Questions on the Octateuch 3.18–3.36

How should it be understood that leprosy arose in garments? God brought many such chastisements on them. Indeed, about leprous houses too he said this: “When you enter the land of the Canaanites, which I am giving you, and I put a plague of leprosy in the houses of the land you possess,” and so on. By these he teaches that they were plagues sent by God, coming now upon garments and now upon houses. These show God's ineffable love for humankind; for when human beings sinned, he brought the plagues upon garments and houses, offering healing through these to those who owned them. The house of Israel resembles the leprous house: often the offenders were taken out of it like leprous stones, now by the Assyrians, now by the Babylonians, at another time by the Macedonians. But since they had an ingrained leprosy, the lawgiver commanded the house to be torn down completely. Unclean, then, are those who enter their synagogues, as entering a leprous house.

What do the two little birds offered for the leper who is being cleansed signify? This contains the type of the saving passion. For just as one of them was sacrificed, and the other, dipped in the blood of the one sacrificed, was set free, so for leprous humanity Christ the Master was crucified, the flesh receiving death, and the divinity making the suffering of the humanity its own. And just as the leper, sprinkled with the blood of the slaughtered bird mixed with pure water by means of cedar wood, hyssop, and spun scarlet, was shown bright and clean, so one who believes in Christ the Savior and is cleansed by the water of all-holy baptism casts off the stains of sins. The cedar wood is a symbol of the impassible divinity, for this wood does not rot; the spun scarlet, of the humanity composed of soul and body; and the hyssop, of the warmth and fragrance of the all-holy Spirit; for through these the baptized are freed from the leprosy of the soul. The kotylē of oil signifies the spiritual myrrh. The oil smeared on the right ear, the right hand, and the right foot shows that the hearing is set apart for right words, and the hand and the foot for right actions; and poured on the head, it shows the dedication of the rational part. The one who remained leprous lived outside the camp, as one who sins without repentance is cast out of the church.

Why does he call a man with a discharge unclean? I have already said that through natural things he teaches things of the will, and teaches by them how very grievous the latter are. If a flow that occurs by nature is unclean, much more is unlawful lust. He also teaches us again to avoid intercourse with such people; for he said that one who comes near a man with a discharge is unclean. That none of the things that happen by nature is truly unclean, the law itself shows. If a man with a discharge touches an earthen vessel, he commands it to be broken; but if a bronze or wooden one, to be scoured with water. These too should have been broken like the earthen ones, if the one to whom this affliction happened were really unclean. So too he says that one who has a nocturnal emission is unclean, and those who are joined by the law of marriage, although he himself laid down the law about marriage, and that as the first law: “For this reason,” he said, “a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” How, then, does he call unclean one who has intercourse according to the law? It is clear that he teaches moderation even in lawful intercourse, and trains them to make their union for the sake of begetting children and not for love of pleasure. For this reason he calls those who have intercourse unclean and commands them to be purified, so that the trouble of purification might prevent continual intercourse. But the divine Apostle writes to the perfect: “Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled; but the sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge.”

Why does he call unclean a woman who discharges the excess blood according to nature? What we have said about the man with a discharge we say about her too. Besides this, it is so that no one might have intercourse with such women. For some say that from such intercourse both disfigurement and leprosy are produced, since that excess harms the bodies being formed. For this reason he says that one who has intercourse with such a woman is unclean. He taught the reasons for such laws briefly, saying: “And you shall make the sons of Israel reverent concerning their uncleannesses, and they shall not die because of their uncleanness, by defiling my tabernacle that is among them.” If he said that involuntary things defile, it is clear that voluntary things are much more accursed. These laws were very suitable for them, who were most lustful and lewd; for transgressing them was no great matter, and keeping them made them more fit for perfect things.

When did the high priest enter the holy of holies? On the day of atonement, which God commanded to be held on the tenth of the seventh month. “The Lord said to Moses,” it says, “Speak to Aaron your brother, and let him not go at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, and he shall not die; for I will appear in a cloud upon the mercy seat.” From this it is clear that God the Master made his appearing on the mercy seat; and, showing his own goodness, he was seen not in darkness and smoke and fire, as by Israel, but in a luminous cloud. He also taught the manner of the sacrifices with which the high priest had to venture into the inner sanctuary. He commanded him to sacrifice a calf for sin and offer a ram as a whole burnt offering, and to offer these for himself; and for the whole people to take two he-goats for sin and one ram for a whole burnt offering. He also commanded the goats to be divided by lot, and one to be sacrificed and the other sent away into the desert. Some, understanding this foolishly, thought there was a demon called Apopompaios (the Averter), since he said, “One for the Lord and one for the sending-away.” This they supposed out of great simplicity. For how could he who said, “You shall have no other gods besides me, and you shall not bow down to or serve another god besides me,” command an equal sacrifice to be assigned to a demon? They ought to have noticed that he commanded the goat that was released to be offered to himself as well: “You shall take the living goat before the Lord,” it says, “to make atonement over it, to send it away for the sending-away into the desert.” This shows that the goat itself was called apopompaios, as being sent away into the desert. What follows shows this too: “And the goat shall bear their iniquities upon itself into the untrodden land.” Symmachus too translated apopompaios thus: “for the goat that goes away, so as to send it away for the sending-away”; and Aquila: “for the goat released into the desert.” It was not sent, then, to some god or demon; both were offered to God, and while one was sacrificed, the other, taking up the sins of the people, was sent away into the desert. For just as in the case of the leper being cleansed, one bird was sacrificed and the other, dipped in its blood, was released, so for the sins of the people two goats were offered: one was sacrificed and the other sent away. These again are types of Christ the Master, the two animals being taken to represent not two persons but two natures. Since it was not possible to sketch in one goat both what is mortal and what is immortal in Christ the Master (for the goat is only mortal), he necessarily commanded two to be brought, so that the one sacrificed might prefigure the passibility of the flesh, while the one released might show the impassibility of the divinity. So too the blessed David, foretelling the passion of Christ the Master, his resurrection, and his ascension into heaven, said: “O God, when you went out before your people, when you passed through the desert, the earth shook, and the heavens poured down.” We have been taught that when Christ the Master was crucified, the earth shook and the rocks were split, and heaven, through the darkened sun, announced the excess of the impiety. The desert is a type of death; for this reason he said, “when you passed through the desert.” Let no one suppose it unfitting that goats should prefigure the Savior's passion, since the great John called him a lamb; let him consider that he offered himself not only for the righteous but also for sinners. The Master himself likened the company of sinners to kids: “He will set the lambs on his right,” he said, “and the kids on his left.” And in the law a kid was offered for sin. The Lord himself also called the bronze serpent a type of himself: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,” he says, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” If the type of the goats is unfitting, much more is that of the serpent. These things, then, taught beforehand the salvation of the world. The Jews, as infants, he encouraged by the goat's carrying their sin away into the desert; for it reminded them of the lawlessness they had often dared in the desert, and of the Master's ineffable love for humankind, through which they escaped the punishments they deserved and entered the promised land. Having commanded these things to be done so, he also teaches how the high priest should enter the holy of holies: “Aaron shall bring the calf for sin that is for himself, and make atonement for himself and his house; and he shall slaughter the calf for sin that is his own, and take the censer full of coals of fire from the altar that is before the Lord, and fill his hands with finely compounded incense, and bring it inside the veil, and put the incense on the fire before the Lord; and the vapor of the incense shall cover the mercy seat that is over the testimonies, and he shall not die.” It is clear from this that the altar of incense lay outside the veil; for if it had been inside, he would not have been commanded to take the coals into the censer and to throw the incense on them inside the veil. The blessed Luke too taught us this when narrating the story of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist; for he too entered the holy of holies at this time and enjoyed the angelic vision. He also commanded him to sprinkle with his finger seven times before the mercy seat the blood of both the calf and the goat. Since life revolves in seven days, and every day, so to speak, we commit offences small or great, the sprinkling of blood was offered equal in number to the days, for the offences committed in them. He says that this cleanses not only them but also the tabernacle: “He shall make atonement for the holy place from the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel and from their wrongdoings in all their sins; and so he shall do for the tent of testimony established among them in the midst of their uncleanness.” He commanded that no one be present while the high priest performed this liturgy. He also gives the time at which these things must be done: “On the tenth of the month,” it says, “you shall afflict your souls, and you shall do no work, the native and the proselyte who sojourns among you. For on this day he shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you from all your sins before the Lord, and you shall be cleansed. It shall be a Sabbath of Sabbaths, a rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls; a perpetual statute.” He called it a Sabbath of Sabbaths, as one says holy of holies; for this feast is far more venerable than the Sabbath. By “affliction” he meant fasting. Then he adds: “It shall be done once a year, as the Lord commanded Moses.” This too prefigures our Savior's dispensation in the flesh. For just as the high priest entered the holy of holies once a year and performed this liturgy, so Christ the Master, having once endured the saving passion, ascended into heaven, having obtained eternal redemption, as the divine Apostle says.

Why does he forbid animals for eating to be slaughtered far from the tabernacle? He knew the impiety of some, and that they would offer sacrifices to demons. He commanded, then, that anyone who wished to slaughter a calf, a sheep, or a goat should bring it to the door of the tabernacle, pour out the blood, and take the meat home; and he commanded that one who did not do this should be charged as guilty of murder: “Blood,” he says, “shall be reckoned to that man; he has shed blood; that soul shall be destroyed from its people.” That the law has the aim I have stated, what follows shows: “The priest,” he says, “shall offer the fat for a fragrant odor to the Lord. And they shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the vain things after which they play the harlot. It shall be a perpetual statute for you throughout your generations.” This law prevails among the Jews to the present; for the priest slaughters the animals that are to be eaten. He also forbade eating blood and taught the reason: “For the soul of all flesh is its blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for its blood shall make atonement in place of its soul. Therefore I have said to the sons of Israel, No soul among you shall eat blood, and the proselyte who sojourns among you shall not eat blood.” He means: “Just as you have an immortal soul, so the irrational animal has its blood in place of a soul. For this reason he commands the irrational creature's soul, that is, its blood, to be offered in place of your immortal and rational soul. If you eat it, you eat a soul; for it fills the place of a rational soul.” That is why he called the eating of it murder. For this reason he also forbids eating animals that have died, since their blood has not been separated from the body.

Some find fault with the laws about marriages, saying that God forbade things that never happen at all: “Who,” they say, “ever consented to have intercourse with his own mother? Or who ever had intercourse with an animal?” God would not have forbidden what no one had dared; and that this is so, the preface of this law bears witness. For he said: “You shall not do according to the practices of Egypt, in which you sojourned, and you shall not do according to the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you, and you shall not walk in their laws.” Having said this, he teaches what they had dared, and forbids such conduct. That many such things are dared, the Persians too bear witness to the present day, joining themselves by the law of marriage not only to sisters but also to mothers and daughters; and many dare the other lawless acts as well.

What does “You shall not give any of your seed to serve a ruler, and you shall not profane my holy name; I am the Lord” mean? The Hebrew has “Molech,” and the other translators put this too. This was an idol. That is why God says through the prophet: “Did you offer me victims and sacrifices in the desert forty years, sons of Israel? And you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the figures you made to worship them.” He forbids, then, offering children as temple servants to idols; or, as some say, giving children to foreign rulers to be their servants or bodyguards, so that they would not share their impiety.

What does “that the land may not loathe you when you defile it, as it loathed the nations before you” mean? “May it not abhor you,” he says, “as it abhorred the Canaanites”; that is, “Just as I gave them over to total destruction for their many transgressions and gave the land to you, so I will punish you if you do the same.”

How should “You shall not breed your cattle with another yoke, and you shall not sow your vineyard with a different kind” and “You shall not put on yourself a counterfeit garment woven of two kinds” be understood? I have often said that through perceptible things he teaches intelligible ones. He forbids the mating of different kinds, such as the horse and the ass, so that unlawful intercourse might not pass from the irrational to the rational. For this reason too he calls the garment woven of wool and linen counterfeit, teaching never to pursue contrary actions. That he is not calling the garment counterfeit, but indicating the action through it, the coverings of the tabernacle bear witness, made of various threads. So too must the law about the vineyard be understood. And the Apostle forbids partnership with unbelievers, saying, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.”

What does “You shall not make a sisoē of the hair of your head, nor mar the appearance of your beard; and you shall not make cuttings on your body for a soul, nor make tattooed letters on yourselves” mean? Some have interpreted sisoē as hair curled by art. But I think the law forbids something else. The Greeks used not to cut the crowns of children's heads but to leave locks there, and after a time to dedicate them to the demons. They also used to shave their beards when they mourned and to cut their cheeks in honor of the dead. And they pricked certain parts of the body with needles and rubbed in ink, in the service of the demons. These things, then, the divine law forbids.

What is a ventriloquist? Some, worked on by demons, deceived many of the foolish, as though they were prophesying; the Greeks called them belly-diviners, since the demon seemed to speak from within.

Why does he legislate about the marriages of the priests in particular? The priest had to be a model of chastity, and his race had to remain pure, giving those who wished to revile no occasion for insult. That is why the divine Apostle too directs that one who ministers to God should have a good testimony even from outsiders, “so that he may not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” For this reason he commands that an Israelite woman who commits sexual immorality be put to death, but that the priest's daughter who dares the like be burned. Because of the fault-finding of the Jews, he does not allow even those who have some bodily blemish to minister, forbidding through involuntary afflictions those of the will. For blindness of the eyes hints at the lack of knowledge; the cutting off of an ear, at disobedience; the removal of the nose, at the removal of discernment; the cutting off of a hand, at the idleness of the practical part; and the others must be understood in the same way. For this reason too he commands that the victims offered be whole of limb, training the offerers through what is offered to keep the activities of the soul healthy. Among the others he excludes the castrated man and the one with crushed testicles; for one who cares for the divine service must be fruitful in good things.

Why did he direct the firstborn of the flocks to be offered on the eighth day? He knew the impiety and the gluttony of some, and that if they saw that the animal was well fed and handsome, they would perhaps keep it and offer another; for this reason he commanded it to be offered while newborn.

What does “You shall not eat roasted new green grain until you offer the gifts to your God” mean? The land of Palestine, being warmer, bears early fruits. He commands, then, that no one should first pluck new ears, roast them, and eat them, until they have offered God a sheaf of them. He commands this to be offered on the day of the Passover, and then seven weeks to be counted from it, and the feast of Pentecost to be celebrated. For he said: “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day you offer the sheaf of the set-apart offering, seven full weeks.” The feast of Pentecost was a memorial of the entry into the land of promise; for then they both sowed and reaped, whereas in the desert they ate the manna brought from heaven. Having taught in this way how the feasts of the Passover and Pentecost must be celebrated, he teaches also what must be done in the seventh month. On the new moon he commands them to celebrate the feast of Trumpets; these reminded them of the trumpets on Mount Sinai, when the God of the universe gave the law: “The sound of the trumpet,” it says, “resounded loudly.” On the tenth of the seventh month he commands them to fast, for he calls this day the day of atonement: “You shall humble your souls,” he says, “from the ninth of the month in the evening until the tenth of the month in the evening; you shall keep your Sabbaths. And every soul that is not humbled on it, that soul shall be destroyed from its people.” But the Jews on this very day are not gloomy; they laugh and play and dance, and use licentious words and deeds, fighting directly against the law. On the fifteenth he legislates that they celebrate the feast of Tabernacles, not until the seventh day, as with the other feasts, but he commands them to add the eighth day to the seven: “And the eighth day,” he says, “shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall offer whole burnt offerings to the Lord; it is the closing; you shall do no servile work.” The closing signifies the end of the feasts; and the feast of Tabernacles reminded them of their life in the desert. The lawgiver said this too: “For I made the sons of Israel dwell in tents when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” For this reason he directed them to adorn their houses with branches of trees; and among the other branches he included the chaste-tree, as a sign of chastity and a quencher of pleasure. For they say that, whether eaten or spread beneath one, it quenches the flame of pleasures. But he did not command them to use the branches of the chaste-tree medicinally, but through its name to instill the memory of chastity.

How should “Whoever curses God shall bear sin, and whoever names the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death” be understood? Someone was caught blaspheming the God of the universe, and no law had yet been written about blasphemy; for this reason the lawgiver commanded him to be kept in custody. The next day Moses asked God the Master what the accursed man should suffer. He commanded him to be stoned, those who had heard the blasphemy throwing the stones first. And he laid down the law about blasphemy. He called the falsely named god by the same name “God”; and he said that one who reviles him sins, but did not judge him deserving of punishment. It is not the pious man who blasphemes the falsely named god who sins, but the one who believes in him and yet reviles him; for he blasphemes what he reveres. He called such blasphemy sin, then, not because of the worth of the one blasphemed, but because of the opinion of the blasphemer; for he blasphemes him not as a falsely named god but as a true one. But the one who blasphemes the true God he commanded to be killed with stones. Very fittingly he joined the law about murder to the laws about blasphemy; for the blasphemer too, unable to kill, strikes the maker with his tongue.

Why did he command an eye to be put out for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and the like? He legislated this not so that they would suffer these things, but so that they would not do them; for the fear of suffering prevented the deed.

Why does he forbid sowing the land in the seventh year? By this law he chastises their insatiability. Since, desiring more, they sowed continually, and the land, never resting, bore exhausted crops, he directed them to leave the land unsown in the seventh year; and he forbade them to gather or reap what grew of itself, training them in kindness, for he commanded that widows, orphans, and proselytes from outside should share the fruits with them. Besides this, he brings about something else too: in this year there was a release of debts and freedom for Hebrew slaves. For this reason too he legislated that the Jubilee be a year of rest; the name signifies freedom and release. They call the fiftieth year the Jubilee: “You shall count seven weeks of years,” he says, “and you shall proclaim with the sound of the trumpet in all your land on the tenth of the month, on the day of atonement”; on which day, he means, “I am propitiated toward you and forgive your offences; on this day announce the year of release.” Then he commands that in this year the one who sold a field should take it back, and likewise the houses in the fields; that debts be cancelled; and that Hebrew servants be set free. Since some were likely to press their debtors as the year of release drew near, he forbade them to do this too. And so that they would not be anxious about the food they needed, since they would not farm the land in the years of release, he encouraged them with generous promises. He promised that in the sixth year he would supply not only a double but even a triple yield, enough to feed them in the sixth and seventh years and lasting even to the eighth: “You shall sow,” he says, “in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes, you shall eat the oldest of the old.” Then he strengthens the law by the memory of his lordship: “For the land is mine,” he says, “because you are proselytes and sojourners before me”; that is, “I gave it to you, and therefore I legislate as its Master.”

What does “Ten women shall bake their bread in one oven” mean? To those who gape after the land he both legislates and threatens. To those who live lawfully he promises the fruitfulness of the land; and again, to transgressors he threatens barrenness of the land, invasion by enemies, and extreme poverty. He shows this here too: “So great a poverty will overtake you that ten women will make their bread in one oven, because of the scarcity of necessities.” For he added this: “And you shall eat and not be satisfied.”