Leviticus 21

But why speak of the men engaged in the ministry? Even the daughters of priests, who are of no significance for the priestly office, incur a far more severe penalty than do others for the same sins, because of their fathers' dignity. The offense is the same (it is prostitution in both cases) when committed by them and the daughters of ordinary people, but their punishment is far greater. You see how thoroughly God proves to you that he demands much more punishment of the ruler than of the subjects.

Everyone who is a priest among men is small and slight in comparison with that priest of whom God said: "you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek". But he is the "great priest" who is able "to penetrate the heavens" and to pass beyond the whole of creation and to ascend to him who "dwells in light inaccessible", the God and Father of the universe. For this reason the one too who among the Jews was called the "great priest" did indeed enter into the holy places, but ones made by hand, built of stones; he did not ascend into heaven nor was he able to stand before the "Father of lights". But because he was fulfilling the shadow and image of these things, therefore also he bore the name of "great priest" by way of shadow and image. Whence the Jews too, precisely through that by which they ought to have been nearest to the faith — because among them a certain foreshadowing and image of the truth had shone beforehand — while they thought the types were the truth, rejected the truth itself as though it were a lie. But we, who receive the "great priest", ought to understand how he himself is truly the "great priest". Truly he is the "great priest", who forgives sins not "by the blood of bulls and goats" but "by his own blood". Since therefore we have come to know who the "great priest" is, and we confess that the things which are written in the law about the "great priest" are written about the Savior — whom the treatise above showed to be truly the "great priest" — let us now see what those things are which the law writes about him in the prophetic spirit.

"And the great priest" it says "from among his brethren, upon whose head the oil of anointing has been poured and who has his hands perfected to put on the holy vestments, shall not take the mitre from his head, shall not rend his garments, and shall not go in to any dead soul; in his father or in his mother he shall not be defiled, and he shall not go out from the holy places and shall not pollute the name which is hallowed, the name of God upon him, because the holy oil of the anointing of his God is upon him; I am the Lord. He shall take to wife a virgin of his own kindred. But a widow and one cast out and one defiled and a harlot, these he shall not take; but he shall take to wife a virgin of his own kindred; and he shall not defile his seed among his people; I am the Lord, who sanctify him". Among the Jews too there was indeed an image of this observance, and the things which the law appointed were kept by the high priests of the Jews; but even if everything was diligently observed and even if all the things which the law commanded were fulfilled, not even so could all this observance make a great priest. For how can he be called a "great priest" who is able to sin? And that all the great priests too were under sin, we readily perceive from this very thing, that the law commands "that the priest should offer a victim first for his own sins, and afterwards also for the sins of the people". How then is he "great" who is set under sin? But my great priest Jesus is "great" for this reason, because "he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth", and because "the prince of this world came to him and found nothing in him". Therefore also Gabriel the archangel, announcing his birth, says: "he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High". Sin makes a man small and slight, virtue renders him eminent and great. For just as sickness of the body makes a man's body meager and slight, but health makes it flourishing and strong, so understand that sickness of sin makes the soul too lowly and small, but the health of the inner man and the works of virtue make it great and eminent, and the more it grows in virtues, the more it renders the greatness of itself extensive. Thus do I understand that which is written of Jesus: that "he advanced in wisdom and in stature and in grace with God and men". For who among men is there who does not "advance in stature" in boyhood, that this should be written of Jesus as though it were something remarkable? To you I say this, who hear in a bodily way that Jesus "advanced in stature". Understand therefore that "he advanced in the stature" of the soul, and his soul became great because of the great and enormous works which he did. Indeed the Apostle too, knowing that this stature is to be understood of the inner man, writes thus: "until we all meet in the perfect man, in the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ". For to grow according to the body and to become great is not in our power. For the body takes the material of its quantity from its generative origin, so as to become either great or slight; but the soul has in us the causes and the freedom of choice, so as to be either great or small. If therefore the soul be "little" and small, it can even "be scandalized"; for so it is written in the gospel: that "it is better to be cast headlong into the deep of the sea than to scandalize one of these little ones". He who is great is not "scandalized", but he who is "little". He who is great, whatever he sees, whatever he suffers, does not turn aside from the faith. But he who is "little" in mind and small, seeks occasions how he may "be scandalized", how he may seem to be tripped up in the faith. Therefore, in fine, we must take counsel most of all for those who are small in faith, nor ought we to expend as much care about the great and strong as about the "little ones" and beginners. For the strong man "bears all things, endures all things, and never falls". But with the "little ones" and the "weak in faith" it must be watched that they be not tripped up by occasion of us and fall back from the faith and fall away from salvation. Or show me from the Scriptures where anyone a sinner or of little merit has been called "great". Nowhere, I think, will you find it. But hear who they are who are called "great". Of Isaac it is said that "he advanced greatly, until he became great, great exceedingly". Moses was called "great" and John the Baptist was called "great", but now Jesus is called "great", and after him no one henceforth has been called "great". For before he was present who is truly "great", the saints, of whom we made mention above, were called "great" in comparison with the rest of men. But when he himself came, who was truly "great" not from comparison with the rest but by his own greatness — of whom also it is written that "he exulted as a giant to run his course" — thereafter no one henceforth has been called "great". This, then, is he of whom it is written: "the great priest from among his brethren". Which "brethren"? Those of whom he said, when he had risen from the dead: "go to my brethren and say to them: I ascend to my Father and to your Father and to my God and to your God". But if you wish to learn the brethren of Jesus also from the ancient writings, read the twenty-first psalm, where in the person of Christ it is said: "I will declare your name to my brethren, in the midst of the church I will praise you". "From among his brethren" therefore is Jesus "great", from those who had earlier been called "great"; and just as he is "shepherd of shepherds" and "high priest of high priests" and "Lord of those who rule" and "King of kings", so also he is great among the great; and therefore it added: "great from among his brethren".

But after these things: "upon whom" it says "the oil of anointing has been poured, upon his head". Do not seek on earth that "oil" which is poured "upon the head" of the "great priest" that he may become Christ; but if it seems good, learn from the prophet David what this "oil" is: "you have loved" he says "righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows". This, then, is the "oil of gladness" which, "poured upon his head", made him Christ. But it adds still further to his praises: "who has his hands perfected" it says. To what man, I ask, is it fitting that this be said? In what mortal can we find "perfect hands"? Even if this be Aaron, of whom mention seems to be made, how will he be thought to have had "perfected hands", with which "he fashioned the calf", with which he carved an idol? Even if you bring forward Moses himself, how will he seem to have had "perfected hands", who did not glorify the Lord "at the water of contradiction"? For which fault he is even commanded to depart from life. But if you wish to name some other of the saints, there meets you the word of Scripture which says that "there is no man upon earth who does good and does not sin". Rightly then does Jesus alone have "perfected hands", who alone "did no sin", that is, who has the perfect and whole works of his hands. And therefore of him it is rightly said: "who has his hands perfected, to be clothed with the holy things". For this is he who is truly "clothed with the holy things", not those which were "in type", but those very things which are truly "holy". But if you wish to hear of his more exalted garments, receive the prophetic words: "clothed" it says "with light as with a garment, the deep as a garment is his clothing". This is the habit of my great high priest, by which it is signified that he is clothed with the profound light of knowledge and wisdom, which are truly "holy" garments. "He shall not" it says "take the mitre from his head". We have already said before that the "mitre" is a kind of covering which, set upon the head, affords adornment to the high priest. This "great high priest" of mine therefore never lays aside the adornment of his sacred head. But what the "head of Christ" is, learn from the Apostle, who says: "but the head of Christ is God". Rightly therefore he never lays aside this adornment of his head, which is "God", because "the Father is" always "in the Son, as the Son" is always "in the Father". "And he shall not rend his garments". Truly this is he who "shall not rend his garments", but will always keep them clean, always whole, always chaste.

"And he shall not go in to any dead soul". What is a "dead soul"? One that is dead; the prophet says: "the soul that sins, it shall die". Upon this dead soul, then, Christ does not come, because he is "wisdom", and wisdom does not enter into a malevolent soul. For that soul is dead, because in whom malice is present, sin also is present. "And sin, when it is consummated" it says "begets death". And on account of this Jesus "does not enter in to a dead soul". But if the soul lives, that is, if it has not in itself a mortal sin, then Christ, who is "life", comes to the living soul; because just as "light cannot be with darkness nor righteousness with iniquity", so neither can life be with death. And therefore if anyone is conscious to himself that he has within him a mortal sin and has not cast it from himself through the repentance of fullest satisfaction, let him not hope that Christ "enters in to" his "soul", who "does not enter in to any dead soul", because he is the "great priest".

"In his father and in his mother he shall not be defiled". This passage of Scripture is most difficult to explain, but if by your prayers you entreat God the Father of the Word to deign to enlighten us, by his own gift it will be able to be explained. Everyone who enters this world is said to be brought into being in a certain defilement. On account of which Scripture also says: "no one is clean from filth, not even if his life be of one day". This very thing, then — that he is placed "in the womb" of his mother and that he takes the material of his body from the origin of the paternal seed — can be said to be "defiled in father and mother". Or do you not know that, when a male child has been made forty days old, he is offered at the altar, that he may there be purified, as one who was polluted in the very conception, whether of the paternal seed or of the maternal womb? Every man, therefore, "is polluted in father and in mother", but Jesus my Lord alone entered clean into this generation, "he was not polluted in his mother". For he entered "an undefiled body". For it was he who had also long ago said through Solomon: "but rather, since I was good, I came to an undefiled body". "He was not" therefore "defiled in his mother", nor even "in his father". For Joseph furnished nothing in his generation except ministry and affection; whence Scripture granted him the appellation of father for his faithful ministry. For thus Mary herself says in the gospel: "behold, I and your father have been seeking you sorrowing". So then this alone is the "great priest" who "was defiled neither in father nor in mother". But let us see whether we can still find something more sublime and worthy of the dignity of so great a high priest. The true Father of all is said to be God. But the Apostle says our "mother" is "the heavenly Jerusalem". All therefore who sin "are defiled in the father" by whom they were created. For whether we have done anything impious or spoken it or thought it against God, when we have not believed God, "we have been defiled in the father". But would that it had then been done only through unbelief, and had ceased after we believed! So then we are also "defiled in the mother", if, believing God, we either injure the church or defile the liberty of our "heavenly mother" by the unworthy servitude of sin.

But our Lord Jesus Christ alone, "who knows no sin", "was defiled neither in father nor in mother" and "did not go out from the holy places". There were indeed some things to be set before the Jews in the passages above, to which they could not respond, but omitting those, what do they for the present tell us on this discourse, either they themselves or those who wish the law to be understood according to their sense: if these things are not referred to our high priest and Savior, how will it be proved according to the letter that "the great priest did not go out from the holy places", who nevertheless even took a wife, as is said below, "a virgin of his own kindred"? If "he does not go out from the holy places", if he goes forth nowhere, how or for what uses is he commanded to "take a wife"? For it must not be supposed that he could remain within the holy places with a wife. But let those suppose these things to whom "Jewish fables" are pleasing. But we have a "great priest" "after the order of Melchizedek", Christ Jesus, "never going out from the holy places"; for he is always in the holy places and remains always holy in his words, holy in his acts, holy in all his wishes, and he alone is the one who is never found outside the holy places. For he who sins "goes out from the holy places", and as many times as anyone sins, so many times is he made to be outside the holy places. But Christ, "who never sinned", "never went out from the holy places". But you too, who follow Christ and are his imitator, if you remain in the word of God, if "you meditate on his law day and night", if you are exercised in his commandments, you are always in the holy places and never depart from there. For the holy things are not to be sought in a place, but in acts and life and morals. If these are according to God and are held according to the precept of God, even if you are in your house, even if in the marketplace — and why do I say in the marketplace? — even if you be found in the theater serving the word of God, do not doubt that you are in the holy places. Or does it not seem to you that Paul, when he entered the theater or when he entered the "Areopagus" and preached Christ to the Athenians, was in the holy places? But also when he walked among the altars and idols of the Athenians, where he found written: "to the unknown God" and from this word took the beginning of his preaching of Christ, even there, "surveying" the "altars" of the gentiles, he was set in the holy places, because he was pondering holy things. But also whoever guards himself, after receiving the grace of God, lest he fall "into homicide, into adultery, into theft, into false testimony" and other things like these, but remains clean from every contagion of sin, this man "did not go out from the holy places", and did not defile the sanctification of his God in himself, because the holy "oil of anointing" of his God is upon him. That "oil" of which it is written in Exodus — how can it according to the letter properly be called the oil of God, which was compounded by the perfumer's art by an unguent-maker? But if you wish to see the oil of God, hear whom the prophet says to have been anointed with the oil of God, him without doubt of whom he says: "therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows". This, then, is the "great priest" who alone was anointed with the oil of God and in whom the "oil of the anointing" of God remained always holy.

But what is added after these things? "He shall take to wife a virgin of his own kindred, but a widow and one cast out and a harlot he shall not take, but he shall take a virgin of his own kindred; and he shall not defile his seed among his people; I am the Lord, who sanctify him". Since therefore the order of the whole exposition has been recalled to the true "great priest", Christ, let us now see also what ought to be understood about his nuptials. Paul the Apostle says: "but I wish to present you all as a chaste virgin to one husband, to Christ. But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his craftiness, your senses be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ". Paul therefore wishes to "present all the Corinthians as a chaste virgin to Christ"; which assuredly he would never wish, unless he saw it to be possible. Whence perhaps it may seem wonderful how these, who came to the faith of Christ corrupted by diverse sins, are all together called a "chaste virgin"; a virgin so holy, so chaste, that she deserves even to be joined to the nuptials of Christ. But since we cannot refer these things to the integrity of the flesh, it is certain that they pertain to the integrity of the soul, whose — according to the very judgment of Paul — "the simplicity of the faith which is in Christ" has been called her virginity; and through this, because, when the sophistries of the philosophers or the Jewish superstitions ceased, Christ took the church to himself in simple faith, "he took to wife a virgin of his own kindred". For her faith is not corrupted by the philosophic sense nor by the ambition of circumcision, but she remained in the simplicity of confession as in virginal integrity. For so also he had long ago promised through the prophet, saying: "I will betroth you to myself in faith". "Everyone" therefore, according to the Apostle, "who is in Christ is a new creature". And as the same Apostle says: "that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and immaculate". How then does he make her, who is wrinkled, to be without "wrinkle", except that he "renews" her according to that which is written: "for even if our man who is without is corrupted, yet he who is within is renewed from day to day"? A "widow" indeed "and a harlot and one cast out Christ does not take", nor does such a soul enter the bridal chamber of the bridegroom. For he who "has entered there not having the wedding garment" will endure that which you know is written in the gospel. "A virgin" therefore he will take, "a widow he will not take nor a harlot nor one cast out or defiled". Why Christ should not take "a harlot" and a "rejected" soul "and a polluted" one into marriage, it is no labor to expound; but why a "widow" should not be received must be more diligently considered. Paul the Apostle, writing to the Romans, calls "the law the husband of the soul", and declares "that she, when the husband is dead, is loosed from the law of the husband, so that she is no longer an adulteress, if she has married Christ". But if it should happen that the law of the soul itself dies to it — that is, that the soul departs from the law and yet does not bind itself with the disciplines of a chaster wedlock, and, departing from the law, does not take up the yoke of the evangelical teaching: this soul will not be able to "marry Christ", having sought the wantonness of liberty, not the cultivation of a virginal and simple faith. This "great priest", therefore, "will take a virgin wife of his own kindred". It can also for this reason seem to be said "of his own kindred", because the soul of Christ was from the kindred and from the substance of all human souls. It can also, according to this — that he calls those who believe in him brethren — be said to be "of his own kindred", the soul which is joined to him in faith as in nuptials. Yet I do not want this to escape us, that the Hebrews deny they have it written, what we find among the Seventy translators: "of his own kindred". And rightly do they not have it written. For the nearness of God has been taken away from them, the adoption of sons has been taken away and transferred to the church of Christ. They therefore do not have it written that they are "of the kindred" of Christ, just as they did not deserve to be. But we who have this written and read it, let us indeed rejoice at the condescension of God, but let us carefully and anxiously take care lest our life and acts and morals at any time make us degenerate, lest this very thing be brought unto our condemnation, that, "when we are the kindred of Christ", we serve unworthy and foul and diabolical acts. "He who has" therefore "a bride is a bridegroom". You hear how Christ is called "bridegroom", but his "bride" is said to be the soul which is proved uncorrupted and virgin by the simplicity of faith and the purity of acts. For the Lord says also through Jeremiah the prophet: "have you not called me as Lord and Father and prince of your virginity?".

"But a widow and one cast out and one defiled he shall not take". If any of us has sinned, he is "cast out"; even if he is not cast out by the bishop, whether because it lies hidden or because he is sometimes judged unto grace, he is nevertheless "cast out" by the very consciousness of sin. Nor does the grace of man avail, when Christ does not receive such a soul into marriage as "cast out". Therefore "neither a widow", as we said above, "will he take, nor one cast out nor one polluted". She is called "polluted" who, even if she has not completely committed the sin, yet by this very thing that she thought it, that she wished it, that she desired it, even if she did not carry it out, is "polluted" and is not chosen by the "great high priest". For he requires an exceedingly pure, exceedingly clean and sincere soul, which he may join to himself, because "he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit". Whence also this is shown, that there are differences of sins, and that he who has sinned "a sin unto death" is "cast out", but he who does not "sin unto death" but something lesser, is "polluted". But the bride of Christ can be neither "cast out" nor "polluted", but a "virgin" undefiled, uncorrupted, clean. For remember the word of the Apostle which we set forth a little before, saying: "that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and immaculate".

But also "a harlot he shall not take". What is a "harlot" soul? One that receives to itself "lovers", of whom the prophet says: "you have played the harlot after your lovers". Who are these "lovers" who enter in to the harlot soul, except the adverse powers and demons, who conceive desire of her beauty? For the soul was created beautiful by God and exceedingly comely. Hear how God himself says: "let us make man according to our image and likeness". See of what comeliness, of what beauty the soul is; it has the "image and likeness" of God. When the adverse powers behold this beauty, that is, "the devil and his angels", they covet its form; and because they cannot become its bridegrooms, they desire to play the harlot with it. If therefore you receive, O man, into the bedchamber of your soul the adulterer "devil", your soul has played the harlot with the devil. If you receive "his angels", if diverse spirits that persuade you to sin, your soul has played the harlot with them; if the spirit of anger, if of envy, if of pride, if of unchastity has entered in to your soul and you have received it, have consented to it as it speaks in your heart, have taken delight in the things which it suggests to you according to its own mind, you have played the harlot with it. "A harlot" therefore "the great priest shall not take, and he shall not defile his seed among his people". What is this "seed" which he does not want to be "defiled"? In the gospels it is written that "he who sows, sows the word". He does not want, therefore, "the word" of God "to be defiled" by those "who sow". But who are "those who sow"? Those who put forth the word of God in the church. Let teachers therefore hear, lest perhaps they entrust the words of God to a "defiled" soul, to a "harlot" soul, to an unfaithful soul, lest perhaps they cast "what is holy to the dogs and pearls before swine", but let them choose clean souls, "virgins" "in the simplicity of the faith which is in Christ", let them commit to them the secret mysteries, let them speak forth to them the word of God and the hidden things of faith, that in them "Christ may be formed" through faith. Or do you not know that from this seed of the word of God which is sown, Christ is born in the heart of the hearers? For the Apostle too says this: "until Christ be formed in us". The soul therefore conceives from this seed of the word and forms the conceived word within itself, until it brings forth the spirit of the fear of God. For thus through the prophet the souls of the saints say: "from your fear, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb and have been in labor and have brought forth; we have made the spirit of your salvation upon the earth". This is the childbearing of holy souls, this the conception, these are the holy nuptials which are fitting and suited to the great high priest Christ Jesus our Lord, "to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen!".

I know also that not even bodily blemishes in either priests or victims passed without notice, but that it was required by the law that perfect sacrifices must be offered by perfect men—a symbol, I take it, of integrity of soul.

Moreover, blameless priests served the Godhead by offering blameless sacrifices, while those who were blemished and offered blemished sacrifices and whom Moses described in Leviticus were separated from the altar. And who else is the blameless priest offering a blameless sacrifice than the person who holds fast to his confession and fulfills every requirement the account of martyrdom demands? He is the one we have spoken of before.

Hence also it is said through Moses that whoever is burdened with a hump should by no means be advanced to the priesthood. And all of us who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ are made members of that same high priest. Whence also it is said to us through Peter: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood." But he who bears a hump always gazes at the lowest things. Therefore he is driven from the priesthood, because whoever is intent only on earthly things is himself a witness to himself that he is not a member of the high priest.