On Distinctions of Foods and the Heifer in Leviticus 1–9

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

Yet whether it is demons or some other cause that lays trials upon us, we are not afraid, since we have a helper, our Lord Jesus Christ. For even if we suffer punishment in this life for earlier sins, we ought to rejoice, since the judgment there will then be light for us. Or, like those holy men, we are being tested, to see whether we stand strong and manly against sufferings, and so that our faith may be made known; for one who has not been tested is useless to God. So we ought to rejoice and praise God, since he has made us worthy to taste those sufferings. For it is no small request that the prophet makes when he asks for the contest of the afflicted, saying: "Test me, Lord, and try me; refine my kidneys and my heart." And the apostle Paul too says: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." So profitable, I think, are these sufferings. Otherwise he would not also have written of those men: "They were stoned, they were sawn in two," and the rest that follows. Nor, writing to Timothy, would he have said: "Those who live godly lives in Christ will be persecuted." For it is good that one disciplined by God should not grow weak, so that our spiritual "limbs" too may not "fall," as with that unbelieving people. Because they would not follow the angel (or "messenger"), on account of the hard road, those unhappy people did not reach the land of promise; they turned away from God because of slight hardship, and so they received blows, their "limbs being scattered." Therefore let this not be a reproach to us, and let no one separate us from the love of wisdom because of hardship or any other cause.

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

For it will come about, when we have traveled through this life and suffered no harm from spiritual beasts, that we shall say: "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he looked upon me," and "He delivered me from all my sufferings." For one must first suffer and then be honored. A farmer does not wish the seed to sprout before he yokes the oxen and plows; he hopes rather that this will come after the work. And if I come to sailors, do we not admire most a rough helmsman who is capable and has saved the ship out of many storms? Whoever wishes to taste God's great gifts must also accept much suffering. Among contestants too, "all run, but one receives the prize; so run that you may obtain it," Paul cries out. For there are many obstacles to speed, like ditches and ramparts for a runner, which the weak man who does not know the road fears; but the experienced and strong man endures the bad journey and is saved. Why else is there so great a remembrance, through so many ages, of Joseph, who loved the good, was self-controlled, and loved his brothers? If you take away from him all that endurance, his sale by his brothers and that woman's slander, you take away all his manliness and beauty. So too with David: if you take away his gentleness and patience, you take away all his goodness. And Daniel: if you take away his wisdom, or his endurance of that Bel and the dragon, and of men more savage than the dragon, and of the burning furnaces and the many other sufferings … And Moses: what do we admire most in him? Is it not his patience? If you take all that away, you take away his virtue. Take other heroes, I mean Elijah and Jeremiah and Isaiah and Elisha, who distinguished themselves and resisted those great tormentors, and their fasts and nakedness and every hardship. And the hardships of the apostles, where can one put them aside, since they traveled through the whole earth and sea?

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

Now that we have said this much on the subject, let us go on to the rest, having fully recognized that one ought not to be alarmed at the misfortunes that befall, especially those who have obtained the possession of the Word. For he says: "Open your mouth with the word of God." So, beloved Kilonia, who believe in the Lord (for from here on I speak to you), I rejoice greatly in your true wisdom. For this is the true wisdom that Solomon mentions: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God." Yet to many this seemed hard, for many trials come upon such people. I say this because a brother, writing to me, showed me the same: "All your afflictions and sufferings belong to the Lord, since you have received them for his name's sake." For this is the way for those who thirst for heavenly things and take pains for that possession. For even if that "way" is "narrow," it is also short, and it leads those who come to it into great breadth and light. For this is the order by which we receive eternal life and those crowns that do not wither. James too says: "Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has been tested he will receive the crown of life." And, to speak by the word of Christ, "what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" And this, since this life is very small and has nothing of what is true. David says: "The days of our years are seventy years, and if among the strong, eighty years, and most of them toil and trouble." Therefore choose to have affliction with the people of God. The people of God are those who have received the gift of the calling from above (or "to what is above"), and on account of receiving much affliction. So they have not heard what that rich man heard: "You received your good things in your life." For those "giants, the men of renown from of old," gained nothing by their strength and pride. As Jeremiah the prophet says: "But they perished, because they had no understanding."

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

But God grants us to know all that is pleasing to him. For "blessed are we," he says, "because what is pleasing to God is known to us." And what is pleasing to God is self-control. Self-control is to have a sober mind and not to be moved by the evil of stormy thoughts. Every transgression is a sickness of the soul; sickness does not mingle with the good as the good does, but it is healed by receiving the good. For righteousness is health, and unrighteousness sickness. So the soul and the spirit, if they do not endure the assaults that fall upon them, will not have a healthy and steady mind. Therefore the prophet too, teaching us manifold endurance, says: "You have tested us, O God; you have refined us as silver is refined," and again the same: "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he heeded me." So let us rather choose, as the apostle says, to remain "in labors, in insults, in afflictions, in persecutions, in distresses." For it will come about that, after we have endured this, we shall hear from the Lord what he said to Job: "Do you think that I have dealt with you otherwise than that you might appear righteous?" Therefore let us too, Kilonia, take pains to share in this voice. This can also be shown from plants. As plants strewn with dung grow larger and more beautiful and bear sweet and good fruit, so our soul too, when trial comes, grows more toward righteousness and every virtue. This is also said in the Gospel of that barren fig tree, for which the gardener asks that he may put dung around it. So Job too sat "on the dunghill" in the time of his trial, and sitting there he waited for the revelation. For patience in trials is a very great good. That man, despising everything earthly, sat on that dunghill as if in the emperor's palace. So, dear Kilonia, if riches flow away, enrich your heart with righteousness; and if loss of property comes upon us, or sicknesses attack us, or slanders, we must take heart. For even if we wish them to leave us, we shall not be able to drive them all away. So let us rather accept them all with patience. For "when we are judged we are disciplined by God, so that we may not be condemned with the world." "But you," says the apostle, writing to Timothy, "have followed my teaching, my life of virtue, faith, patience, love, gentleness," through persecution and sufferings. For I teach you with full knowledge that he did not speak this instruction to Timothy alone, but to all of us. For he bids us "set our minds on the things that are above."

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

We have now said enough about those who suffer "for righteousness' sake." Finally we must speak of the matter on which you sent to ask, namely the dead person who dies in a house. For this is how the word runs: "If a man dies in a house, whoever goes into the house and everything in the house is unclean until the seventh day, and every uncovered vessel is unclean. And he takes some of the burnt heifer and mixes it with water and purifies the vessel; and a clean man takes hyssop and dips it in the water to sprinkle the house and the vessels and the persons and everything that was in that house." "And the clean man sprinkles the unclean on the third and on the seventh day." "And the man who does not purify himself shall perish from his congregation, because he has defiled the holy things of God, since he has not been sprinkled with the water of sprinkling. Therefore he is not clean. And it shall be to you an everlasting sign. And he who sprinkles with the water of sprinkling shall wash his clothes. And the person who touches the water is unclean." It is necessary to understand that our Redeemer, in establishing this commandment, also ordained that it should not be understood simply. "He who has been washed," he said to Peter, "needs no other purification." For it is clear that one who has once been purified through rebirth is defiled by none of the things named in the Law, that is, by a dead body or a dead man's bone or anything else. For it is not right to wash "the outside of the vessel" and not care for the purity "of the inside," that is, of the soul. And the distinction of foods is abolished not only by the voice that came to Peter from heaven, saying: "What God has cleansed, do not make unclean," but also by what the Lord said to his disciples: "Not what goes into a man defiles the man, but what comes out of him." The voice that came to Peter can also be understood of foreigners, God commanding that no one be shut out from the faith. As the great Peter shows when he speaks to Cornelius: "You know well," he says, "how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to pray with a foreign man. And God has shown me to call no man unclean" who comes to the faith. So he destroyed the observance of foods not only by this, but also by what the Lord said. And so that we do not gradually go on into many words in declaring the Law set aside, come, let us reject it entirely, as the apostles did. For it is not right, they said, "that those who have come to believe should be put under the yoke which even our fathers were not able to bear." For "when a question arose" in the church, and people said, "Those who have come to believe must be circumcised" … for he says in the Acts: "The apostles and elders gathered to look into this matter. And Peter stood up and said to all: Men and brothers, you know that long ago God chose among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the gospel; and God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit." And shortly after: "James" said: "I judge that we should not trouble the Gentiles who turn to God, but write to them that they keep themselves from the uncleannesses of the Gentiles and of idols, and from sexual immorality and what is strangled and blood." And shortly after: "And it pleased the apostles, having chosen trustworthy men, to send to the Gentiles Paul and Barnabas and Silas and Judas called Barsabbas, having written by their hands as follows: The apostles and the elders, to the brotherhood in Antioch and Syria, greetings! Since we have heard that some who came from us have troubled you with words that we did not command them, it seemed good to us, having met together, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have given up their lives for the name of Jesus Christ." And shortly after: "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than that you abstain from everything offered to idols and from sexual immorality and what is strangled." The command of the Holy Spirit and of the apostles, that the Gentiles are not to be compelled to keep the Law of Moses, he speaks (or "is spoken") to those who look too carnally at the Law, which has the "washings of vessels" and "many other" observances.

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

Someone now asks why God did not let the Jews eat the other animals that other men eat, but commanded them to abstain from some, making a distinction between clean and unclean. If it is so that life may be pure and without share in evil that we do not eat meat, and also do not aim to live unjustly, since we are able to live on the fruits that the earth brings forth, then we act in no way according to justice when we slaughter for our enjoyment those creatures that have done us no wrong beforehand. Was it not enough for us to be served by them and to enjoy their labor? But even after such great services we drag them to slaughter, making their harm our enjoyment. But if God has permitted us to eat the animals, since he created them for our enjoyment, why do we not eat those that take no part in our service, but are rather a nuisance to us? For the oxen that plow, the cows that give milk, and the sheep that adorn us with their wool, these we slaughter and kill. And if anyone ate pork, he was purified under threat. Because of this we say that the Law was given by God with a view to redemption. For God commanded nothing useless, but did so to show the many the way to godliness, setting apart the Egyptian foods, and leading them rather to self-control, just as physicians often heal the sick by changing their food. For because of the fumes of idolatry they needed such a law at first, so that they might take on a body of customs and be tested as to what zeal they had for this law. For those who do not obey God "in little things" necessarily disobey all the more in greater things, while those who have obeyed in lesser things keep the greater as well. So God first gave laws about foods and sacrifices, and a law about other very simple matters, not unaware that "nothing that goes into a man" can "defile him," but wishing rather to teach our souls in the lesser things, so that they might be able to keep the more valuable fully. Just as teachers lead children to learning by writing out simple strokes for them, so did God. In place of strokes he gave the Law, so that, first instructed in it, they might advance to higher things. As Paul too declares, "the Law has the shadow of the good things to come," but not the image of the things themselves. A shadow does not have the true image of things; but an image portrays the form of that of which it is the image, and by its likeness shows what has not yet come as though it had come. What the shadow is to the image, then, the Law is to the gospel; and what the image is to the things themselves, the gospel is to what is to come.

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

Since this is so, these food laws too must be shadows "of the good things to come," which the gospel has uncovered and refined: not so much to care about foods and about what has a divided hoof, as about righteousness, spiritual food, and works of love for mankind. For what is a divided hoof there is here an active and rational life. And what is chewing the cud there is here understanding Scripture with understanding, so that we are not harmed by understanding Scripture only simply. Now the Law does not divide the animals only into clean and unclean; the rule about foods involves much mixture. See: the pig, inasmuch as it "does not chew the cud," is unclean; inasmuch as it "has a split in the hoof," it is clean. And the camel, inasmuch as it "does not have a split in its feet," is unclean; inasmuch as it "chews the cud," it is clean. Since they are clean in one respect and unclean in another, they are half clean and half unclean. Wholly unclean are those that neither have a split in the feet nor chew the cud; clean, in turn, are those that have both, the split and the chewing of the cud. So the pig is half clean, but the elephant is wholly unclean, because it neither chews the cud nor has split feet. Yet the Law commands one to beware of touching the bone of these and of any dead animal. How then is one defiled by the half-clean, but not defiled by the wholly unclean, the elephant? Instead, people use its bones and teeth and other parts, paying no heed to the commandments. How then does the prophet in the psalm make a house for Christ out of its bones? "From the ivory palace," he says, "from which the daughters of kings delighted you in your glory," although the Law commanded once for all not to touch the bone of such an animal. Do the Scriptures contradict each other, then, or do the prophets not agree with the Law? On the contrary, one should think otherwise. For the Scriptures of the Lord agree with themselves, sending us to the same knowledge and life and leading to one hope, especially when "the veil" of Scripture is lifted. It cannot be lifted except when we have turned to the Lord Jesus Christ; then "with unveiled face we shall behold" his "glory" preached through the scriptures of the Old Testament. He is not building him a house of elephants' teeth and gold; the prophet does not mean that, even though the Jews babble such things about Christ. For we know that the Godhead does not delight in dead bones made by human art, but in what is living and never corruptible. The ivory is the spiritual bodies in which he rejoices, seeing them without sin in the resurrection. So he called our bodies ivory, which, having become bright like ivory through good works, will receive the kingdom of God, God rejoicing in them, according to those who speak to the prophets: "I rejoiced in those who said to me: Let us go into the house of the Lord."

Translated by Claude from N. Bonwetsch's German translation (1917) of the Old Church Slavonic; neither is shown

From now on, then, for we wish to go on the way of the word: the shadow has become bright, the Law has been fulfilled, the hope has drawn near, "the truth" has appeared, "the end of the ages" has come. God sent his Son, wishing to redeem man, who was under the Law. Not only can "the blood of a heifer and ashes and hyssop purify" what is unclean. The whole commandment of the Law has now come to rest. It was not the expected scepter, but the Lord Christ. The hope has come, the gospel has been preached, we have been taught about the greater things. Where then is literal purification needed? For "the Law and the prophets prophesied until John." From John on, those who think they are purified by the Law transgress the Law. For the Law purified by washing and cleansing. But from the coming of Christ the ashes of the heifer began to run out. Yet those people were not allowed to use the ashes of another cow in place of the one Moses prescribed, nor to omit a purification of this kind, nor was one who had not purified himself free of punishment. "For this," he says, "is the ordinance of the Law which the Lord commanded, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, and let each of them bring you a heifer, red, pure, which has no blemish on it and on which no yoke has been laid, and they shall give it to Eleazar the priest. And they shall lead it out of the city to a clean place and slaughter it before him." And then this law too: "If a man goes into the house of a dead person, he will be unclean, and everything in that house, and everyone who touches will be unclean. And he shall take some of the prepared ash of purification and mix it with water and hyssop and purify what is unclean." And shortly after: "And if a man becomes unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the congregation, for he has defiled the holy things of the Lord, for he has not been sprinkled with the water of purification; and let it be an everlasting law for you."