Commentaria in Exodum
Verse 5. “Thou shalt clothe Aaron,” etc. “with the linen garment (which in Hebrew is called kethoneth) and the tunic,” namely the hyacinth one. No mention is made here of the breeches, because Aaron and his sons had already put them on, that they might be washed decently. So Bede.
“Which thou shalt gird with the girdle.” In Hebrew, thou shalt gird it with the ingenious weaving of the ephod itself. Where note: the girdle is called the weaving, or the ingenious work, of the ephod itself, because this girdle bound the ephod, and was of the same material as the ephod. So Vatablus.
Verse 6. “And the holy plate.” In Hebrew, the crown of holiness. So is called the golden plate on which was inscribed Holy to the Lord; for it encircled and adorned the forehead like a crown.
Verse 7. “And the oil of unction (the oil with which one is anointed; this is a pleonasm) thou shalt pour upon his head.” This oil, says Cyprian, in his tract On the Unction of Christ, signified first, that a spiritual richness is within the sacred mysteries. Second, that as oil floats above all liquids, so the excellence of the priestly dignity transcends all states and degrees, and holds the government and charge of both the active and the contemplative life. Third, this oil of the consecration of priests was a type of the sacrament of Order, in which the richness of the Spirit is given to those ordained.
Verse 9. “After thou hast initiated” (in Hebrew, after thou hast filled with oil, that is, anointed, and by anointing consecrated) “their hands.” By the hands is signified the power of consecrating other things, which these new priests receive here by this anointing of the hands. So St. Augustine, Question 125. For with their hands they were to handle victims and other things, to offer them to God and consecrate them. Hence, morally, let the priest know that he ought to have holy hands, that is, chaste and pure, both from lust, and from blood, and from avarice. Hear Philo, book On Victims: “God requires,” he says, “from him who sacrifices, first a good mind, holy, and exercised in piety. Then a life adorned with good deeds (especially almsdeeds), that when he lays on his hands, he may say with a free conscience: These hands have not been corrupted by women, nor defiled with innocent blood; they have inflicted harm, injury, wound, violence on no one; they have lent their service to no base thing, but to honourable and useful things, which are approved by just, honourable, and wise men.”
Therefore the hands of all the priests were anointed; but it was peculiar to the high priest that his head also was anointed, verse 7, to signify that from him, as from the head, the power of offering and consecrating was derived to the others; and this mystically prefigured the pontifical office of the new law. So St. Thomas, 1–2, question 102, article 5, reply to 8. Hence it is said in Psalm 132:2: “Like the precious ointment on the head, that ran down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron.”
Verse 10. “And Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head thereof.” That by this rite they may testify that they are sinners, and lay their sins upon the calf, and offer it as a victim for their sins, that so, being cleansed, they may be made worthy to intercede and sacrifice for the sins of others. Of this rite I shall say more on Leviticus chapter 1, verse 4.
Verse 11. “And thou shalt immolate it in the sight of the Lord.” “Thou shalt immolate,” that is, thou, O Moses. Moses therefore here performed the priestly office, and as a hierarch consecrated the priests and the high priest himself. Whence Nazianzen, oration 92, calls Moses the priest of priests; so also St. Augustine, Question 20 on Leviticus: whence in Psalm 98:6 it is said: “Moses and Aaron among his priests.” See Leviticus chapter 8. Moses, then, was first both high priest of the people and its leader and prince. But after Moses committed the priesthood to Aaron and his posterity, thenceforward the posterity of Moses were reckoned not among the priests, but among the Levites, as is plain from 1 Paralipomenon chapter 23, verse 14.
Verse 13. “Thou shalt take also all the fat, and the two kidneys,” etc. “and thou shalt offer them a burnt offering upon the altar,” as if to say: Here thou shalt kindle and burn all these like incense, that they may evaporate in smoke and be burned in honour of God: the fat and the kidneys are therefore here called incense, that is, a burnt victim; this is plain from the Hebrew.
Alphonsus, king of Aragon, used to say that “nothing is more unbecoming than for one to command others who cannot command his own passions”; for how shall he restrain the passions of others who is overcome by his own, and indulges them? Demosthenes said it was the part of a wise man never to connive at the passions of the mind, nor in any way to indulge them too freely, lest, unbridled, they desert the rule of reason. Thales, being asked who was happy, said: “He who is sound in body and chaste in mind.” For lust and concupiscence are diseases of the mind. Cato, according to Plutarch, said that he is the best commander who can command his own passions. Cicero in his oration for Sulla says: “It is kingly so to live as to be a slave not only to no man, but not even to any desire; to despise all lusts; to need neither gold nor silver nor other things; to consult the good of the people rather than their will; to yield to none, to resist many.”
Verse 14. “But the flesh of the calf, and the skin, and the dung thou shalt burn without the camp, because it is for sin.” “Without the camp,” to signify the greatness of the sin of priests (inasmuch as they ought to be the holiest of all, and to sanctify others by word, example, and sacrifices); therefore, in detestation of it, the flesh of their victim was burned outside the camp. In like manner, for the sins of priests alone a calf was immolated; but for the sins of princes and of the common people lesser animals were immolated, namely goats, rams, or birds. Third, for the same reason the dung of the calf was burned; but in other victims, even those for sin, this was not done, except the red heifer, which was offered for the sins of the whole people, Numbers chapter 19. See more on these things in Leviticus chapters 4 and 5, and following. Hence Christ also suffered outside the camp, that is, outside Jerusalem. See what was said on Hebrews chapter 13, verse 11.
Avicenna describes it best: “And the liver,” he says, “has certain appendages, by which it embraces the stomach and adheres to it. The greatest of these appendages is that which is called by a special name siada. On this the gall lies, whence it extends to the lower parts.” This greater lobe the Septuagint call the lobe of the liver. That it signifies not “over” but “to,” the thing itself teaches.
Verse 16. “And when thou hast killed him, thou shalt take of his blood, and pour it round about the altar,” to signify that God, who is represented by the altar, receives this blood of the beast for the sin of man, and is appeased by it.
Verse 18. “It is an oblation to the Lord.” In Hebrew, olah, that is, it is a holocaust to the Lord; a holocaust is called olah, that is, ascension, because in it the whole victim ascends to God through fire and smoke.
“A most sweet savour of the victim of the Lord.” In Hebrew, a savour of rest, in which, namely, he who smells it rests most sweetly and pleasantly; which is attributed to God here metaphorically, because this sacrifice rendered God appeased (whence the Chaldee renders, that it may be received with good pleasure), and expiated sins through faith in Christ, whose sacrifice this one, with its victims, namely the calf and the ram, foreshadowed. This sacrifice of theirs was therefore grateful and pleasing to God, not ex opere operato, as is the sacrifice of the new law, but ex opere operantis; for it was an act of worship and obedience.
“Of the victim of the Lord.” In Hebrew, ishsheh, that is, a fire-offering, is to the Lord, namely it is a holocaust, in which all is burned and consumed.
Note: in this consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests, every kind of sacrifice was offered, namely the holocaust, the peace-offering, and that for sin: for they were ordained and consecrated to offer these. For one ram was offered primarily as a holocaust, though it was also offered together for sins; the other ram was offered as a peace-offering; the calf, finally, was offered for sin. In a similar way, in the new law, in the ordination and consecration of priests and bishops the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated and offered, as the act and oblation to which priests are ordained.
Allegorically, Radulphus on Leviticus chapter 9: Moses, he says, signifies the law, the calf signifies Christ, Aaron and his sons signify the Evangelical teachers and preachers. Moses, then, that is the law, before Aaron and his sons slays the calf for sin, when it instructs the knowledge of the teachers about the passion of Christ. Second, he offers a ram for a holocaust, because he teaches them to offer themselves as a holocaust of perfect conversation, that they may be leaders to others in faith and good works. Third, he offers a ram as a peace-offering, because he teaches them to set before the faithful everywhere the life of Christ to be imitated.