Commentary on Leviticus 2.10–3.0

Verse 1. "And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, taking their censers, put fire and incense on them, offering strange fire before the Lord, which had not been commanded them."

Here he has set down that those who teach foreign things, who blaspheme the Spirit of God himself, who interpret otherwise the Scripture inspired by him (of which Paul says, "All Scripture inspired by God is profitable"), must necessarily be punished by the fire perceived by the mind. They are called sons of Aaron as having the dress of teachers and pretending to teach spiritual things. Hence their tongues too are called fire: for we have heard that the Spirit came in the form of tongues of fire. And they put incense on the censers, or on the fires of their tongues, the doctrines of the law and of the prophets, of which the church said to Christ in the Song of Songs: "The odour of your ointments is above all spices." But they offer strange fire, for they do not interpret according to the intention or the power of the Spirit.

For these, fire comes out from the Lord, not simply as before. For by that the Lord burned the sacrifices, and it was called the glory of the Lord; but this is a fire of punishment. For the church has both: the one for the enlightenment of the righteous and the perfecting of offerings, the other for the punishment of the ungodly, which the priests pronounce on those who blaspheme, kindling it from the supply of the Spirit who rests in them. That is why Paul too punishes Hymenaeus and Alexander, as teaching other things. These die before the Lord, he seeing it and condemning them to this death, so that they may not by imitation of themselves give others cause of death. And in this the lawgiver greatly marvels, why from the very thing from which they should have enjoyed life, that is, "before the Lord," they suffer death, which they suffer by interpreting the divine Scriptures badly, subjecting themselves to a curse in the very matter from which they ought to have earned a blessing.

But see what he added. Verse 3. "And Moses said to Aaron: This is what the Lord said: I will be sanctified in those who draw near to me, and in the sight of all the people I will be glorified. Hearing this, Aaron was silent," or as the Seventy render, "and Aaron was pierced with compunction."

And where at all do we find that God said these things? When, namely, he said to Moses: "Go down and charge the people, lest perhaps they draw near to God, and a multitude of them fall; and let the priests who draw near to the Lord God be sanctified, lest perhaps the Lord depart from them." These things, then, even if they differ in words from those that were said, yet hold the same intention unchanged. For he commanded the people not to draw near to God, or to know him, not as grudging them the vision, but sparing them as imperfect and less capable of so great a contemplation. But the priests who draw near he commands to be sanctified, so that they may become worthy to see and contemplate God; because no one can acquire true knowledge of God without sanctification. That is why Paul says: "Pursue peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see God," calling his sight his knowledge, that is, the contemplation of him; hence he commanded the priests to be sanctified. See how he threatens in what follows: "lest perhaps the Lord depart from them," that is, lest the knowledge which is of God flee from them; for the departure of knowledge becomes perdition for them.

But let us now take up the words which were spoken through Moses as from the person of God. "And I will be sanctified in those who draw near to me." He calls his sanctification the cleansing away of the profane or the wicked, because he has us as his body; and the cleansing of the body is the casting away of filth. This, then, he works as good and merciful in those who draw near to him, namely in the abundance of knowledge or in some divine ministry, so that through them he may strike fear, "and in the sight of all the people be glorified," that is, praised and made manifest; for the word glorifying shows both, both the praise of God that comes from this and the manifestation. David says: "For the Lord is righteous, he has loved righteousness; his face has seen equity."

At these things Aaron was silent, or as the Seventy have it, "Aaron was pierced with compunction," namely the church; for the church is the body of Aaron perceived by the mind; hence he himself said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?", and again said to the disciples of those who receive them, "He who receives you receives me."

[Verses 4–5.] "[And Moses called Mishael and El]zaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them: Go, take your brothers from the sight of the sanctuary and carry them out of the camp. And at once they went and took them as they lay, clothed in linen tunics, and cast them out, as had been commanded them."

By those who cast them out understand [how] those who were taken away, or cast out, [are to be understood]. And who were those who took them away? Mishael and Elzaphan, or Misadai and Elisaphan, of whom one, that is, Misadai, is interpreted "handling of God," and Elisaphan "watchtower of my God." Whoever, then, knows how to handle God, and moreover to watch, both to handle the flesh of Christ and to behold with the eyes of the mind the divinity (as Thomas, handling the flesh with his hand and beholding the divinity by faith, said, "My Lord and my God"), he can take away the fire of foreign teaching and cast it out with its tunics from the face of the holy things; because the persons of the holy things are the priests, and the tunics of the priests are the way of life and the life which they put on in the dress of the priesthood. So they are expelled, together with the priesthood which fell to them by lot, from the priestly portion; and not only from that of the priests but also from that of the people; hence he adds, "out of the tabernacle." For the tabernacle of God is the people of the church.

And those who can do these things are reasonably named the sons of Aaron's uncle, or of the brother [of Aaron's father]. For if the father of Aaron perceived by the mind is David, and through him the whole body of the prophets is believed [to be meant] (for the prophecies make him manifest and in a way give birth to him for those who do not know him), then the own brother, and, so to speak, the brother of prophecy, is the Gospel: for all things that were done in the Gospels were foretold by the prophets. For this reason Peter commanded us to be helped to perfect knowledge by the prophetic word, because "a brother helping a brother is like a strong city"; for he says: "We have the more sure prophetic word, to which you do well to attend, as to a lamp in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts," that is, until the gospel knowledge shines in you. So those who have learned the gospel way of life are well and very fittingly called sons of the brother of Aaron's father; and they are necessarily appointed to refute and repel those who teach other things, as having perfect knowledge. Of this John said: "Everyone who goes ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the teaching has both the Son and the Father. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into the house, nor say to him, Hail." It is the proper task, then, of those who have been taught the gospel teaching to drive out and cast away from the face of the holy things and of the tabernacle those who preach adulterated and foreign things.

Verses 6–7. "Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons: Do not uncover your heads and do not tear your garments, lest perhaps … your brothers and the whole house of the sons of Israel lament the burning which the Lord has kindled. But you shall not go out of the doors of the tabernacle, otherwise you will perish; for the oil of holy anointing is upon you. And they did all things according to the command of Moses."

We are not ignorant of what the priests' tiaras signify, namely, since "the head of every man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God," the signification of the tiara is necessarily in a way at once of the humanity and of the divinity of the Only-begotten; for we showed this above too through the make of the tiara. So he has commanded what the priests and teachers must keep: that is, that they neither deny nor contradict either the divinity or the humanity of Christ, since he is God from God and the Word from the Father. For this is not to take the tiara off the head, namely not to uncover [the head] of the tiara perceived by the mind. Nor should they reject or blaspheme the dispensation. For those who blaspheme the dispensation of Christ tear the priestly robe: because all men who have believed in Christ, and much more the priests, are those who have put on Christ, since "whoever of us were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Priests who do these things will neither die nor bring wrath upon the congregation. For the vices of those set over others are a stumbling block to those under them, and much more do the teachers become for their disciples an occasion of the wrath of God.

That is why he wants the whole house of Israel, namely the whole church, to lament the burning with which they were burned by God: for if the fall of one member of the church, of anyone at all, is cause for weeping, how much more the perdition of teachers and priests? So much so that Paul writes to the Corinthians of the one who had committed fornication: "And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned." But if, when one of the people commits fornication, he commanded the whole church to mourn, much more when priests and teachers are found acting impiously or blaspheming.

This being so, we must ask how, when by the preceding ordinance he had commanded them not to go out of the tabernacle of witness for seven days only, after these were completed (for these things take place on the eighth day), Moses again commanded them not to go out of the door of the tabernacle. He does not, then, ordain things contrary to himself; but it is plain that here he commanded them to keep another going out of the door of the tabernacle of witness. For he added, "so that you do not die," and yet he did not write this above. So by the addition of the threat he signified that he had ordained something else: since certain priests perished as offering the fire of foreign teaching, he commanded the others by what was said not to go out of the door of knowledge, namely of Christ and his tradition; that is, not to transgress the preaching which he himself commanded, but to follow the Lord's precept in all things; for so each one will not die. This he commanded the priests, to whom as teachers and preachers the ministry of the word [has been given] as a gift; "for the oil of holy anointing is upon you." John the evangelist shows us the power of this anointing, saying: "And as for you, let the anointing which you received from him abide in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is no lie." Moses commanded these things through the Spirit, and the church keeps them. So the lawgiver accordingly adds: "And they did according to the command of Moses."

Verses 8–11. "The Lord also said to Aaron: Wine and anything that can make drunk you shall not drink, you and your sons, when you go into the tabernacle of witness, lest you die; because it is an everlasting precept in your generations; and that you may have the knowledge to distinguish between holy and profane, and between polluted and clean, and that you may teach the sons of Israel all my statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses."

You find this law kept in the churches until now. For he did not command total abstinence from wine, but when we go up to the tabernacle of witness or to the altar, that is, when we touch any ministry of the heavenly teaching. For the altar is the figure of ministry, and the tabernacle of witness of the handling of heavenly things. Hence Paul too wrote to Timothy: "Use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities." But one who

uses a little, namely at the time of ministry and teaching, abstains from all wine-drinking and drunkenness. Likewise those who strive to keep the law [do so] as priests; for this reason he handed down this commandment not only to Aaron but also to his sons, namely to those who have attained loftier things. And Paul wrote things like these to the Ephesians: "Do not be drunk with wine, in which is all debauchery, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit." For drunkenness makes the mind dull and turns its sobriety to the worse, so that the things that are done are not understood; Isaiah testifies to this, saying: "Woe to you who rise early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink until evening, so as to be inflamed with wine. The harp and the lyre and the timbrel and the flute and wine are in your feasts, and you do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the works of his hands." And how can those who do not see the works of the Lord distinguish between holy and profane, or clean and unclean, or how can they exhort and enlighten the people from the Scriptures? Hence, wishing to show this commandment as loftier, he says that the Lord himself spoke it.

But notice how even this is not foreign to the exactness of what was done at Pentecost. For what he here commands not to be done, some suspected had been done when the grace of the Spirit came, and said, "These men are full of new wine"; and Peter denied it as a forbidden thing, saying: "For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is the third hour of the day." … He commanded the priests to teach the sons of Israel [the things that God] spoke through Moses, and he says "not by the tongue but by the hand." Or else he wanted to show the dignity of the law altogether, because God set it out, but Moses wrote it, and received it at God's command, as it was arranged.

Verses 12–15. "And Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons who were left: Take the sacrifice that remains from the offering of the Lord, and eat it without leaven beside the altar, because it is a holy of holies. And you shall eat in a holy place what has been given to you and to your sons from the offerings of the Lord, as I have been commanded. The breast also which was offered, and the shoulder which was set apart, you shall eat in a most clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you. For they have been reserved for you and your children from the victims of salvation of the sons of Israel, because the shoulder and the breast and the fat, which are burned on the altar, have been lifted up before the Lord, and pertain to you and to your sons by a perpetual law, as the Lord commanded."

That the breast signifies the confidence and faith of those who offer, and the arm the action and correction of the way of life they have promised, has been sufficiently shown by us in what was discussed part by part about the sacrifice of peace offerings, or of salvation. But why he assigned the things mentioned to Aaron and his sons (for there the lawgiver set out their distinction: what belongs to Aaron's [sons] and what Aaron himself has specially) [must be considered]. For he said that "the sacrifice that remains from the offering," or from the burnt offerings of the Lord, is what is left over of the fine flour. Aquila rendered it plainly, saying: "the gift that is left of the grain." And its interpretation is also what the lawgiver added, for he says: "and eat it without leaven beside the altar." Everywhere he signifies the teaching of theology by the sacrifice of fine flour without leaven, wishing it [to be free] of outside teaching; showing likewise that theology with us is something partial, for its fullness is in heaven. For this reason he commanded what remained, that is, what is left over, to be eaten, to show that the sum is with him and is kept there. And it must be eaten beside the altar, that is, the body of Christ; for from it all theology is ministered to us.

But what remained of the fine flour shall be Aaron's and his sons'; while what is from the sacrifices of peace offerings, or of salvation, is Aaron's and his sons', or according to the Seventy "and his house's," namely of all the people. For to devote oneself to theology does not belong to all, but to the lofty, and to those who draw near to the Lord and who follow Christ; but to attain the things that pertain to peace offerings, or to salvation, belongs to the whole people, which is named the house of the priest perceived by the mind. And it is the church, of which Paul too said: "In a great house [there are vessels not only of gold and silver, but also] of wood and of earthenware." That is why it does not belong to all to attain theology.

Verses 16–18. "Meanwhile, when Moses was seeking the he-goat which had been offered for sin, he found it burned. And being angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left, he said: Why did you not eat the victim for sin in the holy place, which is called a holy of holies and was given to you, so that you might bear the iniquity of the multitude and pray for it in the sight of the Lord? Especially since of its blood none was brought within the holy place, and you ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I was commanded."

Since every sin is blotted out by repentance, and those who committed the said sin of other teaching and of blasphemy were not saved, the lawgiver sets out the cause of the death which came upon them without mercy. Here Moses brings in the he-goat for sin, namely the offering of repentance, because "seeking he sought it out," as the Seventy render, that is, he sought it greatly. And being angry he said to the sons of Aaron who were left that they had not eaten what was for sin in the holy place, that is, because as priests they had not performed repentance for the sin committed against the church: for it was commanded to them to eat the things that are for sin, and to pray the prayer which is for the repentance of the congregation, and to obtain it. Why? Because Christ has set them in his own place in the churches. And he himself offered the blood of his offering, which was offered for our blood, in the holy place, namely within, in the heavenly dwelling, in the sight of his Father. And he commanded this sacrifice to be eaten in the holy place (and we say this is the church) for the forgiveness and propitiation of sins. That is why Moses says: "As I was commanded," that is, as I commanded and charged; for we said that Moses too bears the person of Christ.

And he inquires not out of ignorance; for, as in what went before he added the cause, so, having said that Moses "seeking sought out" the he-goat for sin, he at once added: "and it had been burned," or "he found it burned," showing that, since the sin of other teaching is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (for which reason Stephen calls the teachers of the Jews transgressors of the law and disobedient, stiff-necked and hard of heart, and said to them as to men who interpret the law and the prophets badly, "You always resist the Holy Spirit"), the offering for repentance was necessarily taken away from them by the fire perceived by the mind, namely of the Spirit; and for this reason the he-goat for sin is said to have been burned up. For those who sin knowingly and willingly, even if they say they repent, do not repent purely, for their heart has been blinded by blasphemy. That is why Paul too said: "For if we sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains [a sacrifice] for sin." … "[every sin] is forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit is not forgiven." Peter showed this by the deed itself: for because Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit, he said to them: "Why has Satan blinded your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men, but to God." For he did not give them time for repentance, knowing that, having a heart blinded in transgression and blasphemy of the Spirit, they would not bear to repent; for he at once condemned them to death as a punishment. What follows, then, can better establish and explain the things now said.

Verses 19–20. "Aaron answered: Today the victim for sin has been offered in the burnt offering before the Lord; but to me has happened what you see. How could I eat it, or how could I please the Lord in the ceremonies with a mournful mind? When Moses heard this, he accepted the excuse."

Paul plainly handed down to us what time must be understood by "today." For when David had said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation," and he himself interprets that what was said must be understood loosely of the present time but properly of the time after the Lord's coming, see what he added: "Since, then, it remains that some enter into it, and those to whom it was first announced did not enter because of unbelief, he again fixes a certain day, saying in David 'today', after so long a time, as was said above: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, he would never speak of another." By the things said before, then, it is shown that this day plainly signifies the time after the Saviour's coming, in which the rest of the Sabbath perceived by the mind has been preached to men.

Aaron, then, seems to say this in the person of the church, as bearing the figure not only of Christ but also of the church: that because today they offered the things that are for their sin, and their burnt offerings, that is, because after the coming of the Saviour they had been appointed to minister and to offer for repentance and to set out the philosophic life, [and] teaching other things they were rebuked, and such things befell the church in them that it mourned the death that came upon priests and teachers from blasphemy, it rightly could not eat today what was for sin, nor did its repentance obtain prayer, because, namely, it displeased the Lord Christ. And he added "today" to show that if they had committed this sin before the forgiveness [brought by] the Saviour, it might perhaps have been pardoned, as knowledge had not yet been poured out in its perfection; hence the Lord too says: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin," that is, no satisfaction. When Moses perceived by the mind heard this, then, it pleased him, because he found the church keeping his teaching.

Knowing this, let us too … from all other teaching and blasphemy … the living and true God, and the name of the Father and of the Son and … Amen.

God did not fill creation with variety in vain, but so that from the difference of his making we might infer the skill of the craftsman and who he is. For those who look at the heavens understand from the variety of the stars that God is their greatest craftsman and founder. And those who consider the earth come to know him from the different character of its situation, that is, from the animals, the shrubs and the seeds, and from all its variety. And those who turn their gaze to the immense spread of the waters perceive, from the movement of the winds that comes from different quarters, from the size of the islands and of the sea monsters, and from the distinctness of the fishes and the birth of their innumerable kinds, that God is the maker also of this visible creation. So too he adorns the law with all its precepts, bringing man forward, and he has commanded what those ought to be who wish always to be with God: now in the offering of sacrifices, now in abstinence from foods, now also in the treatment of bodily diseases, and sometimes in certain contracts. Let us come, then, to the words of the law themselves.