Commentary on Leviticus 2.6

Verses 8–13. "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the burnt offering. It shall be burned on the altar all night until morning; the fire shall be from the same altar. The priest shall put on a tunic and linen breeches, and he shall take up the ashes which the fire has burned up, and put them beside the altar. He shall strip off his former garments and, having put on others, he shall carry them out of the camp, and in a most clean place he shall make them be consumed to ash. But the fire on the altar shall always burn, which the priest feeds, putting wood under it in the morning every day; and having laid on the burnt offering, he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. This is the perpetual fire, which shall never fail on the altar."

Since we have shown sufficiently in what went before the manner of the lawgiver, and the foundation of the explanation of the words of the law has been laid, other than which no one who builds in the spirit can lay any (for it is Christ, who lies beneath the whole explanation of the law for us like the cornerstone of the building), let us, then, by his grace and teaching, since he is also the architect, build upon it gold, silver, precious stones.

"The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the burnt offering." Here the law speaks of the continual sacrifice which in the book of Exodus he commanded the priests to offer daily; for he speaks thus: "This is what you shall do on the altar: two lambs of a year old each day continually"; and a little after, "a perpetual offering for your generations." And he says: "You shall make a burnt offering, one lamb in the morning, and the other you shall make in the evening." By these things, then, we understand that for those who are of the people it is left to their will whether they wish to offer a burnt offering; for this reason that sacrifice is called their gift, as a freewill offering. For not every man is required to have the most perfect wisdom; yet the priest must in every way be perfectly wise. For the perpetual sacrifice, that is, the continual burnt offering, is commanded to be offered twice in the day, morning and evening, so that beginning from perfect wisdom he may end in the same, and order his whole life to perfection.

But since the lawgiver set out at the beginning of this book of Leviticus how the burnt offering is divided piece by piece, how its blood is poured out, how it is laid on the altar, now, as these things have been said sufficiently, he speaks of the burnt offering alone. Accordingly he added: "The fire on the altar shall always burn, which the priest shall feed." For one who owes a burnt offering, that is, the working of perfect wisdom, must always kindle the fire of the Holy Spirit and not allow it to be quenched. And it is quenched by the negligence of those to whom it was given; that is why Paul too says, "Do not quench the Spirit," as though it were placed in our power to quench it or to kindle it. And he commanded the fire to be kindled all night, not because it was not kindled in the day, but [to show] how the burnt offering was made twice every day: since the fire by day was evident, he added the one by night. Since, then, the night is the darkness of this life, that is, the ignorance which holds many, of which Paul said, "The night has gone before, and the day will draw near," he commanded us, who have been made a burnt offering of God, to kindle the fire even in the night, so that while others transgress the law and are earthly, we may be spiritual, remembering David, who says: "It is time to act, O Lord; the wicked have broken up your law." For when others transgress the law, we must above all be raised up to obedience to the law.

And he added: "The priest shall put on a tunic and linen breeches." The priest who offers the burnt offering is here understood as each one who is perfectly wise, because the priesthood is the pattern of perfection; that is why the faithful people too is called a royal priesthood, as receiving the perfect law of the Gospel. One who wishes to offer a burnt offering, then, should be clothed with the tunic, that is, righteousness, and with breeches, that is, chastity. That by the breeches chastity must be understood the members prove, whose covering the breeches are. And we said that the tunic is righteousness, because righteousness above all is the garment of every perfect man; hence Paul said: "Stand, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness." And of linen, because [linen] is a fitting garment and clings more softly to the body, whereas what is of wool is rough. From this he teaches that righteousness and chastity are lowly and cling closely to the soul; and at the same time he teaches this, that just as linen is easy for anyone to have, so the virtues are easy for those who wish to attain them, and can be quickly acquired.

Clothed in these, he commands him to carry off the ashes of the burnt offering which the fire has consumed from the altar. What does he teach by this, except that just as the victim is taken away, that is, the sacrifice of the burnt offering which has been completed, so that another like it may be offered again, so we too should do? For the virtues which we perform with the Spirit working with us we must lay down one by one, so that we may work others again; and we should not be content with those that went before only, but join others to them, as one who runs, leaving behind what he has run, strains towards what remains to be run; because otherwise he will not be able to reach the prize. For this reason, having commanded the burnt offering consumed by fire to be taken from the altar, he commanded it to be put beside the altar; and we said that Christ is the altar of burnt offering. Let us carry off to him, then, the virtues once completed in deed, when we have the time to work them, as though he will not reckon the earlier ones to us if we are negligent and do not build others upon them. Ezekiel proves this when he says: "If I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, and he, trusting in his righteousness, commits iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall be given over to forgetfulness, and in his iniquity which he has worked, in it he shall die." But he reckons them if we increase and confirm the past by what is to come. Hence he commands the burnt offering to be put beside the altar; for Christ, the just judge, keeps for us whatever good we have done, if we have not betrayed it by wicked actions.

For this reason also he commanded him to strip off his garments and put on others, and to carry the ashes out of the camp to a most clean place, not clothing us with garments of another kind than those he spoke of before. For he did not command us to put on a woollen garment in place of the linen one; rather this same thing signifies much: that what was done and corrected before is not reckoned when it is time to do other things. And so, laying aside the former garment, he wants us to put on another such. And to carry them out of the camp to a most clean place, that is, to send them ahead to the future judgment: for that is outside the camp of the present age, and it is a clean place, because the judgment of the age to come is clean of all corruption.

But what is it that he added? "But the fire on the altar shall always burn, which the priest shall feed, putting wood under it in the morning every day." Just as wood is the fuel of fire, and he commands it to be arranged in the morning, so for us the testimonies of the divine law and meditation on the sacred oracles, which we said above are the wood, are the fuel of the supply of the Spirit. These, then, we must arrange in the morning, in the light, that is, in watchfulness and sobriety of soul; not only in the time of sobriety but also in the night perceived by the mind, of which Paul said: "Let us not sleep, then, as the rest who have no hope, but let us watch and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk are drunk at night." Let the fire of the supply of the Spirit suffice, in which the victim perceived by the mind must be arranged, and the fat of the peace offerings, which the Seventy rendered "of salvation." For we said that in the sacrifice of peace offerings, or of salvation, desire is signified by the fat, so that one who has become wholly spiritual for the Spirit, having nothing material, nothing wretched or earthly, may offer, or devote, the desire of salvation. And the lawgiver, calling us to this, says: "This is the perpetual fire, which shall never fail from the altar." For "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Hence the altar perceived by the mind, which is the body of Christ, also has the unquenchable fire of the supply of the Spirit.

Verses 14–18. "This is the law of the sacrifice and of the drink offerings, which the sons of Aaron shall offer before the Lord and before the altar. The priest shall take a handful of the fine flour which is sprinkled with oil, and all the frankincense that is put on the fine flour, and he shall burn it on the altar as a memorial of most sweet odour to the Lord; but the remaining part of the fine flour Aaron shall eat with his sons, without leaven, and he shall eat it in the place of the sanctuary of the tabernacle. And it shall not be leavened, because part of it is offered as incense to the Lord. It shall be a holy of holies, like that for sin and for transgression. The males only of the stock of Aaron shall eat it, a lawful and everlasting ordinance in your generations from the sacrifices of the Lord. Everyone who touches them shall be sanctified."

We remember that blessed Paul said: "To say the same things is not tiresome for me, and it is necessary for you." The lawgiver seems to have this intention in the present place, repeating what he set out once, so as to recall the commandment to the reader's memory by manifold repetition. And so that by repeating the law he might make the reading more necessary, he inserts something more, for whose sake this commandment would prove necessary and quite without excuse. Just as, then, in what went before he repeated the sacrifices of the burnt offerings, mixing constancy with them (for it is his concern that the fire on the altar should always burn and never fail), so now too, having brought forward the sacrifice of fine flour, by which, as we showed at the beginning of this book, theology is signified, he added that it must be eaten only in a holy place and by males, and not everywhere or by everyone. See what he now commands about it.

"This is the law of the sacrifice and of the drink offerings, which the sons of Aaron shall offer before the Lord and before the altar." This, then, of which we are now speaking, the sons of Aaron, that is, men lofty in wisdom, alone must offer "before the Lord," that is, according to what is the will of God, not disputing superfluous things in the divine word but [keeping to] whatever Christ has revealed to us; for so understand what he says, "before the altar," since it has been shown that the altar is the humanity of the Only-begotten. Let us, then, set our theology in those things which the incarnate Lord handed down to us: that we think of the Father in him and of him in the Father, and know of the Holy Spirit that he is the Son's own and proceeds from the Father. For these are sufficient for us for the theology that helps and saves. But anyone who seeks higher or deeper things will fall away from the aim of the truth, and sins.

Hence now too the lawgiver added: "The priest shall take a handful of the fine flour which is sprinkled with oil, and all the frankincense that is put on the fine flour, and he shall burn it on the altar as a memorial of most sweet odour to the Lord": with almsgiving and prayer, for these are figured by the oil and the frankincense, by which theology is necessarily acquired; for those who speak of God need the help of both, so as not to fall away from the truth. As a memorial of it, Christ, the priest perceived by the mind, takes the handful, because the sum of knowledge remains with him; and it is a memorial because its memory will remain for ever. For it is not as with our present knowledge, which is done away by progress, because "when that which is perfect has come," as Paul says, "that which is in part is done away." So also will that be which

is with Christ, which he has reserved for us for the age to come, for those who will then be made more perfect. For that, as being complete, always remains in memory without forgetting. And just as what is the sum of all wisdom is taken in a handful (because in the book of Exodus God commanded through Moses that a handful be offered for each head of the sons of Israel), so the lawgiver hints that the sum of acquaintance and of perfect knowledge is with Christ.

And notice what he adds to these things: "But the remaining part of the fine flour Aaron shall eat with his sons," so that we may not cease altogether from theology because the sum of knowledge is kept for the future. But what has been left to us by him, that is, handed down, this knowledge he commands us to eat and to work, that about which we have also been commanded, and which is sufficient for us and in keeping with our strength. But we must consider where and how one ought to work it. There follows: "without leaven, and he shall eat it in the place of the sanctuary of the tabernacle." [The word] of God is not baked with leaven, neither according to Jewish teaching nor according to the gentile leaven: for he does not want us to speak the word [so], but [wants it] to be pure of all admixture and without any leaven. And he commanded it to be eaten in the court of the tabernacle of witness, that is, to be worked in the church. For the tabernacle of witness is heaven, in which Scripture testifies that God dwells; and the court of the tabernacle of witness, that is, of heaven, is the church, not only as the entrance and vestibule of the heavens, but also as the house of God. There, then, that is, in it, one must in every way speak of the divinity, or practise theology. "For in the churches," it says, "bless the Lord." But if someone has a church in his house (for Paul says, "Greet Nympha and the church in her house"; and someone has a church in his house when he has sanctified himself to God and has ceased from worldly business), he too can speak of God, or practise theology, at home. Such are those to whom a part of the sacrifices of the Lord, that is, speaking of God, or theology, is given from the gifts and offerings.

Of this he added: "It shall be a holy of holies," because they possess the contemplation of the Holy of Holies. And he added: "like that for sin and for transgression," wishing to show it to be like the sacrifice for sin and transgression. For speech about God serves above all for the rescue and cleansing of the soul, when the sacrifice of the word of God, that is, of theology, is joined with oil and frankincense, namely with almsgiving and prayer, as the lawgiver commanded it to be offered; not commanding this in vain, but because sins are cleansed by almsgiving and faith, as Solomon said in Proverbs.

"The males only," he says, "of the stock of Aaron shall eat it; it is a lawful and everlasting ordinance in your generations from the sacrifices of the Lord." It does not belong to everyone, then, to dispute about God, but to such as have nothing womanish, nothing unstable in their thoughts. He commanded this to be kept as a lawful and everlasting ordinance in their generations, that is, for ever, so that at all times we may take care by no means to presume to dispute about God while, through certain wandering lapses or other worldly fancies, we fall from the dignity of males; lest it be said to us too: "But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my righteousnesses and take my covenant in your mouth?"

The following words conclude this law: "Everyone who touches them shall be sanctified." And he touches who presumes to do this fittingly; he will rightly be sanctified. For every remembrance of God bestows sanctification, as Paul testifies, saying: "For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected that is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." But in saying that the one who touches is sanctified, he shows plainly that in disputing about God, that is, in theology, it is enough for us only to touch, as with fire for one who wishes to be warmed: for if he puts his hand inside, instead of being able to be warmed he is burned. So too one who presumes to dispute about God more deeply or loftily falls into blasphemy, in place of what he wishes to show more gloriously, since he cannot grasp the height of the divine doctrines.

Verses 19–23. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: This is the offering of Aaron and his sons, which they must offer to the Lord on the day of his anointing. They shall offer a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour in an everlasting sacrifice, half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening, which shall be fried in a pan sprinkled with oil. And the priest who has succeeded his father by right shall offer it hot as a most sweet odour to the Lord, and it shall be wholly burned on the altar. For every sacrifice of the priests shall be consumed by fire, and no one shall eat of it."

Every sacrifice that relates to the person of the priest bears the figure of the sacrifice of the Only-begotten, as is shown by the present law; for he says: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: This is the offering of Aaron and his sons, which they must offer to the Lord on the day of his anointing." This gift belongs to many priests, for he says "of Aaron and his sons"; but it is offered for one anointed, because the image and the firmness, or subsistence, of every priesthood is the sacrifice of Christ: for by him alone being offered it is for all. And when was it done? "On the day of his anointing," that is, at the time when he became incarnate; for in the person of the Only-begotten the incarnation is called anointing. Of it Peter says: "Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power." And how and when these things took place Gabriel told Mary, saying: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." Hence David said: "Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows," interpreting most plainly what the oil of … was, namely that it was not like this oil with which all priests and kings and prophets were anointed. That is why he says, "above your partners," that is, over your partners. And his partners are holy either because of the flesh or because of the communion of the Spirit. Hence Paul says: "But we have been made partakers of Christ, if indeed we hold the beginning of his substance firm to the end."

What offering, then, did the lawgiver command to be offered when the priest had been anointed, namely after the incarnation of the Word? "They shall offer a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour in an everlasting sacrifice, half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening, which shall be fried in a pan sprinkled with oil." That the tenth of an ephah of fine flour is the humanity of the Only-begotten was shown above, when we rightly said that the ephah, as a measure containing three measures, is the Trinity. And if the [tenth of the] ephah is the Lord's flesh, so that both the surpassing excellence of the divinity and the inseparability of the Lord's flesh from it may be shown, this is none the less for an everlasting sacrifice, because, as Paul says, "by one offering he has perfected for ever those who are sanctified." Hence also "he is able to save for ever those who draw near to God through him."

"Half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening." The passion, beginning in the morning, when in the court of Caiaphas they struck him with slaps, was drawn out until the evening; for since darkness interrupted it, coming from the sixth hour to the ninth, the sacrifice is fittingly said to be divided into morning and evening. "And it shall be fried in a pan sprinkled with oil." The pan must be taken as the Lord's cross, as strong and in no way harmed by the fire of human sins; it also made the Lord's flesh laid upon it eatable for men. For had it not been laid on the cross, we would never have received the body of Christ mystically. It is sprinkled with oil because the impassible one, having compassion on us, endured the passion of the flesh.

And he added "sprinkled," which the Seventy rendered thus: "Kneaded, he shall offer it in morsels, a sacrifice of good odour to the Lord," calling the same thing kneaded and in morsels. They are understood to have said "morsels" of it as proceeding in many ways, because of the sufferings that came one part after another; and "kneaded," as gathered into one; hence for "morsels" Symmachus rendered "spread out," and some copies have "chosen," that is, "joined together," because the sufferings of the Lord cohere with one another. Hence the lawgiver says that these same things are from parts, or breakings, according to the edition of the Seventy just mentioned, understanding by the breakings that proceed part by part the sufferings. "And all this sacrifice is of most sweet odour to the Lord." For it secured the salvation of the human race, and to God, as Creator of natures, nothing is sweeter than this.

For a fuller explanation that it signifies the sacrifice of the Only-begotten, notice what he added: "the priest who has succeeded his father by right," which the Seventy rendered thus: "The anointed priest in his place, from his sons, shall do these things." That he is both Christ and Jesus Paul proves, saying: "To us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things." For since he is through Aaron, not in his place but instead of him, the priesthood having been transferred to himself, it is plain from the fact that he, taking up the priesthood, made the ministry of that priesthood cease. And what they rendered, "from his sons," is rightly believed to mean that he is of his sons, as one who descended from the loins of Jacob, the line of the most blessed Mother of the Lord descending from the same tribe. And the said Seventy add: "It is a perpetual law to the Lord." This again is rightly understood of the priesthood of Christ, because it was said to him: "You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek."

At the same time we must also attend to what follows at the conclusion of this law: "And it shall be wholly burned on the altar. For every sacrifice of the priests shall be consumed by fire, and no one shall eat of it." What, then, do we affirm by these things, except that it may not be said of the Lord: "He who was born of a woman suffered, but he who came down from heaven did not suffer"? "For to us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things," whom those who crucified him did not know, of what dignity and power he was: "For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory." The passion, then, which came about in the flesh belongs to the incarnate Word himself; for this reason it shall be wholly burned on the altar. It belongs, then, to him who emptied himself wholly, "and took the form of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man; and he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." In this way, then, you understand also what is said: "For every sacrifice of the priests shall be consumed by fire, and no one shall eat of it." For these words too have the same force and intention. Hence where it says "every sacrifice shall be consumed by fire," the Seventy said "it shall become a burnt offering," Aquila rendered

"it shall be whole." "No one, then, shall eat of it," that is, it shall not be divided; for it belongs to the teeth to divide and portion out foods, since otherwise they cannot be chewed; but the sacrifice of Christ has been shown to be indivisible, and for this reason it cannot be eaten.

Verses 24–30. "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the victim for sin: in the place where the burnt offering is offered it shall be slaughtered before the Lord; it is a holy of holies. The priest who offers it shall eat it in a holy place, in the court of the tabernacle. Whatever touches its flesh shall be sanctified. If a garment is sprinkled with its blood, it shall be washed in a holy place; and the earthen vessel in which it was boiled shall be broken. But if it is a bronze vessel, it shall be scoured and washed with water. Every male of the priestly race shall eat of its flesh, because it is a holy of holies. For the victim that is slain for sin, whose blood is brought into the tabernacle of witness to make atonement in the sanctuary, shall not be eaten, but shall be burned with fire."

We said above that he does not repeat the same sacrifices in vain, and this is shown also in the present passage. "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the victim for sin," or "of sin," for so Theodotion and Symmachus rendered it. And what is this law? "In the place where the burnt offering is offered it shall be slaughtered before the Lord, because it is a holy of holies." These commands are given to Aaron and his sons because to offer the sacrifice for sin, that is, repentance, belongs to those who are lofty and highest and lifted up from the earth, which nothing but withdrawal from evil secures. Where the burnt offerings are sacrificed, then, there those that are for sin are slain too: because one who offers repentance now imitates the one who offered his whole self to God and withdrew in every way from the world; hence his way of life too is called a burnt offering. And the offering of both is in the sight of the Lord, for it is pleasing to God when it is offered according to his intention; and being thus pleasing to God, it is rightly called a holy of holies. For if the sacrifice of the penitent were not a holy of holies, it would never have brought the penitent into the Holy of Holies, from which he had formerly been driven out through sin.

"The priest who offers it shall eat it." He says, "the one who offers"; and this is Christ, who took up our sins and rightly offers our repentance. For this reason Theodotion too, instead of "offering," rendered "atoning," that is, cleansing, and through the ministry of his priesthood making perfect the one who is cleansed. And how Christ eats it, learn from the place in which he will eat it: "in a holy place, in the court of the tabernacle," or as the Seventy rendered it, "in the court of the tabernacle of witness." And the court of the tabernacle of witness is the church; for it, before heaven, is the court of the tabernacle of witness, where Christ works the salvation of penitents; and this salvation is also called his food: "For my food," he says, "is to do the will of my Father," and his will is that the sinner be converted and saved.

Moreover he says: "Whatever touches its flesh shall be sanctified." By the flesh of repentance we understand fasting, vigils, the garment of haircloth, prayer with tears, almsgiving; for of these repentance consists, and one who touches them will rightly be sanctified. "And if a garment is sprinkled with its blood, it shall be washed in a holy place." The blood of repentance is, properly, baptism: for as the blood is the life of all flesh, so baptism is the gift of repentance. For everyone who repents, if he has not received baptism, his repentance is useless and without any fruit, dead and lifeless, because no one puts off the old man of sin otherwise than by the washing of regeneration. And if you say, "How then will men who were baptized long ago repent?", know that the power of the baptism that went before works also in the repentance that is done afterwards.

This, then, is the intention of the lawgiver: … one who eats the flesh of the said sacrifice, though the offering is another's, is sanctified. By … it is shown that one who has not … repentance, if he does any of these things, is sanctified by repentance. Likewise, even if someone who has not yet sinned much is baptized, he is cleansed. And what need has he of cleansing? … he has need, because no one is clean of filth, even if his life on earth be of one day; yet he retains [the sin] which by succession from Adam he drew from his generation. And therefore … he did not say that he is to be washed as unclean; for he says: "If a garment is sprinkled with its blood." … for the garment of the inner man … if it is sprinkled, there it shall be washed "in a holy place"; that is, this very thing that is sprinkled shall be washed, not because it is stained by the sprinkling (for if it were so, he would have said or added that), but what [comes] from the sprinkling itself he called a washing done in a holy place, in the mystical house of the Spirit. … if someone has been washed by force, as, for example, the sprinklings of the pagans, he is not lifted up, because he did not receive the sprinkling and washing in a holy place. … wishing to introduce …, he said. And plainly the word of baptism is next to the account of repentance; hence John, beginning to preach repentance, brought in baptism in his preaching, namely because the mystery of repentance has its substance in baptism.

But let us go on to what follows. "And the earthen vessel in which it was boiled shall be broken. But if it is a bronze vessel, it shall be scoured and washed with water." What the earthen vessel is, and where it lies, Paul shows when he says: "In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earthenware, some for honour and some for dishonour," for dishonour, namely, those of earthenware. By the great house, as being the house of God, he understood the church, in which the righteous are the vessels of gold and silver, and sinners the earthen ones. And Isaiah too said of Jerusalem: "Its breaking shall come, and it shall be shattered as a potter's jar is broken with a very strong breaking, and among its fragments no sherd shall be found in which a little fire may be carried from the burning, or a little water drawn from the pit." Since, then, the vessels in which the flesh of the sacrifice is boiled are in the temple, and we have shown from the said apostolic words that there are some weak vessels in the temple of God, whatever earthen vessel is in the temple, that is, someone weak and filthy, who has made a habit of sinning so that he is called, as a lover of sins, a vessel of dishonour, when the sacrifice has been boiled through which the forgiveness of sins is dispensed, is for this reason broken or crushed: because, being weak, he received good things badly. For seeing sins forgiven, he thinks that it is always permitted to sin, and from what helps him there is found another hurt and another crushing of his weakness. But whoever is a strong vessel and has no rust of sin will not be crushed or broken by the boiling of repentance, but is scoured or wiped, that is, washed. And how is he washed? "Washed with water": for seeing another repent, he is moved to compunction and is cleansed, washed with the water of tears.

And why is the repentance of another said to be boiled in the vessels that are set in the temple? Because those who repent need the prayer of the people for their help, as James testifies, saying: "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved."

"Every male of the priestly race shall eat of its flesh, because it is a holy of holies": that is, what pertains to the doing of repentance; for in doing repentance there is need of a strong mind and a manly purpose, having nothing womanish or unstable. But it must be noted that he said that the priest who offers eats the sacrifice, but that all the males of the priests eat the flesh of the sacrifice (Aquila: "every male of the kindred of the priests"), which seems in some way contradictory, unless it is resolved by a suitable explanation. For this reason understand Christ as the priest who offers the whole sacrifice and eats it: he himself offers our repentance, and he himself eats it, because he has the salvation of sinners as his food. But the flesh of the sacrifice, which pertains to repentance, every male of the priests shall eat, showing fittingly all fortitude, to whom it may rightly be said: "Act manfully, and be strengthened, and wait for the Lord."

So much for these things. But we must consider what conclusion he adds: "For the victim that is slain for sin, whose blood is brought into the tabernacle of witness to make atonement in the sanctuary, shall not be eaten, but shall be burned with fire." And whose blood is offered for sin in the tabernacle of witness to make atonement, or to intercede? That of the calf, namely, of the congregation or synagogue, that is, of the calf for the sin of the high priest; for he said this most fully above. Since, then, we have shown with many proofs that those sacrifices pertain to Christ, he rightly commanded that they not be eaten but be burned with fire. For it is not through the things by which each one obtains for himself the forgiveness of sins (through fasting, for example, or vigils or another such way of life; hence these are also called the flesh of our repentance), not through these, then, that Christ accomplishes the forgiveness of the common sin (that is, of the human race, which the people signifies, and the person of the high priest, who, because he presides over the people, makes the sins of the people his own), but by the authority and power of his own divinity. For the sufferings of Christ, through which forgiveness is secured for us, are not those of any mere man, but of God incarnate. That is why it is not eatable by men but is consumed by fire, because it belongs to God alone to grant forgiveness to all his handiwork, which he signifies by the fire; "for our God is a consuming fire."