Commentary on Leviticus 6.23

Verses 1–3. "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall call holy. Six days you shall do work; the seventh day, because it is the rest of the Sabbath, shall be called holy; you shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings."

If you attend closely to what is said in the present words of the lawgiver, you will find that he inserts the intention of the Spirit not only in the contemplation of the law but in the letter itself. For having said, "These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall call holy," that is, these are my festivals, he at once added: "Six days you shall do work." He ought, it seems, to have passed over this and said what follows: "The seventh day, because it is the rest of the Sabbath, shall be called holy." But by joining "Six days you shall do work" to the feasts, he shows that the first feast, or festival, in the law is to work, and to work good things; for this reason he says: "Six days you shall do work," because all things whatsoever that God established in six days are very good. The second festival, when these works have gone before, is the rest of the seventh day; and no one can celebrate this festival who has not worked good works worthy of God. For it was not without purpose (for it was God who spoke, and he says nothing without purpose) that he first said, "Six days you shall do work," and after this, "The seventh day, which is the rest of the Sabbath, shall be called holy," but to show that if someone does and achieves good things in imitation of God, which is to work in the six days, he rests in the intelligible Sabbath, of which Paul said: "Let us fear, lest, while the promise of entering his rest remains, any of us should seem to fall short." For one who does not work now lacks that rest. It is said to be called holy because the Sabbath has been assigned to those who are called, of whom Paul says, "We know that all things work together for good for those who fear God, for those who are called according to his purpose," to those who attain holiness, without which no one will see God. Then we shall do no work, for in that age there is no time for working. For this reason he also added: "It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings," calling it the Sabbath of the Lord, that is, his rest (for Sabbath is interpreted "rest"), which is in the time when he makes his people rest from present labours and vexations. Of it Paul speaks thus: "So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his." And very fittingly he adds, "in all your dwellings," so as to make it plain by this too that he speaks of the age to come. For the present world is a sojourning, but what follows is a dwelling; no one moves from those mansions or dwellings once we have been allotted them. That Sabbath is interpreted "rest" is made clear by the edition of the other translators: in place of "the rest of the Sabbath" they give "a Sabbath of Sabbath-keeping."

Verses 4–7. "These, then, are the holy feasts of the Lord which you must celebrate in their seasons: in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, is the Lord's Phase; and on the fifteenth day of this month is the solemnity of the unleavened bread of the Lord. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. The first day shall be most solemn and holy for you; you shall do no servile work on it, but you shall offer sacrifice by fire to the Lord seven days. And the seventh day shall be most solemn, and no servile work shall be done on it."

Come now, if you please, let us ask the Jews why he commanded the festival to be kept not on the fourteenth day, on which the figurative Pascha took place (he mentions it, but they fix the festival on the first day of unleavened bread, which came after it). It is plain that the one who gives the law wants us to know what difference there is between figure and truth: that it is fitting to know the figures, since they lead to the truth, but to keep the festival when the truth contained in the figures has come. He mentions the fourteenth, because it held the figure; but he commanded the festival to be kept on the fifteenth, because on it is the true Pascha, of which Paul said: "Christ our Pascha has been sacrificed."

But let us now examine the words themselves. "These are the holy feasts of the Lord which you must celebrate in their seasons." Why did he not say "feasts to the Lord," but "feasts of the Lord"? Perhaps to testify to the hearer of the law that the law commanded these festivals of which he speaks to be celebrated not simply to God, but because they are properly his. For as there are festivals of an emperor on which he set up victories and trophies against enemies, saved nations, and acquired cities, so too there are festivals of Christ, on which he saved our race, won back our captivity, and established for himself an inheritance from the nations, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession. Then, where according to the Seventy he should say, "These are holy convocations, which you shall call in your festivals," our translation has it more plainly, saying "in their seasons." He did not speak thus of "their festivals," showing that these festivals belong not to those who serve the figure but to the faithful who receive the festival. One of them is the one of which he says: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, is the Lord's Phase." We rightly call the first month the time of the Lord's passion, to which these words spoken by God to Moses also fit very well: "This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first for you among the months of the year." For the beginning and entrance of the new life, and the beginning of our way of life now, is that. He speaks of evening times, in which the Lord came; for John says: "Little children, it is the last hour." The Lord's Pascha took place at evening. Having suffered, he did not at once end the times, but left remnants of the last hour and of the evening, in which the preaching must run its course, and in which the saving word must penetrate the whole earth. Moreover, at evening, or between the evenings, Christ celebrated his cross, anticipating his own Pascha. For on the day of the figurative paschal festival, which was the fourteenth, after the supper he handed to the disciples the true Pascha beyond the senses, which belonged to his mystery. So it was already night when Judas, taking the bread from that supper, went out to betray the Lord; and on the following day, which was the fifteenth, he fulfilled the Pascha of the cross. For this reason the lawgiver commanded this festival to be kept on the fifteenth day of this month, and in this celebration he proclaimed the solemnity of the unleavened bread of the Lord. For if we wish to celebrate the Pascha to him properly and truly, we must be unleavened from all wickedness, and much more from the Jewish error and oldness. Hence, after Paul said, "Christ our Pascha has been sacrificed," he added: "Let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And not for a time, but for our whole life we must be clean of the leaven of the world's malice; for this reason he says: "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread," by the number seven giving us a commandment concerning our whole life.

Verse 8. "The first day shall be most solemn and holy for you; you shall do no servile work on it."

The Spirit hints that servile work is in every way that of which the Lord says: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." … because Christ, who suffered for us, set us free from sin and its slavery. It is not that he commanded no servile work to be done on the first day, and on the other days for that reason commanded servile works to be done. See, then, what he added: "But you shall offer sacrifice by fire to the Lord," or as the Seventy: "You shall offer whole burnt offerings to the Lord seven days. And the seventh day shall be more solemn and more holy, and you shall do no servile work on it." So, in commanding whole burnt offerings to be offered for seven days, he also commanded abstinence from all servile works on them. For how will anyone offer a burnt offering to God while he is worthy of the devil or does servile things? Then he named not only the first but also the seventh for this reason, that in the first and the seventh he might take in the whole of human life; for the one holds the beginning and the other the end, in which all things are contained. He seems to accept this too: that one who is instructed, or initiated into the mystery, should do no servile work; for he must do the things that belong to freedom, because the Lord set us free through the one who has been sealed for him. But if after this he does something that belongs to slavery, sinning as a man, let him at least take care for the freedom that is at the end, and strive that our end may be made good, that the seventh day, namely the time in which we finish, may have no servile work. For in whatever state God finds us, in that he promises to judge us. For this reason David too heads very many of the Psalms "To the end, do not destroy."

Verses 9–21. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you have entered the land which I will give you, and have reaped the crops of your land, you shall bring sheaves of ears, the firstfruits of your harvest, to the priest. He shall lift up the bundle before the Lord, so that it may be acceptable for you. On the day after the Sabbath he shall sanctify it, and on the same day on which the sheaf is consecrated a lamb without blemish, a year old, shall be slain as a burnt offering to the Lord, and libations shall be offered with it: two tenths of fine flour sprinkled with oil, as incense to the Lord and a most pleasing fragrance, and drink offerings of wine, the fourth part of a hin. Bread and parched grain and fresh ears you shall not eat of the crop until the day on which you offer of it to your God; it is an everlasting precept in your generations and in all your dwellings. You shall count, then, from the day after the Sabbath on which you offered the sheaf of firstfruits, seven full weeks, until the day after the completion of the seventh week, that is, fifty days; and so you shall offer a new sacrifice to the Lord from all your dwellings: two loaves of firstfruits of two tenths of leavened fine flour, which you shall bake as firstfruits of the Lord. And with the loaves you shall offer seven lambs without blemish, a year old, and one calf from the herd, and two rams, and they shall be a burnt offering with their libations. … you shall make also a he-goat for sin, and two lambs a year old as victims of peace offerings. And when he has lifted them up with the loaves of firstfruits before the Lord, they shall go to his use. And you shall call this day most solemn and most holy; you shall do no servile work on it. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in all your dwellings and generations."

The words themselves, when examined, can teach us how far the people of the Jews is from the present law. They are convicted of neither fulfilling it according to the letter nor being able to understand the spirit that is in it. He commanded that the sheaf be offered on the next day, that is, after the first of unleavened bread, and that a sheep be sacrificed with it; and that from the day on which this is done seven weeks be counted, and the day after the last week, and so he commanded that the festival of Pentecost be celebrated in the manner he has now described. But some are found to celebrate the festival of Pentecost otherwise: they count from the first day of unleavened bread, not from the day on which the sheaf is offered, the morrow of the first, that is, the second day, and so announce that they will celebrate Pentecost. For this reason the Lord, reproaching them for not fulfilling the law according to the letter, said: "And none of you keeps the law." But the church keeps it, as is now shown.

"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you have entered the land which I will give you, and have reaped the crops of your land, you shall offer sheaves of ears, the firstfruits of your harvest, to the priest. He shall lift up the bundle before the Lord, so that it may be acceptable for you." We have often taught that the land given by God is the teaching and way of life of the gospel. It is called land because of the fruits of the virtues that spring from it. It was given by God himself, for he used no mediator for it but announced it with his own mouth. When, then, did they enter and reap its crops? Those who received the saving word. For they are both the reapers and the intelligible crops, to whom the Lord said: "The harvest is great, but the workers are few; ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest," to whom he also entrusted the mystery of the word. Then the harvest was so ripe that the Lord said: "Lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are already white for harvest." The intelligible priest, Christ, offered his own body as the sheaf of the firstfruits. For since the chief point, or sum, of the harvest, namely of the saving word and of the divine preaching, was the resurrection of the dead, so that Paul cried out, "Men, Pharisees, it is concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead that I am on trial today," the preaching had to be followed by its fulfilment, and so it was. For Christ, now the intelligible priest, raised his own body from the dead as the true sheaf and the true firstfruits of our harvest; of him Paul said: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." But when this has been done, "the priest shall offer it on the next day." What we said before has shown that the first day is that of the Lord's passion, on which the Lord, not without reason, dispensed his own sacrifice. But since this was called the first of unleavened bread and the first of the paschal festival, the next day after the passion was the resurrection. For this reason, though he could have said, "the priest shall offer this on the second of unleavened bread," he did not say so, so that he might lead our thought on to the following day, but "on the morrow of the first." He means the resurrection; for as tomorrow follows today, so the resurrection followed the Lord's passion.

Now attend to what is said in what follows, and keep to the precision of the words. First he shows the priest offering the sheaf of firstfruits; after this he says: "And on the same day on which the sheaf is consecrated a lamb without blemish, a year old, shall be slain as a burnt offering to the Lord." He wants us, on the day on which we celebrate the Lord's resurrection and celebrate the intelligible offering of the sheaf, not to forget the Lord's sacrifice, from which the offering of the sheaf comes to us, but to slay a lamb without blemish, a year old, as a burnt offering to the Lord: sacrificing mystically and offering the intelligible Lamb, the Lord's handing over. He made memory of him as of the one who is slain as a sacrifice. For not otherwise, but through meditation on him and through his power, the things performed in that sacrifice are transferred from things of sense to things of the mind. And what is this sacrifice? "Two tenths of fine flour sprinkled with oil." For one must know how to temper together the perfect humanity and the perfect divinity, that is, to bring them into one, in oil, that is, through the compassion he has toward us; for thus the sacrifice is found to be a fragrance of sweetness to the Lord, when we think of him what is worthy. In what things, and through whom, the sacrifice is performed, and how the offering of the intelligible Lamb is celebrated, what follows shows. For God does not accept a sacrifice from us in blood, nor through irrational animals, as what follows shows; for he says: "And drink offerings of wine, the fourth part of a hin; bread and parched grain." Since it would perhaps be doubtful by what things the mystery of the sacrifice through Christ, of which we spoke above, is celebrated, see, you have the offering of the intelligible Melchizedek, which is accomplished in bread and wine, in which a fourth part of a hin of wine is offered in the drink offerings, so as to signify by the fourth the gospel tradition, which is in four books, and by the libation the Lord's word, when he says: "This is my blood, which will be poured out for you." For the lawgiver resolved to signify the mystery of Christ without diminution; for this reason he also added: "Bread and parched grain and fresh ears you shall not eat of the crop until the day on which you offer of it to your God. It is an everlasting precept in your generations and in all your dwellings." Or according to the Seventy: "And new parched grain you shall not eat until that very day, until you offer gifts to your God. It is an everlasting ordinance for your generations." We shall not begin the new way of life before the day has come, before the good things just mentioned are offered to God, from which the new creation that is in Christ and the new way of life have been announced to us; of it Paul says: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new, from God, who has reconciled us to himself." For the offering of the present gifts, which we have shown to be the mystery of the Only-begotten, has reconciled us to God and has supplied us with the food of new parched grain and fresh ears, or, as the Seventy have, "chytra." For the precepts of Christ are not only new but also chytra, or "soft"; for so other interpreters have rendered chytra. The gospel preaching, then, is soft: "Take my yoke," he says, "for it is easy." Or "rubbed and cleaned by hand," for chytra is also interpreted this way, because the doctrines of Christ require action and correction, which the hands signify. "It is an everlasting precept in your generations and in all your dwellings." For neither place nor time changes the mystery of Christ, through which the whole world has flourished, and the inhabitants of the whole earth keep in harmony the things that pertain to him.

Having said this, and having described the grace of the resurrection in the fitting manner, the lawgiver turns his discourse to Pentecost, which we celebrate, saying: "You shall count, then, from the day after the Sabbath on which you offered the sheaf of firstfruits, seven full weeks, until the day after the completion of the seventh week, that is, fifty days; and so you shall offer a new sacrifice to the Lord." That neither the time nor the number of this Pentecost is kept by the people of the Jews was sufficiently shown above; but by us it is kept both with contemplation and in the letter. Wishing, then, to show his intention more plainly, the lawgiver commanded that fifty days be counted from the day after the Sabbath, meaning without doubt the Lord's day; for this is the day after the Sabbath. For on it the resurrection took place, from which seven weeks are counted, until the day after the completion of the week. On the Lord's day again we celebrate the festival of Pentecost, on which we were granted the coming of the Holy Spirit. Not in vain do we keep the coming of the seven weeks, but so that we may recognize that God commanded those who desire to receive him to do nothing old, nothing worldly, and nothing near to the old corruption. And he ordered a new sacrifice to be offered to the Lord then, for the Spirit, when he came, renewed our whole life, confirmed the tradition of Christ, and established it … "he will take, and will announce it to you." For this reason he came on no other day of the week than the one on which the resurrection took place and the intelligible sheaf was offered, so as to prove this too: that the new way of life, by which he renewed us, freeing us from the corruption of oldness by the resurrection of Christ, was set right also by the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The offering itself shows the kind of victim he commanded to be made: "And so you shall offer a new sacrifice to the Lord from all your dwellings: two loaves of firstfruits of two tenths of leavened fine flour, which you shall bake as firstfruits of the Lord, and with the loaves you shall offer seven lambs without blemish, a year old, one calf from the herd, and two rams." By saying "new sacrifice" he excludes the sacrifices of the law as old, and in their place introduced the gospel one. Then, by adding "from your dwellings," he signified the church, and fitted to it the offering of what was mentioned. For he did not say "from all dwellings," but "from all your dwellings," so as to show absolutely one special dwelling, of which David says: "Blessed are those who dwell in your house." And again: "One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." The two loaves of firstfruits are the law and the gospel; for they are loaves, the food of faithful souls. They are also loaves of firstfruits, or, as the Seventy, "set apart," because they surpass all wisdom and are set apart and separated from the wisdom that is outside. They are, then, of two tenths of leavened fine flour, of the teaching that hands down the perfect divinity of God and the perfect humanity, and they cannot be baked otherwise than by such teaching. But their firstfruits are the Lord's. For the Lord was the first who fulfilled the law and after this taught the gospel: "Hear, for it was said to those of old: You shall not kill. But I say to you: Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgment." For here he joined the law to the gospel; for this reason they are called his firstfruits. Luke too, confirming this and showing us the true firstfruits, wrote: "The first account I made, O Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and to teach." He commanded that seven lambs without blemish, a year old, be offered with them, signifying the gifts of the Spirit, of which Solomon said in the Proverbs: "Wisdom has built herself a house; she has set up seven pillars." Isaiah handed it down more plainly: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." Nor was he silent about what the gifts were, or of what number, for he added: "the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and godliness, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him."

He calls these gifts lambs, to show that the Holy Spirit is one in Christ, of whom it was said: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world." Hence no one … So it is not without reason that the present offering includes a calf from the herd with the seven lambs; it plainly signifies him who according to the flesh was made of the herd of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. With these he joined two rams without blemish: the surpassing commandments and virtues, which the others must follow like sheep; for in them, as in those who butt against the intelligible enemy, they have protection and safety. What are these? "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me." For it is a very great commandment to sell what one has and give to the poor, and a very great one to follow Christ, so that, with contempt for possessing anything, we may also strive to do all things according to the will of God and the Lord; for this is to follow him. These commandments, then, since they are established for a life without blemish and perfect, are called rams, because rams are more excellent than the whole flock. Their sacrifice and libation, namely knowledge and correction, is a fragrance of sweetness to the Lord, that of which Paul said: "But thanks be to God, who always triumphs in us in Christ Jesus, and manifests the fragrance of his knowledge through us, because we are the good fragrance of Christ."

Yet he did not set the offering of Pentecost only so far; he also mentions the rest, because perfection belongs above all to the Spirit, whose festival the one just mentioned is. What, then, does he say? "You shall make also a he-goat for sin," introducing the word of repentance. "And two lambs a year old as victims of peace offerings," signifying these commandments of Paul: "Pursue peace with all," he says, "and holiness, without which no one will see God." Since these were expressed through the apostolic tongue, he commanded them to be offered with the loaves of firstfruits, which we have said are the teaching of Christ. In what follows he says again: "And when the priest has lifted them up with the loaves of firstfruits before the Lord," and according to the Seventy thus: "And the priest shall set them apart with a setting apart, with the loaves of firstfruits, before the Lord, with the two lambs," signifying to which Lord, he says: "And they shall go to his use," that of the priest who offers them, namely Christ. For he is our priest, he is our Lord. To him belong, as the loaves of firstfruits, so also the lambs of the commandments just mentioned; for it was he who spoke in Paul, he who offered all that has been mentioned. For the Lord was the first to announce peace, which Paul commands, to the disciples; and he kept holiness above all, as the Holy of holies, for he was the one of whom Gabriel said to the virgin: "Therefore what will be born of you will be called holy, the Son of God." Yet if you wish to grasp the excellence of the day of which he speaks, look at the confirmation of what was said about it: "And you shall call this day most solemn and most holy; you shall do no servile work on it. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in all your dwellings and generations." What, then, is in it that excels in these respects? For see, he calls other days holy too; but of this one he first says, "and you shall call this day most solemn," and after this, "and most holy," so that you might recognize in it what it has in common with the others and what it has as its own. For on it the calling of the nations not only began to be preached but also to be put into effect, when the Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those who live in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Pamphylia, and all the other nations that Luke lists, began to hear the apostles speaking the mighty works of God in their own tongues and preaching. Let us, then, do no servile work on that day, that is, nothing that pertains to slavery, but let us keep it as an everlasting ordinance in all our dwellings and generations, working nothing servile in the time when the Spirit came to us, because "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom," as Paul wrote.

Verse 22. "And when you have reaped the crop of your land, you shall not cut it to the ground, nor gather the ears that remain, but leave them to the poor and the strangers. I am the Lord your God."

It is plain that what is now commanded by the law is full of piety. For this reason it must also be kept according to the letter, but its contemplation holds the greater gain. Note this in them: that, though he commanded similar things above, he did not ordain the same things; the very change of words shows this. For there he says, "You shall not complete your harvest," but here, "You shall not cut it to the ground," so that we may understand the difference from the change of words. We have often shown that the land of the faithful is the way of life set out by the law of God. Its harvest flourished after the Saviour's resurrection from the dead and the coming of the Holy Spirit. And the word of preaching does not hand down all the knowledge that we shall have when we come to God himself; there are things it leaves, since they cannot be revealed to us now. For this reason he placed this law among the festivals just mentioned, saying: "And when you have reaped the crop of your land, you shall not cut it to the ground." By saying "you shall not cut it to the ground" he signified what we lack for full and perfect knowledge; for this reason he also added, "nor gather the ears that remain," so that we may not strive or try in vain for the things that escape our knowledge. And therefore we cannot gather what is said to fall from the harvest, but let us leave it to Christ; signifying him, the lawgiver added: "Leave them to the poor and the strangers," or according to the Seventy: "You shall leave them to the poor man and the proselyte." And who is this? Hear what follows: "I am the Lord your God." He is called poor here because for our sakes he became poor though he was rich, so that by his poverty we might become rich; and a stranger, because, though he came to his own, his own did not receive him. To him, then, you shall leave them; he alone knows what remains for us. For this reason we cannot gather them either; they have been set apart for him to gather, as Paul testifies when he says: "O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments and unsearchable his ways!"

Verses 23–25. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial with the blowing of trumpets, and it shall be called holy. You shall do no servile work on it, and you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord."

That the number seven bears a clear and certain figure of the consummation, whether of each of us or of all in common, many other things show, but this above all: that God ceased from his works on the seventh day, giving us from it to infer our rest, of which Paul says: "For whoever has entered that rest has himself rested from all his works, as God did from his." But the beginning of the consummation of the times is the coming of the Lord; for this reason John the evangelist called it the last hour, for he says: "Little children, it is the last hour." And James too: "Behold, the judge is standing before the door." This time the law rightly called the first of the seventh month, as the beginning of the consummation. It is also a rest for us, because he refreshed us from the evil works of the flesh and freed us from a heavy yoke: "Come," he says, "all you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you." And again: "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls." This is also its memorial of trumpets; for it proclaims the resurrection of the Saviour, which is a memorial of the common resurrection of the dead, which takes place at the sound of great and terrible trumpets, "at the Lord's command, at the voice of the archangel, at the trumpet of God," as Paul taught. This time "shall be called holy" to the Lord, because it holds the calling that is in sanctification, from which comes the adoption that belongs to those called to him. "You shall do no servile work on it, and you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord." For it is no longer the time to do servile works, because the past time is enough for the will of the gentiles, in which servile works were done; and as we presented our members as weapons of iniquity for iniquity, so we must present our members as weapons of righteousness for sanctification. For this, again, is the burnt offering.

Verses 26–32. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: On the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonements, most solemn, and it shall be called holy; and you shall afflict your souls on it and offer a burnt offering to the Lord. You shall do no servile work in the time of this day, because it is a day of propitiation, that the Lord your God may be propitious to you. Every soul that has not been afflicted on this day shall perish from its peoples; and the one that does any work, I will blot it out from its people. You shall do no work on it, then. It shall be an everlasting ordinance for you in all your generations and dwellings. It is a Sabbath of rest; you shall afflict your souls. On the ninth day of the seventh month, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbaths."

Rightly Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the Jews: "All these things happened to them in figure, and they were written for our correction, on whom the ends of the ages have come." For the lawgiver plainly signified through the present words that the mystery of the Saviour was accomplished at the end of the age, and what and how great things were dispensed from it. What, then, does the grace of Christ and his preaching hint to us, or what does it ordain? The hope, certainly, of the resurrection of the dead, and a life with moderation and humility, in abstinence from foods, in contempt of present things and of possessing, and in the other virtues; doing these, we use this earth like sojourners, pitching our tents in it not for a long time but for a very short one. For each of the things mentioned has been foretold to us in this fullness of the times through the gospel way of life. He kept the seventh month, of necessity, for all the figures, for this number usually signifies the consummation of the times. Dividing them, he signified above, through the new moon of the seventh month, the hope of the resurrection of the dead; in it he also placed the memorial of trumpets, because we expect the dead to rise at the trumpet of God. The life that is in humility and abstinence from foods he signifies through the tenth of the month, of which he now speaks (and the using of the world in passing and the expecting of departure from it through the festival which, as you will find him saying a little later, begins on the fifteenth). But let us examine what belongs to the present words. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: On the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonements, most solemn, and it shall be called holy, and you shall afflict your souls on it, from the evening of the ninth day of the month." The lawgiver wants to show that propitiation, namely deliverance from sins, is acquired for us in humility and affliction of soul. We must do this from evening, that is, from repentance itself, as those who are beginning; for Christ too made repentance the beginning of his preaching. But on repentance we must build a good life, perfect and complete in the virtues. For this reason he added: "And you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord. You shall do no work …" … to the Lord. By doing no work he shows abstinence from earthly works. So very fittingly he added: "Because it is a day of propitiation, that the Lord your God may be propitious to you," showing both things: that this is the time given us by God for propitiation, in which the Lord came and washed away our sins, and that in the time in which we await these things we must do nothing earthly. Then, extending the law and offering support to Christ, who said, "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls," he says: "Every soul that has not been afflicted on this day shall perish from its peoples." For such a soul does not follow Christ, who ordained these things and humbled himself so far that Paul said of him: "He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." "And the one that does any work, I will blot it out from my people. You shall do no work on it, then. It shall be an everlasting ordinance for you in all your generations and dwellings." He said this as though it were commanded to the people of the Jews; but it is not so, for the law is common to all, because the Lord said to all: "Do not work for the food that perishes," wanting us to work at nothing earthly. Well and wisely, then, wishing to carry the keeping of the rest on to a higher contemplation, he added: "It is a Sabbath of rest," or as the Seventy: "They shall be Sabbaths of Sabbaths for you," so that by this we may understand the intelligible Sabbath, which went beyond the weakness of the Jews, as did the holy of holies; for this reason they had no Sabbaths either, nor the Song of Songs either, for they do not understand the power of what is written there. And let us understand that everything in the law that admits a higher sense goes beyond the measures of the Jews.

Now see what words he used: "And you shall afflict your souls. On the ninth day of the seventh month, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbaths." He sums up again the word of humility, because Christ often taught it and established it for the apostles as a crown, as the base and foundation of the virtues. For when he was asked who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven, he answered: "Whoever humbles himself like this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." His saying "from evening to evening" plainly belongs to one who wants a rest from superfluous and vain things to be pursued always. Hence the Lord does not allow even a lawsuit; for he commanded us not to go to law over a tunic or a garment, nor even to think about what we shall eat or what we shall drink or what we shall wear. He himself taught it and announced the Sabbath of Sabbaths, in which everything ceases, and only the things of God are shown, only what is useful and profitable to the soul is offered.

[Verses 33–36.] … saying: "Speak to the sons of Israel: From the fifteenth day of this seventh month there shall be the feast of tabernacles, seven days to the Lord. The first day shall be called most solemn and most holy; you shall do no servile work, and seven days you shall offer burnt offerings to the Lord. The eighth day also shall be most solemn and most holy, and you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord. For it is an assembly and a gathering; you shall do no servile work on it."

Here he says that the lawgiver signifies not only that we should use the wisdom of the age and know that it is passing and temporal, but also that we must have our eye on the age to come. This you will find figured, without any doubt, both by the number and by the tabernacles. For he commanded the festival to begin on the fifteenth day. This number is composed of seven and eight, one of which figures the present age and the other the age to come. Hence, having commanded that the festival be completed in seven days, he mentioned other days again as most solemn and most holy, and he did not count it with the seven but set it after them and apart from the others, as the future age follows the present but is something other than it. He called it the festival of tabernacles for seven days. For whoever uses the present world as a tabernacle can hold a festival in it and rejoice for the expectation of the future, as can whoever knows that if the earthly house of this dwelling is dissolved, a building not made with hands will receive him in heaven. He called the first of the seven days most solemn and most holy. For one who knows how to use present things as a tabernacle begins his first day, that is, his beginning and starting point, from the sanctification of his calling; therefore he very fittingly says: "You shall do no servile work." For those who regard what is in the age as a tabernacle and as passing are slaves to nothing in the age. He also commanded burnt offerings to be offered for seven days, showing that a perfect way of life must be followed through the whole of time. When, therefore, we run through the present life in this way, then we have the most solemn and most holy eighth day, namely the age to come, when the one who called us in this way of life also calls us into the good things prepared for the saints; for the Seventy too have it thus: "The eighth day shall be called holy." Then, therefore, we offer to the Lord as burnt offerings what we have prepared here. "For it is an assembly and a gathering," or as the Seventy: "It is a going out," because here is the departure, there the dwelling, as Paul says: "I desire to depart and be with Christ." "We shall do no servile work," because in that time we shall be like the angels of God. Note this too: how he says the same things of the first and of the eighth, because both are, in a manner, of one power. For the day of the resurrection, which is the substance of the age to come, is the beginning of the way of life in Christ and the starting point of the things to come; and the eighth succeeds the present age, which the number seven is said to signify. Moreover, if someone here dwells as in a tabernacle and as one passing through the world, he already has the age to come, though not yet in fact, yet in power, doing what pertains neither to matter nor to restlessness, which is proper to that age. For this reason the Lord said to the apostles, as men who chose such an inheritance of life: "The kingdom of God is within you."

This too must be noted according to the Seventy: he named the first "called holy" without addition or distinction; but of the eighth, saying "called holy," he added "shall be for you," so that by "shall be" he might signify the future, and by "for you" show its distinction: because the first is called and holy for all, since here the Lord called all, without distinction, to sanctification, to living well, and to the race for the inheritance of the good things to come; for he preached without any distinction: "Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you." But in the future the calling to the inheritance of good things is not of all, but of those who accepted the present calling and kept the festival of tabernacles, knowing that the form of this world is passing away. For this reason he said "for you," calling out to those who lived thus. That this is so he himself shows again: for he who said here, "Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you," namely into the rest of the future, says this again about the future: "Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you," leaving out what he had said, "all," because "many are called, but few are chosen."

Verses 37–38. "These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall call most solemn and most holy, and you shall offer on them offerings to the Lord, burnt offerings and libations, according to the rite of each day, besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, and your gifts, and what you offer by vow or give freely to the Lord."

Look at those apostolic words: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all things." These seem to agree with the present words of the Mosaic ordinance. For see, the lawgiver, setting out certain special festivals, which he named most solemn and holy, mingled with them the daily libations and sacrifices. "For these are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall call most solemn and most holy." And when he should have named this or that one, he did not speak so, but added: "And you shall offer on them offerings to the Lord, burnt offerings and libations, according to the rite of each day." And he himself [commands] us to rejoice and keep festival, and without ceasing … the sacrifice, or burnt offering, which we can offer when we have presented our bodies as a living sacrifice to God and have put to death our members which are on the earth, and are ready to go to the Lord, saying with Paul: "For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is at hand." For this reason he added: "Besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, and your gifts, and what you offer by vow or give freely to the Lord," plainly handing down this: that beyond turning away from evils, which is the Sabbath, and beyond the other acts of righteousness that we promise God from time to time, sometimes a fast, sometimes an offering of possessions, whether in dangers that come upon us or voluntarily, we are debtors, beyond vows and free offerings, of a daily service to God and of a perpetual sacrifice, if indeed our action is righteous, so that we offer our whole life to him, saying as Paul said: "I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." For this reason we too must offer him our life, because he too offered himself for us.

Verses 39–44. "From the fifteenth day, then, of the seventh month, when you have gathered all the fruits of your land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day and on the eighth day there shall be a Sabbath, that is, a rest. And on the first day you shall take for yourselves the fruit of the most beautiful tree, and branches of palms, and boughs of the tree of thick leaves, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, and you shall celebrate its solemnity seven days in the year. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in your generations. In the seventh month you shall celebrate the feast, and you shall dwell in booths seven days. Everyone who is of the race of Israel shall stay in tabernacles, so that your descendants may learn that I made the sons of Israel dwell in tabernacles when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. And Moses spoke concerning the solemnities of the Lord to the sons of Israel."

The lawgiver commands us to belong wholly to the age to come and to fit the present life to it. For this reason, as he completes the discourse on the festivals, he now repeats the festival of tabernacles, because the sum of the whole law is not to gape after present things nor to cling to earthly things, but to know that we are sojourners and strangers in this life, as all our fathers were. "On the fifteenth day, then, of the seventh month." We have said that the seventh month is the completion or fullness of the times. The fifteenth, since it consists of seven and eight, signifies the gospel preaching, which consists of the present life and the future one, ordering the one and preparing the other. When we have gathered all the fruits of the land, let us celebrate the feast seven days, that is, let us give our whole life to celebrating the divine festival. "And on the first day a rest, and on the eighth day a rest." Not now on the seventh, though he had proposed that the festival be kept for the number of seven days, but on the eighth: first, because it is not permitted to those who hold the law according to the letter to celebrate the festival, for it has been set apart for the new people, which knows how to receive the law according to the Spirit and to honour the eighth, which we have said signifies the resurrection of the dead; second, because the first and the eighth have one power, since the eighth is itself also the first, inasmuch as it is the beginning of the age to come. Then the first day, which is the beginning of the preaching made at the end of the ages, holds a rest. For it makes us rest, when it frees us from the labours of sins through the gift of baptism; and since the flood that came upon creation through the deluge of waters in Noah's time bore its figure, it was rightly said of him: "This one will give us rest from all our works, and from the remnants of our hands, and from the earth which the Lord God has cursed." At the same time the first day, namely the beginning of the preaching, promises the later rest which the eighth holds, that is, the resurrection of the dead and the kingdom of the age to come, of which David sang: "Arise, O Lord, into your rest." For since the beginning of the gospel preaching holds both rests, hear what Christ first preached to the human race: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near," proclaiming through repentance rest from the labours of the life that is in sins, and through the kingdom of heaven the hope of the future rest. The first day, then, has rest from the labours of sins; yet from the one who has been called to build upon this rest it will require the working of the virtues. For this reason the Lord says: "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls," and he adds, "For my yoke is easy and my burden light," commanding this working of the virtues that goes with rest. Here the lawgiver, having proclaimed the festival of seven days, called its first day a rest but is silent about the following days, so as to signify by this that we must devote ourselves to the virtues. Then he transfers the rest to the eighth day, showing that for the faithful and those who serve the law of God the true rest is that of the age to come.

What, then, must we work at through our whole life, and where must we begin the working? "And on the first day you shall take for yourselves the fruit of the most beautiful tree, and branches of palms, and boughs of the tree of thick leaves, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, and you shall celebrate its solemnity seven days." That we must devote ourselves through our whole life to the virtues, which he signified by the fruits and branches of the trees just mentioned, the very number of the seven days confirms beyond any doubt. That we must begin from the calling itself, from which the intelligible rest of Christ was proclaimed, which is the first day of the festival, is plain; he called this day above a day of rest. Now he commands that on it we take the fruit of the most beautiful tree, namely those of which David sang in the first Psalm: "And he will be like a tree planted by the streams of waters, which will yield its fruit in its season." By "beautiful" he means seasonable and timely, that is, what is in its time and is done by virtue at the fitting times, so that we may by no means, in the time for justice, flee from it and turn aside to compassion. For he says: "You shall not pity the poor man in judgment." For justice, and compassion, and whatever you may name, has its own fitting time, as Paul says: "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek release. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife." And Solomon says: "There is a time for everything: a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time for war and a time for peace," and many things like these. Hence Saul too was condemned, because he spared Agag out of season and had compassion at a time when he ought not to have done so; nor ought he to have spared him, since God had commanded that the whole of Amalek be destroyed. If, then, you have taken the fruits of the tree of which Joel says, "Do not fear, animals of the field, for the beautiful places of the desert have sprouted, for the tree too has borne its fruit," and the Song of Songs too, "I sat in the shade of him whom I desired," namely Christ, "and his fruit was sweet to my throat," I take the most beautiful; for all the things that God has made are also good in their season. And Paul too says, "Let all your things be done decently and in order," signifying that the virtues must be fitted to the time. So the fruit of the most beautiful tree is principally Christ, the fruit of that tree of which it was said in Isaiah: "A rod shall come out from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up from his root," namely of the virgin Mother of God; according to the Seventy, he himself is the beautiful fruit. For he dispenses all things at the fitting time. And if there is anything according to his law and zeal that has been set right in word or deed, this too is rightly called a beautiful fruit. Take also branches of palms, that is, the youthful offspring of righteousness; for "the righteous will flourish like the palm," David said. But since there is nothing in the palm that can be rejected, as there is nothing in those who live righteously, take also boughs of the tree of thick leaves: all the fruits of the virtues, but above all mercy; for it must be continual and lasting. Ecclesiastes commends it, saying: "Let oil not be lacking from your head." And in the Proverbs: "Do not say: Go and come back, and tomorrow I will give to you, when you can give at once." … that is, of continence and of chaste marriage. For the willow signifies continence, because it bears no fruit; as the continent, who are the true eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven, bear no fruit of the senses. To them God says through the prophet Isaiah: "Let not the eunuch say: I am a dry tree; for I will give them in my house and within my walls a named place, better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name." We say too that the willow bears the figure of prayer and of repentance. So let us understand what was said by David: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered you, Zion. On the willows in its midst we hung our instruments." For the tears of prayer and repentance, of which Isaiah says, "like willows by flowing waters," need continence from intercourse at the time when they are offered, as Paul shows when he says, "Do not deprive one another, except by consent for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer," because marriage must be chaste. He says again: "But they will be saved through the bearing of children, if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with sobriety." And again: "Marriage is honourable, and the bed undefiled." But these are to be taken "from the brook," that is, from the present life; for it is rightly called a brook because of its passing, or running down, and also because of the winter it has of various temptations and tribulations, so that David said of Christ, because he too tasted of the world and its tribulations, having become like us: "He drank from the brook on the way; therefore he lifted up his head." For he lifted it up as he hung on the cross; and he was crucified because he chose to drink once from our brook.

One who does these things, then, can rejoice for seven days, namely the whole of time. But "rejoice before the Lord," not with the joy of the ungodly and sinners: "There is no joy for the ungodly, says the Lord," for they hold their festival in pleasures and corruptions; but "rejoice in the Lord." What is it to rejoice before the Lord? It is to believe in him and to suffer for him. Peter shows what this joy consists of, for he wrote: "Through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, in which you will rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you are grieved by various trials." So the seventh month bears the figure of the last times: festival and joy through the faith that is in Christ and for his sufferings. But how we must complete and close this festival these words of the lawgiver show: "And you shall celebrate its festival seven days in the year. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in your generations. In the seventh month you shall celebrate the feast, and you shall dwell [in booths] …" … that we may use the present age as a tabernacle; for so Hezekiah called it, saying: "My generation has ceased; it has been taken away and rolled up from me like a shepherds' tent." So let us not be ignorant of its passing or running down, gathering riches or building great houses, but, as Paul says, let us attend, because the time is short, so that we may be "buying as though not buying, and possessing as though not possessing, and using this world as though not using it; for the form of this world is passing away." "Everyone who is of the race of Israel shall stay in tabernacles, so that your descendants may learn that I made the sons of Israel dwell in tabernacles when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." You see that these figures and images of greater mysteries were given to the people of the Jews; and therefore they were commanded to dwell in tabernacles and to celebrate the festival of tabernacles, so that they would not forget the deliverance from Egypt. This is according to the letter; but spiritually it is so that we may remember that we have been freed from the intelligible Egypt, that is, from the slavery of the intelligible Pharaoh, which consists in the corruption of the bricks of the present age. Whoever wants to be wholly free of it, let him dwell in tabernacles, imitating his God, who says: "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air a nest, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." The native will stay [in tabernacles]: that is, the truly noble one, the true Israelite, the heir of Abraham, who left his country and kindred and his father's house, and dwells in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the promise. That the lawgiver wants the true Israelite to dwell in tabernacles not for seven days only, but signifies the whole of life by this number, the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab and what is written of them in the prophecy of Jeremiah teach us. For it runs thus: "And we obeyed the voice of Jonadab son of Rechab our father in all that he commanded us, so that we drank no wine all our days, we and our wives, and built no houses to dwell in, and had no vineyard or field or seed, but we dwelt in tabernacles and obeyed and did all that Jonadab our father commanded." So the righteous, who were able to understand the spiritual fruit given in the letter like a cluster among leaves, strove after the heavenly quiet, an undivided life, without any vexation.

These festivals Moses spoke to the sons of Israel. In them let us rejoice, celebrating the feasts in the law of God and doing what he has ordained according to his intention; and instead of the matter that vexes man let us choose the good part: the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.