Commentary on Leviticus 7.25

Verses 1–7. "And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you have entered the land which I will give you, keep a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruits. But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of rest for the land, of the Lord. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not prune your vineyard. What the ground produces of itself you shall not reap, and you shall not gather the grapes of your firstfruits as a vintage; for it is a year of rest for the land. But they shall be food for you: for you and for your servant, your maidservant and your hired man, and for the strangers who sojourn with you. For your beasts of burden and your cattle all that grows shall supply food."

The land, which it befits God to give us and profits us to receive, from which we can win the true life, is the good way of life according to his law and the commandments he has given us, of which David says: "Teach me your will, for you are my God; your Holy Spirit will lead me into the right land." If we have entered it, we can sow our field and plant our vineyard and gather the fruits that grow from it for six years, that is, as long as we are in this life and in this visible creation, which the number of six days rightly signifies, because all things that are seen were established in six days. "But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath and rest for the land." For when the intelligible Sabbath has come, that is, the rest from the present age, of which Paul says, "So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God," which the seventh day marks, because on the seventh day God rested from all his works, namely the visible ones, then there is no time for working; and therefore we can neither sow the field of the law then nor plant the vineyard of the gospel. For we rightly understand the field as the law, because the elder son, who is jealous of the younger people and bears the image of the people of the Jews, is said to return from the field, that is, from the working of the law. The vineyard, beyond any doubt, is the preaching of the gospel; for Christ gave it its occasion and matter, who said: "I am the vine, you are the branches, my Father is the farmer." So after our departure from this life, or our passing over, we shall not be able to cultivate the commandments of the law or of the gospel; nor shall we reap what grows of itself, that is, whatever the natural law suggests to men for action. For this is what grows of itself, because, apart from the study of books and all hearing of teachers, it suggests and urges what is useful and supplies us with thoughts that help the soul. Nor shall we then need to gather the grapes of the firstfruits, or, as the Seventy, "the grape of sanctification"; and what the grape of sanctification is, those who have been initiated into the mystery of Christ know, who have perceived by experience the prophecy concerning Christ: "He will wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape." This grape of sanctification we shall not gather; for there we shall see the Lord's mystery then, but in greater glory, needing no thing of the senses as now. Hence the lawgiver mentioned the grape, but Christ promised that he would drink it with us in the kingdom, but new. In this Sabbath, then, that is, the rest of the age, in which we rest from the land just mentioned, … we now have time for the things that must be worked. Hence the five foolish virgins too, when they were called to enter the royal wedding, went to buy oil, as though they did not know the time, and were shut out.

"But they shall be food for you: for you and for your servant, your maidservant and your hired man, and for the stranger who sojourns with you; for your beasts of burden, for your cattle." For whatever we have worked now, of this we receive the fruit there, and that word of the Psalm will be fitted to us: "Blessed are all who fear the Lord. You shall eat the labours of your fruits; you are blessed, and it will be well with you." He describes the blessedness of the age to come, to find a blessed food; for he calls blessed the one who eats bread in the kingdom of heaven. But much more blessed it is to have servants and maidservants and hired men, strangers, beasts of burden and cattle, or, according to the Seventy, wild beasts. For these are the various kinds of those who become disciples to us in the holy way of life of God. Servants and maidservants are as many as have subjected themselves to us as disciples, or have been bought by us out of the outside slavery. Our hired men are those who have been invited by us, yet are not so far subject that they may be called servants and maidservants. Strangers, or, as the Seventy, sojourners "who lie beside us" (for they did not say "sojourners," but "the sojourner who lies beside you"): as many as are like sojourners in this life through philosophy, yet do not lie beside those outside but beside us, who have entered the good land and possess it and what pertains to it. And if we help any unlearned man or common man, for these are beasts of burden; and further if we make any of the unbelieving or ungodly, who are rightly called cattle, or, as the Seventy, wild beasts, gentle, and make them leave the woods and come to our land and be called beasts of the field, of whom David said, "Waters will pass between the mountains; all the beasts of the field will drink of them": these too will eat the fruits of the good land of the way of life handed to us by God, as we have said, in the intelligible Sabbath, in the rest of the age to come, receiving the delights of the fruits of the land just mentioned. For this reason Ecclesiastes said, "Prepare your works for your departure," because after the departure it is not permitted to begin any working. And Christ says: "Work not for the food that perishes, but for that which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." Its work is here; in the future is its fruit. Woe to one who goes from here with empty hands to where there is no longer a time for laying up treasure or for working, but where the things we have worked here are brought out and enjoyed. Building upon these, the lawgiver added what follows:

Verses 8–13. "You shall also count for yourself seven weeks of years, that is, seven times seven, which together make forty-nine years; and you shall sound the trumpet in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, at the time of propitiation, in all your land; and you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and you shall call a release to all the inhabitants of the land. It is the jubilee. A man shall return to his possession, and each shall go back to his former family. In the jubilee, the fiftieth year, you shall not sow, nor reap what grows of itself in the field, nor gather the firstfruits of the vintage, because of the sanctification of the jubilee; but you shall eat what is taken at once. In the year of jubilee all shall return to their possessions."

Here the Jews must be asked: if the lawgiver, honouring the seventh day, as they themselves say, commanded rest on it from the works of the field and other such things, for what reason did he command cessation from works in the fiftieth year? For if weeks of weeks are reckoned to make forty-nine years, there was no need to rest in the fiftieth, unless perhaps it signified something and the law was setting out mysteries which it was not yet time to open plainly because of the weakness of the hearers. What are these? Listen. A twofold consummation of all visible things is brought on by God: one of each of us, the other common to the human race and to the very things that make up the present way of life. But neither when each of us has been consummated, nor when all have been, will there be a time for us to work. And giving the law very knowingly (for he was God), he hints at this to us both in these words and in those above: in the ones above, suggesting the end of each one; in these, the consummation of the whole human race and of the visible world. "You shall count, then, for yourself seven weeks of years," or as the Seventy: "You shall count for yourself seven rests of years"; the remaining interpreters gave "Sabbaths" for "rests." And what is this? For he says seven weeks of years seven times; and seven weeks of years are forty-nine years. For the whole human age is divided into the week of days; when this has been multiplied by itself and the whole turning of the age has been completed, whose time the Creator has fixed, having long turned upon itself, it reaches its end. And therefore that end of the times of weeks is rightly called the forty-ninth year. But the following one, the fiftieth, must also follow, as the lawgiver says here, in which the resurrection of the dead takes place; for after the end the resurrection follows. How and in what way it comes about Paul tells, and the lawgiver likewise added it in the present words; for he says: "And sounding the trumpet in the seventh month, in all your land," signifying that trumpet of which Paul wrote to the Corinthians, saying: "For the Lord himself, at the command, at the voice of the archangel, at the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead who are in Christ will rise incorruptible." For the trumpet must go before the resurrection of the dead, raising them. Hence he commanded the trumpet to be sounded in the forty-ninth year, in which we said the common consummation takes place; and rightly he commanded the trumpet to be sounded in the month … in all your land, showing by the propitiation that because of his goodness and kindness toward the whole human race he dispenses the mystery of the common resurrection, bestowing mercy on Adam, who through disobedience was ordered to return to the earth; for had he not been merciful and a mercy seat, he would not have freed him from earthly corruption. He said "all the land," because the resurrection will be of the whole human race. By the seventh month and the tenth day you will understand the one who did these things, namely Christ. For in the seventh month came the age of the world. We call its first month the time in paradise; the second, until the flood; the third, until Abraham; the fourth, until the time of the descent into Egypt; the fifth, until the captivity in Babylon; the sixth, until the coming of Christ; the seventh, the coming of the Lord itself. For even if not all these ages have some difference among themselves, yet they have the marks of times as months do. He added the tenth day for this reason: because Christ proceeds to perfection (for ten is a perfect number) in our propitiation through the cross and passion. Hence too he commanded that the sheep which Moses ordered to be sacrificed be perfect and be set apart on the tenth day, bearing the image of the one of whom we now speak. What did he add to these? "And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and you shall call a release to all the inhabitants of your land." The Seventy add: "It shall be a year of release for you, a signal." This shall be sanctified, that is, await it in holiness and think holy things about it. Moreover, correct holiness in it, remembering him who said, "Pursue my peace with all, and holiness, without which no one will see God." And let us announce release to all who are on the earth from the sentence pronounced against us because of Adam. This is the signal; for the signal is the resurrection of the dead by Christ the victor, through which he conquers the enemy, subjecting all things to himself and destroying death, as Paul says: "He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." But this signal is given through the gospel preaching; for Christ, when he came, signified and proclaimed it. "Then a man shall return to his possession, and each shall go back to his former family," or, as the Seventy, "to his fatherland." For our possession is the attainment of the age to come, because we possess it not for a time but for ever; it is not now of this one and now of that, but always of the same, a firm possession that cannot be taken away, of which the Lord said: "Lay up treasure for yourselves … where thieves do not dig through and steal." And we return to our former family, or, as the Seventy, "we shall walk to our fatherland." For there is plainly a fatherland, or family, of those who love hospitality, over which Abraham presides; plainly one of the chaste, whose prince is Joseph; plainly one of the zealous, in which Elijah holds the first place. We receive their inheritance when the release of the things that are here, and the sanctification, the victory over death, has been accomplished. "In the fiftieth year, which comes after the week of weeks," that is, after the common end, as has been shown once, then the things that grow of themselves in the field cannot be sown or reaped, nor the firstfruits of the vintage gathered. For it is not the time in which we gain for ourselves by working any holiness that we did not gain in this life; in the age to come it is the time to enjoy what we have worked here. For this reason he added: "But you shall eat what is taken at once," or, as the Seventy, "you shall eat from the plains what grows in it," that is, things prepared, not things sown then nor because they are being cultivated, but sown and prepared long before. For that is the time of which David says: "For you render to each according to his works."

But what did he say at the end of the present ordinance? "In the year of jubilee," or according to the Seventy, "in the year of release of the signal, all shall return to their possessions." By what has now been said the law plainly testifies to us that even if we depart from here, no one can return to his possession, namely to his inheritance, until the year of release, which is that of sanctification, namely until the common consummation and the resurrection of the dead which Christ brings about when he raises his complete trophy over the enemy and death. For this reason Paul too says: "We who are alive shall not precede those who have fallen asleep." For the righteous, who are called living, do not go before the dead, but the judgment of all will be common, and all together are sent to the places that befit them. He says well "shall return," because we walk to God, from whom we also came when we did not exist before. When we come to him, then we begin to be. We began to be in common from the time Adam was created; but each one exists individually from the time he was formed in his mother's womb, for he says: "Who forms the spirit of man within him." Yet we came from God by reason of his workmanship and creation; for this reason Paul too said: "I am hard pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ." May this come to each of us with confidence, that is, that we may find and possess a good possession, one counted with the families of the righteous. For then, as we have said, [we shall find] our possessions … The lawgiver said at the beginning of this law, "You shall count for yourself seven weeks," or "you shall count for yourself seven rests of years," not because we can grasp that day and hour by a number, but so that, as those who count look for the end of the number, so we may look not only to our own individual consummation but to the common one, in which, leaving earthly corruption, we are sent to the heavenly possessions that are without labour, and to the rest of the age to come, which the fiftieth year has been said to signify. Hence Solomon too said in the Proverbs: "Give portions to seven, and also to eight," so that we may attend to the consummation, which the number seven signifies, and to the rest of the age to come, which the eighth day signifies. For this reason Christ's resurrection too took place after the seventh day, the Sabbath, on the eighth, and from it the universal resurrection of the dead took its substance.

Verses 14–17. "When you sell anything to your fellow citizen, or buy from him, do not grieve your brother; but according to the number of the years of the jubilee you shall buy from him, and according to the reckoning of the crops he shall sell to you. The more years remain after the jubilee, the more the price increases; and the less time you count, the less the purchase will cost. For he is selling you the time of the crops. Do not afflict your kinsmen, but let each one fear his God; for I am the Lord your God."

That there is a sale whose contract comes about without silver Isaiah taught us plainly, for he said: "All you who thirst, come to the waters, and you who have no silver, hurry and eat." For this reason Peter, condemning Simon, said: "Your money perish with you, because you thought the gift of God could be acquired with money." Good and truly blessed is what is spiritual, yet it is not lawful to acquire its possession with money. Such a spiritual sale and possession the law now sets before us; for he says: "When you sell anything to your fellow citizen, or buy from him," that is, if you have either given or received some teaching, that is, either taught or been taught. For this is the good possession, which passes over to the possession of the age to come. He joined them well: "When you sell anything to your fellow citizen, or buy from him." For disciples and teachers are each other's riches, each other's possession, as Paul shows when he writes to the Corinthians: "We are your glory, as you also are ours, in the day of Christ Jesus." "Let a man not grieve his brother," then; that is, let us not lay on disciples more than their strength, but what is possible for them: virginity to one for whom it is possible, namely the one of whom Paul says, "He who has determined in his heart, being firm, having no necessity but having authority … to keep his virgin, does well"; marriage to one who does not receive the word of virginity, for the same Paul said: "He who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not give her does better." And again: "If anyone thinks he is behaving unbecomingly toward his virgin, because she is past her prime, and it must be so, let him do what he wishes; he does not sin if she marries." And again: "It is better to marry than to burn." So too with every virtue God himself requires of us what is according to our ability, and wants us to minister to one another; for he rebuked the Pharisees as men who laid heavy commands on others, for he says: "They bind heavy and unbearable burdens and lay them on men's shoulders." Very fittingly, then, the lawgiver added: "But according to the number of the years of the jubilee you shall buy from him," or as the Seventy, "according to the number of years after the signal you shall acquire from your neighbour." By "signal," as has already been said, he means the Lord's coming and the gospel preaching proclaimed concerning him, which signified to us the future victory over death and the rest of the age to come. From the time this signal was given, then, no one bears a hard yoke or carries a heavy burden, but "according to the number of the years," that is, according to his strength; for a man's years show his age, from which it becomes plain what one can do bodily. Explaining this further, he added: "According to the reckoning of the crops he shall sell to you." According as he has the strength to work and bear fruit, let the disciple render fruit to the teacher. "The more years remain after the jubilee, the more the price increases; and the less time you count, the less the purchase will cost. For he is selling you the time of the crops." If he can work much, demand much fruit; if little, little. For one is required to bear thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, another a hundredfold. Nor is this something the lawgiver took up carelessly; it is pursued in earnest, for he says again: "Do not afflict your kinsmen, but let each one fear his God; for I am the Lord your God." Let a man not bind his kinsman, that is, not lay on him a heavy burden beyond his strength, but "let each one fear his God," who says: "Take my yoke, for it is easy, and my burden, for it is light." "I am the Lord your God," that is, who gave commands about virginity to the apostles and said, "Not all receive it, but let him who can receive it receive it." So he requires of each according to his strength; and this is the gain of the contemplation of the Spirit. But the letter too holds no small instruction: he wants us to have compassion on our neighbour in dealings of the senses as well, and wants no one to be harsh or burdensome, nor to trade on the needs of the poor, nor to strive or hurry to annex their possessions, but to give to those in need, and to receive back what they gave little by little from the fruits gathered from the fields. To forgive the debt itself, and not to take back what was given as a loan, is truly this way, which not all receive; but those who receive it are blessed.

Verses 18–19. "Do my precepts, and keep my judgments and fulfil them, so that you may dwell in the land without any fear, and the ground may produce its fruits for you, which you may eat to satisfaction, fearing no one's attack."

The Spirit of God uses very great caution toward our ears, lest perhaps, learning that we are required to bear fruit of the intelligible possessions according to the number of years, that is, according to strength, we should grow slack and turn to pleasures, and the very condescension should become harmful to us. "Do my precepts and keep my judgments," he says, "and fulfil them." For he by no means allows us, even though we are weak, to be idle from the working of the law, but wants us without doubt to work, even if according to our strength, the strength which our conscience convicts us of, as Paul says:

"their thoughts among themselves accusing or excusing." Let us, then, first keep all the righteous ordinances of God, all his judgments, and afterwards do them. Let us keep them by not corrupting their intention, keeping them strictly and unchangeably: as when someone wishes to practise almsgiving, let him not work it by harming his neighbour, nor, if he is poor, seize another's money to give to the poor; for God wants alms to be offered from righteousness. We say the same in each commandment: that we first keep its intention and end, and so advance to working them. For then we shall dwell in the intelligible land, namely in the divine land of the spiritual Scripture and of the good way of life, which God commanded us to possess and cultivate, when we have not transgressed his intention; then it produces its fruits, which we may eat to satisfaction, and we fear no one's attack. For one who keeps the intention of the law and does its works will gather its fruits and eat them to satisfaction, and dwells in it without fear, because he does not transgress the lawgiver's intention, nor is he conscious of having lived against the law within the law of God.

"But if you say: What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not sow or gather our crops?"

Verses 21–22. "I will give you a blessing in the sixth year, and it will produce fruit for three years; and you shall sow in the eighth year, and you shall eat the old crops until the ninth year; until the new grow, you shall eat the old."

Hence it is fitting that we be helped first, that is, by what is useful in the letter; this must be attended to, and gain of this kind pursued. … that those who receive the law should be troubled about two years of rest, how or from where they would eat; but he says: "I will give you my blessing." Which one? Because man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. How, then, do some accuse the commandment of Christ as impossible and laborious, by which I said, "Do not be anxious about tomorrow"? For see, the law commands similar things, and bids those who attend to the lawgiver's power not to be anxious for three whole years. Besides, by the three years we necessarily understand the consummation of each one of us, the common one, and the recompense that follows the resurrection. In each of these we eat what we have worked here; for this reason he says: "But if you say: What shall we eat in the seventh year?" that is, in the consummation of each of us. For it is plain that in the common one, in which the resurrection takes place, and in the recompense, we have the same food. Hear the answer God gives you about these through the law: "I will give you my blessing in the sixth year, and you shall produce fruit for three years." The blessing of the Father is the Son; for he destroyed the curse brought upon Adam. For this reason David the Psalmist taught that we must be blessed in him: "The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we have blessed you in the name of the Lord." By "the name of the Lord" he plainly means the Son, because as a name makes known each one who is not seen, so Christ, appearing, made the Father known in himself, though he is invisible. He came in the sixth year, both in perfection, which the number six signifies, and so that in the last time the re-formation might come again, in the number of whose days man was formed. Therefore, as the sixth day is that of the formation, so the sixth year is rightly called that of the re-formation. That there it is called the sixth day, but here the sixth year, is for this reason: because many spaces of time ran between our formation and our re-formation. So it is not without reason that the lawgiver mentioned the sixth year. For in it Christ, coming, gave us to acquire fruits by which we can be nourished in the proper consummation of each of us and in the common resurrection and recompense, granting the human race to bear the fruit of the virtues abundantly, so that even those who were hired to work about the eleventh hour received a denarius as wages with those who were hired in the morning.

What follows is not contrary to these, for he says: "And you shall sow in the eighth year," which they call the fiftieth, of which he ordained in the preceding passage: "Because it is the jubilee and the fiftieth year, you shall not sow nor reap." How, then, does he bid them sow here? Do you think the lawgiver says things contrary to himself? But let us understand the seed here so that we may find no contradiction either in the letter or in the spirit. "You shall not sow, then, nor reap," of the fiftieth year: nor were they to sow seed in the seventh week from which the harvest would come in the fiftieth year. For this sowing, even if it took place in the preceding year, the forty-ninth, in which above all, as in the seventh week, the sowing had to rest, is yet said to be of the fiftieth, because it would be sown for its sake; and for this reason it is forbidden. For the law did not command any sowing or work at all in the seventh week, which we have said is the pattern of the common consummation. As, then, the letter compelled us to attend not to itself but to the lawgiver's intention, so that the apparent contradiction might be resolved, so it will grant us, in the contemplation too, to judge in harmony with the intention of the spiritual interpretation. For they sow in the eighth year, in the age to come: not those who sow then (for that is not lawful, and indeed impossible, as we said once), nor those who sow in the seventh, for you have learned that this too is forbidden; but as many as sow in the sixth, in which Christ, coming, gave us the good seed; whoever sends seed ahead from here, from which the harvest of the promises will flourish for us, that is, the harvest of recompense, of which David says, "Coming they will come with rejoicing, carrying their sheaves," and Paul too: "He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. He who sows in the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows in the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." Hence we must sow in the eighth year, namely in the age to come; for so what follows fits us: "And you shall eat the old fruits until the ninth year; until the new grow, you shall eat the old." The Seventy have: "You shall eat the old of the old": not simply old, but the old of the old, because, as we have said, not only as soon as we go out from here, which is the seventh year, but also in the resurrection of the dead, which is namely the eighth year, and in the recompense, which we take as the ninth year (although the age to come is one, it is divided into the orders just mentioned), we eat whatever we have worked; and therefore they are called the old of the old, in comparison with ages so great that, when considered, they surpass number.

Verses 25–28. "If your brother has become poor and sold his little possession, and his kinsman wishes, he may redeem what he had sold. But if he has no near kinsman, and he himself can find the price to redeem it, the fruits shall be reckoned from the time he sold it, and he shall pay the remainder to the buyer, and he shall receive his possession again. But if his hand does not find enough to pay the price, the buyer shall have what he bought until the year of jubilee; for in it every sale returns to the owner …"

… no ordinary, but very great wisdom, if one attends fully; for it teaches in order what our substance and possession is, and how we alienate part of it, and how we receive it back. Each man's possession, then, is the good way of life that we have been allotted by God, of which Paul said: "Let each, brothers, remain with God in the calling in which he was called": this one virginity, that one chaste marriage, another a life of righteousness, this one silence and withdrawal from lawsuits, this one the priesthood, that one the protection of the poor; another other things: each possesses according to his own strength. But when through sloth our thoughts have grown weak, then we give up part of our own possession. For this reason the Seventy gave, "If he becomes poor"; Aquila, "If he falls away"; Symmachus, "If he is humbled." How this can be saved for us even after the lapse you will learn by examining the words themselves part by part. "If your brother has become poor and sold his little possession, and his kinsman wishes, he may redeem what he had sold." The law means our fellow believer as brother. For according to the Seventy he did not simply say "your brother," but added, "who is with you," hinting at those of whom John the evangelist wrote: "For if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us." There are, then, some false brothers, who cling to wicked heresies and bear the name of godliness in vain, of whom Paul says, "In dangers among false brothers." Who these are he warns elsewhere: "Avoid a heretical man after a first and second admonition." And John too: "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, nor greet him." Those with whom we may not associate we can in no way correct. In contrast to them he says: "If your brother has become poor," or according to the Seventy, "If your brother who is with you comes to poverty." He meant our brother, the one who is with us, the fellow believer, into whose thought, when sin comes, he slips into poverty, and is truly poor, because he has lost spiritual riches, having become like the one of whom David spoke when he set forth the man who was caught in the thoughts of sins: "I am needy, and in labours from my youth; but having been exalted, I was humbled and confounded." When, therefore, one who is such has sold part of his own good possession that fell to him by lot, accepting the thought of sin (for he sells his mind to the adversary, as God said to the Jews, "Behold, you were sold for your sins"), his kinsman and near relation will come, a relative according to the Spirit and a fellow believer, showing the law of kinship by deed, and will free his brother's sale, fulfilling what Paul wrote: "Brothers, if a man is overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfil the law of Christ." For if we lighten one another's burdens by exhortations, admonitions, and timely counsels, we can free a brother from poverty and redeem the passion which he sold through negligence when he ought not to have, and it becomes in a way a common possession. But if someone has no near relation or kinsman (perhaps because he did not show compassion to another at the right time, so that the other might keep the right of spiritual kinship toward him; or perhaps he is ashamed to tell what has happened to those who are akin to him according to the Spirit, and has not known what is said in the Proverbs:

"A brother is proved in necessities"), because one who hides his wounds and does not at once take the remedy into his mind must save himself and redeem his own substance; and therefore he says: "But if he has no near kinsman, and he himself can find the price to redeem it, the fruits shall be reckoned from the time he sold it, and he shall pay the remainder to the buyer, and so he shall receive his possession again." Which of us, then, is fit or able to free a mind sold through sloth or depravity, so that it does not perish wholly at the hands of the one who alienates it, if not by a good life and effective action, whoever of us has been found in a mind of sin? We must, then, consider for how long a time we have sold our minds to the one who is accustomed to buy them with wicked thoughts and reduce them to slavery, yielding and consenting to him, and pay him "what remains," or according to the Seventy, "what he has." For they did not say "what remains," but "what he has," so that we may win by a stronger contract and recover our mind. If, for example, the thought of greed has invaded our desire, let us recover our mind so as to despise even money and possessions that are justly ours. If gluttony has suggested captivity, let us recover ourselves by the intention of a strict fast and of continence from all foods. For if we can take back our possession from a greater enemy, we shall have conquered him.

But if this has not been done, what happens? "But if his hand does not find enough to pay the price." For, as we have said, if no spiritual kinsman has come first and admonished us how to repel such thoughts without harm, the thought and the action follow from which we can free whatever we have been found to have wrongly alienated. "The buyer shall have what he bought until the year of jubilee; for in it every sale returns to the owner" and former possessor. If, then, neither through a brother's teaching nor through any other virtue we have amended our thoughts and received back what was alienated from our possession, the one who possessed it through our negligence will be its master. For the sin is carried on into the deed, and we do not receive back our intelligible possession otherwise than in the time of the jubilee, or, as the Seventy, of release, because a year is perfect, holding in itself all the seasons and the circuit of all modes. A sin that is perfected and remains for a long time may not be corrected, and the mind in which the one who wickedly acquired what is ours has ruled may not be freed, otherwise than by perfect repentance, in which fasting, prayer, sackcloth, almsgiving, and tears are practised. Through these a full release is won for us.

If we have said that the one who has taken our minds captive was called a man by the lawgiver, do not wonder; for Paul too called him "the man of sin and son of perdition," and Isaiah in his prophecy called him an Egyptian "man and not God." The Lord too plainly allows the devil to be called a man, because he moves among men and devotes himself to plotting against them. For when he explained the parable of the tares, he said: "The servants of the householder came and said to him: Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where then do the tares come from? And he said to them: An enemy man has done this." Then, interpreting the parable and explaining who the enemy was, he says: "The enemy who sowed them is the devil." That one who betrays his mind to the devil through sin has concluded the wicked and ruinous contract of his sale, Paul too explained, writing to the Romans: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." Note this above all: that he did not say that the one to whom he sold was a brother or a kinsman, nor did he call him a neighbour, as in the preceding ordinance, in which he said, "When you sell anything to your fellow citizen, or buy from him, do not grieve your brother"; by adding nothing of the kind here he shows plainly that he speaks of someone foreign to us, who wickedly acquires what is ours. This is the spiritual contemplation. The explanation of the letter alone is plain to all and easily handed on: by such a commandment he sets before the Jews a law of sufficiency and of not delighting in greed; and therefore he wants possessions to return in a cycle to those who once held them. He did not forbid selling, so as not to distress the poor man or press the needy one, who could not live or escape some necessity otherwise than by selling; but he did not command that those who acquired them should possess them for ever, but fixed a time within which the law would restore the possession to its former owners. But that the law cares more for contemplation and spiritual help, and not for the letter of the commandment and the explanation that lies on the surface, what follows makes plain.

Verses 29–34. "Whoever sells a house within the walls of a city has the right to redeem it until a year is fulfilled. If he has not redeemed it, and the circle of the year has run out, the buyer shall possess it, and his descendants for ever, and it cannot be redeemed even in the jubilee. But if the house is in a village that has no walls, it shall be sold by the law of fields; if it has not been redeemed before, it shall return to its owner in the jubilee. The houses of the Levites that are in the cities can always be redeemed. If they have not been redeemed, they shall return to their owners in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are for possessions among the sons of Israel. But their suburban lands shall not be sold, because it is an everlasting possession."

If the lawgiver had had this one intention, that possessions should not pass from some to others (and this was useful, because the law, as we have said, cares for sufficiency), for what reason, do you think, did he order houses to belong to their buyers when they had not been redeemed within a year, as he says? And not even this simply, but keeping a certain fine distinction. For whatever houses are within the walls of fortified cities might be redeemed only within a year; but whatever are in unwalled ones he always allowed to be freed. The houses of the Levites, whether in walled or unwalled cities, he commanded always to be redeemable; and he forbade everyone to sell fields. This distinction is now fruitless on the face of the letter that it shows: for there was a law when it had help from the letter, but not always nor in every respect; for this reason spiritual contemplation is necessary to it. The usefulness from it to one who attends is perpetual and comes from every commandment of the law; that is why the letter grows hard, so that, compelled by necessity, we may run back to the spiritual contemplation. Hence Paul too said: "Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up for the faith that was to be revealed." For the confinement of the letter persuades us to love the freedom of the Spirit.

Now, then, let us examine the power of the present ordinance. In the preceding passage he set forth the possession of a single person, saying: "If your brother has become poor and sold his little possession, and his kinsman wishes, he may redeem what he had sold; but if he has no near kinsman, and he himself can find the price to redeem it, the fruits shall be reckoned from the time he sold it, and he shall pay the remainder to the buyer, and so he shall receive his possession again; but if his hand does not find enough to pay the price, the buyer shall have what he bought until the year of jubilee." He set forth, without doubt, the individual way of life of each person. Here he speaks no longer of an individual way of life, but of that of a whole synagogue or church. Among these he sets out, in a manner befitting God, how the synagogue of the Jews still serves the enemy and adversary who acquired it, and how the church, the gathering of the nations, is saved in certain respects through certain intelligible Levites, that is, the apostles. He says: "Whoever sells a house within the walls of a city has the right to redeem it until a year is fulfilled." Let us understand this of the synagogue of the Jews, which was … to be inhabited: for this reason he established it through Moses, to be inhabited, though it did not keep this … by those in whom he dwelt. For this reason the Lord too said to the Jews: "My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers." It was in a walled city, in Jerusalem, for it had a wall; and someone sells this house. Yet he did not call this seller either a kinsman or a near relation, as he called the former; for it was not one man selling it, but the whole people of the Jews living wickedly, which was not worthy to be called either brother or kinsman, so that God called it the people of Sodom and Gomorrah through the prophecy of Isaiah: "Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah." And again the prophet said to them: "To which creditor have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities." But they were permitted to redeem this sale within the year in which Christ proclaimed redemption from sins to the whole human race, and above all to the people of the Jews. This year, which the law now hints at, Isaiah set forth openly: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the meek, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to the captives and opening to the bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our Lord." Hence the Seventy too gave: "Its redemption shall be daily," because on each day of that which was called a year those who had sold themselves to the devil were permitted, by redeeming themselves, to be sold to God. For the enemy could no longer rule over them, since they had been sold to God. That they were permitted to redeem their own captivity not once or twice but daily, hear the Lord saying: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I wished to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing!" By saying "how often" he made plain that they were permitted daily to work their own redemption, if they had wished at all. Because they did not wish it, the law set out things like what Christ said; for the Spirit was supplied to it by him.

"But if it has not been redeemed until a year is fulfilled, the house that is in the city that has walls shall be confirmed to the true buyer and his descendants for ever, and it cannot be redeemed in the jubilee." For the enemy who bought it rules over the synagogue of the Jews, and "his descendants for ever," namely the present … or "generations," as the Seventy give, because he has power for the present time over those who are joined to him; "and it cannot be redeemed even in the jubilee," or, as the Seventy, "in the release." In which release, if not that which the Lord, when he was crucified, spoke for them: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." But they renewed the sin and became malicious after the forgiveness was given; and, as if the former sin were not enough, they added other, worse ones, which they dared around the tomb, after the resurrection, and after the ascension into heaven, against Christ himself and against the choir of the apostles. Confirming, then, what we have now said, and showing that the houses of the Jews and the temple of Jerusalem have wholly become the adversary's and can no longer have a share with the Lord, because they did not receive the redemption that was preached to them, the Lord, having said, "How often I wished to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing," adds: "Behold, your house will be left to you desolate."

As, then, attend to what the Spirit foretold of the Jewish synagogues, so attend to what he says of the church of the nations: "But if the house is in a village that has no walls, it shall be sold by the law of fields; if it has not been redeemed before, it shall return to its owner in the jubilee." That the houses in the village are to be understood as the churches of the nations the prophet Isaiah shows us: "Praise, barren one who does not bear; sing praise and shout, you who were not bearing; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband, says the Lord." Who is the barren and desolate one who does not bear, if not the church of the nations? It had no patriarchs, no law, no prophets; hence it is rightly called unwalled. Hence he added something else in the same prophecy, for the Lord said: "Enlarge the place of your tent and of your courts." So the houses of the nations that are in those, or, as the Seventy, "in the courts," are understood as the churches. This is shown still more plainly in what follows in the same prophecy: "Well done; do not spare; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes; spread out still to the right and to the left, and your seed will inherit the nations and inhabit the desolate cities." See, he called the cities of the nations desolate, that is, unwalled. For they did not have the wall of the law, and they were desolate, their error being one of sorrows. Their houses in those that the Seventy called "courts," which we have said are churches, "shall be sold by the law of fields," or according to the Seventy, "shall be reckoned with the field of the land." Of which field? Of that, surely, of which the Lord says: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field." He calls the gospel the field, in which is the treasure … These, then, are sold by the law of the field, or are still reckoned with the field, because they are near to it, not to the law. Therefore they can always be redeemed, or according to the Seventy, "they shall be redeemable in every way." From the time the Lord came, then, until his second coming, the nations are redeemed part by part and escape through the release which he proclaimed to the whole human race through the cross. For the cross is the true release. Hence too the ram that was offered as a burnt offering in place of Isaac, bearing its figure, was found, according to what the Seventy give, caught in the thicket of Sabek; and Sabek is interpreted "release," because what was done then prefigured the cross, which was the thicket of release. So Christ said, as of Abraham seeing the day of the cross in figure: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad."

Now see how the lawgiver, foreseeing it, resolved what seemed contrary to what was said of the Jewish house. For after the year in which Christ, present in the flesh, was freeing the human race, whole synagogues of the Jews were freed through the apostolic teaching, now three thousand, now five thousand, and again many more than were mentioned; lest anyone think the lawgiver was ignorant of this, see how the spiritual Wisdom showed this too: "The houses of the Levites that are in the cities can always be redeemed; if they have not been redeemed, they shall return to their owners in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are for possessions among the sons of Israel." Not without reason might one say that the apostles are called Levites, but because it was said of the Levites: "In their land you shall possess nothing, nor shall you have a portion among them. I am your portion and inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel." This was properly fulfilled in the apostles, who said confidently to the Lord: "Behold, we have left everything and followed you; what do you think we shall have?" Their houses in the cities, then, or according to the Seventy, "the houses of the cities, their possessions," are rightly understood as the Jewish congregations, as many as followed them in faith and way of life, because they were first commanded by Christ to go for their sake, as to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So those belonged to their lot and possession, and could always be redeemed; and the history of the Acts of the Apostles has shown this, for many congregations of the Jews were freed from error through the apostles. Nor was it permitted to the apostles alone to accomplish this redemption, but also to their disciples. Yet this had to be done according to their teaching, so that it would be credited to those who made the beginning of it, who laid down the doctrines by which those in circumcision could be saved and freed. For this reason, according to the Seventy, he says: "And whoever redeems from the Levites," that is, receiving the manner of freeing from them. For they are not freed by the Levites, as Aquila … "whoever is a kinsman of the Levites," they say. Whoever, then, teaches things like theirs and redeems certain houses, even if they are in Jewish cities, "the sale goes out," according to the Seventy, that is, they will be freed in the release of the faith of the cross and of the pardon granted through it. Our edition has: "If they have not been redeemed, they shall return to their owners in the jubilee." Why this was said follows: "Because the houses of the cities of the Levites are for possessions among the sons of Israel," that is, because of their kinship with the apostles. For the possession of the intelligible Levites, the apostles, was in the midst of the sons of Israel, as we have learned that Peter and John received the lot of apostleship in preaching to those of the circumcision. In another way too the apostles had a possession in the midst of the sons of Israel: for they themselves had circumcision and had always lived according to the law of Israel. For this reason the houses of the cities were theirs: for they were freed by them, and whoever were saved were saved through them. And though they were unworthy because of the blasphemy they committed against the cross and dared again after the resurrection, yet in honour of the apostles, who believed before the cross and remained steadfast at the cross and even after the cross, they were received in faith. And that this is true, learn from Isaiah saying: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah." For if the seed of the apostles had not been left, nothing would have prevented the whole Jewish people from perishing in the manner of Gomorrah and Sodom; but because of the apostles not all perished.

What their virtues and possessions were, consider in these few words: "But their suburban lands shall not be sold, because it is an everlasting possession." Whose? Those of the apostles, namely, who have been said to be Levites. Their suburban lands, or fields, are not sold, that is, their ways of life, virtues, and teachings. For these they cultivated in place of fields, so that Paul said of them: "Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit?" And again: "The worker is worthy of his wages." And again: "Is it for oxen that God cares? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? Because the one who ploughs ought to plough in hope, and the one who threshes in hope of a share of the fruit." And again: "If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?" These teachings, then, were set apart for the cities of those who stood firm through them and were saved through them; and they could not be sold, because it was said to them: "Freely you have received, freely give." Hence too he deprived Simon, who wished to buy the gift of the Spirit, of his portion, or lot, in it.

Verses 35–38. "If your brother has become poor and weak of hand, and you have taken him in as a stranger and a sojourner, and he lives with you, do not take interest, so that your brother may live with you. You shall not give him your money at interest, and you shall not demand an increase of crops. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God."

In the present law there are two things for which one must admire the lawgiver: wisdom and piety. Wisdom, because he sets out sublime things through things that seem lowly; piety, which lies in keeping both the letter and the spiritual contemplation. For the letter requires help for the poor man, and that one should neither shut one's heart against him when he asks for a loan, nor trade on his poverty by demanding increase, taking interest, and seeking gain from piety. The Spirit shows by the higher sense how we must treat those who have become poor with that poverty of which David cried: "Let your mercy quickly come before us, for we have become exceedingly poor." Let us then attend in order to what is said. "If your brother has become poor and weak of hand, and you have taken him in as a stranger and a sojourner, and he lives with you." By the brother of each one he here means one equal in dignity and way of life. If he has grown weak in working the virtues (for this is to be weak of hand; for this reason Aquila says, "If your brother falls away and his hand fails with you"), he wants us, according to the sense of the Seventy translators, to help him as a proselyte and a sojourner. Our proselyte, or stranger, is one who has just come to the faith; our sojourner is one who does not yet have his own house, but needs our admonition and careful instruction, so that he may be protected and not wander here and there as one without a house. So, then, we help a weak brother: so that he may live with us and by no means die, having become a stranger to the way of life of God; living with us, that is, through us and through our teaching, as to certain people … strengthened by good things. One must condescend to him as to a weak man and treat him with what is according to his strength; for this reason he added: "Do not take interest from him, nor more than you gave." Lest perhaps, since he has become weak and fallen short of his former rule, we demand from him a more abundant working of the virtues; but let us encourage him and support his hand as a weak man's, and require of him only the chief point of the law and of the divine commandments, that is, that he not sin. So very necessarily he added: "Fear your God. I am the Lord your God," whose yoke is easy, who requires of man in every way that he not sin, but requires the virtues according to ability. For this reason, ordaining about virginity, he says: "Not all receive it." … in the commandment he said: "So let your brother live with you. You shall not give him your money at interest, and you shall not demand an increase of crops." But imitate Paul, who says: "I became weak to the weak." Demand nothing of them in the matter of virtue beyond their own strength. And if you say that perhaps they are able but pretend to be weak, this is no longer your affair, but his who knows what we can truly do. He said to the one who hid the talent: "You ought to have given my money to the bankers, and when I came I would have demanded it with interest." And he was not condemned because he did not receive interest, but because he did not give the money: for the householder reserved the exacting of the interest to himself. He wants us, so that we may beware of sin, to pay and to exact from one another, not taking away from us the place of mutual fellowship, not robbing, not killing, not sinning in any such way, as he provides through Paul, who says: "If anyone who is called a brother is sexually immoral, or an idolater, or greedy, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a robber, do not even eat with such a one." He did not say: "If anyone has not sold his substance," nor, "If he has not promised virginity," nor, "If he has not been of the highest way of life." These are the humbler commandments of all the perfect.

See, then, what conclusion he added to the commandment: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, that I might be your God." Why did the lawgiver need to recall this in the present place? Because he wanted in every way to show this: as he brought the people out of the land of Egypt and out of a sinful people, and brought them into the land of Canaan, of another people, sinful again, he brought them out of the one so that they would not be held under the Egyptians' lordship if they still inhabited the land; and he brought them into the land of the Canaanites because, the nations having been driven out, they were no longer to be reduced to their service, but the land, cleansed, was free of its wicked inhabitants. So God does not allow us to be brought under the dominion of sinners, nor to embrace their company as long as they are sinners; but when their land has been cleansed, he commands us to be with them and to dwell together and to give them our money and our fruits, that is, the divine teachings we have received. Money is understood as teaching; for this reason Paul too said, "If anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones," hinting by these at good teaching. The same is also fruit, or, as the Seventy, food. For you will find Paul again setting out both; for, rebuking the Corinthians, who were attaching themselves to another teaching and despising his own, he wrote: "Already you are filled, already you have become rich, without us you reign." So he means teaching by money and fruits, or, according to the Seventy, foods: teachings are money, as what makes rich, and fruit or food, as what nourishes. God does not command that an abundance of these be demanded, but only what is according to strength, so that he may be our God; for he too receives penitent sinners to himself and lays a moderate yoke on them.

Verses 39–43. "If your brother, compelled by necessity, has sold himself to you, you shall not oppress him with the slavery of servants, but he shall be as a hired man and a tenant. He shall work with you until the year of jubilee, and afterwards he shall go out with his children and return to his kindred and to the possession of his fathers. For they are my servants, and I brought them out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold on the terms of slaves. Do not afflict him by your power, but fear your God."

The letter itself is full of much piety, but the spiritual understanding much more. For as much as freedom of soul is better than freedom of body, so much clearer are the gifts the spiritual contemplation gives to those who can receive its fruits than the letter. The letter, then, wants us by no means to take advantage of what befalls our brothers, that is, our fellow believers; but even if one of them has been sold to us, humbled by any necessity, let us by no means demand of him the service of a slave. For one whom we once had as a brother by adoption in Christ, how shall we henceforth have as a slave? Hence Paul too, writing about Onesimus to Philemon, said: "For this perhaps he was parted from you for an hour, that you might have him back for ever, no longer as a slave, but in place of a slave as a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord?" And again: "Let those who have believing masters not despise them, because they are brothers." Beyond this the Spirit commanded something else as well: when we find one of the brothers, equal to us in calling and way of life, sold, yet humbled in the virtues, that is, grown weak, and have turned him back by rebuking and exhorting, we are by no means to take advantage of him, but to approach him with moderation and humility. For this reason attend to the words themselves:

Verses 39–40. "If your brother, compelled by poverty, has sold himself to you, you shall not oppress him with the slavery of servants, but he shall be as a hired man and a tenant."

That the poverty of the soul is weakness in attaining the virtues is plain from what Delilah said to Samson and he to her: "You would not tell me in what your great strength lies." And when she was troublesome to him and clung to him continually for many days, giving him no space to rest, then, opening the truth of the matter, he said to her: "No iron has ever come up on my head, because I am a Nazirite, that is, consecrated to God, from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall fail and be like other men." After this the history adds: "And she made him sleep on her knees and lay his head in her lap"; and at once his strength left him, and she said: "The Philistines are upon you." "And rising from sleep he said in his mind: I will go out as I did before and shake myself free, not knowing that the Lord had departed from him." But in the edition of the Seventy, having said, "If your brother is humbled," he did not say "by you" but "with you"; for even if he was with us, we did not become the cause of his humiliation. He himself, being negligent, humbled himself and was sold, not with that sale of which Elijah spoke to Ahab. For he said to him: "Have you found me your enemy?" He answered: "I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord." For that one, being ungodly and having fallen into the depth of evils, was contemptuous, and, sold to the enemy, was unwilling to change the sale, or to be sold, that is, subjected, to the prophet, who by reaching out his hand to him little by little could have freed him from his heavy slavery. If, then, a humbled brother has been sold to you, a believer who worships God, receiving teaching and exhortation as the redemption and price of his soul, and regarding you as his master, let him not serve you with the slavery of a slave; let him be subject, but with that freedom of which Paul speaks: "the freedom with which Christ has set us free." You will find the same writing again elsewhere: "You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men." For this reason the lawgiver says: "He shall be as a hired man and a tenant," or, as the Seventy, "a sojourner." For each of these is subject to the one whose house he lives in and in whose field he works because of his poverty, having neither a house nor a field of his own; yet the dignity of freedom is not taken from him on this account. So it must be with one who has been turned from sin through us, if before the sin he was our brother according to the quality of grace and the honour of his way of life. For even if he does not now have his own house of righteousness or his own field of virtue, having once had them, he did not say, "he shall be a hired man or tenant or sojourner," but, "he shall be to you as a hired man and a tenant or sojourner"; for he needs to dwell and work in what is ours, that is, by our exhortations and rules of life and the examples he has received from us; yet there is hope that he will run back to his own dignity when he has done whole and perfect repentance. Making this plain, the lawgiver added: "He shall work with you until the year of jubilee." For through perfect repentance, as one wholly cleansed and therefore perfect, he can work by himself too, "and afterwards he shall go out," as the Seventy say, "in the release, with his children." For not only he himself is made free, but also the virtues born of him before he was brought under the sale of sin. For this reason he will also return to his kindred … which he had received from God, who is properly our Father, of whom Paul says: "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father."

Why God uses such piety in ordaining these things he himself showed by the words of the law: "For they are my servants, and I brought them out of the land of Egypt." Those, then, who have once become his servants, and through him have been free of the intelligible slavery of Egypt, he does not want to lose this dignity; nor, because someone has slipped a little, does he desire him to lose his ancient dignity for ever. And so he says: "He shall not be sold on the terms of slaves," saying things like Paul's: "You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men." And he added this too:

Verse 43. "Do not afflict him by your power, but fear your God." For we must moderate the yoke of those who are turning back, and fear our God, who said: "With the judgment you judge you will be judged, and with the measure you measure it will be measured to you."

Verses 44–46. "Let your servant and maidservant be from the nations that are around you, and from the strangers who sojourn among you, or those born of them in your land: these you shall have as servants, and you shall pass them on by hereditary right to your descendants and possess them for ever. But your brothers, the sons of Israel, do not oppress by your power."

The variety and multiplicity of the spiritual wisdom cannot be worthily praised. Since, then, we cannot worthily admire it, because we do not grasp it, let us leave this and lend the ears of the mind more carefully to what has now been said, and note each word attentively; for in the difference of the words you will find a difference of meanings too. He wants us, then, to know what difference there is between those whom we have saved for God from among unbelievers, and those whom we have corrected, who, though they were believers and like us in the dignity of calling and in way of life, afterwards for a time grew weak in working the virtues. For this reason he commanded the latter to work with us until the year of release, namely of repentance, but not afterwards. Here, since he speaks neither of one who has been humbled by sin and therefore sold to us, nor of a brother, but of those whom we have gained as disciples from among unbelievers or from another faith, he rightly commanded that they should not be our slaves either, for they too are servants of Christ, as we are; but he commanded that they remain under our possession, as those taught by us, as the very words of the lawgiver show: "Let your servant and maidservant be from the nations that are around you, and from the strangers who sojourn …" … yet they have the hope of faith and salvation, because the gospel has been sent to them, as Paul said to the Jews at Antioch: "Behold, we are turning to the gentiles; for so the Lord has commanded us." From these let servants and maidservants be gained for us, that is, those who are taught through the word. Hence they also call those who have taught them lords, as the jailer at Philippi shows, who said to Paul and Silas: "Lords, what must I do to be saved?" And let us also gain from the strangers, or, as the Seventy, "from the sons of the sojourners who sojourn among us." By sojourners he here means the Jews, who dwell in our light, yet will not fit the eyes of the mind to it, hiding its lamp under a bushel. For this reason the Seventy did not give simply "sojourners," but "sons of the sojourners who are among you," which was written more plainly by Theodotion and Symmachus: "from the sons of the sojourners who dwell among you." Of them David said: "They will dwell and hide." For though they are among us, having the very law and prophets that we also have, they dwell as sojourners, not thinking the same about the law and the prophets as we do; for, seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God, but have hidden it; and rightly they dwell as sojourners, as those who shut themselves out of the free and confident dwelling. Hence the Lord, hinting that they dwell as sojourners because of unbelief, said: "The slave does not remain in the house for ever," which is proper to sojourners. But the lawgiver says, according to the Seventy: "And of their kindred, whoever are in your land, they shall be for a possession to you." The kindred of the Jews in unbelief are the heretics, because they do not think fully, as those do not, and they preach to us the same mysteries, yet not in the same right, perfect, and sound doctrines concerning God; hence they are in our land, but as sojourners. "These you shall have," he says, "as servants, and you shall pass them on by hereditary right to your descendants and possess them for ever." Whomever, then, we have gained from the unbelieving nations, or from the Jews, or from the heretics, and have offered to God, and have acquired as servants and maidservants, spending for them the money of teaching, these are in our possession. And we can divide them among our sons, that is, our disciples, that is, hand on their discipleship to them. Paul makes this plain; his disciples Titus and Timothy were as sons to him. For when he wrote to them he headed his letters "To Timothy, my beloved son in the faith," and "To Titus, my beloved son according to the common faith." Then he assigned the Ephesians to the one and the Cretans to the other. For to the one he wrote: "As I urged you to remain at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia, so that you might charge certain people not to teach otherwise." And to Titus: "For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set right what is lacking and appoint [presbyters] …" … And wishing us now to know what difference there is between those whom we have gained from outside and the brothers equal to us, who perhaps are humbled and corrected, the lawgiver wrote here according to the common reckoning of those just mentioned: "But your brothers, the sons of Israel, you shall not afflict by your power." Not because he commanded us to reduce to slavery or wear out with labours the others whom we have gained from outside (he never seems to have said this in this ordinance), but because we cannot use equal authority over the one and the other. For it is one thing for unbelievers to be led to faith, another for fallen believers to be admonished by us.

Verses 47–49. "If the hand of a stranger and sojourner grows strong among you, and your brother becomes poor and sells himself to him, or to anyone of his stock, after the sale he can be redeemed. Whoever of his brothers wishes shall buy him: his uncle, and his uncle's son, and his blood relative, and his kinsman."

Since the law shows that it is concerned, according to the letter, with the freedom of native Israelites, it does not allow one of them who, because of poverty or some other necessity, fares worse and has attached himself to proselytes or sojourners, who were born of those outside, to be a slave, but commanded that he be redeemed by one of his own kin. See how this must be kept according to the spiritual higher sense too; for he says: "If the hand of a stranger and sojourner grows strong among you (or, as the Seventy, of a sojourner), and your brother becomes poor and sells himself to him or to anyone of his stock." That is, if one who has newly joined our faith from the nations, or from the Jews, or from heretics generally, is dear to us for his virtues, so that he is strong in rebuking and exhorting sinners, his hand properly grows strong, or, as the Seventy, "finds," because by his action he can find the way of life of others and exhort them. Then "your brother," who was instructed in the word long ago, and who is equal to you in the lot of his way of life (for this is the brother who has become poor, that is, who finds no one to exhort him and give him counsel), "sells himself" to the stranger, or newcomer, or sojourner, that is, to one who has newly believed from the nations or from the Jews, or, as we have said, from the heretics; and he is sold to him when that one spends the word of teaching on him because of his way of life. For it is unfitting that one who was known long ago for clear knowledge and way of life should live under one who has newly come to the faith. For discipleship is no small thing, but needs a long time and no small course of life to reach perfection. He is rightly redeemed: "Whoever of his brothers wishes shall buy him," that is, let someone of like honour, like knowledge, and like way of life redeem him by his teaching, and those who have just now been born. For the dignity of long-standing knowledge among teachers is no ordinary thing, so much so that Paul, when he wanted to bind Philemon, wrote thus: "I beseech you, being such a one as Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus." And he joined length of time to the confession he made in chains, as being fit for the glory of those who have advanced in knowledge. "Let his uncle, then, and his uncle's son, and his blood relative, and his kinsman redeem him." Our fathers according to the Spirit are those who begot us through the teaching of Christ; for this reason Paul too wrote to the Corinthians: "For though you have many tutors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel." As many, then, as are their brothers, that is, priests and teachers as they themselves are, or also sons of the brothers, that is, their disciples, who have advanced in the same knowledge and teaching as he, are rightly called the father's brothers. Those who are blood relatives and kinsmen of the one who needs counsel and exhortation, that is, who have been of the same dignity and way of life, these in turn redeem him, mindful of Paul's word: "If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever," and that one must show good to all, but especially to those of the household of faith. These, then, are our blood relatives through the flesh of Christ, because we are of his flesh and of his bones, as Paul again wrote to the Ephesians. So much better is it, then, for one who is lesser in action or knowledge to be admonished by those who are older and of the same faith, that Apelles of Alexandria was a learned and distinguished master, yet lesser knowledge he had, and this, which was the chief thing, he held in a blameworthy way, not knowing the baptism of Christ. Hence Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and explained the way to him more accurately, as Luke says, that is, what pertained to teaching and knowledge, thinking it unfitting that a teacher should be corrected by others and not by those who had advanced in knowledge, as they were.

But though these things are admirable, still more admirable things follow.

Verses 50–55. "But if he himself is able, he shall redeem himself, the years only being reckoned from the time of his sale until the year of jubilee, and the money for which he was sold being reckoned according to the number of years and the reckoning of a hired man. If many years remain until the jubilee, he shall pay the price according to them; if few, he shall make a reckoning with him according to the price and the number of years, and shall pay the buyer what remains of the years, the wages being counted for those in which he served before. He shall not afflict him violently in your sight. But if he cannot be redeemed by these, in the year of jubilee he shall go out with his children. For the sons of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

… he says, so that he commands each of us who has been placed under the slavery of sin to be redeemed by virtues and corrections: if, for example, we wish to gain sackcloth and ashes and tears and the confession that goes with them, and whatever with these contains the year of jubilee, or release; for he set forth the present words to prove a thing of this kind. "But if he himself is able, he shall redeem himself, the years only being reckoned from the time of his sale until the year of jubilee." For if one who has become poor through sin, who before was rich in virtues and corrections, rightly frees himself, as long as he is sufficient for his own exhortation, yet let him not trust wholly in himself, since he has once grown weak and needs exhortation and counsel; let him "reckon with himself," that is, treat and debate with himself. For so Theodotion has it: "He shall treat with the one who acquired him"; and Aquila: "He shall reckon with the one who possessed him." He has treated how he ought to win true freedom for himself, and has reckoned from the year in which he sold himself until the year of jubilee, or release: from the time, that is, when by sinning he came to need counsel and teaching, until he completes a whole and thorough repentance, in which, receiving release, he becomes equal to one who has not sinned at all. And what will he treat of? By what virtues and corrections he can lay hold of the release that comes through earnest repentance, and advance. For as one who paid the money to the redeemer did not need to wait for the year of release, the fiftieth, which was called the jubilee, so one who seeks equal or matching virtues to blot out the sin goes ahead of repentance, redeeming himself by good actions. Zacchaeus shows this: though he had taken a great deal from a great many, he did not need sackcloth and ashes and tears and prayer (for this is for us the year of release, as holding all the things that bear the fruit of release for us). He did not need them, because his sins were sins of money, and he promised to repay fourfold what he had taken and to distribute half of his goods to the poor. For this reason Christ, accepting the money of his redemption, said to him: "Today salvation has come to this house."

What follows is admirable: "And the money for which he was sold being reckoned according to the number of years and the reckoning of a hired man," or according to the Seventy: "The money of his sale shall be, for a year, as the day of a hired man shall be with him." The lawgiver did not mention the day without purpose, but hinted at what the Lord showed plainly in the Gospels when he set out the parable of the workers hired for the vineyard: when he said that some were hired in the morning, others at the third hour, others at the sixth, others at the ninth, and others at the eleventh, and ordered wages to be given to those hired about the eleventh hour as to those who had worked the whole day. As for one of those, then, so shall the money of his sale be for the one who is redeemed; for he may accomplish his redemption both over a short time and over a long one. For this reason the lawgiver reasonably added: "If many years remain until the jubilee, he shall pay the price according to them; if few, he shall make a reckoning with him according to the number of years, and shall pay the buyer what remains of the years, the wages being counted for those in which he served." First, then, he commanded that the one who wishes to redeem himself pay the price according to these, that is, according to the things in which he sinned: if perhaps he sinned by gluttony, let him correct it by fasting; if by talkativeness, let him pursue silence; if through carelessness of the eyes he fell into desire for a woman, let him take care not to look at women, nor to meet them at all. Then, if he wishes to prepare a speedy redemption for himself, let him attend to the money of his acquisition, namely the word of teaching, which made him understand his own sin and live under one who admonishes him. And if he sees that much is lacking for the year of release and for correction, namely for the repentance fixed for him, let him work the virtues more and gain a laborious repentance. And if again he has worked little at this, if not by virtues, then by tears and sighs and the like he must accomplish remedies for them. Confirming what has been said, according to the Seventy he adds: "For he is with him as a hired man from year to year; you shall not afflict him with labour in your sight," looking to those hired men of whom one received wages for an hour's work, another perhaps for three, another for somewhat more. For the one who hired them was not unjust, but, being just, looked not only to the time of the workers but also to their works. So [the reckoning is] better for one who wishes to redeem himself by good actions and perfections, that he be with him "from year to year," the money of his own redemption, in a moment or over many years, or over few, the power of working being like the redemption. "And you shall not afflict him with labour in your sight." What is this? That you should not lay the weight of a strict penance on one who has spat out the sin by virtue; for he has once redeemed himself by good works.

Very rightly, then, he added what follows: "But if he cannot be redeemed by these, in the year of jubilee he shall go out with his children." One who has not redeemed himself by virtues equal to the sin he commanded to be redeemed in the year of jubilee, or release, that is, in a perfect and strict repentance, as we have often said; and also the good works he did before he sinned, which are the children of each of us. If you wish to know what perfect repentance is, look at the Ninevites, who proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them, and cried to God earnestly and with their whole soul, and each turned from his evil way and from the injustice that was in their hands. So God accepted their repentance, so that the prophet added: "God had mercy concerning the evil he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it." And what is the cause that makes repentance blot out sins, and makes a clean redemption to be won by the penitent, so that he no longer needs another to admonish him, nor to live under the yoke of another's teaching? "For the sons of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt." How did he bring them out? Sighing, namely, as the book of Exodus has shown us: "After a long time the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel, groaning because of their works, cried out, and their cry went up to God." He who then received the sighing of the people and freed them from the slavery of Egypt, the same now frees each one who sighs in repentance and will redeem him from the intelligible Egypt. He says to us: "I am the Lord your God," who did those things and commanded these.