Questions on the Octateuch 1 part 10/17

These things, then, taught beforehand the salvation of the world; but as for the Jews, since they were like infants, he consoled them by having the goat carry sin away into the wilderness.

For it reminded them of the lawlessness so often dared in the wilderness,

and of the ineffable loving-kindness of the Lord, through which, having escaped their just punishments, they entered into the promised land.

Having thus commanded these things to be done, he also teaches how the high priest ought to enter into the Holy of Holies.

For it says: Aaron shall bring near the calf that is for his own sin, and he shall make atonement for himself and for his house;

and he shall slaughter the calf that is for his own sin;

and he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and shall fill his hands with finely ground compounded incense, and shall bring it inside the veil; and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, and the cloud of incense shall cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, and he shall not die.

From this too it is clear that the altar of incense stood outside the veil.

For if it had been inside, he would not have been commanded to take coals into the censer, and then to bring the incense in inside the veil.

The blessed Luke also taught us this, in relating the events concerning Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist.

For at that very time he too entered into the Holy of Holies, and enjoyed the vision of the angel.

He was also commanded to sprinkle with his finger, seven times before the mercy seat, the blood both of the calf and of the goat.

For since life revolves in a cycle of seven days, and on almost every single day, so to speak, we commit offenses either small or great, the sprinkling of the blood was offered in a number equal to the days, for the offenses committed on them.

And he says this to mean that not only they themselves, but also the tabernacle, was to be cleansed.

For it says: He shall make atonement for the holy things, because of the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins;

and so shall you do for the tabernacle of the testimony, which is established among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

He commanded that no one be present while this service was being performed by the high priest.

He also tells the time at which these things ought to take place.

For it says: On the tenth day of the month you shall afflict your souls;

and you shall do no work, neither the native-born nor the sojourner who dwells among you.

For on this day he shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you from all your sins before the Lord, and you shall be cleansed.

It shall be a sabbath of sabbaths, a rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls, as an everlasting statute.

He called it a sabbath of sabbaths, just as one might call something the holy of holies;

for this feast is far more venerable than ordinary sabbaths.

And he called fasting affliction.

It shall be done once a year, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

This too prefigures the economy of our Saviour according to the flesh.

For just as the high priest, entering the Holy of Holies once a year, performed this service, so also the Lord Christ, having once endured his saving passion, ascended into heaven, having obtained eternal redemption, as the divine apostle says.

He therefore commanded that anyone wishing to sacrifice any calf, sheep, or goat should bring it to the door of the tabernacle, and pour out the blood, and take a share of the meat home;

for it says: blood shall be imputed to that man;

he has poured out blood; that soul shall be cut off from among its people.

And that the Law has this purpose which I have stated, what follows will show:

for it says: the priest shall offer up the fat as a sweet-smelling savour to the Lord;

and they shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the vain idols, after which they go whoring.

It shall be an everlasting statute for you throughout your generations.

This law prevails among the Jews even to the present.

For the priest sacrifices the animals that are eaten.

He also forbade the eating of blood, and taught the reason.

'For the life of all flesh,' He says, 'is its blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls.'

For its blood shall make atonement in the place of its life.

'Therefore I have said to the sons of Israel:'

'No soul among you shall eat blood, nor shall the sojourner dwelling among you eat it.'

'Just as,' he says, 'you have an immortal soul, so the irrational animal has blood in place of a soul.'

For this very reason He commands that the soul of the irrational animal, that is, its blood, be offered in place of your immortal and rational soul.

But if you eat it, you eat a soul;

for this fulfills the office of a rational soul.

Therefore He also called the eating of it murder.

For this reason He also forbids eating animals that have died of themselves, since their blood has not been separated from the body.

Some find fault with the laws concerning marriages, saying that God forbade things that had never happened at all.

'For who,' they say, 'ever consented to have intercourse with his own mother? Or who ever had intercourse with a beast? God would not have forbidden what no one had ever dared.'

And that this is so, the preamble of this law bears witness.

'According to the practices of Egypt in which you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the practices of the land of Canaan into which I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their statutes.'

Having said this, He points out what those peoples dared to do, and forbids such practice.

That many such things are indeed dared, the Persians bear witness even to the present day, uniting in lawful marriage not only with sisters, but even with mothers and daughters;

and many dare the other transgressions as well.

'You shall not give any of your offspring to serve the ruler, nor shall you profane my holy name;'

'I am the Lord.' The Hebrew has 'Moloch,' and the other translators have likewise rendered it so.

Therefore God also says through the prophet:

'Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Rephan, the images which you made to worship them.'

He forbids, then, offering children as temple-slaves to idols;

but as some say, it means not to give one's children to foreign rulers, to be their servants or bodyguards, lest they partake of their impiety.

'Lest the land be aggrieved with you when you defile it, as it was aggrieved with the nations before you.' Let it not abhor you, He says, as it abhorred the Canaanites;

that is to say: just as, having given them over to utter destruction on account of their many transgressions, I have delivered the land to you, so, if you do the same things, I will likewise punish you.

'You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind, and you shall not sow your vineyard with a mixture'; and, 'you shall not put on yourself a counterfeit garment woven of two kinds.' I have often said that through sensible things He teaches intelligible truths.

He forbids, then, the mating of different kinds, such as of horse and donkey,

lest such unlawful mixing pass over from the irrational creatures to rational beings.

For this reason He also calls a garment woven of wool and linen 'counterfeit,' teaching that one should by no means practice contrary and mixed deeds.

That He calls not the garment itself counterfeit, but signifies the deed by means of it, is attested by the coverings of the tabernacle, which were made of various kinds of thread.

In the same way one must also understand the matter of the vineyard; and the Apostle too forbids partnership with unbelievers, saying:

'You shall not make a sisoē of the hair of your head, nor mar the appearance of your beard; you shall not make cuttings in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks upon yourselves.' Some have interpreted 'sisoē' as hair deliberately made to curl,

but I think the law forbids something else.

The Greeks are accustomed not to shear the crowns of their children's heads, but to leave locks of hair, and after a time to dedicate these to the demons;

and they are also accustomed to shave their beards when they mourn, and to cut their cheeks in honor of the deceased;

and they would also prick certain parts of the body with needles and apply dye, in the service of demons.

These things, then, the divine law forbids.

What is a 'ventriloquist'? Certain persons, being worked upon by certain demons, deceived many of the foolish, as though foretelling things;

the Greeks called these 'belly-diviners,' since the demon seemed to speak from within.

Why does He legislate specially for priests concerning marriages? Because the priest must be a model of chastity, and so that his lineage may remain unblemished, giving no occasion for insult to those who wish to revile it.

Therefore the divine Apostle also declares that the one who ministers to God must have a good testimony even from those outside;

'lest,' he says, 'he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.'

For this reason He commands that an Israelite woman who plays the harlot be put to death,

but that the daughter of a priest, if she dares the same thing, be burned with fire.

And because of the fault-finding disposition of the Jews, He does not even permit those who have some bodily blemish to minister, forbidding, by means of these involuntary defects, the deliberate faults of the will.

For blindness of the eyes hints at the privation of knowledge;

the cutting off of the ear signifies disobedience;

the removal of the nose signifies the loss of the faculty of discernment;

and the cutting off of the hand signifies the idleness of the faculty of action.

For this reason He also commands that the sacrificial victims offered be sound in every limb, teaching those who offer them, through the things offered, to keep the activities of the soul healthy.

And along with the others He also forbids the castrated man and the one whose members have been crushed;

for one who attends to the divine service must be fruitful, full of good things.

For this reason He ordained that one who is rightly formed by birth be offered for this service.

What is the meaning of, 'You shall not eat parched new grain, until you bring the gifts to your God'? The land of Palestine, being warmer, bears its fruits early.

He commands, then, that no one boil, parch, and eat the new ears of grain beforehand, until from these they have offered a sheaf to God.

He commands that this be offered on the day of the Passover;

then from that day to count seven weeks and to celebrate the feast of Pentecost.

'And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the wave-offering, seven complete weeks.'

The feast of Pentecost is a memorial of the entrance into the land of promise;

for at that time they both sowed and reaped,

whereas in the wilderness they ate the manna that was brought down from heaven.

Having thus taught how one must celebrate the feasts of both Passover and Pentecost, He also teaches what must be done in the seventh month.

And on the new moon, He commands that the feast of trumpets be celebrated;

and these recalled the trumpets that sounded on Mount Sinai, when the God of all had given the law;

'for,' it says, 'the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder.'

And on the tenth of the month He commands them to fast.

For he calls this day 'the day of atonement.'

'You shall humble your souls,' he says, 'from the evening of the ninth day of the month.'

'And every soul that is not humbled on it, that soul shall be utterly destroyed from its people.'

They indulge in licentious words and deeds, contending outright against the law.

On the fifteenth day, he legislates that the Feast of Tabernacles be celebrated—not only up to the seventh day, as with the other feasts, but he commands that the eighth day also be added to the seven.

'For the eighth day,' he says, 'shall be a holy convocation to you, and you shall offer whole burnt offerings to the Lord.'

'You shall do no servile work.'

The 'closing assembly' signifies the end of the feasts.

The Feast of Tabernacles called to mind their manner of life in the wilderness.

For in legislating it, he also said:

'that I made the sons of Israel dwell in tabernacles when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.'

For this reason he ordained that houses be adorned with branches of trees.

And among the other branches he included also the chaste-tree, as indicative of self-control and as quenching pleasure.

For they say that it, whether eaten or spread beneath as bedding, extinguishes the flame of pleasures.

But he did not command them to use the branches of the chaste-tree in a medicinal manner, but rather, by means of its name, instilled the remembrance of self-control.

'Whoever curses God shall bear sin, but whoever names the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death.' What is this? Someone was caught blaspheming the God of all, yet no law had as yet been written concerning blasphemy.

For this reason the lawgiver commanded that this man be kept under guard,

and on the following day Moses asked the Lord God what should be done to the accursed man.

And he commanded that the man be stoned, with those who had heard the blasphemy casting the stones first.

And he then established the law concerning blasphemy.

And he called the falsely-named one 'god' only by way of homonymy;

and he said that the one who reviles it does indeed sin, but he did not judge him worthy of punishment.

For it is not the pious man who blasphemes a falsely-named god who sins, but rather the one who believes in it and yet reviles it.

He therefore called such an act blasphemy as sin, not on account of the worth of the one being blasphemed, but on account of the opinion held by the one who blasphemes;

for he blasphemes it not as a falsely-named god, but as though it were the true God.

But the one who blasphemes the true God, he commanded to be killed with stones.

And quite fittingly he joined the law concerning murder to the laws concerning blasphemy;

since the blasphemer, being unable to kill, assails the Creator with his tongue.

For the dread of the punishment prevented the deed.

Since, desiring more, they were sowing continually, and the land, not being given rest, was bearing diminishing fruits, he decreed that in the seventh year the land should be left unsown;

and he forbade them to gather or reap what grew of itself, thereby training them in benevolence toward others.

For he commanded that widows, orphans, and proselytes should share in those fruits along with them.

And in addition to this he arranges for something else as well:

for in this year there was a remission of debts, and a freeing of Hebrews who were enslaved.

For this reason he also legislated that the jubilee year should be a year of rest;

and the name signifies liberty and release.

They call the fiftieth year the jubilee;

'for,' he says, 'you shall number seven weeks of years, and you shall proclaim with the sound of the trumpet throughout all your land on the tenth day of the month, on the day of atonement.'

'On this day,' he says, 'I am propitious toward you, and I forgive you your trespasses.'

'On this day proclaim the year of release.'

Then he commands that in this year the man who had sold his field should take it back, and likewise the houses in the fields, and that there should be a cancellation of debts, and the freeing of Hebrew slaves.

And since it was likely that some, as the year of release drew near, would trouble their debtors, he forbade them to do even this.

And so that they might not be anxious about their necessary food, seeing that they were not tilling the land in the years of release, he encouraged them with generous promises,

promising to grant them not merely a double yield, but a threefold one, sufficient to sustain them through both the sixth and the seventh year;

yes, and lasting even until the eighth year.

'For,' he says, 'you shall sow in the eighth year, and you shall eat of the old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat what is old of the old.'

Then he confirms the law by the reminder of his sovereignty.

'For the land is mine,' he says, 'because you are strangers and sojourners before me.'

'I,' he says, 'have granted this to you as a gift; therefore I legislate as its master.'

What is the meaning of, 'Ten women shall bake their bread in one oven'? Since they gaped after the land, he both legislates for them and threatens them accordingly.

For to those who live according to the law he promises the fruitfulness of the land;

but again, to those who transgress it, he threatens the barrenness of the land, and the invasion of enemies, and extreme poverty.

This is also what he indicates here: that such poverty will overtake you that ten women will make their bread in one oven, on account of the scarcity of necessities;

'and you shall eat, and shall not be satisfied.'

What is the meaning of, 'Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths all the days of its desolation'? What follows is the explanation of this.

'And you shall be in the land of your enemies.'

For in Babylon they remained in servitude for seventy years.

From the reign of Saul until the captivity, four hundred and ninety years are reckoned;

and the seventh part of these is seventy.

This, then, is what he says: that the land will remain unsown and unplowed for seventy years, while you dwell in a foreign land;

since, along with the other laws, you also transgressed the commandment of the sabbath.

'And the land shall keep sabbath for what it did not keep sabbath while you dwelt on it.'

And he has added yet another threat:

'And upon those of you who are left, I will bring faintheartedness into their hearts in the land of their enemies;'

'and the sound of a driven leaf shall pursue them, and they shall flee as those fleeing from war,' and so forth.

And this prophecy too received its fulfillment.

For during the siege by the Chaldeans, many were killed in the engagements, many perished by famine, and those who were taken captive were removed to Babylon;

those who escaped the hands of the enemy fled into Egypt, fearing the onslaught of the Chaldeans.

And this the prophecy of the most divine Jeremiah teaches us clearly.

Yet after the threats, he also promised good things, and announced the return from captivity—not on account of their own merit, but on account of the piety of their forefathers.

And I will remember the covenant of Jacob, and the covenant of Isaac, and the covenant of Abraham; and I will remember their former covenant, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, before all the nations, that I might be their God.

Through these things he taught the reasons for his love of mankind.

For because of the promises made to their fathers, he says, I bear with their transgression;

And since all the nations came to know, through the extraordinary wonders,

that I care for these exceedingly, and they are called my people.

He mentioned Jacob first, since he alone was the common forefather of all these;

for Isaac was also forefather of the Idumaeans, while Abraham was forefather both of the Israelites and of those descended from Keturah;

Beginning, then, from below, he ascended in order up to Abraham, with whom he had made the covenants from the beginning.

What is the meaning of, 'Whoever shall vow a vow, so as to give the value of his vow to the Lord'? He calls the promise a 'vow,' which many term a pledge.

This custom can even now be found preserved among certain barbarian peoples.

For the faithful among the nomads—I mean the descendants of Ishmael—weigh out silver against their newborn infants and offer this to God.

Concerning this God legislated:

the value for a male being fixed at a certain sum, but for a female thirty, those in their prime and the aged being reckoned apart.

For he defined the middle age, saying, from twenty years old to sixty;

for those younger and those older than these he set a different value.

The poor he left to the judgment of the priests;

so that they might set the values according to each one's means.

He forbids that dedicated dumb animals be exchanged by those who offer them;

and so that they might not do this, he imposes on them the necessary penalty.

For if, he says, one exchanges it by substitution, both it and its substitute shall be holy.

He commanded, moreover, that the priest set the value of the unclean animals.

This he ordered to happen also in the case of a house and a field.

He also fixed the amount of the didrachm;

for he commanded that it weigh twenty obols;

some of the translators called this didrachm a 'stater.'

Things dedicated to God, however, he commanded should not be redeemed.

For in promising Abraham he said:

'Multiplying, I will multiply your seed, as the stars of heaven and as the sand by the seashore.'

He demonstrated the truth of this promise:

for from the seventy-five who went down into Egypt, six hundred and three thousand, six hundred and fifty men able to go to war were numbered—apart from those beyond and those below military age, and indeed apart from the female sex, and apart from the tribe of Levi;

for this tribe was not numbered together with the rest.

Teaching this, his own power, the Master God also spoke through the prophet Isaiah:

'Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who was in labor with you; for he was but one, and I called him, and blessed him, and multiplied him.'

For it is fitting that rulers be fewer than the ruled.

Besides, they were also exempt from warfare, and attended only to the divine service.

How then did the tribe of Judah surpass all the others in number, although it was the royal tribe? Of the royal tribe, one man reigned;

but all those of the Levitical tribe performed liturgical service;

some as priests, others ministering to these.

It was fitting also that the royal tribe should exceed in number, both on account of the blessing of the Master Christ;

for from them he was to spring according to the flesh;

and so that those raised up as kings from that tribe might have sufficient support from their kinsmen.

Here too he ranked the priests together with the royal tribe;

for having stationed the tribe of Judah toward the rising sun, he joined the priests to them together with the ark.

'For out of the north,' he says, 'evils shall be kindled upon all who dwell on the earth.'

And to Judah, quite fittingly, he assigned the east;

since concerning the Master Christ the divine prophets also proclaim:

'Behold a man, Dayspring is his name.'

'Unto those who fear me shall the sun of righteousness rise;'

'and healing is in his wings.'

'Upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, light has risen.'

What were the works of the priests, and what those of the Levites? God himself, the teacher of all, instructs us:

'The Lord,' he says, 'spoke to Moses:'

'Take the tribe of Levi, and set them before Aaron the priest;'

'and they shall minister to him, and keep his charge and the charge of the sons of Israel before the tent of testimony, to do the work of the tabernacle;'

'the vessels of the tent of testimony, and the charge of the sons of Israel and all the work of the tabernacle; and you shall give the Levites to Aaron your brother and to his sons the priests;'

'they are wholly given, given from among the sons of Israel;'

'And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons over the tent of testimony, and they shall keep their priesthood and everything concerning the altar and the things within the veil;'

'and the stranger who comes near shall die.'

We have learned from this, then, that the priests offered the sacrifices, while the Levites were assistants to the priests and were appointed guardians of the tabernacle.

He teaches in what follows what the clan of Kohath was to carry, what the clan of Gershon, and what the clan of Merari.

For what reason did God command that the firstborn of the people be numbered? Since he had dedicated the whole tribe of Levi to the divine services and freed it from warfare, it was likely that some of the others would be resentful, as though the Levites had been given preference;

The Master God persuades those who were resentful that he had commanded nothing unjust.

'For when,' he says, 'for your sake the firstborn of the Egyptians were destroyed, your own firstborn were preserved.'

'In place of these, therefore, I have allotted the tribe of Levi to my own services;'

'and in place of the firstborn of your cattle, the firstborn of the Levites.'

But since the firstborn of the Levites proved more numerous than those of the other tribes, he commanded that each one in excess of the equal number should give five shekels to the priests;

having fixed the shekel at twenty obols, and having called this number 'holy,' as being set apart for sacred purposes and not current among everyone.

Elsewhere, however, he calls the twenty obols a didrachm;

this didrachm was also demanded of the Lord, as being firstborn.

Why did he command that some of the sacred vessels be covered with hyacinth-blue coverings, and others with purple? Only the coverings of the more precious vessels were hyacinth-blue.

The color hints at heaven.

For this reason he commanded that the things within the covering be covered with these coverlets, but the things outside with purple ones and the like.

For heaven has no punishment.

But the earth, because of transgressions of the laws, also receives chastisements.

Purple is indicative of kingship.

But the kingdom of God is divine, without beginning, and imperishable.

For this reason the parts outside the tabernacle were covered with both purple and hyacinth-blue coverlets.

Providing for the clan of Kohath, he commanded that first the priests, having entered within the inner sanctuary, should cover the ark and the other vessels with the aforesaid coverings;

then, in this way, the clan of Kohath should carry these things, lest, by gazing upon what must not be touched or seen, they should suffer destruction from that extraordinary sight.

Whom does he call 'unclean by reason of a soul'? The one who has touched a dead person, or has come near the bones of a corpse.

And why did he command that both these, and the lepers, and those with a discharge, dwell outside the camp? By training the great things through the small.

For if the one who touches a corpse is unclean, how much more the one who has made a corpse through bloodshed.

And if the leper is unclean, how much more the one who commits the various kinds of wickedness.

Thus, through the man with a discharge, adultery stands accused.

For if the involuntary is abominable, surely much more that which is dared deliberately.

What is [meant by], 'a man or a woman, if he commits any of the sins that are human'? He has called the lesser sins 'human.'

Since human nature, being mutable, cannot possibly be freed from all sins altogether;

for, he says, 'no one is clean of filth, not even if his life were but a single day.'

'Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living shall be justified before you.'

For only the Lord Christ, even as man, possesses that which is blameless.

And foreseeing this, the prophet Isaiah cried out:

'who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.'

For this reason he also took up the sins of others, having none of his own.

'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.'

For this reason he is also free among the dead, as one who endured death unjustly.

The divine law, therefore, teaches how those who have committed moderate offenses are to be healed.

For it commands the one who has wronged another in some transaction first to confess the sin, then to restore to the wronged party what was taken, having added a fifth to the principal.

But if it should happen that the wronged party departs this life before the wrongdoer's repentance, he is to repay these things to the next of kin.

He calls 'kinsman' the one who belongs to the same lineage.

And the order of kinship is this:

first the son, then the daughter, then the father's brother, then the grandfather's brother; and if none of these exists, the nearest relative; and if no relative at all is found, he decreed that the aforesaid things be offered to God.