Commentaria in Leviticum
Verse 14. He shall put of the blood of the victim upon the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed—to signify that his ear is to be purified, and so prepared for obedience to the law of God. In like manner the hands and feet are anointed, for the prompt and easy execution of the same law of God.
Note: The sextary, in Hebrew log, was a measure of liquids, and was the twelfth part of a hin,
Abbot Hyperichius: “The tree of life is on high, and humility ascends to it”; and Abbot Sisois: “It is not great if your mind is with God; but it is great if you see yourself beneath every creature.”
With which he shall sprinkle him that is to be cleansed (who is to be legally expiated, as I said at verse 2), seven times. Commonly in these purifications the sprinkling was done seven times, as is plain from chapter iv, and in this chapter, that by this number full purification, expiation and remission of sins might be signified. Whence also the seven of weeks signifies and effects Pentecost, in which the Holy Ghost wrought in the Apostles a full cleansing from sins and vices. So Isychius.
That he may be rightly purged—that is, duly and lawfully, namely according to the law and rite here laid down.
And he shall let go the living sparrow to fly into the field—that by the liberty of this bird the man free from leprosy might be signified, as I said at verse 6. So allegorically the Godhead was free in Christ’s passion. On the contrary, St. Antony compares the demon to a sparrow caught and ensnared: “The demon,” he says, “like an ensnared sparrow, is held and bound by Christ. Christians therefore, relying on Christ, should not fear the demon but laugh at him.”
8. And when the man hath washed his garments, he shall shave all the hair of his body, and shall be washed with water. The natural and medical reason of this washing I gave in chapter xiii, verse 47.
capable of six eggs, the twenty-fourth part of a seah.
Attic, and therefore it contained a pound and a half, that is, 18 ounces, as Robert Cenalis will have it, or rather a pound and a quarter, as Villalpando will have it, De Apparatu Templi, part II, book III, chapter vii. Hence the gomor, containing 7 sextaries and a fifth, contained about 8 pounds, as I said on Exodus chapter xvi, verse 16. Wherefore the sextary of wheat in Judea weighed 19 ounces. Of wheat, I say; for a sextary of flour did not weigh so many ounces, because the bulk of flour is greater than the bulk of the wheat from which it was made; a sextary of wine weighed 20 ounces, however, and of oil 16, says Villalpando, book III, chapter xxi. But it is nearer the truth that the Hebrew sextary was smaller than the Roman and Attic, and contained only 13 and a half ounces of water or wine, as I shall show at the end of the book.
12. He shall offer it for the trespass-offering, and the sextary of oil. Note: “he shall offer” here is not the same as “he shall sacrifice”; for the sextary of oil was not sacrificed to God. “He shall offer” therefore means he shall elevate them with the rite of tenupha, as I shall presently say, before the Lord; and then, as is said in the next verse, he shall slay and immolate the lamb to him.
And all being offered before the Lord. In Hebrew it is, and he shall wave them, tenupha, before the Lord. Tenupha was a ceremony, or fixed rite, of offering the victim, and the mincha, before immolation, such as now is in the offertory of the Mass before consecration, of which I spoke on Exodus chapter xxix, verse 24.
16 and 17. He shall sprinkle before the Lord (before the door of the tabernacle): and the rest of the oil he shall pour upon the tip of the ear, and upon the blood—namely that which adheres, or with which the ears and thumbs of the man to be cleansed were anointed. This is plain from the Hebrew, the Chaldee and the Septuagint; whence verse 28 expresses it more clearly, when it says: “In the place of the blood that was shed for the trespass,” as if to say: Not in another place, or on another side of the ear, but directly upon that part which is tinged with blood, he shall pour the oil also (1).
Mystically, by this anointing with oil the priest as it were prayed that God would have mercy on the blood, that is, the life and blood of the leper, now cleansed and to be purified according to the law.
18. And upon his head—that by this rite, namely the anointing, this pouring of oil, he might tacitly call down the mercy of God upon his head; for oil is a symbol of mercy. Note: As the victims for sin and for trespass fell to the priest, as is said at verse 13, so likewise to him fell the sextary of oil, except what was sprinkled before the altar, and with which the ear and thumbs of the man to be purified were anointed: so likewise to the priest fell the mincha, except the handful from each tenth, which was burnt to the Lord. It was otherwise with the peace-offering; for this for the most part fell to the offerers, as is plain from what was said in chapter iii, verse 3.
the second lamb he shall sacrifice for sin, as he sacrificed the first for trespass, as I said at verse 10. How trespass and sin are distinguished I said at chapter vii, verse 1.
Then he shall immolate the holocaust—namely the yearling ewe, of which he spoke at verse 10; for the soul had first to be expiated by the sacrifice for sin and for trespass, that it might then offer to God a pure and acceptable holocaust.
20. And shall put it on the altar with its libations —namely with the oblation of fine flour, oil and wine; for these are the libations: understand similar libations in the sacrifice for sin and for trespass. See Numbers
Allegorically, the two lambs and the yearling ewe signified the perfection of Christ’s sacrifice (for yearling animals are perfect and fit for generation); but because he who is to be cleansed must profess the faith of the whole Most Holy Trinity, with the three little sheep three tenths are offered, sprinkled with oil, because this sacrifice of the Son of God was made out of compassion for us. The sextary, as one and the same measure, signifies the integrity and sincerity of faith; with the blood of Christ and the oil of his grace the ear is anointed, to guard hearing; the hand, to guard actions; and the feet, to direct and strengthen motions and steps; finally the remainder is poured upon the head, to impart sanctification to the whole body, and make the cleansed man an anointed of the Lord. So Isychius.
21. But if he be poor. To the poor man who is cleansed from leprosy God here commands that, instead of three little sheep, he offer a lamb for trespass and two turtles or two young pigeons, one for sin, the other for a holocaust, with the rite which he prescribed for the little sheep in verse 13.
(1) Others render here besides, that is, those parts were to be anointed not only with blood but also with oil.
30 and 31. AND A TURTLE, OR A YOUNG PIGEON, HE SHALL OFFER, ONE FOR A TRESPASS.—“Trespass” here our Interpreter confounds, and takes for sin; for a lamb was offered properly for trespass, but a turtle not for trespass, but for sin, as is plain here
34. When you shall be come into the land of Chanaan, which I will give you, if there be a plague of leprosy in a house —for in the desert, where at this time the Hebrews were sojourning, they had no houses that could be infected; but there were skins, garments and tents, and if these were infected with leprosy, these laws and ceremonies prescribed concerning leprosy had to be observed even in the desert. Whence in Numbers v, 2, lepers in the desert are commanded to be separated from the camps.
If there be a plague. In Hebrew, if I shall give the plague of leprosy. Whence it is plain that this leprosy was inflicted by God on houses for sins committed in them; so Theodoret, Question XVII. This leprosy of houses was not properly but analogically leprosy: for it was a vicious quality in houses, gnawing and feeding on them, as leprosy does in man; whence God here commands it to be expiated legally in a similar manner and with the same ceremony as man. See what was said in chapter xiii, 47 (2).
Tropologically, the leprosy of a house is the corruption of faith or morals in some congregation: hence the priest and parish priest casts the vessels out of it, because he separates from the society of it whomsoever he can, and therefore is said to shut up the house; the rest is the same as was said of the other leprosies in chapter xiii. See Radulphus.
37. And when he shall see in the walls of it as it were little hollow valleys, defiled with paleness or redness, and lower than the rest of the surface. These signs of leprosy in houses are the same as in man, chapter xiii, verse 3. By little valleys he means pits, or cavities eaten away by the leprosy.