Commentary on Leviticus 7.24

Verses 1–4. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command the sons of Israel to bring you oil of olives, most pure and clear, for keeping the lamps burning continually outside the veil of the testimony in the tabernacle of the covenant. And Aaron shall set them from evening until morning before the Lord, by a perpetual worship and rite in your generations. They shall be set on the most clean lampstand always in the sight of the Lord."

Now too the law of the Spirit is full of goods, manifold and of many kinds; for it does not cease to seek out the things that serve the correction of those who please God and that may win eternal life for us. Of what, then, the lampstand, the lamps, and the oil now set out by the law bear the figure, the reader can learn from the words themselves, first calling to mind what Paul wrote to the Hebrews: "Even the first had ordinances of worship and an earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared, the first, in which were the lampstands and the table and the setting out of the loaves." Then, explaining how such things are to be understood, he said again to the Hebrews that the law has a shadow. Through the shadow, then, let us seek the body. We say that the lampstand is the gospel way of life, in which Christ commands the virtues to shine and blaze: "No one," he says, "lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that it gives light to all who are in the house." For these lamps the oil is almsgiving, because fasting, virginity, prayer, righteousness, and every good action are watered by the mercy of love for the poor and are kept unquenchable. The lamps of the five foolish virgins show this: because they had too little of the oil of love for the poor, they were shut out by the bridegroom. But the oil must be most pure, of olives, so that we do not serve love for the poor out of injustice or greed, nor for show. It is "of olives" if it comes from good labours and from righteousness … for olives are rightly called shady and fruitful. "Most clear," so that we do not give alms for human glory. This lamp, then, must always be lit, "outside the veil," namely of the body of Christ; for it has been shown through much that went before that this is the intelligible veil. "In the tabernacle of the covenant," or, as the Seventy, "of the testimony," that is, in heaven, where it is plain that God dwells. Both, then, were said by the lawgiver. For if whatever we do for the poor is reckoned as done to himself by him who became poor for our sakes, the lamp of almsgiving is rightly lit before the Lord's body; but also in heaven, for there the merciful send their treasures ahead. For this reason Aaron, or according to the Seventy "and his sons," lights it. For Christ, who is the true priest, began compassion for the poor; and whoever wishes to gain his adoption imitates him. "And Aaron shall set them," or as the Seventy, "Aaron and his sons shall light them from evening until morning," that is, without ceasing; for Solomon too said, "Let oil not be lacking from your head," showing that the lamp of almsgiving must be lit continually, and this "before the Lord," as the Lord himself said: "But when you give alms, let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Let us hold this law "by a perpetual worship and rite in our generations, on the most clean lampstand," that is, the gospel way of life, as we have already said. For it is clean of all pretence and hypocrisy, since those who follow it light the lamps of almsgiving before the Lord and not before men. Let us light them "until morning," namely in the present age. For when the morning of the age to come has dawned, there is no longer a time for the working of almsgiving; Solomon signifies this plainly when he says: "Do not say to your friend: Go and come back, and tomorrow I will give to you, when you can give at once; for you do not know what the coming day will bring forth." That is, hurry and do not put it off, lest you be led away to places where you have no time to work, but where accounts must be rendered of what we have worked here.

Besides these things, the lawgiver's meaning holds a saving time … the lampstand is clean, because he had no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth; and a lampstand, because he is the true light that enlightens every man coming into this world. On it is lit the lamp, the Holy Spirit; for he is fiery in substance and in operation, and hence he came down on the disciples in the form of fiery tongues. Hence we must offer most pure oil, that is, a clean life, knowing that it does not belong to all to light it, but only to the intelligible Aaron and his sons: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me," upon whom he came down from heaven in the form of a dove. And, "I came to cast fire upon the earth, and I want it to be kindled": he said this signifying the fire of this lamp. For he himself handed it on to his sons, when, breathing on the apostles, he said: "Receive the Holy Spirit." But this lamp is not lit otherwise than through a clean life and a most clear, or bright, way of life. In one who is not such, the Spirit will be quenched. For not without cause did Paul solemnly charge, "Do not quench the Spirit," showing plainly that it lies in us to kindle his operation or to quench it, either by attending to the things by which he is kindled or by neglecting them. So, very fittingly, since he mentions "a lamp" and not "lamps," because he speaks of the Holy Spirit himself, he says that the lamp burns "always," showing both his eternity and that he is kindled of his own will and by his own authority. Where he mentions lamps, he means the operations of the Spirit. The Seventy say: "They shall light the lamps before the Lord until morning," showing this, that we must kindle the operations of the spiritual fire by supplying them the matter by which he wishes to be kindled. By "until morning" he means until the age to come; then we shall no longer need to light or kindle them. For all of us who have gained this dignity in this age will be spiritual.

Verses 5–9. "You shall also take fine flour and bake from it twelve loaves, each of which shall have two tenths. You shall set them six on each side on the most pure table before the Lord, and you shall put on them most clear frankincense, so that the bread may be for a memorial of the offering of the Lord. Every Sabbath they shall be changed before the Lord, received from the sons of Israel by an everlasting covenant; and they shall belong to Aaron and his sons, to eat them in the holy place, because it is a holy of holies from the sacrifice of the Lord by perpetual right."

The very number of the loaves calls us to the contemplation of the commandment, and so does their setting out; and the fact that he does not command these to become a burnt offering, as with those from the pan, the gridiron, and the oven, but to be placed on the table on each side, and to be eaten by the priests alone and not by the Levites, and yet by them in a holy place. And since they are called holy of holies, understand what is said; for the Lord will give you understanding. Remember the mystical table, which no one is permitted to presume upon except the intelligible Aaron, that is, Christ; for he first initiated it; and also his sons, who have been made Christ's by him and have put him on. Yet they were commanded to eat it in a holy place. It is also a holy of holies, so that they may hold its sanctification as special and not to be despised. These loaves are of two tenths, for they are of God and man … they will be … even in the age to come. Six loaves make one row, because it is a perfect number, as the mystery itself is perfect and makes those who enjoy it perfect. In six days this visible creation was made, and on the sixth day man was brought forth, for whose sake Christ prepared the mystical table. Yet all together are rightly twelve loaves, because the apostles, who were twelve in number, were the first to eat the Lord's supper. On them most clear frankincense is placed, or, as the Seventy, also salt. But the frankincense first signifies thanksgiving, that is, the offering, which holds the first place in the Lord's supper; not only because it is offered to God, but also because, as physicians say, it heals many diseases of the eyes. The salt signifies the teaching of the apostles, to whom it is said: "You are the salt of the earth." Rightly, in many places, the apostles themselves and their teaching are placed on the mystical table, because as the Lord handed on the communion of the divine supper to them, so they handed it on to us. Their clean table is the altar, of which David sang: "You have prepared a table before me against those who afflict me." It is clean, first as cleansing, then as having nothing of falsehood or defilement, such as there are in the mysteries of the pagans; moreover, because one may not become a partaker of it who does not approach with a clean mind and has not put on a white garment; whoever has not put it on is always cast out from those who have been called to this supper. He also commands that it be set out on the Sabbath day: first, because it has a place in the intelligible rest, which is the true Sabbath, and this is the Lord's table, even though his supper is new, as one may infer from what the Lord said about the cup of the old vine. That we do not take what the lawgiver has now set out of the table of the Only-begotten without reason, nor speak arrogantly, nor search out with clever trifling what does not belong to the intention of the law, but rather infer it rightly and truly, the very words can satisfy the hearer, in which he seems here to have spoken properly. For he says: "So that the bread may be for a memorial of the offering of the Lord." Who is meant, or in whose commemoration? Beyond doubt it is what Paul wrote that the Lord said when he handed down the mystery: "As often as you do this, do it in memory of me." Then it is added again: "Every Sabbath they shall be changed before the Lord, received from the sons of Israel by an everlasting covenant," or, as the Seventy, "an everlasting testament," meaning beyond doubt that testament which the Lord mentions in handing down the mystery. Let us too, saying how much truth and how much dignity it has, approach with the greatest fear and love. Because he calls it clean … he commands those who partake of it to eat it not everywhere but in a holy place. Let the holy place for us be first the court of God, then our bodies when they are clean of defilements, so that these words of Paul may also fit us: "For the temple of God is holy, which you are." Further, raising its glory and lifting the dignity of the mystery on high, he adds: "It is a holy of holies from the sacrifice of the Lord by perpetual right." Prayer, then, is holy; holy is the reading of the divine Scripture and the hearing of its interpretation; holy, in short, are all the things said and done in the churches of God according to his law. But the holy of holies from the sacrifice of the Lord, namely of all that is offered and done for his glory, is the table which Christ sets out from his own sacrifice. For he did not say simply that it is a holy of holies, but added, according to the Seventy, "to him": since it has from him not only its fulfilment but also its very existence, as he shows and established it not carelessly but by his own blood, which was poured out for us.

Verses 10–14. "But behold, the son of an Israelite woman, whom she had borne to an Egyptian man, went out among the sons of Israel and quarrelled in the camp with an Israelite man. And when he had blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed him, he was brought to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. And they put him in prison until they should know what the Lord commanded. And he spoke to Moses, saying: Bring this blasphemer out of the camp, and let all who heard lay their hands on his head, and let the whole people stone him."

Now too the lawgiver hands down admirable things to us, over which it is fitting to say: "How sweet are your words to my palate, O Lord, beyond honey and the comb to my mouth." For he hands down necessary and very useful things in living images and in signs that are animate and active, that move themselves, as it were. For there is an outside wisdom, of which Paul says, "For God has made foolish the wisdom of this world," and again, "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." He means the wisdom concerned with the courses of the stars and the measurements of the heavens and the investigation of other things beyond our grasp, which was studied among the Egyptians and in a way took its beginning and reward there; Moses, brought up in Pharaoh's palace, was not ignorant of it either. But the book of Kings says: "The wisdom of Solomon surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East and of the Egyptians." The Israelite woman is the divine Scripture, of which it is said in the Proverbs: "An understanding woman is blessed, and let her praise the fear of the Lord," because, leaving superfluous questions, she clung to the divine fear. The Israelite woman, then, the wisdom of the spiritual Scripture, must not come together with the outside wisdom, so as to be subjected to it, so that the one born of them, namely one who is taught by both, is not only the son of the Israelite woman but also the son of the Egyptian, savouring the things of Egypt, joining himself to the outside wisdom, and wanting to hold the doctrines that are there. If this ever happens, and such a one is among the sons of the intelligible, faithful Israel, and in the camp, which is the church (Jacob, seeing it in figure in a dream, said, "This is the camp of God"), and the son of the Israelite woman and the Israelite quarrel (the Israelite being one who is great and clean, who has given himself wholly to the wisdom of God and says with Paul, "We speak wisdom among the perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed"), let them quarrel over words or contend over doctrines, and the son of the Israelite woman blaspheme "the name": let this be when one who has been harmed by the outside wisdom mentions Christ. For I have seen that the lawgiver, following great precision, says, "And when he had blasphemed the name." What name he is silent about; for when this was being ordained it was not yet known, because he who was incarnate of the virgin and the Holy Spirit had not yet been born, of whom Gabriel said: "And they shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Paul, showing how great this name is, says: "God gave him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth." When, therefore, one who trusts in wisdom and attends to the outside wisdom, which speaks of small, great, and greatest, and seeks out grades in the Godhead, which is impossible, has blasphemed the name of Christ (for one who says the Son is less than the Father blasphemes the Son), he is of necessity driven out of the camp and led out of the sight of the church. "And let those who heard lay their hands on his head," showing by "head" that Christ is truly the head, and the head of Christ is God, because one who has blasphemed the Son has also blasphemed the Father in him. "And let the whole people stone him," those who kill and destroy the one who blasphemed.

Note fittingly these words of this ordinance too: how they brought him to Moses. But he does not act on his own authority, nor does he pronounce sentence against him, but put him in prison, so that he might be judged by the commandment of the Lord. For the Mosaic law itself hates one who blasphemes the Son, as is plain from its frequently hinting at the mystery of the Trinity (not openly, indeed, nor speaking of it as plainly as the gospel), and for this reason it reserved him for the judgment of the Lord's commandments. Which ones? Those, namely, which say: "Whoever does not believe in the Son is already judged," and again, "If you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins," and many other such things said in the gospel precepts.

Verses 15–16. "And you shall speak to the sons of Israel: A man who curses his God shall bear his sin, and whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord, let him die the death. The whole multitude shall crush him with stones, whether he is a citizen or a stranger. Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord, let him die the death."

According to the edition of the Seventy he commands here something new, which troubles the ears of many: "A man, a man, whoever curses God shall receive sin; but whoever names the name of the Lord, let him die the death." So naming the name of the Lord is graver than blaspheming God; for the one only receives sin, the other also undergoes the penalty of death. For what difference is there between Lord and God? Is it not this very one who said, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God," and again, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart"? How, then, does one who cursed God receive sin, while one who names the name of the Lord will die? Or for what reason at all is one who names the name of the Lord put under a penalty? For you will find Isaiah exulting in this and saying: "O Lord, we know no other besides you; we name your name." What name of the Lord, then, does one become subject to a curse and to the penalty of death by naming? If the lawgiver now speaks of some hidden name, unknown to us, which is not made manifest in sacred Scripture, how could anyone name what he has not learned and cannot bring forward? But see what God has made manifest to us through Moses: "And when the Lord had come down in the cloud, Moses stood with him, calling on the name of the Lord; and as he passed before him he said: Ruler, Lord, God, merciful and gracious." He would not have made this manifest to us if he had not wished us to name it. But now something else the lawgiver shows through the present passage: he wants the blasphemy that someone commits knowingly to be under the greatest penalty and not pardonable. And he says plainly what the Lord says in the Gospels: "Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come." He calls blasphemy of the Spirit the blasphemy committed in the knowledge of God, because knowledge is especially a gift of the Spirit, so that Paul said: "To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge." Therefore here too you understand that one curses God who blasphemes without knowing. Hence Symmachus did not write that he blasphemed him, as of the son of the Israelite woman, but that he disparaged him; for he said, "A man who disparages his God." By this it is chiefly shown that through great ignorance he says of God the things he holds about a man, in which there is room for disparagement. Yet even so he receives sin, because he did not have knowledge when he ought to have had it. But he says that one who blasphemes in knowledge names the name of the Lord in cursing. Those properly name the Lord who have gained knowledge of him through the Spirit; for no one can say "Jesus is Lord," as Paul says, except in the Holy Spirit. Since, then, they blaspheme knowingly, they are rightly without pardon, whether they have the knowledge from their fathers, and for this reason are called citizens, or have only now learned it, and for this reason are strangers. When, therefore, they name the name of the Lord, they rightly die, that is, when they name it and blaspheme. You see, then, that the son of the Israelite woman too named the name and blasphemed, and brought the penalty on himself. What seems doubtful in this ordinance Aquila gave more plainly, for he says: "A man, when he blasphemes his God, shall receive iniquity for himself; and one who pronounces the name of the Lord, let him die the death." He did not say "naming" but "pronouncing," so as to show that the one of whom he now speaks both blasphemes and names: the one who blasphemes and names the name of the Lord, namely of the Spirit; for Paul says, "The Lord is the Spirit." This one the lawgiver commands to die and be killed; and he is, as we have said once, the one who blasphemes knowingly.

Verses 17–22. "Whoever strikes and kills a man, let him die the death. Whoever strikes an animal shall make restitution for it, that is, life for life. Whoever inflicts a blemish on any of his fellow citizens, as he has done, so let it be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth he shall restore. Whatever blemish he has inflicted, such he is compelled to suffer. Whoever strikes a beast of burden shall render another. Whoever strikes a man shall be punished. Let there be equal judgment among you, whether a stranger or a citizen has sinned; for I am the Lord your God."

Here too we find the lawgiver using a close sequence, if we fix our mind on the intention of what is written. Since no glory of God suffers diminution from anyone's blasphemy, it is not for his own sake that he commands those who blaspheme him to be under such punishment and torments; but since we are harmed by such words, and it is ruinous to men that the divine repute be lessened and the dignity of the Creator and common benefactor be unknown, he rightly added the present words: "Whoever strikes and kills a man," or according to the Seventy, "whoever strikes the soul of a man, let him die the death." And who strikes the soul of a man, except one who entices him to impiety, who draws him into blasphemous talk, in which he may die by the worst death of sin, which is the true death of the soul? For this reason he commands such a one to die the death. Yet here, saying "the soul of a man," he means above all the unspiritual man, that is, one who cannot understand the things of the Spirit, of whom Paul says: "The unspiritual man does not receive the things of the Spirit; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually examined." Whoever strikes him dies the death. "And if he strikes an animal," namely one who lives like cattle, of whom David says, "Man, when he was in honour, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts and became like them," "he shall make restitution for it, that is, life for life." For one who has made a sinner, or a common man who has no fine discernment about God, go astray is not worthy of pardon at all. But if he did not strike him so as to lead him completely into impiety and make him go astray wholly from God, but said or wrote certain things to him, he has inflicted a blemish of sin to that degree and will suffer punishment; for he says: "Whoever inflicts a blemish on any of his fellow citizens, as he has done, so let it be done to him: fracture for fracture," or as the Seventy, "crushing for crushing," "eye for eye, tooth for tooth." For whether that neighbour, teaching evil, or persuading, or giving scandal, or disparaging and slandering, has crushed the virtue the citizen had, or has blinded his eye, namely his knowledge, by doing any one of the things mentioned, or his tooth, the power of words (for Scripture is accustomed to take teeth for words, as David shows when he says, "The sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword"; and the patriarch Jacob said of Christ in the blessings, "His eyes more beautiful than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk," for the gospel words of Christ are clear and open beyond the milk of the law), then of necessity one who has harmed anything of what has been mentioned suffers a like blemish himself, namely in the judgment to come. For if he harmed or crushed another's virtue, his own will be crushed; if he darkened knowledge, his own knowledge will be counted as nothing; if he did harm by teaching words, the judge will make his words fruitless and useless to him. For this reason he did not say, "So you shall do to him," but, "So it shall be done to him," hinting at the judgment to come, in which the judge will render to each according to his works. And if someone also strikes a man perfect and complete in faith (for this is properly what belongs to a man; for this reason David said, "Men and beasts you will save, O Lord," calling men those who do what is perfect, beasts the imperfect and unlearned), and strikes him with a deadly blow that drags him to impiety, he will die the death. For even if the one who was struck was able to repel the wound, this obtains no excuse at all for the one who struck him; and he will be under a much greater penalty, because he killed even one who could have resisted him. "Let there be equal judgment among you," he says, "whether a stranger or a citizen has sinned; for I am the Lord your God." Nor did he make an exception of those who have been taught just now, as against those who knew the sacred Scriptures earlier and from their parents. He sets a common penalty against both, and adds: "For I am the Lord your God," who said: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it is better for him that a millstone be hung around his neck and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea." For he did not make distinctions in these words, but by saying "whoever" subjected all to the penalty; for this reason Paul too said: "But the one who troubles you will bear the judgment, whoever he is," that is, whether small or great, whether having much knowledge or little, whether he has learned just now or earlier, whether a citizen in the faith or a stranger. This being so, the ordinance according to the letter too was necessary for the Jews, and they did not wish to hear, "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other also"; for since they were ill-disposed, each would have exacted this from his neighbour rather than doing it himself. Rightly, then, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" was said to them, so that by fear of the penalty in return they would abstain from violence and murders.

Verse 23. "And Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had blasphemed out of the camp and crushed him with stones; and the sons of Israel did as the Lord had commanded Moses."

So it is not without reason that we have shown you that the one who struck the soul of a man, or of cattle, or a man, whom he commanded to die for this, is, according to the contemplation of the law, the one who has struck another into blasphemy by teaching or inciting him or doing some other such thing. For see, the order of the ordinance proves this and shows it beyond any doubt: having given commands about those who curse God or blaspheme, he joined to them the one who struck the soul of a man, or of an animal, or the man himself; and not only did he impose the penalty of death on this one as on those, but, explaining that the things said have one intention, he added again the one who blasphemed, and the penalty which the whole multitude, obedient to the law, exacted. For we have heard how he brought out of the camp the one who blasphemed, and commanded him to be crushed with stones. For this reason he added the deed to the indignation, and showed you the law confirmed by experience itself, so that you too might fear and flee blaspheming God, fearing the greatness of that sin which he commanded not only the rulers but the whole multitude to punish. For the fight against blasphemers must be common to all, because they try to disparage our common benefactor, the common source of our life, from whom we all have both being and well-being; they do no harm to his glory, but they want to separate and drive us away from him.