Commentaria in Exodum
24. YOU SHALL MAKE AN ALTAR OF EARTH UNTO ME,—as if to say: You shall not make an altar of gold or silver, of which the Gentiles make their gods and their altars; but of earth, either raw, or rather baked and formed into bricks, as if to say: An altar not elegant, not golden, not costly, but simple and of brick you shall make for me. So Cajetan, and the Hebrew word implies this: for in the Hebrew it is not erets, but adama, which signifies red and clayey earth, of which bricks are made. Such were also the early altars of the Romans, of which Tertullian says in the Apologetic: “For although religion was conceived by Numa, yet the divine business among the Romans did not yet consist in images or temples, and there were no Capitols vying with heaven, but hasty altars of turf, and vessels still Samian, and the god himself nowhere.” But afterwards, what temples at Rome! what altars! Hear Silius, in whom Jupiter predicts of that (Capitol) of Domitian:
He will found golden Capitols on the Tarpeian rock, And join the summits of the temples to our heaven.
The true cause, therefore, why God wished the altar made of earth, or of unhewn and unpolished stone, was to call the Hebrews, prone to idols, as far as possible from the sculptures and paintings of idols, and from the worship and rite of the Gentiles. For the Gentiles were wont to build splendid and magnificent altars of marble or metals for their idols (such as Achaz the idolatrous king made, 4 Kings 16:10 and 15, Solomon’s altar being removed and taken away); and on them to carve or paint images, or symbols, or characters of their idols. From these therefore by this law God wished to call off the Hebrews; for this law is an appendix belonging to the first precept of the Decalogue, of not making idols and graven things: whence also it is joined immediately to that, as appears verses 23 and 24. Lest therefore the gross Hebrews should think that in the very sculptures of an altar artfully made, or in the very precious material, namely gold or silver, some divinity lay hid, therefore God willed the altar to be made rude of earth, or of unhewn stone: for this reason Baruch chap. 6 so strongly lessens and slights the material, elegance and ornaments of the idols and altars which the captive Hebrews were to see in Babylon, lest, carried away by them, they should turn aside to venerate and worship them. So St. Thomas, 1–2, Question 102, article 4, reply 7, Abulensis, Cajetan, Lipomanus and others.
Fourthly, some Latins give this reason: God commanded, they say, that those altars, which in the meantime were made while He Himself dwelt in tents, that is, before the temple was built by Solomon in a place chosen for ever, should be built either of heaped-up earth or of rude stones only, so that they might either quickly fall apart or appear rather heaps of stones than altars, lest a confusion of religions should follow among posterity, namely by the overthrow of the altars on which their forefathers had sacrificed: an evil of this kind the Israelites feared when they heard that the Rubenites had set up a huge altar by the Jordan, Josue 22. This explanation is true, but neither full nor adequate. For who can doubt that in the polished temple of Solomon, where the other stones were cut and most polished, the stones of the altar also were cut and most polished? Especially since of the very pavement of the temple Scripture expressly says: “He paved also the floor of the temple with most precious marble, of great beauty,” 2 Paralip. 3:6; and of the court itself it is said: “He built also the inner court with polished stones,” 3 Kings 6:36; and chap. 7, verse 12: “And the greater court round about of three rows of hewed stones.” If the court was of hewn and polished stone, much more the altar.
To this cause Serarius adds other probable ones, on Josue chap. 8, Question 16. God, he says, rightly willed the altar to be made of earth or of rude stone: First, to signify that the sacrifices and victims of the Old Testament were rude and unformed, types…
Fifthly, Andreas Masius on Josue 8, num. 13: The ancients, he says, both Jews and Christians, made altars most simple, that on them we might admire nothing but the victim, namely the body and blood of Christ offered by Christians, and prefigured by the Jews. Whence, he says, they also detested it if any image were placed on the altar. But this is one place of the two which the censors of Masius noted, and judged to be corrected and castigated.
Secondly, Rabbi Moses Maimonides gives this reason, namely, lest idolaters should form images for themselves from pieces of the sacred stones, for superstitious worship or magic arts the example of Cassian, who saw an image above his altar. So Valentinian the younger, admonished by Pope Sixtus (as Anastasius has it in the Life of Sixtus, and Platina and others), placed in the church of St. Peter above the tomb, that is, above the altar of Blessed Peter, a golden image of the Saviour. Similar things are found in St. Basil, oration on Barlaam, near the end; Nyssen, oration on Theodore; Paulinus in the Life of Felix; Lactantius in the poem to the crucified;
that which was once done in blood on the altar of the cross is wont to be repeated daily without blood on the altar. Secondly, to show how rude and unpolished and hard was the altar of the same Christ the Lord, the cross itself, I say, as Procopius indicates. Thirdly, to intimate that of the old altars none would be perpetual; but as they were easily built of earth and rough stones, so they would easily be destroyed. Fourthly, that quickly and easily it might be erected, since it demanded nothing laborious or elaborate. Fifthly, that the Lord might show that He looks upon the victims rather than the altars, and is delighted by the purity and holiness of the former rather than by the price and art of the latter.
Symbolically, R. Levi Ben Gerson thinks that in the temple and altar both of Moses and of Solomon tools were forbidden in order that men might understand from this that God is by his own nature perfect and best, and does not receive file or any external thing for his completion and perfection, just as the altar of God was perfect by no work, file or art, but by its own material: for the altar represented God himself.
An allegorical reason is given by St. Gregory, book 3 of the Morals, chap. 20, and by Rupert. By earth, they say, the incarnation of the Lord is designated: for whatever we offer to God, we make firm on an earthen altar, that is, in the faith of the Lord’s incarnation. The same is signified by an altar of native and unhewn stone. And so “to make an altar of earth for God is to await the incarnation of the Mediator. On an altar of earth therefore we offer the gift brought, if we make our acts firm by faith in the Lord’s incarnation,” says Ansbert out of St. Gregory, book 5 on the Apocalypse, near the beginning.
Tropologically, Isidore: Unhewn stones, he says, are the faithful, made firm in faith, and in the whole and holy unity of morals, and not rent and divided by any schism; of whom the Apostle says: “You are living stones, built up together into spiritual houses.”
AND YOU SHALL OFFER UPON IT YOUR HOLOCAUSTS AND PEACE OFFERINGS.—“Peace offerings” are victims offered for the peace and safety of the house or republic, of which Levit. 3.
IN EVERY PLACE WHERE THE MEMORY OF MY NAME SHALL BE.—The Hebrew, in which I shall cause my name to be remembered: for God himself chose a certain place for the temple, altar and sacrifice, lest, if it were lawful for everyone to sacrifice everywhere promiscuously, schism, a new religion, idolatry or superstition should easily creep in among the Hebrews.
The place therefore appointed by God for the altar and sacrifice was that where at that time the ark or tabernacle stood; but sometimes also elsewhere, by God’s dispensation and instinct, or for some grave cause, altars for sacrificing were erected by some Prophets or kings. So Samuel sacrificed at Maspha, 1 Kings 7:9, and at Ramatha, ibid. verse 17, and at Bethlehem, 1 Kings chap. 16, verse 5. So Absalom also sacrificed in Hebron, 2 Kings 15:7 and 12, though the ark was not then in Hebron, Maspha, Ramatha or Bethlehem, but in Cariathiarim, 1 Kings 7:1; and the tabernacle was first in Silo, then in Nobe, 2 Kings 21:4 and 7; and Nobe being destroyed by Saul the tabernacle was transferred to Gabaon; whence it was brought by Solomon to the temple built by him, and there together with the ark remained.
I WILL COME TO THEE, AND WILL BLESS THEE.—We shall rightly join this to the preceding with the Chaldee, who interprets it thus: In every place in which I shall make my glory dwell (namely in the tabernacle, or temple, the ark and altar), there I will send my blessing, and will bless thee, hearing namely thy prayers, and answering thy doubts and questions, and teaching what is to be done in this or that matter: God speaks here not to Moses, but to the people.
25. AND IF THOU MAKE AN ALTAR OF STONE UNTO ME, THOU SHALT NOT BUILD IT OF HEWN STONES.—This is an exception to verse 24: for there God commanded the altar to be made of earth, but here he excepts unhewn stone, and commands the altar to be made either of earth or of unhewn and unpolished stone; but this stone, or earth, that is the altar itself, he commands to be overlaid with brass, Exodus 27:2: whence the altar which Solomon made Scripture also calls brazen.