Commentaria in Leviticum
Thus, since the tabernacle was set up, and Aaron and his sons were consecrated priests, on the first day of the first month of the second year of the Hebrews’ departure, the sons of Aaron were slain on the eighth day, offering strange fire, as is plain from Leviticus 10:4, compared with chapter 9, verse 1; but God instituted this feast soon after the slaughter of these sons, as is said here: whence it follows that God instituted this feast of Expiation about the ninth day of the first month, and commanded it to be celebrated on the tenth day of the seventh month.
I answer, therefore, first: the occasion of instituting this feast was the sin of irreverence committed in the tabernacle by the sons of Aaron, offering strange fire, as is here intimated. For to guard against that sin, and to establish and inculcate reverence for the tabernacle and sacred things, God here commands that the High Priest enter the Holy of Holies only once a year, to expiate the tabernacle, and that only with the greatest reverence and after many rites and sacrifices.
I answer, secondly: the cause of the feast was that on it there might be made a general expiation of all sins committed through the whole year, both by the priests and by the people; as among Christians at the feast of Easter there is a common expiation of all, by confession enjoined on all: of which this feast of Expiation was a most evident symbol and figure, of which more at verse 29.
Note: the Jews did not celebrate this feast during the whole forty years in which they wandered in the desert; for after the dedication of the tabernacle, no more sacrifices were offered by them in the desert, though these are here commanded to be offered on this feast.
2. THAT HE ENTER NOT AT ALL TIMES INTO THE SANCTUARY, WHICH IS WITHIN THE VEIL—that is, within the more holy part of the tabernacle, which is divided from the inner part by a veil and is called the Holy of Holies. From verses 2 and 29 it is clear that the High Priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies only once a year, namely on the tenth day of the seventh month on the feast of Expiation, and that only with incense and the sacrifices previously prescribed here; that by this arrangement reverence and religious awe for the place and for God dwelling there might be impressed on the Pontiff as well as on the people.
Some think that what is ordained here, that no one but the High Priest should enter the Holy of Holies, and that once a year on the feast of Expiation, is to be limited to a solemn entrance, in which divine worship was to be solemnly performed in the Holy of Holies; for that outside that time those who were distinguished for holiness were permitted to enter the Holy of Holies. For thus Epiphanius, heresy 78, and Hegesippus, book 5, and from him Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book 2, chapter 23, testify that St. James entered it.
So thinks our Christopher a Castro in his History of the Mother of God, chapter 2, page 123, and adds that the Blessed Virgin, when presented in the temple, dwelt or at least prayed in the Holy of Holies. This Evodius, successor of St. Peter in the see of Antioch, expressly asserts, in Nicephorus, book 2, chapter 23, and Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, in his oration On the Presentation of Mary. To these add Andrew of Crete, On the Dormition of the Mother of God, and Gregory, Archbishop of Nicomedia, in his oration On the Presentation of Mary, who say that the Blessed Virgin dwelt in the inner shrines or recesses of the temple. But this limitation seems an excessive relaxation of the law; for the law expressly says and ordains that the High Priest (much less any other priest or Jew) should never enter the Holy of Holies, except when about to perform sacred rites in it, to expiate it on the day of expiation. Hence Abulensis in this place teaches expressly that it was lawful for no one at all but the High Priest to enter the Holy of Holies, except Moses alone, who was above the High Priest, as lawgiver and leader of the people. For he, by God’s command, in doubtful matters entered the Holy of Holies to consult the oracle of God, and there heard God answering him on each point from the propitiatory, as is plain from Numbers 7:89. Secondly, because the virgins devoted to God, among whom the Blessed Virgin Mother of God dwelt, lived in the court at the door of the tabernacle; shall we say, then, that all of them dwelt or prayed in the Holy of Holies? The same seems to be said of the Blessed Virgin, especially since at that time her holiness and dignity, namely that she was to be the Mother of God, were hidden and unknown; and she, concealing her holiness out of humility, made herself equal to, nay subject to, the other virgins, according to the saying:
As to what is to be thought of James entering the Holy of Holies, I have said in the preface to his epistle. The Fathers who say that the Blessed Virgin dwelt in the inner shrines or in the Holy of Holies, all except Germanus alone, who speaks too plainly of the Holy of Holies taken strictly, seem by the inner shrines and the Holy of Holies to understand the sanctuary or temple; for this is called the Holy of Holies, that is, in the Hebrew phrase, the most holy, by comparison with houses and profane places. The Blessed Virgin, therefore, dwelt in the Holy of Holies, that is, in the temple, which was most holy, namely in the court: for this was the temple of the laity; and in it was an inner chamber, that is, a more intimate and secluded dwelling, in which the virgins devoted to God and the temple lived. Or at least it is called the Holy of Holies because it faced or adjoined it on the outside, just as even now dwellings attached to a temple are reckoned under the name of the temple. For those who prayed in the temple, especially the sacred virgins, looked toward God residing in the Holy of Holies.
Allegorically, Christ was signified here, about to enter by his blood into the Holy of Holies and to unlock heaven. So the Apostle, Hebrews 9:12. Once in the year Christ entered there; for the year in this legal sacrifice expresses the course and circuit of all times. So Rudolph.
Tropologically, in the person of the High Priest the whole Church of the elect, with her head Christ, is designated; for we also who live enter the Holy of Holies, that is, heaven, not yet in fact, but by hope, merit, desire and contemplation: the cloud signifies the humanity of Christ, or the depth of the divine vision. So Rudolph.
FOR I WILL APPEAR IN A CLOUD OVER THE ORACLE—over the propitiatory. Note: in the Holy of Holies, of the tabernacle as of the temple, there was no window, no lamp or light, and that out of reverence for the great mysteries which were in the Holy of Holies, which God therefore willed to be seen by no one, not even by the High Priest. Hence, because when the High Priest entered, and opened the doors or curtains, some light from the lamps burning in the Holy Place, or from the rays of the sun, was spread through these doors into the Holy of Holies, God for this reason commanded the High Priest to burn incense, in order to dim it, and by the smoke to bring a cloud of vapour over the whole place, so that he might see nothing, “that the cloud of incense might veil the sight of the holy things which the High Priest’s entrance had uncovered,” says Origen; and chiefly that the High Priest might not see the body of the angel speaking with him in God’s stead from the propitiatory or oracle. For though it is not certain, yet it is sufficiently probable that the angel speaking assumed a human body and voice; and this is proved, first, because these words signify it: “I will appear in a cloud over the oracle,” as if to say: Out of a thick cloud I will form for myself a body, and assume it and place it between the Cherubim over the ark, that from the propitiatory I may answer and pour forth oracles: for this reason, in turn, I will have that body covered with the smoke of the incense as with a cloud, that through it, as through a veil, I may appear and speak. Secondly, because it is more natural that a human voice should proceed from a human body than from pure air. Thirdly, because Ezechiel, chapter 1, saw God in human form seated upon the chariot of the Cherubim; and the like, indeed the same, was in the Cherubim of the Mosaic ark, as I said there. Fourthly, because God therefore willed the High Priest to enter the Holy of Holies with incense, that with its smoke he might cover this body of his, lest it be seen by the High Priest: for to hide the voice of God speaking there was no need of smoke; for a voice is not seen but heard, and God willed this voice of his to be heard. Fifthly, because for this reason, in Daniel 3:55, God is said to sit upon the Cherubim in the propitiatory, and to speak from thence (for to speak belongs to a human mouth and body; no one sitting speaks but a man), Exodus 25:22; Numbers 7:89, namely because this body, assumed by God, that is, by an angel sustaining the person of God, sat on the propitiatory, so that the ark was the footstool of his feet, Psalm 98:5. This is the opinion of Abulensis, question 22 on Exodus, of Villalpandus, book 4 On the Temple, chapter 34, and of others.
Cajetan, however, thinks the contrary, namely that God here did not assume a body, but appeared only through the cloud and the smoke of the incense: “To be seen in a cloud above the propitiatory,” he says, “is to be represented in the cloud of incense above the propitiatory.”
3. UNLESS HE FIRST DO THESE THINGS, HE SHALL OFFER A CALF FOR SIN, AND A RAM FOR A HOLOCAUST. “Before, etc., he shall offer”—partly by immolating, as the calf for sin: for he must carry its blood into the Holy of Holies; partly by presenting to God, as the ram: for this ram was immolated as a holocaust not before, but after the High Priest’s entrance into the Holy of Holies and his coming out again.