Commentaria in Leviticum
14. HE SHALL TAKE ALSO OF THE BLOOD OF THE CALF, AND SPRINKLE IT WITH HIS FINGER SEVEN TIMES TOWARD THE PROPITIATORY—toward the propitiatory (for the blood here did not touch or reach the propitiatory itself, as Abulensis rightly observes). The reason was not that the propitiatory had sinned, but that it seemed as it were polluted and contaminated by the sins of the people, in the midst of whom it was, committed throughout the year; that this pollution might be removed, the priest and the people, who had given the cause of the pollution, gave the blood of the goat and of the calf for their own blood, of which, as of death, they were guilty. This expiation was made not at the altar of holocausts, because that was expiated by the daily sacrifices; but at the altar of incense, and in the Holy of Holies: which two, as most holy, most of all represented God, who had been offended and was to be appeased.
TO THE EAST—that is, toward the front part of the propitiatory, which met him first as he entered; for that, in respect of the hinder part, was to the east, as the Holy of Holies consequently was to the west. Hence, speaking absolutely, the priest made the expiation in the posture in which the Jews prayed, namely turned to the west, that is, turned to the Holy of Holies, which was to the west; yet it is here said to expiate “toward” or rather “against the east,” not of the world but of the propitiatory, that is, against or toward the front part of the propitiatory: for this looked to the east and was turned toward it. So Cajetan, Abulensis, Vatablus.
Allegorically, this blood is sprinkled seven times toward the propitiatory, to signify that by the blood and death of Christ, divine propitiation intervening, the sevenfold grace of Christ is conferred on the faithful, by which they enter heaven: so it is sprinkled toward the east, that is, toward Christ, who has bestowed on us the light of justice, that being now changed we may hear the Apostle, Ephesians 5: “You were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord.” So Rudolph.
15. AND WHEN HE HATH KILLED THE GOAT FOR THE SIN OF THE PEOPLE, HE SHALL BRING IN ITS BLOOD WITHIN THE VEIL,—namely into the Holy of Holies; “he shall bring in,” to wit, together with the blood of the calf, of which verses 11 and 14: for otherwise the pontiff would have had to enter the Holy of Holies twice on the same day, whereas that was allowed only once.
Allegorically, Christ by the blood of the calf, that is, of himself, and by the blood of the goat, that is, by the mortification and penance of the people, expiates the sanctuary, not as though it were unclean in itself, but to signify that the sanctification of the life to come is to be acquired by present contrition, says Rudolph.
17. LET NO MAN BE IN THE TABERNACLE WHEN THE HIGH PRIEST GOETH INTO THE SANCTUARY.—“In the tabernacle,” that is, in the first part of the tabernacle, which is called the Holy Place: for into the Holy of Holies it was never lawful for any but the High Priest to enter. It is commanded here, then, that none of the other priests be in the Holy Place at the time when the High Priest enters the Holy of Holies, out of reverence for the majesty of God, and lest the other priests in the Holy Place should be able to hear God speaking to the High Priest from the Holy of Holies.
Allegorically, all the disciples of Christ in his Passion (through which he entered into the Holy of Holies)... again scarcely any of the others then took care of his own salvation. So Hesychius and Rudolph.
Note: the tabernacle signifies the whole sanctuary, consisting of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies; yet by synecdoche it signifies now one, now the other part; for at times the several parts are called the tabernacle; hence the tabernacle is taken in four ways: first, for the court of the tabernacle together with the tabernacle itself; secondly, for the whole tabernacle, the court excluded; thirdly, for the Holy Place, as it is taken here; fourthly, for the Holy of Holies, as it is taken in the preceding verse 16. So Abulensis.
18. AND WHEN HE IS COME OUT TO THE ALTAR (of incense) THAT IS BEFORE THE LORD (the propitiatory, on which the Lord sits), LET HIM PRAY FOR HIMSELF—and for the whole people, as was said before: for this was one common expiation for all. So Abulensis (1).
20. AFTER HE HAS CLEANSED THE SANCTUARY (the Holy of Holies) AND THE TABERNACLE—that is, the Holy Place, which is expiated by this, that the altar of incense situated in it is expiated, by the rite already prescribed in the preceding verse.
Tropologically, the Holy of Holies signified heaven; the Holy Place, the perfect men of this life: hence the altar of incense, which was in the Holy Place, signified the saints given to contemplation and to heavenly things; the court signified the common life of the laity, as I said on Exodus 26, near the beginning. The court, therefore, was expiated daily, because on the altar of holocausts, which was in the court, sacrifice was offered daily: for the imperfect, because of frequent falls, need frequent and as it were continual penance. But the Holy Place was expiated once a year, because the perfect, though they seem to live blamelessly, yet ought not to depart this life without penance, as St. Augustine taught and showed by his own example, witness Possidius in his Life, and St. Fulgentius, whose cry in his sickness was: “Lord, give me patience here now, and afterwards pardon.” The Holy of Holies, finally, was expiated, because heaven is opened by penance. So nearly Rudolph. This is what Abbot Menas said in John Moschus, Spiritual Meadow, chapter 159: “All ought to do penance, young and old, that they may deserve to enjoy eternal life with glory and praise: the young, because in the flower of their age, when concupiscence is hot, they have put their neck under the yoke of chastity; the old, because they have been able to turn to better things the anticipation of evils grown habitual to them through many years.”
20 and 21. THEN LET HIM OFFER THE LIVING GOAT, AND LAYING BOTH HANDS UPON HIS HEAD, LET HIM CONFESS ALL THE INIQUITIES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AND ALL THEIR OFFENCES AND SINS: AND PRAYING THAT THEY MAY LIGHT ON HIS HEAD, HE SHALL TURN HIM OUT BY A MAN READY FOR IT, INTO THE DESERT.—This is the emissary goat, upon whom the priest imprecated the sins of the people, not as guilt (for this cannot be done), but that the punishment might pass from the people to the goat; the punishment, I mean, with which God was wont here in this life to afflict the people in common for sins: for otherwise the penalties to be paid in full by each sinner individually, either here, or in Purgatory or hell, remained and were still due, nor did this ceremony remove any of them. So Abulensis.
The Jews relate, or rather fable, that the High Priest on this day also poured forth other prayers, and asked, first, good and prosperous times; secondly, that the sceptre be not taken away from the tribe of Juda; thirdly, that none in the people be in want; fourthly, that God would not hear the foolish prayers of private men which are harmful to the common good, as travellers wish and ask for fair weather when perhaps rain is more fitting for the land and the common good. Oleaster relates these things.
21. BY A MAN READY FOR IT.—The Hebrew is, he shall send him away by the hand of a man itti, that is, of the time, namely one ready for it at this time. So the Septuagint, the Chaldee and our version. Oleaster translates otherwise: “by a man of the time,” he says, “that is, by an old man, or one long versed in the wilderness.” INTO THE DESERT—where this emissary goat is torn by wild beasts, and thus as an atonement pays the penalties due for the sins of the people and transferred to it. So also the Gentiles sacrificed to Pan, the god of shepherds who dwell in deserts, a goat, which was driven to a cave in which Pan himself was thought to lodge, as Lucian teaches.
Tropologically, the priest confesses the sins of the people over the head of the emissary goat, because the elect ought to confess that they too were by nature children of wrath, and worthy to suffer the like, had not grace come to their aid: and so they sing for ever the mercies of the Lord, and say: “It is the mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed,” and, “Unless the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we had been as Sodom.” Again the High Priest imprecated the sins of the people on the head of the goat, because Christ prays that the wrath of divine indignation, to which even the elect were liable, being by grace remitted to them, may be turned back upon the head of the reprobate alone, not that they may suffer anything beyond their desert, but that they alone may bear the common guilt. The man leading this goat into the wilderness is likewise Christ, who on the day of judgment will say to the reprobate: “Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.”
So Rudolph. Wretched and horrible will be the lot of these; for as the flesh of all corpses is food for worms, so the life of damned souls will be the food of death, and that for ever. Again, as an ox crops the grass in the meadows, not tearing it up from the root, where its life is, but cropping and cutting it piecemeal, so the soul placed in those infinite pains is torn by a perpetual, as it were vulture’s, bite without consumption of its substance, but is not consumed.