Commentaria in Leviticum
This book is called in Hebrew Vaiicra, that is, “and he called,” from its opening; by the Greeks and Latins it is called Leviticus, from the matter it treats; for it treats of sacrifices and the other offices of the Levites. For the Levites, that is, those who were descended from the father and tribe of Levi, were chosen by God for the sacred ministry, but with this division: that the Amramites, or the posterity of Amram, that is, Aaron and his sons, should exercise the priesthood and alone offer sacrifice; while the rest, namely the posterity of Caath, Merari and Gerson (who were all sons of Levi), should serve these, as deacons do our priests. See chapters 3 and 4 of Numbers. Hence it came about that the former were called priests, and the latter Levites, the common name being appropriated to the inferior; for the more imperfect species is wont to appropriate to itself the name of the genus, as we call a brute an animal. Here, however, the contrary happens: for the name of the genus is given to the more worthy; since by Levites here priests are understood, when we call this book Leviticus.
Leviticus, then, is the same as priestly, or sacrificial; for it contains the ceremonial precepts by which the Israelite people was properly enrolled in the worship of God and of God’s household, concerning oblations and sacrifices, which are the most excellent kinds of worship that we render to God outwardly. The first reason, therefore, for ordaining these sacrifices was the exterior worship and veneration due to God. The second, that God might by this means call the Jews away from pernicious idleness and idolatry, keeping them always piously occupied. This cause is given by St. Clement, book 1 of the Recognitions, towards the middle; and by Chrysostom, homily 6 on the second book Against Marcion, chapter 18, where he says: “By the burden of sacrifices, and the busy scrupulosities of works and oblations, God wished to bind them to His religion, lest they should offend by making idols.” The third, that by various types they might foreshadow the dignity and manifold character of the sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross. For that all these sacrifices foreshadowed Christ and His immolation is taught by St. Augustine, book 1 Against the Adversaries of the Law and the Prophets, chapter 16, and book 17 of the City of God, chapter 2; Eusebius, book 1 of the Demonstration, chapter 10; the Council of Trent, session 22, chapter 1, at the end; and St. Leo, sermon 8 On the Passion, where he says:
“Now, the variety of carnal sacrifices ceasing, the one oblation of the body and blood of the Lord fulfils all the differences of victims; so that, as there is one sacrifice in place of every victim, so there may be one kingdom out of every nation.” Hence also in the Collect of the Church it is said: “O God, who hast ordained the difference of the legal victims by the perfection of one sacrifice.”
Hence it is clear that these ancient sacrifices were good and holy, and pleasing to God, as being instituted by Him and offered in His honour; for they were acts of religion and of latria towards God. You will object: St. Cyril, book 9 Against Julian, towards the end; St. Jerome, Rupert, on Isaias chapter 1; Tertullian, book 2 Against Marcion, chapter 18 and 21; Chrysostom, oration 4 Against the Jews, and others, seem to say that these sacrifices were not pleasing to God, nor instituted by His intention, but only to avoid a greater evil, namely lest the Hebrews, being accustomed in Egypt to sacrifices, should relapse into them and offer them to Apis and other idols.
I answer: those Fathers mean only that these sacrifices were not pleasing to God in themselves, or in so far as they were external without interior worship; for they set them against the sacrifice of Christ and the actions of the virtues, which in themselves please God. And this is what the Theologians say: that the sacrifices and Sacraments of the new law please God and justify us ex opere operato, but the old ones did so ex opere operantis; and hence they displeased God if they were offered with an impure heart by the unclean. And this is what God says, Isaias 1:11: “To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims? I am full: I desire not holocausts of rams, and the fat of fatlings, and the blood of calves and lambs and buck goats. Incense is an abomination to me”; because, namely, it is burned to me by you the impious with an impious heart: for you place all holiness in those external sacrifices, and so neglect the interior holiness, which is the true one; you defile yourselves with rapine, lusts and other crimes.
We may divide Leviticus into three sections. The first treats of the sacrifices themselves, and their variety and distinction, from chapter 1 to chapter 7. The second treats of the persons who offer, and their preparation and disposition, from chapter 8 to chapter 22. The third treats of the times appointed for oblation, namely the feasts, from chapter 23 to the end, to which are joined some things concerning vows and their redemption.
Moreover, all these things were done and said in the twelfth station of the Hebrews in the desert, namely at Mount Sinai, as is said at the end of this book. For at Sinai were done all things that are narrated from chapter 19 of Exodus to the end of Exodus, and that are narrated in the whole of Leviticus and in Numbers up to chapter 10. For in Numbers 10:11 the Hebrews moved their camp from Sinai; yet these precepts of Leviticus were given to Moses by God not on the mount of Sinai itself, as the Decalogue was, but in the newly erected tabernacle, as is plain from chapter 1, verse 1.
Hence it follows that Leviticus was dictated by God to Moses in the second year of the going out of the Hebrews from Egypt, which was in the year of the world 2455, 198 years after the flood (which was 1496 years before the birth of Christ); nay, the whole of Leviticus was dictated by God within one month, namely the first of this second year, which you will see clearly if you compare the beginning and end of Leviticus with the last chapter of Exodus, verse 45, and with chapter 1 of Numbers, verse 1. From which it is plain that the book of Numbers, which follows Leviticus, begins from the first day of the second month. It is certain, at least, that Leviticus could not have been dictated after the twentieth day of the second month; for beyond that day the Hebrews were not in Sinai, as is plain from Numbers chapter 10, verse 11. Note that these precepts of Leviticus were not given all on one day, but successively through various days of the first month, as appears from verse 4.
Those who have explained Leviticus mystically are, first, Origen, whose sixteen homilies on Leviticus are extant. They are found also among the works of St. Cyril, and are called books, not homilies. But that they are not Cyril’s but Origen’s is plain both from the style and because in some places they savour of Origen’s errors, and because they have always been ascribed to Origen from of old. Second, Hesychius, priest of Jerusalem, a disciple of St. Gregory Nazianzen, wrote on Leviticus. He flourished under the Emperor Honorius, about the year of our Lord 400. Third, St. Cyril wrote on Leviticus seventeen books On Adoration in Spirit and in Truth, in which he interprets most of the mysteries of Leviticus and adapts them tropologically to Christians. Antonius Agellius lately published them at Rome in the year of our Lord 1588. Fourth, Radulphus, monk of Flavigny, or, as others will have it, of Fulda, about the year of our Lord 910, wrote excellently on Leviticus. He was a man of solid learning; he imitates the phrase of St. Gregory, and fittingly explains each point in the mystical and tropological sense. In this age Peter Serranus, canon of Alcalá, has written on Leviticus both mystically and literally.