Commentaria in Leviticum
Chapter 1
God prescribes to Moses the rite of the threefold holocaust: first, of oxen, verse 3; second, of sheep and goats, verse 10; third, of birds, namely turtle-doves and pigeons, verse 14.
A few things must be premised here about sacrifice and its species.
Note, therefore, first: Sacrifice is the offering of a sensible thing made to God by a lawful minister, through a real change of it, to testify His supreme dominion and our subjection. I say, through a real change: because in this a sacrifice is distinguished from an oblation, that in the latter the thing was offered whole to God, as is plain in the oblation of tithes and first-fruits; but in a sacrifice the thing offered was slain, if it was living; if it was lifeless, it was cut up, ground, burnt, or poured out; and so it was changed and destroyed.
Hence “to sacrifice” is in Greek thyein, in Hebrew zabach, both of which mean to kill, to slay: for zabach agrees in name and meaning with tabach, that is, to slay; and the Latin sacrificare, although it is said from some thing to be sacrificed, is yet most often taken for to kill, which is a sign that sacrifice is either made in the very destruction of the thing, or is joined with it.
The reason is, that when a thing is destroyed it is taken away from human uses, and seems more perfectly to yield wholly to the honour of God, and to signify His supreme dominion over all things, and that all things depend on Him, and especially that He is lord of the life and death of all; for all this we signify and protest by the sacrifice itself.
Note, second: The inanimate things that were sacrificed were either liquid, as blood, wine, oil, which were offered by pouring out; or solid, as bread, fine flour, salt, frankincense, a sheaf of green ears, and wheat: these the priest raised on high, and variously prepared and altered; and in this alteration the nature of the sacrifice consisted: for bread was cut into pieces, fine flour was cooked in the pan, the oven or on the gridiron, salt was burnt, frankincense was burned, the sheaf of ears was roasted, the wheat was ground.
Note, third: Of animals God commanded only clean ones to be offered to Him, and only eight, namely the sheep, the goat, the ox, the calf, the dove, the sparrow and the turtle-dove; nor was it lawful for the Jews to sacrifice any other animal to God.
Note, fourth: There were three species of sacrifices: the first was the holocaust; the second, the peace-victim; the third, the victim for sin; to which add a fourth, namely the mincha, or sacrifice of fine flour or bread; all of which contain in themselves the sacrifice of Christ, which was figured by these. Moses pursues them in this order: that he treats of the holocaust in chapter 1; of the mincha in chapter 2; of the peace-victim in chapter 3; of the victim for sin in chapters 4, 5 and 6.
1. And the Lord called Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of the testimony, saying: 2. Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: If any man of you offer a sacrifice to the Lord of the cattle, that is, offering victims of oxen and sheep, 3. if his offering be a holocaust, and of the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, to make the Lord favourable to him: 4. And he shall put his hand upon the head of the victim, and it shall be acceptable, and help to its expiation. 5. And he shall immolate the calf before the Lord: and the sons of Aaron the priests shall offer its blood, pouring it round about the altar, which is before the door of the tabernacle: 6. And when they have flayed the victim, they shall cut the joints into pieces, 7. And shall put fire on the altar, having first laid a pile of wood: 8. And they shall lay the members that are cut out in order thereupon, to wit, the head and all things that cleave to the liver, 9. The entrails and the feet being washed with water: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar for a holocaust, and a sweet savour to the Lord. 10. And if the offering be of the flocks, a holocaust of sheep or of goats, he shall offer a male without blemish:
11. And shall immolate it at the side of the altar that looketh to the north before the Lord: but the sons of Aaron shall pour its blood upon the altar round about: 12. And they shall divide the members, the head, and all that cleave to the liver, and shall lay them upon the wood, under which the fire is to be laid: 13. But the entrails and the feet they shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer them all, and burn them upon the altar for a holocaust and most sweet savour to the Lord. 14. And if the offering of a holocaust to the Lord be of birds, of turtles, or of young pigeons, 15. The priest shall offer it at the altar: and wringing the head back, and breaking the place of the wound, he shall make the blood run down upon the brim of the altar: 16. But the craw of the bird and the feathers he shall cast beside the altar at the east side, in the place where the ashes are poured out, 17. And he shall break its wings, and shall not cut it, nor divide it with a knife, and shall burn it upon the altar, putting fire under the wood. It is a holocaust and an oblation of most sweet savour to the Lord.
Verse 1. And the Lord called Moses, and spoke to him.—“Spoke,” not by an imaginary voice, but by a sensible one, proceeding from the tabernacle and formed in the air by an angel speaking in God’s stead; which speech was not properly a living or human speech, since an angel lacks a body and the bodily organs necessary for speaking, such as mouth, tongue and teeth, but was like it. Hence it is called speech by analogy. “The Lord,” that is, an angel bearing the person of the Lord, as I said on Exodus.
From the tabernacle of the testimony—that is, from the tabernacle in which was the testimony, that is, the law or the tables of the law. See what was said on Exodus 26:33. It may also be rendered, from the tabernacle of the meeting, or of the appointment, namely as being a place appointed, as it were, for the meeting of the people and of Moses with God. So Vatablus; for the Hebrew means both.
Verse 2. Speak to the children of Israel—to all, even to the Levites. Note: When in Scripture the children of Israel are named, if the discourse is of a temporal matter the Levites are excluded; if of a spiritual one, they are included, as is plain from Deuteronomy 26:12; Apocalypse 7:7, where the tribe of Levi is numbered among those sealed by God: for it is incumbent on Levites and sacred persons not to care for and relish temporal things, but spiritual.
If any man of you offer—supply, of his own will; for there were other oblations that were not voluntary but commanded, and therefore necessary. Such was the oblation of the firstborn, of which Exodus 22:29; and the oblation for sin, of which here chapters 4 and 5; and these, being necessary, could not be transferred by anyone to another manner of oblation, as is plain from chapter 27, verse 26: “The firstborn,” it says, “which belong to the Lord, no man may sanctify and vow.”
If any man of you offer a sacrifice to the Lord.—For sacrifice is to be made to God alone, and this has been received by the usage of all nations, that they sacrificed to none but one who was God, or was held by them to be God, and whom they knew, thought, or feigned to be God, says St. Augustine, book 10 of the City of God, chapter 4; and this for the reason which I gave at the beginning of the chapter.
Of the cattle.—Our interpreter does not distinguish between pecora and pecudes, as the grammarians do, who call the smaller animals pecudes and the larger pecora. For the interpreter calls all animals, smaller and larger, both pecudes and pecora.
Of oxen and sheep offering victims.—Under sheep understand goats also; for the Hebrew word tson is common to both. Here the Lord chooses for Himself the ox, the sheep and the goat, and of birds the dove and the turtle-dove; but no fish. The first reason of which is the free will of God, who so ordained. The second, because this was fitting: for those animals are more in common use among men, and furnish man with food by their flesh and milk, and with clothing by their fleece and hide; oxen also plough and thresh. Again, these animals are tame, and therefore cleaner. So Theodoret, Question 1, and Philo, book On Victims. In fishes this also was peculiar, that they can scarcely be brought alive, and therefore could not have been immolated; for on both counts true is the saying of St. Antony: