Questions on the Octateuch 3.37–4.18

What does “Then the land shall keep its Sabbaths and enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its desolation” mean? What follows is its interpretation; for he said, “And you shall be in the land of your enemies.” They continued seventy years in slavery in Babylon. From the reign of Saul to the captivity, four hundred and ninety years are counted, and a seventh of these is seventy. This, then, is what he means: that the land will remain unsown and unploughed for seventy years while you live in a foreign land, since along with the other laws you transgressed the commandment of the Sabbath too. For he added this: “And the land shall keep the Sabbaths which it did not keep when you lived in it.” He added another threat too: “And on those of you who are left I will bring cowardice into their heart in the land of their enemies; and the sound of a leaf blown about will chase them, and they will flee as men fleeing from war,” and so on. This prophecy too was fulfilled. In the Chaldean siege many were killed in the engagements, many perished by famine, and those who were enslaved were deported to Babylon; and those who escaped the hands of the enemy fled to Egypt, fearing the attack of the Chaldeans. The prophecy of the most divine Jeremiah teaches us this clearly. After the threats, however, he also promised good things, and announced the return from captivity, not because of their worth but because of the piety of their ancestors. For he said: “And I will remember the covenant of Jacob, and the covenant of Isaac, and the covenant of Abraham; and I will remember their former covenant, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, before all the nations, to be their God; I am the Lord.” By these he taught the reasons for his love for humankind: “Because of the promises to their fathers,” he means, “I bear with their lawlessness; and because all the nations have learned through the extraordinary miracles that I care especially for them, and they are called my people.” He mentioned Jacob first, since he alone was ancestor of all of them; for Isaac was ancestor of the Idumeans too, and Abraham of the Ishmaelites and of the descendants of Keturah. Beginning, then, from below, he went up in order to Abraham, with whom he had made the covenants from the beginning.

What does “Whoever vows a vow so as to give the price of his vow to the Lord” mean? He calls the promise a vow, which many call a pledge. This law one can find kept even now among some barbarians; for most of the Nomads, I mean the descendants of Ishmael, weigh out silver against their newborn infants and bring it to God. God legislated about this; and knowing, as God, that some of those who promised to give a price for themselves to God would transgress their promise by lessening the price, he commanded the price of a male to be fifty didrachms and of a female thirty, this for those in their prime, the young and the old being excepted. For he defined the middle age as from twenty to sixty years; for those younger and older than these he fixed another price. The poor he left to the judgment of the priests, so that they would fix the prices according to their means. He forbids those who offer dedicated animals to exchange them, and to keep them from doing this he imposes on them the compulsion of a penalty: “If he does exchange it,” he says, “both it and its exchange shall be holy.” He commanded the priest to fix the price of unclean cattle, and commanded the same to be done for a house and for a field. He also defined the amount of the didrachm; for he commanded it to weigh twenty obols; some of the translators called the didrachm a stater. And what had been devoted to God he commanded not to be redeemed.

Why did God order the people to be counted? To show the truth of his own promise. For when he made the promise to Abraham he said, “I will surely multiply your offspring like the stars of heaven and like the sand along the shore of the sea.” And he showed the truth of the promise: from the seventy-five who had gone down into Egypt, within a few years six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty men able to fight were counted, and that with the over-aged and the under-aged set apart, and the female sex as well, and the tribe of Levi, for that tribe was not counted with the others. Teaching this power of his, God the Master also said through the prophet Isaiah, “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you in pain, for he was one, and I called him and blessed him and multiplied him.”

Why is the number of the Levites smaller? Because they were rulers, and rulers must be fewer than those they rule. Besides, they were exempt from fighting and attended only on the divine worship.

How then did the tribe of Judah surpass all the others in number, though it was royal? From the royal tribe one man reigned, but of the Levitical tribe all ministered, some serving as priests and others assisting them. And the royal tribe had to exceed in number, both because of the blessing of Christ the Master, for he was to spring from it according to the flesh, and so that the kings appointed from it would have sufficient support from their fellow tribesmen. Here too he ranged the priests with the royal tribe: for he set the tribe of Judah toward the rising sun and joined the priests with the ark to them. To Dan, however, he allotted the northern quarter: “For from the face of the north,” it says, “evils will be kindled upon all who inhabit the land.” We have said in the blessings of Jacob that the destroyer will be born of the tribe of Dan, who will call himself Christ but do the opposite of the name, and lay claim to what in no way belongs to him. And quite fittingly he assigned the east to Judah, since the divine prophets cry out concerning Christ the Master: “Behold a man, Dawn is his name”; and, “To those who fear me a sun of righteousness will rise, and healing in its wings”; and, “To those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

What were the works of the priests, and what those of the Levites? The God of all himself teaches it. “For the Lord said,” it says, “to Moses: Take the tribe of Levi and set it before Aaron the priest, and they shall minister to him and keep his charges and the charges of the sons of Israel before the tent of witness, to do the works of the tent; and they shall keep all the vessels of the tent of witness and the charges of the sons of Israel, all the works of the tent. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron your brother and to his sons the priests; these are a gift given from the sons of Israel. And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons over the tent of witness, and they shall keep their priesthood and all that concerns the altar and what is within the veil; and the outsider who touches shall die.” From this, then, we have learned that the priests offered the sacrifices, while the Levites were appointed assistants of the priests and guardians of the tent. And in what follows he teaches what the clan of Kohath had to carry, what the clan of Gershon, and what that of Merari.

For what reason did God order the firstborn of the people to be counted? Since he had consecrated the whole tribe of Levi to the divine ministries and freed it from fighting, and it was likely that some of the others would be aggrieved, as if these had been preferred, God the Master persuades the aggrieved that he had ordered nothing unjust. “When,” he says, “the firstborn of the Egyptians were destroyed for your sake, your firstborn were saved. In return for them, then, I have allotted the Levitical tribe to my ministries; and in return for the firstborn of your cattle, the firstborn of the Levites.” And since the firstborn of the other tribes proved to be more than the Levites, he ordered that each of those beyond the equal number give five shekels to the priests, fixing the shekel at twenty obols and calling this measure “holy,” as set apart for divine things and not current among all. Elsewhere, however, he calls the twenty obols a didrachm; this didrachm was also demanded of the Lord, as a firstborn.

Why did he order hyacinth-blue coverings to be put on some of the sacred vessels, and purple on others? The coverings of the more precious ones were of hyacinth only. The colour hints at heaven; for this reason he ordered the things within the veil to be covered with hyacinth coverings, and those outside with purple as well, and the like. For heaven has no punishments, but the earth, because of transgressions of the laws, receives chastisements too. Purple signifies kingship; and God's kingship is divine, without beginning and indestructible. For this reason the things outside the tent were covered with both purple and hyacinth coverings. Taking forethought for the clan of Kohath, he ordered the priests first to go into the inner sanctuary and cover the ark and the other vessels with the coverings mentioned, and only then the clan of Kohath to carry them, so that they would not see what may not be touched or seen and suffer destruction from the extraordinary sight.

Whom does he call “unclean by reason of a soul”? The one who has touched a dead person or come near the bones of a corpse.

Why did he order these, and the lepers, and those with a discharge, to live outside the camp? Teaching great things through small ones. For if the one who touches a corpse is unclean, much more the one who has made a corpse by murder. And if the leper is unclean, much more the one who works the varied forms of wickedness. So too, through the man with a discharge, adultery is condemned: for if what is involuntary is loathsome, surely much more what is dared by choice.

What does “A man or woman who commits any of all the human sins” mean? He has called the lesser sins “human,” since, human nature being changeable, it is impossible to be free of all sins. “For no one,” it says, “is clean from filth, not even if his life is one day.” For this reason the divine David also cries, “Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living will be justified before you.” For Christ the Master alone, both as man and as God, is blameless. Foreseeing this, the prophet Isaiah cried, “Who did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” For this reason he also took up the sins of others, having none of his own. For it says, “He bears our sins and suffers pain for us.” And the great John: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” This is why he is also “free among the dead,” as one who underwent death unjustly. The divine law, then, teaches how those who have committed moderate offences are to be healed. It commands the one who has done wrong in some dealings first to confess the sin, then to restore what was taken to the one wronged, adding a fifth to the principal. And if the wronged party should happen to end his life before the wrongdoer repents, he is to repay it to the next of kin. By “next of kin” he means the one related by family. The order of kinship is this: first a son, then a daughter, then the father's brother, then the grandfather's. If there is none of these, the nearest relative. And if no relative is found, he directed that what was mentioned be offered to God. For he said this: “If the man has no next of kin, so as to repay the trespass to him, the trespass repaid to the Lord shall be the priest's, besides the ram of atonement, by which he will make atonement for him.” He also ordered the priests to eat the firstfruits that were offered. For the Levites were the firstfruits of the people, and the high priests the firstfruits of the Levites; as firstfruits, then, they received the firstfruits.

Why was barley meal brought by the woman suspected of adultery? The Master himself has explained it: “For it is,” he said, “a sacrifice of jealousy, a sacrifice of remembrance, a sacrifice recalling sin.” Hence he ordered it to have neither oil nor frankincense, for it was deprived both of fragrance and of the light of righteousness. God the Master legislated that this be done because he knew their murderous disposition: so that they would not kill their wives on suspicion, he ordered the suspected woman to be brought to him, since he knows all things clearly, even what is done in secret. “For the priest,” it says, “shall bring the woman and set her before the Lord; and the priest shall take pure running water in an earthen vessel, and some of the earth on the floor of the tent of witness, and the priest shall take it and put it into the water; and the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the woman's head, and put on her hands the sacrifice of remembrance, the sacrifice of jealousy; and in the priest's hand shall be the water of proof that brings this curse.” He ordered all this to be done to frighten the suspected woman, so that, if she had sinned, she would confess and receive forgiveness through repentance. For this reason he commands that she be brought to God uncovered, teaching that all things are naked and laid bare before him and nothing we do escapes him. That he ordered this done to frighten her, what follows shows: “And the priest shall put her under oath and say to the woman: If no one has lain with you, if you have not transgressed to be defiled while under your own husband, be free from this water of proof that brings the curse. But if you have transgressed while under a husband, or have been defiled, or someone besides your husband has lain with you, may the Lord make you a curse and an oath in the midst of your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your belly swell.” He also ordered the woman to assent to the curse and say, “So be it, so be it”; and he ordered the curse to be written and wiped off into water and the woman to drink the water, but the sacrifice, that is, the barley meal, to be offered first. Then he teaches that if she is innocent she will be kept healthy, but if guilty and concealing it she will learn the force of the curse by experience, her belly bursting and her thigh falling away. For through the members by which the sin came, through them the punishment comes. The “oath” is to be understood thus: when someone suffers terrible and incurable things, some are accustomed to say when they swear, “May I not suffer what so-and-so has suffered.”

What does “Whoever makes a great vow to vow a purification to the Lord” mean? There are many kinds of promise. Some promised sacrifices, others money, others even themselves; others, for a set number of days, not to drink wine and not to cut the hair of the head. Such were those of whom the divine James said to the inspired Paul: “There are some who have a vow on themselves; take them and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses,” that is, you provide the sacrifices offered for them according to the law, so as to dispel the suspicion. About these the law here gives directions, and it commands those who make this promise to abstain from vinegar, grapes and grape-skins all the days of the vow (he calls the promise a “vow”), and not to cut the hair of the head until the days are fulfilled that he vowed to the Lord. He calls “holy” the one who lets his hair grow, as one who has consecrated his hair to God. For this is what he said: “He who lets the hair of his head grow shall be holy all the days of his vow to the Lord,” that is: do not cut the hair you consecrated to God until you have brought your promise to its end. And he commands him not to approach a dead father, or brother, or anyone else. Even if, it says, someone dies suddenly and he happens to be present, he must remove all his hair, not on the first day only but on the seventh too, so that the hairs that escaped the razor and grew during the seven days may also be removed; then on the eighth day he is to offer two turtledoves, one for sin and the other as a whole burnt offering, and one lamb for trespass. From this we learn more precisely that he calls the offering for involuntary sins one “for trespass”: for what happened to this man was involuntary, since someone died suddenly and he incurred defilement. And he commands him to count the number of promised days from the beginning: “For the former days,” it says, “shall not be reckoned, because the head of his vow was defiled.” He also taught what sacrifices the one who has fulfilled the promise of purification ought to offer: a lamb for a whole burnt offering and a ewe-lamb for sin (the victims for sin are female, since sin is dared when the rational part grows slack), and also an unblemished ram for a peace offering and a basket of unleavened bread; then, as the sacrifice is performed, he is to put the hair on the sacrifice of the peace offering. The boiled shoulder, placed in the hands of the one who made the vow and taken by the priest, shows that the promised deed has been accomplished; for the boiled shoulder signifies a deed done. He did not legislate these things for nothing, but to teach care for exactness: not to make promises at random, and to fulfil what has been promised. Through them he also trains us to keep our sanctification undefiled; for whoever receives a stain needs cleansing from above and the removal of the defilements through repentance. This is what the blessed Paul said writing to the Galatians: “My little children, with whom I am again in labour until Christ is formed in you.” After this he teaches how the priests ought to bless, and that the divine name supplies blessing to those who approach. “For they shall put my name,” it says, “on the sons of Israel, and I the Lord will bless them.” He also gives the very words of the blessing: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face appear upon you and have mercy on you; the Lord lift up his face upon you and give you peace.” By these we are taught that one must first ask the divine gifts for those being blessed (this is what “bless you” means), and then that what is given be kept, for he added, “and keep you.” The second blessing foretells the appearing of our God and Saviour: “The Lord make his face appear,” it says, “upon you and have mercy on you”; for the economy of our God and Saviour in the flesh is full of mercy. Therefore he also granted us reconciliation with God; this is what the next blessing teaches: “The Lord lift up his face upon you and give you peace.” Of this peace the blessed Paul also said, “For he is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the fence, the enmity, in his flesh.” Having been taught these things about the blessing, and having related how he anointed the tent and what the tribal leaders brought, the prophet taught how he received with his ears the divine voice coming from the mercy seat. It rested on the ark and was covered by the wings of the cherubim. He did not write this out of vanity, but to teach that from there God the Master would show his own glory to the high priests who entered once a year, as far as human nature could see it.

Why, when he ordered the Levites to be sanctified, did he command that the whole body be stripped of hair? Hair is a symbol of deadness, for it is dead and feels no pain. He commands those who minister to God, then, to have true life and to have nothing dead or foul-smelling. This the inspired Paul also teaches us: “For I have been crucified with Christ,” he says; “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” For I have consecrated myself, he means, to the divine energies.

Why does he command the Levites to minister from the twenty-fifth year up to the fiftieth? Because the first age does not have full discernment of good and evil, and the last has a weaker body. So he excludes both youth and old age: the one for the immaturity of the soul, the other for the weakness of the body.

For what reason could those unclean by reason of a soul not celebrate the Passover? The reason is given with their excuse. Being in mourning, and having given some of their family to burial, they were unclean according to the direction of the law. Fearing, then, that in fulfilling the commandment of the Passover they would transgress the one laid down about the unclean and fall into a conflict of laws, they told the lawgiver the reason. But not even he dared to answer until he had asked the Master. For Joshua son of Nun fell into this fault, receiving the Gibeonites before asking. God the Master therefore ordered that those who fell into this defilement, or lived far away, and for that reason could not celebrate the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month, should celebrate the Passover on the fourteenth of the second month; and he ordered the proselytes too to share in the same. “For there shall be one law for you,” it says, “both for the proselyte and for the native of the land.” Through these he foreshadows the calling of the nations.

How is “You shall sound the trumpet with a signal when you set out; and when you gather the assembly, you shall sound the trumpet, but not with a signal” to be understood? The all-wise Paul says, “If the trumpet gives an indistinct sound, who will prepare for battle?” There were, then, differences of sound: one signalled a halt, another a march; and one trumpet sounding summoned the leaders, two the people and the leaders. Sounding the trumpet was assigned to the priests alone, since the trumpet announced the summons of God. For he added this: “And if you go out to war in your land against the adversaries who oppose you, you shall signal with the trumpets, and you shall be remembered before the Lord and be saved from your enemies. And on the days of your gladness, and at your feasts, and at your new moons, you shall sound the trumpets over the whole burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, and it shall be a remembrance for you before your God; I am the Lord your God.” For since God, when he gave the law on Mount Sinai, struck their ears with a very great sound of trumpets, he reminds them of that appearing through the sound of the trumpets. Hence the blessed David said in song, “Sound the trumpet at the new moon, on the well-marked day of your feast.” Through these things we too are taught, when we gather the whole assembly of the people, to use trumpets but not signals: for because of the uninitiated we speak about the divine mysteries without plain signs, but when they have been dismissed we teach the initiated clearly.

Why did the divine Moses, who called his father-in-law Jethro in Exodus, now call him Raguel? He had two names, like Jacob and Israel, like Simon Peter, like Thomas who is called Didymus, like Thaddaeus who is also Lebbaeus. His son was Hobab.

What was the people's grumbling? They resented the toil of the journey.

For what reason does he bring punishments at once on those who sin? The law was at its beginning. The rest, then, had to be brought to their senses by the punishment of the transgressors, for fear suits beginners. Yet kindness was joined to the punishment: when they repented, they enjoyed his goodwill. Thus, when the fire sent by God had consumed part of the camp and then all ran together in supplication, the lawgiver asked forgiveness and the loving Lord granted it. That the punishments were necessarily brought on them, what follows bears witness. For immediately after the punishment stopped, they revived the memory of Egypt, and of the onions and the garlic and the rest, the desire for which the passion of gluttony had kindled. Quite fittingly, then, the writer set God's generosity beside their ingratitude, relating the account of the manna and that it supplied not only the need for bread but also for relish: “For they ground it,” he says, “in the mill, and pounded it in the mortar, and boiled it in the pot, and made cakes of it.” And when they lamented, God the Master was angry, and the prophet was distressed and cried out, saying, “Why have you afflicted your servant, to lay the burden of this people on me? Did I conceive this people in the womb, or did I give birth to them, that you say to me, ‘Take them in your bosom, as a nurse would take a suckling child,’ into the land which you swore to their fathers?” By these words he showed their immaturity and childishness; for he likened them to a suckling child, which can do nothing else but only wants to suck milk. And since the words were those of a man greatly distressed (and what follows has the same sense), he is taught by God the Master that he governs the people not by human power but by divine grace. For he said to him: “Gather for me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you yourself know to be elders of the people and their scribes, and you shall bring them to the tent of witness; and they shall stand there with you, and I will come down and speak there with you, and I will take some of the spirit that is upon you and put it upon them; and they shall bear with you the burden of this people, and you shall not bear them alone.” By these words the lawgiver learned that he had received grace sufficient for his task. That is why he said, “I will take some of the spirit that is upon you.” He did not say this because he was short of some other power or grace, but to teach Moses that he had received power sufficient for the need. That in giving to the seventy he did not diminish Moses' grace, the facts bear witness: for he went on governing and working wonders just as he had done before. For as someone who lights countless lamps from one wick neither diminishes it and yet shares its light with them, so the God of all, in giving the seventy a share of Moses' grace, did not lessen the grace given to him. This we see happening now as well. For many tens of thousands of people baptized by one priest and receiving the divine gift do not diminish the priest's grace; and very many ordained by the high priests and receiving priestly rank do not lessen the gift of the one who ordains. The Master, however, confirmed his servant's choice, for he said to him, “Choose those whom you yourself know.”