Commentaria in Leviticum
Nor put any frankincense thereon, because it is for sin.—Incense is forbidden here in victims for sin, that thereby it may be shown that sin smells not well like incense, but most foully, and is abominable before God. So Cyril, book 15 On Adoration, Procopius and Theodoret. Second, incense, that is, prayer, is lacking here, because, as Radulphus says, “the sinner ought not with free face to ask pardon, since he offers no worthy satisfaction; let him ask, as though not asking; let him hope, but as though despairing, while he both confesses himself unworthy of pardon and yet believes that by God’s mercy alone he can be saved. Hence the Church teaches us to pray God to forgive what the conscience fears, and to add what prayer does not presume.” And Hesychius: “Incense,” he says, “is not put here, because the sinner does not know whether his prayer, which he has so often transgressed, is of good odour.” Hence Joel chapter 2: “Be converted,” he says, “to the Lord, for he is gracious; who knoweth if he will return and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him?”
Verse 12. For a memorial of him that offered.—That is, that God may remember the offerer. See what was said on chapter 2, verse 9.
Verse 13. Praying for him and making atonement—praying that it may be forgiven. But the remnant (of the fine flour offered for sin) he (the offering priest) shall have for a gift.—The Hebrew, “as a gift,” by which God wills to reward him for his labour and ministry of the tabernacle; for mincha in Hebrew often signifies any oblation and any gift. The Septuagint render: “the remainder shall be the priest’s, as the sacrifice of fine flour,” which by law falls to him, of which chapter 6, verse 16.
Verse 15. If a soul, by mistake, shall transgress the ceremonies.—For if he had knowingly transgressed them, he was not expiated by the sacrifice of a ram which is prescribed here, but was punished with death, as is plain from Numbers 15:30. Hence verse 18 here it is said: “The priest shall pray for him, because he did it ignorantly.” In like manner among the Gentiles this was the sanction: “Whoever shall steal or plunder what is sacred or commended to sacred things, let him be a parricide,” as Cicero relates, book 2 On the Laws.
In those things which are sanctified to the Lord—for example if a layman eat of the flesh immolated to God, as is said in chapter 22, verse 14.
He shall offer for his offence a ram, which may be bought for two sicles.—The Hebrew: “according to the estimation, or price, of silver of sicles,” namely of at least two. So Vatablus. Add that it is likely that in the Hebrew we should read not the plural shekalim, that is, of sicles, but the dual shekalaim, that is, of two sicles. A sicle contained four Spanish reals: two silver sicles therefore made eight Spanish reals, that is, two Brabant florins. Radulphus asserts that the Septuagint rendered a ram of the price of 50 sicles, and that for a mystery, he says, that it might be signified that the confession of faith, which the sicle signifies, by which the ram, that is Christ, is acquired, is given to men by the fiftieth, that is, the Holy Ghost poured out at Pentecost. But the Greek, Royal and Roman editions now lack every number, and it is certain that the “50” crept in: for the Hebrew, Chaldee and Latin have nothing of the kind; and it is agreed that for 50 sicles not a ram but an ox was usually bought. A ram could be bought for two sicles, as is said in this verse.
According to the weight of the sanctuary—that is, of just weight, that it may balance the sicle kept in the sanctuary as of the most just weight, as I said on Exodus 30:24, and is plain from Leviticus, last chapter, verse 25, where it is said: “Every estimation shall be weighed by the sicle of the sanctuary.”
Verse 16. And he shall make good the damage he hath done, and shall add the fifth part besides.—That is, that this fifth part added may be in compensation of the injury which, besides the damage, he inflicted on the Lord and His sacred things. Hence it is plain that if anyone through error had usurped things sanctified and offered to God, for example flesh or fat, which belonged to God alone in the victim, he had to do the following: first, offer a ram in sacrifice; second, restore the thing usurped, and add a fifth part more: for God here takes the place of a private person; for these things sanctified to God were specially proper to Him as to a private person, and were as it were God’s own property. Hence restitution of the same was due to Him.
This, then, is prescribed here, with the fifth part added besides in place of a fine.
Note: This restitution had to be made in money, which fell to the priests (for these take God’s place on earth), and this is hinted here; for otherwise those who had eaten by mistake a part of a holocaust would have had to restore the whole animal, which should be offered to God in holocaust; for a part of an animal could not be offered in a holocaust, but the whole animal: lest they be compelled to restore the whole animal, they paid the priest the price of the part usurped. So Abulensis. The Greek for “fifth part” is epipemptos, “which we,” says Origen, “could call ‘over the fifths,’ were it not said to be the name of some special number among them, by which was indicated that for five, five others were to be given, and one over; so that, for example, it is understood that he who has stolen or usurped in necessity five pieces of money from holy things, shall restore the five themselves, and besides five others, with one also added.” But better expound epipemptos according to the Hebrew, Chaldee and Latin, which have the fifth part; for Moses speaks of the penalty not of theft, of which Exodus chapter 22, verse 1, but of the abuse of sanctified things.
Verse 17. If a soul sin through ignorance, and do one of those things which by the law of the Lord are forbidden,—by omitting in sacred things some ceremony harmful to no one; for that this case is treated here is plain from the fact that the sinner is commanded, according to the measure of the sin, to offer a ram of greater or less price. So Cajetan. This law, then, is distinguished from the preceding, verse 15, in that that treats of things sanctified or offered to God, this of the sacred rites and ceremonies themselves. It is distinguished also from that in chapter 4, verse 27, because that is general, and treats of any sins whatever committed against God’s moral precepts, but this adds “according to the measure of the sin”—as if to say: For a greater sin he shall offer a better and more precious ram, for a lesser a smaller and cheaper. Abulensis otherwise, as if to say: The value of that ram which is offered shall be as great as the estimation or measure placed on the ram for sin, that is, of two sicles. But Abulensis does not observe that where the price of two sicles is fixed, it is not added “according to the measure and estimation of the sin,” because a fixed price was already defined by the law; whereas here, where it says “according to the measure and estimation of the sin,” the price of two sicles is not fixed nor defined, but is left to the judgment and estimation of the priest, that he may enjoin a ram of greater price for a greater sin, of lesser price for a lesser. So Ribera. The estimation, that is, is yours, namely, O Moses, and consequently yours, O Aaron and priest; for these sacred matters regard Moses, in so far as he was prince of sacred things and priest. Hence in them Aaron and the priests succeeded him.
The priest shall pray for him, because he did it ignorantly—as if to say: He shall pray for him, saying: Spare, O Lord, this man who has offended in using the ceremonies prescribed by Thee, because he did it ignorantly.