Commentary on Leviticus 1.3

Verses 1–5. "But if his offering is a victim of peace offerings, and he wishes to offer from the oxen, he shall offer a male or a female without blemish before the Lord; and he shall lay his hand on the head of his victim, which shall be slaughtered at the entrance of the tabernacle; and the sons of Aaron the priest shall pour the blood round about … offering to the Lord the fat that covers the vital parts, and whatever fat there is within, the two kidneys with the fat by which the flanks are covered, and the net of the liver with the kidneys; and they shall burn them on the altar as a burnt offering, with fire put under the wood, as an offering of most sweet odour to the Lord."

Rightly did the prophet David sing: "Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths." For God through the law ordained different ways of life for men and arranged the virtues like a ladder, so that it was granted to one to attain all of them and to another some of them, yet so that each might be lifted up from the earth; and the difference of the sacrifices signified this. For one of us offers a burnt offering, wishing to offer his whole self to God and to say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ." Another offers a sacrifice of peace offerings, or of salvation, one who desires salvation even if he cannot live very loftily. For even if someone is not able to attain virginity but lives in chaste marriage, he receives pardon from the Lord, who said, "Not all receive this word," when he was explaining virginity to the apostles; and yet such people are necessarily counted among those who are saved. The same holds of contempt for possessions, of righteousness, and of food taken with thanksgiving: for great is he who attains great things, and small, though not the least, is he who can attain at least middling ones.

So, to prove that there are two kinds of ways of life for the justification of men, he set two definitions of freewill sacrifices; for he says in the book of Exodus: "You shall make me an altar of earth, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where my name is named, I will come to you and bless you." He commanded the burnt offering first, and then adds "and your peace offerings," as of the second rank and virtue. Whoever, then, thinks it enough for himself only to be saved, he offers from the oxen (and we said that the ox is those who give themselves to doing what belongs to the law), whether a male or a female; yet let him offer a gift without blemish. Indeed he did not command the one who offers a burnt offering to offer a female; not at all excluding a woman from such a way of life, but showing that to be minded for perfect things belongs properly to men. And if a woman is so minded, she will be called a man, as being strong; of her Solomon said, "Who will find a strong woman?" showing that strength, that is, perfection, is hard to find among women. But the sacrifice of peace offerings belongs alike to men and women, for women too must live in a way that is fit for salvation.

But why they are commanded to lay their hands on the head of the victim, and to slaughter it at the entrance of the tabernacle, and to pour out the blood round about the altar, …. But what those who wish to be saved must offer to God from their sacrifice, this must be asked and considered. For from the victim of peace offerings they offer as the Lord's offering "the fat that covers the vital parts, and whatever fat there is within," or, as the Seventy have it, "the fat that covers the belly, and all the fat that is in the belly," signifying the heart by the belly. And in the said edition he mentioned it a second time because, as physicians say, it has two operations: with one part it draws in nourishment (which they call the upper belly), and with another it separates out the purgations (which they call the lower belly). And the kidneys are the ministers of the seed of intercourse, and they have communion with the belly and the thighs. For this reason he commands to be offered first the fat that is over the belly, and the two kidneys, and again the fat that is over them, that is, over the thighs, as being near the kidneys, because the kidneys are placed between the thigh and the belly. And he said that pleasure, or desire, is set in the liver; hence according to the Seventy it is said that the lobe of the liver is to be offered with the kidneys, as the liver supplies the force of its operation to the kidneys.

But what does he signify by these things, or what did he ordain, he who has here too opened his mouth in parables for those who wish to be saved? That those who wish to be saved must offer to God as a victim, that is, as first fruits and burnt offerings, the fat perceived by the mind, namely desire, which in Greek they call ἐπιθυμία, which first covers the upper belly and then the lower: so that we may offer our desire to God both in thinking and in fulfilling; for a thing must first be proposed and afterwards completed. That is why Paul too said: "He who desires the office of bishop desires a good work." For the lawgiver is here speaking of that belly of which Jeremiah says, "My belly I am in pain, my belly I am in pain," he too naming it twice not in vain, but to signify the double force of its operation. And lest we should think that a bodily necessity is to be blamed, he added: "And the senses of my heart are troubled." The belly of the soul, then, is the heart, in which we first propose certain actions and afterwards try to fulfil them. To propose, then, is in a way to desire, and to hasten to complete might perhaps properly be called a kind of digestion. The desire of both of these, which he called fat, we must offer to God, so that we may neither propose nor fulfil anything wicked.

And well did he set the fat that covers the belly over the upper belly, which is the appetite, because the greatest part of desire concerns appetite and purpose; and to the lower belly he joined the two kidneys, for we said that the kidneys have communion with the heart. Hence David says: "Burn my kidneys and my heart." Hear also of the Lord "who searches hearts and tries kidneys." In no way would prophecy have joined these members unless they had something in common in every way: for physicians say that the movement of anger is in the heart, and the memory of it lies in the kidneys. Hence David, bearing witness to his own innocence, says: "Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence," and asked that his kidneys and heart be burned, as both could bear witness for him. In these kidneys is also the cause of the seed, and hence they have communion with the thighs, because these are thought to give force to the acts of intercourse. Hence the patriarch Jacob said: "A sceptre shall not be lacking from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs," signifying by the thighs the derivation, or descent, of the seed. He wants, then, the desire for marriage also to be offered to God, so that it may come about for the sake of offspring and not of sexual immorality, and that marriage may be honourable and the bed undefiled.

But also what is irascible in us must be offered to God; for so we shall be able to be angry not for the working of sin but for the destruction of sin, and the Scripture of David will be fulfilled in us: "Be angry, and do not sin." For that there is an anger pleasing to God, when it serves not to harm but to correct, is plainly proved by what is written first of Moses in Exodus; for it says: "And when he came near the camp he saw the calf and the dancing, and, being very angry, he threw the tablets from his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain; and taking the calf which they had made, he burned it and ground it to powder, which he scattered on the water, and he gave the sons of Israel to drink of it." Yet in this he was not reproved, but rather proved very admirable: for the lawgiver used so great an anger out of zeal; for God too is said in many places of holy Scripture to be angry, and this would by no means be said of him if it had been evil.

So much for these things. And because desires are thought to rest in the liver, he therefore commanded the lobe, that is, its tip, to be taken away with the kidneys and offered on the altar, so that we may be cleansed from all evil pleasure, knowing that we must offer to God the first fruits of our thoughts, sanctifying the lump through the firstfruit portion. "For if the firstfruit portion is holy," he says, "so is the lump"; for in this way evil pleasure will not arise in us. But if someone delights in riches, let him seek the riches of righteousness; or in health, that which lies in the subjection and bridling of the body; or in marriage, that which lies in the begetting of children and in chastity.

We must remember, however, that the lawgiver has here described not the one who has crucified himself and mortified himself to the world, but the one who lives in a middling way. Hence he commands his kidneys too to be offered, showing that he speaks of one who lives in marriage; and we said that the seeds of the act of intercourse are in the kidneys. Nevertheless one must so order himself that every desire, and the purpose and the completion of any action, … For this reason he offers the movement of anger and the first fruits of pleasures, and the whole of marriage itself, through the lobe of the liver and the kidneys; and he can rightly offer his way of life on the altar above, upon the burnt offerings and upon the wood that is on the fire. For he lives according to the commandments of the Spirit and becomes a victim of most sweet odour to the Lord. For it pleases him to bring to completion not only the hundredfold fruit, but also the sixtyfold and the thirtyfold.

Verses 6–17. "But if his offering is from the sheep, and a victim of peace offerings, whether he offers a male or a female, they shall be without blemish. If he offers a lamb before the Lord, he shall lay his hand on the head of his victim, which shall be slaughtered in the vestibule of the tabernacle of witness; and the sons of Aaron shall pour its blood round about the altar, and they shall offer from the victim of peace offerings a sacrifice to the Lord: the fat and the whole tail with the kidneys, and the fat that covers the belly and all the vital parts, and both kidneys with the fat that is beside the flanks, and the net of the liver with the kidneys. And the priest shall burn them on the altar as food for the fire and the Lord's offering. If his offering is a goat, and he offers it to the Lord, he shall lay his hand on its head and slaughter it at the entrance of the tabernacle of witness; and the sons of Aaron shall pour its blood round about the altar, and they shall take from it, as food for the Lord's fire, the fat that covers the belly and that covers all the vital parts, the two kidneys with the net that is over them by the vital parts, and the lobe of the liver with the kidneys. And the priest shall burn them on the altar as nourishment for the fire and of most sweet odour. All the fat shall be the Lord's by perpetual right in your generations and in all your dwellings; you shall eat neither fat nor blood at all."

Whom the lawgiver commanded to offer an ox, and whom again a sheep or a goat, we explained earlier in what was said about the burnt offerings. For we said that the sacrifices are compared to the ways of life of those who offer them, and that the differences of ways of life are figured by the differences of the sacrifices. So we showed that the ox is the doer of the commandments of the law, and we said that the sheep are the simple, and the goats also simple but men who had been engaged in sins and were afterwards converted. But there he mixed the sacrifice of goats with that of sheep, for he says: "But if the offering is from the flock, from the sheep or from the goats, he offers a burnt offering of one year without blemish." The Seventy render thus: "If his gift is from the sheep, from the lambs and the kids, for a burnt offering, he shall offer it a male without blemish," because the Old Testament considered sheep to be in a way the kind that includes lambs and kids. You will find, however, that also in the prophet Amos goats are called sheep; for he says: "I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I am a goatherd, gathering sycamore figs; and the Lord took me from the flocks of sheep." Since those who pasture goats are properly called goatherds, it is plain that he put goats too among the sheep.

Since, then, the law calls some of them lambs and some goats, the lambs signify those who are simple only and have not sinned at all, and the goats those who are simple but have sinned and been converted. Their sacrifice was rightly handed down as in a way one in the burnt offerings: for one who wishes to be minded for perfect things, even if he was a sinner, must, from the time he has chosen the perfect life, live as one who did not sin before. But in the sacrifice of peace offerings, though he kept the same things in the sacrifice of sheep as of goats and oxen, he kept this one thing more in the sheep, that not only the fat and the net of the liver, or according to the Seventy the lobe of the liver, but the kidneys and the tail, or according to the Seventy "the loin without blemish with the kidneys," be offered. For because, being simple, he left undone many things that he ought to have done, he must offer his strength to God, so that, as a simple man, he may not use his strength for evil but rather for good, and may make it plain that he has left undone nothing of what he can know and carry out. And that the loin is taken in holy Scripture above all for strength, you know from the words which the young men standing about Rehoboam put to him against the people, so that he might show himself strong and terrible: "Thus shall you say to them: My little finger is thicker than my father's loins." And God, wishing to arm the Israelites with strength, commanded Moses thus: "So shall you eat it: you shall gird your loins, having shoes on your feet and holding staves in your hands, and you shall eat in haste." Paul too, declaring war against the principalities and powers, said: "Stand, girding your loins with truth, putting on the breastplate of righteousness." And the Lord said to the apostles: "Let your loins be girded."

But even if we say that the loin is a helper in the unions of intercourse (for the kidneys lie in it; hence Paul too, writing to the Hebrews of Levi, says, "For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him"), the simple are rightly made cautious, since through simplicity they could easily be drawn to pleasure, so that they offer to God not only the kidneys and the fat that is over them, but also the loin, which is at the kidneys. And what he adds in the same translation, "without blemish, whole," understand thus, as Symmachus explains, who put "whole" for "without blemish," and Aquila "perfect": for this reason he added "with the kidneys," wanting it to be offered whole and perfect, as we said, so that the simple man may not offer one part of himself to God and another to the adversary. For it is enough for his pardon if he does not do the things that belong to virtue; but if he works evil, he will have no pardon. Hence the Lord commands us to be simple as doves, because doves have in a way an excessive simplicity, yet are pure of all malice.

But one who offers a sacrifice from the oxen, as a doer of the commandments of the law, has no need to offer the loin, because he has employed it in the correction of good actions. And one who sacrifices from the goats, even if he is of the simple kind, yet because he is understood to be of the converted sinners, cannot offer a loin without blemish, for he once stained it with sin. It is plain, then, that the one, as not having been in sins, can offer a loin without blemish; but the one who was, does not now offer the loin in the sacrifices, since what they are is ascribed to the goats, of which he did not ordain that the loin be offered; and this was why in the sacrifice of peace offerings he distinguished the goats from the lambs. The other things are common, and we need not speak of them, for they were treated sufficiently in the offering of oxen.

But this should be known: where he says, "And the priest shall burn them on the altar as nourishment for the fire and of most sweet odour," whereas the Seventy rendered "The priest shall offer it on the altar, apart from the odour of sweetness," the other interpreters in the sacrifice of burnt offerings rendered "burnt offerings" instead of "entrails," and others "offering." But in this sacrifice of peace offerings one rendered "bread" and others "grain," showing without doubt that, even if it is not the offering of perfect philosophy (for that is the sacrifice of burnt offerings), yet this too is sufficient to nourish among those who are on the way to salvation and to give strength to the one who offers. For the prophet David says that bread gives this nourishment, when he says: "For bread strengthens the heart of man."

"All the fat shall be the Lord's by perpetual right in your generations and in all your dwellings; you shall eat neither fat nor blood at all." We said that the fat bears the figure of the desire, or lust, that is in us, and the blood that of the soul. Since, then, he commanded the fat to be offered to the Lord for ever, it is plain that he wants our desire, or lust, to be consecrated to God; and for ever, so that we may not divide it between God and the world. That is why he also added: "in your generations," that is, through each age; for here generations are understood as the changes of the ages, as Jeremiah shows when, writing to the Jewish people in Babylon, he expresses the number of seventy years as seven generations. He would not say this if he did not by it signify the succession of the ages; for he says: "Going into Babylon, you will be there many years and a long time, up to seven generations." "In all your dwellings," that is, in every way of life, whether we lead it in community or follow the solitary life; hence David said: "He who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house."

He commanded that fat and blood not be eaten at all: the fat for this reason, that he does not want us to have a desire, or lust, of our own, that is, carnal. That is why James said: "But each one is tempted by his own lust, being drawn away and enticed." And the blood, so that he may not run either to his own death or to his neighbour's; for this is the mark of cruel beasts. Therefore he said, "You shall not eat blood," commanding us to spare not only our neighbours but also ourselves. For to Noah too he plainly commanded such things: "You shall not eat flesh with blood, for I will require the blood of your souls," signifying that by abstaining from blood he wants man to abstain from murders. But for God he did not forbid it to be sacrificed, nor to despise the soul; rather he commanded it outright, and hence he ordered the blood to be poured out at the base of the altar.