Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter 14. Synopsis of the chapter
Moses repeats the law concerning clean and unclean animals, of which Leviticus xi. Secondly, vers. 22, besides the first tithes, commanded in Numbers xviii, he orders second tithes to be given, and third, vers. 28.
1. Be ye children of the Lord your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make baldness for the dead. 2. Because thou art a holy people to the Lord thy God, and he chose thee to be his peculiar people of all nations that are upon the earth. 3. Eat not the things that are unclean. 4. These are the beasts which you may eat: the ox, and the sheep, and the goat, 5. the hart and the roe, the buffalo, the chamois, the pygarg, the origen, the camelopard. 6. Of all beasts that divide the hoof and chew the cud, you shall eat: 7. but of them that chew the cud, and divide not the hoof, as the camel, the hare, the cherogrillus: those shall be unclean to you, because they chew the cud and divide not the hoof. 8. The swine also, because he divideth the hoof, and cheweth not the cud, shall be unclean. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. 9. These things you shall eat of all that abide in the waters: such as have fins and scales, eat ye; 10. such as have not fins and scales, eat ye not, because they are unclean. 11. Eat ye all clean birds. 12. But the unclean you shall not eat: the eagle, the griffon, and the osprey, 13. the ixion, the vulture, and the kite according to their kind; 14. and all that is of the raven’s kind; 15. and the ostrich, and the owl, and the larus, and the hawk according to their kind; 16. the heron and the swan, and the ibis, 17. and the diver, and the porphyrion, and the nycticorax, 18. the onocrotalus, and the charadrius, each in their kind: the hoopoe also and the bat. 19. And all that creepeth and hath wings shall be unclean, and shall not be eaten. 20. Of all that is clean, eat ye. 21. But whatsoever is dead of itself, eat not thereof. Give it to the stranger that is within thy gates, to eat, or sell it to him: because thou art the holy people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of its dam. 22. Thou shalt separate the tithe of all thy increase, that the ground bringeth forth year by year, 23. and thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose, that his name may be called upon there, the tithe of thy corn, and of thy wine, and of thy oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and thy sheep: that thou mayst learn to fear the Lord thy God at all times. 24. And when the way is long, and the place which the Lord thy God shall choose is far off, and the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, and thou canst not carry all these things thither, 25. thou shalt sell all, and turn it into money, and shalt carry it in thy hand, and shalt go to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; 26. and thou shalt buy with the same money whatsoever thy soul desireth, whether oxen, or sheep, wine also and strong drink, and whatsoever thy soul wisheth for: and thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, and shalt feast, thou and thy household, 27. and the Levite that is within thy gates: beware thou leave him not, because he hath no other part in thy possession. 28. The third year thou shalt separate another tithe of all things that grow to thee at that time, and shalt lay it up within thy gates. 29. And the Levite that hath no other part nor possession with thee, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat, and be filled: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the works of thy hands that thou shalt do.
Vers. 1.—1. BE YE CHILDREN OF THE LORD YOUR GOD—conduct yourselves as sons of God; worship and adore God as an eternal and supreme Father, and obey him in all things.
NOR MAKE ANY BALDNESS.—In the Hebrew: you shall not put baldness between your eyes for the dead; that is, says Vatablus, when one of your friends has departed this life, you shall not shave the front part of the head, which is between your eyes, as the Gentiles do, who have no hope of a future life and of the resurrection. See what is said on Leviticus xix, 28. For the Jews still believe in the immortality of the soul and a future life; hence they themselves pray for the dead, as is plain from their Creed, which Genebrard recites in his Chronology. Moreover, the Jews still observe this funeral rite to this day. First, when anyone has died, his nearer friends presently rend their garments, and eat not on that day in that house, but outside. Secondly, they eat no flesh and drink no wine, unless it be the sabbath. Thirdly, during the seven days of mourning they neither wash the body nor anoint themselves with ointments. Fourthly, they spread their bed on the floor and abstain from marital relations. Fifthly, they follow the funeral barefoot, and light a lamp on the floor of the house for seven nights, because they believe that the soul of the deceased returns to the place where it departed from the body and bewails its dissolution. Sixthly, they say a prayer in which they ask that the soul of the deceased may rest and be led into paradise.
5. THE PYGARG (TRAGELAPHUS)—that is, the goat-stag, is an animal born of a he-goat and a hind and mixed from them: not a fictitious one, as logicians take this name, but a true one and really existing, found at the river Phasis, having the beard and the shaggy hair of a he-goat, and in the rest resembling a stag. So Pliny, book viii, chap. xxxiii. The Hebrews think it to be a wild goat. The tragelaphus therefore, as well as the pygarg and the oryx, were clean animals, on which the Jews might feed.
THE PYGARG.—The pygarg here is not the eagle so called, of which Aristotle speaks; for all eagles are reckoned among the unclean birds, Leviticus xi, 13; but the pygarg here is accounted a clean animal. The Chaldee thinks it to be the unicorn; it is more truly a kind of goat, like the fallow-deer, of which Pliny speaks.
THE WILD GOAT (ORYX).—The oryx is an animal born in Gaetulia, cloven-footed and one-horned, otherwise not unlike a goat, having the hair, contrary to the nature of other animals, turned toward the head; at the rising of the dog-star, as if perceiving the coming of that star, it gazes with fixed eyes at the quarter of the sky where this sign first rises, and on beholding it sneezes and, as it were, worships it with reverence. So Pliny, book ii, chap. xl, and book viii, chap. liii, and Columella, book x.
THE CAMELOPARDALUS.—This was a clean animal, and therefore different from the camel, which was unclean. The camelopardalus, then, is an animal with the height of a camel, the colour of a panther, marked with spots, with a slender neck, a head like a camel’s, and feet and legs like an ox’s. So Pliny, book viii, chap. xviii, and Dio.
Tropologically, the camelopardalus is a symbol of the changeable man and the hypocrite. For as it resembles the horse in its neck, the ox in its feet, the camel in its head, the tiger or the leopard in its spots, so some men, unequal to themselves, put on various shapes of men: if you look at their dress, you would think them some holy person; if you hear their speech, you would think a nobleman speaking; if you weigh their life, you will find a good-for-nothing; if their writings, a herdsman. Thus some are angels in the church, devils in the market-place and the court, men in conversation, wolves at table, Venuses in their chambers.
But because the camelopardalus was a clean animal, you may more fitly take by it a versatile and agreeable man, who, as far as is lawful, adapts himself to the manners and tempers of all, and knows how to turn himself to every side and shape; such was Ulysses, whom Homer therefore calls the man of many turns. So St. Paul became all things to all men, that he might gain all: hence with the Jews he observed the legal rites, with the Gentiles he lived as a Gentile.
Vers. 13. 13. THE IXION.—It is a bird of the vulture kind; hence Leviticus xi passed it over in silence, and Moses understood and forbade it under the vultures. In Hebrew it is called raah, from seeing, because it excels in sharpness of eyesight. So Vatablus and Abulensis. The other animals, clean and unclean, are explained on Leviticus xi.
GIVE IT TO THE STRANGER, ETC., TO EAT.—By the stranger understand a Gentile remaining in heathenism; for he was not bound by the Jewish laws, and therefore could eat unclean animals. It was otherwise with a Gentile proselyte, that is, one converted to Judaism; for he was bound by the Jewish law, and consequently by abstinence from unclean foods. So Abulensis.
Vers. 22.—22. THOU SHALT SEPARATE THE TITHE OF ALL THY INCREASE.—From this place and from Josephus, Theodoret (here, Question xiii), Abulensis, Oleaster and Cajetan gather that two kinds of tithes were prescribed to the Jews every year. The first were of all the fruits of the earth, of flocks and herds, which were given wholly to the Levites; and they were not carried to Jerusalem, but the Levites, to whom they belonged, gathered them through the neighbouring cities; and from these tithes the Levites again paid a tenth to the high priest and the priests, as is plain from Numbers xviii, 26 and 28. For there the question is of these first tithes.
The second tithes were those which the Hebrews separated every year, after the first tithing already mentioned, taking a tenth from the nine parts left to them, so that from it, when going up to the tabernacle (which had to be done three times a year, as is plain from Exodus xxiii, 17, and chap. xxxiv, 23), they might partly live on the journey and partly offer peace-offerings, of which they ate before the Lord, together with the Levites, whom they invited to feast with them. What I have said of these tithes, I say also of the first-fruits: for after the first-fruits that were given wholly to the Lord, each one set apart something for himself as second first-fruits, which he might use when going up to the Lord. The same I say of the firstborn of sheep and oxen, namely, that after the firstborn given to God, the Hebrews set apart another animal for a peace-offering; the same I say of vows and gifts. Of these second tithes, then, the law here speaks, down to vers. 28; of them it also treated in chap. xii, 17.
The third tithes were those which were separated every third year and given to the poor, widows, orphans and Levites by way of alms, lest in the third year they should be forced by poverty to serve the Gentiles, by whom they might easily be led to idolatry.
Of these third tithes it is treated in vers. 28, where it is said: “In the third year thou shalt separate another tithe.” Whence it is plain that this was not the same tithe as the first, as though the tithes which for two years belonged properly to the Levites were ordered in the third year to be common to the poor as well as to the Levites, as some will have it; but that it was another, namely a third: for so the Interpreter renders it. So of Tobias it is said, chap. i, vers. 7, that “in the third year he gave all the tithes to the proselytes and strangers.” If the Jews gave threefold tithes, why should not Christians give single and simple tithes to God? If the Jews with their tithes nourished their poor, why should not Christians do the same? I have known men great in the commonwealth who give to the poor the tithes of their wealth, nay of all their gain, and think themselves in a manner bound to it by the law of charity and religion.
Excellently says Nyssen, in his book On the Beatitudes: “If the name of the merciful becomes God, to what other end does the word of Christ exhort thee, but that thou mayest become a god, as one marked with the proper sign of the Godhead?” And Nazianzen, in his oration On the Love of the Poor: “Be a god to the afflicted, by imitating the mercy of God.” And Chrysostom, homily 3 to the people: “It is better to know this art of giving alms than to be a king. For this builds houses in heaven that remain for ever; this teaches how thou mayest become like to God.” And homily 36: “A great thing is man, and precious is the merciful man. This is a greater grace than to raise the dead: for here thou dost deserve well of Christ; there, he of thee: for miracles thou owest to God.”
Hear a rare example concerning these tithes, which Eugippius relates in the Life of St. Severinus, Apostle of the Noricans, chap. xvii, and which happened about the year of our Lord 415. The citizens of Lauriacum, admonished by St. Severinus to give tithes to the poor, had put off doing it, and therefore blight fell upon their crops, otherwise fair; they, returning to their hearts, confessed their fault and begged pardon of St. Severinus, who answered them: “If you had offered tithes to the poor, you would not only enjoy an eternal reward, but would also abound in present comforts; but since you chastise your fault by your own confession, I promise, from the goodness of the Lord, that the present blight, though so strong, will not harm you; only let your faith waver no more.” Then he exhorted them to proclaim a fast, at the end of which a gentle rain removed the damage to the despaired-of harvest. So far Eugippius, disciple of St. Severinus and eyewitness of the event.
Nay, even now the more religious Jews, though they have no temple, priests or Levites, still give a tenth penny of all their goods to the poor, and have this proverb:
God promised through Malachias, chap. iii, vers. 10, and it is true.