Homilies on Leviticus 4.10–5.4

It is added in what follows: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: This is the gift of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer to the Lord on the day when you anoint him: the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour in sacrifice continually, half of it in the morning and half of it in the afternoon. It shall be made in a frying pan with oil, and mixed, he shall offer it tender, a sacrifice of broken pieces, a sacrifice for an odour of sweetness to the Lord. The priest who is anointed in his place from among his sons shall make it: an eternal law; all of it shall be consumed. And every sacrifice of the priest shall be a whole burnt offering, and shall not be eaten.” In the other precepts the high priest renders a service to the people in offering sacrifices; but in this commandment he attends to his own affairs and carries out what concerns himself. For he is commanded, from the day on which he is anointed, to offer continually and for ever fine flour mixed with oil, tender, from the frying pan, which he names a sacrifice of broken pieces, for an odour of sweetness; and he commands that this remain by an eternal law and be handed on to posterity. He adds, indeed, that it must be observed that no sacrifice of the priest, that is, what he offers for himself, be eaten by anyone, but that it become a whole burnt offering, that is, be consumed by fire. The precept is clear according to the letter; yet I should like to see what type is formed in this, and what figure. He wishes half of this sacrifice to be offered in the morning and half in the evening, a fixed measure of fine flour mixed with oil, tender, from the frying pan. See whether, as I suspect, the sacrifice of the priest is not this very law which is promulgated through Moses, half of which is commanded to be offered in the morning, and half toward evening. This law he commanded to be divided into two parts, namely into letter and spirit. And the half part, which is the letter, he commands to be offered in the morning, that is, in the first time of the law, because to those to whom it was then given according to the letter it brought forth a new light and a new day; but the other half of it he commanded to be offered toward evening. For in the evening the coming of the Saviour was given to us, in which that other half, that is, the sense or spirit of the law, according to which the law is spiritual, may be offered, mixed with oil and tender. The oil refers to mercy, which ought to abound in priests. “Tender” pertains to subtle and pure understanding. And as to its being said to be “from the frying pan”, I think he wishes the priest to be strict, and dry and parched by much continence, so that nothing slack toward wantonness, nothing loose toward lust, can be found in him. And as to his naming the sacrifice itself “of broken pieces, for an odour of sweetness”, I think he wishes the broken pieces of the priests to be understood: when the letter of the law is broken by them, and the spiritual food hidden within it is drawn out, so that the listening crowds may be refreshed, as the Lord too is related in the Gospels to have done, where he blessed the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples, breaking them, set them before the crowds. And when all had been satisfied, there were left over, it says, twelve baskets of broken pieces. This, then, is the sacrifice of broken pieces: when we examine bit by bit the holy things of the law, so as to take from them spiritual and pure food. “And this,” he says, “is an eternal law.” The apostle John in the Apocalypse says that there is an eternal Gospel; we find here too that it is written that there is an eternal law. But I should like those who wish to follow the law according to the letter to tell me now how the law of this sacrifice can be eternal, since certainly, once the temple was destroyed, the altar overthrown, and all the things that were called holy profaned, this rite of sacrifices could not remain. How, then, will they call eternal what is agreed to have long since ceased and come to an end? It remains that this law be called eternal according to that aspect in which we say that the law is spiritual, and that through it spiritual sacrifices can be offered, which can never be interrupted nor cease. For they are not in a place which is overthrown, nor in a time which changes, but in the faith of the believer and in the heart of the one who sacrifices. And as to his saying, “Of the sacrifice of the priest none shall be eaten, but it shall be a whole burnt offering”, it is certain that this refers to the person of our Lord and Saviour. For of his sacrifice none shall be eaten, but it shall be a whole burnt offering. In this place the sacrifice is to be taken as his very word and teaching, of which no one shall eat, that is, no one disputes it, no one revises it; but it is a whole burnt offering. For whatever he said, whatever he established, endures by an eternal consecration, and no one is found so mad or profane as to be able to revise any of his words; which we ought to hold with all worship and veneration as a whole burnt offering, a sacrifice offered to God, because “heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will not pass away,” but remain for ever, as he himself remains for ever. Through him to God the Father with the Holy Spirit be glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: This is the law of the sin offering. In the place where the burnt offerings are slaughtered, they shall kill also that which is for sin before the Lord: they are holy of holies. The priest who offers it shall eat it in a holy place, in the court of the tabernacle of witness. Everyone who touches its flesh shall be sanctified; and on whomever any of its blood is sprinkled, whatever garment it is sprinkled on, that too shall be washed in a holy place. And the earthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken; but if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, he shall scour it and rinse it with water. Every male among the priests shall eat them: they are holy of holies to the Lord. And all the sin offerings, from whose blood some is brought into the tabernacle of witness to make entreaty in the holy place, shall not be eaten, but shall be burned with fire.” All these things, unless we take them in another sense than the text of the letter shows, will, as we have often said already, when they are read in church, offer an obstacle and an overthrow to the Christian religion rather than exhortation and edification. But if it is examined and found in what sense these things were said, and they are considered in a manner worthy of God, who is said to have written them, the one who hears them will indeed become a Jew, but not he who is one outwardly, but he who is a Jew inwardly; according to that distinction of the Jew which the apostle Paul draws, saying: “For not he is a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, by circumcision of the heart, in spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.” Not understanding this difference between the visible Jew and the invisible Jew, the impious heretics have fled not only from these Scriptures but also from God himself, who gave this law and the divine Scriptures to men, and have fashioned for themselves another god besides him who made heaven and earth; whereas surely the truth of the faith holds that one and the same God is God of the law and of the Gospels, creator of things visible and invisible: since the visible things too keep a very great kinship with the invisible, so that the Apostle says that “the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made.” Just as, then, visible and invisible things bear a kinship to one another, earth and heaven, soul and flesh, body and spirit, and this world consists of their conjunctions, so also we must believe that holy Scripture consists of visible and invisible things: as of a kind of body, namely the letter which is seen; and of a soul, the sense which is grasped within it; and of a spirit, in that it also holds certain heavenly things within itself, as the Apostle said: “they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” Since, then, these things are so, calling upon God, who made the soul and body and spirit of Scripture (the body for those who were before us, the soul for us, and the spirit for those who “in the future will obtain the inheritance of eternal life,” through which they may reach the heavenly kingdoms), let us now seek that soul of the law of which we spoke, as far as concerns the present for the time being. And I do not know whether we can rise even to its spirit in what has been read to us about the sacrifices. For we ought to show of him whom we called a Jew inwardly that, just as we showed that he is circumcised not in the flesh but in the heart, so also he sacrifices not in the flesh but in the heart, and that he will eat of the sacrifices not flesh but spirit.

But let us now see what the things are that are related in the law. “And the Lord spoke,” it says, “to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the law of the sin offering,” and the rest that has been read at present. And I remember that we have said before that the law is not always given to the same persons; but one is given to the children of Israel, another to the sons of Aaron, another again, as we observed long ago, to Moses and Aaron; and there is also another law which is given to Moses alone, so that not even Aaron becomes a partaker of that law. Who is so illumined by God with the gift of knowledge that he can discuss wholly and openly the distinctions and differences of each of these? For we find in what follows a precept of the Lord given to Moses alone, and it is commanded that the breast of the ram of perfection be given to Moses, “as the Lord commanded Moses,” it says. In this portion neither Aaron nor his sons become partakers. And the law which pertains to the ram of perfection is found unable to reach as far as Aaron or his sons, much less the rest of the children of Israel, but only Moses, who was the friend of God. But what need is there to anticipate what is to be read later? For the moment, the law has been read which is promulgated to Aaron and his sons, the law of sin, that is, of the victim which is offered for sin: “In the place,” it says, “in which the burnt offerings are slaughtered, there they shall kill also that which is for sin, in the sight of the Lord: they are holy of holies.” Much indeed has already been said above, with God's help, about the rite of the sacrifices according to the spiritual understanding; but now too, if the grace of the Lord deigns to visit us and you strive with your prayers, we shall add what the Lord gives. Some victims are God's alone, so that no human being partakes of them. Some are Aaron the priest's and his sons'; some are his, and his sons', and his daughters', so that even the priest's wife may eat of them. Some are the priests' and their sons' and daughters', but such that the children of Israel too may eat of them. And in those victims of which the children of Israel may eat, no doubt the priests and the priests' sons also have a share; yet not every victim which the priest eats may the children of Israel also eat. Since, then, there are these differences of victims, that one which we said is God's alone, of which it is not lawful for Moses, nor Aaron, nor his sons to partake, we find sometimes named holocaustomata, and sometimes not holocaustomata but holocarpomata, as if we should say that it is the whole fruit, namely that which is offered to God. The first legislation about sacrifices, then, if you have observed or diligently retain what was read and discussed, and if neither what we say nor what is read from the divine books runs past your ears in vain, the first victim, then, is the whole burnt offering. For it was not fitting that any other victim should be named first than that which was offered to almighty God. The second victim is the one assigned to the priests for eating. The third, that of which even the children of Israel may lawfully touch or eat, namely those who offer it. But not all the children of Israel, only those who are clean. For only those who are clean are bidden to eat of the sacrifices. But all these victims, you who are a Jew inwardly, do not seek among visible animals, nor think that what is fitting to offer to God is found among dumb beasts. Seek these victims within yourself, and you will find them within your soul. Understand that you have within yourself herds of cattle, those which are blessed in Abraham. Understand that you also have flocks of sheep and flocks of goats, in which the patriarchs were blessed and multiplied. Understand that there are within you even the birds of the sky. And do not be surprised that we say these things are within you: understand that you are another world in miniature, and that within you there is a sun, there is a moon, there are also stars. For if this were not so, the Lord would never have said to Abraham: “Look into the sky and see the stars, whether they can be numbered for multitude; so shall your offspring be.” Do not be surprised, I say, if it is said to Abraham, “So shall your offspring be, as the stars of the sky are,” namely of those who, born of his faith, live rationally and keep the divine laws and precepts. Hear something more: the Saviour saying to the disciples, “You are the light of the world.” Do you doubt that there is a sun and moon within you, to whom it is said that you are the light of the world? Do you wish to hear something still greater about yourself, lest perhaps, thinking small and lowly things of yourself, you neglect your life as cheap? This world has its governor; it has almighty God, who rules it and dwells in it, as he himself says through the prophet: “Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?” Hear, then, what almighty God himself says also about you, that is, about human beings: “I will dwell,” he says, “in them, and walk among them.” He adds something more toward your person: “I will be,” he says, “a father to them, and they shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord.” This world has the Son of God, it has the Holy Spirit, according to what the prophet says: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and all their power by the spirit of his mouth.” And again elsewhere: “For the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world.” Hear also what Christ says to you: “Behold, I am with you all days, until the end of the age.” And of the Holy Spirit it is said: “I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, and they shall prophesy.” Since, then, you see that you have all that the world has, you ought not to doubt that you have within you even the animals which are offered as victims, and that from them you ought to offer spiritual victims.

But of these things we have explained above as best we could. Now we add what he says, that in the place in which the burnt offerings are slaughtered, there also are the victims for sin. See how great the mercy and kindness of God is, that where the burnt offering is slaughtered, that which is offered to God alone, there also the victim which is for sin is commanded to be sacrificed; so that, namely, one who has sinned, and repents, and, turned to the Lord, slaughters the victim of a contrite spirit, may understand that he now stands in a holy place and is joined to the things that pertain to God. There, then, the victim for sin is sacrificed where the burnt offering also is, “in the sight,” it says, “of the Lord.” Perhaps it is possible to offer a sacrifice in the sight of the Lord, and not to offer it in the sight of the Lord. Who, then, is it that offers in the sight of the Lord? He, I think, who has not gone out from the sight of the Lord, as Cain did, and become fearful and trembling. If, then, there is anyone who has the confidence to stand in the sight of the Lord, and does not flee from his face, nor avoid his gaze from consciousness of sin, this one offers a sacrifice in the sight of the Lord. This victim, then, which is offered for sins, he says is holy of holies. The word wishes to dare something greater, if only your hearing follows. What is the victim which is offered for sins and is holy of holies, if not the only-begotten Son of God, my Lord Jesus Christ? He alone is the victim for sins, and he is the victim that is holy of holies. But what he adds, “The priest,” he says, “who offers it shall eat it,” seems difficult to understand. For what he says is to be eaten seems to refer to the sin; as the prophet too says elsewhere of the priests that “they will eat the sins of my people.” Hence here too he shows that the priest ought to eat the sin of the one who offers. We have often shown from the divine Scriptures that Christ is both the victim which is offered for the sin of the world and the priest who offers the victim. This the Apostle explained in a single phrase when he says: “Who offered himself to God.” This, then, is the priest who eats and consumes the sins of the people, of whom it was said: “You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.” My Saviour and Lord, then, eats the sins of the people. How does he eat the sins of the people? Hear what is written: “Our God,” it says, “is a consuming fire.” What does God, the fire, consume? Shall we be so foolish as to think that God, the fire, consumes wood, or straw, or hay? But God, the fire, consumes human sins: he takes them away, he devours them, he purges them, according to what he says elsewhere too: “And I will purge you with fire until you are pure.” This is to eat the sin of the one who offers a sacrifice for sin. For he himself took up our sins, and in himself, like fire, eats and consumes them. So, indeed, conversely, those who remain in sins are said to have been swallowed by death, as it is written: “Death, prevailing, will swallow them up.” This I think is what the Saviour said in the Gospel: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish that it be kindled.” And would that my earth too might be kindled with the divine fire, so that it no longer bears thorns and thistles. So you ought to understand also what is written: “A fire has been kindled by my anger; it will devour the earth and its generations.” The law says, then: “The priest who has offered it shall eat it in a holy place, in the court of the tabernacle of witness.” For it follows that, after the image of him who gave the priesthood to the church, the ministers and priests of the church also should receive the sins of the people, and they too, imitating the master, should grant remission of sins to the people. The priests of the church themselves, then, ought to be so perfect and so always learned in their priestly duties that they consume the sins of the people in a holy place, in the courts of the tabernacle of witness, by not sinning themselves. And what is it to eat sin in a holy place? There was a holy place to which Moses had come, according to what was said to him: “For the place on which you stand is holy ground.” Likewise, then, in the church of God the holy place is perfect faith, love from a pure heart, and a good conscience. Whoever stands in these in the church, let him recognize that he stands in a holy place. For the holy place is not to be sought on earth, on which sentence was once given by God, who said: “Cursed is the earth in your works.” Whole faith, then, and holy conduct is the holy place. Placed in this place, therefore, let the priest of the church consume the sins of the people, so that, slaughtering the victim of the word of God and offering the victims of sound doctrine, he may purge the consciences of his hearers from sins. The priest, then, will eat the flesh of the sacrifice in the court of the tabernacle of witness when he has been able to understand what reason there is in these things, or what mysteries, which are described concerning the courts of the tabernacle of witness. For to these secret and hidden courts no one approaches; they are open to none but the priests: if indeed they are open, if by their knowledge and mystical understanding they have been able to penetrate their secrets. And I know that there are also certain other, more secret doctrines in the church, which not even the priests themselves may approach. I mean those where the ark is hidden, where the urn, where the manna and the tablets of the covenant are. Not even the priests themselves are given access there, but only the one high priest, and to him it is granted to enter that secret place once a year with certain mystical purifications. There are also other doctrines of the church which even Levites can reach, but they are lower than those which the priests are permitted to approach. I know also that there are others which even the children of Israel, that is, the laity, can approach; yet not foreigners, unless they have already been enrolled in the church of the Lord; for “the Egyptian will enter the church of God in the third generation.” I believe it is because of the faith of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in which everyone believes who is joined to the church of God, that the third generation is mystically spoken of. Nevertheless, it must be known that of the victims that are offered, although they are granted to the priests to eat, not all of them are granted; but some part of them is offered to God and handed over to the fires of the altar: so that we too may know that even if it is granted to us to grasp and recognize some things from the divine Scriptures, there are yet some things which must be reserved for God; which, since they surpass our understanding and their sense is above us, we keep for the divine fire, lest perhaps they be set forth by us otherwise than the truth is. And therefore in this place too, the things which have been granted to human beings to eat we have consumed, as best we could, within the tabernacle of the Lord; but if any things remain over, and surpass either you in hearing or us in speaking, let us keep them for the fire of the altar, as that part which is commanded to be offered on the altar of the Lord for sin.

“And this,” he says, “is the law of the ram which is for offence: it is holy of holies. In the place in which they slaughter the burnt offerings, they shall slaughter also the ram which is for offence before the Lord,” and so on. In the divine Scriptures “sin” indeed often seems to be named for “offence”, and “offence” for “sin”, indifferently and without any distinction; in this place, however, it is found to be distinguished. For after giving above the rite and order of the sacrifice in the victim for sin, he now commands separately the sacrifice for offence; and although everything is commanded in the same order and with the same observance, and he adds at the end, “As that which is for sin, so also that which is for offence: there shall be one law for them,” yet he wished to show that there is some difference between those for which he commanded separate sacrifices. In this I think that an offence committed is somewhat lighter than a sin. For we find it said of sin that there is a sin unto death; of offence we do not read that it is said to be unto death. I know, however, also that difference which has seemed right to some of the wise: that an offence is when we do not do what we ought to do, while a sin is when we commit what we ought not to commit. But since we do not always find these things under this distinction in the divine Scriptures, we cannot affirm it generally. The sacrifice which is offered for offence, then, is to be taken in the same way and according to the same tradition as we expounded above concerning that which is for sin. For likewise the fat of the ram, that which is around the kidneys and that which covers the inward parts, is commanded to be laid on the altar: so that you too who hear these things may know that everything within you that is grosser and covers your inward parts you ought to offer to the fire of the altar, so that all your inward parts may be purged, and you too may say, as David said: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, his holy name.” For unless that grossness which covers your inward parts is taken away, they cannot grasp the subtle and spiritual sense, nor grasp the understanding of wisdom, and therefore they cannot praise the Lord. But if all that is fat has been taken away from the kidneys and from all the inward parts of the bowels, then, truly purged of every vice of lust, you have slaughtered the victim for offence and offered a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness. “It shall belong,” he says, “to the priest who offers it and makes propitiation with it.” Let the priests of the Lord who preside over the churches learn that a portion is given to them with those whose offences they have propitiated. And what is it to propitiate an offence? If you take up a sinner, and by warning, exhorting, teaching, instructing, lead him to repentance, correct him from error, reform him from vices, and make him such that, once he is converted, God becomes propitious to him for his offence, you will be said to have propitiated it. If, then, you are such a priest, and such is your teaching and your word, a portion is given to you of those whom you have corrected; so that their merit may be your reward, and their salvation your glory. Or does not the Apostle too show this, where he says that “what someone has built on, he will receive a reward”? Let the priests of the Lord understand, then, where their portion has been given them, and let them devote themselves to this and give their effort to it. Let them not entangle themselves in empty and superfluous activities, but let them know that they will have a portion with God in nothing else than in what they offer for sins, that is, in having converted sinners from the way of sin. This too must be noted, that what is offered as a burnt offering is the inward parts; what is outward is not offered to the Lord. The hide is not offered to the Lord, nor does it go into the whole burnt offerings. Such was that son of Judah who was called Er, which is interpreted “hide”. Therefore he was very wicked, and God killed him, because such as these are not offered to the Lord.