Commentary on Leviticus 6.21

Verses 1–4. "And the Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: Let not a priest be defiled by the deaths of his fellow citizens, except only for his blood relations or near kin, that is, for father and mother, and son and daughter, and also brother and virgin sister who is not married to a husband; but he shall not be defiled even for the ruler of his people." But the Seventy: "He shall not be defiled suddenly among his people, to his profanation."

The letter commanded the priests to flee the pollutions of the dead; but this is not the intention of the law, nor did the lawgiver propose this; he meant something greater, and something said very necessarily about priests. For who is said to look at them when they neglect the sins of the people? As is written in Hosea: "They eat the sins of my people, and lift up their souls to their iniquity." Not all the sins the people commits ought to be imputed to them, but attention must be paid to that division spoken by the prophet Ezekiel: "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, and you shall hear a word from my mouth and declare it to them from me. If, when I say to the wicked, You shall surely die, you do not declare it to him, nor speak, so that he may turn from his wicked way and live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you declare it to the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness and his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul." The lawgiver set this out more plainly, and also more precisely, in the present passage. "Let them not be defiled," he says, "by deaths among their citizens." By which? By those who sin, namely, who are filled with pollution and in certain ways become authors of pollution to others, but above all to priests and teachers when they neglect them. Yet in these, he says, he is not defiled "by the deaths of his citizens," that is, when they are found to have omitted nothing that was expedient for them, but to have done themselves what belonged to them and to have preached God's law, while those, unwilling to obey, brought on themselves the death of disobedience. So they are not defiled in those who are far off, but in their near kin and neighbour, in father and mother, in sons and daughters, in brother and virgin sister who is not married to a husband. For the priest ought to apply diligence to the people too, that it may not sin, but especially to his own house and kin; that is why Paul says: "Command these things, that they may be blameless. But if anyone does not care for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." And again: "But if anyone does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?" In son and daughter, then, and brother and virgin sister, namely when they sin, the priest is necessarily defiled, as one who ought daily, and indeed every hour, to instruct them in what pertains to salvation and to watch over them, so that they do not commit such sins as are worthy of death. And this same thing is to be understood of father and mother; for the priestly dignity makes the son the teacher of father and mother. And saying "a sister who is not married to a husband," he shows by this that if the kin of priests have separated themselves and become in a way another house, separating themselves, they suffer no pollution in these when they sin. But as long as they cling to them, keeping the law of nearness and kinship, they are rightly made partakers of their defilement, because they cannot be ignorant of the sins of those who live with them, which gives rise to the cause of defilement for them. Hence, having said that they are defiled in these, he next added, according to the Seventy, "He is not defiled suddenly among his people, to his profanation." What does he show by this, except that the priest is indeed defiled in a people that sins too, but not suddenly? But those who come in from among the strangers … do not defile the priest at once, but when they remain in their sins and the priests neglect to cure them. Moreover, one of the people who sins suddenly makes the priest worthy of pardon, as one who did not know; but one who commits a sin prepared over a long time leaves him no room for pardon. For the priest ought not to have been ignorant, if indeed he had presided carefully over the people and was concerned how this one and that one stood, whether they stood or wavered, so as to prop up those who were tottering. For those who fall suddenly make those who preside free of fault, as a storm coming unexpectedly upon helmsmen. And therefore he did not say that the priest is defiled suddenly among the people to his profanation. And not in vain did he add "profanation," but suggests this by the word: that when the priest is defiled for the cause mentioned, namely the people's sin, neglecting and not doing what the priest ought by all means to do, he is found profane, that is, stripped of the dignity of the priesthood, one himself of the many; for those are called profane who are not sanctified, and very rightly, because they did not … the things of the priest.

Verse 5. "They shall not shave the head, nor the beard, nor make cuts in their flesh."

The law rightly commands that even the sadness that is wont to come from death be overcome by the priests, as those who themselves have the hope of the life to come and teach it to the people. But beyond these things, it plainly commands in what has now been said that they watch not only in their own sins and keep sound minds, but in the sins of others too; and how, learn. The head and the beard are the sign of our wisdom and perfection; that is why Christ is called our head, in whom we have to know all the greatest and most perfect things, as Paul testifies, who says: "until we all attain to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." And the beard rightly signifies the perfection of wisdom, and the other understanding, because in those who have come to the age of youth, when they are able to know what is useful, the beard grows. Since, then, not only the Lord but Paul too calls sinners dead, when he says, "And when we were dead in our sins, he made us alive together with Christ," the head or beard of the priest above all must not be shaved over the dead, that is, over the sinner. For one ought not to spoil the thoughts, which are like the ornate hairs of the head and are themselves the ornament of our wisdom, provided they are orderly and sober, when another sins, but to keep them …, so as to be able to exhort, entreat, rebuke, as Paul wrote to Timothy: "Reprove, rebuke, entreat with all patience and teaching." And how this is to be done he added: "But you, watch, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist." So the priest who does not exhort and reprove the sinner does not watch; and he who does not watch is rightly said to shave his head and beard according to the force of the things mentioned. Nor does it befit the priest to make cuts in his flesh over the dead, that is, not to be scandalized in the sinner, nor to stumble when someone sins, nor to take from this a carnal mind, to the enticement of a like iniquity. For the cut is the mind of the flesh; which Paul says of the Jews, who live carnally and mind earthly things: "Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilation."

Verse 6. "They shall be holy to their God and shall not profane his name; for they offer the incense of the Lord and the bread of their God, and therefore they shall be holy."

How priests profane the name of God the prophet Malachi set out: "You priests who profane my name, and say, In what have we profaned you? You offer polluted bread upon my altar." And adding things like these, he went on: "So if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?" And again: "My name is great among the nations, says the Lord; but you have profaned it in that you say, The table of the Lord is deserted." So priests profane the name of God by sin in the sacrifices. Hence, when the lawgiver had said, "They shall not profane his name," he did not add in vain, "for they offer the incense of the Lord and the bread of their God," or, as the Seventy have it, "because they themselves offer the sacrifices of God"; which you should think the lawgiver and prophet command not so much concerning irrational beasts as concerning rational men. For that priest calls and shows the Lord's table polluted who does not command those defiled by the iniquity of sin to abstain from it, but allows the awesome and holy things to be touched indiscriminately; of whom Paul says: "He who does not discern the body eats and drinks judgment to himself." And he offers the lame too at the altar who promotes an unbeliever to the ministry; for so Elijah the Tishbite called the unbelieving, when he said to the Jews: "How long will you limp on both sides?" He promotes the blind and deaf who brings forward one labouring with the disease of disobedience or ignorance of God; of whom Isaiah brought in his God saying: "You deaf, hear, and you blind, understand. Who is blind but my servant? And who is deaf but he to whom I sent my messengers?" When, then, the priest has proposed such men to offer at the altar and to take up the mystical ministry, does he not profane the name of his God? For it will not be without curse and slander for him, as one who commands evil men to minister to God. But he himself too will be holy by keeping himself from these; which Paul shows, saying: "Lay hands hastily on no one, nor share in others' sins; keep yourself chaste." So the cause of chastity and sanctification for the priest is to be mixed up in none of the things mentioned.

Verses 7–8. "He shall not take as wife a harlot and a vile prostitute, nor one who has been put away by her husband, for he is consecrated to his God and offers the bread of the presence. Let him be holy, then, for I too am holy, the Lord who sanctifies you."

The present enactment is wonderful in the Seventy's translation, because, setting forth the same commandment in the person of many and again in the singular, he called them; and it is without doubt clear from this that he commanded concerning the multitude of priests but drew the sanctification of all into one. For they say: "They shall not take a woman who is a harlot and profane," and a little after, "He shall be holy," and again, "I will sanctify him," as though he speaks of those who have taken up the office of the one, that is, of him who ministers according to the order of Melchizedek. For the very words of the text signify him without difficulty, as also, besides our translation, the other interpreters have shown. For where the Seventy said, "He himself offers the gifts of the Lord your God," they rendered, "Because he himself offers the bread of your God." And you are by no means ignorant that Melchizedek possessed his offering and priesthood in bread. That is why he also met Abraham bearing bread and wine, which were the signs of his priesthood; for he bore the image of Christ, of whom David presented the Father saying in prophecy, "You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek." His dignity the lawgiver shows here now too, not only by mentioning the bread; but the following words also, if we attend more precisely to their order, plainly hint that the sanctification of priests tends to Christ, not only because they received from him the law and manner of the priesthood, but because he is the mediator with the Father of the sacrifices and offerings offered by them. And therefore he says: "For they offer the incense of the Lord and the bread of their God," or, according to the Seventy, "He himself will offer the gifts of the Lord your God."

But why did he add, "Let him be holy, then, for I too am holy, the Lord who sanctifies you"? He did not say "who sanctifies you" in the singular, lest perhaps you should think that he is sanctified who offers the gifts to the Father as mediator, but "sanctifying you" in the plural, namely those who have been appointed priests of the church in his figure. What need was there, then, for the words to be connected so, or what consequence at all has the utterance of such words in the Seventy's translation: "He shall be holy, because I am holy, I the Lord who sanctify you"? For above, testimony of sanctification was given him, as those mentioned rendered, saying, "because he is holy to the Lord his God." How then does he infer again, "and you shall sanctify him, for he himself offers the gifts of the Lord your God"? So he shows three things by what has been said: that Christ has sanctification himself, and also that we sanctify; of whom Paul said, "He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one." But he is the only Son from God, and God's by nature, and we by grace; that is why he sanctifies and we are sanctified. But inasmuch as it pleased him to become incarnate, and to become not only the sacrifice but also the high priest, in this respect he is said to have a Father and a Lord and God, as he himself said to Mary Magdalene: "Go to my brothers and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." And therefore he says: "Because he is holy to the Lord his God": holy as God, but to the Lord his God as man. That is why "you shall sanctify him, for he himself offers the gifts of the Lord your God." And because the priests appointed by him minister in his figure, he is said to be sanctified in them and by them; and therefore, though he had said once, "He is holy," he nevertheless added, "You shall sanctify him," and again, "He shall be holy." And how can we sanctify him? Whence, or from whom, do we have sanctification? Showing this, he added: "Because I am holy, the Lord who sanctifies them." If, then, we priests keep the sanctification given us by God, we sanctify by our sanctification him who is holy by nature, in us at least; because he willed to be sanctified in those conformed to him and sharing his glory, he used this transformation, speaking as it were figuratively and typically.

Yet he does not wish those who are sanctified by him to marry a harlot and vile prostitute, plainly aiming at the synagogue of the Jews; and that it is a harlot, hear the Lord saying in Isaiah: "How has the faithful city Sion, full of judgment, become a harlot? Righteousness dwelt in it, but now murderers." And in Hosea: "And I will remove her fornication from her midst, and her adultery from between her breasts." Moreover David too proclaims her profanation; for he says to God of her: "You have profaned her holiness on the earth; you have broken down all her walls." And the sanctification of the Jews was without doubt their synagogue; for in it was the sacrifice of the tabernacle, in which their ordinances were completed. She too is the one put away by God, as by her husband, who had become her husband by election; but because he afterwards found her guilty, therefore he put her away, so that she was altogether cast out. Hear the voice which Hosea uttered: "Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife and I am not her husband." And hear also what the prophet Isaiah handed on: "Thus says the Lord: What is this bill of your mother's divorce, with which I put her away?" And where there is divorce and sending away, it is clear that she of whom he said this was a wife. So he does not wish the priest to take her as wife, so as not to use any of the things that belong to her according to the letter; that is, that they should not perform the sacrifices of irrational animals and the sensible purifications, in which spiritual things were entrusted.

Verse 9. "If the daughter of a priest is caught in fornication and profanes her father's name, she shall be burned with fire."

It is grave for any man's daughter to commit fornication, but above all a priest's; because, as Paul said, priests must have children subject with all chastity, so that what follows may not be said of him: "If anyone does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?" Therefore the synagogue of the Jews is found called in the prophets not only the wife but also the daughter of God. But depraving both, she appeared unworthy of the gifts, and therefore became estranged; so that God said through Isaiah: "The daughter of Sion shall be left like a booth in a vineyard, and like a lodge in a cucumber field, and like a city that is laid waste." She was profaned and committed adultery. Of her you will find the Lord saying through prophecy in Hosea: "On her children I will have no pity, because they are children of fornication, for their mother has committed fornication"; and she was burned. The temple and this ancient city of Jerusalem show it, still showing the remains of the fire. So the spiritual contemplation of the law is true and irrefutable; for she was not only set on fire, but, as the law says, burned to the ground.

Verses 10–12. "The high priest, that is, the greatest priest among his brothers, on whose head the oil of anointing has been poured, and whose hands have been consecrated in the priesthood, and who is clothed with the holy garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his garments, and shall not go in to any dead body at all. He shall not be defiled even for his father or mother, nor go out from the holy places, lest he profane the sanctuary of the Lord, for the oil of the holy anointing of his God is upon him. I am the Lord."

Who is the great priest among his brothers, if not surely he of whom David said, "Great is the Lord, and great his power, and of his wisdom there is no number"? For who can consider his power, who can number or comprehend his wisdom? Because, being God, on account of the dispensation of the mysteries done for us he also became a priest. Rightly, then, he is called the great priest, as one who offered himself for us as a victim and offering. That is why he also allowed his servants to be called his brothers, that is, the saints, who always do his will; for he says, "Whoever does the will of my Father is my brother and sister and mother." Upon his head the oil of anointing was poured, of which [David] said: "Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a right sceptre is the sceptre of your kingdom

You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows." [Both] make mention of the anointing; but because, as David too [says], he declares himself to excel his fellows in that very anointing. For what he said, "above your fellows," is understood without any doubt as "over your partners"; so the lawgiver too called him the greatest among his brothers, that is, the superior. And what must above all be observed in the present account: although according to the Seventy's edition he ought to have added, "on whom the oil of anointing has been poured on the head," he does not say so, but, "the greatest of his brothers, who poured it on his head." For it is the flesh of Christ that received the anointing, communicated to itself, or united to the divinity; and from this flesh we have become his brothers and kin. Rightly he says, "the high priest, that is, the greatest priest among his brothers, on whose head the oil of anointing has been poured," so that it may plainly be found what is to be understood by "the greatest among his brothers," that is, of his flesh; for it is this that received the oil of anointing of this priest. And it is clear that his hands were consecrated, or, as the Seventy have it, perfected, through the nailing to the cross. For then, as those who are priests according to the law consecrated or perfected their hands in the blood of the calf and the ram, so he too consecrated or perfected his hands in his own blood. Of whom Paul says: "Who, though he was the Son, learned obedience from the things he suffered, and being perfected became to all who obey him the cause of eternal salvation, being named by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek"; and again: "For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering." He was also clothed with those garments of which David sang in the Psalms: "The Lord has reigned, he has put on beauty; the Lord has put on strength and girded himself with power."

He did not uncover his head nor rend his garments. He did not uncover his head, because he is not separated from his Father, who is called his head, even when he endures the sufferings of the flesh. Nor did he rend his garments, that is, of the flesh; for from the time the Word became flesh, he is wholly in his flesh, and never cut himself off from it, neither when it was crucified, nor when it was buried, nor when it suffered anything else that belongs to our nature. "And he shall not go in to any dead body at all; he shall not be defiled even for his father and mother." But the Seventy say: "He shall not go in to any dead soul." And how does a soul die, since it was created immortal? Hear the prophet saying: "The soul that sins, it shall die," namely by the death of impiety; for this is the death of the soul, which above all the nations suffered, who had neither the law of God nor other knowledge. Yet he remains undefiled, and is not defiled by the sins of the nations. For of these, according to the Seventy, "every dead soul" is said, as impiety and idolatry were poured out against all. "And not for father and mother": namely for the people of the Jews, from whom he is according to the flesh, and who therefore are called his father and mother. "He shall be defiled, nor shall he go out from the holy places." Though he chose to condescend to sinners, yet he remains holy, and rests in the holy, and is surrounded by the holy angels who are in heaven. "Nor shall he profane the sanctuary of the Lord, for the oil of the holy anointing of his God is upon him." So even if you see him living with tax collectors and harlots, saying to sinners, "I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance," yet he will be defiled in none of these, for he does not become a partaker of their evil action. Hence he does not profane the sanctuary of God, that is, the Holy Spirit; for of him it says, "for the oil of the holy anointing of his God is upon him," agreeing with the words of Isaiah about Christ: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me." And the profanation of the Spirit, that is, injury and grieving, is every pollution of sin; that is why Paul too, teaching abstinence from sins, said: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." So understand concerning the greatest priest not only what has gone before but also what follows. For the lawgiver does not wish him who is the first priest to be unsympathetic and harsh, so as to approach no dead person; but he wishes to persuade us that the great sanctification with which the high priest is said to be clothed would be defiled by the sight of the dead.

Verses 13–15. "I am the Lord: he shall take a virgin as wife; a widow and one put away, and a defiled woman and a harlot, he shall not take, but a girl of his own people, lest he mingle the stock of his race with the common people of his nation; for I am the Lord who sanctifies him."

Showing above all that he himself is the lawgiver and fulfiller of this enactment, he necessarily added, "I am the Lord"; and of what kind, he taught in the words that follow. "He shall take as wife a virgin of his own people," or, as the Seventy have it, "of his own race," because it is certain to anyone that the race of Christ, on account of the flesh, is the whole race of men. From this he took a virgin wife, that is, the church of those who believe in him, of which Paul said: "I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." "A widow and one put away, and a defiled woman and a harlot, he shall not take." We know that the synagogue of the Jews is called a widow in the prophets, to whom he said, "Stretch out and rejoice over your tender sons, you who are widowed"; or, of the traitor Judas, for their iniquity is common, he says, "Let his sons be orphans and his wife a widow." And we understand her as put away and a widow according to the things said a little before. For she was put away from fellowship with God, committing fornication with idols; that is why he does not allow her to be taken in marriage, so that you may understand that he forbade the way of life that is in shadows and figures, and wishes those who wait for him in good life and faith to share with her in nothing. Hence, having said once, "He shall take a girl, a virgin of his own people," or "of his own race," he was not content, but added: "A widow and a harlot and one put away he shall not take." And according to the Seventy: "He shall take a virgin of his own race," so that you understand the first of the whole body of the church, and this second of every soul. For as the fellowship of the faithful, so also the soul of each one is the bride of God and of the church. And why he does not wish his betrothed to become a partaker of the Jewish way of life, he himself adds: "lest he mingle the stock of his race with the common people of his nation"; but the Seventy, "And he shall not profane his seed among his people." So it is the profanation of the faithful, for these are the seed and people of our priest, to be associated with Jewish customs. And therefore Paul said: "You have been severed from Christ, you who are justified by the law; you have fallen from grace." To these he added: "I am the Lord who sanctifies him"; that is, therefore he does not need the figures of the law, nor sacrifices, nor purifications, since I, the Lord, become in place of all those both sacrifice and purification, and whatever you may say pertains to another sanctification.

And because, when he mentioned the widow, the harlot, and the one put away, he says, "These he shall not take," we say that the lawgiver said this also of the conventicles of the heretics: for they have been widowed of the knowledge of God, and that is why they were also expelled from the communion of the pious; and they also commit fornication with unfitting and wicked doctrines. Rightly, then, he put first the widow, second the one put away, and third added the harlot. None of these does the Lord take into fellowship with himself, lest they defile the seed of the faithful, "because evil companionships corrupt good manners."

Verses 16–23. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron: A man of your seed by families who has a blemish shall not offer bread to the Lord his God, nor approach his ministry: if he is blind, if lame, or with a small or great or crooked nose, if with a broken foot or hand, if hunchbacked, if blear-eyed, if having a white film in the eye, if a continual scab, if a tetter in the body, or ruptured. Everyone of the seed of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall not approach to offer victims to the Lord, nor bread to his God; yet he shall eat of the bread. But let him not enter within the veil, nor approach the altar, because he has a blemish, and he must not defile my sanctuary. I am the Lord who sanctifies you."

If we wished to take this enactment according to the letter, how would the lawgiver's intention seem just? For blemishes do not come upon men by their will. How, then, is it not unfitting that the priest should be thrust from his office for things that do not happen voluntarily? And what if someone, knowing this very precept of the law and envying the priest, crushed a member of his, a hand, or a foot, or an eye, or something else? Or if, fighting against foreigners and armed for the holy things of God (for in Deuteronomy Moses commanded the priests to lead in wars), he received a wound from which one of the blemishes mentioned came upon him: do you think he deserved to be removed from the priesthood for this? For so far are bodily blemishes from being abominable to God that David said that the Lord gives light to the blind. If he did not choose beauty, nor a robust body, nor one that seems well set, so that he said to Samuel of Jesse's elder son, because he had thought that appearance pleased God, "Do not look at his face nor at the height of his stature, for I have rejected him." And yet it was a king, not a priest, who was being anointed; and appearance and size of body were necessary for a king. But what did he add to these? "Nor do I judge according to the sight of man. Man sees what is open, but God looks on the heart." For he searches the heart, whether it has a stain, and judges those who are spotless in mind chosen, but rejects those who have a stain in the soul. For if it is evil to limp on the feet or to have weak eyes, and it separates from God, how did he allow Isaac and Jacob to grow dim and lose the health of sight? For Isaac did not recognize Jacob when he feigned the person of Esau. And of Jacob it was said: "The eyes of Israel grew dim from great old age, and he could not see clearly." Therefore now too the lawgiver enacts without distinction about the blemish; for he says, "A man of your seed who has a blemish," and when he had not distinguished the place, he at once added, "He shall not offer bread to his God nor approach his ministry." But the Seventy say, "He in whom there is a blemish shall not approach." You see that he said "in whom," not "in the body"; and what is in our soul is properly said to be "in us."

So he calls lame him who corrupts the way of God, who in part subverts the divine commandments and the law; of whom he says in the Psalms: "Foreign sons have lied to me; foreign sons have grown old and limped from their paths." For as one foot of a lame man seems sound and the other limps, so too in this man one thing meanwhile seems sound, for he boasts that he serves God; but another is weak, while he corrupts … the intention. He is blind who suffers the disease of total ignorance of God and cannot look upon the light of truth. That is why the Lord said of the Jews: "If the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit." It is proper to the nose to smell. When it is sound, one smells well; but when it is pierced or cut off, one does not smell well; such are some to whom evil things are pleasing, because they have an evil smell of thoughts. For that divine Scripture is wont to take smelling for what is pleasing, hear David saying to Saul: "If the Lord stirs you up against me, let him smell a sacrifice"; and again, when Noah sacrificed, it says, "And the Lord God smelled a sweet odour." Holy Scripture took both as pleasing. The cut ear, cutting off hearing to disobedience. And those have a crushing of the hand and a crushing of the foot of whom David sang: "Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the sinner move me," namely of one who plunders or robs. So the lawgiver signifies by this the proud and the avaricious. He is hunchbacked who carries the heavy weight of sins and does not see it, because the mass of the hunch is behind and is not seen by them; of whom it is said in the parable which the king of Israel used against the king of Syria: "What does the hunchback do, as though he were straight?" "Blear-eyed, and having a white film in the eye": those who have injured eyes and weak sight we say are those who have knowledge of God, but corrupted, such as some who are puffed up; of whom Paul said: "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the teaching that is according to piety, he is proud, knowing nothing, but sick about questions and disputes of words." Or they are understood who reject knowledge by their life. And the cataract, as Aquila rendered, because it is not evident to all but only to learned physicians, is rightly taken for swelling pride; for this affliction is recognized not by all, but only by those who know how to discern what pertains to the soul. And as a cataract covers the sight of the pupil, so arrogance and elation, poured round the soul, make its knowledge dark. And the white film is taken for depravity of life and conduct, because this affliction is plainly in the eyes for all to see, as depravity of life cannot lie hidden either, which subverts the knowledge of God, even if those who live depravedly boast that they have it. For Paul said of these: "They profess to know God, but deny him by their deeds." And that we do not in vain compare to the blear-eyed those who suffer these things concerning knowledge, you will find by inferring from this the life of those who suffer a cataract or a white film. Their eyes appear open, but they are like the blind as long as they are sick; but when they have been saved, purged of the aforesaid affliction, they can use their eyes as the healthy do. So these too have [knowledge] wounded, and differ nothing from those who suffer the weakness of ignorance, until they wipe away that swelling or depravity of life; for then they may use the sound and clean eye of knowledge. The slanderer has a continual scab: for as the worst scab destroys, so the slanderer is easily provoked. The fornicator has tetters, for the blemishes are plainly the tetter of the body. As fornication is of soul and body …, "with one testicle," according to the Seventy, is the teacher who speaks and does not do; for such a one cannot beget sons.

Whoever, then, has one of the aforesaid blemishes cannot offer gifts or sacrifices to God, because the priest must be spotless in mind too. As Moses commanded him to be clean of twelve blemishes (for you will find that many counted according to the Seventy), so Paul commanded him who is to obtain the priesthood to keep twelve, saying: "A bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God." And who is blameless, if not the undefiled? Then he shows in what follows from what is gathered that he is blameless, by lacking which blemishes or passions: "not proud, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not a striker, not greedy of shameful gain, but hospitable, kind, chaste, just, holy, continent, holding fast the faithful word that is according to the teaching." So he too wishes the priest to keep twelve; and why he lays so much upon him, he said in what went before: "For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God." And he who administers the things of God needs to excel in virtues those whose steward he is; for how could he administer them, how dispose them? And because the lawgiver commanded one having any of the aforesaid blemishes to eat of the holy things, yet did not command him to approach within the veil and the altar, namely the body of Christ, that is, to minister, you will perhaps find this too kept in the churches: for if any of the priests has been proved to have had a blemish in his soul at some time, and has ceased from it, he is not forbidden to communicate in the holy things; but it is not permitted for such a one to minister, nor to approach the veil and the altar, that is, the body of the Lord, to carry out its ministry. For Paul, writing to the Hebrews, taught this veil and altar: "We have an altar of which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat," namely of the Lord's body. For it is not permitted to the Jews to use this, because of unbelief and the servitude of the letter. And learn from himself that this same thing is also called the veil: "Having, then, confidence for the entrance into the holy places, through the veil," that is, his flesh. To this alone he who has a blemish of soul does not enter. Why? "Because he has a blemish, and must not defile my sanctuary." For it is a defilement of the holy things, and an injury, that such men be brought forward to the ministry, in whom the people stumbles, and those who know their blemishes are scandalized. That is why Paul too wishes the priest to have a good testimony from those outside. And the law confirmed what was said by saying, "I am the Lord who sanctifies you." I who? I who command and bid: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." For he in whom there is even one of the aforesaid blemishes is not perfect.

Verse 24. "Moses, then, spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all Israel all the things that had been commanded him."

What are the things he spoke? Namely the things mentioned before, which God spoke to Moses, and Moses handed on to Aaron and his sons and the people, as what has now been read shows; the law distinguishing these things not in vain, but to commend the dignity of Moses and show plainly that God spoke a few things to others but all things to him, because of his righteousness and the image of Christ that he bore. Likewise teaching us too to give our mind to whatever our elders and the more perfect have said, knowing that they continually enjoy the working from above.