Leviticus 11

But now let us look also at some of those things which have been read concerning clean and unclean foods or animals; and just as in the explanation of the cup we ascended from the shadow to the truth of the spiritual cup, so also concerning the foods which are spoken of through the shadow, let us ascend to those which through the spirit are the true foods. But for investigating these things we have need of the testimonies of divine Scripture, lest anyone suppose—for men love "to sharpen their tongues like a sword"—lest anyone, I say, suppose that I do violence to the divine Scriptures and drag to men the things which are related in the law concerning animals, quadrupeds or even birds or fishes, clean or unclean, and feign that these were said concerning men. For perhaps one of the hearers may say: why do you do violence to Scripture? Animals are spoken of, let animals be understood. Lest, then, anyone believe these things to be distorted by human ingenuity, the Apostolic authority in them must be called forth. Hear, then, first of all, how Paul speaks concerning these things. "For all", he says, "passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ". Paul says these things, "a Hebrew of the Hebrews, according to the law a Pharisee", "instructed at the feet of Gamaliel", who assuredly would never dare to call it "spiritual food" and "spiritual drink", unless he had learned this to be the meaning of the lawgiver through the knowledge, handed on to him, of the most true doctrine. Whence also he adds this, as one confident and certain concerning the reckoning of clean or unclean foods, that they are to be observed not according to the letter, but spiritually, and he says: "let no one, therefore, judge you in food or in drink or in respect of a feast day or of a new moon or of sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come". You see, therefore, how all these things which Moses speaks concerning foods or drink, Paul, who had learned these things better than those who now boast themselves to be teachers, says all these to be "a shadow of things to come". And therefore, as we said, from this shadow we ought to ascend to the truth. The discourse is of Christians to Christians, to whom the authority of the Apostolic sayings ought to be dear; but if anyone, swollen with arrogance, despises or spurns the Apostolic sayings, let him see to it himself. "But for me", as "it is good to cleave to God" and to our Lord Jesus Christ, so also to his Apostles, and to take understanding from the divine Scriptures according to their tradition. But it will perhaps be an opportune time, if however the will of God be in this and the tranquility of affairs allow—"for we know not what the coming day may bring forth"—that we assign also from the Old Testament, according to what seemed good to the Apostles, an understanding of clean or unclean foods, and also of animals or birds or fishes, of which it is written in the law, to be referred to men. But now, since it is not the time to use a broader explanation, let us be content with two lights of the Apostles, Paul and Peter, as witnesses. And indeed what Paul perceived we have already brought forward. But "Peter" the Apostle, "when" he was in Joppa, and "wished to pray, ascended to the upper parts". I straightway take even this very thing, that he did not wish to pray in the lower parts, but "ascended to the upper parts", as not said in vain. For neither did the counsel of so great an Apostle superfluously choose "the upper parts" for praying, but, as much as I judge, that it might be shown that Peter, because "he had died with Christ", "sought the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God", and "not the things which are upon earth". Thither "he ascended", to those "roofs", to those heights, of which the Lord too says: "let him who is on the roof not come down to take anything from the house". In short, that you may know that we do not say these things about Peter conjecturally, that "he ascended to the upper parts", you will prove it from what follows. "He ascended", it says, "to the upper parts, that he might pray, and he saw heaven opened". Does it not now seem to you that Peter ascended "to the upper parts" not only in body, but also in mind and spirit? "He saw", it says, "heaven opened and a certain vessel let down like a sheet upon the earth, in which were all quadrupeds, creeping things and flying things of heaven. And he heard a voice saying to him: rise, Peter, kill and eat", commanding without doubt that these be eaten, the "quadrupeds and serpents and flying things", which, placed upon the sheet, were brought down to him from heaven. But he: "Lord", he says, "you know that never has anything common or unclean entered into my mouth. And the voice", it says, "to him a second time: what God has cleansed, do not you call common. And this was done thrice. And after these things", it says, "the sheet was received back into the heavens". Here the reckoning is of clean and unclean animals; concerning which the Apostle is taught the knowledge of things from heaven, since indeed he had no one more eminent and greater than himself on earth, and he is taught not by one voice nor by one vision, but by a threefold one. I take not even this very thing, that these things are said "thrice", as spoken idly. "Thrice" it is both said, and through him to all of us: "what God has cleansed, do not you call common". For the things which are cleansed are not cleansed under one naming, nor under a second, but unless a third naming too be named, no one is cleansed. For unless you have been cleansed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, you will not be able to be clean. Therefore, then, the things which were shown for cleansing are shown not once nor twice, but "thrice", and "thrice" are they commanded. There were, then, "all" in that sheet "quadrupeds and creeping things and birds of heaven". And after these things "Peter", it says, "was pondering within himself what this might be". And while he was still pondering, "there came upon him", it says, "those who had been sent by Cornelius the centurion" from this city, that is, from Caesarea to Joppa. For there was Peter, and "he was lodging with a certain Simon, a tanner". And it is well that Peter stays "with a tanner", that one perhaps of whom Job says that "you have clothed me with skin and flesh". But let these things be said by way of digression. Meanwhile "there come those who had been sent by Cornelius" to Peter; and he, receiving them, hears from them the things which Cornelius enjoins upon him. And "descending" from the upper parts he comes here to Cornelius. "He descends": for Cornelius was still below and was remaining in the lower parts. He comes, then, to Caesarea, "he finds many" here with Cornelius "gathered together", "and he says to them", after many things: "and to me", he says, "God has shown that I should call no man common or unclean". Does it seem to you that Peter the Apostle has clearly transferred those "quadrupeds and all creeping things and flying things" to man, and understood men to be the things which had been shown to him in the sheet let down from heaven?

But perhaps someone may say: concerning quadrupeds indeed and creeping things and birds you have rendered the reckoning, that men ought to be understood; give also concerning "those things which are in the waters". Since indeed the law designates concerning these too that some are clean and others unclean, I demand nothing in these matters, that my words be believed, unless I shall have given suitable witnesses. I will give you our very Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as witness and author of these things, how fishes are said to be men. "The kingdom of heaven is like", he says, "to a net cast into the sea, which gathers of every kind of fish; and when it has been filled, sitting upon the shore they store up those which are good in vessels; but those which are bad they cast forth". He plainly taught that those "fishes" which are said to be "gathered by the nets" are either "good" men or "bad". These, then, are they who according to Moses are named fishes either clean or unclean. These things, therefore, being confirmed by Apostolic and evangelical authority, let us see how each of men can be shown either clean or unclean. Every man has in himself some food, which he offers to the neighbor who approaches him. For it cannot come to pass that, when we men approach one another and join discourse, we should not either from a response or from a question or from some gesture either take some taste between ourselves or offer it. And if indeed he is a clean man and of good mind, he of whom we take a taste, we take clean food; but if he be unclean whom we touch, we take unclean food, according to the things that were said above. And therefore, I think, the Apostle Paul says concerning such, as unclean animals: "with such not even to take food". But that the things we say may lie more evidently open to your understanding, let us take an example from greater matters, that thence, descending little by little, we may come down to the lower. Our Lord and Savior says: "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you shall not have life in yourselves. For my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink". Jesus, then, because he is wholly and utterly clean, his whole "flesh is food" and his whole "blood is drink", because his every work is holy and his every word is true. Therefore, then, both his "flesh is true food and" his "blood is true drink". For with the flesh and blood of his word, as with clean food and drink, he gives drink and refreshes the whole race of men. In the second place, after his flesh, Peter is clean food, and Paul and all the Apostles; in the third place their disciples. And thus each one, according to the quantity of his merits or the purity of his senses, becomes clean food to his neighbor. He who knows not how to hear these things, let him perhaps distort and turn away his hearing, according to those who said: "how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Who can hear him? And they departed from him". But you, if you are sons of the Church, if you are imbued with the evangelical mysteries, if "the Word made flesh dwells in you", recognize that the things we say are the Lord's, lest perhaps "he who is ignorant be ignored". Recognize that they are figures which are written in the divine volumes, and therefore, as spiritual and not as carnal, examine and understand the things that are said. For if you take these things as carnal, they harm you and do not nourish you. For there is even in the Gospels a "letter" which "kills". Not only in the Old Testament is the "killing letter" found; there is also in the New Testament a "letter" which "kills" him who does not spiritually attend to the things that are said. For if you follow according to the letter this very thing that was said: "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood", this "letter kills". Do you wish that I bring forth to you another "letter" from the Gospel which "kills"? "He who has no sword", he says, "let him sell his tunic and buy a sword". Behold, this too is a letter of the Gospel, but it "kills". But if you take it spiritually, it does not kill, but there is in it "a life-giving spirit". And therefore, whether in the law or in the Gospels the things that are said, take them spiritually, because "the spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one". As, then, we said, every man has in himself some food, of which whoever partakes, if indeed he is good and "from the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things", offers clean food to his neighbor. But if he is evil and "brings forth evil things", he offers unclean food to his neighbor. For one who is innocent and upright of heart can be seen as a clean animal, a sheep, and offer to the one who hears him clean food, as a sheep, which is a clean animal. Similarly also in the rest. And therefore every man, as we said, when he speaks to his neighbor and either profits him by his words or harms him, becomes to him a clean or an unclean animal, of which either the clean are to be used or the unclean commanded to be abstained from. If according to this understanding we say that the most high God promulgated laws for men, I think that the legislation will seem worthy of the divine majesty. But if we sit at the letter and, according to this—either what seems to the Jews or to the common crowd—take the things that are written in the law, I blush to say and to confess that God gave such laws. For the laws of men will seem more elegant and reasonable, for example's sake, whether of the Romans or of the Athenians or of the Lacedaemonians. But if according to this understanding, which the Church teaches, the law of God be taken, then plainly it surpasses all human laws and will truly be believed to be the law of God. And so, these things being thus premised, let us, with the spiritual understanding, as we have admonished, touch upon some things concerning clean and unclean animals.

Hence it is properly decreed in the law that the only animals which are clean and suitable to be eaten by the people of God are those that have horns. For it is well known that those animals that chew the cud and divide the hoof are also those that have horns. So … it is mystically disclosed that the only people who can be incorporated into a spiritual union with the church of God are those who by the strength of their faith prove that they are unconquered in their battles with the vices.

With whom then should we live? With the just, he replies, again under a metaphor. Everything "of split hoof and chewing the cud" is clean, because the split hoof obviously is a sign of evenly balanced justice, which chews the cud of its own food of justice, the word, which enters from without through instruction. And, once within, [it] is recalled as if from the stomach of the mind for the musings of reason. The just man chews the cud of spiritual nourishment, because he holds the Word in his mouth. Justice undoubtedly divides the hoof, in that it both sanctifies in this life and prepares us as well for the life to come.

Therefore in the shadow of this meli tree the bride longs to abide — or the Church, as we said, in the protection of the Son of God, or the soul fleeing all the remaining doctrines and clinging to the one Word of God alone, whose sweet fruit she also has in her throat, that is, by meditating unceasingly on the law of God, and by always ruminating upon it like a clean animal.

"Every", it says, "beast that divides the hoof, and has hooves, and brings up rumination among the cattle, these you shall eat. Besides, of these you shall not eat, which bring up rumination, and do not divide the hooves, and have hooves. The camel, because it brings up rumination, and does not divide the hoof, this is unclean to you. And the hare, because it brings up rumination, and does not divide the hoof, this is unclean to you; and the hedgehog, because it brings up rumination, and does not divide the hoof, this is unclean to you; and the swine", and so forth. It decrees, then, that animals of this kind be not eaten, which in part seem to be clean and in part unclean; as "the camel, from the fact that it ruminates", seems clean, but from the fact "that it does not have divided hooves", it is called "unclean". After these it now names also "the hare" and "the hedgehog", but says that they too indeed "ruminate", but "do not divide the hooves". But it makes another order of those which, on the contrary, do indeed "divide the hoof", but "do not ruminate". First, then, let us see who are those which "ruminate and divide the hoof", which it calls clean. I judge that he is said to ruminate who gives labor to knowledge and "meditates on the law of the Lord day and night". But hear how it is said: "who divides", it says, "the hoof, and recalls rumination". He "recalls rumination", then, who recalls the things which he reads according to the letter to the spiritual sense, and ascends from the lowest and visible things to the invisible and higher. But if you meditate on the divine law and recall the things which you read to a subtle and spiritual understanding, but your life and your acts are not such as to have the discernment of the present and the future life, of this age and "the age to come", if you do not with fitting reason discern and divide these things, you are a tortuous camel; you who, when you have received understanding from the meditation of the divine law, do not divide nor set apart the present and future things, nor separate "the narrow way" from "the spacious way". But let us explain still more manifestly what is said. There are those who take up the testament of God through their mouth and, though they have the law of God in their mouth, their life and their acts differ far from their words and discourses; "for they say and do not". Concerning whom the prophet too says: "but to the sinner God said: why do you declare my justices, and take up my testament through your mouth?". You see, then, how this one ruminates, who has the testament of God in his mouth. But what is said to him in what follows? "But you have hated discipline, and cast my words behind you". In which it plainly shows this one indeed to be "ruminating", but "not dividing the hoof", and therefore whoever is such is unclean. And again there is another, either of those who are outside our religion, or of those who are with us, who indeed "divide the hoof" and so walk in their ways as to prepare their acts for the age to come. For many even of the philosophers are thus wise and believe there will be a judgment. For they perceive the soul to be immortal and confess that a reward is set for any good persons. This some even of the heretics do, and, as far as they expect, they bear the fear of the future judgment and more cautiously temper their acts as things to be examined in the divine scrutiny. But each of these does not "ruminate" nor "recall rumination". For he does not, hearing the things which are written in the law of God, meditate and recall them to a subtle and spiritual understanding; but as soon as he has heard something, he either contemns or despises it, and does not inquire what precious sense lies hidden in the cheaper words. And these go away indeed "dividing the hoof", but "not recalling rumination". But you, who wish to be clean, have a life befitting and consonant with knowledge, and acts consonant with understanding, that you may be clean in both, that you may both "recall rumination" and "divide the hoof", but also that you may "produce" or "cast off" the hooves (ungula). Let us seek the testimony for this thing too, how we produce, or, as it is read elsewhere, cast off the hooves. It is written in Deuteronomy: "if", it says, "you go out to war against your enemies, and see there a woman of comely appearance, and desire her, you shall take her, and you shall shave off all the hair of her head and her nails, and you shall clothe her in mourning garments; and she shall sit in the house mourning her father and her mother and her paternal house; and after thirty days she shall be your wife". But now it is not our purpose that these things which are called into testimony be explained; but we said them for this reason, because here too mention was made of nails (ungula, the same Latin word used above for the animals' hooves). Yet nevertheless I too have frequently "gone out to war against my enemies and seen there" as booty "a woman of comely appearance". For whatever things we find well and reasonably said among our enemies, if we read anything wisely and knowingly said among them, it behooves us to cleanse it and to remove and cut away from the knowledge which is among them all that is dead and empty—for this is what all the hairs of the head and the nails of the woman taken from the spoils of the enemies are—and so at last to make her our wife, when she has now nothing of those things which through unfaithfulness are said to be dead, has nothing dead in her head, nothing in her hands, so that she bears nothing unclean or dead either in her senses or in her acts. For the women of our enemies have nothing clean, because there is no wisdom among them to which some uncleanness is not mixed. Yet I would that the Jews would tell me how these things are observed among them. What is the cause, what the reason, for a woman to "be shorn" and "her nails to be removed"? For example's sake, if we suppose that he who is said to have found her found her so that she has neither hairs nor nails: what did she have which he might seem, according to the law, to remove? But we, for whom the warfare is spiritual and "the weapons not carnal, but powerful for God to the destroying of counsels", if a "comely" woman be found among the enemies and some reasonable discipline, we will purify her in this manner in which we said above. It behooves him, then, who is clean, not only to "divide the hoof" and not only to discern the acts and works of the present and the future age, but also to "produce the hooves" or, as we read elsewhere, to "cast them off", that "purifying ourselves from dead works" we may remain in life.

Fish with rough scales are considered clean, just as persons with austere, rough, unpolished, steadfast and grave traits are commended. Fish without scales are considered unclean, just as loose, fickle, insincere and effeminate traits are censured. What does the law mean when it states, "You shall not eat the camel"? From the example of an animal, it censures an unruly life and one distorted by unpleasantness. What does the law mean when it forbids one to partake of the flesh of swine? It condemns, you can be sure, a foul and filthy life—one that delights in sordid vices by placing its supreme good not in nobility of spirit but in the flesh alone. What does the law want to indicate when it forbids the hare? It denounces nervous, effeminate men. Who would use as food the flesh of the weasel? In it the law condemns theft.Who would dare partake of the skink? The law abhors a capricious and fickle life. Who would eat the newt? The law detests aberrations of the mind. Who would dare partake of the hawk, the kite or the eagle? The law hates marauders and those who live by violence. Who does not loathe the vulture? The law execrates those who look for booty in someone else's death. Who would eat the crow? The law detests immoral and shady intentions. When the law prohibits ostrich, it disapproves of intemperance. When it condemns the nightjar, it hates those who shun the light of truth. When it bans the swan, it loathes stiff-necked pride. When it excludes the heron, it dislikes a garrulous and undisciplined tongue. When it detests the bat, it condemns those who seek out the darkness of error that is like night. The law execrates these and similar characteristics in animals. Since the animals, however, are born with such characteristics, they are without reproach. Conversely such qualities are reprehensible in humanity, which was not created with them but learns from them by comparison with contrary nature, through the exercise of their own error.

The all-wise Educator, by the lips of Moses, compared association with corrupt men to living with swine when he forbade the ancient people to partake of swine. He made it plain in those words that they who invoke God should not seek the company of the unclean who, like swine, revel in bodily pleasures and filthy habits of life and impure delights, itching for evil-minded pleasures of sex.

It is then proper that the barbarian philosophy, on which it is our business to speak, should prophesy also obscurely and by symbols, as was evinced. Such are the injunctions of Moses: "These common things, the sow, the hawk, the eagle and the raven, are not to be eaten." For the sow is the emblem of voluptuous and unclean lust of food and lecherous and filthy licentiousness in venery, always prurient, and material, and lying in the mire and fattening for slaughter and destruction.

These things indeed have been said generally concerning animals; but those "which are in the waters", because they are said, if indeed they have "fins and scales", to be clean, but if they do not have them, unclean and not to be eaten: this is shown in them, that, if anyone is in these waters and set in the sea of this life and in the waves of the world, he ought nevertheless to strive earnestly not to lie in the depths of the waters, as are those fishes which are said "not to have fins nor scales". For this is reported to be their nature, that they always tarry in the lowest place and about the very mud; as are eels and things like this, which cannot ascend to the surface of the water nor reach its upper parts. But those fishes which are aided by "little fins" and fortified with "scales" ascend rather to the upper parts and become nearer to this air, as those who seek the liberty of the spirit. Such, then, is every holy person, who, enclosed within the "nets" of faith, is named a "good fish" by the Savior and is put "into a vessel", as having "fins" and "scales". For unless he had had "fins", he would not have risen up from the mud of unbelief nor reached the "net" of faith. But what is it that he is said to have "scales" too, as one who is prepared to lay aside the old garments? For those who do not have "scales" are, as it were, wholly fleshly and entirely carnal, who can lay aside nothing. If anyone, then, has "fins" by which he may strive toward the upper parts, he is clean; but he who does not have "fins", but remains in the lower parts and is always engaged in the mud, is unclean.

Hence again, fish that do not have fins are forbidden from being eaten by the faithful people. For fish that have scale-fins are also accustomed to leap above the waters. What therefore is figured by finned fish except elect souls? These alone indeed pass into the body of the heavenly Church, who, supported by the fins of virtues, know how to leap through heavenly desire, so that they may reach toward things above through contemplation, although they fall back again into themselves from mortal flesh.

He adds too that they are not to eat "kite or mastophage or eagle," meaning "You shall not go near those who make their livelihood by plundering others." He says other similar things under some sort of allegory.

And similarly concerning the birds. "You shall not eat", it says, "these, because they are unclean: the eagle and the vulture", and the rest like these. For to these birds the food is always of dead bodies, and they live from dead carcasses. All, then, who lead a life of this kind must be held unclean. I think that those too are numbered among these who brood over the deaths of others and by art or fraud forge testaments. For men of this kind will deservedly be called vultures and eagles, as gaping after the carcasses of the dead. I know also other flying things which live by rapine. These are the souls which, according to this indeed—that they are rational and imbued with liberal instruction or rational disciplines—seem to be flying things; for they read and inquire either concerning the reckoning of heaven, or how the world is governed by the providence of God; according to these things, then, they are named flying things; but if men of this kind act unjustly, do against the law, plunder their neighbors, and, though heavenly erudition may seem to be in their words, in their acts bear carnal and dead works, they are rightly to be called vultures or eagles, which slip down from the heights to dead and fetid flesh. To this must be referred also the rapacity of the hawk and of all the rest; of which some indeed are flying things given to rapacity, but some not so rapacious as loving obscurity and darkness. "For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light", as are "owls and bats" and the rest, which the law declared unclean. Keeping ourselves from all these by spiritual observance, and seeking food from clean animals, we too shall be made pure and clean, through Christ our Lord, through whom is to God the Father with the Holy Spirit "glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen."

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. [Leviticus 11:44-45] And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Pious souls of the Lord, what the Lord admonishes us is not to be considered merely in passing, for he says, "Be holy because I am holy." Although this term properly belongs to all the Christian people, according to what blessed Peter says, "You, however, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation," this term seems particularly to apply to all priests in a special way. In all the letters which are addressed to the Lord's priests by any men whatsoever, it is specially indicated that they are holy. Since then this term is applied to us, we ought to inquire what precisely is its meaning. It is only through Greek that the interpretation of this word holy can be discovered. For agios is the Greek for "holy," and agios has the meaning "not of the earth." Therefore if we are more solicitous for heavenly things than for those of earth, this term is not unfittingly applied to us.

"Be holy, says the Lord, for I am holy." The apostles boasted that they had left all things and had followed the Savior. We do not read that they left anything except their ship and their nets; yet they were crowned with the approval of him who was to be their judge. Why? Because in offering up themselves they had indeed left all that they had.

He himself says, "Be holy, for I am holy," that is to say, choose me and keep away from what displeases me. Do what I love; love what I do. If what I order seems difficult, come back to me who ordered it, so that from where the command was given help might be offered. I who furnished the desire will not refuse support. Fast from contradiction, abstain from opposition. Let me be your food and drink. None desire in vain what is mine, for those who stretch out toward me seek me because I first sought them.