Commentaria in Leviticum
Note: here and below leprosy is everywhere called that which seemed to be, or of which there was suspicion that it was leprosy, even if afterwards it was found not to be leprosy.
Verse 6. He shall cleanse him—that is, shall declare and pronounce him clean: like is verse 34, and Genesis 41:13, where the butler says: “I was restored to my office, and he (the baker) was hanged”; for which the Hebrew is, he restored me to my office, and hanged him, namely Joseph by his prophecy.
Verses 7 and 8. But if the leprosy grow again, after he was seen by the priest and restored to cleanness, he shall be brought to him, and shall be condemned of uncleanness.—This is the second species of leprosy, repeated, or recurring. For of such a leprosy he shall be condemned, because there have appeared in him the signs of a permanent and rooted leprosy; for a repeated disease signifies a great store of matter in the body, and a propensity to it, and that in the vitiated nature of the body lies as it were the root of the disease: but a disease to which the body is strongly inclined easily passes into a habit; and therefore, as the increase of spots, so also the repetition is a suspicious and bad sign, and he who has once relapsed is rightly judged likely to relapse often, and the man will never be safe from uncleanness: wherefore he shall be condemned of uncleanness. So Valesius.
Maurer, who renders, “for his cleansing,” that is, that he may be declared clean.
Tropologically, leprosy is any sin, says Theodoret, and especially heresy, say Rupert and Bede (although heresy is properly the leprosy of the head, as I shall say at verse 29); the skin and its colour is the visible appearance of human conversation; the flesh is the interior conscience; the hairs are the thoughts betraying themselves; when in these leprosy shall have appeared, namely a change of their former state and colour; or a blister, that is corruption of conscience; or something shining, that is guilt plainly shining out; let the priest separate him from the company of the faithful for seven days, until full knowledge or amendment of the leprosy: if it appear more obscure, and has not grown, it is scab, that is, a lighter fault; but if it grow again, it is leprosy, that is, living and persevering deliberation to sin. So Radulphus.
St. Louis king of France once asked the Seneschal of Champagne whether he would rather be infected with leprosy, sharply rebuking him: “You err,” he said, “by the whole sky; what leprosy is fouler than sin, which afflicts even after death? You therefore, if you love me, change that mind.” So Joinville relates in his Life, chapter 94.
Of the same sense and opinion was another St. Louis, born of the royal stock, who from a Franciscan was made Bishop of Toulouse; for he said: “Sooner let perish for me, I do not say this perishable kingdom, but the whole world, than that I should ever sin against my God, whose honour I know is to be preferred to all things.” So has his Life, chapter 10.
Verses 10 and 11. And the living flesh itself appear, it shall be judged leprosy most inveterate.—This is the third species of leprosy, namely inveterate leprosy, which is in the living flesh, when the former was in the skin and hairs: for it is less grave that the colour of the skin alone be changed than that of the hairs also; but graver than both is that the very living flesh under the skin be sprinkled with leprosy, so that it itself is white, and has lost the mode of the substance of flesh: for this is known to belong to inveterate leprosy and to be inherent in the skin, because it arises from salt phlegm, which, expelled by the expulsive force, has pervaded not only the skin but the flesh beneath, and changed it into the nature of a vitiated humour. Whether this be so, whether namely the flesh beneath be leprous, physicians test by friction and a needle: for if the flesh, rubbed, does not redden, and if, pricked with a needle, it yields not blood but a milky or watery moisture, it is a sign that it is infected with leprosy: this leprosy is elephantiasis, especially if it feed upon and eat the flesh. So Valesius, from Galen, Avicenna and Paul of Aegina.
Tropologically Radulphus: the leprosy of dead flesh is a bad deliberation, which though it live, is quickly mortified; but the leprosy of living flesh is that which, pertinacious, is more vehemently rooted, and receives not the enclosure of the priestly admonition: wherefore before it be rooted and creep, let it be blotted out by confession and penance. For, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 36 to the People, the devil presses on keenly, wishing to gain some entrance: who, if he seize even a brief leisure and delay, induces great torpor. And Theodoric the king in Cassiodorus, epistle 14, book 3 of the Variae: “Evil,” he says, “when it persists, is increased; and the remedy in sin is hastened correction.”
Verse 11. The priest therefore shall defile him.—“Shall defile” means shall judge defiled: so the word “shall defile” is everywhere taken in this chapter.
Verses 12 and 13. But if the leprosy break out, running about in the skin, and cover all the flesh from the head to the feet, whatsoever falleth under the sight of the eyes, the priest shall view him, and shall judge that the leprosy which he hath is clean.—This is the fourth species of leprosy, which is called the cleanest, that is, a scab least contagious. Hence the Hebrew, Chaldee and Greek have (as also follows a little after in the Latin) he shall judge him clean of the leprosy, because namely this scab, running through the whole body, is only a purgation of nature, strongly purging on every side, and casting out vitiated humours: it is otherwise when, settling in one part, it argues a fault of that part within, or certainly a weak expulsive force. For in vitiated dispositions of bodies, and cacochymies, physicians judge it best if these break out abundantly outwards by pustules, scab and other excrements: for what does not break out remains within, and affects and infects the heart and other vital parts. So Valesius from Hippocrates.
Tropologically, leprosy running about in the skin is the false infamy of crimes, with which Christ and the Saints, especially in the primitive Church, were aspersed, and therefore afflicted: this runs about because it finds nowhere a place where it may truly be fixed; it is turned into whiteness, that is into praise, the truth of the matter being known; and therefore it is reckoned the cleanest leprosy, since by it a man rather increases in patience, merits and glory, when without perpetration of a crime he suffers under suspicion of crime. So Radulphus. Hence it is said of Christ, Isaias 53:4: “And we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted.” You see how this leprosy, namely infamy, really touched and afflicted the skin of Christ.
Verses 14 and 15. But when the living flesh (sprinkled with leprosy) shall appear in him (the skin being consumed), then by the priest’s judgment he shall be defiled—declared unclean.
Verses 16 and 17. But if it turn again into whiteness, and cover the whole man, the priest shall consider him, and pronounce him clean,—because this is a sign that the flesh is healed, and that the skin is again covered on every side.
Verses 18 and 19. When there is an ulcer in the flesh and skin, and it is healed, and in the place of the ulcer there appeareth a white scar, or somewhat red.—Nothing else is said here than that the leprosy already mentioned in verse 3 and following can arise in ulcers (whether they were born spontaneously or burnt in), namely in healed scars; nor is this wonderful, because ulcers are born spontaneously in weak parts, by reason of vitiated humours sent into them, and those once ulcerated, though covered with a scar, remain weaker; wherefore the ulcers themselves are wont often to be renewed in the same parts, and the matter of leprosy to emerge into the same part. Leprosy so arisen here has the same marks as in the other parts: namely, its first mark is a creeping spot; the second, the place deeper than the rest of the skin; the third, the hairs changed to white: for these are the marks of true and malignant leprosy: the contrary are signs of a clean scab.
Note, “somewhat red,” that is, reddish; because although the spot of leprosy in the rest of the skin is white, yet in a scar left from ulcers it becomes sometimes red, because the blood by which the part is nourished is ill changed owing to its weakness, which is the cause of the spots. So Valesius.
Verse 23. But if it stay in its place, it is the scar of an ulcer, and the man shall be clean—because if it were leprosy, it would not stand still, but would creep; therefore what is seen in such a scar, white or reddish, is from the preceding ulcer, but is not leprosy.
Verse 24. White or red—because if it were from burning it would be black; therefore since it is white or reddish, there is suspicion that it is leprosy.
Verse 28. But if the whiteness stay in its place, and be not very clear (obscure, as he said a little before), it is the mark of a burning—inflicted and left by burning.
Tropologically, the ulcer signifies the corruption of shameful deeds, by which the appearance of human honesty is violated; the mark of burning signifies anger and envy: if these, healed, break out again, and show a white spot, that is the allurements of pleasures, or a red, that is the bloody appearance of discords, the priest shall consider as above, etc.: for either spot can arise from either vice. So Radulphus.
Verse 29. If the leprosy break out in the head or the beard of a man or woman—so that the leprosy of skin and flesh betrays itself in the beard or hair: for that this leprosy is in the skin is plain from what follows, that it is lower than the other flesh.