Commentary on Leviticus 5.15

Verses 1–3. "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: A man who suffers a flow of seed shall be unclean; and he shall then be judged subject to this defect when the foul humour has clung to his flesh moment by moment and grown thick."

Every prophet of God is indeed admirable, as one to whom spiritual things have been entrusted. But Moses is more admirable, as one to whom greater things were entrusted, … the height of such great wisdom. For because the people who received the law from him was weak and could not hear the more perfect doctrines, wishing both to condescend to the weakness of the people and not to wrong the dignity of the law, he found a way by which he might both conceal the sublime things and yet [convey them], since he could not have set them out directly because of the weakness of his hearers. For see, even now, having set out many kinds of sins through the law of the leper, he added the man who suffers a flow of seed. By this he again sets out another kind of sin: the man who suffers an outflow of teaching, from which his own body subsists, that is, …, who pours out teaching not chastely but against nature, that is, against its rights and law, in a disordered and corrupt way, so as to corrupt the morals of the peoples by it too. This we come to know part by part, discussing the sequence of the text.

"And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them." Rightly he spoke to Moses and Aaron, but commands the commandment to be handed on to the sons of Israel, that is, to the whole people; because whatever is enacted or written through divine teaching first needs the leaders of the people, since the divine teaching is entrusted above all to them, and it is shown to them how in a way it should be pursued by the ministers or by those to whom it is wholly entrusted. And since the people looks to the one chosen as he hears it, see that his commandment is handed on in the second rank to the sons of Israel; this the lawgiver kept well and fittingly. And after this he said: "A man who suffers a flow of seed shall be unclean." But the Seventy say: "To a man, a man, to whom there has come …," etc. For whenever he doubles the word with which the commandment is given, according to the Seventy, he wishes to show the intention of the law and how great is the lawgiver's care that nothing of it should be lost at all; as when he says: "A man, a man of the sons of Israel, or of the strangers and those joined to them, who makes a burnt offering or a sacrifice and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of witness to do this to the Lord, that man shall be cut off from his people"; and other things like these, for whose keeping the lawgiver took the greatest care. But here, according to the meditation described, he did not say "a human being, a human being" but "to a man, a man," doubling it as where … the person. He is so called by the giver of the law because of strength, because this word is wont to suggest a double meaning; which Solomon shows, saying, "But a faithful man who will find?", and Paul too: "until we all attain to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." So the doubling of the name made clear how much belongs to him from the commandment. And by saying "to a man" and not simply "to a human being," he showed that he was hinting at the person of a teacher; for in this he necessarily shows the form of the perfect.

"But if a flow of seed has come upon him, he shall be unclean." And in what way, hear what follows: "And then he shall be judged subject to this uncleanness": that is, this is the proof of his uncleanness; and by the judgment of his uncleanness he meant in this place the law that proves his uncleanness. And who is this who suffers a flow of seed? Seed is understood as teaching; Paul says: "If we have sown spiritual things for you." And the Lord says: "Whenever anyone hears the word and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart." And because the Seventy say, "To a man … his body consists," … is to be separated, he hands on here a double body, that is, one from which the seed flows, and another which subsists through the flow of seed. Since, then, from seed proceeding in a disordered way some body was to be begotten and could subsist, the first body, from which the flow comes, is in every way understood to be that of the man who suffers the flow of seed. And the other, he says, "consists through the flow," that is, that which ought to have been begotten from it and to subsist, though it is not begotten; that is why he is unclean. And he calls that second one too "his body," because what is begotten of him who begets is truly his body. This is the mark of the law at the beginning: that as the commandment of the letter understood the body of him who pours out the seed, and therefore says, "seed flowing from his body," and secondly that which is begotten from it, rightly adding "from the flow by which his body consists," so the spiritual contemplation reasonably understood the body of the teacher as the very word entrusted to him and the dignity of teaching. For Paul calls the word of teaching the body of Christ, speaking thus of those who pluck away at the word of teaching: "But the body is Christ's. Let no one beguile you, delighting in humility and the worship of angels, walking in what he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh, and not holding the head, from which the whole body, supplied and knit together through joints and ligaments, grows with the increase of God." He plainly declares the word of teaching to be the body of the Lord; and it is rightly called the body of the teachers, since the priests and teachers are in the place of Christ in the churches. Hence again by their second body, which consists from their flow, we understand the people that hears, which is begotten from his teaching; [the teacher] lets flow the divine teaching he received by corrupting or transgressing it, of whom Paul said, "If we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than that which you received, let him be anathema." Rightly is he unclean who suffers this from a filthy way of life and an unchaste life, or from ambition for the first place, and therefore seeks out a wicked teaching that may delight those whom Paul called itching in their ears, and who do not endure sound teaching. Or he himself, being unchaste, lets teaching flow according to his own passions or desires: for example, being a lover of adultery, he rejects the commandment about chastity; or, being a reveller and a drunkard, the law of fasting. This man, then, because he is reckoned by the name of master and does not teach soundly but corrupts the teaching he brings forth, cannot beget sons for God; that is why he is said to suffer a flow of seed.

Very reasonably, then, he added: "All the days of the flow of his body, in which his body consists in the flow, are his uncleanness." For as long as he teaches thus and corrupts the [dignity] of teaching …, he has uncleanness in himself, as he says, namely the speech he brings forth, filthy, unchaste and …. That is why what follows also suits him very well.

Verses 4–5. "Every bed on which he has slept shall be unclean, and wherever he has sat. If any man touches his bed, he shall wash his garments, and being himself washed with water he shall be unclean until evening."

There are many kinds of those who teach strange things. For some, as Paul says, [preach] through envy, some through strife, some through ignorance, some from rash talkativeness (of which that Wise Man said, "In much speaking you will not escape sin"); and some turn the word of teaching because they delight in some corruption of desires. Rightly the lawgiver, having signified some of these in the enactment about leprosy and others in the distinction of foods, now again sets out through this commandment, which concerns the man who suffers a flow of seed, another kind: those who teach other things out of unchastity and lust, as we also established above. But now the lawgiver says that the bed on which he sleeps and where he sits is unclean. Let Paul, then, and Luke teach us what we should think of these. That the vessel and the bed signify not any sick persons whatever, but those who are very lofty in teaching and in a way desired the whole of it, so that the teacher sat in them and was carried by them, Luke plainly taught when God said to Ananias of Paul: "Go, for this man will be a chosen vessel to me, to carry my name among the Gentiles and kings." Paul received the teaching of Christ as a vessel, so as to imitate him in deed and word and sufferings. That is why he now said, "Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?"; now, "Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ"; and now again, "I fill up what is lacking of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh." And the master's bed, since it is the property of a bed that its owner rests in it, by this is in every way understood that disciple in whom, because of his great obedience, the master himself and his spirit rest. Paul shows this from what he wrote to the Corinthians, praising them because they showed themselves obedient to Titus: "And we rejoiced the more abundantly at the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all." Of those, then, who teach unchaste things, oppose the begetting of children, and reject lawful marriage so as to bring in sexual immorality by this means (that is why they are said to suffer a flow of seed, as corrupting the generative seed and the law of marriage), of whom Paul said, "That in the last times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry and [commanding] to abstain from foods which God created to be received," the bed and the vessel flow in the manner described. These are so unclean that the lawgiver did not command their cleansing; for he knows them to be so affected by the disease that they can by no means do penance; for they are infected in such teaching not from ignorance but by a perverse habit, corrupted or dissolute in unchaste words; hence they cling to it so willingly.

"But if anyone touches his bed": that is, if he has become a partaker and has taken of his teaching, and has not settled in the doctrines of him who teaches perverse and filthy things, he becomes a disciple of his wicked words …; but of his disciples, since they are his vessels and his bed, whoever hears them is also himself unclean. Yet he washes his garments by repentance, as we have often said, "and being himself washed with water," of tears or of baptism, "he shall be unclean until evening," until he completes the time of repentance. For evening bears its figure in many places, and especially because at the consummation of the ages, that is, at the setting of the present age, Christ preached repentance to us.

Verses 7–8. "Whoever touches his flesh shall wash his garments, and being himself washed with water he shall be unclean until evening. If such a man spits upon one who is clean, he shall wash his garments, and being washed with water he shall be unclean until evening."

That is, he who becomes a partaker of the teaching of one who teaches profane things is unclean until he washes himself through the repentance which the lawgiver commanded; whether someone becomes a partaker of perverse teaching of his own accord (for this is to touch the flesh of the man who suffers a flow of seed), or the teacher, by his work, in a way initiates him and brings in the word of his teaching (for this is to spit), which is why Aquila has "if he spits upon."

Verse 9. "The saddle on which he has sat shall be unclean until evening."

As the bed on which the man who suffers a flow of seed rests, and the vessel on which he sits, are those who cling to him very much, that is, disciplines … which can hardly be changed or softened, so here too by the saddle, or as the Seventy rendered it, the ass's saddle, [he means] a more careless disciple, but one more softly

having a heart to change himself; for the lawgiver understood the ass's saddles as soft. And he too, because he can be shaken out by good masters, or washed, and reject the evil discipleship (for such is what the Seventy call epiagma, that is, … ), is himself unclean, until he turns to repentance.

Verse 10. "And everyone who touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until evening. And whoever carries any of these shall wash his garments, and being himself washed with water he shall be unclean until evening."

In general …, those who have been made subject to those who teach profane things, who have in a way submitted themselves, spreading their souls under words and unfitting doctrines like vessels into which the poison of impiety may drip. "And has touched anything, he shall be unclean," whether he has taken it upon himself by his own sin, or has laid it on, as some are accustomed to do, who pretend to say or do right things themselves but confirm the attempts of those who teach or do perverse things, and so are convicted of how they stand toward perverse things. Nevertheless they too, in the manner described, need repentance.

Verse 11. "Everyone whom such a one touches without having first washed his hands shall wash his garments, and being washed with water he shall be unclean until evening."

The lawgiver necessarily used the present words, so that we should not despair altogether over union with one who teaches perversely, but only over that union which lasts until he looks to repentance. And therefore those are unclean whom the man who suffers a flow of seed touches, that is, with whom he has mingled, "without having washed his hands with water," that is, before he has washed his life through repentance; for to wash the hands shows the laying aside of some filth and stain. That is why David said, "I will wash my hands among the innocent, and I will go round your altar, O Lord." For he is in filth who teaches shameful and perverse things; for he comes to such teaching from the deceit of life and a filthy conscience. This man, then, who has mixed himself with some people in teaching evil things, not yet looking to repentance, and this one too is unclean and needs repentance. Let him wash his garments, then, that is, his actions, which clothe us like a robe with differing opinions and sects. Those, then, who patiently bear with evil men, and by union with those who teach such things are turned to evil actions, let them for this reason also wash their body with water, so as to purify their own temple too from sympathy with those words; and then it will be certain that they will be cleansed. For though he who teaches profane things has been unclean until evening, that is, until the time of repentance, as was said before, he will without doubt be clean after repentance.

Verse 12. "And whatever earthen vessel the man who suffers a flow of seed touches shall be broken; but a wooden vessel shall be washed with water and shall be clean."

In the earlier parts of this law, in which he spoke of the man who suffers a flow of seed, we said that the men whom he touches are those with whom he, teaching perverse things, has mingled himself and whom he has taken into some fellowship with himself; for this is plainly "to touch"; hence Paul too, about the fellowship with women that must be guarded against, says: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman. But because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife and each woman her own husband." These, then, have become his vessels, who have received teaching from him, however little; for he did not sit upon them, that is, he did not empty all his teaching into them, but he touched them, handing on some part. So they remain earthen, that is, fragile and earthy, intent on their clay and the corruption of clay; because they are corrupted even by a few words, they are necessarily broken. But if they are of wood, since wooden vessels are stronger than clay and earthen vessels and last longer, they are cleansed by being washed with water. For he did not sit upon them, nor did they receive, as we said, all his evil teaching; therefore they are not so weakened that they cannot be healed through repentance. So the lawgiver's intention is to show who do penance, and that salvation is offered to those who do penance, [and not to those who do not].

Verse 13. "If he who bears such an affliction is healed, he shall count seven days for his cleansing, and when his garments and his whole body have been washed in living water, he shall be clean."

The cleansing of the man who suffers a flow of seed is no longer to endure the same corruption of seed. If, then, someone who taught filthy, perverse and wicked things has ceased, he is rightly called clean, as one who has ceased from such unchastity. But for the filthy words he poured out before, he needs to count seven days for a complete cleansing, which is accomplished through the coming and supply of the Spirit, whose sevenfold gift Isaiah set out for us when he said: "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of the Lord." All of these are needed by those who wish a perfect cleansing to be procured for them from the wickedness that is in speech or in works; and they also wash their garments and body with living water. What the force of the garments and body is has been shown sufficiently above. And they wash with living water, namely that of which the Spirit said: "He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water"; and again: "Whoever drinks of the water that I give him, it will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life." So the cleansing of one who taught perversely comes through good and lawful teaching; for this is living water, because it gives life to him who comes to it.

Verses 14–15. "And on the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and shall come before the Lord to the door of the tabernacle of witness, and give them to the priest, who shall offer one for sin and the other for a burnt offering, and shall pray for him before the Lord, that he may be cleansed from the flow of his seed."

He who will count seven days for himself, that is, the workings of the Spirit, is commanded to offer sacrifice on the eighth day, that is, in the grace of Christ, who shone forth or became glorious on the eighth day of the resurrection. And what is this sacrifice? That is, two turtledoves or two young pigeons. This sacrifice is worthy of teachers, for these animals are of the birds. And the turtledove is as it were a meditative animal; and the pigeon, because of the frequency of its breeding and because of its simplicity, designates the image of the Holy Spirit; for the teacher must devote himself to spiritual meditation. That is why he commanded him, as priest and master, to take this sacrifice for himself, which is nowhere found said in another sacrifice unless it was again that of some priest and master. And he is to bring the victim itself "to the door of the tabernacle of witness," namely to the teachings of the apostles; for we showed above, in the sacrifices, that these are the entrance, or the true tabernacle of witness, that is, the dwelling and way of life of Christ, so that he may in future bring his tongue to perfection according to the apostolic intention. And as one who has sinned, and has weakened in himself the habit of the priesthood and made it ineffective, he is commanded to give it to the priest and to yield the ministry of the priesthood to another. But taking the two turtledoves or two young pigeons, what does the priest do? He offers one for sin and one for a burnt offering, so that the one sacrifice may profit the washing of the things in which he sinned in teaching contrary to the law, and the other may profit wise living in future; for of this the burnt offering is the sign. "And so the priest shall pray for him before the Lord, that he may be cleansed from the flow of his seed." For no one can make a cleansing before the Lord, that is, according to the will and law of God, otherwise than by repenting of the things in which he sinned, making satisfaction through the sacrifices of prayers, and afterwards living rightly and being perfectly wise. So he who carries out the cleansing of his sins in another way is not prayed for before the Lord; for God does not accept his cleansing, nor those who offer prayers for him. Therefore, whether someone has flowed off into unfitting teaching, or into an evil life, or both, let him hasten to pour out prayers, as has been said, before the Lord, who has power to forgive sins.

Verses 16–18. "A man from whom the seed of intercourse goes out shall wash his whole body with water, and shall be unclean until evening. The garment and skin that he has, he shall wash with water, and it shall be unclean until evening. The woman with whom he has lain shall be washed with water, and shall be unclean until evening."

The Lord himself showed that the human race needs the regeneration of baptism, saying: "Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he will not enter the kingdom of heaven." The filth of this has been poured into us from Adam's disobedience; hence David too declared that he was born in iniquities and conceived in sins, not accusing his mother but hinting at the sin that runs down through the race. And now the lawgiver commanded the man from whom the seed of intercourse goes out, that is, the man who has poured out seed for the begetting of children, and also the woman who received it, to wash the body, because she received the seed through which this whole temple of ours, that is, the whole man of soul and body, is described. For as divine Scripture is accustomed to call the man who consists of soul and body a soul, as when it says, "Jacob went down into Egypt with seventy-five souls," so again it is accustomed to call the whole man a body. The book of Genesis shows this when it says that Joseph supplied corn to his brothers by "bodies." And because Adam, made filthy by disobedience, made his seed filthy too, the body is necessarily filthy, since it comes from seed in which it is unclean until evening, that is, the end of the age; because Christ, coming at the end of the ages, showed the water by which our race should be cleansed. And that we remained unclean until then is proved by the fact that even those who have not yet sinned, that is, those still in the weak age, need the seal of baptism, lest perhaps death overtake them and they pass away filthy, having in themselves the filth that came down from Adam, and so not … to enter the kingdom of heaven.

He commanded the garment and the skin which they have when they come together to be unclean and to need washing for two reasons. For he extends the law and makes plain how filthy the human body has been made by one disobedience, so that even insensible things are polluted by them. Then by these he makes plain the women who, for the sake of lust, are joined with men for a certain temporary use, such as garments are wont to provide for men, and like the misuse of skins, which are usually thrown away when they have grown old. For the company of these women too is rejected when the friendship grows old, and changed like garments or skins; for they do not live with them openly, those with whom they lie in a disorderly way. Understanding the words of the Mosaic law in this way, we take the greatest help from them and rest from the question about the law. Nor can we find fault with it as punishing superfluously and exacting a penalty for things that are not in our will; for the flow of seed does not come from our will but happens from weakness; and again, the natural partnership compels the man to be joined to the woman and the woman to the man, and the decree of God which says: "A man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh." For though these are Adam's words, he spoke them from the divine Spirit. Hence Christ too, when he said to the Pharisee that wives must not be put away, recalling the words we have just mentioned, referred them to God as spoken by him; for he says: "He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said: For this reason a man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife." So he does not exact a penalty for things that happen against the will, nor [treat] as filthy those who are joined according to his law; but in those who suffer a flow of seed [he signifies] corrupt teachers, who are ungrateful for the begetting of children; and here Adam's disobedience, as the human race was made filthy by it, …, in the seed from which the race is …. And it is not surprising if we have said that the lawgiver means by the garment and the skin women who live with men not for the sake of children but for the shamefulness of use; for you find the use of a garment taken in divine Scripture also in something evil and against the law, as David says, "And he clothed himself with cursing like a garment"; and again, "Let those who slander me be clothed with shame." But when the skin signifies something good, then the lawgiver speaks not simply of the skin itself but of skin fit for work, and by it shows the work made from it or to be made from it. But now, because he did not say this, and the skin was not taken in a sacrifice, as when the flayed burnt offering …, it is set in an unfitting union. So he did not say that by the bed of seed, that is, by lawful intercourse, from which seed is produced, the skin is polluted or soaked; necessarily, then, he understood by the skin the woman whom someone misuses. Yet you keep this everywhere: that the lawgiver, drawing the race of the Jews to sanctification and chastity (for some of them were greatly given to luxury), [enacted] these things against those who pour out seed in any way whatever and against those who touch these things, as to cleansing, commanding it so that at least in this way they might become chaste and abstain from luxurious unions, from weariness of the labour of frequent purifications. For the law has this intention according to the letter in what follows too, though it signifies something else according to the spirit, as I myself am about to set out, since I do not pass over the spiritual understanding that is here either.

As, then, we understood the man who suffers a flow of seed as the one who corrupts teaching, so by him from whom the seed of intercourse goes out we understand the one who follows the teaching that belongs to the Jews. For as one who pours out natural and sound seed is nevertheless unclean because of Adam's filth, so too their sound teaching, on account of the law, which is thought to be teaching, is under fault and blameworthy, because it teaches the letter, which brings a curse on its disciples; for it is not possible for anyone to be perfectly corrected by it. Hence he subjects his disciples to the Mosaic curse, and the Jews themselves, who are taken in the figure of the women who come together, as those who always cling to the teachers of their institutions and rest in them. And they do this very thing to those in the foreskin too, when they receive the seed of their teaching; these we say are the garment and the skin, as receiving their teachings temporarily and transiently, not so that they too may beget any legal righteousness (for how is this possible for those who remain in the foreskin?) but so that through their words they too may be taken to be polluted by the curse of the law.

Verses 19–23. "A woman who, as the month returns, suffers a flow of blood shall be separated seven days.

Everyone who touches her shall be unclean until evening. … in the time of her separation is polluted. Whoever touches her bed shall wash his garments, and being himself washed with water he shall be polluted until evening. Whoever touches any vessel on which she has sat shall wash his garments, and being washed with water he shall be polluted until evening."

The lawgiver's intention is to draw man away from lust for women, and at the same time to restrain men and women from coming together for the sake of shameful intercourse; for the present words above all affirm that this is not done for the begetting of children. For he found a way to separate men from going in to women at various times and very many intervals; for every month they suffer a flow of blood. And he commanded that they be unclean seven days, and that those who touch them by a simple touch be unclean until evening; but those who sleep with them he says are unclean not for one day but for seven. So by the continence of many days both women are necessarily restrained from men and men from women. By these things the Jew of the senses, the Israelite according to the flesh, could be helped through the letter; but the truest help is that of the spiritual consideration which is shut up within. For the flow of the blood of the soul (whose person, as effeminate and betraying the strength of piety, the lawgiver has now suggested in the woman) is idolatry. "Its flow is in her body," according to what the Seventy give; for the shedding of idolatrous blood is the corruption or ruin of the human race. That is why he did not say "from her body"; for idolatry was not invented by us but by the demons: it was inflicted on our race "in the body," and the corruption of human nature was brought about. And he also declares the times in which idolatry prevailed, of which Paul said: "And the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent." Why did he say, "She shall be separated seven days"? Others have, "She shall be in her purging"; other interpreters, "in the separation of her iniquity"; others rendered "wretched": so that by the number of seven days he might signify the times …, which last until the completion of the times, at which completion the gospel preaching came. In these, men separated from God through idolatry were necessarily in the separation of iniquity and wretched, until we were joined to God through the gospel way of life, which is taken as the eighth day; because it is the sign and beginning and in a way the … of the age to come; that is why the resurrection of the Saviour also came forth on the eighth day. And not only the soul that serves them, but he too who touches it, that is, who becomes a partaker of it, and much more he who [touches that] on which it sleeps or sits, as a partaker of its teaching and tradition, or he who lies with her, will be unclean and needs cleansing; … as we said in what went before: one must earnestly abstain from all the wickedness of idolatry, and touch neither those who serve idols nor those whom they use as organs, or as beds or vessels; that is, have no communion with them in anything, so that Paul forbade even to recline in an idol's temple, and much more to eat what is sacrificed to idols. But these do little harm and have no [lasting] pollution; the lawgiver says that such a one is unclean for that day.

Verse 24. "But if anyone lies with her in the time of the menstrual blood, he shall be unclean seven days." That is, if anyone shares in the evil and the action of a soul that serves idols, perhaps sacrificing to idols himself, or willingly, or doing something close to the service of idols (for this is to sleep with her who suffers a flow of blood), he is polluted by sin in many ways. That is why he commanded him to be unclean seven days instead of one, as one who has made his whole life and all his conduct filthy by serving idols.

Verses 25–27. "A woman who suffers a flow of blood for many days, not in the menstrual time, or who does not cease to flow after the menstrual blood, as long as she is subject to this affliction shall be unclean, as if she were in the menstrual time. Every bed on which she sleeps and vessel on which she sits shall be polluted. Whoever touches them shall wash his garments, and being himself washed with water he shall be unclean until evening."

How greatly the Spirit of God claims the contemplation of the law, and not the reading of the letter, he shows by the things enacted part by part. For we said earlier that the man who suffers a flow of seed is he who has an obscene and corrupt teaching in the law, and he from whom the seed of intercourse goes out is the one who uses the Jewish teaching. There remained those who teach the teaching of the pagans: see, now he fittingly brings in these too. So we said that the flow of blood is the seduction and error of idols, since the race of demons delights in blood, and commands the sacrifices not only of cattle and other irrational animals but also of men, so that in many places among them such mysteries were celebrated, as those of Dionysus and of Diana and of other demons; so far had the flow of blood grown among them. But now note what words the lawgiver used: "A woman who suffers a flow of blood for many days, not in the menstrual time." The Seventy rendered this: "A woman, if she flows with a flow of blood many days." He did not say "if she flows with blood," which is to serve idols or to sacrifice, but "if she flows with a flow of blood," that is, if she lets flow the stain and error of idolatry; and she does this "not in the menstrual time," that is, not in the times in which the service of idols prevailed; that these are the menstrual times was shown in the words in which we spoke of her. … the teaching …, the light of piety has shone forth; yet he flows with unclean things and teaches certain things close to the error of idols, he is unclean, like those of those times in which the madness of idols prevailed, teaching whatever belonged to their error; for they were unclean then too, but now much more, because their uncleanness has now been laid bare and their error convicted. Because they would not offer their eyes to the light of the true …, therefore he said: "Who suffers a flow of blood not in the menstrual time, or who does not cease to flow after the menstrual blood, as long as she is subject to this affliction, shall be unclean." For even if he does not teach whole idolatry, but yet auguries and divinations, or purifications, or the arts of sorcerers, nevertheless this man too is unclean, like those who fully handed on and taught idolatry in the times in which it flourished. And whoever prove themselves their disciples by deed are also understood in the person of these. "The bed on which she sleeps and the vessel on which she sits": that is, those who eagerly receive these teachings, as the preceding discourse showed, will be unclean, like those who teach them. For the lawgiver, showing this, said of the bed and the vessel, according to the Seventy, "it shall be unclean according to the days of her flow," wishing those who learn such things by deed to be compared with those who teach them. And these things are so true, and the law of God so calls unclean him who touches even a few of these, because they speak or do things belonging to idols, that it removes from fellowship as truly unclean even him who eats with them or shares their table and the drink of their mysteries. Hence Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?" And again: "I do not want you to be partners with demons."

And why he brought in the person of a woman we know well. For we said that because those who fell into the error of idolatry betrayed the manliness of thoughts and the strength of divine knowledge and made their souls effeminate, he rightly suggested the figure of a woman in those who do and teach whatever is devoted to the worship of idols. For we understand that she bears her image who in the Gospels suffers a flow of blood, who spent all her substance, or living, on physicians, on the philosophers who were among them. Yet she was not healed by them so as to depart from the Egypt of her error, because, "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." For while they seemed estranged from the worship and madness of images, they measured the earth, the air and the heaven, whose beginnings and bounds it belongs to God alone to know. She, then, touching from behind the fringe of Jesus, was freed from her flow. And we have said that his fringe is faith in him; for why Moses commanded fringes to be made on garments … in what went before; by "behind" we understand the humanity, and we say that the nations which were set in the flow of the blood of idols touched this. And if we have explained as the flow of blood not only those who devote themselves to shedding the blood of idolatry but also those who teach things that belong to the teaching of the pagans, it is not surprising; for it is the custom among outsiders to call flowing eloquence, pouring itself out most abundantly and easily into teaching, a "flow," or rhetoric.

Verses 28–31. "If the blood stops and ceases to flow, she shall count seven days of her purification, and on the eighth day she shall bring for herself to the priest two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the door of the tabernacle of witness. He shall offer one for sin and the other for a burnt offering, and shall pray for her before the Lord, and for the flow of her uncleanness. You shall teach the sons of Israel, then, to beware of uncleanness, and not to die in their filth when they have polluted my tabernacle which is among them."

What the force of this sacrifice is, and of what kind in those who suffer a flow of seed, we have said as far as was necessary; for the law commanded similar things there too. For as there the lawgiver commanded the man who suffers a flow of seed to take turtledoves or pigeons for himself for a sacrifice, because he held the place and person of a master, so now too this woman who flows with a flow of blood; for we said that she figures those who teach the things that belong to the error of idolatry. Therefore one who teaches eloquence, and one who shares in eloquence, can take for himself the things that profit for purification; for outward wisdom is very easily subjected to inner wisdom and takes from it things useful and profitable to itself. For the woman who suffered a flow of blood, whom we showed to bear the figure of her who is sprinkled with the blood of idolatry, took medicine for herself by touching the fringe of the Lord's garment, and before she stretched out her hand she merited to be freed from her affliction. What is still lacking for the interpretation we shall say in order in what follows.

Verse 31. "You shall teach the sons of Israel, then, to beware of uncleanness, and not to die in their filth when they have polluted my tabernacle which is among them." Although every sin is an uncleanness of the soul, yet idolatry above all, and the things that belong to it. The lawgiver wishes the sons of Israel to hold these things and to be God-fearing in them, so that they may not die the most cruel death of impiety; for the impious pollute the tabernacle of God which is in them, and yet it is the body that is defiled by the flow of blood or seed. But because the word hints at impiety, which is wont to pollute the whole man, therefore he says, "You shall make the sons of Israel cautious," or, as the Seventy have it, "God-fearing, away from their uncleanness," which he enacted neither for lepers nor for those who touched dead things. And [he speaks] also of the tabernacle of God, which is our whole man, in which God is believed to dwell: first through the image which he gave us, then through the firstfruits which he took from us. For the Word became flesh, which through that … is said to dwell in other men too, as John proves, saying: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

Verses 32–33. "This is the law of him who suffers a flow of seed, and of him who is polluted by intercourse, and of her who is separated in her menstrual times or who flows with blood continually, and of the man who sleeps with her."

Whatever things of the same enactment cohere with one another, and whose usefulness in effect tends to one intention, the lawgiver is accustomed to connect with one another, so as to show him who devotes himself to meditation on the law how they ought to be understood, and which have kinship with which according to the likeness of the sense. For it has been proved that the man who suffers a flow of seed is one who corrupts the seed of teachers and admonishes to shameful and corrupting things; and "he from whom the seed of intercourse goes out, so as to be polluted" is the one who teaches the Jewish precepts, by which he himself is polluted, teaching evil as good and transgressing the intention of the law, when he brings forth out of season the things that belong to the letter and in a way uses clean things as unclean, of which it was said, "To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and conscience are defiled." And those who suffer a flow of blood in their menstruation were shown to be those who [teach] things that tend to impiety, at that time of teaching in which the human race, held in the worship of idols, was in its menstruation, in the separation of wickedness, for they were not separated from evil; so as to show that he speaks the same things of those who teach perverse things. According to the Seventy he added: "for the one who suffers a flow of seed, male and female." Yet in the preceding enactment he speaks only of the male who suffers a flow of seed, and according to the letter he made no mention at all of a female who suffers a flow of seed; but by the woman who flows with a flow of blood he understood him who pours out the teaching of idolatry. Therefore he has now called her one who suffers a flow of seed, so that we might learn that the law reckons him who corrupts good teaching, setting it forth shamefully and evilly, to be such as he who teaches impiety; for the words of both are full of corruption. With these he joined the man who sleeps with a menstruous woman. He means the one from the faithful people who has mixed with idolatry, as we said above. Hence he did not say it simply but used the more perfect word "male," as one possessing the name of the faithful. If he has become a transgressor, he denies this name and shows that it is false in him; for, having obtained the service of God, he has given himself up to idols, sleeping and mingling himself with error, first as filth, then as one who has it in him to sit and live far from God. And his penalty is manifest. It is manifest also how, being cleansed, they can be freed from penalties. But, building further upon these, the lawgiver placed next, as harmonious with them, the enactment that follows.