On Distinctions of Foods and the Heifer in Leviticus

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

Yet whether it is demons or some other cause that lays trials upon us, we are not afraid, since we have a helper, our Lord Jesus Christ. For even if we suffer punishment in this life for earlier sins, we ought to rejoice, since the judgment there will then be light for us. Or, like those holy men, we are being tested, to see whether we stand strong and manly against sufferings, and so that our faith may be made known; for one who has not been tested is useless to God. So we ought to rejoice and praise God, since he has made us worthy to taste those sufferings. For it is no small request that the prophet makes when he asks for the contest of the afflicted, saying: "Test me, Lord, and try me; refine my kidneys and my heart." And the apostle Paul too says: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." So profitable, I think, are these sufferings. Otherwise he would not also have written of those men: "They were stoned, they were sawn in two," and the rest that follows. Nor, writing to Timothy, would he have said: "Those who live godly lives in Christ will be persecuted." For it is good that one disciplined by God should not grow weak, so that our spiritual "limbs" too may not "fall," as with that unbelieving people. Because they would not follow the angel (or "messenger"), on account of the hard road, those unhappy people did not reach the land of promise; they turned away from God because of slight hardship, and so they received blows, their "limbs being scattered." Therefore let this not be a reproach to us, and let no one separate us from the love of wisdom because of hardship or any other cause.

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

For it will come about, when we have traveled through this life and suffered no harm from spiritual beasts, that we shall say: "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he looked upon me," and "He delivered me from all my sufferings." For one must first suffer and then be honored. A farmer does not wish the seed to sprout before he yokes the oxen and plows; he hopes rather that this will come after the work. And if I come to sailors, do we not admire most a rough helmsman who is capable and has saved the ship out of many storms? Whoever wishes to taste God's great gifts must also accept much suffering. Among contestants too, "all run, but one receives the prize; so run that you may obtain it," Paul cries out. For there are many obstacles to speed, like ditches and ramparts for a runner, which the weak man who does not know the road fears; but the experienced and strong man endures the bad journey and is saved. Why else is there so great a remembrance, through so many ages, of Joseph, who loved the good, was self-controlled, and loved his brothers? If you take away from him all that endurance, his sale by his brothers and that woman's slander, you take away all his manliness and beauty. So too with David: if you take away his gentleness and patience, you take away all his goodness. And Daniel: if you take away his wisdom, or his endurance of that Bel and the dragon, and of men more savage than the dragon, and of the burning furnaces and the many other sufferings … And Moses: what do we admire most in him? Is it not his patience? If you take all that away, you take away his virtue. Take other heroes, I mean Elijah and Jeremiah and Isaiah and Elisha, who distinguished themselves and resisted those great tormentors, and their fasts and nakedness and every hardship. And the hardships of the apostles, where can one put them aside, since they traveled through the whole earth and sea?

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

Now that we have said this much on the subject, let us go on to the rest, having fully recognized that one ought not to be alarmed at the misfortunes that befall, especially those who have obtained the possession of the Word. For he says: "Open your mouth with the word of God." So, beloved Kilonia, who believe in the Lord (for from here on I speak to you), I rejoice greatly in your true wisdom. For this is the true wisdom that Solomon mentions: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God." Yet to many this seemed hard, for many trials come upon such people. I say this because a brother, writing to me, showed me the same: "All your afflictions and sufferings belong to the Lord, since you have received them for his name's sake." For this is the way for those who thirst for heavenly things and take pains for that possession. For even if that "way" is "narrow," it is also short, and it leads those who come to it into great breadth and light. For this is the order by which we receive eternal life and those crowns that do not wither. James too says: "Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has been tested he will receive the crown of life." And, to speak by the word of Christ, "what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" And this, since this life is very small and has nothing of what is true. David says: "The days of our years are seventy years, and if among the strong, eighty years, and most of them toil and trouble." Therefore choose to have affliction with the people of God. The people of God are those who have received the gift of the calling from above (or "to what is above"), and on account of receiving much affliction. So they have not heard what that rich man heard: "You received your good things in your life." For those "giants, the men of renown from of old," gained nothing by their strength and pride. As Jeremiah the prophet says: "But they perished, because they had no understanding."

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

But God grants us to know all that is pleasing to him. For "blessed are we," he says, "because what is pleasing to God is known to us." And what is pleasing to God is self-control. Self-control is to have a sober mind and not to be moved by the evil of stormy thoughts. Every transgression is a sickness of the soul; sickness does not mingle with the good as the good does, but it is healed by receiving the good. For righteousness is health, and unrighteousness sickness. So the soul and the spirit, if they do not endure the assaults that fall upon them, will not have a healthy and steady mind. Therefore the prophet too, teaching us manifold endurance, says: "You have tested us, O God; you have refined us as silver is refined," and again the same: "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he heeded me." So let us rather choose, as the apostle says, to remain "in labors, in insults, in afflictions, in persecutions, in distresses." For it will come about that, after we have endured this, we shall hear from the Lord what he said to Job: "Do you think that I have dealt with you otherwise than that you might appear righteous?" Therefore let us too, Kilonia, take pains to share in this voice. This can also be shown from plants. As plants strewn with dung grow larger and more beautiful and bear sweet and good fruit, so our soul too, when trial comes, grows more toward righteousness and every virtue. This is also said in the Gospel of that barren fig tree, for which the gardener asks that he may put dung around it. So Job too sat "on the dunghill" in the time of his trial, and sitting there he waited for the revelation. For patience in trials is a very great good. That man, despising everything earthly, sat on that dunghill as if in the emperor's palace. So, dear Kilonia, if riches flow away, enrich your heart with righteousness; and if loss of property comes upon us, or sicknesses attack us, or slanders, we must take heart. For even if we wish them to leave us, we shall not be able to drive them all away. So let us rather accept them all with patience. For "when we are judged we are disciplined by God, so that we may not be condemned with the world." "But you," says the apostle, writing to Timothy, "have followed my teaching, my life of virtue, faith, patience, love, gentleness," through persecution and sufferings. For I teach you with full knowledge that he did not speak this instruction to Timothy alone, but to all of us. For he bids us "set our minds on the things that are above."

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

We have now said enough about those who suffer "for righteousness' sake." Finally we must speak of the matter on which you sent to ask, namely the dead person who dies in a house. For this is how the word runs: "If a man dies in a house, whoever goes into the house and everything in the house is unclean until the seventh day, and every uncovered vessel is unclean. And he takes some of the burnt heifer and mixes it with water and purifies the vessel; and a clean man takes hyssop and dips it in the water to sprinkle the house and the vessels and the persons and everything that was in that house." "And the clean man sprinkles the unclean on the third and on the seventh day." "And the man who does not purify himself shall perish from his congregation, because he has defiled the holy things of God, since he has not been sprinkled with the water of sprinkling. Therefore he is not clean. And it shall be to you an everlasting sign. And he who sprinkles with the water of sprinkling shall wash his clothes. And the person who touches the water is unclean." It is necessary to understand that our Redeemer, in establishing this commandment, also ordained that it should not be understood simply. "He who has been washed," he said to Peter, "needs no other purification." For it is clear that one who has once been purified through rebirth is defiled by none of the things named in the Law, that is, by a dead body or a dead man's bone or anything else. For it is not right to wash "the outside of the vessel" and not care for the purity "of the inside," that is, of the soul. And the distinction of foods is abolished not only by the voice that came to Peter from heaven, saying: "What God has cleansed, do not make unclean," but also by what the Lord said to his disciples: "Not what goes into a man defiles the man, but what comes out of him." The voice that came to Peter can also be understood of foreigners, God commanding that no one be shut out from the faith. As the great Peter shows when he speaks to Cornelius: "You know well," he says, "how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to pray with a foreign man. And God has shown me to call no man unclean" who comes to the faith. So he destroyed the observance of foods not only by this, but also by what the Lord said. And so that we do not gradually go on into many words in declaring the Law set aside, come, let us reject it entirely, as the apostles did. For it is not right, they said, "that those who have come to believe should be put under the yoke which even our fathers were not able to bear." For "when a question arose" in the church, and people said, "Those who have come to believe must be circumcised" … for he says in the Acts: "The apostles and elders gathered to look into this matter. And Peter stood up and said to all: Men and brothers, you know that long ago God chose among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the gospel; and God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit." And shortly after: "James" said: "I judge that we should not trouble the Gentiles who turn to God, but write to them that they keep themselves from the uncleannesses of the Gentiles and of idols, and from sexual immorality and what is strangled and blood." And shortly after: "And it pleased the apostles, having chosen trustworthy men, to send to the Gentiles Paul and Barnabas and Silas and Judas called Barsabbas, having written by their hands as follows: The apostles and the elders, to the brotherhood in Antioch and Syria, greetings! Since we have heard that some who came from us have troubled you with words that we did not command them, it seemed good to us, having met together, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have given up their lives for the name of Jesus Christ." And shortly after: "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than that you abstain from everything offered to idols and from sexual immorality and what is strangled." The command of the Holy Spirit and of the apostles, that the Gentiles are not to be compelled to keep the Law of Moses, he speaks (or "is spoken") to those who look too carnally at the Law, which has the "washings of vessels" and "many other" observances.

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

Someone now asks why God did not let the Jews eat the other animals that other men eat, but commanded them to abstain from some, making a distinction between clean and unclean. If it is so that life may be pure and without share in evil that we do not eat meat, and also do not aim to live unjustly, since we are able to live on the fruits that the earth brings forth, then we act in no way according to justice when we slaughter for our enjoyment those creatures that have done us no wrong beforehand. Was it not enough for us to be served by them and to enjoy their labor? But even after such great services we drag them to slaughter, making their harm our enjoyment. But if God has permitted us to eat the animals, since he created them for our enjoyment, why do we not eat those that take no part in our service, but are rather a nuisance to us? For the oxen that plow, the cows that give milk, and the sheep that adorn us with their wool, these we slaughter and kill. And if anyone ate pork, he was purified under threat. Because of this we say that the Law was given by God with a view to redemption. For God commanded nothing useless, but did so to show the many the way to godliness, setting apart the Egyptian foods, and leading them rather to self-control, just as physicians often heal the sick by changing their food. For because of the fumes of idolatry they needed such a law at first, so that they might take on a body of customs and be tested as to what zeal they had for this law. For those who do not obey God "in little things" necessarily disobey all the more in greater things, while those who have obeyed in lesser things keep the greater as well. So God first gave laws about foods and sacrifices, and a law about other very simple matters, not unaware that "nothing that goes into a man" can "defile him," but wishing rather to teach our souls in the lesser things, so that they might be able to keep the more valuable fully. Just as teachers lead children to learning by writing out simple strokes for them, so did God. In place of strokes he gave the Law, so that, first instructed in it, they might advance to higher things. As Paul too declares, "the Law has the shadow of the good things to come," but not the image of the things themselves. A shadow does not have the true image of things; but an image portrays the form of that of which it is the image, and by its likeness shows what has not yet come as though it had come. What the shadow is to the image, then, the Law is to the gospel; and what the image is to the things themselves, the gospel is to what is to come.

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

Since this is so, these food laws too must be shadows "of the good things to come," which the gospel has uncovered and refined: not so much to care about foods and about what has a divided hoof, as about righteousness, spiritual food, and works of love for mankind. For what is a divided hoof there is here an active and rational life. And what is chewing the cud there is here understanding Scripture with understanding, so that we are not harmed by understanding Scripture only simply. Now the Law does not divide the animals only into clean and unclean; the rule about foods involves much mixture. See: the pig, inasmuch as it "does not chew the cud," is unclean; inasmuch as it "has a split in the hoof," it is clean. And the camel, inasmuch as it "does not have a split in its feet," is unclean; inasmuch as it "chews the cud," it is clean. Since they are clean in one respect and unclean in another, they are half clean and half unclean. Wholly unclean are those that neither have a split in the feet nor chew the cud; clean, in turn, are those that have both, the split and the chewing of the cud. So the pig is half clean, but the elephant is wholly unclean, because it neither chews the cud nor has split feet. Yet the Law commands one to beware of touching the bone of these and of any dead animal. How then is one defiled by the half-clean, but not defiled by the wholly unclean, the elephant? Instead, people use its bones and teeth and other parts, paying no heed to the commandments. How then does the prophet in the psalm make a house for Christ out of its bones? "From the ivory palace," he says, "from which the daughters of kings delighted you in your glory," although the Law commanded once for all not to touch the bone of such an animal. Do the Scriptures contradict each other, then, or do the prophets not agree with the Law? On the contrary, one should think otherwise. For the Scriptures of the Lord agree with themselves, sending us to the same knowledge and life and leading to one hope, especially when "the veil" of Scripture is lifted. It cannot be lifted except when we have turned to the Lord Jesus Christ; then "with unveiled face we shall behold" his "glory" preached through the scriptures of the Old Testament. He is not building him a house of elephants' teeth and gold; the prophet does not mean that, even though the Jews babble such things about Christ. For we know that the Godhead does not delight in dead bones made by human art, but in what is living and never corruptible. The ivory is the spiritual bodies in which he rejoices, seeing them without sin in the resurrection. So he called our bodies ivory, which, having become bright like ivory through good works, will receive the kingdom of God, God rejoicing in them, according to those who speak to the prophets: "I rejoiced in those who said to me: Let us go into the house of the Lord."

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

From now on, then, for we wish to go on the way of the word: the shadow has become bright, the Law has been fulfilled, the hope has drawn near, "the truth" has appeared, "the end of the ages" has come. God sent his Son, wishing to redeem man, who was under the Law. Not only can "the blood of a heifer and ashes and hyssop purify" what is unclean. The whole commandment of the Law has now come to rest. It was not the expected scepter, but the Lord Christ. The hope has come, the gospel has been preached, we have been taught about the greater things. Where then is literal purification needed? For "the Law and the prophets prophesied until John." From John on, those who think they are purified by the Law transgress the Law. For the Law purified by washing and cleansing. But from the coming of Christ the ashes of the heifer began to run out. Yet those people were not allowed to use the ashes of another cow in place of the one Moses prescribed, nor to omit a purification of this kind, nor was one who had not purified himself free of punishment. "For this," he says, "is the ordinance of the Law which the Lord commanded, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and let each of them bring you a heifer, red, pure, which has no blemish on it and on which no yoke has been laid, and they shall give it to Eleazar the priest. And they shall lead it out of the city to a clean place and slaughter it before him." And then this law too: "If a man goes into the house of a dead person, he will be unclean, and everything in that house, and everyone who touches will be unclean. And he shall take some of the prepared ash of purification and mix it with water and hyssop and purify what is unclean." And shortly after: "And if a man becomes unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the congregation, for he has defiled the holy things of the Lord, for he has not been sprinkled with the water of purification; and let it be an everlasting law for you."

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

If the Jews wish to live by the Law, they may no longer take the books of the Law in their hands, nor slaughter the lamb and keep the Passover, lest they become liable to wrath for having defiled the holy things of the Lord. For he says: "Every man who becomes unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the congregation," for he has "not been purified with the water of purification": not simply water, he says, but mixed with the ashes of the heifer. For such is the purification of the Law; God did not allow them to purify themselves with water alone, so that they might have cause to boast, nor to touch a grave, nor to enter the house of one who has died, nor to walk through a field of the dead, which is impossible. For by this they were prevented from living according to the Law when the ashes ran out, and they fell under punishment, God arranging this so that they would be compelled to seek one who would redeem them from the Law. For "I testify," says the apostle, "to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is bound to keep the whole Law." The years were fulfilled; the ashes ran out. No longer is "Love the Lord your God" written "on tablets of stone," compelling those under the Law to serve God against their will, but "on tablets of flesh," for those who wish to live forever, to serve God of their own free will. I would like to ask them how they bid us keep the Law: as the Law itself and the Holy Spirit bid us, or as they themselves think it should be kept? If as they themselves think, they bid us do nothing but transgress the Law. For the Law says of one who has touched a dead man's bone or a dead body that if he does not purify himself he shall be cut off from his people, so that they may not touch the holy things; but they touch the dead and bones, and not only do not purify themselves but even defile the holy things by touching them. And if as the Holy Spirit commands, how are they not the most shameless of all? If they bid us live according to the Spirit, they themselves plainly do the opposite, as he says: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one in secret, and circumcision is of the heart, not by the letter but by the Spirit; his praise is not from men but from God."

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

So the mystery of the heifer is kept among us, who keep the Law not according to the letter but according to the Spirit, and who no longer obey shadows and likenesses and images, but the truth itself, in accordance with the truth. Human weakness devised these signs; laying its blindness in them, it receives the truth from something else. For mankind, still powerless and without the divine goodness because of the earlier deception, received signs of what is true, in which it recognizes the truth. But those whose souls are healthy and able to recognize the Creator in the beauty of heaven need neither sign nor image. So it was necessary that the revelation should first come in the Law, so that through it one might become capable of spiritual things too, about which our Lord Jesus Christ taught us: that those who have tasted the truth should "worship" God neither "in Jerusalem" nor on "the mountain" Gerizim, but should lift up "pure hands" to him "in spirit and in truth." For the holy is not bounded by places and spaces; he takes no pleasure in such honors and services, since the true heifer has appeared, of which that one was a type, and the true purifications have been revealed. For "See," he says, "make everything according to the pattern shown you." The true "heifer" is the flesh of Christ, which he took for the purification of the world: called "red" because of the passion, "without blemish" because of innocence, "without a yoke" because pure of all sin, and "not used to" fetters (a yoke) because without passion. Outside the camp, outside Jerusalem, "in a clean place," free of all mixture, it was slaughtered; by its blood the churches are sanctified, by its "ashes" the people are purified, and by its death all the Gentiles have been redeemed from death. For "Lord," says Jeremiah, "my help, my refuge, my hope in the days of evils: to you the Gentiles will come from the ends of the earth and say: How falsely our fathers made idols!" So it is burned, as Scripture says: "They shall burn it, and its skin and flesh and its blood" they shall "burn with its dung." For the mysteries were set down as for the enlightenment and quickening of the one who is to learn. Its flesh is the holy acts; the blood, the word of interpretation; the skin, the form and purity of the faith which we have and offer to God; the dung, the transgressions, the festering wounds, for "he took on our weakness," and so on. Therefore the Law commands all to be burned, for the life of the Spirit is rational, and by it we ought to let ourselves be enlightened, according to the spiritual quickening in our hearts, so that we think nothing dark of him, and, as if led out of a prison, behold the light of God high up as on some lofty mountain, receiving the coming of the Holy Spirit. For as "the eye is the lamp of the body," so reason is that of the soul. When you leave the darkness of the letter, you will remain forever in the light. [12] So the flesh of the lamb too is eaten "not boiled in water but roasted over fire." For he does not bid us receive the word about Christ weak or "raw." For he was the "perfect lamb"; for "like a lamb," it says, "he was led to the slaughter," and so on. So when he leads the people out of Egypt and frees them from the tormentor, he is a lamb; when in turn he purifies sin, he is a heifer without blemish. Therefore "cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet" are laid "in the midst of the burning," so that by them we may recognize, as Scripture makes it known to us through these images, that it is wrong, when inquiring into the flesh of Christ, not to rise up to the holy Trinity. For so the coming of the Word would be held without share in this faith, if we in no way think rightly of the incarnation of the Word who is before the ages. The cedar wood we take, because it does not rot and is evergreen, to signify the knowledge of the Father of all, who has incorruption and immortality. The hyssop we take as a foreshadowing of the coming of the only-begotten Son, since he came for healing and salvation. For this plant is especially good against the drying up of the body, and our Lord Jesus Christ has made alive us who were dried up and withered and led us back to the first honor. The scarlet we say signifies the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, through whom our souls are well "sealed" and by whose gift they are taken out of our bodies. And this is the image of the Trinity, these being laid in the fire: the dispensation (oikonomia) of the heifer … since man, being twofold, is held by a twofold life, a pure and an impure, he needed help to choose the godly life, being suddenly enlightened in soul through these signs which serve for renewal, by which sin is altogether purified. For the ash that sprinkles what has been defiled signifies at one time the burial of Christ's body, since he is laid in "the dust of the earth" for our sake, and at another time repentance for sin. For as there, before Christ had come, they were purified with ashes, so here too those are purified who are baptized into the death of Christ, who washes away the damage (wounds) done to us by transgression. For those baptized "into Christ," says the apostle, "are baptized into his death; we have been buried with him through baptism," and so on. Why then did Scripture call Christ's death "dust (of death)" and ashes? So that it might truly appear that he took on the redeeming passion not in appearance but in truth, having taken our flesh without change; for he tasted death "like us" in truth. But those who have believed in him in such a way that they do not say he truly took on the passion for us are "still in" their "sins." So the people were not commanded to use the ashes of a second cow when the first ran out, in order to appear clean. For "Christ died for our sake," for the redemption of the world. And he has died, says the apostle; "henceforth he will not die. Death will no longer have dominion over him. For the death he died to sin he died once, and the life he lives he lives to God." He has brought the flesh into eternal life.

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

Next, what he says (for we ought to look at what follows too): "And this is the law: if a man dies in a house, everyone who goes into that house is unclean, and everything that is there." Here he speaks not of the common death but of the death of the soul. For the soul too dies, not with a temporal death but with an eternal one. As the prophet says: "The soul that sins, it shall die." For this is its true death, the death of sin. For the beauty and covering (garment) and adornment of the soul is the good life according to Scripture. For "wise women," he says, "have built houses." So the Lord too, wishing each of us to build houses by virtue, likened him to "a wise man who built his house on the rock," calling himself the rock, and the house the stronghold of faith. "If" then "a man dies" by the death of the soul, and "you go in to him into the house," that is, into his ways and deeds, you have defiled your conscience and at once darkened your mind as well. But it is possible, if you repent before the evil works ruin in soul and body, to come and purify yourself through the holy Body. "And every vessel that is open and not tied up (with a cord) is unclean." For every soul tied and bound by the "bond" of "love" cannot take on that uncleanness. But what is open through weakness and does not bear "the seal" of Christ is defiled by the deceits of the Evil One. So Jeremiah spoke to the people, "that death comes in through their doors," calling the senses doors. If one wishes to explain these words that the Law speaks about the dead in such a way that one who touched a dead body would truly be unclean, we say: what sense would it make that what touches a dead body is unclean? How then? Do we abhor the bodies of the dead as people who will not die ourselves, or as people who will die? If as people who will not die, we say nothing at all. But if as people who will die too (for no one can avoid tasting death), what absurdity it is to abhor the bodies of the dying, as though not wishing to become like the dying; and indeed the dead are purer than we, since they are not enslaved by sins, having escaped the guilt of sin. "For whoever has died," he says, "is justified from sin." If the body were not clean, would the Lord wish to raise it and make it worthy of the kingdom of heaven? For the Lord speaks of the resurrection of the dead: "As Moses said … He is not a God of the dead, but of the living." If he is the God of the living, and the bodies that have left life are living, insofar as they have the hope of the resurrection, then they are not unclean, since God watches over them. How did the bones of Joseph not defile what came near them? For the whole people went with them.

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

"And everyone who walks through a field of the dead, or comes near a dead person, or a man's bone, or a grave, will be unclean." A field of the dead is the desire of incontinence, which harms many, and countless are those it has killed, bringing pleasures of the imagination. To flee these snares the wise Sirach also prayed, saying: "Lord, Father and Master of my life, do not leave me in their counsels …, so that the thoughts of the belly and of sexual immorality may not overtake me." For "blessed" indeed "is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly" and shrinks back from evil deeds from afar. Or "the bone of a dead man or the grave" of a dead man: calling "bone" those who have fallen away from the faith and do not belong to the members of the church, but are cut off and dead, have lost all living movement, and are deprived of the most honored Head, our Lord, "from whom the whole body, joined and held together," "grows into a holy temple of the Lord." A grave and tomb are the hypocrites, because they adorn themselves outwardly while being evil within, as the Lord too likened such people to "adorned tombs." The Law commands one who touches such lawlessness to purify himself. For it is good, even when we have sinned a little, to purify ourselves quickly before we go down into the depth of evil. The "seventh day," on which the unclean person is declared clean, signifies the space from the sin to the confession, since the time has not yet come to its complete circuit. For if this period had passed in seven days, the times having ended, they would have found "no room for repentance." For on the seventh day, that is, at the end of life, he should be found clean. The "ashes" signify humbling (mortification). As David too said: "A broken heart God will not despise." And "the Ninevites" repented "in sackcloth and ashes." So too Esther, strewing "dung and ashes" on "her head," prayed to the Lord for her kin. So too Abraham to God: "I am earth and ashes." And in the hundred and first psalm it is said: "I ate ashes like bread and mingled my drink with tears," showing the great humbling offered from the whole heart. And again the same: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy is forever."

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

These are the true purifications of those who fear God, and these are the sprinklings for those who are made perfect through the body of Christ, by which not only the bodies but also the souls are purified, more than by the blood of the heifer and the other purifications of the Law. "But the blood of Christ," says the apostle, "will much more purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." To him be glory now and always and to all eternity. Amen.