Commentary on Leviticus 5.17

Verses 1–7. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the sons of Israel, and say to them: This is the word which the Lord has commanded, saying: Any man of the house of Israel who kills an ox or a goat in the camp or outside the camp, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle as an offering to the Lord, shall be guilty of blood; as if he had shed blood, so shall he perish from the midst of his people. Therefore the sons of Israel ought to bring to the priest the victims which they kill in the field, that they may be sanctified to the Lord before the door of the tabernacle of witness, and they shall sacrifice them as peace offerings to the Lord. And the priest shall pour the blood under the altar of the Lord and at the door of the tabernacle of witness, and shall burn the fat for a sweet odour to the Lord. And they shall no more sacrifice their victims to demons, with whom they have committed fornication. It shall be a perpetual ordinance for them and their posterity."

… mattered little to the lawgiver about the figures; but what he thought of them, more for the sake of the truth prefigured in them, which, dispensed in later times, he wishes to make them cease, he plainly shows beforehand. He commanded these things not simply through Moses to Aaron and his sons and to all the sons of Israel, but openly making plain that he wishes none, neither great nor more perfect nor imperfect, to be ignorant of what it is expedient for them to know: namely, that the law of the letter is temporary, so that when the time is fulfilled we should no longer busy ourselves with it in vain and to no purpose. And what is the end of its times? The complete destruction of the very place in which he commanded sacrifices to be offered; for he commanded with a threat that whoever completes a sacrifice there, within or outside [the camp] yet outside the tabernacle of witness, should perish from the people. So that, when the tabernacle of witness and the temple made after its image had been destroyed, they might know that all the things which the law commanded to be done there have an end, and that these too do not please God; for otherwise he would not have destroyed the place in which, according to the law, they ought by all means to have been performed. Hence righteous actions, that is, not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to bear false witness, to honour father and mother, to love one's neighbours, and the rest, he does not confine to a place on this account, because they are always useful, common with the gospel way of life. But these things, which in themselves are superfluous but were devised for the sake of some reason, he shuts up in a place, so that they may know that they are temporary; for all things that serve a place are also ordained to serve a time. To the place, then, are assigned the sacrifices, the cleansings from the dead, and of those who suffer a flow of seed, and of lepers, and of menstruous women, because these too have their effect through sacrifices; likewise the unleavened bread, the figurative Passover, Tabernacles, Pentecost, and also the new moons and the sabbaths; for in these sacrifices had by all means to be offered. And that these held figures of the mysteries to be fulfilled by the Lord, we have shown sufficiently above.

Since, then, the people that received the law was a child, gaping after imperfect things, because it would cling to shadows and be attached to places, as a child delights in certain places, the lawgiver found a way by which he might of necessity remove them from the figures when the time of their withdrawal came: shutting up in a place the things he was going to destroy, and commanding that none of the things mentioned be done outside this place, but that whoever attempted it should be as one who sheds blood. So whoever even now tries to perform the figures of the destroyed place shed blood, that is, they pollute the common way of life and sin against the community, as those who shed blood do; and likewise they shed the blood of him who is sent into error by them, for they become the cause of his perdition. And since it was possible for them to ask, or to think, for what reason these things were enacted, if they are local, we say, for a time, because they could not know openly the reason for the figures, nor did they wish to learn it when revealed, because the things enacted held the images of other things, therefore the lawgiver himself wrote for them another reason, truer than this: "And they shall no more sacrifice their victims to demons, with whom they have committed fornication"; or, as the Seventy have it, "And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to vain things." When it had been commanded them, "You shall not make yourself an idol, nor any likeness of the things that are in heaven above and on the earth beneath and whatever is in the waters under the earth," they made a molten calf and offered sacrifice to the calf, wishing to take sacrifices for the sake of gluttony. The law, their tutor, commanded them to offer sacrifices so that, occupied in these, they might keep themselves from every sacrifice of idolatry; and it enacted these things, which, while forbidding them the sacrifices of idols, could at the same time also teach the figures of the mysteries to come. And he well called the service of idols fornication, plainly teaching them that God betrothed our souls to himself for salvation, and that therefore departure from him is called fornication. Moreover he frightens those who commit fornication in the flesh, … the worship of idols, so that the flight to demons should be named fornication.

Verses 8–9. "And you shall say to them: The man of the sons of Israel, and of the strangers who sojourn among you, who offers a burnt offering or a victim, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of witness to be offered to the Lord, shall perish from his people."

Even if the lawgiver seems to say the same things, yet he makes the people on whom he lays the law wary; for by saying the same things often he shows that this commandment is necessary and very useful. Yet he does not say the same thing again in vain. Above he subjected to the penalty one who only kills, in order to make some sacrifice, but not one who in every way performs the rest of the sacrifice; for he says: "Who kills an ox or a sheep, in the camp or outside the camp, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle as an offering to the Lord." There he is understood to be forbidden from what he attempted; but here it is not so, but: "Who offers a burnt offering or a victim, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of witness to be offered to the Lord," speaking of a sacrifice completed or perfect, so far that it became a burnt offering; yet he commanded the same penalty for this. For he who made a beginning of handling this and was forbidden differs nothing from him who completed it. And the penalty of both is destruction from the people, so that he can no longer live among the people, nor boast of circumcision, nor adorn himself with the race of Abraham, nor be called an Israelite, but is set among those who have the foreskin and the foreigners; this is for someone to be destroyed from his people. So whoever now transgresses the commandments or bounds of the law, doing outside the temple whatever the law does not wish done when the temple is destroyed, are no longer Israelites, nor do they rightly claim for themselves the name of Jews. But this too must be noted above all, that he commanded these things to be kept not only by those who are of the sons of Israel but, with them, also by the proselytes or strangers who sojourn among them, that is, the Gentiles; for these are not joined to them but are among them, because we are among them, as having their law and prophets and the inheritance promised to them. But we cleave not to them but to God. Moreover, according to the Seventy, he said "man, man," when he could simply have said "man"; yet he doubles it to show that both he who is in circumcision and he who is in the foreskin, cleaving to God, ought to keep this commandment.

Verses 10–12. "Any man of the house of Israel, and of the strangers who sojourn among them, if he eats blood, I will set my face against that soul and destroy it from its people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you, that on the altar you may make atonement with it for your souls, and the blood may be an expiation for the soul. Therefore I have said to the sons of Israel: No soul of you shall eat blood, nor of the strangers who sojourn among you."

The Seventy here give "man, man." How this ought to be understood we said above. So the letter of this commandment must be kept, and blood must by no means be eaten. For you will find that the apostles too commanded this, when, a dispute having arisen in the church of Antioch about certain Jewish observances, the question was referred to them; they laid down the law, resolving and settling this question: "It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality." Therefore by blood let us understand properly murder, and by all blood all hatred of a brother, because "whoever hates his brother is a murderer," as John wrote. So by all blood he means the injustice of the deceitful; for "the Lord will abhor the man of blood and the deceitful"; and whoever harm the life of their neighbours by any snares whatever, so that they are compared to the murder of blood. And therefore we must abstain from all blood, knowing that against the soul that eats such blood (of such David said, "who devour my people as they eat bread") God, namely Christ, sets his face. For he is the image of the Father, because he who has seen the Son has seen the Father also. He is also the judge, and is necessarily set forth to threaten destruction to those who are workers of evil, as David shows, saying: "But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth." He destroys the soul that eats blood from its people, namely from the common race of men; for, separating it as merciless and impious, he condemns it with the evil demons and sends it into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. Then, suggesting how much we ought to be compassionate and merciful, loving one another, because of him who showed such great kindness toward us as to shed his own blood for our propitiation and give it for our souls, he says: "For the life of all flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you, that on the altar you may make atonement with it for your souls," signifying the mystical blood of Christ. So his blood will be an expiation for the soul. The blood upon the altar for the expiation of our souls, expiating for the soul, is that which he shed for us when crucified, and he gave expiation or propitiation to the human race, offering the firstfruits; that is why he rightly says: "And the blood shall be an expiation for the soul." For it is his soul: first because it was fashioned by him, then because, when he became incarnate, he took it consubstantial with our soul, so that he himself might pay for us the death which we owe. And when he says, "The life of all flesh is in its blood," he does not wish us to understand blood as the hidden substance of the soul, but that it has fellowship with the flesh through the blood, and when this is emptied out or grows cold, then it is dissolved from the flesh, the Creator so disposing our nature. Since, then, Christ gave his blood for the expiation of our souls, [it is] so that we may abstain from all murder and from every other iniquity that is close to murder. For it is a common law and extends against all.

Verses 13–14. "Any man of the sons of Israel, and of the strangers who sojourn among you, who by hunting or fowling catches a beast or a bird which it is lawful to eat, shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth; for the life of all flesh is in the blood. Hence I have said to the sons of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, because the life of the flesh is in the blood; and whoever eats it shall perish."

God takes great care that we do not harm one another at all. That is why Jesus commanded us to yield to him who strikes the cheek and not to contend with him in court, and likewise concerning him who takes our cloak: so that we may not be provoked even by strife to harm our neighbour, but rather may correct by our patience him who acts unjustly against us. Nothing, then, narrows our life more than injustice and avarice and mutual hatred. With this in view the lawgiver did not recapitulate the commandment about blood in vain; but because he saw that some are wont to harm their fellow-countrymen by certain frauds and machinations and various deceits, as if unknowingly, he [wished] to destroy such contrivances too. For see what he adds: "If by hunting or fowling he catches a beast or a bird which it is lawful to eat, let him pour out its blood and cover it with earth." That hunting is wont to be taken by divine Scripture above all for injustice, and not just any injustice but that which tends to blood and in a way harms the very life of him who suffers the injustice through guile and fraud, hear David saying: "They will hunt after the soul of the righteous and condemn innocent blood"; and again: "Our soul has been delivered like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters." If, then, anyone has caught [something] in hunting, that is, has seen sinning someone who was exposed to the hunt through weakness or simplicity, him we call the beast that is caught. That is why he said, "a beast or a bird which it is lawful to eat": by the beast signifying someone of the common people, only carnal and given over to his passions, and without experience of the entanglement of affairs; by the bird, one who removes himself from earthly things. For such men are consumed by the violent and avaricious in worldly causes, that is, by that unfitting and wicked feasting which Paul forbade, saying, "If you devour one another, see that you are not consumed by one another." Or those who were before righteous are rightly named among the things which it is lawful to eat, that is, among clean things.

Yet if anyone pours out the blood of the sinner, lying as it were beneath and buried in repentance, that is, the sin which he sinned (and he pours it out by coming to the work and to confession, as David says, "I will pour out my prayer in his sight"), let the earth cover it. For the earth covers the sins of those who confess, as remaining beneath and put to death by repentance; and their cry is forbidden to go up to heaven, as the cry of Sodom went up; for they would not do penance, so that God said of them to Abraham, "I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that has come to me, or not, that I may know." And Job, praying that the iniquity laid upon him, whether by the devil or by those who reproached him with it, should not be hidden from the Lord, that is, not be disregarded by him, cried out: "O earth, do not hide my blood, and let my cry find no place to hide in you," that is, let it not be held back in a place, but go up to God. That is why he added, "Behold now, my witness is in heaven, and he who knows me is on high." With this intention, then, the lawgiver, setting down the things said, added: "For the life of all flesh is in the blood." Then he adds: "Hence I have said to the sons of Israel," that is, say: "You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, because the life of the flesh is in the blood," solemnly charging them to abstain from all iniquity; charging them also not to expose the sins of brothers committed against their will, but to hand over to the earth the blood of him who has been caught, that is, seen, covering it with pardon and compassion. For he who eats blood and the soul, who defames his neighbour's sin, is rightly reckoned [a murderer], because sin is the death of the soul for those who wish to be called sons of Israel and named God's firstborn sons, and to escape the penalty that is added; for he says, "And whoever eats it shall perish." And neither priesthood, nor faith, nor sanctification, nor any other virtue or dignity can afford protection to such a one; for he has threatened destruction to all who eat blood.

Verses 15–16. "The soul that eats what has died of itself, or what was taken by a beast, whether of the natives or of the strangers, shall wash its garments and itself with water, and shall be defiled until evening; and in this way it shall become clean. But if it does not wash its garments and body, it shall bear its iniquity."

That the carcass is the sinner, as one who suffers the cruel death of sin, and what was taken by beasts not simply a sinner but a great sinner, so far that the evil demons work in him, as was Judas, who betrayed Christ when the devil entered his heart, we set out more fully some time ago, when the lawgiver set forth the sacrifices of pollutions. But there he speaks of one who touched carcasses or things taken by beasts, that is, who shared or was a partaker with those mentioned; here, of one who eats, that is, who made the whole of that man's sin his own and fulfilled his own evil intention from the evil which that man committed: as were Annas and Caiaphas, who became partakers of Judas's betrayal not simply; for it was they who, buying the betrayal, gave him the money, and, long hungering or longing for the Lord's death, prevailed through Judas to feed and nourish their intention and to satisfy their desire. Such are said to eat carcasses and things taken by beasts. These need to wash their garments and body; and he washes his garment and body who cleanses himself wholly, that is, his inner and outer man; for the body is within the garments, as the inner man is within the outer man. And how does he wash? By baptism, or by an abundance of tears imitating the waters of baptism. But he who does not do this "shall bear his iniquity," namely the retribution of injustice. For so you will find divine Scripture threatening to repay, especially in the case of sins; hence Ezekiel brought in God saying: "My eye shall not spare you, and I will not have pity, but I will set your ways upon you, and your abominations shall be in your midst." And Isaiah says: "Priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and comfort her, for her wickedness is fulfilled, her iniquity is forgiven; she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins."