Commentary on Leviticus 3.12–4.0

Verses 1–5. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: If a woman, having received seed, bears a male child, she shall be unclean seven days, according to the days of the separation of her menstruation. On the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised. And she shall remain thirty-three days in the blood of her purification. She shall touch nothing holy, nor shall she enter the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are fulfilled. But if she bears a female, she shall be unclean two weeks, according to the custom of the menstrual flow; and she shall remain sixty-six days in the blood of her purification."

The lawgiver's intention is plain: he is pointing to the ancient transgression of the human race, and so from all these things he wishes to bring us to this, that we avoid worldly things and the deeds of the flesh, since they do not serve us well for pursuing the holiness without which no one will see God. For the world in itself is good: to behold the rising of the sun, the moon, and the stars that crown the sky, the earth stretched out, the sea poured abroad, so that from all these wisdom may be gathered and the Maker inferred. Likewise the body too is good, and very good, since it works together with us in the virtues. For it has an instrument for glorifying God, the tongue, and the other senses that are in us, through which, looking upon the creation of the world and all its comfort, and through these perceiving something else, we infer from the things that have been made the things that are invisible. But because we have used both the world and the flesh badly, so that the Lord said of the world, "The world lies in the evil one," and Paul, "I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind," and again, "But I am carnal, sold under sin," and again, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are sexual immorality, adulteries, uncleanness, and things like these," the law tries to set us free from these things, and does not cease to write many enigmas on this matter, as it does now, some general and some particular.

Notice with what words the Lord spoke to Moses, so that he might deliver the same words to the sons of Israel. He did this not in vain, but showing openly that he himself spoke to Moses, as one fit to understand the force of the law, and Moses to the people, since the people could neither receive the whole nor take in a spiritual command, nor hear the law from God speaking and telling of higher things. Hence it was that, when God himself was giving the law, they said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will hear; let not the Lord speak to us, lest perhaps we die." But they were to receive it humbly too, and according to human capacity, that is, with a man handing it on, so that by degrees one might ascend to the spirit. By the letter, then, … seed. He says that she is unclean seven days. And why? Because the sower is unclean, being the heir of Adam, who was made unclean through the transgression and, being so joined with Eve, made the whole human race unclean. For it is read plainly in Holy Scripture that after he went out of paradise Adam knew his wife, and so the human race began to be propagated. And he commanded that the woman be unclean seven days because Adam, through whose seed she received uncleanness, defiled our life together with our race. The number of seven days signifies the number by which the times revolve; this is why its rest, the seventh day, that is, the spiritual Sabbath, is hoped for. And how did he defile our life? By bringing a curse upon it and transferring it to misery from the blessedness which had been our lot from the beginning. This is clear from what God says to Adam: "Cursed is the earth in your works; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you." Therefore the lawgiver now also said, "according to the days of the separation of menstruation," or, as the Seventy have it, "according to the days of the purging of menstruation she shall be unclean." What this means the other interpreters have rendered more plainly: Symmachus saying "according to the days of separation, of affliction"; Aquila, "of separation, of …"; Theodotion, "of separation, of her pain." For misery and affliction and pain began to be from the time when Adam, separated from paradise, received our life as his lot, because we were condemned "to eat bread in the sweat of the face."

To this sense he added a fuller and unanswerable proof when he said, "On the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised." For the eighth day, since it follows the seventh day, which is the image of the present life, bears the figure of the age to come, in which we circumcise the flesh of the foreskin, putting off all the works of the flesh; for then we shall not only not sin, but shall neither eat nor drink nor marry. Beyond any doubt we shall be, as the Lord says, incorruptible instead of corruptible, like the angels; and we are made clean in every way instead of unclean. "It is sown," says Paul, "in corruption"; if then a natural body is sown in corruption, a spiritual body rises. This, then, is the reason why he commands the infant to be circumcised on the eighth day. And he shows that the uncircumcised perishes from his people because before circumcision he has abominable and unclean flesh, for the reasons we gave above; but he is cleansed through circumcision, which bears the image of the resurrection of the dead.

But this too must be asked: why the law, commanding circumcision, is silent about the infant himself but says that the mother is unclean until the day on which the infant is circumcised. For he commanded circumcision on the eighth day, the seven days perhaps because Eve was led astray through disobedience, and the transgression, or disobedience, contracted uncleanness and filth for us; so the lawgiver turned the greater part of this onto the woman. But it must also be asked why for this reason he commanded the woman to remain in the blood of her purification, not in sordid blood but in clean blood, that is, the blood of her purification, as is shown in what follows: she touches nothing holy and does not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. If then she is in clean blood for thirty-three days, and touches nothing holy and does not enter the sanctuary, where shall we find the reason for this except by examining the days? For he set thirty-three days so that, with the seven added, there might be forty in all. By this, then, the lawgiver signifies something else. Since the male infant is said to be formed in forty days, two things are proved by what has been said: first, that the substance of the human race in itself is clean, as created by God, for "all the things that God made were very good," and much more man; this is why he says that the woman sits in clean blood, or the blood of purification. But because it was harmed through descent from Adam the transgressor, she who has received seed and conceived necessarily touches nothing holy and will not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed, that is, until the forty days are completed in which the child is formed. For the image of God itself is the cleansing of our nature, even though it had been soiled. We would therefore never have been commanded to enter the sanctuary or to touch anything holy, unless the image of God, once given to our race, had granted us entry to holy things. For its salvation the Lord himself also became incarnate, wishing to save his own image. But in forty days he took it up to heaven, just as, when he fashioned man, he gives it in the womb; and then our nature enters the true sanctuary.

These things are proved plainly by what is enacted concerning the female sex. For since the female is said to be formed in the womb on the eightieth day, he commanded the same number for the completion of the days of purification of those who receive seed. For he speaks thus: "If she bears a female, she shall be unclean two weeks, according to the custom of the menstrual flow." And when he ought to say fourteen, he does not say so, but "two weeks, according to the custom of the menstrual flow." By this he sends us to that sense, namely, that we understand human life to be in the seven days, and the menstrual flow to be its affliction and pain and misery. And he rightly says "two weeks," because the female sex was changed twice over: for Adam has the common curse, eating his bread in the sweat of his face. … It has also the earth bringing forth thorns and thistles, since, having arisen from the earth, it returns to the earth. It has also a special penalty: "In sorrow you shall bear children, and your turning shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you." And therefore, he says, she shall be unclean two weeks, according to the custom of the menstrual flow, and she shall sit sixty-six days in clean blood, that is, in purification, touching nothing holy, until the days … are completed. For fourteen added to sixty-six make the eighty in which the female is formed. So he shows … that our race, made unclean by the curse without any doubt, would never enter into holy things except through the image of God which it once received; and therefore women who receive seed are forbidden holy things for the days of the forming of the infants to be born. And if you say, "Why then are women not rather forbidden holy things while they have it in the womb, during the days of formation?", you ask this in vain; for it is uncertain to her who is with child whether she will bear a male or a female, and how could it be clear for how many days she ought to be kept from holy things? So the reason for which the lawgiver arranged these things in them is plain.

Verses 6–8. "And when the days of her purification are fulfilled, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of a year old for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for sin, to the door of the tabernacle of witness, and give them to the priest, who shall offer them before the Lord and pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law of her who bears a male or a female. And if her hand does not find, and she cannot offer a lamb, she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for sin, and the priest shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed."

Here the lawgiver has opened his whole intention: that it is not natural motions that make pollution but sin, of which David said, "For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother bore me." Not … sin …

Many think that importunity is done at festivals; but they do not know that … they envy the festival, and drag festivals down to worse things: for they are eager to celebrate the feasts not with the mind but with the body. So not carelessly … to say these things, but …

[The conclusion of Book 3, chapter 12, printed here by the scan text:] … signifying that the uncleanness of the sin of Adam and Eve came down into our whole race. And therefore, when the days of purification have been completed in the manner described, he commands a sacrifice for sin to be offered. And because he commanded a lamb of a year old to be sacrificed then as a burnt offering, he shows clearly, and proves to one who considers it, that the image of God bestowed perfection on our race. For the days of cleansing show the forming, and the sacrifice of the burnt offering the perfection. For it is plain that he assigned a lamb of a year old, offered in a burnt-offering sacrifice, to signify an entire and perfect way of life, marking … from both. For what it means to offer a lamb, or something else in sacrifice, or perhaps, if one does not find it, a pigeon or a turtledove; and why the sacrifice is led to the door of the tabernacle of witness, to the priest; and how it is offered before the Lord; and how, too, propitiation is obtained and carried out through the priest, has been said in the case of the many sacrifices offered for sins.

But here, for the moment, be amazed at the lawgiver's wisdom on this account: it could happen that students of the law would say, "What need of prayer did she have who bore an infant, when she herself had not sinned? For she did not give birth from sexual immorality but from marriage." Wishing to explain the necessity of this prayer, he added, "And he shall cleanse her from the flow of her blood," calling disobedience the "flow of blood"; from it uncleanness, and its penalty, flows into the whole human race. Let us too put it away, offering for ourselves the sacrifices that have been named: two turtledoves or two young pigeons, that is, meditation on the law and contemplation, and knowledge or understanding; for it has been shown that the animals named bear the figure of these. And since neglect of the law brought uncleanness upon human beings, meditation and knowledge, through which correction plainly comes, will be able to cleanse us and free us from the penalty long since inflicted, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. Amen.

[The preface to Book 4 continues:] … Let those also suffer this who on the wedding day shut their doors to singers or harpists, who send the bridal carriages ahead without applause and the music of instruments, stripped of the wedding torches, and who, calling themselves friends of the bridegroom, deprive the festivities of sacred verses, trumpets and dress. … But Christ does not do so; for, being the Word, he fills the festivals with discourse. And some offered calves, or oxen, or sheep, rams, he-goats and she-goats, turtledoves or pigeons; and those who did not have these brought cakes, wafers and fine flour to the sanctuary as a sacrifice. But he himself varied the victims by his teaching, as was fitting. Now, like a young calf putting forth horns and hoofs, he would sacrifice, tossing the Word through theology; now, in place of the pigeon, he would set out the mediating teaching; and in place of the pair of turtledoves he would lay down laws in a spirit of contemplation and chastity. And he himself was the ram for the sacrifice, crowning the righteous with praises, and the he-goats were the sinners coming from error. With these, then, let us too adorn the festival, he himself, who was sacrificed, lending such great things to our tongue, the knife in the sacrifice, for the present matter.

Now this is the leprosy which Moses the lawgiver set forth, bringing out very many of its kinds and explaining the manifold variety of this affliction: not only the leprosy that is in a man, but also that which is in wood and in stones, in the warp too and in the woof, and in skins, in which it can work, and even in a whole house, and likewise in garments that it comes upon. He had kept this in no other illness, so that even the duller might understand that the lawgiver was looking at something more sublime, more divine and better than the outward letter presents. And he also kept discretion for the priest: he does not pass over this, but describes in order the things necessary for it, so as to lay down for the priest the very manner in which he ought to judge these matters, and to keep him, in judgment, free of the suspicion of enmity or favour. For he could easily have fallen under such a suspicion, as though he detained this man out of enmity and released that one from the affliction for favour's sake, giving rise to a suspicion of friendship, unless he had given a plain law about those who ought to be separated from the tabernacle as held by the disease; and about those who, cleansed again from the affliction, should be received; and also those who should not be counted among the lepers at the very beginning, as being under suspicion for nothing, whenever there happened to be doubt about one, the law being laid down for this too. And it is very astonishing how he cast out of the tabernacle the man who has leprosy in part of his body, and subjected him to the penalty, but called clean the man who suffers in his whole body, and commanded him to mix with everyone as if he had suffered nothing at all. He seems in a way even to persuade those who are leprous in part not to pray to be freed from the present affliction, but rather that the affliction should feed on them and break out over the whole body. For the one would cause much dispute and would bind the priest who judges to the strictness of the law, while the other keeps them blameless and makes them blessed … from a multitude of dangers. … from the understanding of the affliction …, and it is time now to go on to the words of the law, for they themselves set out the reasons for us plainly, point by point.

Yet first we solemnly ask our hearers that whoever wishes to learn should not despise the words of the unlearned, as I am. For we do not speak our own things, that we should be accused as deceivers, since little is supplied to us of our own; but it belongs to God, who breathes where he wills, and who often reveals to children, or to dull and very unskilled men, greater things than to the prophets. This is clear from the fact that the people, praising Jesus as he sat upon the ass, uttered a cry which is to be noted above every prophetic voice. And you who serve the mysteries know the law given to the churches in the mystical ministry; for this reason the ears of the profane must not be burdened with words … . In this I too marvel greatly, and I count what happened as a great miracle: that what the prophetic voice, proclaimed many generations before, … hid, an unlearned people showed; and the remaining chapter is itself inspired and entrusted, so that something may be said by us too which may profit the ears of the hearers and has not yet been said by those before us, if God grants that it be willingly received. "For in him we live and move and are," as Paul commanded us too to say; and all the more, since we are very unlearned, we need our tongue to be steered from heaven. The letter of the law of the leper, which was spoken by God himself to Moses, runs thus.