Commentary on Leviticus 1.1

Verses 1–2. "And he called Moses, and the Lord spoke to him from the tabernacle of witness, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: A man of you who offers a victim to the Lord from the cattle, that is, offering victims from the oxen and the sheep."

That God did not love sacrifices, what he commanded the Jews about sacrifices shows. Isaiah says: "What to me is the multitude of your victims? says the Lord. I am full of the burnt offering of rams and the fat of fatlings; the blood of calves and of lambs and of goats I did not want. When you come before my face, who has required these things from your hands?" In a way, then, he set aside what he had commanded about sacrifices. Amos too says things like these: "Did you offer me victims and sacrifices in the desert forty years, O house of Israel?" Yet they had offered them often; but because they greatly displeased him, he counted them as not offered. The prophet Jeremiah says the same: "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your victims and eat flesh; for I did not speak to your fathers, and I did not command them on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and victims."

But you will say: He who commanded these things of which we speak is the same who also denies them; why then does he deny what he had commanded? Why? Because those who received them transgressed the intention of the giver. For since the law was subtle and very lofty, and was therefore hidden in the surface of the letter, so that those who searched it might learn once they had first amended their own minds, they, being grosser and of hard heart and not yet able to understand the law of God, remained in ignorance.

Since the lawgiver uses the greatest exactness of words, he has here too begun from it. In the edition of the Seventy the opening begins with that part of speech which is a conjunction, which we are used to placing in the middle of a sequence of words to join what follows to what precedes. For he joined the very beginning of this book to the end of the preceding one, which is called Exodus, in which Moses set up the tabernacle; and to it the present words are rightly joined, since the work of one and the same God is contained in both. And the book of Numbers also, because nothing comes between it and Leviticus, has a similar opening; for it says: "And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, in the tabernacle of witness, on the first day of the second month, in the second year." The people of the Jews, then, did nothing after the narrative of the book of Leviticus and before the narrative of Numbers: they had not changed place, since they had not yet dedicated the tabernacle, nor had much time passed. For they began to act in the first month of the second year, at the beginning of that month. But in Exodus and Genesis, because much time had run between them, between the death of Joseph and the going out of the sons of Israel, he did not begin those books in the same way. For there he puts not the opening of a conjunction but one suited to the arrangement of what is written there. He speaks thus: "These are the names of the sons of Israel who went into Egypt with Jacob, each with his household."

But no doubt someone will object: why were the books of the law divided, when, as was said, they were not divided by time? Rather for this reason: so that their length might not make the book tiresome to readers. For traders gladly divide seas and roads, thinking that in this way they are, so to speak, dividing the labour itself.

Moreover, according to the Seventy, it is written not that Moses was called but that he was "called up," just as when, according to the Seventy, the same Moses commanded Bezalel to make the tabernacle according to the pattern shown on the mount. For it says: "And Moses said to the sons of Israel: See, God has called up Bezalel the son of Hur by name, of the tribe of Judah, and has filled him with the spirit of wisdom." So now too Moses commanded … images of certain other spiritual things perceived by the mind and of rational sacrifices to be described, and this so-called "calling up" most fittingly joined to it a certain arrangement of words, or of things, that look to what is higher.

But from where does the Lord speak? From the tabernacle of witness. First, indeed, from heaven, because God is affirmed to dwell in it. Next, we understand the tabernacle of witness to be the present Scripture: for it was as it were a kind of tabernacle, since the things that were said were images or figures of mysteries to come; that is why it was called the tabernacle of witness. And the tabernacle of these words is a witness to things to come, giving them an undoubted faith.

And what does he say, or to whom did he give the command? To the sons of Israel, namely, of whom he commanded that whoever wished should offer from the oxen or from the sheep. First, …: from either animal or beast he makes the giver like it, one who has no sharpness either for virtue or for wickedness but is drawn along by another. Such are oxen and sheep: for they are animals accustomed to the hand, and they readily follow those who lead them in this way. And therefore these gifts cannot be the gifts of all, but only of the Jews: for they, even if they do no work of virtue, are content to do no wrong at all. Of them David said: "Men and beasts you will save, O Lord," keeping the first rank for men, and then granting salvation also to the rest. And do not wonder that the lawgiver called this man, of whom we are now speaking, a man, for he says: "A man of you." For it is possible for the same person both to be called a man and to do what belongs to beasts. The prophet David shows this same thing when he says: "And man, when he was in honour, was compared to the senseless beasts and became like them."

But since we have learned of a certain Israel perceived by the mind, one who reveres a circumcision perceived by the mind, as Paul says: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God," let us also [understand] spiritually the ordinance of the law already stated.

Verse 3. "If his burnt offering, his offering, is from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish at the door of the tabernacle of witness, to make the Lord favourable to himself."

That God wants sacrifices from us for our salvation, not because he himself needs them, Paul reminds us well enough; for he says: "I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your rational service." The sacrifice pleasing to God, then, is the mortifying of our bodies: for in it we gain at the same time both that we abstain from sin and that we acquire virtues. But since some mortify their bodies only in part and others most fully, according to the condition of the way of life and the bond of the life in which they live (some being minded as perfect, others as small), that which is a complete renunciation of the world and a fullest denial of pleasures is called a burnt offering. For such a one offers himself whole to God through the fire of the Spirit perceived by the mind, being no longer earthly but spiritual and in a way heavenly.

If, then, this man is a worker of the righteousness of the law that is according to the letter, he is likewise called an ox, because this animal [bears] the yoke of earthly works; and the law too is a yoke. For so Peter, preaching in Jerusalem, called it, saying: "Why do you tempt the Lord, to put a yoke on the necks of the disciples which neither we nor our fathers [were able to bear]?" And Paul, speaking of this animal: for, recalling a commandment of the law, he says: "You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain." See how he interprets it: "Is it for oxen that God cares? Or does he say this for our sake? Because he who ploughs ought to plough in hope, and he who sows in hope of gathering the fruit."

He wants the gift, or offering, to be a male and without blemish: a male, so that the doer of the commandments may in no way become effeminate or soft; without blemish, or pure, so that he may never mix righteousness with injustice nor stain virtue with pretence. And he commanded the gift to be offered at the door of the tabernacle of witness, or, according to the Seventy, at the tabernacle of witness. Here the tabernacle of witness is understood not only as heaven (for our citizenship must be there) but also as our conscience: for in it dwell the thoughts which are to give witness for us or against us.

"To make the Lord favourable to himself." According to the Seventy, it says that this is also "acceptable." Why? Namely, for the one who offers and prays in the presence of the Lord. For if it is truly acceptable to us, and our heart, judging rightly and clinging to no passion, approves the gift as worthy to be received, then we can pray in the presence of the Lord, that is, obtain forgiveness in the presence of the Lord; for God inclines to the heart, as John the Theologian taught us when he wrote: "And before him we shall persuade our hearts; because if our heart reproves us, we know that God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not reprove us, we have confidence before God."

Verse 4. "And he shall lay his hand on the head of the victim, and it shall be acceptable, and avail for his atonement."

What we call a victim is in Greek called κάρπωμα, "fruit offering," which signifies in particular the burnt offering perceived by the mind, because every commandment that is made a burnt offering through a spiritual way of life bears fruit. For this reason he also commands the one who offers to lay his hand on the head of the victim, so that the head of the victim may here be understood as the beginning of the said way of life. And the one who offers it is shown to be himself the cause of such a promise, since he comes to it of his own accord: for he offers a gift, and every gift is voluntary; so that if he transgresses his promise, he may accuse himself when he pays the penalty. And it will be acceptable to him, and avail for atonement, when he has proclaimed and confessed, and has shown by the laying on of his hand, that he offered this sacrifice by a free movement and not compelled by necessity or by demand.

Verses 5–9. "And he shall slaughter the calf before the Lord; and the sons of Aaron the priests shall offer its blood, pouring it round about the altar, which is before the door of the tabernacle. And when the skin of the victim has been stripped off, they shall cut the limbs into pieces, and they shall put fire on the altar, with a pile of wood laid beforehand, and arrange on it the limbs that were cut, namely the head and all that clings to the liver, the entrails and the feet being washed with water; and the priest shall burn them on the altar as a burnt offering and a sweet odour to the Lord."

The law is very laborious and for this reason needs a spiritual consideration, so that the lawgiver may not seem to have used this exactness about the rational victim to no purpose. First of all, then, attend to this, that he commanded the calf to be slain before the Lord: so that we may offer God not only our own conscience and way of life, but also mortify the body as pleases him, looking not to a lower glory but to the things above; for that is what "before the Lord" means.

But who are they who offer this blood? The sons of Aaron the priest, namely; for they also slay it. Indeed, the one who offers the oblation is described without a name and without designation; but those who slay what is offered and offer the blood are called the sons of Aaron. For to bring an offering, that is, to promise, belongs to anyone at all; but to fulfil the promises, which the slaying of the ox itself and the pouring out of the blood teach, belongs not to anyone at all but to those who are truly sons of Aaron, as having in themselves the dignity of the priesthood. For Aaron is interpreted "mountain …". Whoever, then, has built himself up by virtues as a temple of God, and a lofty temple, is truly called a son of Aaron, and a priest as well. For if a priest is recognized by anointing, certainly we too are called anointed because of the mystical chrism that is in us. We too, then, are priests, if we keep the dignity of the anointing of which John also said: "And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know."

And Peter too called us priests, for he says: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's possession."

Let him pour out the blood round about the altar, which is before the door of the tabernacle. There is no doubt that by the blood the soul is understood here, since the lawgiver himself says a little later: "You shall not eat blood in your dwellings, because the soul of the flesh is in the blood." We must, then, not spare the soul; hence the Lord says: "Whoever loses his soul for my sake will find it." This is to pour out the blood. And he pours it round about the altar, that is, on the body of the Only-begotten: for this is truly called the altar. Just as every sacrifice is laid on the altar by the ministering priests, so the priests perform every virtue of the soul in the body of the Lord, that is, in imitation of him. Moses signified this altar when he said: "You shall make me an altar of earth," for the Lord's body was made from our earth, that is, from our clay or lump. "You shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you lift your tool upon it, it will be defiled." For the flesh of Christ is neither cut nor hewn by the hand of man; of it Daniel said: "a stone cut from the mountain without hands," … and his conception came about without the coming together of man and woman.

And he added well: "and which is before the door of the tabernacle of witness, round about," so that we may imitate him in all things; and "before the door of the tabernacle," so that by the door we may understand the teaching of the apostles. For through it we are given entrance into the heavenly tabernacle, in which Scripture testifies that God dwells, as Isaiah shows when he says: "Look down from heaven and see from your holy house of glory." And that the door is the teaching of the apostles Paul shows very plainly, saying: "For a door has been opened, great and evident, and there are many adversaries," calling a door the teaching that leads to the knowledge of God, which those who teach otherwise oppose in every way. And there is nothing strange if, since the Lord has been called the door, the teaching of the apostles, which he himself imparts, is called so too.

So must the priests minister. "And when the skin of the victim has been stripped off, they shall cut the limbs into pieces." They strip off the skin so that we may be stripped of riches and of all the other worldly things with which we are covered about. That is why the devil said of Job: "Skin for skin, and all that a man has he will give for his soul." And they cut it up so that our way of life may be approved part by part, because Christ too, as Paul says, "according to the working in the measure of each member makes the growth of the body for its own building up in love."

Then, therefore, the sons of Aaron the priest (who these are we said above) shall put fire on the altar, as men able to kindle most fully the ministry of the Spirit. And how shall we have a fire that is never quenched? By arranging a pile of wood, that is, meditations on and teachings of the holy Scriptures. For by them the Spirit of God is fed and continually kindled, so that it cannot be quenched by the whirlwinds of the adverse powers. That is why Paul too said: "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies." Nor is it to be wondered at if we have taught that the wood is the teachings of the holy Scriptures, when we read in the Epistle to the Corinthians "wood, hay, stubble," signifying evil actions or teachings. But of trees, some are fruitful, as Jeremiah said of him who trusts in God: "And he will be like a tree that is transplanted by the waters, which sends out its roots towards moisture." And that by fruit-bearing trees the meditation on the sacred Scriptures is rightly understood, David plainly shows us; for of him who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night he says: "He will be like the tree that is planted by the streams of waters." … And "all the trees of the forest," he says, "will rejoice before the face of the Lord, because he comes." For those who meditate on the divine Scriptures rejoice when they have come to know that he has come who was prophesied in them and through them.

He commanded the cut pieces of the limbs to be laid on, the head and the things that cling to the liver, or, as the Seventy have it, the head and the fat. By the cut pieces we understand soul and body: for though they belong to one living being, they oppose each other in the workings of the passions. For the Apostle says: "The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these oppose each other." That is why Abraham, when he offered sacrifice to God, dividing the heifer and the she-goat and the ram, laid the pieces opposite each other on either side. And the mind is called the head of every rational living being; that is why Isaiah said: "Every head is sick, and every heart grieving; from the sole of the foot to the crown there is no soundness in it." For these are said to suffer very much together with one another, and our rational part, as dwelling in both, is cherished by the health of both. And it dwells in both, namely in the heart and in the brain. For the sober mind must not be divided; rather, since the peace of God guards it, as the Apostle says, "And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds," we must gather the movement of body and soul into one.

And the fat is separated from the pieces not without reason, though one might think that, since it is in them, it ought to be offered with them. But since the fat is said to be the richest and very grossest part of every animal, and from it the impulses of desire rise in us and appetites are stirred (which is plain from the fact that it lies upon the kidneys and the loins, which are thought to be the organs or instruments of seed and of intercourse), he commanded it to be taken from the pieces; for in no other way could it be offered by itself. And it is taken away so that we may learn to use our desires not bodily nor in a merely natural way, but spiritually, so that we may desire only spiritual things and stretch out every appetite in them and towards them; for "the natural man does not perceive the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him." Paul, then, seems to call "natural" the man who does not think much about carnal things (and so he is not called carnal), but who occupies his mind with vain desires and questions: for example, those who philosophize about the measurements of heaven and the numbers of the stars and similar things, who outwardly seem to spend great zeal on the soul. That is why James called their wisdom "natural, devilish, earthly," and not coming down from above, from where the Spirit comes down; to them the things of the Spirit are foolishness, for they cannot understand them, because they do not examine them spiritually. So [he commands] the fat perceived by the mind, that is, all our desire or appetite … to be offered not with the pieces but by itself.

Yet he commands the pieces, the head and the fat to be laid on the wood under which fire is put, and which is on the altar, so that we may fit our whole man to the spiritual Scriptures that were spoken of the altar perceived by the mind, the body of the Lord, living or conducting ourselves in imitation of him.

"The entrails and the feet being washed with water," which the Seventy give as "And the things in the belly and the feet they shall wash with water." By the things in the belly he signifies the hidden and secret thoughts in the belly of the soul, for the belly of the soul is the heart. Hence Jeremiah too said: "My belly, my belly, I am in pain," and what belly he means he himself adds: "And the senses of my heart are troubled." And by the feet he means actions, because the prophets were accustomed to call the present age a way, so that David said: "Blessed are the blameless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord," that is, who work in the law of the Lord. He wants us, then, to wash both our actions and our thoughts with water, whether of baptism or of tears, because we are held guilty in the judgment also for our thoughts. For if "whoever is angry with his brother without cause is liable to the gehenna" of fire, and anger is a movement of the soul, must not this be judged from the action?

But having said so much, he concluded his legislation in one short sentence; for he says: "And the priest shall burn them on the altar as a burnt offering and a sweet odour to the Lord." When our sacrifice becomes a burnt offering, then an odour of sweetness is kindled for the Lord, and when we have offered everything on the altar perceived by the mind, chosen as imitators of Christ as far as is possible, and fitting our life, or way of life, to the imitation of him. For we showed above that this is the altar.

Verses 10–13. "But if the offering is from the flock, from the sheep or from the goats, he shall offer as a burnt offering a lamb of one year and without blemish; and he shall slaughter it at the side of the altar that faces north before the Lord. And the sons of Aaron shall pour its blood on the altar round about, and they shall divide the limbs, the head and all that clings to the liver, and lay them on the wood under which fire is to be put; but the entrails and the feet shall be washed with water, and the priest shall burn all that is offered on the altar as a burnt offering and a most sweet odour to the Lord."

He now says the same things again with a few changes. But one who investigates the words of the law carefully must understand that he commanded the Israelite to offer burnt offerings not only from the oxen but also from the sheep. So not only the one who performs the commandments of the law (for we said that he is the ox, as a worker), but also whoever is simple and without malice, to whom the sheep is compared, as Jeremiah says, "I was like a gentle lamb that is carried to the slaughter, and I did not know," he too will be able to offer himself as a burnt offering to God.

For having said, "But if the offering is from the sheep," he added another animal, that is, the goats; for he speaks thus: "from the sheep and from the goats." How great a difference there is between goats and sheep the Lord Jesus taught us very plainly when he spoke of the consummation of the age: having set the sheep on the right, he gave them the blessing of the righteous, and the goats on the left, against whom he pronounced that terrible sentence on sinners. As, then, it is allowed to offer not only from the sheep but also from the goats, and the offering is said to be "from the flock," so it is possible also for one who comes from among the sinners to devote himself to simplicity, and, as though made a sheep, to offer his way of life to God as a burnt offering. For that nothing prevents one who was once a sinner from attaining justification (though the Jews did not think so), hear what he said through the prophecy of Ezekiel. Having inveighed at length against the unjust man and said, "Let him surely die; his blood shall be upon him," he here added: "But if he begets a son who, seeing all the sins of his father which he committed, does not do the like; does not eat upon the mountains, nor lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, and does not violate his neighbour's wife," and other things like these, to which he added this conclusion: "he shall not die in the iniquity of his father, but shall surely live. And you say: Why shall the son not bear the iniquity of the father?" The Jews [thought it] necessary for the son, as though by hereditary right, [to bear the punishment] of the father's

sin succeed to him.

But why did he command the sheep and the goats to be slain at the side of the altar that faces north, before the Lord, when he had not commanded this of the oxen but had ordained that they be sacrificed "before the Lord"? For the words themselves seem to hold a certain contradiction and difference: since both are sacrifices of burnt offering, different places are assigned to them. It must not be overlooked, then, that as far as the surface of the letter goes, the lawgiver signified the same place in both cases. For the altar of burnt offerings, set before the tabernacle, was at the side of the entrance, so that the entrance to the holy place might not be blocked for those ministering, as is said of it in Exodus: "And he put the veil at the entrance of the tabernacle of witness, and he set the altar of burnt offerings near the door of the tabernacle of witness." Whatever, then, was brought for sacrifice stood at the north side of the altar, and so the sacrifice was celebrated "before the Lord," that is, in sight of the holy place. For he calls the Holy of Holies the face of the Lord, because the glory of God dwelt in it; that is why he did not command the priest to enter it often, but only once a year.

This being so, there had to be a difference in the words, as was necessary for contemplation. For since we said that the altar is Christ, and the sacrifice of sheep is that of those who strive for simplicity but not, absolutely, of those who also work righteousness, it is understood to be offered not straight on but from the side. For straight on is [the one who works righteousness]; [this one only] abstains from …. Just as, for example, in a hall it is better to enter by the straight door, but if this is not easy, it is good to go in even by the one at the side, so it is better to be offered to God through the perfection of the commandments, yet it is good also if someone offers himself through abstaining from evils; for it is good to be offered to God in any way at all. And "at the side of the altar towards the north" …, that is, ignorance, those who give themselves wholly to innocence; and for this reason it is also called a burnt offering, even without the working of righteousness.

Verses 14–17. "But if the offering of a burnt offering to the Lord is from birds, from turtledoves and young pigeons, the priest shall offer it at the altar; and twisting its head back towards the neck and breaking the place of the wound, he shall make the blood run down on the edge of the altar. But the crop of the throat and the feathers he shall throw beside the altar towards the east, in the place where the ashes are usually poured out; and he shall break its wings, and shall not cut it nor divide it with iron; and he shall burn it on the altar with fire put under the wood: it is a burnt offering and an offering of most sweet odour to the Lord."

The exactness of the words of the law is admirable, not only because it describes the differences of ways of life, but also how it signifies some ways of life as according to the law and others as above the law. For those of oxen and sheep are according to the law, even though they are called freewill offerings. Why according to the law? Because, even if he left whether to offer or not in the power of the one offering (very rightly, for God made man of free will), yet what is offered is no longer a matter of will, lest evil things perhaps be offered: it is necessary, then, that either an ox be offered or a sheep, that is, either to work righteousness or to abstain from evils. For he said at the beginning of the book: "A man of you who offers a victim to the Lord from the cattle, that is, from the oxen and the sheep, shall offer victims." But in this offering it is not so: for the class of birds was not counted with the said offering, namely as being more perfect and greater and beyond the capacity of many. For the birds are men who give themselves to contemplation and do not mix at all in earthly business; and if necessity should perhaps demand it, they soon fly back to the heights, and they are helped by that gospel testimony which the Lord gave: "Consider the birds of heaven, for they neither sow nor reap, and your heavenly Father feeds them." … To the same the Lord said: "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown, is smaller than all the herbs; but when it has grown it will become a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and dwell in its branches."

The man, then, who gives himself to contemplation and is perfect in the consideration of things above (for this is what the things said before have taught), if he offers his way of life, or his life, as an offering, will offer from the turtledoves … and in spiritual gentleness; for he needs these things, so that his consideration of the law, occupied with good things, may not go beyond due bounds. Not in vain did the lawgiver take the turtledove and the dove, but to signify the things said before. The turtledove, because it has knowledge, so that by its example the people of the Jews were reproached, as Jeremiah proves; for he says: "The turtledove and the swallow and the stork have kept the time of their coming; but my people has not known the judgment of the Lord." And the dove is clean and simple and the herald of the presence of the Holy Spirit; such must they be who are zealous in contemplating the Scriptures. For this reason the Lord also wants the apostles to be simple, like the dove; for he says: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." And they must also be free to meditate; hence Hezekiah says: "I will meditate like a dove."

This offering one priest will offer, not many; for the contemplative life is not for the many, that is, to offer themselves to God with the whole mind, to think nothing human any longer, but to contemplate heavenly things continually and to set their minds on the things above, where Christ is, as the Apostle says, "sitting at the right hand of God," namely of the Father. And that this is very rare, the Lord himself taught when speaking to the prophet Ezekiel about such men: "Search Jerusalem and see: if you find a man in it standing wholly before my face, I will surely be merciful to it." And yet there were the sons of Jonadab, who neither drank wine nor had houses nor planted fields. But he seeks, absolutely, something loftier. Hence the others offer their offering at the tabernacle of witness, but this one is offered at the altar, whose meaning you learned in what went before, namely that it signifies the Lord's body.

But let us see what follows. "And twisting its head back towards the neck and breaking the place of the wound": breaking it off, that is, from the skin that lies over the neck, without separating it much from the body, so that he neither tears it apart nor binds it fast to it again; this is what is signified by "breaking the place of the wound," or, as the Seventy have it, "by the breaking off of the head." For Samuel used the same word to Saul, when he gave him the shoulder and, according to the Seventy, said: "Eat, for it has been set before you as a witness by the people"; "break it off," that is, break it up and consume it piece by piece. And therefore here too the lawgiver commanded not that the bird be killed but that it be broken off or broken back, showing how gently and part by part one should divide the true head, that is, the mind, from the skin, that is, from the flesh. Hence he does not pour out the blood but "shall make it run down," or according to the Seventy, "shall drain it," so that part by part and completely he may despise the meditation, or the life, of present things, as one who has offered his whole soul to God. For this is what is signified by "and the blood drained at the base of the altar," which is Christ; and the base of Christ is the Gospel, in which we have learned that we must above all despise the present life, as those who offer our whole soul to God.

He commanded the crop of the throat and the feathers to be thrown away, that is, wanting him to be free and cleansed of both puffing up and the search after superfluous things; for those who excel in fuller knowledge succumb above all to these passions, as Paul testifies: "Knowledge puffs up." And again: "If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know as he ought to know." Again he himself says: "But the body is Christ's: let no one deceive you, wishing it in humility and the worship of angels, walking in what he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh." Theodotion likewise rendered "bladder," and Aquila σιτίον, that is, "food," because in birds the bladder is the vessel suited to puffing up and that receives what is superfluous. He does not permit, then, puffing up, and therefore he commanded the bladder to be removed; nor are we to seek greater or higher things. "Do not seek," he says, "things higher than you, and do not search out things loftier than you." Hence he also separated the feathers from the victim and threw them beside the altar towards the east, in the place where the ashes are usually poured out: towards the east, because it seems to be a search into lofty things; outside the altar, because it involves a search that is not necessary but superfluous and harmful. And he commands it to be put in the place of the ashes, on account of nature, of which Abraham says: "I am chaff and ash." By the place of the ashes, then, the lawgiver rebukes the said inclination as worthy of ashes; and what is worthy of ashes remains below on the earth and cannot ascend to heaven.

Then he says: "And he shall break its wings, and shall not cut it nor divide it with iron," commanding both things of necessity: breaking, because one who desires to become a sacrifice to God must crush and afflict his limbs; and he shall not cut it nor divide it with iron, nor treat the bird as the ox or the sheep, by dividing it in pieces. Abraham kept this too in his sacrifice when, at God's command, he offered a heifer of three years, likewise a she-goat and a ram of three years, and a turtledove and a pigeon; for it says: "He took all these for himself and divided them through the middle and laid them opposite each other; but the birds he did not divide." He kept this prudently, and according to the meaning of the precept it is now given in the law. For the man who clings to contemplation and has nothing earthly, but has long been wholly heavenly, has no body opposing his soul: his body and soul are whole, and his spirit too, as Paul said, is kept blameless for the coming of the Lord. And therefore a division of limbs in them is superfluous; for it is offered whole on the altar perceived by the mind and on the wood under which the fire is put. For a sacrifice is not made acceptable otherwise than by meditation on the spiritual law; and then it is found to be a burnt offering and an offering of most sweet odour to the Lord, who is always worshipped by our sacrifice, and to whom the life, or way of life, of each one of us is offered according to the law that was given by him.