Commentary on Leviticus 5.16

Verse 1. "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: After the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they were slain offering strange fire."

See, now too the Spirit of God makes the law one body, and gathers into one the things that cohere with one another. Having already made plain the things that belong to teaching that is against the law, and having set out its many and differing ways, he now refutes it by one law, and in a way adds a common precept against it, and makes plain the cause of the disease itself, that is, whence it happens and whence it comes upon one. For you heard, when we were inquiring into the death of the sons of Aaron who were consumed by the divine fire, that, making our discourse there on the legal tradition and the history, we called the strange fire a teaching foreign to God, and therefore said that those who offered that fire were consumed by the divine fire, namely the Spirit; because those who teach evil and wicked things plainly contradict the divine fire and act against the Holy Spirit. Whether, then, someone hands on things that cohere with idolatry, or corrupts the divine commandments in expounding them, bringing wicked words into them, or so uses the Jewish teaching as to be polluted by it, bringing forth the letter of the law itself against the time and intention of the law, he offers strange fire to God; and therefore they are said to die, having from the law a swift penalty for their transgression. But when these have died, that is, when they have been scattered and in a way have failed, then the enactment that follows will prevail. And therefore God is said to have spoken what follows to Moses after the death of the sons of Aaron who offered strange fire.

Verse 2. "And he commanded him, saying: Speak to Aaron your brother, that he not enter at all times into the sanctuary which is within the veil, before the propitiatory with which the ark is covered, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the oracle."

How much God spares our salvation can be considered and learned from many things said in the law; neglecting none of them, let us direct the eyes of the mind to each one. "For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Since, then, the sum or head of our salvation is the teaching of the Word, it is wont to point out good ways to us with its finger if it is good, and evil ways if it is evil. Rightly the lawgiver shows the greatest care that they should fall into impiety not only through shameful words, or Jewish fables, or some phantasm of idolatry, [but also] in the manner usual with heretics: for, discussing the substance of God, they introduce a difference both of the Father in relation to the Son and of the Son in relation to the Holy Spirit, and other like hidden things which exceed our knowledge; and wishing to search out what is too lofty and sublime for us, not from the divine doctrines but from their own thoughts, they have been cut off from the body of the church's moderation. So that we may not suffer this, the law forewarns us in the present words; for it speaks thus: "And the Lord said to Moses: Speak to Aaron your brother": that is, that the priests should command these things to one another, and each of the teachers should enact for his neighbour such things as God now commanded Moses to speak to Aaron. And what are these? "That he not enter at all times into the sanctuary which is within the veil before the propitiatory, with which the ark is covered." He set forth here a commandment common to all and a common law: first suited to the priests, then to everyone who wishes to discuss the divine mysteries. Therefore, according to the Seventy, he commanded it impersonally, saying, "Let them not enter at all times into the holy place within the veil." He did not add [who], plainly wishing to bar all from this, because the veil is understood as the body of the Saviour, as Paul plainly says: "Having confidence in the entrance into the holy places, which he inaugurated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is, through his flesh." For he himself is the true and spiritual propitiatory, as one who himself gives us propitiation for sins; for the same Paul says: "All have sinned and lack the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiator through his blood."

And where we have "before the propitiatory," the Seventy rendered "before the face of the propitiatory." The face of this propitiatory was his divinity. That is why, when Moses, desiring to see God, said, "If I have found favour in your sight, show me yourself," he answered: "You cannot see my face; no man has seen my face and lived"; he said this because no one can comprehend the substance of God. And what of him can be seen, he plainly added, saying: "Behold, there is a place with me; you shall stand upon the rock," that is, the church and the confession that is in it, saying it with faith; "and my glory shall pass by there," signifying Christ's passage to men; "and I will put you in a cleft of the rock," that is, in the law, through which, as through a narrow cleft, we pass to the confession of Christ and faith; hence the law is said through Paul to be our tutor to Christ. "And I will put my hand over you," namely with the signs and miracles which he did with them, "until I pass by; and I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back parts." … [when they had received] Moses as the ruler of the people, God took away his protecting hand and stripped him of his power, so far that they paid tribute to the Romans and lived under their laws and rulers; then they saw the back parts of God, that is, the incarnation of God. His "back parts," because he became incarnate in the last times. "But my face you shall not see," he says, namely the substance of the Godhead. Plainly, then, he forbade the teachers, and barred the priests, and whoever it is lawful to speak about God, to search out the substance of God and to discuss the divinity of Christ and to enter within the spiritual veil. For Christ has the flesh as a veil, the covering of his divinity, as that sensible veil too was the covering of the holy of holies. And he called the flesh of the Lord not only the veil but also the ark of witness, necessarily calling it by many names, because many were the workings from it; for of this David prophesied in the Psalms: "Arise, O Lord, into your rest, you and the ark of your sanctification." This is called the ark of spiritual witness, as containing the saving composition, of which Paul said: "I testify before God and Christ Jesus, who bore witness before Pontius Pilate to the good confession." Again we say that the Gospel is the witness, both because it coheres with the spiritual ark, that is, the flesh of Christ, and because from it we have the witness of the passion. Of it Paul also wrote to Timothy: "The witness in its own times, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle." This ark, then, is the propitiatory, because in his flesh Christ gave us propitiation. He commands the teachers not to enter it at all times, so that they may not inquire curiously how the Word became flesh; how he who was in the form of God became in the form of a servant; how he emptied himself and remained in heaven. For faith in these things brings salvation; inquiry brings danger. He who believes this, then, will not die.

"For in the cloud," he says, "I will appear above the oracle," or the propitiatory. He calls the cloud again the Lord's flesh and the gospel Word. For he calls the same things by many names, and it is not tautology; he imposes and distributes names suited to the workings of the things signified. For sometimes he calls the flesh a veil, signifying that it is the covering of Christ's divinity; sometimes the ark, namely the man, which the Lord himself explained to the Jews when he said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." When the Jews did not understand and said, "Forty-six years this temple was being built, and will you raise it up in three days?", the evangelist explained, saying, "But he spoke of the temple of his body." And sometimes the cloud, because a cloud is a body, but clean and subsisting [also] from the Holy Spirit; for clouds subsist from breaths, that is, winds. That is why Isaiah, showing its cleanness by its fineness and lightness together, said: "Behold, the Lord rides upon a light cloud, and will enter Egypt, and the idols of Egypt will be shaken." Likewise we not unfittingly call the gospel word a cloud, because it is the custom of divine Scripture to call the teaching of the Holy Spirit a cloud. Hence, removing the vineyard of the Jews as unfruitful, he said: "I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." Then, explaining what the vineyard is, he adds: "For the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah a new … offence." In this cloud, then, God is suggested both in the Lord's flesh and in the gospel preaching; and let us who wish to search out anything about God seek nothing more, but as much as the gospel word hands on to us, as much as we receive from the Lord's flesh. For not in vain did the lawgiver signify by one name the flesh of the Lord and the Gospel, but because to the Gospel the Lord's flesh is the occasion and the substance. Yet that repetition now also confirms this: that divine Scripture not only signifies this same thing by different names, so as to mark different workings, but also shows a difference in the names, often even a contrary one. For sometimes it calls the wicked and fiery arrows, which are the instruments and workings of lusts or of other wickedness, fire, likening the devil to fire because he corrupts those who join themselves to him and in a way throw themselves into him. And sometimes it suggests God in the form of fire, both elsewhere and in the bush, because he is light to those who come to him at every time, vital warmth and purification. So do not think that superfluous or novel things are brought in by the exposition when it uses the same names in different causes, or takes different names in the same things. But attend only to this: whether the interpreter has not taken the meanings of the names properly and according to the occasion in the matters adjoining the exposition.

But now let us see what follows. "But let Aaron enter the sanctuary thus":

Verses 3–4. "He shall offer a calf for sin and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall be clothed with a linen tunic, and shall cover his shame with linen breeches. He shall be girded with a linen girdle; he shall put a linen mitre on his head. For these are holy garments, all of which he shall put on when he has been washed."

With admirable order now too the lawgiver attends to the things that can help and be useful to those who read the law and search out the treasure hidden in it. For having said that it is not lawful to enter the holy of holies at every hour, that is, not continually, without interruption, lest perhaps we presume or approach divine things without fear and circumspection, he does not forbid deeper inquiry altogether; but when and how … we have prepared or perfected ourselves, he now hands on: that is, let not Aaron enter the holy place unless he has done these things. Here he shows that he did not command us not to enter the higher divine contemplation at all, but only not frequently; and he called it the sanctuary, as being about God, who is the Holy of holies and sanctifies him who uses it well. But he who is Aaron, that is, who has another way of life and has so advanced, ascending to God's sanctification, that he can answer like a divine ark (for this is what "Aaron" is interpreted to mean), he, entering, "shall offer a calf for sin," namely he enters in the sacrifice of Christ. And because he was sacrificed not only for our sins but also gives us perfect life, and the sacrifice of God procures and supplies for us both absolution from sins and the perfection of the virtues, the lawgiver added, "and a ram for a burnt offering." But the Seventy rendered "from the calf": he was made according to the flesh from those oxen, the workers of righteousness, for example Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David; for the law knows as oxen those who work righteousness, as Paul handed on to us, interpreting that commandment, "You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain"; then he added: "Is it for oxen that God cares? Or does he not say it altogether for our sakes: that he who ploughs ought to plough in hope, and he who threshes in hope of receiving the fruit?" And that he is rightly called a calf too, because of the sacrifice and the virtue, the gospel parable explains, in which the father, giving the prodigal son on his return the first robe, of baptism, and the ring, that is, the seal of the Spirit, sacrificed the calf for him, the sacrifice of the Only-begotten. He is also the ram for a burnt offering. For the story of Isaac explained this, when, in place of [Isaac], Abraham, seeing a ram, according to the Seventy, in the thicket of Sabek, that is, in the thicket of pardon (by which we understand simply the cross, on which the pardon of our sins was accomplished), caught by its horns, sacrificed it and fulfilled the image of the sacrifice of Christ. Hence the Lord said of him: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad." Since, then, the ram is of the race of sheep, yet is pre-eminent and the leader of the flock, it rightly signifies Christ, who is of our lump but pre-eminent and excelling us, and the leader and king of the human race. In him, that is, in Christ, he wishes us to enter the holy things; for the beginning of speaking about God is Christ and his passion. If it had not been accomplished and freed us both from the error of the pagans and from the shadow and darkness of the law, we could not have spoken of the divinity of the Father: "No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him."

But since he who is going to speak about God, and wishes to behold God as far as is possible for men, must be armed with all the virtues (for the general virtues are four: justice, chastity, fortitude, wisdom), therefore he says: "He shall be clothed with a linen tunic": that is, justice; for this is properly the garment of man, the tunic, which the Seventy render "sanctified," because it is sanctified by God, who loves justice and is principally clothed with it. Hence David said of him: "The Lord is just, and has loved justice." By the breeches chastity is signified, as is clear from the fact that they do not allow the less seemly parts of our flesh to be seen. Since, then, chastity is the whole beauty of the body, necessarily

the lawgiver says: "He shall cover his shame with linen breeches." And yet breeches are only over the thighs and about the members next to them. But he wishes to show that he signifies here the seminal …, which guards the whole body of our flesh. By the girdle he understands fortitude; hence God, raising up Job when he was oppressed by sufferings and dangers, said: "Gird up your loins like a man." By the mitre, because it is the covering of the head, wisdom is in every way understood; for we are not unaware that the organ of wisdom is in the head, which is also called the brain, and that is why the head is more honourable than the whole body. And he commanded these to be of linen to show the ease of the virtues and their swift acquisition, or that they are handy and pleasing to one who obtains them, as linen things are to the body on which they are, unless a stain has been made on them; and also because, though they are lofty, their conversation can be on earth. Each of these comes from flax, which has a tall stalk but rises much from the earth, and can easily be obtained by the poor, and is welcome and pleasing to him who puts it on, as we said above. It also cools one who is hot, and warms one in frost, which is the property of virtue: it cools in the heat of lusts and warms in the cold of temptations, and raises to zeal for heaven, and does not allow persecutors to be felt.

But so that you may not lose the head of salvation, which is baptism, nor think that the virtues suffice you without the gift of baptism, he added: "For these are holy garments, all of which he shall put on when he has been washed." The whole body is washed by the water of baptism, because it washes our whole [being] and renews the man. So one must first be baptized and be regenerated of water and the Spirit, and so be clothed with the aforesaid virtues, and through them with Christ. For this too the very context of the legal words signifies. For after the lawgiver said that he should not enter the sanctuary at all times unless he had first done these things, "a calf for sin," he added: "and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall be clothed with a linen tunic," and the rest. … understanding Christ as the spiritual ram and the true …: for him he called the perfect man and the measure of the stature, wishing us to receive and put him on; that is why he also brought in the grace of baptism, because through it above all we put on Christ. And when we have obtained these things, we shall enter the holy of holies, not searching out or discussing the substance of God (for this is forbidden), but devoting zeal to the doctrines of wisdom about the dispensation of Christ and his sacrifice for us, and about the goods we enjoy through them; for what follows makes this especially plain.

Verses 5–6. "He shall receive from the whole multitude of the sons of Israel two he-goats for sin and one ram for a burnt offering. And when he has offered the calf and prayed for himself and for his house."

Much attention is needed here, both of the speaker and of the hearer, so that they may not depart from what is right; for the mysteries which the law now sets out are very great, and some stumble at them, not knowing the force of these words. But the things at which they stumble will be discussed more precisely in what follows. That the things of which the lawgiver has spoken in the present passage are plainly referred to Christ himself is shown by the kinds of sacrifices and their effects, and also by those from whom the sacrifices are received. For he commanded the sacrifices to be received from the synagogue, or the whole multitude of the sons of Israel, because Christ, who was sacrificed for us, was of the sons of Israel according to the flesh, so that Paul said: "Of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God blessed for ever. Amen." Then he commands some of the sacrifices to be offered for sins and others for a burnt offering, figuring, as was fitting, the power of the sacrifice of Christ, who is offered for our sins. Hear, then, Paul saying: "Christ, once offered to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time without sin to those who await him." And that the sacrifice of the Only-begotten was made for a burnt offering, that is, for perfection and for progress in life and virtues, how can one doubt, when Paul says plainly: "So, brothers, you too have been put to death to the law through the body of Christ, that you may belong to another, who rose from the dead, that we may bear fruit for God"? And again he said of him: "Hence he is able to save for ever those who draw near to God through him." So the Son became, through his sacrifice, our perfection and our salvation in every way.

The lawgiver took the things that were sacrificed properly according to the effects of the sacrifices. For when he said that he-goats are offered for sin, because divine Scripture is accustomed to take this animal for the class of sinners (not forgetful at all that, when these sacrifices signified the reckoning of repentance, we set it out, taking the occasion from this legal book), we showed that the kid, which in Greek … , is rightly sacrificed by him who does penance, as being set in storm and wave until the sacrifice of his repentance is accepted. And the ram, as giving leadership to the flock, is rightly assigned to the burnt offering, that is, taken for virtue and perfection of life; for whose part is it to teach perfect things, if not that of those set over others? This being so, you say anyhow: "Why, if the law commanded he-goats to be offered for sin, has it now also commanded a calf to be offered?" It can be resolved and explained by one short reason: that the sacrifice of the Only-begotten is not of one kind, but is of sinners and of the righteous alike. And therefore the he-goats are commanded to be offered for the class of sinners, as it were, and the calf for the righteous, because the ox, being an animal fit for work, is taken in the person of the righteous man according to the law. Hence he says: "And with the calf he shall pray for himself and for his house," calling the righteous the house of God; for he dwells in them and walks among them. He is their God, and they are his people. "And he shall pray for himself," that is, for the house of his own flesh; for though he did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth, yet he put on Adam, who needed propitiation because of the curse once brought upon the human race. Hear, then, Paul writing such things to the Hebrews about Christ: "Who has no need daily, as the priests, to offer victims first for his own offences and then for the people's; for this he did once for all by offering himself."

Verses 6–10. "And when he has offered the calf and prayed for himself and for his house, he shall make the two he-goats stand before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of witness, and he shall cast lots upon both, one for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. The one on which the lot of the Lord falls he shall offer for sin; but the one whose lot is for the scapegoat he shall set alive before the Lord, that he may pour out prayers over it and send it into the wilderness. When these things have been duly performed, he shall offer the calf, praying for himself and for his house."

The blind are wont to stumble in the light, and unbelievers to be scandalized in the law of God. Peter, knowing this, said both of the epistles of Paul, the vessel of election, and of all divine Scripture: "In which are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." Those suffer this now too who understand the law of God according to their own will and not according to its true intention, and vainly think to establish from what the lawgiver said the worship of idols, harmful and pestilent to the soul. For they say: "The law commanded lots to be cast over two he-goats, and one to be separated for the Lord and the other for sending away." And they call the scapegoat the devil, so as to give from this an occasion for worshipping the evil one, so far do they stop their ears and are blind in mind. How, then, does it make sense? It is not credible that God himself should command a sacrifice to be offered to the devil, he who through Moses himself commanded that a brother and a son and a wife, and a whole city, that turned to idols should be destroyed, and who cries out: "You shall have no other gods besides me"; and who says through David: "There shall be no new god in you, nor shall you worship a foreign god." Would he, then, who commanded these things, command this, as though they were going to make equal and share with him his glory and priesthood and worship: that, two he-goats being offered, he should take one to be devoted to himself and the other to his adversary, who they think is called the scapegoat? But they have not known nor understood; they walk in darkness. For the lawgiver called "the one sent away" the he-goat that is sent into the desert.

But let us show from what belongs to the tradition of the legal letter how it would not be likely that the lawgiver commanded this, and then let us exercise the intention of the enactment by the consideration of the spirit. He commanded, then, that the two he-goats be set before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of witness, not that they were to be taken away from God (for this is "before the Lord"), nor that what was being sent to the devil [be brought] to God's door; and he commanded lots to be cast, one for the Lord and one for purification. But if he had taken the scapegoat as the person of some evil one, the lot would never have been cast for it along with that which was God's; for you will not find in the divine Scriptures that any good thing shares a lot with any evil thing. But whenever a lot was cast, they cast lots equals with equals, as the tribes of Israel divided [the land]; for when they needed to choose another for the apostleship in place of Judas, lots were cast over two men equal in virtues and teaching, namely Matthias and Joseph the Just, so that Peter, addressing the assembly, said: "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take the place of this ministry and apostleship." And not only before the lot was cast on the two he-goats did he command that they be set before the Lord, but he also commanded that the one on which the lot of sending away fell, after the same lot had fallen on it and it had been made manifest, be set before the Lord and that prayers be poured out over it. How, then, is that which has been set before the face of God and in a way consecrated to him sent again to the devil himself? Or how does the sacrifice that is sent to the wicked one accomplish the propitiation of sins? For if his intention is to make even the righteous sinners, how could he procure propitiation for sinners? And how can that very sinner, of whom David says, "Set a sinner over him, and let the devil stand at his right hand," procure propitiation for sins? For this belongs to God alone, to whom David said, "And be propitious to my sin, for it is great."

This being so, and this understanding having been shown on every side to be unfitting, let us not be unaware that the lawgiver without doubt said these things above all of the sacrifice of Christ. Hence I think that, envying [it], they [sow] the tares of evil understanding, seeing its clear testimony from the law. For since Christ Jesus, who became incarnate for us, was God and man, keeping the divinity impassible, he offered only the humanity to sufferings; but the effect of his passion, that is, our propitiation, belonged not only to the flesh that suffered but much more to the impassible divinity. Paul testifies to this, saying: "Who, being the radiance of the glory and the image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power." And showing that all these things are said of the divinity of the Only-begotten, he added: "having made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high," joining to God the Word himself also the things that properly belonged to his flesh. If, then, these things have been aptly said, therefore two he-goats are taken and set before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of witness, that these things might be done in them after the image of Christ. For he himself is the true door, which leads to the door of the tabernacle of witness that is in heaven. And Aaron cast a lot upon each he-goat, one [for each], so that by the force and signification of the lots we may understand the division in the dispensation between the divinity and the humanity of Christ. And distinct things are proper to the one and to the other: that this one should suffer, and that one should strengthen the sufferer, and through the sufferings that were at work in it both moderate the sufferings that are contrary to us and manifest its own impassibility. Then, he says, "one lot for the Lord, and another for the scapegoat," for none other than Christ, as we said above. If the lot or the he-goat were given to some enemy and evil one, it would not share a lot with God, nor be led to the door of the tabernacle of witness, nor would prayers be poured over it, nor propitiation be made in it. So it is called the goat "sent away," as being sent away and not sacrificed. And for what reason … is sacrificed, which Aquila rendered "assigned to the Strong One"? And who is the strong or mighty one, hear Job saying: "I know that you are mighty, and no thought is hidden from you." Hear David too: "The Lord is a firmament to those who fear him." So one lot is for the sacrificed flesh of Christ, which, being united to God the Word, is rightly named Lord; that is why Paul says, "For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory." And by "the Strong One" the Godhead is understood. "He shall subject it to the lot": this lot is taken for it; for it, holding all things, rightly strengthened even its own flesh by the passion.

Therefore Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord has fallen, and shall offer it for sin. For the spiritual Aaron is he who presides over our priesthood, of whom Paul says: "As Aaron, so also Christ did not glorify himself to become a priest." He offers his own flesh to the Father, and in it he offers for sin, of which Paul wrote to the Hebrews: "This man, having offered one victim for sin, sat down for ever at the right hand of God." … "He shall set it alive before the Lord, that he may pour out prayers over it." For since we said that the lot of the scapegoat is referred figuratively to the divinity of Christ, he sets it alive, keeping it impassible, so that through it he may make supplication. For no one can forgive sins but God alone. And he sends it away into the wilderness, and, as the Seventy say, "the goat shall bear upon itself their names into a solitary land," or a pathless one. Let us by no means think that the desert and solitary or pathless land must now be taken for any evil thing, nor let those who drag the law to impiety disturb the ears of the pious by this. For he calls it deserted by evil, and solitary or pathless, which cannot be walked by the spiritual enemies, in which God dwells and appears, as David shows, saying: "O God, my God,

I watch for you at dawn; my soul has thirsted for you, how manifoldly my flesh for you, in a desert land, pathless and waterless; so in the holy place I have appeared before you, to see your power and your glory." So the desert and the pathless place is holy, the dwelling of the Holy of holies, where the divinity is said to have gone away into heaven at the time of the passion: not passing from place to place, but withholding its own power from the humanity, to give room to the passion, while remaining in a place worthy of itself, namely in the bosom of the Father. No one approaches it except he himself and the Holy Spirit, because he himself is in the Father, and the Holy Spirit too, as we have learned from the gospel writings. So understand "going away" as "withholding." For God, who is present everywhere, is said to go away when he withholds his working. And it also bears our iniquities, because it is the property of fire to consume hay, and of the divinity to destroy sin; hence God is also called a consuming fire.

Verses 11–13. "And Aaron shall offer the calf for sin, and praying for himself and for his house, he shall sacrifice it. And taking the censer, which he has filled with coals from the altar, and drawing with his hand compounded incense for burning, he shall enter beyond the veil into the holy place, so that, when the spices have been placed on the fire, their cloud and vapour may cover the oracle which is over the testimony, and he may not die."

Because we have said that many things were done through the sacrifice of the Saviour, many distinctions were necessarily sought out in it in the law. Principally, then, through it absolution was won for Israel itself; that is why he said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But not only the deliverance of Israel, but also the correction of the Gentiles was in the sacrifice of Christ. Paul set this out plainly, writing to the Ephesians: "That he might create the two in himself into one new man, making peace, and reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity in himself; and coming, he preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near." He calls the Gentiles "far off" because they were far from all divine knowledge, but Israel near, whom the prophets and the law made near. Then, connecting, Paul said: "For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." The spiritual Aaron, then, sacrifices the calf, that is, his own flesh; and when its sacrifice is taken for the deliverance of the Jewish people, the sacrifice of the calf is necessarily assumed; for he himself had the legal justification, especially so as to proclaim openly, "I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it." And Paul said of him: "God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law." This calf is fittingly understood because of the yoke of the commandments. "Praying for himself": that is, for the humanity, for he bore its figure in himself. "And for his house": properly he came to deliver the people that lived under the law, which was his house because of kinship. That is why Cleopas said, "But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel." "And he shall sacrifice it": for he himself sacrificed his own flesh; he himself became the high priest of his own sacrifice in Sion when he gave the cup of the blood of the new covenant.

"And taking the censer, which he has filled with coals from the altar": here he calls the Lord's tongue the censer, for the Spirit was in it. He takes the censer full of coals, then, because to his sacrifice he at once added the words of teaching, which were divine and heavenly, of which David said, "Coals were kindled by him." John wrote this in what was done at the supper after Judas had gone out, in which he sets out how the Father is in him, and how he, being in the Father, sends the gift of the Spirit; how the Father is the husbandman, he the vine, and the apostles the branches; how the ruler of this world is judged; and other wonders, which are coals of fire, as warming us to piety, since they are spiritual in general. And the altar, which according to the Seventy is "before the Lord": we showed at the very beginning of this book that this is the Cherubim. For the prophet Ezekiel showed that the coals of the spiritual fire are set here; for he presents the Lord himself, who was clothed in a long robe and had his loins girded, saying: "Go in between the wheels under the Cherubim, and fill your hands from among the Cherubim." And that the spiritual altar, on which the coals of fire are, must be understood as the seat of the Cherubim, hear Isaiah saying: "And one of the Seraphim came to me, and in his hand a coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth." What other altar, then, is in heaven than the Cherubim? But for him, as being both high priest and king, the same thing is both throne and altar. Paul, signifying this to the Hebrews, said: "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one tempted in all things according to likeness, yet without sin. Let us then draw near with confidence to the throne of his glory." He called this the spiritual altar, as what follows shows; for he says, "that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help." For without any doubt we receive both of these from the altar.

But what did the lawgiver add in what follows? "And drawing with his hand compounded incense for burning, he shall enter beyond the veil into the holy place"; or, as the Seventy have it, "And he shall fill his hands with incense of fine compounding, and offer it within, inside the veil." He means prayer, of which David said, "Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight." So when we pray for worldly things, it is in a way coarse and not fine; but when we ask for spiritual things, that is, divine knowledge, the kingdom of heaven, the remission of sins, it is fine, as being spiritual and intellectual, and the spiritual priest offers it for us. This is clear from the fact that Christ, praying for his disciples, asked for them sanctification and unity with himself, freedom in the world, and other such things. "He shall enter into the holy place," or, according to the Seventy, "and he shall offer within the veil," namely of his flesh. And to whom will he offer it? To the Father, namely; because the flesh was shown manifest to the sight of all, but he himself was invisible. "And when the spices have been placed on the fire, their cloud and vapour shall cover the oracle which is over the testimony, and he shall not die." Understand what is said here in two ways. Since Aaron bears the figure of Christ himself because of the dignity of the priesthood, he bears also the figure of the body of priests. Christ places spices on the fire, that is, prayer on teaching, and their vapour, the cloud, that is, the power of prayer, covers "the oracle which is over the testimony," that is, his flesh, from which propitiation for sins was procured for us, and which is in the saving passion. And we showed a little above that this is the testimony. "And he shall not die" the death of corruption; for his flesh did not see corruption, because it was covered by the vapour of the spices, that is, by the power of that prayer of which David speaks, Christ entreating the Father: "For you will not leave my soul in hell, nor give your holy one to see corruption." And each priest, speaking of Christ, places spices on the fire, the prayer of spiritual teaching, and the power of prayer covers the oracle which is over the testimony. It does not allow him to seek, concerning the sufferings of the Lord's flesh, things that are beyond the power of the seeker; and they will not die the death that has been fixed for immoderate inquirers, who seek what it is not permitted to men to seek.

Verse 14. "He shall also take of the blood of the calf and sprinkle it with his finger seven times toward the propitiatory, to the east." Or, as the Seventy have it, "he shall sprinkle with his finger upon the propitiatory to the east; before the face of the propitiatory he shall sprinkle seven times with his finger." That the sacrifice of the Only-begotten is indeed of his flesh, yet is accomplished again by the power of his divinity and the good pleasure of the Father, for the remission and rescue of our sins, and at the same time for the gift of the supply of the Spirit, is plainly shown by what the lawgiver now says. For the finger signifies the power of the divinity; hence David said: "For I shall see the heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have founded." We take both, then, of the power of the divinity, and the blood of the calf itself is sprinkled upon the propitiatory toward the east. For the saving passion was accomplished for our propitiation and at the same time our illumination; hence the passion itself is called the propitiatory, as we have often shown. And it is also called the East; for the prophet Zechariah says of him: "Behold a man, the East is his name, and he shall rise up from under him." And Zechariah the priest, the father of John, says: "In which the East from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." And over against the propitiatory, that is, in the sight of the Father, he will sprinkle seven times, so that the human race might receive from the Lord's blood both the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the number seven signifies both: because there are seven gifts of the Spirit, and the same number signifies the remission of sins. For when Peter asked Christ, "If my brother sins against me, how often shall I forgive him? Up to seven times?", Christ said, "I do not say seven times, but up to seventy times seven," multiplying the number seven.

Verse 15. "And when he has slain the he-goat for the sin of the people, he shall bring its blood within the veil, as was commanded concerning the blood of the calf, to sprinkle it over against the oracle; and he shall expiate the sanctuary from the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel, and from their transgressions, and all their sins."

The lawgiver is admirable, sufficient for the figure of the mystery, and by no means to be blamed for necessarily dividing a manifold prefiguration into many forms. For since Christ arose according to the flesh from the Jews, who lived under the yoke of the law, it is rightly called the sacrifice of a calf; for the calf, accustomed to draw the yoke and so to work the earth, is compared to the legal yoke and to the work and righteousness that belong to it. And since, inasmuch as he was incarnate, he was made of the common lump of men, therefore he is again called a he-goat. This rough animal, then, bears the garment of the pious; and the whole race of the living is rough, as filled with sin, for nothing is rougher than sin. Hence the lawgiver, wishing to establish this openly, says: "And when he has slain the he-goat for the sin of the people," understanding here the whole human race, which once was not a people but now is a people, since Jesus took the firstfruits from us. So, to show that Christ is akin principally to the Jews, because of Abraham, but yet bears the firstfruits of all our nature, which is in sin (that is why he was called Adam), the law took the calf and the he-goat together for the figure of his sacrifice. And since the sacrifice is one, whether it is named calf or he-goat, and the effect in both is one (for the absolution of sins is won by it), the things done with the he-goat and the calf are necessarily common. For you see that he slays the he-goat before the Lord, namely the Father, and brings its blood within the veil, that is, to the Father. Again, then, you understand this as within the spiritual veil, namely the visible flesh of the Lord, as bringing his invisible blood within the veil, as was commanded. "And of the blood of the calf he shall sprinkle with his finger seven times toward the propitiatory, to the east," or, as the Seventy have it, "upon the propitiatory, before the face of the propitiatory." Then what follows?

Verse 16. "And he shall expiate the sanctuary from the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel, and from their transgressions, and all their sins."

He seems to speak of the tabernacle, but he does not speak of the one that is subject to the senses. For what expiation or propitiation could wood accomplish? or skins, or the other things of which the tabernacle of the Jews, which was subject to the senses, was made? But he means the generality, or the whole human species. For our lump was holy from the beginning, so that the Spirit of God dwelt in it. This is shown by the fact that God in anger threatened to take him away when those who descended from Seth, though they were righteous and were called sons of God, desiring the women who were born from [Cain] and his descendants by succession, who were called daughters of men, became of one race with the evil and wicked. For he spoke thus: "The sons of God, seeing that the daughters of men were beautiful, took wives for themselves of all whom they chose; and the Lord God said: My Spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh." So if the Spirit of God dwelt in man before all began to follow the passions of the flesh, the lump of men was rightly holy; for the Holy of holies would not have taken firstfruits from it. But because it was soiled, he expiated it from the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel. First, the sensible law was given to them; because they transgressed, it made them guilty under the curse and death, so that they therefore needed expiation; and the sacrifice of the Only-begotten is sacrificed principally for them; but it is also sacrificed for all men, so that Caiaphas said: "It is expedient that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." And the evangelist John, confirming and at the same time correcting what had been said, added: "Now this he did not say of himself, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that he might gather into one the children of God who were scattered," namely the Gentiles; for of them the Lord said: "For I have other sheep which are not of this fold, and I must gather them too." Plainly the children of God are much more the Israelites, because Israel is interpreted "seeing God"; and according to reason Jesus was sacrificed for the sensible Israel, that is, the sacrifice, and he offered it for the whole human race, for the expiation of our uncleannesses. Of which uncleannesses? That is, "from their transgressions," he says, "and all their sins." For the uncleanness of the soul is not the pollution of a corpse, not swine's food, nor anything else of the kind,

but to harm one's neighbour and to sin against God or the commandments of God.

"According to this rite he makes the tabernacle of witness, which is fixed among them, in the midst of … of their dwelling. Let no man be in the tabernacle when the high priest enters the sanctuary to pray for himself and for his house and for the whole assembly of Israel." What the law called "the holy place" above, see, it now calls the tabernacle of witness, "which is fixed among them, in the midst of … of their dwelling"; or, according to the Seventy, "built among them, in the midst of their uncleannesses." For by the same reason our lump can both be holy and be called the tabernacle of witness. For if we said that heaven is the tabernacle of witness, our heavenly man is rightly named holy, of whom Paul says: "As we have borne the image of the earthy, let us also bear the image of the heavenly"; and again: "If our earthly house of this dwelling is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Rightly, then, it is named holy, because it was built in us. For first the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth, and then breathed into his face the breath of life. This, then, is our heavenly man, who is in the midst of our uncleannesses, who is also assailed by the passions of the flesh, as Paul said: "For I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind and leading me captive to the law of sin which is in my members." That is why the law very consistently added:

Verse 17. "Let no man be in the tabernacle of witness when the high priest goes in to pray for himself and for his house and for the whole assembly of Israel."

For when Christ entered the holy place, that is, when he became incarnate and took the heavenly man and firstfruits from us, no one was in the spiritual tabernacle of witness, neither Gentile nor circumcised, neither Levite nor priest, because "all have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable; there is none who does good." No one then followed the heavenly way of life, nor a wisdom worthy of the heavenly man, until he prayed in the holy place of his own flesh through the cross, and went out of it by the common law of death, sending forth his spirit and leaving the flesh in the tomb, which is plainly named its …. But the sacrifice now set forth did not profit the generality of all men. "Let no man be in the tabernacle," he says, "when the high priest enters the sanctuary to pray." And yet in the sacrifice according to the letter only the people of the Jews would be present; nor would every man be excluded from the tabernacle at the time of the sacrifice now spoken of; but it signifies that the whole human race now minds earthly things and is in sins, and therefore is rightly not found in the spiritual tabernacle of witness.

Verses 18–19. "And when he has gone out to the altar which is before the Lord, let him pray for himself, and taking the blood of the calf and of the he-goat, let him pour it upon its horns round about, and sprinkling it with his finger seven times, let him expiate and sanctify it from the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel."

What the calf and the he-goat were has been explained sufficiently in what has been said. For taking the blood of both together, and showing it to be one by the joining, he places or pours it upon the horns of the altar. But what does he do? Whatever the order of the mystery requires and the figure wishes in sequence, which the lawgiver wrote with all precision: afterwards our going out to the altar which is before the Lord. He means that of the incense, which we showed is the seat of the Cherubim; ascending with the flesh, he also lifted up our captivity in him, raising us up together and making us sit at the right hand in the heavenly places. "And taking the blood, he pours it upon its horns round about, and sprinkling it with his finger seven times, let him expiate and sanctify it from the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel." For by his own passion he sanctified not only the horns of the altar that is in heaven, namely the chief and general virtues, wisdom, fortitude, justice, chastity; these are rightly the horns of the Cherubim, for this heavenly living creature has their figures, and bears them in the person of the man and the lion and the calf and the eagle: of wisdom in the person of the lion, of justice in the person of the calf, of chastity in the person of the eagle; of these we set out more fully some time ago in the interpretation of the prophet Ezekiel. "Let him expiate and sanctify it from the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel." For even heavenly things are expiated by the sacrifice of Christ, so that Paul, wishing to show the difference between the legal sacrifices and that of the Only-begotten, said: "It was necessary, then, that the copies of the heavenly things be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." And for what reason the heavenly things needed expiation, the lawgiver showed, saying: "… from the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel." As far as the powers of heaven are concerned, no expiation of any kind was needed, because they live in continual sanctification; but because the smoke of our sins frequently goes up to heaven, of which David said, "Smoke went up in his anger, and fire blazes from his face," so that God said to Jonah, "Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it the preaching which I speak to you, for its wickedness has come up before me," and again to Abraham of Sodom, "I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that has come to me, or not," rightly he sanctifies and expiates the choirs above us from our uncleannesses, so as to remove from them the abominable odour surrounding them, and the false boasting which we laid down against them. That is why he does not simply sprinkle, but seven times, so that you may understand the pardon of our sins, for the number seven figures this. The heavenly places are cleansed of the abominable odour and of the boasting which we laid down; for because of this, enmity first arose on our part against the things in heaven.

Verse 20. "After he has cleansed the sanctuary and the tabernacle and the altar." Or, as the Seventy have it, "And he shall finish expiating the holy place and the tabernacle of witness and the altar, and he purged for the priests." According to their edition, the law rightly made special mention of the priests, so that the figure of the sacrifice of the Only-begotten might be preserved in all things. For the choir of the apostles obtained the priesthood from Christ; it was part of the human race for which the Lord offered himself, yet he called it special, like an ointment, and the Lord's chief sacrifice. The Lord shows this when he says to the Father: "I sanctify myself, that they too may be sanctified in truth"; and again to them: "Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends; you are my friends if you do what I command you." And see the order of the legal figure, how it leads to the truth itself; for according to the Seventy he says, "He shall finish expiating the holy place and the tabernacle of witness and the altar"; that is, he will finish and bring to an end the supplication made through the cross for the whole race of men, and that which was at the spiritual altar, after he had been taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father. And yet he does not expiate for the priests: for he sends them cleansing through the spiritual fire and through the fiery tongues of the Spirit; that is why he said to them, "But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence."

Verse 21. "Then he offers the living he-goat, and placing both hands on its head, let him confess all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their offences and sins; and laying them on its head, … And when the he-goat has carried all their iniquities into a solitary land and been let go in the desert."

We need now too to repeat the same things, because of those who stumble in the light. For it is proved that the things now enacted concerning this living he-goat are done not for any wicked or evil one, but for God himself. First, because the priest lays both hands on the head of the he-goat. The laying on of hands in sacrifice ministered blessing, or the remission of sins, or the coming of the Holy Spirit, or spiritual expiations. How, then, was the priest going to do the things mentioned on this one, on which, as those of that party say, the lot of the enemy fell, of him who fights against God? Or how did he redeem in it the iniquities, injustices and sins of the sons of Israel? For the enemy does not allow sins to be confessed, but rather suggests that we hide the wounds of the soul, so that we may not find the physician who could apply the medicine and give health. That is why, as soon as David was rebuked by Nathan, he cried out, "I have sinned against the Lord"; and the prophet at once added: "And the Lord has taken away your sin; you shall not die; yet because you have made the enemies of the Lord blaspheme …." Hence the lawgiver also said that the he-goat is sent into the wilderness by a ready man; "ready," that is, one who comes or approaches. And he does not say his rank, whether he who did this was a Levite or a priest or one of the people. So the he-goat signifies that Christ is present with all. For as he was sacrificed first through the flesh, so now he is called living because of the divinity. But because the one and the same is both impassible and passible, the priest necessarily lays his hands on the living one too, so that by the laying on of hands it may be shown that the living Word of God, impassible and immortal, taking this upon himself for us in the flesh, undertook the sacrifice. Rightly, then, the priest will pronounce upon him the iniquities, injustices and sins. This is he of whom the prophet Isaiah said: "Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?", calling the Son, consubstantial with the Father, the arm of the Lord; of whom he also added what follows: "He took our infirmities and bore our sorrows. He was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our crimes. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripe we have been healed." So plainly he bore upon himself our sins and injustices and iniquities. And therefore, according to the Seventy, he says, "He shall put them on the head of the living kid"; for of this the figure is that Christ allowed a crown of thorns to be put on his head, because sins are wont to be taken as thorns. That is why the earth is commanded to bring forth thorns for Adam, since he himself brought forth sins from disobedience. And Solomon says: "Thorns grow in the hand of the drunkard," signifying that his actions are full of sins.

Taking the words of the law in this way, then, do not be ignorant of its intention and force; but … the ready man, by whose hand the living [goat] is sent into the desert. For Christ himself became the whole of his own sacrifice: priest and sacrifice and knife and altar. He himself is also the ready man, ready for us for the passion, so that he says through Isaiah: "But I will not gainsay; I have not gone back. I gave my body to the smiters and my cheeks to those who plucked them; I did not turn away my face from those who reviled and spat upon it." To him David too says, signifying the mystery of his incarnation, through which he obtained our kingdom: "The Lord has reigned; he has put on beauty; the Lord has put on strength and girded himself. For he has made firm the world, which shall not be moved. Your throne is ready from of old." Christ, then, the spiritual Aaron, now too … himself, he himself through the ready man, …, that is, through his own … through the kid … or in the hand of the man … power; for he himself, being … and man, was shown ready. And he sends the living he-goat into the wilderness, or into the pathless and desert land, … his own immortal and impassible divinity, into places pathless for us and deserted by all wickedness, as John says: "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come forth from God and was going to God."

Verse 32. "For the priest who has been anointed, and whose hands have been consecrated to exercise the priesthood in his father's place, shall expiate." Or, as the Seventy have it: "The priest whom they anoint, and whosever hands they consecrate to be priest in his father's place, shall make supplication." So as to show Christ without any doubt: for Christ had as fathers according to the flesh the chief priests of the Jews, for they too were sons of Abraham, as Christ was. The law shows that, since the priests of the Jews could not, as Paul says, make perfect those who draw near (for it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins), rightly Christ himself, anointed to the priesthood and consecrating his hands through the cross, expiates us. Of whom in another place the law rightly says: "The priest whom they anoint and whose hands they consecrate to minister in the priesthood after his father." For first the Father anointed him, as David says: "Therefore God, your God, has anointed you." And he anointed him, saying, "You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek." Afterwards he was anointed by the men who ministered to his passion and sacrifice; for the sacrifice of the cross showed him to be our lamb and priest and deliverer. That is why, for a fuller demonstration of it and a more precise manifestation of the figure:

Verse 34. "Once," he says, "in the year he shall do this." Wishing to show that the sacrifice of the Only-begotten was done once, as it was said, "Christ, once offered to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time without sin to those who await him for salvation," … through faith, with which he who meditates on the law finds the Gospel to match this, and most truthful what Christ, that is, the truth, said to the Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me also; for he wrote of me." And what or where he did not add, because whatever is mystical, whatever …, whatever is divine, was spoken by Moses of Christ in shadow and figure and images.