Commentary on Leviticus 7.27

Verses 1–8. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: A man who has made a vow and pledged his soul to God shall give the price by valuation. If it is a male from the twentieth to the sixtieth year, he shall give fifty shekels of silver by the measure of the sanctuary; if a woman, thirty. From the fifth year to the twentieth a male shall give twenty shekels, a female ten. From one month to the fifth year, for a male five shekels shall be given, for a female three. One of sixty years and over, a male shall give fifteen shekels, a female ten. If he is poor and cannot pay the valuation, he shall stand before the priest, and as much as the priest values him and sees that he can pay, so much he shall give."

These words of the lawgiver too are full of wisdom, kept above all for the fitting time. For having commanded above what ought to be done and what not, he now sets out through what is said the dignity of those who do these things wholly or in part. And he runs through clearly and perfectly what the perfect life is, what life is still set in progress, what holds the beginning of the knowledge of God, what [belongs] to truth, what the works of the virtues are. And writing of different ages, he set out also one who has grown weak yet does not depart from it. He speaks thus: "A man who has made a vow and pledged his soul to God," that is, whoever has promised his soul to God and wished to offer him his whole life. For this reason, in place of "has made a vow," Aquila and Theodotion, and Symmachus too, gave "if he has surpassed." For it is truly admirable, and very near to blessedness, for someone to offer his whole self to God, as his soul to the Lord, or as the Seventy, "the honour of his soul to the Lord," that is, to offer God that honour of the soul which he received from him, of which David said, hinting at the plots of demons: "Yet they have thought to thrust away my honour." "The price of a male from the twentieth year to the sixtieth year shall be fifty shekels of silver, by the measure of the sanctuary," or as the Seventy, "didrachms of silver." Fifty didrachms, or shekels, are a thousand obols; for he himself said in Exodus that a shekel, or didrachm, is twenty obols. For he says thus of the sons of Israel: "According to the number each shall give a price for his soul to the Lord, and those who give shall give half a shekel according to the measure of the temple," or, as the Seventy, "of the didrachm, which according to the holy didrachm is twenty obols." So he wanted us to remember the shekel, or didrachm, "according to the measure of the temple" or "according to the measure of the sanctuary," wishing to send us to that text of the law in which he says that the holy didrachm, or shekel, is twenty obols. And though it was ready to hand to require one shekel, or drachm, to be offered, he did not command so, but half a shekel or didrachm, showing by this that what is properly holy in the law is what is understood not according to the letter alone but also according to the spirit, and its offering is owed. Hence according to the Seventy too he joined the didrachms themselves to himself, but commanded half to be offered: so that you may say that, condescending to those who received the law as to the weak, he commanded not a perfect offering but an imperfect one, namely the half; because the holy didrachm is twice ten obols, that is, twenty. For the law has twice ten commandments, requiring them to be doubled, that is, kept according to the letter and according to the spirit. But for those, as poor in mind, it was enough to offer the fulfilment and action of the ten commandments at least in the sense of the body, through which the Israelite of the senses could also free his soul from the slavery of sins.

If, then, someone is "from the twentieth year," that is, of age, strong, vigorous, able to work all the virtues and to subject the intelligible enemies by all his actions and works (for see what Israel said of this age: "Every male from twenty years and upward, all who go out in strength," bearing witness in the words just quoted above all to the strength of those who are at that time of life, as being at this age able to go out to war and bear arms, and having much fervour and heat in action), his price, that is, his way of life and life, the recompense which he offers and promises to God for himself, is fifty shekels, or drachms. For the number fifty figures the spiritual life, because on the fiftieth day the coming of the Holy Spirit took place. And in the fiftieth year comes the release of every debt and the restoration of land, and many other goods were arranged for the Jews in it by the law. He says fifty shekels, or didrachms, so as to double fifty again and say a hundred drachms, signifying that perfect fruit, of which he says, setting out the parable of the seeds, that the good land bears fruit, dividing it into thirty, sixty, and a hundred; for no man can go beyond this number. A hundred drachms, multiplied tenfold again (for a drachm, as we have said, has ten obols), make the number one thousand, in which is no ordinary perfection, but that of the heavenly, that is, the incorporeal beings, that of those who have been allotted a dwelling above us, of those who go beyond corruption and attain incorruption. For this reason the Spirit of God said in the Song: "The peaceable one had a vineyard among those who have peoples. He gave it to keepers; a man will bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver." What man (for not all can bring this fruit), learn from what follows: "Your thousand, peaceable one, and two hundred to those who keep its fruit." "Your thousand, peaceable one," that is, Solomon; and the intelligible Solomon is Christ, because Solomon is interpreted "peaceable." Christ, then, gave peace to the human race. Perfection befits him above all, and those who follow his way of life and run the angelic course, to whom the number one thousand is assigned as perfect. "For thousands of thousands ministered to him," says Daniel, setting out the heavenly powers standing by God. And David says: "He remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded for a thousand generations," showing by the thousand generations the perfection of the divine law and of those who received the law. "From twenty years to sixty years": for within these times is the age for begetting … that we may think of intelligible things. One, then, who has a mature and perfect understanding, and the strength to do what he has understood, can win other sons for God, spending his way of life or his teaching. The price of his soul, fifty didrachms, is the perfect fruit and the crown of perfection, which will have martyrdom and contempt of things and all that perfection of which the Lord said: "You shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." This is "when it is a male," that is, when he is always strong; for that is what he here calls male.

"But for a female the valuation shall be thirty shekels," or didrachms, so that they make sixty drachms, namely the sixtyfold fruit, itself great, but less than the hundredfold; for this reason he brought in the person of the woman, who is less than the man. So women too, when they have reached the highest measure and advanced to perfection, can be called strong, as having passed beyond their weakness and taken up the intention of strength; for this reason the Spirit of God said in the Proverbs: "Who will find a strong woman?" Who, then, lacks contempt of things? But he says perfectly the other things which the law orders to be set right concerning continence in all things, for the one who lives according to it. Her valuation is thirty shekels, or didrachms, that is, the sixtyfold fruit, which Paul too figured when he said: "Let a widow be enrolled who is not less than sixty years old," wishing to show by age and the number of years what virtues and actions a widow who is chosen by God, who is written in the divine books, and who can live in the number of the heavenly Jerusalem, ought to show. For this reason he also added, suggesting that his concern was not so much with age or years as with the virtues signified by them: "the wife of one husband; if she has brought up children, if she has received the poor with hospitality, if she has washed the feet of the saints, if she has relieved those in affliction, if she has followed every good work." This is the man perfect and complete in all things.

See also the one who lacks this but desires to be carried forward to it: "From the fifth year to the twentieth a male shall give twenty shekels," or, as the Seventy, didrachms. He here means one who is not yet perfect but is a man of sense and has begun to advance; for by the number of five years he hints at the senses, which are of that number. One who is tending toward youth and toward what is more perfect is from five years to the twentieth year; for one of twenty years, able to fight among the strong, is counted by the law, as the book of Numbers shows. His price, then, is twenty didrachms, that is, forty drachms, four hundred obols. [What] the number of forty drachms signifies [we know], because we have learned that Moses and Elijah, and the Lord himself when he was tempted by the devil, fasted for that many days. What the number four hundred signifies, or what way of life it shows, is shown by what is said in the book of Kings, when the ship sent by Solomon to Sophir returned; for he says, according to the Seventy: "And it came to Sophir" (and Sophir is interpreted "good"), "and took from there four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and brought them to King Solomon." So it is good thus to be exercised by fasting and prayer and to be carried forward to that life to which Moses and Elijah advanced, building the virtues upon fasting and prayer; so the Lord too, beginning to make himself known to the human race through preaching and signs, made fasting and prayer the beginning of his way of life. Whoever, then, is a man of sense and begins to advance, yet not greatly but moderately, so that he cannot be burdened by the undertaking of a way of life of fasting, his price is ten didrachms, that is, twenty drachms and two hundred obols. For his way of life lies in keeping the ten commandments, which is doubled according to the letter and the spirit, among which fasting is not commanded. For the way of life belonging to it is higher, befitting lawgivers and prophets and all who have advanced; and his way of life does not yet have perfection, for it needs gentleness and the perfect love that is in zeal for Christ; yet it leads on toward perfection. But because the keeping of the commandments according to the letter and the spirit is rightly reckoned as ten didrachms, which are two hundred obols, the word we quoted just now from the Song of Songs recalls to your memory: "Your thousand, peaceable one, and two hundred to those who keep its fruit." Which vineyard? The one of which he said earlier: "The peaceable one had a vineyard among those who have peoples," which the Jews did not keep; for this reason they brought forth thorns instead of grapes, and all who pass along the way gather from it. Those who keep the fruit are found in the two hundred, that is, in twenty drachms, the doubled keeping of the commandments, as we said, according to the letter and the spirit.

"From one month to the fifth year, for a male five shekels shall be given," or five didrachms, "for a female three." By one of a month you are to understand one who has just been born in the faith, to whom Peter said: "Like newborn infants, long for the rational, guileless milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." His price up to the age of five, that is, his way of life and life, is five didrachms of silver, that is, ten drachms, and a hundred obols. The way of life of the newly born, then, [must be] five, that is, he must receive in an intelligible way what he hears with the senses; and so too with seeing, tasting, worshipping, and touching; this leads him to perfection, and for this reason he also has the price of a hundred obols; and the number, as has been said, is perfect. So without doubt he indicates one who has just been chosen to share in the mysteries and has not yet gone on to action, but is meanwhile tested in faith, as one still an infant and not yet having the time to show virtue. But if one is less than this, so that the person of a woman fits him, being less as simpler and not very discerning, his price is three didrachms: faith in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so that he does not transgress it, but believes with the heart, as Paul says, "and confesses with the mouth." For thus these three become two drachms each for one who not only confesses with the tongue but also believes by faith. And such faith brings this one too to a middle perfection; for three didrachms are six drachms, and six drachms are sixty obols, and such a number bears a middle perfection. For this reason the people of Israel too had the number six hundred thousand, which is sixty myriads. For the Israel of the senses had some who were moderately perfect, who, set in the law, practised the gospel way of life to some extent. There were also those whose study of the law and prophets was moderate; for this reason they were likewise myriads, but neither thousands of thousands nor myriads of myriads, so that perfection might always be among them; for this belongs to the angels and to those who live according to the gospel life. For they too become angels when they have advanced.

"One of sixty years and over, a male shall give fifteen shekels," or didrachms, "and a female ten." And who is this, if not one who promises the highest way of life, through virginity, for example, or through possessing nothing, and other virtues, and afterwards has grown weak? For you have learned that the lawgiver set one from twenty years to sixty years before all; then now, after all, he speaks of one "from sixty years and over." By saying "over" he without doubt indicates the old age of soul and the weakness of one who had set before himself the highest way of life. One, then, who promises and sets before himself a way of life of virginity or contempt of possessing, and then grows too weak to fulfil his purpose, let him hear from Paul: "If anyone thinks he is behaving unbecomingly toward his virgin, because she is past her prime" (showing in a way the purpose grown weak and brought to old age), "and it must be so, let him do what he wishes; he does not sin if she marries." And again: "If you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have tribulation of the flesh, and I would spare you. This … that those who mourn be as though not mourning, and those who rejoice as though not rejoicing, and those who buy as though not possessing, and those who use this world as though not using it. For the form of this world is passing away. I want you to be without anxiety." For this reason his price will be fifteen didrachms, which are thirty drachms. For Christ set forth three fruitings of the good land: by the hundredfold signifying the life of virginity and of possessing nothing, by the sixtyfold that of continence, by the thirtyfold that of chaste marriage. But if one of this kind is weaker (perhaps he has fallen into sexual immorality, and hence he is called a woman), not even so is he to be rejected, but he has the price of ten didrachms. For he offers to God the keeping of the commandments of God, which we have shown to be twenty drachms and two hundred obols, and has his way of life in this, justified through keeping the commandments.

If you say: How so? The Lord was thirty years old, though he alone was perfect, while we say that perfection is in the number one hundred, after this in sixty, and third in thirty: learn that he alone was truly perfect, yet as teacher of all and chosen as the firstfruits of the whole lump he figures and sets forth a way of life tempered out of all. For if you want virginity, he is a virgin from a virgin and taught virginity; if marriage, he commanded marriage too and blessed those who marry; if abstinence, he taught this as well; so too the course of faith, whether of the perfect or of the simple. Since, then, he hints at differences here and in a way distinguished the lives of men, and says that the price of this one is fifty didrachms, of this thirty, of this twenty, of this ten, of this five, of this three, of this fifteen, these when gathered come a little short of a hundred and fifty, and divided into five they make nearly the number thirty. See how neither the lawgiver was ignorant of the tempering which Christ made in our life and way of life, nor was the evangelist ignorant of the number that has the tempering. For this reason he says that he came to baptism not at a full thirty years; for he says: "And Jesus himself was beginning, about thirty years of age." And why this? Because both one who strives for a very perfect life, and one who strives for a moderately perfect one, and one who strives for a lesser one, does not come perfectly to the measure; he falls short in every way, because perfection belongs to God alone; but he falls short only so far as gives pardon for what falls short. Hence they are seven short of a hundred and fifty: for the number just mentioned comes to a hundred and forty-three; and by the number seven pardon is plainly signified.

"If he is poor and cannot pay the valuation, he shall stand before the priest, and as much as the priest values him and sees that he can pay, so much he shall give." Now he speaks of one who has sinned much; and for this reason Aquila gave "if he has gone too far" instead of "poor." If, then, this one wishes to be offered to God, he will stand before the priest, so that the priest may value him to pay as much as he sees he can: imposing on him a rule of life according to his strength and prescribing a measure of philosophy which he has judged he can bear. For example, if he is rich, that he distribute money; if he is healthy, that he devote himself to fasts and prayers and other good labours; if he is both rich and healthy, he is bidden to do whatever riches and health suggest to him; if neither, to weep in prayer: in short, whatever he sees he can accomplish through his body, or his substance, or some other strength or means.

Verses 9–10. "But an animal that can be sacrificed to the Lord, if anyone has vowed it, shall be holy and cannot be exchanged, that is, neither better for bad nor worse for good. But if he exchanges it, both what is exchanged and that for which it is exchanged shall be consecrated to the Lord."

The lawgiver set out that the very offerings made from ourselves have certain degrees and differences. For see, through what has been said he explains when the offering of those who are subject to us in some way, so that they are even called our cattle because they are very subject, or because we use them for our service as we use cattle, is holy. He commands that we not repent of what we offer to God. So if we offer of those cattle which it is customary to offer to God (and it is customary to offer him things unblemished and clean), each of us is at once sanctified, and it is not lawful for us to repent of it: as when we offer to God a son, or a disciple, or a servant, or another who is under our hand. Nor may we exchange bad for better, or good for bad. He does not here call bad what is depraved and unclean in every way; for if it is unclean, it is not among those things that it is customary to offer to God, and the lawgiver said this offering was of those that can be sacrificed to the Lord. But here he calls bad what is worse; for so Symmachus too plainly rendered it: "He shall not give better for worse, or worse for better," so that, when we offer this son or servant to the Lord's service and ministry, we may not want to take him back into our own service and use, promising perhaps to offer a better or a worse one. For it is not permitted; for this reason Hannah too said of Samuel: "If you will look upon the humiliation of your handmaid and remember me, and give your handmaid male offspring, I will give him as a gift before you until the day of his death." "But if he exchanges it, that for which it is exchanged shall be consecrated to the Lord": so that we sanctify both the one we offered before and the one we offered afterwards with the first offering, and give both to God. For this does not permit us to repent of what we offer, but strikes the enemy who suggested repentance to us, since we double our offering, which he wished to intercept through repentance.

Verses 11–13. "An unclean animal which cannot be sacrificed to the Lord, if anyone has vowed it, shall be brought before the priest. He, judging whether it is good or bad, shall set the price; and if the one who offers wishes to give it, he shall add a fifth part above the valuation."

The Jew must be asked how this commandment can stand according to the letter. For if it is not lawful to offer it, and it will not be acceptable, how did the lawgiver write both, as though contradicting and resisting himself? But something near to the bounty of the gospel in every way he hints at, and to the condescension that grace knows. Let us understand what has been said thus. It was not permitted to offer to God of the cattle that did not both divide the hoof and chew the cud; for the law held these unclean. Of these the riddle was: not dividing the hoof, of one who does not distinguish the letter of the law and its spirit; not chewing the cud, of one who did not have zeal for continual meditation on the law, and who calls it back to meditation only with the tongue and not also with the heart. If, then, someone offers to God such a son, or servant, or disciple, who is lesser, not from malice but from weakness, in meditating on the sacred Scriptures or in the division of contemplation, he is not yet vowed to God; for the lawgiver does not mention him as though he had been offered. But he brings him before the priest, and the priest sets his price, judging whether he is good or bad, so that, condescending to what is imperfect, he may lay on him a moderate yoke, that is, the way of life that lies between good and bad. This is turning away from evil and advancing to better things. For perhaps we say that this is properly between worse and better; for what is said, "whether good or bad," Symmachus rendered: "The priest shall set the price, if by advancing in some way he can be a gift among the things offered to God." "And if the one who offers wishes to give it, he shall add a fifth part above the valuation." And what is this? The senses are five in number. Their fifth part, for us, is the mind, for they are governed by it. Without it, then, they hardly have being, nor do they help. The five virgins who were not received into the wedding bear their figure; these five did not have wisdom, and hence they are called simply foolish. So if anyone wishes to redeem one who, for the reasons given, is compared to unclean cattle … he will be able to govern himself and not need another's tutoring.

Verses 14–19. "If a man vows his house and sanctifies it to the Lord, the priest shall consider whether it is good or bad, and it shall be sold according to the price set by him. But if the one who vowed wishes to redeem it, he shall give a fifth part of the valuation above, and he shall have the house. And if he vows a field of his possession and consecrates it to the Lord, the price shall be valued according to the measure of the seed. If the land is sown with thirty measures of barley, it shall be sold for fifty shekels of silver. If he vows the field at once from the year of the beginning jubilee, it shall be valued as much as it can be worth; but if after some time, the priest shall reckon the money according to the number of years that remain until the jubilee, and it shall be deducted from the price. But if the one who vowed wishes to redeem the field, he shall add a fifth part of the valued money, and he shall possess it."

No ordinary question arises here. For a little later, at the end of the book, the lawgiver says thus: "Everything that is consecrated to the Lord, whether man, or animal, or field, shall not be sold, nor can it be redeemed." How did he forbid there that offerings be redeemed, but here command that the house and the field be redeemed after they have been sanctified? Perhaps he knows one intention of the offerer here and another there. There, that he should never again touch what he has offered, but consecrate it wholly to God; for this reason he does not say there, as here, "If he consecrates his house, or the field of his possession," but "everything that is consecrated to the Lord." For of the things offered to God none could return to human use, nor could the priest use them. The history of the Amalekites shows this. For Saul was commanded that all the spoils of Amalek should be accursed; and because he allowed the people to take some of the flocks and herds, he incurred a great curse; and it in no way sufficed him for excuse, when Samuel was angry and asked, "What is this bleating of the flock in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?", that he answered the prophet with other words, which were these: "From Amalek he brought the best of the flocks and oxen which my people acquired, to be sacrificed to the Lord your God, and the rest I have destroyed." So it is one thing to sanctify to God (for one who has sanctified may use it in the way the lawgiver now shows us), another to make something accursed, for its use is forbidden. A like understanding must be taken in the contemplation too; but we shall speak of the accursed thing when we come to that part of the ordinance. Now let us teach, as the Spirit suggests to me, what it is to sanctify a house, what a field, saying this in the first place: that it is one thing to be sanctified to God, another to be holy; one thing to offer something to him, another to have no need of it. For what is sanctified and offered begins to be sanctified by being offered; so it was not holy before. What begins to be sanctified needs work, advance, and increase by parts; but what has long been holy and long belongs to God lacks nothing, but is perfect and needs no addition. Therefore it is good to use the teachings of others for sanctification, but better to advance so far as to lead oneself and one's own to sanctification, which belongs not to every man but only to the man of sense. And these are the things the lawgiver intends to signify in this place.

He sanctifies his house to God, then, who wants his family and kindred and his intelligible house to live in holiness, so that it may be and be called a church, as many of the faithful held their houses as churches because of their sanctification, as we have heard Paul writing to the Romans: "Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but also all the churches of the gentiles; and the church in their house." Whoever, then, has this intention, but is not himself fit by himself to bring what he intends to completion, the priest shall consider his house, whether it is good or bad, and as he values it, so it shall be. Why "whether good or bad"? Because a house consists of many and different persons, among whom many need condescension, not being able to do or think what is perfect; so that he may lay nothing heavy on them, but, weighing each one's strength, may bid them turn away from evil and advance in the virtues. "But if the one who vowed wishes to redeem it, he shall give a fifth part of the valuation above, and he shall have the house." That is, if the master of the house who wishes to sanctify it, though it was not holy before nor could be called a church (for then it would surely have been sanctified, which is not now the case, but it is taking the beginning of sanctification): if, then, this man redeems his house, cleansing completely that whose need of sanctification made the priests' exhortation necessary. He redeems it by good teaching and a pattern of life, freeing them and washing away whatever stood in their way to holiness. What will he do? He will give, or according to the Seventy, "add," a fifth part of the valuation above. To the teaching of the priest, to whom he offered his house from the beginning so that he might value it, that is, impose a definition by which it ought to stand or live, he himself will add this, which is understanding. This, then, is the fifth: that he receives what is said and builds upon the priest's words; for more frequent remembrance makes men sensible and understanding. And so he will have the house, not losing its sanctification to God (for that would turn to his loss); but he will have it, because [it belongs] to him both as offering it and as teaching it; and so, set well over his own house and recovering it for himself, he is found in a way to be a priest; for Paul raised the one who knows how to rule his own house to the choice and dignity of the episcopate. For this reason, for what is said, "the one who sanctified it shall redeem it," Aquila rendered: "if the one sanctifying does it to the end." What we learn from this is that if the one who sanctified it claims for himself the rule and government of his house and wishes to acquire it himself, and to do it "to the end" according to the law is to be set over others as a kinsman, let him do what the lawgiver has commanded here. This being so, that the silver of the divine words is properly the exhortation of teaching, hear David saying: "The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, purified from the earth." And Jeremiah: "In vain has the refiner refined; its dross is not consumed"; he says this of the Jews, because the words of those who exhorted them profited them nothing. And hear Paul too saying: "If anyone builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones."

"And if he vows a field of his possession and consecrates it to the Lord, the price shall be valued according to the measure of the seed." No one will doubt that the field is the divine Scripture, whose vine is properly Christ and whose farmer is the Father; in which the treasure is hidden, that is, the saving preaching, which the worker of the field who finds it will sell all that he has to buy that field, as the Lord says in the Gospels. In this field each one's possession is different, that is, the measure he has been able to obtain from it for understanding. If, then, a man consecrates this to the Lord, though it was not holy before, now he begins to consecrate a guide of his way of life: since he is not himself fit to guide himself, let him choose a priest. For here the lawgiver called "consecrated" the things assigned to the priest. "The price shall be valued according to the measure of the seed," that is, according to how much he has been sown, namely taught; for divine Scripture is accustomed to take the word of teaching as seed. Let the priest prescribe for him as much as he has been instructed in good, lawful, and spiritual teaching, and not that which seducers teach, for example pagans, or Jews, or heretics. For this reason, having said "according to the measure of the seed," he added: "If the land is sown with thirty measures of barley, it shall be sold for fifty shekels of silver," or as the Seventy, "fifty didrachms of silver": by which understand the Old and New Testament. By the measure, or cor, of barley he shows the Old Testament, because the food of this seed is coarser; by the fifty didrachms he hints at what is at once spiritual and perfect; for perfect teaching is also spiritual. But when this rule, or definition, is to be imposed on him whole, and when it is to be lessened by condescension, learn from what follows: "If he vows the field at once from the year of the beginning jubilee, it shall be valued as much as it can be worth; but if after some time, the priest shall reckon the money according to the number of years that remain until the jubilee, and it shall be deducted from the price." He here mentions two years of release, or jubilee, plainly hinting at baptism and repentance. For each is a year of release, because each holds perfect release: the one through the gift of grace, the other for those who devote themselves to prayer and fasts and the other works that complete repentance. If, then, someone at once wishes the way of grace which he has chosen to be guided and led on by a priest, the priest may require of him what he received when he was taught from the perfect and spiritual teaching, in no way condescending to him, for there is no need, since he has been renewed through the gift; but he makes him remain fully in the teaching he received. But if he has fallen from the gift he received and fallen away from it in his way of life (for this is to consecrate the field "some time" after the jubilee, or release), the priest will rightly reckon the silver for the remaining years until the year of release, or jubilee, so that he may fix the rest of the time for him for repentance; "and it shall be deducted from the price." For in so far as he did less, suffered loss, and lived worse, he has diminished the gift, become weaker and therefore more abject, and is no longer such as he was when he received the gift. Yet this one too, if he wishes, can redeem his field, that is, govern and teach himself, adding a fifth of the silver to his price, adding his own understanding to the priest's teaching, so that, understanding and instructed, he may become his own governor and teacher. For so the intelligible field, which he consecrated by offering it to the priest, will be possessed by him and not by another: the way of life and virtue which he pursues, wholly or in part, will be reckoned to him who does it. Attend to the lawgiver's division: how he wants one who wishes to sanctify, or consecrate, a house or field to make the consecration first, and so commands him to redeem what has been sanctified. "And then," he says, "he shall possess it": commanding this without doubt, that we must govern our way of life by the teaching, rule, and law of the priests when we first sanctify it; but we must also advance and add our own understanding to their teaching; for this reason Paul wrote to Timothy: "Understand what I say; for the Lord will give you understanding in all things." And then we shall properly possess what we have done that is near to sanctification. But if we have not kept to this division, see what we shall suffer.

Verses 20–21. "But if he will not redeem it, but it has been sold to anyone else, the one who vowed it cannot redeem it any more; for when the day of the jubilee has come, it shall be sanctified to the Lord, and the consecrated possession belongs to the right of the priests."

Here the lawgiver plainly shows the loss of one who always needs to be governed by another and does not advance, nor is helped by the teaching of others, but is himself always his own guide in doing what is useful only for the present. For one who consecrated his field and afterwards redeems it is the one who allowed his way of life to be governed by another; afterwards, having been helped and having gained understanding, so as now to be, as the prophet says, "taught by God," and able to arrange by himself in future what is expedient, he has gained his field, receiving it back for himself. But one who advances nothing from another's guidance and has not acquired understanding, but always needs to be taught by another, and is such as some of the Jews were, whom God reproached through the prophetic voice, saying such things as: "Who were chosen from the womb, taught from infancy to old age," and "Ephraim like a senseless dove, having no heart," and again, "Ephraim was mixed among his peoples; Ephraim became … turned, and grey hairs blossomed on him, and he did not know it": because if he finds bad teachers he does evil in every way, as one who has no discernment, he cannot seek the reward of the virtue he has done, and therefore he is said not to redeem his own field. But when the jubilee comes, that is, when the time of release passes, in which release has place (and this is the present life), see what and how great a thing he will suffer: "The possession will be sanctified to the Lord"; the way of life he once attained, even if another was the one who governed it, will be holy to the Lord. "But as a consecrated possession it belongs to the right of the priests": for its possession and gain will be credited to the one who continually governed it, even if the one governed by him neglected it a little, turned, or changed himself to evil, as one who had no good zeal from his own understanding; so he will glory in him as in his own way of life; and for this reason he says: "The consecrated possession belongs to the right of the priests." And it does the priest no harm that the field is sold to another, because, having shown the one he governed the proper end of teaching and exhortation, he found him unable to redeem his own, that is, to rule and govern himself; then he sold the field, setting over the one who offered it another who should exhort him; but the reward and gain belong to the one who set him over him: unless perhaps we say that those whom Peter and Paul and the apostles guided to life through their own disciples are not credited to them.

Verses 22–26. "If a field that was bought, and not of the possession of his forefathers, is sanctified to the Lord, the priest shall reckon the price according to the number of years until the jubilee, and the one who vowed it shall give it to the Lord. But in the jubilee it shall return to the former owner, who had sold it and had it in the lot of his possession. Every valuation shall be weighed by the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel has twenty obols. The firstborn, which belong to God, no one can sanctify or vow; whether ox or sheep, they are the Lord's."

The letter and the spirit of the law show the greatest justice. The letter did not forbid those who possess another's field to sanctify it to God, to offer it to the priests so that the field's revenue might be theirs, because he did not offer what was specially his own: for as, being bought, it was his then, so too, having been of the seller's possession, it is rightly another's. For he commanded the priest to reckon the price of the field until the jubilee and so to give the price for it; but in the jubilee it was to return and be given back to the former owner, that is, to the one who because of poverty sold his own property and alienated it for a certain time. From this he passes to the spiritual understanding too. "If a field that was bought, and not of the possession of his forefathers, is sanctified to the Lord, the priest shall reckon according to the number of years until the jubilee." He possesses a field which he bought and which is not of his own possession who is able to exhort one who suffers intelligible poverty, to rebuke him and move him to repentance. For he possesses the intelligible land which that one possessed, of which David sang, "Your Holy Spirit will lead me into the right land," not allowing it to be wholly corrupted, but gaining the virtue, or life, of his brother, from which that one fell through negligence. If, then, he sanctifies it to the Lord, that is, offers it to the priest (for you have heard that here he calls sanctified to God the things that fell to the priests' lot). And offered how? That is, the one who has sinned must be cleansed and his way of life made holy. "The priest shall reckon the price according to the number of years until the jubilee, and the one who vowed it shall give it to the Lord." Rightly the priest, together with the one who moved the brother to repentance (for that one knows his action and way of life exactly, since he himself corrected him, and this one, as a priest, knows true and perfect redemption), reckon, or test, what kind of repentance should be imposed on him. They reckon "until the price of the jubilee," that is, from what is said about repentance in the divine Scripture. For this is the valuation of the year of jubilee, or release, both because it has valued, or reckoned, the repentance, and because it values how great its dignity is; for we call this the valuation, because when repentance is so defined, its definition will be holy to God; for this reason he also added: "And the one who vowed it shall give it to the Lord," or according to the Seventy, "And he shall pay the price on that day, holy to the Lord." For at the time in which, according to this reckoning, what concerns repentance is defined or laid upon him, when its definition is necessary, it is found holy to the Lord. Well he said "he shall pay," or as the Seventy, "he shall pay," not "they shall pay": for even if the definition of what is valued is established by the common counsel of the priest and of the one who moved the sinner to repentance, yet let that one offer him who made the erring brother feel compunction; for he will obey him, and he too is bound to the amendment of the one doing repentance, since he once made the beginning of his correction. But the penitent is not cleansed at once when the repentance is defined, but when he has completed it; for this reason he says: "But in the jubilee it shall return to the former owner, who had sold it." So the definition of repentance becomes holy at once on that day on which it is valued by the priest and by the exhorter of the one who is to do repentance, through the divine Scripture, how he ought to do it. But the penitent will receive back his possession, his field and his way of life, when he has come to the year of jubilee, or release, or change, and has fully done what pertains to repentance. And moreover, rendering the priest wholly, and every man who wishes to exhort himself or his neighbour or his house and so gain sanctification for himself, he has sought a glorious crown and admirable steadfastness.

"Every valuation shall be weighed by the shekel of the sanctuary; a shekel, or didrachm, has twenty obols," so that every valuation, or definition, may be made by holy weights, that is, by those of sacred Scripture. For the outside weights, such as those of the philosophers, in which they weigh lives and ways of life, are not holy, because they possess imperfect knowledge. Nor are the weights of the heretics holy, for their conscience is seared. But holy are those in divine Scripture, in which twenty obols are a shekel, or didrachm, that is, the ten commandments understood according to the letter and according to the spirit, as the grace of the gospel suggests, and he who says in it: "Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfil." Whoever either makes the law void or rejects the gospel does not have the didrachm, nor do we receive his teaching as sanctifying. Let us treat the heretics and the Jews alike, of whom the one deny grace and the other the law. "The firstborn, which belong to God, no one can sanctify or vow; whether ox or sheep, they are the Lord's." We said in what precedes that the cattle are those who obey us, sons and servants. Their firstborn is one who so obeys and submits to us that he also gives others a lead in obedience and submission; and for this reason he is here called firstborn, and elsewhere the lawgiver says of him: "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." For he opens the womb of sons to be begotten who obey according to God and with pious submission, such as, for example, Timothy was to Paul; and for this reason he wrote of him to the Corinthians: "Who is my son in the Lord; he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ Jesus." No one may sanctify one who is such: not because he is unworthy of sanctification, but because he does not need to be sanctified; so he is holy already. For you have learned, as we were saying above too, that it is one thing for something to be holy to God, another to take the beginning of sanctification. The former is better and higher, since, being perfect already, it does not need a better rule. So a son who so honours his father and mother that he becomes an example of such honour to others, honouring them out of piety, that is, out of obedience to the law, and knowing that he offers this honour to God, who commands fathers to be honoured, has fulfilled the first commandment with a promise, as Paul said. And a servant who is purely subject to his master because of the commandment which says, "Servants, obey your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling, in simplicity of heart, as to the Lord, not serving to the eye as men-pleasers, but as servants of God," shows obedience to God. The same is true of the disciple, if [he obeys] his teacher for the honour of God, who [says] through the holy Paul: "Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls." Each of these is plainly said to refer to God the things that belong to this obedience and submission, whether he is pleasing to God by good simplicity or by earnest working of the commandments; and whether he ought for this reason to be called an ox or a sheep, both belong to the Lord. For you have heard how each one's obedience and submission belongs to the Lord, when, being subject to fathers or masters or teachers, they also have a good way of life, which places them among the clean animals and not among the unclean, of which he added what follows.

Verse 27. "But if it is an unclean animal, the one who offered it shall redeem it according to his valuation and add a fifth part of the price. If he will not redeem it, it shall be sold to another."

It is plain that every sinner is unclean: "For every wicked man is unclean before the Lord," says Solomon. He is wicked because the lawgiver commanded both to meditate on and to distinguish the law, in the one who chews the cud and divides the hoof; whoever lacks one of these. Whoever, then, is obedient and strongly subject to a father, or master, or teacher, yet does not know how to meditate on or distinguish the law as he ought, is indeed a firstborn among the cattle, as a leader in obedience; but he is unclean, because he does not have what the lawgiver commanded the clean to have. If, then, the father, or master, or teacher wishes to redeem him, he will be redeemed according to his valuation, "and he shall add a fifth part of the price": he adds the fifth when he offers him teaching with understanding, governing him in wisdom and not ruling him unwisely. For it belongs to a senseless father, master, or teacher to teach a son, or disciple, or servant the obedience that is owed to himself, and not to order his life so that he works according to the knowledge of the law, but to allow him to be untaught and unskilled in the law. Let him, then, add understanding to submission and to teaching; for this alone is lacking here; for this reason he said: "He shall add a fifth part of the price." Because obedience has a price, he does not say, "The priest shall value him," as he said above, but, as of one who already has a price and has been allotted the definition of teaching and submission, he ordered a fifth part to be added to it, so that, since he possesses obedience, which the law strongly commands (according to the Seventy, "a wise son is subject to his father"), he adds the fifth, and, as we have said, adds to obedience the sense by which he is to obey; and, rightly redeemed, he will be found clean. Then, according to the Seventy, he will belong to the one who possesses the servant, or son, or disciple; for his glory will lie hidden in him, as Paul said: "For you are our glory in Christ Jesus." And again: "I rejoice, then, in you." And again: "For now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord." But if the one who possesses a son, or servant, or disciple does not redeem him (for it is his part to redeem him and, by prudent admonition, to make him sensible, in the way described), he is alienated from his possession; for he says, "it shall be sold to another," or as … if he has not freed him, "it shall be sold according to the price," so that his price before God is to obey master, father, and teacher. But the one who did not exhort him, when he ought and could have exhorted him, suffers the loss of his possession, and cannot say: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me."

Verses 28–29. "Everything that is consecrated to the Lord, whether man, or animal, or field, shall not be sold, nor can it be redeemed. Whatever has once been consecrated shall be a holy of holies to the Lord; and every consecration that is offered by man shall not be redeemed, but shall die the death."

What difference there is according to the letter between making accursed and sanctifying we have shown by what was discussed above, where we said that what has been made accursed may in no way return to human use, of anyone, not even of a priest, according to the history of the Amalekites, which we brought forward as evidence of the matter. For it was so far forbidden to touch what was made accursed that when they made Jericho accursed, because someone of the people, namely Achan son of Carmi, stole of the accursed thing, many of them fell in battle, and God, angered, said this: "I will be with you no longer until you destroy the one who is guilty of this crime." From both histories, then, it has been shown how every use and possession of the accursed thing is forbidden. And not only this, but because, by whatever right of war, they took spoils after victory from very great enemies, with whom they were not to make friendship, and from plunder, they made these accursed, and not of themselves but at God's command; for whatever the prophets command is plainly the command of God. So we too, fighting the intelligible enemies, that is, the demons, with whom we may not make friendship, against whom we have perpetual and unchangeable enmity, because of whom the Lord said, "I did not come to bring peace on earth, but a sword" (for this reason he will divide a man against his father and a daughter against her mother, and cut off the compassion of kinship, so that, leaving below the compassion of the flesh, we may more easily destroy the incorporeal enemies): whether a man, or an animal, or a field we have gained as spoil from the war we wage against them, and have won the victory, we must consecrate these to God. And we must consecrate them so that we keep nothing of our own will in them: whether it is someone in his own power (for this is truly "man"; we mean one who is in no way subject to us, but is our equal in way of life), or one who is subject to us and is therefore called an animal, that we have acquired by conquering the intelligible enemies, or from the field of our possession, that is, the one from which we have been allotted our way of life, which we have taken as spoils and trophies while fighting against the intelligible enemies: these we can neither sell nor do we need to redeem, because "everything consecrated is a holy of holies to the Lord." How? Listen. No one can despoil the enemy before he has wholly subdued him, as the Lord said to the Jews: "How can anyone enter the house of the strong man and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then his goods are plundered?" We fully subdue the intelligible enemy, that is, the devil, and can bind him, plunder him, and consecrate his spoils to God, when we have overcome all his devices, crushed every head, turned away from every form of sin, overcome all the desires of the world, and attained all the virtues; for then we have him bound and can plunder him. Plundering thus and defeating him by the victory just described, whatever we have plundered we rightly offer to God. And we hold the holy of holies as perfect and complete, needing neither our exhortation nor that of others, since it needs no addition and is a perfect work. How? Because it has escaped every sin, has worked every virtue, and is estranged from the world and crucified to the world. Very fittingly, then, he added: "And every consecration that is offered by man shall not be redeemed, but shall die." By what death? That of which Paul said: "I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me." And again: "So you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Such a one, then, as one who advances to the summit of virtue and has reached the measures of perfection (for he is dead to the age, estranged from present things, and has long since departed from the wisdom of the world), is rightly a holy of holies to the Lord, because he has imitated the Holy of holies according to his ability.

Verses 30–33. "All the tithes of the land, whether of crops or of the fruits of trees, are the Lord's, and are sanctified to him. But if anyone wishes to redeem his tithes, he shall add a fifth part of them. Of all the tithes, oxen and sheep and goats that pass under the shepherd's rod, whatever comes tenth shall be sanctified to the Lord. It shall not be chosen, either good or bad, nor exchanged for another. If anyone exchanges it, both what is exchanged and that for which it is exchanged shall be sanctified to the Lord, and it shall not be redeemed."

Perhaps you wonder for what reason he commands the tithe of the fruits of the land to be redeemed, but does not command this of oxen and sheep. The Jew cannot say, because he serves the letter alone, in which the lawgiver especially inserts many things that admit of questions, so that, being hard pressed, they may run to the spirit and know that the letter is good when it is used as an instrument and servant of the spirit. He here sets forth the difference between the disciples of the law: as among the clean and unclean firstborn some have gained obedience together with good meditation on the law and knowledge, while others have obedience alone, so here some who work the commandments have earthly wisdom and therefore need redemption; others need neither to be redeemed nor to be exchanged, as always perfect and complete. By crops, then, the law here means the harvest that comes from seed, and likewise the fruits of trees in their season. The tenth part of their produce is owed to God according to the law, and both must be taken of the fruit-bearing of the law. The Lord, setting out the parable of the gospel seeds, called those who receive the word and do it the good land bearing fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold. David now cried: "The righteous will flourish like the palm," and again, "But I am like a fruitful olive in the house of the Lord"; and now, describing the righteous man briefly, he says: "And he will be like a tree planted by the streams of waters, which will yield its fruit in its season." So every tithe of this man is holy. For their action and zeal are holy; because one who, working the commandments of the law, places his hope of recompense in the present has an earthly mind, as some of the Jews were, to whom, as clinging to the earth, the Lord said: "You are from below, I am from above." And Paul too said of those who have an earthly mind:

"But our citizenship is in heaven." He hints at this now: for he did not say simply "all the tithes of the land," but first said "all the tithes of the land," and then added "whether of crops," so as to proclaim openly that one who works the commandments of the law with the intention and expectation of earthly goods, even if his tithe, that is, the working of the commandment, is holy, yet gains no great help from such working toward the recompense, which ought not to be expected from God by those who gape after earthly things. Hence if anyone wishes to gain this tithe for himself, let him add the fifth, that is, understanding, so that he may set his mind on the things that are above and stretch toward the things that are above, as Paul wrote. For one who works the commandments of the law in this way will not lose its gain, because it becomes his tithe. So the tithe of one who has an earthly mind is holy, but not to him, because he does not work the commandment in an intelligible way, nor does he know what gain to expect in it or what recompense to hope for in it.

"But oxen and sheep," and whatever are under number, "pass under the rod." He means those who are numbered under the rod of the cross, to whom faith in God and friendship with him grant that they be numbered. For whoever is faithful to God is also found to be his friend, as Abraham shows, of whom it was said: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God." That the friends of God are counted worthy of number, though they are of an immense multitude and exceed not only number but measure, hear David saying: "But to me your friends, O God, are exceedingly honoured; their rule is exceedingly strengthened. I will number them, and they will be multiplied beyond the sand." These do not have earthly wisdom, nor do they seek a corruptible recompense in what they do. For this reason not some special thing of theirs, but whatever commandment they do, is holy to God. "And it shall not be chosen between good and bad," that is, between worse and better. For the distinguishing of them is not easy, because, even if they surpass one another, as star differs from star in glory, yet all are in heaven, as truly following heavenly things, and they are known only by him who is able to discern the saints. In this way we must understand: "It shall not be chosen, good or bad, nor exchanged for another." For since there is none of them who can be rejected, it is not for our virtue to judge which you will exchange for which, or which you should rather choose. Building on these, then, he added what follows: "If anyone exchanges it, both what is exchanged and that for which it is exchanged shall be sanctified to the Lord, and it shall not be redeemed." Since, then, the course of all of them is divine and sublime and near to the heavenly way of life, in vain do you try to reject this one and bring in another in his place and consecrate him to God as better. It is not yours to judge this, nor to call this one worse than that one among the saints. Learn this also from what happened in history. Paul and Barnabas once disputed between themselves. For Barnabas said that Mark ought to be taken along; but Paul said that one who had once withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not run with them in the work ought not to be taken. And there arose such a dispute between them that they parted from one another, and Barnabas, taking Mark, sailed to Cyprus, while Paul, choosing Silas, was commended to the grace of God. You see how he exchanged what he judged better for what he judged worse. But both what was exchanged and that for which it was exchanged became holy. For he chose Silas as fitter than Mark for the ministry of preaching, yet Mark was not driven out. Barnabas took him and went to Cyprus and preached with him, and he became so great that he became one of the four evangelists. So Paul, reconsidering and recognizing that none of the saints is to be rejected, and that no one can call one of those who have advanced perfectly worse and another better, took Mark again himself and wrote to Timothy: "Take Mark and bring him with you; for he is useful to me in the ministry." Do not, then, look to which of these is good or bad, nor exchange one for another. "And it shall not be redeemed." For what need of redemption has one who lacks nothing? And if redemption must also be understood as kinship, as Aquila rendered, he rightly will not become a kinsman; for no such one will claim the government of himself for another; but even if he was the fruit or disciple of another, by whom he came to this perfection, he will be his own governor, his own teacher. For besides the other things said here, the lawgiver wants to show that those who are taught by us, when they become perfect, no longer need our teaching at all; and for this reason he says that the firstborn of the unclean are redeemed, but those of the clean by no means. Nor are the things consecrated to God, nor these of which we now speak, shown to be other than perfect, since they bear the divine and heavenly intention.

What end the Spirit commanded this book to have, see in what follows:

Verse 34. "These are the precepts which the Lord commanded Moses for the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai."

And for what reason not to the sons of Israel themselves, but to Moses for the sons of Israel? Because the people was weaker and could not grasp so great an ordinance of the law, in which God shows, as in mirrors, the clear forms of his mysteries. You, then, if you do not wish to be of the common crowd, but such as Moses was, show yourself obedient, having all the senses of the soul clean, and say to God: "Uncover my eyes, and I will consider the wonders of your law." Leave the matter of the flesh and follow the riches of the Spirit. Say with David: "How sweet are your words to my palate, O Lord, beyond honey and the comb to my mouth!" so that he may command you too, as he did Moses, and entrust his wisdom to you. "For her trading is better than silver and pure gold; her fruit is more precious than all riches, and nothing that is desired can be compared with her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left riches and glory." Live …