Jerusalem were restored, etc. To this abundance of mercy let all our misery in all solicitude have recourse." The same, homily 4 on the Missus est: "On thy mouth (O Virgin) hangs the consolation of the wretched, the redemption of captives, the liberation of the condemned, the salvation, finally, of all the sons of Adam, of thy entire race." The same, sermon 2 on the day of Pentecost: "To her (the Blessed Virgin) as to the center, as to the threshing-floor of God, as to the cause of all things, as to the business of the ages, look both those who dwell in heaven and those in hell, and those who went before us, and we who are, and those who shall follow, and the children of their children, and those who shall be born from them. Those who are in heaven, that they may be restored: those in hell, that they may be delivered: those who went before, that they may be found faithful Prophets: those who follow, that they may be glorified. And all generations call thee blessed, Mother of God, Lady of the world, Queen of heaven. For in thee the Angels found joy, the just found grace, sinners found pardon forever. Rightly do the eyes of all creation look upon thee: because in thee, and through thee, and of thee the benign hand of the Almighty recreated whatever He had created." For as he himself says in sermon 3 on the Missus est, in the Blessed Mary the fullness of divinity dwelt bodily, namely the God-man, as St. Dionysius says, from whom the theandric, that is, divine-human, actions by which He reconciled mankind to God, emanated. The same, sermon 3 among the minor ones: "Hail, Mary, full of grace. Rightly full, because pleasing to God, and to the Angels, and to men: to men through her fruitfulness, to the Angels through her virginity, to God through her humility." The same, sermon On the Blessed Mary: "Eve was a thorn, who both stung her husband to death, and implanted in posterity the sting of her sin: Mary was a rose. Eve the thorn, by wounding; Mary the rose, by soothing all hearts. Eve the thorn, inflicting death on all; Mary the rose, rendering to all a saving lot." The same, sermon 3 on the Salve, Regina: "Let there be a firmament, he says, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Of all firmaments the strongest firmament art thou, O Lady, who didst contain Him whom the heavens of heavens could not contain, and didst conceive Him: thou didst carry Him, and didst not fail: thou didst bring Him forth, nourish Him, and raise Him. Thou in the midst of the waters didst divide the waters from the waters; the affections of eternal things, namely, from the affections of temporal things. God placed in this firmament the sun and the moon, both Christ and the Church; and the stars, namely the many prerogatives of graces."
Symbolically, Origen here in homily 14, and after him St. Jerome, understand by the closed gate Sacred Scripture, which was closed until the prince, that is Christ, opened it, of whom it is said in Apocalypse V, 5: "Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose its seven seals." For as St. Jerome says: "Before the Savior assumed a human body, and humbled Himself taking the form of a servant, the law was closed, and the Prophets, and all knowledge of the Scriptures. But after He hung upon the cross, immediately the veil of the temple was torn, and all things were opened, and with the veil removed we say: But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory."
Anagogically, the closed gate was the gate of heaven closed until Christ, which Christ opened with the key of His cross: for which reason St. Stephen, undergoing martyrdom, said (Acts VII): "Behold, I see the heavens opened." And St. Peter (Acts X) saw heaven opened, and descending from it a certain vessel like a great linen sheet.
Verse 4: By the way of the north gate
4. By the way of the north gate. (Because the Eastern gate was shut, as he said in verse 2; therefore through the north gate, which was open, the Angel brought Ezekiel) before the house. That is, as the Hebrew has it, into the sight of the temple, namely so that he might see the glory of the Lord, which filled it: whence seeing it, with his eyes dazzled by the brilliance, and from reverence and astonishment at such majesty, he fell to the ground. "The Prophet fell on his face," says St. Jerome, "lest while he desires to see more than human frailty can behold," he should even lose the very light of his eyes.
Verse 5: And set thy heart upon the ways of the temple, through all the exits of the sanctuary. In Hebrew: An
5. And set thy heart upon the ways of the temple, through all the exits of the sanctuary. In Hebrew: And set thy heart upon the entrance of the house, and upon all the entrances of the sanctuary, that is, observe all those entering and leaving the temple, consider all things that take place in the temple, examine the entire administration of the temple. So Vatablus. Otherwise Maldonatus, as if to say: Thou shalt diligently observe all the entrances and exits of the temple, so that thou mayest teach the Jews by what way the people, by what way the prince, by what way the priests ought to enter and go out, as he intimates shortly after, and will declare more fully in chapter XLVI.
Verse 6: To the provoking, to the rebellious house, provoking me by its rebellion
6. To the provoking, to the rebellious house, provoking me by its rebellion. See what was said in chapter II, 3. 6 and 7. Let all your abominations suffice you (as if to say: Let it suffice you to have acted wickedly until now) in that you have brought in the uncircumcised, the unfaithful and wicked, into my temple: desist from these crimes: henceforth do not bring them in, and do not profane my temple. So the Hebrew. Otherwise Maldonatus, as if to say: Let it suffice you that you yourselves defile my temple with your idolatry and murders, even though you do not bring in strangers and profane men who would contaminate it. But the phrase "in that" does not here mean "although," but the cause or manner of the crimes. Whence in Hebrew it is: in your bringing in strangers. For strangers were barred from the temple, that is, from the court of Israel.
Uncircumcised in heart (that is, wicked) and uncircumcised in flesh, that is, gentiles, infidels, and idolaters. For at that time almost only the circumcised, that is, the Jews and proselytes, were faithful and worshippers of the true God; the uncircumcised were gentiles and infidels. Tropologically, St. Jerome: "We circumcise the heart," he says, "with the knife of God, and the foreskin is removed from our heart, when shameful thoughts never go out from our heart, nor is it said of us: The heart of this people has been fattened, and they have heard heavily with their ears. Therefore let the flesh likewise be circumcised, so that we by no means do earthly works, which we are compelled to do for the necessity of the body, taking food, and drink, and sleep, and using clothes: which we circumcise when we do all things not for pleasure, and luxury, and sloth, but for the necessity of nature and the sustenance of this body. He who drinks wine for his stomach and frequent infirmities, and hates drunkenness, circumcises his flesh, etc. And thus circumcised let us enter the Sanctuary of God. Let Bishops and priests hear this, and every Ecclesiastical order, that they not bring in strangers uncircumcised in heart and flesh, lest they defile His house."
And you offer my bread, the fat and the blood. "You offer," namely through the foreigners just mentioned. So Vatablus, who considers that the Jews are here reproved because, when they themselves had turned to idols, they brought into the temple priests of the Gentiles, who sacrificed to idols in their own rite. More simply, Maldonatus explains, as if to say: You offer me bread and victims which you have received from foreigners; for this was forbidden in Leviticus XXII, 25, where it says: "From the hand of a foreigner you shall not offer the bread of your God, and whatever else he wishes to give, because all things are corrupted and blemished."
the virginity of the Blessed Mary, as Canisius testifies (book II of his Mariale, chapter VI). Therefore this gate is said three times here to be closed, to signify that the God-bearing Virgin would be a virgin before birth, during birth, and after birth, says Galatinus (book VII of the Secrets of the Faith, chapter XIV). Tropologically, this gate of the temple, that is, of heaven, signifies that all grace and all gifts descend to us from heaven, from God, through the Blessed Virgin as through a gate. For this gate is not merely a gate, but also a throne of the glory of God, namely the throne of the true Solomon, from whom every good is derived to us. She is the ark of the covenant, she the shield for all who hope in her, she the star of the sea, she the lady, advocate, our mediatrix, she the city of strength, she the city of refuge, she the propitiatory of the Most High. "She is the Virgin of virgins, the Holy of Holies, the light of the blind, the glory of the just, the pardon of sinners, the discoverer of grace, the mediatrix of salvation, the restorer of the ages, reverend to the Angels, desired by the nations, foreknown to the Prophets and Patriarchs, chosen from among all, preferred to all," says St. Bernard, epistle 74. She is the ship of the trader bringing bread from afar, she the mother of mercy, she the great sign in heaven, she the wonder and miracle of the ages. For "she is the mother of Him whose Father is God," says St. Bernard, sermon 3 on the Missus est: "For she gave birth to God, and conceived from God." The same, sermon 3 on the Salve Regina: "For her sake," he says, "the whole world was made, and she is full of the grace of God, and through her man was redeemed, the Word of God was made flesh, God was made humble and man sublime."
Again, this gate signifies that men must enter and ascend from earth to heaven through the Blessed Virgin, as through a gate. Therefore she is called the ladder of Jacob, the gate of heaven, the gate of paradise, the mother of salvation, the lady of the Angels, the queen of the world, the daughter, spouse, and parent of the Most Holy Trinity; namely, the daughter of the Father, the parent of the Son, the spouse of the Holy Spirit. Hence doctors everywhere teach that the most efficacious means of securing eternal happiness is if one devotes himself to the veneration of the Blessed Virgin, and asks from her to be directed by straight paths to the way and port of salvation. For she is the glory of Jerusalem, she the woman clothed with the sun, having on her head a crown of twelve stars. She is the mother both of Christ and of all Christians, namely of the Church both militant and triumphant. Very many modern authors, both those who have written about the Blessed Virgin and those who have written on the catechism, have collected numerous examples of all these things through the individual centuries. Finally, St. Bernard, sermon 4 On the Assumption: "Let him be silent about thy mercy, O Blessed Virgin, if there is anyone who, having invoked thee in his necessities, remembers thee to have failed him." And shortly after: "Who then can investigate the length and breadth, the height and depth of thy mercy, O blessed one? For its length succors all who invoke it even to the last day. Its breadth fills the whole earth, so that all the earth also is full of thy mercy. So too its height found the restoration of the heavenly city, and its depth obtained redemption for those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. For through thee heaven was filled."
Finally, the Blessed Virgin is called the Eastern gate, because, as St. Ambrose explains (book On the Institution of Virgins, chapter VII), she gave birth to Christ, who is the sun of justice, and whose name is the Rising (Oriens), Zechariah III, 8. All these things St. Augustine has briefly, elegantly, and concisely encompassed in sermon 14 On the Birthday of the Lord: "What," he says, "is the gate in the house of the Lord that is closed, if not that Mary will always be inviolate? And what is meant by 'No man passes through it,' if not that Joseph did not know her? And what is meant by God alone entering and going out through it, if not that the Holy Spirit impregnated her? And what is meant by its being closed forever, if not that Mary was a virgin before birth, a virgin in birth, a virgin after birth? Therefore let Mary say: I have been made a gate of heaven, I have been made a door for the Son of God. For Him I was made a closed door, who after His resurrection entered through closed doors, who, born from my womb, left me His mother inviolate. He filled my womb with divinity, and did not empty my womb of chastity: neither in conception was I found without modesty, nor in giving birth was I found with pain."
The symbol of the Eastern gate always closed denotes that both conceptions of the Virgin were unblemished and immaculate, namely both the active, by which she conceived and gave birth to Christ, whose name is the Rising (Oriens), Zechariah III, and the passive, by which she herself was conceived and arose as the dawn rising, and the mother of the Rising Sun. Therefore wisely and skillfully the Blessed John of Avila, the Apostolic preacher of our age in Spain, and after him our Father Ribadeneira in the Lives of the Saints, treating of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin on December 8, hand down from frequent and certain experience that a singular and efficacious remedy against temptations of the flesh for preserving chastity is, if one who is tempted invokes the Blessed Virgin and asks help from her through her immaculate conception and angelic purity, by which she was conceived, and by which likewise as a virgin she conceived the Son of God; and recites some hymns or prayers in honor of both conceptions. Certainly it is well known that many Saints obtained through the Blessed Virgin the gift of virginity or chastity. For she is the burning bush unconsumed, Exodus chapter III, 2, which, as from herself, so also from Moses and others faithful to her, repels the flames of concupiscence. She is the fountain sealed for herself and others, and the well of living waters, which quench the burning of the flesh, Song of Songs IV. She is the lily among thorns, she the sanctuary of God, she the altar of incense, she the enclosed garden, she the mirror without blemish, she the rod of Moses, she the fleece of Gideon, she the tower of ivory, she beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun, she terrible to demons as an army set in array. For with these titles the Blessed Virgin is greeted by the Fathers and invoked by the Church in the Litanies.
Verse 8: You have set keepers of my observances (in Hebrew משמרתי mismarti, that is, of my custody) in my san
8. You have set keepers of my observances (in Hebrew משמרתי mismarti, that is, of my custody) in my sanctuary (namely in the temple) for yourselves, that is, according to your own judgment, not according to my will. For you have placed keepers of the temple who admit the uncircumcised into it, whom I did not wish and forbade. Otherwise Vatablus, as if to say: You have appointed priests of the Gentiles, who should guard your temple and offer in it sanctifications, that is, holy victims, on your behalf.
Verse 10: Moreover the Levites, who went far from me in the going astray of the children of Israel (as if to s
10. Moreover the Levites, who went far from me in the going astray of the children of Israel (as if to say: Those Levites who with the Israelites worshipped idols, and thence fell into other crimes) and have borne their iniquity. "And" signifies "therefore," as if to say: And therefore they bore the penalty of their iniquity, namely the Babylonian captivity. Otherwise Vatablus; for he translates in the future tense: They shall pay the penalty of their iniquity, which I threaten them with in verses 11 and 13, namely that they should be reduced to the rank of laymen, and be servants and doorkeepers of the temple. Here God distinguishes two classes of Levites, says St. Jerome, namely one class of those who followed idols with the people. For in the time of Manasseh, Ahaz, and other impious and idolatrous kings, the people were likewise idolaters; and of the Levites very many, lest they lose their rank, courting the favor of the king and the people, served idols, and ministered to them during sacrifice according to their rank. But others stood firm in the faith and in their office, preferring to lose their rank and the favor of kings and the people rather than wound their conscience. Those are here called the sons of Sadoc: for Sadoc was a true and faithful high priest of God; and his descendants, who followed their father's virtue, are called his sons both by descent and by imitation.
With these words then God establishes and confirms the priestly ministry, but punishes the former group by excluding them from the priesthood and degrading them to the lowest offices of temple servants and butchers for slaughtering victims. This is what he adds: 11. They shall be servants in my sanctuary, as if to say: Instead of the priestly office, says St. Jerome, they who had been accustomed to offer holocausts, and victims, and every sacrifice, shall be reduced to the lowest rank, and shall be doorkeepers of the house in perpetual ignominy, so that all the people entering and leaving may see from what sublime dignity to what lowest rank they have descended." Thus the Church formerly received Bishops and priests who had lapsed into Arianism or other heresy to penance indeed, but deprived them of the priestly office, and often reduced them to lay communion: but afterwards, as the number of the lapsed increased, she restored many to their former priestly rank. Which St. Jerome deplores, saying: "How, he says, do they assume for themselves the pinnacle of the priestly and pontifical office, and dare to offer victims to God, former worshippers of idols? But, as the most ardent poet testifies, whatever is sinned by many is a great thing; the multitude of sinners has made pardon more obtainable for the impious, so that those who, reduced to the lay state, ought to have bewailed the former crimes of their sacrilege, now recline upon the pontifical throne, and belch at us the nausea of feigned faith, indeed the open abridgments of hidden faith. Therefore let them hear salvation, though late, and observe the precepts of almighty God: No stranger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter my Sanctuary, even though he be a son, even though joined by kinship."
Verse 12: Because they ministered to them, because they served the people in idolatry, therefore they, even af
12. Because they ministered to them, because they served the people in idolatry, therefore they, even after being recalled from idolatry, shall remain bound in perpetual servitude, says Maldonatus. Therefore I lifted up my hand (that is, I swore with raised hand) against them and (that is, because, or that) they shall bear their iniquity, through this penalty of ignominy, namely the irregularity already mentioned.
Verse 16: And they shall keep my ceremonies
16. And they shall keep my ceremonies. In Hebrew it is: and they shall keep my charge, that is, they shall fulfill in all things the office of the priest: for to him belongs the custody of the temple and of sacred things. So Vatablus. 17. And when they enter the gates of the inner court, that is, of the court of the priests. Others understand the Holy of Holies, as if it were here commanded that the high priest, about to make expiation therein on the day of atonement, should clothe himself in a linen tunic, as God commanded in Leviticus XVI, 2 and following. But the Holy of Holies is not called a court. With linen garments. For the linen tunic was the vestment of ordinary priests, by the law of Exodus chapter XXIX, 8. Here it is mystically signified that we must handle the holy Sacraments of God with a clean conscience, says St. Jerome.
in his triumph, and Luke XVI, 19, about the rich glutton clothed in fine linen. But in the same garment, insofar as it is a symbol of sanctity and religion, all these things have the best signification. For nothing is more honorable, nothing more excellent and glorious than the principal spirit, with which God confirms His friends. There are no delights that can in any way equal the delights of true sanctity; no riches that can be compared with its riches. So Alcazar on Apocalypse I, 13, note 11. I reviewed other reasons for the linen priestly vestment in Exodus XXVIII, 39.
Nor shall anything woolen come upon them. Linen differs from wool in that wool is the proper garment of brute animals; but linen is the noble pith of a plant, which is preserved by human industry once extracted. Whence Apuleius in his Apology: Wool, he says, the sluggish excrement of the body, stripped from sheep, has from the times of Orpheus and Pythagoras been a profane garment. And so a woolen garment seems to indicate laziness and sluggishness: and in linen at least much greater diligence is signified. Secondly, the thinness and subtlety of linen is remarkable; which Pliny particularly considers in that breastplate which was displayed in the island of Rhodes in the temple of Minerva, whose individual threads consisted of 365 threads. Jerome also, on that passage of Ezekiel XVI: "I girded thee with fine linen," says that the finest threads are woven from fine linen in the vestment of the high priest. This is especially apt to denote that this mystical garment of true sanctity must not be woven with coarse thread (as they say), but with thin and subtle thread. Thirdly, linen brings immense benefit to mankind; it carries the world, says Pliny, to and fro. By which words he weighs the great advantages that follow from linen for navigation; for the sails that ships customarily use are generally made of linen. Hence linen itself is the principal instrument, by whose help and aid the greatest vessels, laden with so many and such great cargoes, commit themselves to the sea, and sail to the most remote shores. From a small seed linen grows like a slender and humble blade, so that by it immense riches and most useful merchandise are conveyed from one province to another. This marvelously represents how useful to the whole world is the sanctity of Christ's faithful, which, by the favorable breath of the divine Spirit, conveys heavenly riches and truly divine merchandise even to barbarous nations and the most distant peoples. A supreme usefulness of linen also is that tents and awnings are made from it, customarily stretched in courtyards or other open places, which ward off the heat of the sun. No differently does the sanctity of the just serve as a canopy for the republic from the heat, and spiritually shades the forum of human life, so that men may live more wholesomely.
Fourthly, the splendor and price of the finest linen, that is, fine linen (byssus), was great. For Achaian fine linen was sold by the weight of gold, so that an ounce of fine linen was weighed out at a hundred silver coins, or according to the new value of money, one hundred and ten; and a pound consisting of twelve ounces would be worth twelve hundred silver coins; or (by the new reckoning) 1,320, at which price silk in thirty pounds tends to be sold. Indeed Pausanias adds that the fine linen of Judea was superior to the Achaian. If therefore we consider its great splendor together with its immense price and its great delights, we easily understand that fine linen aptly serves to denote riches, glory, and delights: since it was something very proper to princes. See Genesis XLI, 42, concerning the fine linen robe of Joseph.
And within, in the Holy Place, by burning incense, lighting the lamps, and placing the loaves of proposition.
Verse 18: And they shall not be girded with anything that causes sweat, that is, in the place of sweat, as if
18. And they shall not be girded with anything that causes sweat, that is, in the place of sweat, as if to say: They shall gird themselves at the middle of the body, but not at the chest or at the armpits, where one easily sweats. So the Chaldean, the Hebrews, Maldonatus, and others. Secondly and more correctly: "They shall not be girded with anything that causes sweat," that is, so tightly that they sweat. So Vatablus. For the Septuagint translate: They shall not be girded forcefully, as if to say: They shall not gird themselves forcefully and tightly like prisoners; lest they become unable to perform the priestly and Levitical ministries, and be unable to hold and slay victims, to draw them also, and to run about, says St. Jerome.
Verse 19: And when they go out to the people, etc., they shall clothe themselves in other garments (profane an
19. And when they go out to the people, etc., they shall clothe themselves in other garments (profane and common), and they shall not sanctify the people with their vestments, that is, lest they sanctify the people, "who have not prepared themselves for sanctification, to be Nazirites of the Lord," says St. Jerome; for profane things became sacred from contact with sacred things, according to the law of Exodus XXX, 29. So Vatablus and Maldonatus. God forbids sacred things to be profaned and applied to profane uses, lest the majesty of sacred things be cheapened and become common to the whole populace.
Verse 20: They shall not shave their heads, nor wear long hair, but they shall only trim their heads. Hortensi
20. They shall not shave their heads, nor wear long hair, but they shall only trim their heads. Hortensius Landus wrongly twists this against the tonsure of monks, in his book On the Persecution of the Barbarians. On this note: The priests of the Jews were forbidden to shave, Leviticus XXI, 5; not because it was evil in itself, but because it was less becoming, and lest they should seem similar to the priests of the gentiles, in whose vicinity they lived, who sacrificed to idols with their entire head shaved, as is clear from the letter of Jeremiah, Baruch VI, 30. That this same thing was not evil in itself is clear, because Ezekiel, who was a priest, is commanded by God to shave, chapter V, 1; and in Numbers VI, the Nazirite is commanded to shave upon completing the time of his vow. Hence Paul also shaved, Acts XXI, 24. Therefore the priests of the Jews were forbidden to shave only on account of the proximity of idolaters. Which was perhaps the reason why in the time of Optatus of Milevis, St. Jerome, and Ambrose, Christian priests were not shaved but trimmed. For even in their time there were priests of Isis and Serapis who shaved their heads, as St. Jerome here and St. Ambrose, epistle 36, testify. But after that cause ceased, there is nothing absurd in those who shave their heads to signify something sacred. So Bellarmine, book II On Monks, chapter XI.
Morally, St. Gregory, Part II of the Pastoral, chapter VII, at the end: "Because," he says, "all who are in authority ought indeed to have external cares, yet not press upon them too vehemently, the priests are rightly forbidden both to shave their heads and to grow their hair long, so that they may neither utterly cut away from themselves thoughts of the flesh concerning the life of their subjects, nor again relax them too much so as to grow. Hence it is well said: Let them trim their heads, that they may indeed provide for the cares of temporal concern as much as is necessary, and yet cut them back quickly, lest they grow excessively."
Verse 24: They shall stand in my judgments, they shall insist upon my laws and precepts, so that they may judg
24. They shall stand in my judgments, they shall insist upon my laws and precepts, so that they may judge according to their prescription, and settle disputes.
Verse 25: Who has not had another husband (who has not married a second time) in which cases they may be defil
25. Who has not had another husband (who has not married a second time) in which cases they may be defiled, as if to say: It shall be lawful for a priest to go to his father's funeral for the sake of duty and piety, to bury him, and in this case it shall be lawful for him to contract legal defilement, that is, to incur the legal irregularity that is contracted on account of funerals: for this must yield to filial piety. But for the high priest it was not lawful to attend any funeral, not even his father's; see what was said in Leviticus XXI, 11. God wished by this decree to call away the minds of the priests from human affection, by which men love those joined to them by blood and kinsmen, and therefore mourn and lament at their death: namely, He wished the priests to be free from this affection, so that they might transfer their whole mind from kinsmen and perishable things to God and divine things, and that they might continually think of the resurrection and eternity, and teach others their faith and hope in these things by word and deed. For this reason, then, the high priest could mourn neither father nor mother: "For the law demands," says Philo, book II On the Monarchy, "in that man a character superior to other men; since he is familiar with God above others, as if standing on a certain boundary between the divine and human nature, so that through this mediator God may be propitious to men."
These things applied to the priests of the Old Testament, who were bound to marriages, children, and family: what then should the priests and Bishops of the New Testament do, whom God wished to be celibate and childless, so that they might transfer their mind from earthly cares to heavenly things, and fix it entirely on God and eternal goods? Therefore St. Basil wisely warns in his Monastic Constitutions, chapter XXIII: "Knowing therefore the intolerable harm of this affection toward kinsmen, let us flee from their care, as from the devil's armor for attacking us." But behold, the wise teacher says, Satan, envying these things, lays ambushes from the side, substituting nephews for sons, and suggesting that they must be cared for, and indeed gradually advanced to the highest ranks of wealth and dignities; that the family must be exalted and perpetuated in them; that the family name must be preserved and celebrated among posterity in them. Thus indeed: When the Maker of things deprived the clergy of offspring, To Satan's wish succeeded a crowd of nephews.
This is the fraud, this the snare of the devil, this the rock of scandal, against which not a few otherwise good men stumble, so that they allow themselves to be conquered and bound by this affection for kinsmen, and with unceasing care and zeal accumulate for them riches and positions without end, even from the goods of the Church, with grave peril to their soul and salvation and that of their kinsmen. For this cupidity grows, creeps, and increases like hidden fire, the more it is indulged, and finally becomes insatiable and erupts into an immense conflagration. Thus priests, who ought to be heavenly, become earthly, and the highest become the lowest: thus those who ought to despise all human things with a lofty spirit, and to be above them, and to teach others the same, having turned to these things, fall away, and depress their sublime mind to these lowest things. O souls bent toward earth, and empty of heavenly things! How they degenerate from the virtue of Christ and the ancient Fathers! I do not speak of those who help poor relatives, or promote those who are worthier or more suited to themselves and the Church: for if this is done moderately, it is in accord with piety, charity, and prudence, as St. Thomas teaches, II-II, Question CLXXXV, article VII, reply 2. I speak of those who follow nothing but their affection, and therefore promote the unworthy, or enrich the worthy immoderately.
Christ the Lord, about to die, commended His only and most beloved mother, and she a poor woman, not to Joseph of Arimathea, noble and rich; but to John, likewise poor. Christ offered to His kinsmen, James and John, not riches and delights, but the chalice of His passion. For when their mother interceded for them and said: "Say that these my two sons may sit, one at Thy right hand and one at Thy left in Thy kingdom; Jesus answering said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to Him: We can. He said to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink, but to sit at my right or left hand is not mine to give you, but to those for whom it is prepared by my Father," Matthew XX.
St. Peter, called by Christ, stripped off and laid down all carnal affection toward his wife and his daughter Petronilla, and preferred them to be holy rather than wealthy: whence when his wife was being led to martyrdom, he did nothing else, said nothing else, than: "Hey you, remember the Lord," as Clement of Alexandria reports, book VII of the Stromata.
St. Paul thus decrees concerning Ecclesiastics, II Timothy II, 4: "No man being a soldier to God entangles himself with secular businesses, that he may please Him to whom he has engaged himself." The same, epistle 1 to Timothy Bishop of Ephesus, chapter VI, 6, reproves Ecclesiastics who think that piety is gain: "For," he says, "piety with sufficiency is great gain," in Greek αὐταρκία, that is, with a mind content with its own few things. "For we brought nothing into this world, and certainly we can carry nothing out. But having food and wherewith to be covered, with these we are content."
St. Cyprian, taken from marriage to the Episcopate of Carthage, so far from enriching or advancing his wife and children, distributed his goods to the poor, completely relinquished the care of his wife and children, and entrusted her to Caecilius the priest, leaving them a dowry that would suffice only for the necessities of life, as Pontius the deacon reports in his Life.
Hear and follow the example of the great Augustine, of whom Possidius writes thus in his Life, final chapter: "He did not treat his blood relatives, whether in religious life or outside it, in his life and death in the manner of the common people. To them, while he was still alive, he gave, if need arose, what he also gave to others, not that they might have riches, but that they might either not be in need, or be less so." St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, had an only daughter named Abra, whom he had begotten before his episcopate in marriage, and who was aspiring to marriage; so far from promoting this, he on the contrary by gentle exhortation bent her toward offering her virginity to God and embracing the religious life. So his Life relates. I reviewed more in Numbers XXVII, at the end.
St. Gregory says excellently, book VII of the Moralia, chapter XIV, having spoken of certain persons who overcome and trample upon the world and worldly things, he adds about them: "But nevertheless, still bound by the bond of carnal kinship, while they serve indiscriminately the love of relationship, they often return through the affection of kinship to those things which they had already subdued even with self-contempt: and when they love their carnal relatives more than is necessary, drawn outwardly, they are separated from the parent of the heart. Where therefore do these walk if not in a net, whom the perfection of life already begun had freed from the present world, but the disordered love of earthly kinship binds? Hence indeed the Truth says, Luke XXI: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."
Therefore St. Jerome rightly says to Heliodorus: "This battering-ram," he says, of piety toward parents and kinsmen, "with which faith is shaken, must be repelled by the wall of the Gospel: My mother and my brothers are those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. If they believe in Christ, let them favor me who am about to fight for His name: if they do not believe, let the dead bury their dead." And Climacus, step 3: "It is better," he says, "to sadden parents than to sadden the Lord Jesus: for He created and saved us, while they often lost their own by loving them. The love of God and His holy desire extinguishes in the soul the carnal love of parents: but whoever thinks that both can be enclosed in one heart deceives himself. Let not the tears of your loved ones move you, lest you bring upon yourself eternal tears."
Therefore God Himself, Deuteronomy XXXIII, 11, through Moses praising the Levites of the Old Testament because they had slain their parents and kinsmen who were going astray after idols, and therefore blessing them, says: "Who said to his father and to his mother: I do not know you; and to his brothers: I know you not, and they knew not their own children; they kept thy word and observed thy covenant; thy judgments, O Jacob, and thy law, O Israel! They shall put incense in thy wrath, and a holocaust upon thy altar. Bless, O Lord, his strength, and receive the works of his hands." Much more should the Levites of the New Testament consider as addressed to themselves that saying of Christ: "I came not to send peace, but the sword; for I came to set a man against his father," etc., Matthew X, 34; for a sword, that is, a vehement blow and effort, is needed for one to tear apart and cut asunder this affection toward parents and kinsmen, so deeply implanted by nature. Again, let them consider as addressed to themselves that saying of God to Abraham: "Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father's house, and come into the land which I shall show thee," Genesis XII, 1. And that: "Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech." For he is presented (even though he had them) in Scripture "as without father, without mother, without genealogy," as the Apostle says, Hebrews VII, 3, to indicate that priests ought to forget their parents, as if they were heavenly beings who had come down from heaven. For thus freed from this sticky glue of kinship, they will fix all their cares on serving the common goods of the Church, as they are obligated to do.
In later ages, several Roman Pontiffs gave an outstanding example in this matter, to be celebrated for all ages, to say nothing of innumerable others of lower rank and note. Benedict XII, Pope in the year of the Lord 1334, promoted none of his relatives to any office in the Church, repeatedly saying that "the Pope has no relatives," for like Melchisedech he is above the earth and men. For which reason he was held in such great veneration and was so dear to all that when he died after his seventh year, his funeral was celebrated with the most abundant tears of everyone. His equal was Benedict XI, in the year of the Lord 1303, who refused to recognize his poor mother who came to him to offer congratulations, and for that reason had dressed in finer attire, saying: "That is not my mother; for my mother is poor, and does not have the means to buy such precious garments." Struck by those words and overcome with shame, she departed; but shortly after, dressed in her own simple clothes, she returned, and then the Pope, rising from his seat, said: "This is my mother, not that earlier woman," and between these words he lovingly embraced her. Similar to these was Nicholas IV, in the year of the Lord 1288, who was so disposed toward his relatives that he said he owed them nothing more than he owed to the least worthy. So Platina, Baronius, and others in their Lives. On the other hand, it has been given as a reproach to holy men that they were addicted to their relatives more than was right; indeed the same experienced divine punishment, and late recognized and condemned their error.
A memorable example exists in St. Ulrich, Bishop of Augsburg, who in the year of the Lord 971, resigning his bishopric to his nephew Adalbero, although the latter was distinguished for wisdom and virtues, when about to die was caught up to the judgment of God, and in a vision received the message that for this reason he would be consigned to the pains of purgatory. Hear the author of his Life, chapter XXVI: "One day, as if awakened from a deep sleep, he said to those sitting beside him: Alas, alas, that I ever saw my nephew Adalbero: because in that I consented to his desire, the heavenly ones are unwilling to receive me unpunished into their fellowship." Therefore Ulrich after death underwent purgatory, and his nephew Adalbero was struck down by sudden death the following year. Reviewing these things, Cardinal Baronius rightly adds this exclamation: "The most powerful weapon of the devil is the love of kinsmen, with which he assails even the Saints, because, according to the Apostle, no one hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it." Certainly nephews, whose Prelate-uncles are too indulgent toward them, are very often the origin and cause of many troubles, lawsuits, wars, and not rarely of infamy, melancholy, illness, and present death -- would that not also of eternal death: of which thing we have seen many and illustrious fatal examples in this age. Awake, O Ecclesiastics, be alert, O Prelates: sons of heroes, your nephews are your bane. "Sons of men, how long do you love vanity and seek after lies? What does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world for his nephews, yet suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?" says the eternal Truth and supreme Wisdom. Therefore do in life what at the hour of death, on the day of judgment (in which neither brother shall redeem, nor shall nephew redeem?) on the horizon, I say, of eternity you will wish you had done. O sweetest Jesus! Grant us this wisdom, set charity in order in our hearts, that we may love parents and kinsmen only according to Thee, through Thee, in Thee, and for Thy sake; that while we love them, we may love them in Thee, and Thee in them, as Thy holy law commands.
Verse 26: And after he has been cleansed (from this legal uncleanness) seven days shall be counted for him, be
26. And after he has been cleansed (from this legal uncleanness) seven days shall be counted for him, before he may approach the priestly ministry. Behold, this is a new decree in the new temple: for in Leviticus nothing of the sort is prescribed. So Vatablus. Otherwise R. Solomon and Maldonatus, as if to say: "After he has been cleansed," that is, separated from the dead, "seven days shall be counted for him," during which he must wait, and may not approach the altar.
Verse 27: On the day of his entry (on the day he first enters the temple) he shall offer for his sin the tenth
27. On the day of his entry (on the day he first enters the temple) he shall offer for his sin the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour, as the Hebrews hand down, and as the law itself prescribes, Leviticus VI, 20.
Verse 28: And they shall have no inheritance
28. And they shall have no inheritance. This is to be read with St. Jerome in his Commentary and with the Roman edition, namely with the negation "not." Therefore some codices incorrectly remove it, and read affirmatively. For it is established that the priests had no inheritance in Israel: for thus the law commands, Deuteronomy XVIII, 1; whence he adds: For I am their possession, as if to say: The priests shall possess my things, not inheritances, but victims, offerings, and first-fruits owed to me and to be given by the people.
Morally, St. Jerome excellently instructs the cleric Nepotian, saying: "Therefore the cleric, who serves the Church of Christ, let him first interpret his own name, and having set forth the definition of the name, let him strive to be what he is called. For if κλῆρος in Greek means 'lot' in Latin: therefore they are called clerics, either because they are of the lot of the Lord, or because the Lord Himself is the lot, that is, the portion of clerics. But he who is either himself the portion of the Lord, or has the Lord as his portion, ought to show himself such that he both possesses the Lord and is possessed by the Lord. He who possesses the Lord, and says with the Prophet: The Lord is my portion, can have nothing beyond the Lord. But if he has anything else besides the Lord, the Lord will not be his portion: for example, if gold, if silver, if possessions, if various furniture -- with such portions the Lord will not deign to be his portion. But if I am the portion of the Lord, and the lot of His inheritance, I neither receive a portion among the other tribes, but as a Levite and priest I live from tithes, and serving the altar I am sustained by the offering of the altar: having food and clothing, with these I shall be content, and naked I shall follow the naked cross. I beseech thee therefore, and repeating again and again I shall warn: do not think that the office of the clergy is a kind of ancient military service, that is, do not seek the gains of the world in the service of Christ, lest thou have more than when thou began to be a cleric, and it be said to thee: Their clerical possessions shall not profit them. For some are richer monks than they were laypeople, and clerics who possess riches under Christ who was poor, which they did not have under the rich and deceitful devil: so that the Church may sigh over them as rich, whom the world held before as beggars. Let the poor and pilgrims, and with them Christ as guest, know thy humble table. Flee as a plague a cleric who is a businessman, and from a poor man has become rich, from obscure become famous. It is the disgrace of a priest to study his own riches. Born in a poor house and in a rustic cottage, I who could scarcely satisfy my growling stomach with millet and coarse bread, now disdain fine flour and honey: I know the kinds and names of fish, I am expert in what shore each shell was gathered: I distinguish provinces by the flavors of birds, and the rarity of foods, and finally even the losses themselves delight me."
Verse 29: The victim both for sin
29. The victim both for sin. St. Jerome asks why the Prophet here repeats things that were decreed in Leviticus, and responds: "So that those things which have been erased from the minds of men, either by negligence in reading, or by contempt in hearing and forgetfulness; may be renewed by the living voice, things written not with pen and ink, but with the spirit and word of God," namely mystically and spiritually.
And every vow. In Hebrew כל חרם col cherem, that is, as Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion render, every devoted thing (anathema). See what was said about cherem and anathema in Leviticus XXVII, 28.
Verse 30: And the first-fruits of all the firstborn
30. And the first-fruits of all the firstborn. It is a pleonasm: for the first-fruits are the same as the firstborn, as if to say: All first-fruits, whether of animals that cattle bear, or of crops that the earth produces, namely first-fruits of wine, oil, and grain, shall belong to the priests. And the first-fruits of your foods. In Hebrew, of your doughs, that is, of loaves made from the first-fruits of your crops. For they offered the first-fruits of loaves to the priest at Pentecost. Allegorically, from this passage, and from Leviticus, and Numbers XVIII, 11 and following, St. Clement teaches that the first-fruits of all things are to be given to priests and Bishops: "The Bishop," he says, "ought to be loved as a father, feared as a king, honored as a lord, by offering as your blessing your fruits and the works of your hands: giving, I say, as to a priest of God your first-fruits and your tithes, the first-fruits of grain, wine, oil, fruits, wool, and whatever the Lord your God supplies to you: and your offering shall be accepted as a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord your God; and the Lord shall bless the works of your hands, and shall multiply the goods of your land; for a blessing is upon the head of him who bestows." So he himself in book II of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter XXXIV.
That he may lay up a blessing. In Hebrew: That he may make a blessing rest, as if to say: You shall give first-fruits to God, that is, to the priest of God, so that God may bless your house by giving you an abundance of crops, whose first-fruits you offered to Him, and a perpetual and stable one: for this is what the word "rest" signifies.
Verse 31: Every carcass
31. Every carcass. These things are forbidden to all, even laypeople, Leviticus V, 2 and following. But especially to priests: for it is fitting that they be purer and holier than the rest.
Mystically, Lyranus at the end of the book: "There is described," he says, "the kind, garb, manner, sustenance, and actions of priests." Concerning the first, etc., it is said that they are sons of Sadoc, which is interpreted as "just": and by this is designated that the ministers of the Church ought to be by special imitation sons of Christ, who is called par excellence the Just One, Isaiah XLV: "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds," etc. Whence the Apostle John said of himself and those like him, I epistle, chapter III: "See what manner of charity the Father has given us, that we should be called, and should be, the sons of God." As for the second point, it is said that they should have linen garments, by which in the ministers of the Church is designated purity of mind and body. And he adds: that linen breeches should cover the shame of their flesh: by which is signified that in the ministers of the Church nothing shameful or dissolute should appear in word, gesture, or deed. Whence it is said in Exodus XIX: "Let the priests who approach me be sanctified, lest I strike them." It is also said above of the priests that they should minister in the temple in different garments and live among the people in other garments: which seems to be fulfilled in the priesthood of the new law. As for the third point, it is said that the priests should not let their hair grow long, but should trim it. By which is signified the clerical tonsure in the ministers of the new law. As for the fourth point, it is said that the priests should not eat what is caught by a beast, nor what has died of itself. By which is designated that the ministers of the Church should not live by plunder or other illicit means. Likewise it is said of the priests that they should not drink wine when about to enter the temple. By which is understood that in the ministers of the Church there should be sobriety, and especially when they are about to celebrate. For then in them is required not only the fast of the Church, but also of nature. As for the fifth point, it is said that they should celebrate the divine Office, and that they should teach the people what is clean and unclean, and in doubtful matters should determine what is to be held. By which is designated that in the ministers of the Church there should be devotion, for duly celebrating divine things; and knowledge of Sacred Scripture, for teaching the people what is lawful and what is unlawful, and for determining what in doubtful matters is to be held. This knowledge, however, is required to a greater degree according as one is established in a higher rank of the Church. On account of which it is said of the ignorant, Hosea IV: "Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me."