Commentaria in Leviticum
Chapter 17
God commands that the Jews sacrifice not to the demon but to himself alone, and that not in the field but only in the tabernacle; secondly, verse 10, he forbids them the eating of blood and of carcasses.
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2. Speak to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: This is the word which the Lord hath commanded, saying: 3. Any man whosoever of the house of Israel, if he kill an ox, or a sheep, or a goat, in the camp or without the camp, 4. and hath not brought it to the door of the tabernacle, as an oblation to the Lord, shall be guilty of blood: as if he had shed blood, so shall he perish from the midst of his people. 5. Therefore the children of Israel must bring to the priest their sacrifices, which they kill in the field, that they may be sanctified to the Lord before the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, and sacrifice them as pacific victims to the Lord. 6. And the priest shall pour the blood upon the altar of the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, and shall burn the fat for a sweet savour to the Lord; 7. and they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to devils, with whom they have committed fornication. It shall be an ordinance for ever to them and to their posterity. 8. And thou shalt say to them: The man of the house of Israel, and of the strangers that sojourn among you, that offereth a holocaust or a sacrifice, 9. and bringeth it not to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, to be offered to the Lord, that man shall perish from among his people. 10. Any man whatsoever of the house of Israel, and of the strangers that sojourn among them, if he eat blood, I will set my face against his soul, and will cut him off from among his people, 11. because the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you, that you may make atonement with it upon the altar for your souls, and the blood may be for an expiation of the soul. 12. Therefore I have said to the children of Israel: No soul of you shall eat blood, nor of the strangers that sojourn among you. 13. Any man whatsoever of the children of Israel, and of the strangers that sojourn among you, if by hunting or fowling he take a wild beast or a bird, which is lawful to eat, let him pour out its blood, and cover it with earth. 14. For the life of all flesh is in the blood: therefore I said to the children of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any flesh at all, because the life of the flesh is in the blood, and whosoever eateth it shall be cut off. 15. The soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was taken by a beast, whether he be one of your own country or a stranger, shall wash his clothes and himself with water, and shall be defiled until the evening: and in this manner he shall be made clean. 16. But if he do not wash his clothes and his body, he shall bear his iniquity.
3 and 4. ANY MAN WHATSOEVER OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, IF HE KILL AN OX, OR A SHEEP, OR A GOAT, IN THE CAMP OR WITHOUT THE CAMP... whoever has killed and sacrificed a sheep, ox or goat outside the tabernacle is guilty of death.
WITHOUT THE CAMP, AND HAS NOT BROUGHT IT TO THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE AS AN OBLATION TO THE LORD, SHALL BE GUILTY OF BLOOD.—Some take this of any slaughter, not only for sacrifice but also for food, as if God here commanded that butchers and other private persons who kill oxen, sheep and goats for eating should kill them nowhere but in the tabernacle, and should not kill them unless they had first offered them to the Lord. Theodoret seems to mean this, saying that the Jewish High Priest by this law still sacrifices their edible animals (1). But in that case the High Priest would truly have been a butcher, and the tabernacle a slaughterhouse. Add that it would have been impossible, in so great a multitude of Jews, for all the sheep, oxen and goats which were killed throughout all Judea (for those killed at Jerusalem, where the temple was, were on a different footing, as I shall say on Deuteronomy 12:21) to be brought to Jerusalem, and there slain in the temple, and afterwards carried home to the other cities. Wherefore it is certain and clear that the slaughter here in question is not for food, but only for sacrifice; for the subject here is the immolation of victims, as is plain from the following verse. The sense, then, is as if he said: Whoever sacrifices outside the tabernacle is guilty of death. Allegorically, the tabernacle is the Church, outside of which no sacrifice, or even martyrdom, can please God. So Rudolph.
4. HE SHALL BE GUILTY OF BLOOD (as if to say: he shall be guilty of death, that is, he shall be punished with death by the judge, if the matter is established; if the matter is hidden, he will be punished by God. Hence it follows), AS IF HE HAD SHED BLOOD, SO SHALL HE PERISH FROM THE MIDST OF HIS PEOPLE—as if to say: He shall be put to death just as a homicide is put to death. Because of this law the Israelites prepared war against the Rubenites, who had erected another altar.
5. THEREFORE (lest they become guilty of blood and death) THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MUST BRING TO THE PRIEST THEIR SACRIFICES (you see that only victims and sacrifices are in question here, as I said on verse 3), WHICH THEY KILL IN THE FIELD—that is, which, after the manner of other nations, they are wont to kill and immolate in the field, and that not to God but to demons, as is said in verse 7; or which they would otherwise kill and immolate in the field, if this law did not forbid it.
(that they may be offered and consecrated) TO THE LORD BEFORE THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE OF THE TESTIMONY, AND SACRIFICE (not, then, already killed or sacrificed, but these victims were wont to be sacrificed in the field) THEM AS PACIFIC VICTIMS TO THE LORD. Under pacific understand holocausts also, and victims for sin. Yet he names only the pacific here: for such were generally sacrificed to demons, because pacific offerings were easier to make and because a great part of them went to the offerers for a feast. Hence God, to invite the Jews to himself and his sacrifices, proposes and names to them here only the pacific.
6. AND THE PRIEST SHALL POUR THE BLOOD UPON THE ALTAR—round about the altar, as is plain from chapter 3, verse 2.
7. AND THEY SHALL NO MORE SACRIFICE THEIR SACRIFICES TO DEVILS, WITH WHOM THEY HAVE COMMITTED FORNICATION—“to devils,” that is, to satyrs, says Vatablus. For to these suits the Hebrew word seirim, which is derived from sear, that is, hair. Hence it properly signifies those who are hairy and shaggy, like goats; for in such shape and form demons of old appeared in woods, fields and mountains: and these are the Fauns and Satyrs, to whom the Gentiles sacrificed in such places, which God here forbids the Jews. WITH WHOM THEY HAVE COMMITTED FORNICATION—that is, to whom they have adhered and sacrificed. Note: idolatry in Scripture is called fornication, and idolaters are said to fornicate with idols, because the Jews, having forsaken the true God, their spouse, give themselves to the love and worship of another, namely the demon. Hence it is plain that the Jews before these times, when they were still in Egypt, worshipped idols and sacrificed to demons; the same is plain from Ezechiel chapter 16, verse 22 and following.
10. ANY MAN WHATSOEVER OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL (a Jewish man) AND OF THE STRANGERS (of the Gentiles converted to Judaism, or proselytes; for these are everywhere in the Pentateuch called strangers) THAT SOJOURN (in Hebrew gar, that is, who dwell) AMONG THEM (as strangers and sojourners), IF HE EAT BLOOD, I WILL SET MY FACE AGAINST HIS SOUL, AND WILL CUT HIM OFF FROM AMONG HIS PEOPLE—namely I will slay him, and punish him with a swift death in this life, and reprobate him in the next, so that he shall not be reckoned, nor be, among the people of his father Abraham, nor in the company of the saints: but I will set him among the uncircumcised and aliens, says Hesychius, and consequently among the reprobate and damned; for thus on the contrary Abraham is said to be gathered to his people, Genesis 25:8; and Isaac, Genesis 35:29; and Jacob, Genesis 49:32. The eating of blood is forbidden here to the Jews under pain of death and damnation (as is plain from verse 4), for the reason which God subjoins, saying:
11. BECAUSE THE LIFE OF THE FLESH IS IN THE BLOOD.—Not as though the blood itself were animated, or informed by a soul, and so were in itself alive and lived: for this the Philosophers refute; but the sense is as if he said: Because the soul, and consequently the life of the flesh, that is, of the animal, consists chiefly and is preserved in the blood, as in its disposition and vehicle, in that the blood above the other humours furnishes and fosters the natural heat and radical moisture, and forms and supplies the vital spirits: for as oil feeds the fire in a lamp, so blood feeds life, says St. Augustine, question 57 (1).
Again, because visible blood signifies the invisible soul: so the same St. Augustine, soon to be cited. The sense, then, is as if he said: I forbid you the eating of blood, because the life of the animal is in the blood: and I will that you eat not life, lest you learn to take away the life of any one, and that I may keep you further from cruelty.
Thirdly, because, as follows, by the blood of victims expiation is made for your souls: since, therefore, blood is as it were sacred to me, I will that, out of reverence for me, you abstain from all blood whatever, even that not offered in sacrifice. See what I said on chapter 7, verse 27. For this cause also, says Theodoret, question 23, God forbade the Jews the eating of carcasses, because the blood was not separated from them; which understand of carcasses dead of themselves: for otherwise other carcasses also, indeed all dead bodies, were forbidden to the Jews, for example those that lay cast away in the fields after being slain and killed, in which this reason of Theodoret has no place, since by the slaying their blood was poured out.
Tropologically, blood is hidden cupidity, flesh is vice, because from cupidity every vice is born and lives; a carcass is the external work proceeding from it. “Blood,” says Rudolph, “signifies carnal appetite: but God discerns not only what I do, but also what I desire; before, then, we do anything evil outwardly, if we have drunk blood, if we have conceived iniquity in the heart, alienated from God in mind we incur his enmity, which is to eat blood.”
Wherefore that abbot in the Lives of the Fathers, chapter On Fornication, said prudently: “The thought of fornication is fragile, like papyrus. If, therefore, it is cast upon us, and we, not consenting, cast it from us, it is easily broken; for those who consent to it, there is no hope of salvation; but for those who do not consent, a crown is laid up.” The best remedy against concupiscence, therefore, is, as soon as you perceive it, to shake it off generously, and to turn mind and eyes elsewhere. Hence Abbot Hyperichius truly said: “As the lion is terrible to wild asses, so a tried monk is to the thoughts of concupiscence.”
With blood you appeased the winds, and with a slain virgin, when first you Danaans came to the Ilian shores; with blood must your return be sought, and with an Argive soul must you make atonement.
On which place Servius says: “It seems that with skill in Pontifical law he made mention of the animal victim; for he said ‘soul,’ and used the pontifical word ‘to atone,’ for that which is: to appease the gods by sacrifices.”
13. IF BY HUNTING OR FOWLING HE TAKE A WILD BEAST OR A BIRD.—The Jews do not seem, says Abulensis, to have hunted with dogs, because if dogs in the chase had killed or torn the wild beast, it could not have been eaten, according to the law of Exodus 22, last verse: they hunted, therefore, with nets, pits, spears and arrows. But this about dogs does not seem true; for that law of Exodus 22 does not speak of dogs, but of beasts of the field (that is, wild beasts), as the Chaldee, the Septuagint and our version have it. What was taken and torn by a wild beast the Jews could not eat; they could, however, eat what was taken by a dog.
14. FOR THE LIFE OF ALL FLESH IS IN THE BLOOD.—The Hebrew is, the soul of all flesh is its blood, not that the soul is properly the blood itself, as some Philosophers wished, witness Aristotle, book 1 On the Soul; but this must be taken causally and concomitantly, as if to say: The life of all flesh is caused, sustained and declared by the blood. Hence the Hebrew goes on: the blood is (reputed) for the soul, so that if you take it away, you take away soul and life. Hear St. Augustine, book 2 Against the Adversary of the Law and the Prophets, chapter 6: “It was said thus,” he says, “‘The soul of all flesh is its blood,’ as it was said, ‘The rock was Christ’: namely not because it was that, but because it signified it; and not in vain did the law wish to signify the soul, an invisible thing, by blood, a visible thing, because the blood, diffused through all the veins from the heart itself, holds first place in our body above the other humours: so that wherever a wound is inflicted, not another humour but blood itself comes forth: so also the soul, because it prevails invisibly over all things of which we consist, is better signified by that which prevails visibly over all things of which we consist.” Add that from the blood are made the vital and animal spirits, as physicians teach. The blood, therefore, serves the spirit, the spirit the senses, the senses reason.
15. THE SOUL THAT EATETH THAT WHICH DIED OF ITSELF, OR THAT WHICH WAS TAKEN BY A BEAST—torn and first tasted by some wild beast: for so our version translates, and the Septuagint and the Chaldee, Exodus 22:31. But because ordinarily what wild beasts take they tear and eat, hence “taken by a beast” is the same as torn and first tasted by a beast.
SHALL WASH HIS CLOTHES—if ignorantly he ate any such thing (for if he had eaten knowingly, he would have been more heavily punished); moreover he shall offer the sacrifice prescribed in chapter 4, verse 27.
AND IN THIS MANNER HE SHALL BE MADE CLEAN.—The Hebrew is, and he shall be clean, these ceremonies, namely, which I have here prescribed, having been performed.
OR HIS BODY, HE SHALL BEAR HIS INIQUITY—that is, he shall bear and pay the punishment of his iniquity and disobedience; and if he omitted this expiation of himself through forgetfulness, he shall offer the sacrifice ordained in chapter 5, verse 2; and hence God is said to transfer the sin to the victim, when he remits the punishment of sin to the offerer and transfers it to the victim: but if he omitted it knowingly, he has sinned gravely, nor will he be expiated by sacrifice, but by penance and satisfaction made to God.
Tropologically, the beasts are demons and men of bestial manners, strangers to the worship of piety. Those taken by a beast are those who have been deceived by them and driven to sin. Such are not to be eaten, that is, imitated, but rebuked; if it happen that any one eat, that is, imitate, let him wash his garments and flesh, that is, purge himself by penance and amendment of life; and he shall be unclean until evening, because until the heat of temptation has cooled he cannot obtain full cleansing of himself: if he do not wash himself and amend, he will not escape the punishment he has deserved. So Rudolph.
Prudently did that abbot in the Lives of the Fathers, in the treatise On Sobriety, say that there are three forerunners of Satan, namely forgetfulness, negligence and concupiscence. “For,” he says, “if forgetfulness comes, it begets negligence; and from negligence concupiscence is born; and by concupiscence man falls. But if the mind is so sober that it rejects forgetfulness, it does not come to negligence; and if it does not neglect, it does not admit concupiscence; but if it does not admit concupiscence, it will never fall, by the help of the grace of Christ.” And Abbot Achilles, being asked:
“How do demons fight against us?” answered: “Through our wills: for the wood is the soul; the axe, the devil; the handle is our will. By our evil wills, then, we are cut down.” And Abbot Pimenius: “The demons,” he said, “do not fight with us, because we do their wills; but our wills have become demons to us, and trouble us.” Ibid., book 7, chapter 25.
Most true is that saying of St. Ambrose, On the Happy Life: “There is no reason to ascribe our misery to anything but the will. Christ chooses for himself a willing soldier; the devil auctions to himself a willing servant. He holds no one bound with the yoke of slavery, unless one has first sold himself to him for the price of sins.”
Note: the devil is aptly called a beast and wild animal; for first, as St. Peter says: “He, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour”; secondly, because, as St. Basil says, as the leopard so rages against man that, if it sees even his painted image, it tears and rends it, so the devil, since he cannot harm God, whom he hates, pursues his image, namely man. Thirdly, the author of On the Simplicity of Prelates, in St. Cyprian:
“The devil,” he says, “is called a serpent, because he creeps in secretly, because, deceiving under the image of peace, he crawls by hidden approaches (whence he received the name of serpent); such is his cunning, such the blind and laborious deceit of circumventing man, that he seems to assert night for day, poison for health, despair under the pretext of hope, perfidy under the pretext of faith, Antichrist under the name of Christ; so that, while he feigns plausible things, he baffles truth by subtlety. For he transforms himself into an angel of light.” Fourthly, St. Martin, witness Sulpicius in his Life: “going to visit the diocese of Cordova, with his disciples, saw divers fishing in a river, pursuing the prey of the fishes, and urging their ravenous gluttony with continual catches. Then he said: This is the likeness of demons, who lie in wait for the incautious, catch the unwary, devour the caught, and can never be satisfied with what they have devoured.”