1 The Lord said also to Moses: Speak to the priests the sons of Aaron, and thou shalt say for them: Let not a priest incur an uncleanness at the death of his citizens.
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VERS. 1.-- *The Lord said also to Moses.... Let him not be defiled,* etc. That is, let him omit nothing of those things which it is expedient for a priest to teach, etc., *as far as* for he will not be able to be ignorant of the sin of those who dwell with him.
2 But only for his kin, such as are near in blood: that is to say, for his father and for his mother, and for his son, and for his daughter, for his brother also:
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VERS. 2.-- *But only in his kinsfolk.* Over every soul that is dead, etc., *as far as* but to the lesser ones something is allowed.
3 And for a maiden sister, who hath had no husband.
4 But not even for the prince of his people shall he do any thing that may make him unclean.
5 Neither shall they shave their head, nor their beard, nor make incisions in their flesh.
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VERS. 5.-- *They shall not shave the head.* But the high priest, etc., *as far as* to whom Christ granted that they should be light. *They shall not shave the head,* etc. The law forbids priests to grieve too bitterly over the dead, etc., *as far as* that he may be able to exhort, to reprove, to rebuke. *They shall not pollute the name,* etc. Which is great among the nations. But you, says Malachias, *have polluted it in that you say: The table of the Lord is forsaken*. For in the sin of the sacrifice the priests pollute the name of God.
6 They shall be holy to their God, and shall not profane his name. For they offer the burnt offering of the Lord, and the bread of their God: and therefore they shall be holy.
7 They shall not take to wife a harlot or a vile prostitute, nor one that has been put away from her husband: because they are consecrated to their God,
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VERS. 7.-- *A harlot,* etc. Any priest whatsoever, for of the high priest he will speak afterwards, that he take to wife none but a virgin. *Who is put away,* etc. Because she is found blameworthy, the priest ought not to take her to wife, nor to preach beforehand the literal observance of her.
8 And offer the loaves of proposition. Let them therefore be holy because I also am holy: the Lord, who sanctify them.
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VERS. 8.-- *Let them be therefore holy,* etc. If the priests keep the sanctification already given them by God, they sanctify God himself: who, since he is holy in his nature, willed to be sanctified by the partakers of his glory.
9 If the daughter of a priest be taken in whoredom and dishonour the name of her father, she shall be burnt with fire.
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VERS. 9.-- *The daughter of a priest,* etc. It is grievous that the daughter of anyone should commit fornication, but most of all of a priest, who ought to have sons subject in all chastity. *The daughter of a priest.* The Synagogue is called not only the wife but also the daughter of God; but depraving both, she became an alien. Whence: *The daughter of Sion shall be left as a covert of a vineyard,* etc.. And elsewhere: *Their mother hath committed fornication*: that she was burned with fire, the traces of the burning show.
10 The high priest, that is to say, the priest who is the greatest among his brethren, upon whose head the oil of unction hath been poured; and whose hands have been consecrated for the priesthood; and who hath been vested with the holy vestments. He shall not uncover his head: he shall not rend his garments.
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VERS. 10.-- *The high priest,* etc. Christ, *our great Lord, and great is his power,* who for us was made priest and victim. *Are consecrated.* Other priests used to consecrate, or consummate, in the blood of a calf and of a ram, namely, their own hands: but he in his own blood, with his hands crucified. *He shall not rend his garments,* etc. For from the time that the Word was made flesh, etc., *as far as* these are truly holy vestments.
11 Nor shall he go in at all to any dead person: not even for his father, or his mother, shall he be defiled.
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VERS. 11.-- *To any dead man,* etc. LXX: *A dead soul. The soul that shall have sinned, the same shall die*. By this death the nations chiefly perished, which had neither law nor doctrine; but Christ bore the sins of all, and yet remained undefiled. * To any dead man,* etc. LXX: *Over any dead soul he shall not go in.* How he calls it a dead soul, etc., *as far as* which he did not forbid according to the second.
12 Neither shall he go out of the holy places, lest he defile the sanctuary of the Lord: because the oil of the holy unction of his God is upon him. I am the Lord.
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VERS. 12.-- * He shall not go out from the holy places.* While, namely, their funerals are being celebrated, he was forbidden to go out from the holy places, etc., *as far as* that on some days the incense was not laid on. *Over his father.* Every man is polluted in father and mother, etc., *as far as* or they stain the liberty of their heavenly mother with the unworthy servitude of sin. It can be asked, etc., *as far as* as Scripture testifies of Aaron himself. *I am the Lord.* Of Moses also it was said, etc., *as far as* nor was the visible sanctification judged superfluous, because the invisible went before.
13 He shall take a virgin unto his wife.
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VERS. 13.-- *He shall take a virgin to wife.* A widow is she whose husband, etc., *as far as* whence: *For I have espoused you to one husband, a chaste virgin,* etc. I would not have the disciple and spouse of a high priest keep anything of the old man. *If we have risen with Christ, let us savour the things that are above,* forgetful of the past, eager for what is to come. The unhappy Simon, who after baptism thought of his old marriage, and had not come to virginal purity, was unworthy of Peter's fellowship.
14 But a widow or one that is divorced, or defied, or a harlot, he shall not take: but a maid of his own people.
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VERS. 14.-- *But a widow and one put away,* etc. He who sins is cast off; even if the bishop keep silence, whether from ignorance or from negligence, such a man's favour profits nothing; a soul that is cast off Christ does not take to wife, nor a polluted one, which, namely, has willed and desired so great a sin, because the great high priest requires a wholly pure soul, which he may join to himself and make one spirit. He who sins unto death is cast off; he who sins venially is polluted. *A foul one,* etc. Who goes after her lovers, namely the demons, who desire to commit adultery with the beautiful soul, that is, the soul made to the image of God.
15 He shall not mingle the stock of his kindred with the common people of this nation: for I am the Lord who sanctify him.
16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
17 Say to Aaron: Whosoever of thy seed throughout their families, hath a blemish, he shall not offer bread to his God.
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VERS. 17.-- *A man of the seed.* These things according to the letter only, etc., *as far as* he strives against it very reproachfully.
18 Neither shall he approach to minister to him: If he be blind; if he be lame; if he have a little, or a great, or a crooked nose;
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VERS. 18.-- *If blind* Not knowing the light of contemplation, pressed down by the darkness of the present life, who, while he does not diligently look upon the light to come, knows not whither to direct the step of his work. *If lame.* Who, namely, sees whither he ought to go, but by the weakness of his mind cannot do what he desires. *If with a little, or a great, or a crooked nose.* He is of a little nose who is not fit to hold the measure of discretion: for by the nose we distinguish odours and stenches. A great and crooked nose is the immoderate subtlety of discretion, which, growing more than is fitting or seemly, confounds the rightness of action.
19 If his foot, or if his hand be broken;
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VERS. 19.-- *If with a broken foot.* Who cannot go the way of God, and has no share in good work, not like the lame man, who at least with his weakness was holding
20 If he be crookbacked; or blear eyed; or have a pearl in his eye, or a continual scab, or a dry scurf in his body, or a rupture.
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VERS. 20.-- *If crook-backed.* Pressed down by earthly care, not looking back to the things above, gazing only on the lower things. *If blear-eyed.* The blear-eyed is he whose wit flashes out to the knowledge of the truth, but whose carnal working darkens it. For in the blear-eyed the pupils are sound, but with the humour flowing down the eyelids grow thick, and by its frequent flooding even the keenness of the pupil is impaired. *If he have a white speck.* He has a white speck who is not permitted to see the light of truth, because he is blinded by arrogance of wisdom or of justice. For the black pupil sees, the white does not see: because the sense of human thought, if it understands itself to be foolish or a sinner, lays hold of the knowledge of the inward brightness: if it attributes to itself the whiteness of justice or of wisdom, it shuts itself out from the knowledge that is above. *If a continual scab.* Over whom, namely, the wantonness of the flesh rules without ceasing in the mind. For in a scab the heat of the inward parts is drawn to the skin, in which lust is signified, because in like manner the temptation of the heart leaps forth into action. *If a ringworm in the body.* He has a ringworm in the body, etc., *as far as* because through all vices it supplants the mind. *For the root of all evils is covetousness*. *Or one that hath a rupture.* Others, *burdened,* because, namely, he does not practise baseness in deed, but is still weighed down in mind by continual thought: who with all his thoughts flows down to wantonness, as though bearing in his heart the weight of baseness.
21 Whosoever of the seed of Aaron the priest hath a blemish: he shall not approach to offer sacrifices to the Lord, nor bread to his God.
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VERS. 21.-- *Every one that hath a blemish* Whosoever is subject to any of these vices is forbidden to offer bread to the Lord, lest he be unable to wash away others' offences, whom his own offences still lay waste. All doubt has been taken away, etc., *as far as* by whom it was necessary that the incense be laid on. A priest ought to be unspotted in mind and in manner of life, whom, as Moses commanded him to be clean from twelve blemishes according to the LXX, so Paul admonished to keep twelve, saying: *Not proud, not angry, not given to wine,* etc. For he is the steward of God, who ought to excel his subjects in virtues. This also is done in the Church: if any man has been spotted, and by repenting has ceased, he is not forbidden to communicate with the holy ones: but to minister, or to approach to the veil and to the altar, is not lawful. For the veil and the altar are the body of Christ, whence Paul: *We have an altar whereof they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle*. And elsewhere: *Having confidence in the entering into the holies by the blood of Christ, a new and living way which he hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh*. *And he must not defile,* etc. By acting disorderly let them scandalize the people, thinking the ministry of God, and justice and judgment, to be superfluous.
22 He shall eat nevertheless of the loaves that are offered in the sanctuary.
23 Yet so that he enter not within the veil, nor approach to the altar: because he hath a blemish, and he must not defile my sanctuary. I am the Lord who sanctify them.
24 Moses, therefore spoke to Aaron, and to his sons and to all Israel, all the things that had been commanded him.
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VERS. 24.-- *Moses spoke,* etc. He commends the dignity of Moses: for to others God speaks few things, but to him all things, because he is just and is the image of Christ. He admonishes us also to give heed to the greater and more perfect, who continually enjoy the eternal vision.