Commentaria in Leviticum
It shall be burnt on the altar all night until morning.—“It shall be burnt,” namely the evening perpetual holocaust, and so it was necessary that the parts of this holocaust be laid successively upon the altar, that the sacrifice might last from evening until morning. For the Hebrew is, this holocaust shall be for the burning, or on the burning, upon the altar all night. Wherefore it was necessary that the priest keep watch in the tabernacle all night, to lay these parts of the holocaust in turn and dispose them on the altar, that so they might be consumed gradually all night; and this to the end that in this way God might be continually worshipped and honoured by these sacrifices, by day as by the whole night, and hence it was called the perpetual sacrifice. While the rest slept, therefore, the priest had to keep vigil over the sacred things, as Religious now keep vigil in singing Matins and the praises of God. It was otherwise with the morning holocaust; for this followed the common law, and therefore, like the other holocausts, was burnt entire at once; for after it other holocausts and sacrifices were to be offered and burnt. So Abulensis and others. Nay some understand what is said here of the evening perpetual sacrifice to hold by parity or likeness of the morning one, that similarly it was burnt all day with a slow fire until the time of the evening sacrifice, unless, namely, other holocausts succeeded the perpetual morning one; for then these, burnt with a slow fire, filled the whole day until the time of the evening sacrifice. And that seems fitting, that all day and night the altar should smoke and the sacrifice evaporate, that by its perpetual burning and fumigation the supreme majesty of God, always to be adored by us and honoured with perpetual victims, might be worshipped. If this be true, this sacrifice was perpetual by a twofold title. First, because it burned continually, that is, through the whole day and night, on the altar, either in itself, or in the victims succeeding one another in the manner already explained. So Lyranus, Dionysius, Cajetan and our Lorinus, and the Septuagint hint it, who call the perpetual sacrifice, Exodus 29:38, karpoma enidrysmon, that is, an oblation of assiduity or continuation, which would be burnt to God assiduously and continually. Again, although by holocaust is properly understood here the perpetual one, as Hesychius, Abulensis and Hugh of St. Victor teach, yet Radulphus, book 4, chapter 1, takes it of any, and would have it ordained here that the flesh of any holocaust, offered and burnt at any hour, even in the morning, be left upon the altar all the following night, that by degrees evaporating it may pass into smoke and ashes. By this rite God admonished the faithful to worship Him with the mystical victims of charity, prayer and other virtues, continually succeeding one another, and that no time, nay no moment, ought to be void of this victim and the worship of God. Hence St. Bernard: “Every time,” he says, “in which thou thinkest not of God (by loving, praising and invoking Him), reckon thyself lost.” Thomas Aquinas: “A religious,” he says, “should always speak with God or of God.”
Tropologically: “The perfect man, through all the night of this age and present life, ought to keep the bright flame of his fire, that is, of his charity and fervour; that, the morning (of eternal glory) dawning, he may shine for ever in the presence of God,” says Radulphus.
Verse 9. The fire (with which, namely, the perpetual holocaust just mentioned shall be burnt) shall be in (so we must read, not “out of,” as the Plantin Bibles read) the same altar—as if to say: This fire shall be the altar’s own, not foreign, not brought from elsewhere. Hence the Hebrew has, the fire of the altar shall burn, or be kindled, in it, namely the altar, as if to say: Fire shall not be brought from elsewhere into the altar, but in it shall be continually burning. The Gentiles imitated this by the impulse of the demon, who is the ape of God and of divine worship; for in sacrifices they used a religious fire from a certain material. Hence in them it was unlawful to kindle or burn fire from olive, laurel, or an oak of coarser bark, or whose trunk was hollow and spongy; for these woods they held as ominous and detestable. Moreover they kindled this fire by a torch set under the victims, and those who were called Capnomancers observed it, partly from the smoke, what globes it rolled and how high it rose, partly from the flame, whether brighter or duller, and what its shape was, and thence divined, as Giraldus testifies, syntagma 17. Hence again among the Persians and Romans a sacred fire burned continually, the care of which was entrusted to the Vestal virgins: of this fire more in chapter 9, verse 24.
Tropologically, the altar is the heart, the faithful Christian is the priest, the shining and burning fire, says Origen, homily 4, is the lamp of faith and charity, of which Luke 12:35 says: “Let your lamps be burning in your hands.” This fire, says St. Gregory, book 25 of the Morals, is to be daily fed and stirred up with wood, that is, with the examples of the Fathers and the Lord’s precepts, and that in the morning, that is, by morning prayer and meditation (how useful which is, would that all understood, and by practice experienced, especially Ecclesiastics), and it is inextinguishable in the hearts of the elect: for even after this life the fervour of charity shall increase in their minds; everyone daily lays upon it himself as a holocaust, because he burns up every vice that lives ill in him; he lays upon it also the fat of peace-offerings, because the interior fattening of new charity, making peace between us and God, renders the odour of us most sweet. So also Rupert.
Verse 11. He shall put off his former garments.—Because, although the carrying out of the ashes from the altar was a sacred function in a sacred place, yet the carrying of them outside the camp was not sacred. Hence the priest carrying them put off the sacred garments which he had put on in sacrificing, and left them in the holy place or the tabernacle, and put on his common garments. And in a very clean place he shall cause them to be consumed to ashes—not the ashes, but the parts of wood mixed with the ashes, not yet wholly resolved into ash, and any parts of fat, flesh or bones which, not wholly consumed by the fire, remained; all of which Moses comprehends here under ashes: for these outside the camp were again to be burnt, that nothing but ashes should remain: for the holocaust had to be reduced to mere ashes. The least things of the holocaust God wills to be done even by sacred men, to show that nothing which pertains to the worship of God ought to be counted small, says St. Cyril, book 12 On Adoration.
Verse 12. And laying the holocaust thereon, shall burn thereon the fat of the peace-offerings—namely the fat with the kidneys, which God commanded to be offered and burnt to Him from the peace-victim, chapter 3, verse 3. The sense, then, is: In the morning arrange a pile of wood upon the altar, and lay upon it all the flesh of the holocaust, and if there be besides any peace-victims to be offered, take from them their fat, and lay it upon the perpetual holocaust, that it may be burnt together with it. For I will not that the fat alone be burnt apart.
Verse 14. This is the law of the sacrifice and of the libations.—“Of the sacrifice,” namely of meal, not of flesh; for the Hebrew is mincha, of which chapter 2. Hence our interpreter, explaining himself, adds: “and of the libations,” and “and” here means “that is.” For libations are here so called, not from pouring out, but from cakes and loaves which are made or can be made of libations, that is, of fine flour and meal. Hence what he here calls libations, in the next verse he calls fine flour.
Verse 16. And the remnant of the flour Aaron shall eat with his sons.—Understand, unless they were polluted and defiled; for these were kept from sacred things, both feasts and places, as is plain from chapter 22, verse 6.
Note: Of the mincha, that is, the meal sacrifice, only males could eat, namely only the priests and their sons, as will appear from verse 18. But of the peace-victim that part which fell to the priest could be eaten by all who were of the priest’s household, even women and bought servants, but not hired servants, as is plain from chapter 22, verse 11. Hence the priest’s daughter, who had married a man of another tribe, could not eat of it, unless, her husband being dead, she had returned to her father’s house and family, as is plain from chapter 22, verse 13.
Lastly, these sacred feasts had to be eaten “in the holy place,” namely in the court of the tabernacle, as the Hebrew, Greek, Chaldee and Roman Latin have here; for it is wrongly read in the Plantin: in the place of the sanctuary of the tabernacle.
Verse 17. And therefore it shall not be fermented, because part of it is offered for the burning of the Lord (as if to say: A part of the flour offered to God could not be fermented, according to the law of Leviticus 2:11; therefore it is not fitting that the remaining part of it, which falls to the priests to be eaten, be fermented, because this too is part of the sacrifice offered to the Lord, and is reckoned offered to Him by its part or handful which is burnt to the Lord: and therefore) it shall be the holy of holies (that is, most holy and separated from the profane, and shall fall to the priests alone), as that which is for sin and for trespass—as if to say: It shall be most holy, as the sacrifice for sin and for trespass is most holy: for this expiates sins and sanctifies the offerers. There is a grave difficulty here, how trespass is distinguished from sin, which I shall resolve in chapter 7, verse 1.