Commentary on Leviticus 3.11

Verses 1–8. "The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Say to the sons of Israel: These are the animals which you may eat of all the living things of the earth. Whatever has a divided hoof and chews the cud among the cattle you shall eat; but whatever chews the cud and has a hoof but does not divide it, such as the camel and the rest, you shall not eat it; you shall count it among the unclean. The rock-badger, which chews the cud and does not divide the hoof, is unclean. The hare also, for it too chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; and the pig, which, though it divides the hoof, does not chew the cud: you shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their carcasses, because they are unclean to you."

The things of which we now speak seem to be very contrary to the divine oracles themselves. For he who said to Noah, "Everything that moves and lives shall be food for you; as green herbs I have given you all things," how does he now forbid some of the things that were earlier granted to be eaten? How, too, when he made the beasts of the earth according to their kind, and the cattle and the creeping things, was it said, "And God saw that they were good," and again, "And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good"? For what is unclean can in no way be good, still less very good. But now, as though he had forgotten the judgment he had pronounced on them, he said that some of the animals are clean and some unclean. So some will be good and some not good. But it is not so. For even if he wished to chastise for a while the gluttony of the Jews, yet the true consideration of the law is plain, and the spiritual explanation of the precepts. And the lawgiver has the intention of teaching what those must be who give their zeal to the law. For if "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God," then, as bread is the nourishment of the body, so the law of God is the nourishment of the soul, being rational strength and support for the rational. And just as above, by the things that are sacrificed, he figures those who offer them, signifying by the sheep the simple, by the calf the doer of the commandments, and by the kid the penitent, so now too by the animals he signifies those who eat them.

For he speaks thus: "The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Say to the sons of Israel: These are the animals which you may eat of all the living things of the earth." The law is common; this commandment pertains to all, and is the justification of the whole people. For he commanded them to speak to the sons of Israel, namely to all the people. And what did he command them to say? "These are the animals which you may eat of all the living things of the earth." He would by no means say "of the living things of the earth" unless he had the intention of distinguishing them from the heavenly living things. For there, he taught, is the face of a lion and of a calf and of an eagle, as also of a man, when Ezekiel hands down the living creatures of the cherubim. So among the heavenly living creatures we do not need any watchfulness or other caution to know which are clean; for all are alike clean and holy, since the holy God sanctifies also those who stand round about him. But not all the living things of the earth are clean, not because of their nature but because of our excess, and because we have corrupted nature by iniquity. But how we may know their cleanness or uncleanness must be seen from what follows.

"Whatever has a divided hoof and chews the cud among the cattle you shall eat." In animals the greatest strength is believed to be in the claws, which also have kinship with the teeth. For it belongs to the claws to tear apart what is made fit for eating by the teeth; Daniel hands down both to us when, setting forth a strong kingdom, he says: "I was looking in the vision of the night, and behold, a fourth beast, terrible and marvellous and exceedingly strong; it had great iron teeth, eating and crushing, and trampling the rest with its feet." The Seventy say more specifically: "its claws of bronze." Since, then, it is so, he shows in figure who those are who have devoted themselves to meditation on the law, whether clean or unclean: for he commanded you to chew the cud and to divide the hoof. And those animals split the hoof which divide the nail down to the lowest skin. So he eats clean animals who not only meditates on the law but also chews the cud, that is, brings it up again and gives it forth in action and works. For the bringing forth of the words of God, and the chewing of the cud of the commandments, is also their carrying out: for this reason hear David saying, "My heart has brought forth a good word; I tell my works to the king." He without doubt understood this bringing forth of good things, and chewing of the cud, of the declaring of the works he has achieved. And not only to chew the cud; we need also to divide the hoof of the law, and to distinguish the letter from the spirit, and to hand down some things according to history alone, to understand some according to contemplation, and some according to both, keeping a strict division among them. For one who is such is complete and perfect, and for this reason is rightly called clean. But whoever lacks one of the things that have been said is plainly unclean, as the letter of the law itself teaches, for it says: "You shall not eat it; you shall count it among the unclean."

"Whatever chews the cud and has a hoof but does not divide it, such as the camel and the rest, you shall not eat, and you shall count it among the unclean." The Jew, swelling with pride, is rightly understood to eat the camel, that is, the scribes and Pharisees, to whom the Lord said: "Straining out the gnat but swallowing the camel." Isaiah too said: "For thus the Lord said to me: Go and set a watchman, and whatever he sees let him announce. And he saw a chariot of two horsemen, a rider on an ass and a rider on a camel," signifying by the ass the way of life of the gentiles, and by the camel the Jewish way of life. The camel also figures the letter of the law and its heavy yoke, as an animal accustomed to carry burdens; hence Abraham's servant led ten camels carrying the goods of his master for the arrangement with Rebecca. These figured the ten commandments of the law, which bear not all the good things of God, yet some of all good things, because the law has a partial justification. So the scribes and Pharisees eat what chews the cud, because they glory in meditation on the letter of the law, and in the observance of the Sabbath and of purification and of sacrifices and other such things; but the things eaten by them do not divide the hoof, nor do they distinguish the letter from the spirit, and for this reason their knowledge is unclean.

Such also are those who eat the hare and those who eat the rock-badger: for these too chew the cud but do not divide the hoof. In the common multitude, the race of the Jews is taken to be both; for these animals are said to be weak, as David and Solomon testify to the weakness of both kinds of animal: Solomon, when he says, "The little hare, a feeble folk, made its lair in the rock"; and David, "The rock is a refuge for the hedgehogs," or rock-badgers. Of these, they say, one is swift and timid, with weakness, that is, the hare; and the other weak indeed, but rapacious and beastly and deadly, that is, the rock-badger; which is in every common people, but above all in the people of the Jews, of whom David said, "Their feet are swift to shed blood." And how timid and how low those of the Jews are, the divine voice shows when it says, "Woe to the fearful hearts and the slack hands." And how great injustice and savagery there was among them, hear Isaiah saying: "How has the faithful city full of judgment become a harlot? Righteousness dwelt in it, but now murderers."

After these he says that the pig is unclean, because it divides the hoof and does not chew the cud. Who, then, those are who imitate it, and are therefore said to eat it, take Peter as your interpreter and teacher: for he called a pig the one who has the knowledge of divine things but does not use it well, and defiles it by unfitting actions and gives himself up to an unclean life, saying: "It would have been better for them not to know the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment handed down to them; for the thing of the true proverb has happened to them: The dog returned to his vomit, and the washed sow to wallowing in the mire." Since, then, we have shown that one who devotes himself to the law must chew the cud, one who is such as this, having a filthy life and not fulfilling the law, is rightly said not to chew the cud of the things of the law. Hence he also vomits up the food of meditation on the law, as undigested and not reaching to effect at all. So even if he divides the hoof, and knows how to divide the letter from the spirit, he is nonetheless unclean.

But what did he add to the things said? "You shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their carcasses, because they are unclean to you." Neither the camel nor the hare nor the rock-badger nor the pig did he judge among the clean; by these also he designates, apart from the animals, those whom he made manifest from the things said. He set down these four in number, then, for this reason: because there are four general virtues, and the signification of the said animals lacks the virtues, being contrary to the four virtues. For the camel, taken for the pride of the scribes and Pharisees, is contrary to wisdom: for it is the mark of fools to be proud. And that the scribes and Pharisees were held by both these diseases, hear the Lord saying to them: "Fools and blind, which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?" And again he beats down their pride in this way: "For they love the first places at suppers, and the first seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the market place, and to be called Rabbi by men." So some of them were thus fools and proud. The hare, as timid, is contrary to fortitude; the rock-badger, as rapacious, to justice; the pig, as living a filthy and unclean life, of which it was said, "Like a gold ring in a pig's snout, so is a woman beautiful and foolish," is contrary to chastity. Let us not eat of their flesh, that is, let us not follow the virtue they seem to have; for they pursue it in hypocrisy and not in truth. And much more must their carcasses not be touched, nor must we share in their evil actions; for such things are without doubt the carcasses of a man.

Verses 9–12. "These are the things that are born in the waters, and that it is lawful to eat. Everything that has fins and scales, both in the sea and in the rivers and pools, you shall eat; but whatever does not have fins and scales, of those that move and live in the waters, shall be abominable and accursed to you. You shall not eat their flesh, and you shall avoid their carcasses. All things in the waters that do not have fins and scales shall be defiled."

Since divine Scripture did not set out openly the kinds of fish from which it wants abstinence, it is superfluous to inquire into these things at present; for we shall nowhere find the names of fishes in it. Here, then, it imitates its own manner. Yet this must now be noted: just as in the freewill sacrifices, which the lawgiver also called gifts, he signified by the kinds of offerings sometimes the doers of the law, sometimes the simple, sometimes the contemplatives, and sometimes those who are saved from among the gentiles (to whom he also assigned the sacrifices of fine flour, as to simple people; he showed this by saying, "If a soul offers a gift to the Lord," not adding "if a soul of the people of the land," as he is accustomed to do in announcing the other sacrifices), so too here, wishing to show by abstinence from foods what those must be who meditate on the law, he signified by chewing the cud and dividing the hoof the Jew, who must fulfil the commandments of the law and divide the letter from the spirit and understand the law spiritually; and by these things now said he shows that he is speaking of the gentiles. Hence I think that mention of the fishes was made without naming them expressly, because the church does not wish the names of her own to be written upon the earth; hence David too says, "Let these things be written in another generation," namely the one to come in heaven; for there the names of her sons have been written, of which Paul says: "You have come to Mount Sion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the assembly of many thousands of angels, and to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven." And the Lord says to the apostles: "Do not rejoice that the demons are subject to you, but rejoice and exult that your names are written in heaven."

And the words of this ordinance prove these things too, for they say: "These are the things that are born in the waters, and that it is lawful to eat." By these are understood those from the gentiles who have been saved, as having regeneration in the water of baptism; of whom Isaiah too said, "And the gentiles …," or as the Seventy have it, "As many waters, so the gentiles." Hence what follows also suits them: "Everything that has fins and scales, both in the sea and in the rivers and pools, you shall eat." The same … for those who are from the gentiles, from meditation

of the law, he commanded in other words. For he wants them to have fins in meditation on the law, and a lofty and heavenly life, and an explanation of the law like this; for which reason he wants them to have not one fin but fins. And since ignorance of divine Scripture had held the gentiles (for they had received neither the law nor the prophets, nor was there any subtler divine knowledge among them), so that they might not labour under this disease permanently and for ever, he wants them to have scales, which may easily be removed. And that scales signify an ignorance that is temporary and easily got rid of, what is written of Paul in the Acts of the Apostles shows. For when with Jewish zeal he persecuted the church and did not know him whom he was persecuting, he easily got rid of his zeal, because it came from ignorance: after he came to know whom he was persecuting, called by Christ, and after the gospel had been preached to him by Ananias, scales fell from his eyes and he at once saw. So temporary ignorances lay upon him like scales.

Hence very consistently the lawgiver added: "But whatever does not have fins or scales, of those that move and live in the waters, shall be abominable and accursed to you." For there are certain kinds of fish that have a shell in place of skin, whose scale cannot be removed. Such are those who will neither lay down the scales of ignorance by the word of God nor bear to receive the knife of the Spirit. These, even if they are found in the sea of baptism, even if in the rivers of repentance, are abominable among all that move and live in the waters. And though they have been allotted life in baptism, they have corrupted their calling and regeneration, since they do not have fins and scales, namely a lofty life and the knowledge of divine things, which is heavenly, but keep a blind heart in ignorance; and for this reason they are not numbered among those who have scales.

Notice with what exactness of words the lawgiver uses them, signifying by them very great and wonderful mysteries. For he joined scales to fins, because, just as fishes that have scales in every case also have fins, so to those whose ignorance is temporary, and can therefore quickly be got rid of, lofty knowledge and a heavenly life are also added. Of those who are not such, then, one must not eat the flesh, nor touch the carcasses, nor have any fellowship at all with them; Paul testifies to this, saying: "If one who is called a brother is a fornicator, or covetous, or a servant of idols, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a robber, with such a one not even to take food." … or covetous, or a drunkard, or a slanderer, has no fins, as one who leads a filthy and unclean life; and the worshipper of idols is not counted among those who have scales, for he seems to have an ignorance of divine things that is hard, like a shell, and incurable; otherwise he would by no means serve idols any longer after he had been joined to God.

Verses 13–19. "These are what you shall not eat of the birds, and they are to be avoided by you: the eagle, and the griffon, and the osprey, and the kite and the vulture according to its kind, and everything of the raven kind in its likeness; the ostrich, the owl, and the gull, and the hawk according to its kind; the eagle-owl, and the cormorant, and the ibis, the swan, and the pelican, and the porphyrion, the heron, and the plover according to its kind; the hoopoe also, and the bat."

Nor did the lawgiver leave undiscussed in this the life of those who give themselves to contemplation; rather, just as in the offering of the sacrifices he assigned them their own chapter of the law, so also in the inquiry into foods he gave them their own limits; and setting these forth and making them more terrible, he ordains about these not as about the cattle and the fishes. For there he says, "These are the animals which you may eat of all the living things of the earth," and again, "These are the things that are born in the waters, and that it is lawful to eat"; but here, "These are what you shall not eat of the birds, and they are to be avoided by you." Truly it is worthy of abomination, and to be counted among things unlawful and much to be avoided, that one who gives himself to contemplation should willingly have such stains as the lawgiver signifies by the birds listed. For he says: "The eagle, and the griffon, and the osprey, and the kite and the vulture according to its kind," signifying by these the rapacious, who wickedly pursue others' food and rejoice in unjust gains. For that some are found in the churches, among those who are thought to devote themselves to contemplation, who do not give themselves to it as they ought but are vainly puffed up, hear Paul saying: "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the teaching which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but sick about questions and disputes of words, from which arise envy, strife, blasphemies, evil suspicions, wranglings of men corrupted in mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain." These, then, are signified by the animals now listed, which seek their living by plunder.

Some of these attack other birds and are fed by hunting them; others, going into houses, carry off what they find, not even sparing the provisions of those who keep them; like these are certain people who make their way into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, whom Paul rebukes. The vulture rejoices in quarrels and wars because of the corpses of battles, so much so that it even follows an army. One who devotes himself to contemplation, then, must not feed and be nourished on the falls of others. The animals of the raven kind are without affection, which is plain from the fact that the raven, sent out by Noah, deserted him at its first flight; like it was Judas towards his Teacher and Lord. The ostrich is a bird, but it cannot fly, and spends its whole life on the ground; such are certain people who serve as soldiers of God and entangle themselves in worldly business. The owl, for which the Seventy said γλαῦξ, they assert has sharp sight at night, but when the sun appears gets less use from its eyes. Such are those who glory in the contemplation and knowledge of the law but cannot take in the light of the gospel way of life. The gull is an animal that lives in both, that is, in water and on land, which flies like a bird and swims like a water creature. To it are not badly compared those who venerate circumcision and baptism together, to whom Paul says: "If you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing." The hawk is among the birds of prey, but it has something else for which the lawgiver set it down: for it is tamed and works together for plunder. Those imitate it who seem to be gentle and calm in mind, but are with the powerful and the covetous and the rapacious. The night-raven is an animal that creeps about and works only at night, like the gentiles, in the works of the night perceived by the mind, which are fornication, uncleanness, impurity, the worship of idols, and things like these. The ibis and the porphyrion, and the one the Seventy name pelican, and the swan and the heron and the plover, are said to have long necks and to draw their food from the height of the earth and the waters. These animals we must imitate, and pluck our food not from lower things but from heavenly ones. For he gives himself to contemplation who strains with his mind towards higher things, and expects from God not only the food perceived by the mind but also that perceived by the senses; hence the Lord says: "Do not be anxious for your soul, what you will eat, nor for your body, what you will put on; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." The hoopoe is a mournful animal and loves grief; but the sorrow of the world works death. That is why one who loves God must always rejoice, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all things, because joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Bats fly near the ground, so that they use their wings for feet when they walk; this is unworthy in those who devote themselves to contemplation; for those whose flight is near the ground, their contemplation too is without doubt busied with earthly things.

Do not be unbelieving, then, nor doubt that the lawgiver set down these animals now listed too, to show and figure those from whom those who give themselves to contemplation must abstain. But you will say: How is it not the eating of these animals but the imitation that is forbidden, when the prophet David compared himself to the pelican and the night-raven, saying, "I have become like a pelican; I have become like a night-raven in the house"? And Moses signifies God himself by the eagle, when he says to Israel, "How I carried you on eagles' wings." For the prophets too call Christ a lion, and on the other hand Peter says that the devil is a lion; yet Christ is not a lion in the sense in which the devil is so called. Far from us, far be this impiety! But since it is an animal at once royal and also rapacious and fierce, and bears a praiseworthy dignity but a blameworthy working, what it has that is praiseworthy is taken in the kingdom of Christ, and what is blameworthy, that is, rapacity and fierceness, in the devil. Considering this also in the eagle, we find without any doubt that Moses took its figure for God because of the height of its flight, but said its food was to be abstained from because it is rapacious. And the prophet David, mourning a man set in sin, compared him to the night-raven, as living in the night; and by the pelican, as an animal that loves solitude, he figured one who is perhaps deserted by friends or kinsmen and deprived of the company of others like them.

Verses 20–22. "Every winged thing that goes on four feet shall be abominable to you. But whatever walks on four feet, but has longer legs behind, by which it leaps on the earth, you shall eat, such as the bruchus in its kind, the attacus, and the ophiomachus, and the locust, each according to its kind."

Those who profess the contemplative life must be clean of all sin and filthy action. For this reason whoever are like winged creatures, namely promising to attain the contemplation of things above, which leads to heaven, but are compared to creeping things because they feed on the earth and give themselves to lusts, even if they walk on four feet, that is, even if they make a show of the gospel preaching (which said, "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance," and, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," by which the thief was saved and the adulteress justified, and those who owed more are said to love the one who forgives more), yet because they embrace the social life not according to the truth, but abuse the compassion of the preaching for their own pleasures, they are unclean and abominable, as those who in such a way of life and such knowledge enter on a shameful and unclean life. But those who have higher legs, so as to leap up from the earth by them, are for this reason put among the clean, because, though they are in the flesh, they do not war according to the flesh, but leap away from filthy actions, and mix with worldly men in order to teach and instruct them; so that they sometimes dwell both with adulterers and with publicans, and yet do not mix in their unclean actions: for they spring back from them and fly; and while they flee from fellowship in their sin, they often live with sinners in order to free them and call them back from the filth of sins. So the Lord, who "did no sin, nor was deceit in his mouth," ate and drank with sinners, justifying them by teaching and instruction and provoking them to emulate him, imitating nothing of theirs and not defiled by them. That is why the Song of Songs said: "Behold, he comes leaping on the mountains, passing over the hills."

We must, then, have legs higher than the feet, not such as the feet of the Jews have, who limp in both their tracks, namely in the law and the prophets, but such as those have that are called cherubim, of whom it was said: "And their legs were straight legs, and their feet winged," upright and unswerving in the gospel feet, of which it was said: "Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Such a one, though he walks on the earth, though for the sake of some dispensation and help he lives among sinners, fulfilling that apostolic word, "If any of the unbelievers invites you to supper and you wish to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no question for conscience' sake," yet remains a winged creature and is clean, knowing how to spring up and leap away from the earth, and not to cling to worldly actions.

And well did the lawgiver also bring out the names of such animals, naming the bruchus and the locust, the attacus and the ophiomachus. What their working, or power, is, the prophet Nahum explains well enough; for he says: "The bruchus spread out and flew away; your guards are like locusts of locusts, which trust in the hedges in the day of cold," or as the Seventy have it, "He sprang up like the attacus mixed with you, like the locust that leaps over the brushwood in the day of cold." From these you see that even if we mix with sinners, even if on the day of frost or hoar-frost, that is, of abundance of sin (for "when sin has abounded," he says, "the love of many will grow cold"), we should leap over the brushwood, namely the thorny exasperation of sins, not becoming like them, but subjecting them to ourselves, so that they may become obedient to the teaching and plainly be saved. "To the Jews [I became] as a Jew, to those under the law as under

the law, though I myself was not under the law; to those without law as without law, though I myself was not without the law of God but under the law of Christ. I have become all things to all, that I might gain all." Yet we must, like the bruchus, make a dash and fly away, so that we may be able to leap and spring up like the locust, or the attacus, as they call it who say attacus for such a creature. For so what follows in the same prophet will fittingly agree: "The sun rose and was lifted up, and its place was not found"; because, when the Sun of righteousness has risen, who lights up hidden things, those who live among sinners flee and leap away to the consolation of righteousness, and that place is no longer known to be theirs whose dress they formerly showed when in a way they were dealing with those whom it was also necessary to save. And the power of the ophiomachus ("snake-fighter") is shown by its name: it is good to imitate it and to fight against the serpents perceived by the mind, remembering that "our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." For these are the serpents perceived by the mind, and the poisonous dragons.

Verses 23–26. "Whatever of the winged things has only four feet shall be accursed to you; and whoever touches their carcasses shall be defiled and shall be unclean until evening. And if he must carry any of these dead, he shall wash his garments, and he shall be unclean until sunset. Every animal that has a hoof but does not divide it, nor chews the cud, shall be unclean, and whatever touches it shall be contaminated."

We showed in what went before that the creeping winged things which walk on four feet signify those who abuse the gospel life and pursue a filthy and unclean life; and that to divide the hoof, as the Seventy say here, but not to chew the cud, means to meditate on the law as one ought and to divide the letter from the spirit, but not to work the things that are written in it nor to live so. Hence he necessarily commanded us to flee their carcasses, that is, the actions in which they perish by the death of sin, and in no way to share in such things nor to touch them. And not only those who touch, but also those who carry or receive anything from them are defiled. And he carries sins who calls evil good, and bitter sweet, and darkness light, which is rebuked by the voice of the prophecy of Isaiah; because by this, training others to iniquity and inviting them to the evil from which he ought to have held them back, he in a way takes the yoke upon himself. But no one should transfer another's sin to himself; for this reason David too says, "And from others' [sins] spare your servant." We remain unclean until evening, that is, until we repent. For David speaks of this evening: "At evening weeping shall linger, and in the morning gladness." For this reason the lawgiver also commanded the garments to be washed, showing plainly that we are unclean until we wash away our actions with tears.

Verses 27–28. "Whatever walks on its hands, of all the living things that go on four feet, shall be unclean. He who touches their carcasses is defiled until evening. And he who carries such carcasses shall wash his garments, and he shall be unclean until evening, because all these things are unclean to you."

The law passes over no sin in silence; but whatever actions are forbidden by the gospel testament, it first covered them with riddles, so that, telling the harmony of both ordinances, you may confess God, who spoke in them, and in fear withdraw from all the things they have forbidden. He goes on four, then, who passes over to the gospel way of life. And he walks on his hands who takes it up for the sake of gain and shameful profit, quickly laying hands on it so as to take something from it. Here he is fittingly numbered with all and compared to beasts. For whether you speak of the adulterer, or the covetous, or the murderer, or the slanderer, or the blasphemer, he is among all these, as sharing in the sins of all through the unjust laying on of hands. His carcasses are those on whom he has laid hands, for in them he suffers the death of sin. One who touches them, then, and one who lifts any of them, is rightly defiled. He means by one who touches them one who lives with them; because they have in no way fittingly seized the dignity which, if they had once made up for it in every way, they would have been justified by it, if after this they did not remain in their old iniquities. And also one who carries any of them, as carrying false witness, by testifying and teaching that one is worthy who is unworthy, is unclean and impure "until evening," which we said above is repentance. But washing his garments he will be cleansed.

Verses 29–31. "This also shall be counted among the defiled, of those that move on the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the crocodile, each according to its kind; the mygale, and the chameleon, and the stellio, and the lizard, and the mole: all these are unclean. He who touches their carcasses shall be unclean until evening."

Nor here does the lawgiver accuse the creation of God in commanding these animals to be held unclean; for how is it that you will find them praised in another place of divine Scripture? For Solomon says in Proverbs: "There are four things that are least on the earth, and they are wiser than the wise," among which he counted the hare, or according to the Seventy the hedgehog, and the stellio; of which the law accused the one above, with the camel and the hare, as unclean; and it has now made mention of the stellio. So their nature is not unclean, nor is every action; for how could they be praised? But there are certain actions about them suited to irrational animals and requiring no judgment, which neither suit us nor are properly ours; and therefore, when they touch us, they make us unclean. For to creep on the earth does not belong to men, to whom it has been granted to walk upright and to look up to heaven; because to creep on the earth is to do filthy and earthly works. These the lawgiver signified by the differences of the animals now listed; for he speaks thus: "This also shall be counted among the defiled, of those that move on the earth"; not because some creeping things are clean, for every work that creeps and is dragged along the earth is without doubt unclean. For this reason Paul said such things of those who do them: "Whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." And in proof of this you will find a little later the lawgiver saying: "Everything that creeps upon the earth shall be abominable, and is not taken for food." So he has now listed kinds of creeping things, not because some are clean and others unclean, but so that through these we may learn accordingly that creeping things are to be rejected, inferring every kind of creeping thing from the life of these.

For the weasel is a crafty animal and very given to thefts. The mouse, because of the gluttony of its belly, endures many dangers daily. The crocodile is of hard hide and malicious, and feeds on mud. The mygale ("shrew-mouse") is a compound animal, not by nature but by the condition of its life fit for mockery, that is, for making tricks and snatching and filling its belly; for this reason it received a compound name, from both the animals from which it has these vices. The chameleon is wretched in evil and feigns itself gentle through weakness, though it is an untamed animal. The stellio, that is, ἀσκαλαβώτης, is very small, or most wretched, but poisonous. The lizard lives in tombs. The mole is a blind animal which is begotten from the earth; for they say it is produced from earth and rain together, from corrupted mud, when the mud has first received the rain. These, then, are unclean among all that creep on the earth, not because the others are not, [but] because they have greater pollution or malice.

"Everyone who touches their carcasses shall be unclean until evening." The letter itself, then, proves well the intention of the lawgiver. For if the animals now mentioned were unclean by nature, the one who touched them alive would also have to be unclean; but now only the one who has touched their carcasses is unclean. And their carcasses are the said actions, that is, craft, theft, greed, or irony, and being busy about other things, and also haste after earthly things, by which the eyes of the mind are blinded. Since, then, death comes to … they are rightly named carcasses; and one who touches them, that is, one who is defiled by them (as Paul too says, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman"), is without doubt unclean. For nothing so defiles a man as sin. Until the evening comes, of which David said, "At evening weeping shall linger" (he speaks of repentance perceived by the mind), let us wash ourselves by purification.

Verses 32–33. "And whatever any of their carcasses falls upon is defiled, whether a wooden vessel or a garment, or a skin or haircloth; and in whatever any work is done, they shall be dipped in water and shall be defiled until evening, and so afterwards they shall be cleansed. But an earthen vessel into which any of these falls shall be defiled, and therefore it must be broken."

Here too the lawgiver uses an admirable division. For since we sin sometimes from negligence, and sometimes from deliberate work and zeal for evil, like those of whom Solomon said in Proverbs, "Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has strife? Who has woe? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Is it not those who linger over wine and give themselves to draining cups?", he rightly put these among those who touch carcasses. But those who transgress through negligence that comes upon the mind, and through numbness and failing of virtues, as David, rising at noon from his bed and walking on the roof, and seeing the wife of Uriah washing herself, was caught by the woman, who was very beautiful, and committed adultery and murder together, are said to be those on whom carcasses fall. For they did not themselves hasten to sin, but fell into it, and in a way receive sin falling upon them. But because they received it altogether and did not resist, they are therefore rightly unclean, "whether a wooden vessel or a garment, or a skin or haircloth": that is, whether he has a light and middling …, for such are wooden vessels, or one sufficient for dyeing, as a garment is, or a patient one, which the skin signifies, or that which belongs to those who suffer, for this the haircloth, or sackcloth, signifies. And altogether a vessel is that in which the work of virtue can be done; for so you understand "in whatever any work is done." "They shall be defiled until evening," that is, until the time of repentance. And it shall be dipped in the water of washing, or of tears, and shall be cleansed.

"But an earthen vessel," which is wholly earthly, that is, spattered with the mud of the world: if a carcass falls into it, sin that is unto death, and penetrates within him and rules over him, as David said, "And he put on cursing like a garment, and it went like water into his inward parts" (he says not only that the curse entered but also that it rules in him into whom it entered), he necessarily commanded it to be broken. For his uncleanness cannot easily be cleansed like that of the others; it needs much labour and contrition, a humbling of the mind, as David says, if he wants to be cleansed. Hence blessed Paul too so broke the one who had committed fornication with his father's wife that he handed him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that by such a breaking he might save the spirit.

Verse 34. "All food which you eat, if water has been poured on it, shall be unclean; and every liquid that is drunk from any vessel shall be unclean."

We understand the food and drink in every vessel as good actions. For this reason he said, "the food which you eat, and the liquid that is drunk," because both the food and the drink of evil actions, that is, sharing in them, is forbidden. If, then, into any of the good actions which are in every vessel, that is, in every man, whether ruler or commoner, whether wise or unskilled, any one of the said carcasses falls, he will necessarily be unclean. For even if he did not begin the good action with some evil intention from the beginning, as those do who feign piety for the sake of trade or gain, but afterwards pride, deceit or hypocrisy, or something like it, falls into his action (which is called a carcass, as in a way bringing death on the one who shares in it), he too will be unclean; for an evil intention creeping in defiles a good action. And what did he add to the law that concerns food? "If water has been poured on it." He shows that those that are

after baptism he has sought out as actions, and his word is about the faithful and baptized man, and he makes mention of that action of the unbeliever …. Blessed Paul proves this, saying: "I wrote to you in the letter not to associate with fornicators; not at all with the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or robbers, or servants of idols, since then you would have had to go out of this world. But now I have written to you, if one who is called a brother is a fornicator, or unclean, or covetous, or a servant of idols, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a robber, with such a one not even to take food. For what have I to do with judging those who are outside?" So far is it that he has no word about the action, or way of life, of those who are outside.

Verses 35–36. "And whatever any of such carcasses falls upon shall be unclean, whether ovens or pot-stands; they shall be destroyed and they shall be unclean. But springs and cisterns and every gathering of waters shall be clean. He who touches their carcasses shall be defiled."

The things of which the lawgiver now treats seem in a way strange. For why does he say that ovens and pot-stands are so unclean that he commanded their cleansing, but wrote that springs and cisterns and other gatherings of waters are clean? Is it perhaps because these are not usually defiled? For if gatherings of waters wash away our pollutions, how can they be defiled? You will find in every way an interpretation of the words that coheres with the letter of the law, if we search it according to its meaning. For why should ovens or perhaps pot-stands be called [unclean] when a dead mouse falls into them? And if ovens and pot-stands are so called, why not rather the gatherings of waters, in which it happens that these animals fall in and rot? But what do you think the ovens or pot-stands signify? Teachers, namely, in whom the foods of the sacred teaching are cooked, the fire of the working of the Spirit being put under them. Nor is it strange that they are called ovens and pot-stands by metaphor, since we know that divine Scripture has used such names in many places. For David called Moab, that is, the gentiles, a cauldron, for he says, "Moab is the pot of my hope," because of the waters of baptism which are heated in them. And Ezekiel calls Jerusalem a cauldron, but full of flesh, or as the Seventy have it, of poison, signifying the men in it who teach and live badly. By this reasoning, then, the ovens and pot-stands in which the foods, namely the teaching of the people, are cooked can be so called. If, then, a carcass falls into these, that is, if the action of a sin that kills comes upon them, they become unclean and are destroyed: because those who teach not to steal steal, and those who preach not to commit adultery commit adultery. But the teaching is good; it is not unclean. Nor do we for this reason abhor the divine oracles, because some preachers of them have perhaps become unclean. And therefore the lawgiver said that the springs, namely those rich in teaching, and the cisterns, or pools, the tongues that speak middling things and have a borrowed teaching, and also the gatherings of waters, those who gather from everywhere the abundance of such words, are clean.

But what consistency did it have, that speaking of ovens and pot-stands he should add, "except the springs of waters"? Because by the former he signified teachers, he necessarily added the springs and cisterns and gatherings of waters, which, as has been shown, are taken of teaching. That is why the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst again, but it will become in him a spring of water leaping up to eternal life." And well did the law add: "He who touches their carcasses shall be defiled," where the Seventy render: "But he who touches all the uncleanness of the soul of their carcasses shall be unclean." And they added "soul," lest perhaps you think it is said of visible creeping things or beasts: for one who touches their carcasses touches an uncleanness not of the soul but of the body. So it must be understood of teachers who have become unclean by some unclean and evil action. For we must attend to their teachings, when they are according to the law of God, but in no way share in their works, nor handle them, nor touch them at all, remembering the words of God which [he spoke], to confirm the things at hand, to the people, or the disciples: "On the chair [of Moses sit the scribes and the Pharisees] …; all things whatever they tell you, do and keep; but do not do according to their works."

Verses 37–38. "If it falls upon seed, it does not defile it. But if anyone has poured water upon the seed, and afterwards it is touched by carcasses, it shall at once be defiled."

The lawgiver leaves nothing undiscussed, but discusses everything in what follows, desiring to prove the spiritual perfection of the law, even if it seemed imperfect to them when they looked only at the letter. Here, then, he sets out the difference of unbelievers who have not yet been baptized, and calls both kinds "seed," as those who have received the preaching of the kingdom. Of them the Lord, setting forth the parable of the seed, said: "The good seed are the sons of the kingdom." But [here it is] seed that has not yet been sown; hence the Seventy rendered "any seed for sowing that will be sown," that is, which has not yet been sown but is to be sown; he rightly so named those who have not yet been baptized but are to be baptized. If any of the said carcasses falls upon these, they are said to be clean, because they have not yet received the safeguard of the mysteries, nor gained the whole knowledge of God which could keep them from sins that come upon them through negligence; they are worthy of pardon for the said cause. But those on whom water has been poured, namely of baptism, necessarily become unclean if one of the things that are carcasses falls upon them: for by sharing in so great a thing the gifts ought to have served to guard them. God the Spirit, then, frightens those who have once received baptism, so that they may not become unclean by sinning through negligence.

Verses 39–40. "If an animal which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening. And he who eats anything of it, or carries it, shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening."

Just as sinners who remain in their sins are to be abhorred, but by no means those who withdraw and repent, so we must run with all zeal to the righteous, knowing that we are sanctified by them. But if they have died the death of grave sin, we must not touch their life nor be partakers of their way of life, knowing that if anyone touches it he will be unclean until he too repents. And one who eats of their carcasses, that is, one who defends them as an advocate or helper of their sins, and therefore takes their sins upon himself, must wash his garments, namely his actions, because he too will be unclean until evening, that is, until he repents.

Verses 41–43. "Everything that creeps upon the earth shall be abominable, and shall not be taken for food. Whatever four-footed thing goes upon its breast and has many feet, or is dragged along the ground, you shall not eat, because it is abominable. Do not defile your souls, nor touch any of them, lest you be unclean."

The lawgiver has set out these things too above. But now he repeats them so as to move the hearer by frequent meditation to keep the law. For this reason they are to be summed up by us too, since he has also added something new to the present ordinance, adding the action of meditation as necessary to them. Those that creep upon the earth, then, are those who mind earthly things; and those who feed on muddy actions likewise go upon the breast, or upon the belly, giving themselves to gluttony. Those go on four upon the earth who abuse the preaching of the gospel books for a wanton life, because the salvation of sinners is preached in them, not understanding that the preaching calls sinners not so that they may remain sinners, but so that they may cease from sins. And to those that walk on four he added, "and have many feet," showing that even if they wish to confirm this not only from the gospel books but from other Scriptures and from varied teaching, as it seems to them, they will be unclean even so. And to put it briefly, everything that creeps upon the earth, that is, those who mind earthly things, we must turn away from and flee, knowing that sharing with them defiles, and that the one who does and the one who runs with the doer are alike unclean.

Verses 44–45. "For I am the Lord your God. Be holy, because I also am holy. Do not defile your souls with any creeping thing that moves upon the earth. I am the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall be holy, because I also am holy."

He altogether forbids us to be companions of those who mind earthly things: not even if some are powerful, nor if they feign righteousness or wisdom, nor if perhaps they are clothed with the priesthood or any other dignity. Hence he briefly made mention of all creeping things that move upon the earth, rejecting not simply creeping but creeping upon the earth. For to be humbled is good, but to bend down to earthly wisdom is not good, nor is such humility useful to souls; wishing to free us from it, he says: "I am the Lord your God," that is, he in whose image you were made, so that you might mind heavenly things, imitating him who dwells in heaven; for which reason he added: "You shall be holy, because I am holy." He would not have added this, nor doubled the sanctification in us, unless we were partakers and had been made sharers of his sanctification, [and] needed to keep it through philosophy and a holy way of life. Hence he says: "Do not defile your souls." First, because it has been given to souls to be in the image of God, and he wants sanctification to be above all in the soul, as that which holds the leading place over every living being. Then he shows that the pollution which he hates is not made by dead bodies or by unclean foods, as some think, but is that which comes to souls from evil actions.

And having said that our souls must not be defiled with all the creeping things that move upon the earth, he added most fittingly: "I am the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God," showing by Egypt the evils of Egypt and all the works of darkness; for Egypt is interpreted "darkening." If anyone truly wishes to be free of these, and to have as his God him who truly is God, he must not only beware of idolatry, but, if he truly desires to cling to him, because he is holy, he too must strive for holiness, without which no one will see God.

Verses 46–47. "This is the law of the beasts and of the birds and of every living soul that moves in the water and creeps on the earth, that you may know the differences of clean and unclean, and know what you ought to eat and what to reject."

Here too the lawgiver uses a recapitulation after his custom, so that the readers may know the things of which the law has already spoken, and may easily search them out. But what he has now added is admirable and full of every help, and must be noted. For he said that the law was set out with the animals listed not only so that he might separate between clean and unclean, but so that the sons of Israel might know, or recognize, [the difference] between the things that are eaten that give life. So foods do not make us clean nor defile us; rather we [make] them [so], since we give life to the things that are eaten. And just as "every food is good, and nothing is to be rejected that is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God," as Paul says, "and by prayer," so the things that are eaten, namely those that nourish the soul, that is, good actions, we make alive if we use them well; but if badly, we do not make them alive but put them to death. For one who gives alms from iniquity puts to death its virtue, or power. And those who abstain from foods but slander their brothers with the tongue, of whom David says, "Who devour my people as they eat bread," put their abstinence to death. That is why it belongs to blessedness to know how to discern between the animals that are eaten that give life, and those that are not eaten, that is, between those who do good things well, and evil actions. For these are the animals that are not eaten. And he discerns who not only knows but confirms his knowledge by works. Few study this in this age, since many infect it by deceits and many adulterate it by hypocrisy, so that some now doubt even among true goods which are to be eaten and which are not to be eaten; for this reason he says: "This is the law," not only of discerning but of knowing, for the sons of Israel. And these things are recognized, or known, when we teach what agrees with the teaching of the law.